The science of psychology has long studied the relationship between success and personal habits, and has proven that there is a direct link between how we start our day and the success we achieve in work and life. Our morning habits can have a significant impact on the rest of our day. This is why successful people have a morning routine that determines their energy level and success rate throughout the day.

In this article, we will introduce you to 5 morning rituals that have been scientifically proven to help you set yourself up for a more successful day.

1) Getting up early

We all grew up with the saying "Early bird, early bird."

This idea is firmly grounded in the Stoic philosophy of productivity, and psychology backs up this idea.

As early as the 2nd century, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, author of the famous book Meditations, who didn't like to get up early at all, did so because, according to the Stoics, cultivating personal discipline was one of the important factors for success.

The early hours of the day, and that doesn't mean 4am at all, give us the opportunity to enjoy some peace and quiet before everything starts "buzzing" and to do something that is important to us without interruptions, and to plan our day in a focused way without distractions.

So consider setting your alarm a little earlier. You'd be surprised at what you can do in the morning quiet before everyone else wakes up.

2) Morning gymnastics

I can personally attest to the power of morning exercise. A few years ago I made a change in my regimen and started doing a minimum of 5 minutes of exercise every morning. I never cease to be amazed at how many practical morning programs I found on youtube. There's something for every taste - from 5 minutes to over 1 hour - yoga, cardio, pilates, strength training, fitness with bands and weights and what not. What I've found is that when I do morning exercises, I feel much more energized during the day, I focus much easier and my productivity is higher.

Psychology has proven all of this, stating that morning exercise can improve our mood and cognitive function. As the saying goes, "A healthy mind in a healthy body".

3) Meditation

The benefits of meditation have long since been scientifically proven, and research also shows that successful people start their day with meditation.  There's a good reason for this, regular meditation can reduce stress, improve concentration and even promote better sleep.

More than 15 years ago, when I started practicing yoga, I also started doing the first meditations of my life. At the time I thought it was an Eastern tradition, but in fact meditation practices have been around for centuries in many parts of the Earth. Over the years, trying different practices, I learned that you don't have to sit cross-legged and in complete silence and stillness to do meditation. You can walk, wash dishes, take a bath and do a meditation practice. It may be even less than 5 minutes long, but regular practice gives such positive results that I personally don't know anyone who has started doing morning meditation and given it up. And the answer is not that it is addictive, but that it makes you feel so much better, more grounded, confident and relaxed.

4) Task planning

Successful people don't start their day in a rush and chaotically jump from task to task. Instead, they plan their tasks for the day based on importance and urgency.

Not all tasks are the same - some are important to ourselves and others are more important to others. If we allow ourselves to go through the day without having a plan for it, then we risk falling into the trap of "putting out constant fires" and the day will go by and we will not have done the tasks that are most important to ourselves.

Not that there aren't days when we need to respond to an emergency, but there shouldn't be situations where all days are like that and we are moving through time and space with no purpose or direction of our own.

So look to your day planning to ensure that your energy and focus is directed towards the things that really matter and contribute to your success.

5) Gratitude

Psychology tells us that gratitude can lead to higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress and depression. But this practice isn't just about the happy moments in our lives. Gratitude is crucial for resilience because it helps us keep going and overcome difficult moments.

An important element of gratitude is finding different things to be grateful for each day. And if that seems difficult or even impossible, let me share with you that if you think about it more specifically, you will always find something and someone to be thankful for, and you don't need to know those people at all: the baker who made that delicious bread, the people who pick up the trash because they swept out and around the bins, the co-worker who held the door open for me to come in, etc.

Gratitude improves our focus and creativity and gives us a lot of hope.

Finally, we would like to remind you that good things sometimes happen slowly and "Rome wasn't built in a day. " New habits are not easily built, and different psychologists researchers define different number of days we need to do something different to build a new habit - 21, 30, 60, 90... But putting aside exactly how many days we need to persevere with new things, more importantly accept that we need to persevere driven by the belief that we have the power and resources to realize our best potential.

Author: Liubov Kirilova, Happiness Academy