Maximising Human Performance & Abilities

• Reading – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Yoga | Stretching – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Meditation – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Morning Light Exposure – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Human Performance – How To Achieve The Highest Performance?
• Wake Up 1 Hour Earlier Every Single Day – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Don’t Check Your Phone! – Morning Routine – Human Performance
• Lemon Water – Morning Routine – Human Performance

Morning reading, reading itself, was never my strong side. I really didn’t like reading so much, I hated school books. When I started my own company I was reading business books like crazy but it wasn’t really pleasure for me, it was just part of my work. Till now I read business books from time to time. But just a few years ago reading became really my thing.

It actually became my thing while I was in an abusive relationship. I just couldn’t understand what was going on in my head. My partner was a narcissistic, mental abuser. My head was freaking out till I started reading books about narcissism. That’s how I started my journey with reading. It became my healing and my therapy. In this way I became a fanatic of psychological books. I started to read in the morning while I started waking up 1 hour earlier – part of my morning routine. In this way, reading became my morning thing. 

It is one from just a few hard books which I own. I got it from my friend who was travelling from London to the Philippines to visit me. I actually really enjoyed this book! 

Benefits of morning reading 

To be honest before writing this blog post I was making research about morning reading to share with you some studies. You know me already, I like facts proven by studies. But not this time. I didn’t find any study about it but I have found some other blog posts where people share their experiences with morning reading. Basically these are benefits which I can see:

• The mind and brain is fresh in the morning and it can adjust information easier, it is also easier for us to analyse the content and create conclusions. 
• In most places mornings are quiet and nobody will disturb you.
• Choosing to sleep in the evening above reading the book helps you to avoid sleep deprivation – I will be writing about it more since it is an extremely important topic!
• It is great to start a day with some educational, thoughtful or inspirational content to set your mindset for a day.

I highly recommend Kindle for travelling. It is so much easier, it is light, it fits small backpack, I can download new books anytime. Man, nothing better than this!

How to find time for morning reading?

As you can already see, part of my morning routine is to wake up 1 hour earlier. It is time for myself where I can be at my safe spot to start a day in my own peace. Just find some cosy place, grab your Kindle and 20-30min of reading is done. You have only 10min? That is great as well! Just remember to choose a book which has good content for the start of your day.

When I travel I like reading books about improving habits, sleep, studies. Kindle is just perfect for long flights when I can switch book anytime.

Books which I recommend

I am not a fan of fiction, instead I love educational books, pages of psychological content, emotional therapies, biographies and so on. Some of my favourites positions are like following:

• Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success by Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness – I read this one during one long flight, I just couldn’t stop. It was an inspiration for me to start a Human Performance series on the blog. Highly recommend this one to everyone who is trying optimise their time, energy and abilities.
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker – it is a life changing book for me, like serious. After this book I totally changed the way I see sleeping. I recommend this to everyone, really everyone! It is gonna to improve your life so much!
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Stephen R. Covey (Foreword) – I was reading it to simply improve my conversation skills. I was pretty bad at human interactions (still not perfect though) and I wanted to improve this skill to be better in business. I used it on many clients and this book really helped me to resolve many many business problems.
• Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson – easy book written in really easy English. Highly recommend this one to people who are just starting reading and improving their life.
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Prottasha Prachurjo Sayed Fayej Ahmed – I hate history but this book is the first one which made me totally interested in it. Finally I understood many behaviours of human beings, I understood why we act in certain ways and why we think in certain ways. I highly recommend it to everyone.
• Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu, MeiMei Fox – really nice biography of woman in IT in China. Different perspectives, different challenges, so business and technology inspirational kind of book.
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – biography of Elon Musk, nothing to add, check it out!

For more check out my profile on Goodreads.

I also found some morning reading recommendations on Goodreads.

Give yourself a chance

Just try it out. Always, try out before disregarding. It doesn’t mean it needs to work for you, maybe it will not. But everything that potentially can help your health is worth trying. Did you try out morning stretching already? Share your experiences in the comments! 

This part is another item in my morning routine. If you liked this post, please, share with friends and family.

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Zaneta Baran

Zaneta loves challenges so deciding about career path she has chosen typical male industry. Woman who codes. Every 1-2 years she lives in different part of the world. Gym dates is something what she specialised in. Healthy lifestyle, extreme sports and motorbikes have stolen her hear years ago.