How Do You Thrive? 3 Things That Have Been Helping Me Along The Way

I think in order to be successful in sports, in lifting, in life, you need to find what you THRIVE on...what habits produce the best results FOR YOU.

For me, its taken some time and some discipline to discover these things, but when I "strike gold" - it was well worth the effort and my life is easier and far more productive.

Here's a list of some things that I've noticed help me along the way...

1. Waking up early and having at least 30 minutes of quiet time to myself. This is GOLDEN and not enough people do it. I like to get up at least 60-90 minutes before I have to leave to go somewhere, and take that time to drink coffee and write, read, watch motivational videos, or just eat breakfast and reflect.
When I was fighting, I would spend that time shadow boxing. Its a small amount of time that payed (and pays) huge divedends, and knowing that my first hour of being awake is super productive and focused allows me to relax a little the rest of the day.

2. Taking the time to plan ahead. My workouts, my meals, my clients training programs, my day, my week, my month...I'm not completely on point with this time management stuff yet, but making the effort sure has made me a lot better! It boils down to being pro active with your life and taking just a little bit of time to save a whole lot of hassle.
The people that don't want to do this are probably very satisfied where they are with their income, their lifting and their physique and live completely stress free lives. Oh wait...

3. Eating like a caveman/Low carb/whatever...it's taken a long time to finally accept this, but I thrive off of low carb eatin'...I feel better, look better, and perform better, so why should I ever change? I decided a few weeks ago to take the plunge and did a full 12 days of as close to zero carbs as I could before I did a 2 day carb up (more on that later).
Days 1-5 were tough, including dreams about eating carbs and some crappy workouts, but once my body made the "switch", I swear I have never felt or performed better! For the past 2 weekends, I have done 2 full day refeeds, but after this past weekend, I'm thinking that's not such a great idea and I'm better off eating mostly meat & veggies with some fruit thrown in once in awhile. The carb ups, while delicious, made me feel bloated, tired, and not feeling like doing jack shit. Without carbs, I think more clearly, am more focused and have energy throughout the day. I'm not saying carbs are evil by any means, but this has just been my experience so far!

So what are some of the things that you do make yourself more productive, more efficient and better at what you do? Let's see some comments!