8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M.

Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it's even harder. How do you move forward?

If you don't purposefully carve out time every day to progress and improve, without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you'll be old and withered,  wondering where all that time went.

Let's begin:

1. Get a healthy seven-plus hours of sleep
Let's face it -- sleep is just as important as eating and drinking water. Despite this, millions of people do not sleep enough and experience insane problems as a result.

On the flip side, getting a healthy amount of sleep is linked to:

• increased memory;
• longer life;
• increased creativity;
• increased attention and focus;
• lower stress;
• decreased dependence on stimulants like caffeine;
• decreased risk of getting into accidents;
• decreased risk of depression; and 
• tons more. Google it

2. Prayer and meditation to facilitate clarity and abundance

After waking from a healthy and restful sleep session, prayer and meditation are crucial for orienting yourself toward the positive. What you focus on expands.

Prayer and meditation facilitate intense gratitude for all that you have. Gratitude is having an abundance mindset. When you think in terms of abundance, the world is your oyster. There is limitless opportunity and possibility for you.

3. Hard physical activity

If you want to be among the healthy, happy, and productive people in the world, get in the habit of regular exercise. Many people go immediately to the gym to get their bodies moving.

4. Consume 30 grams of protein

Donald Layman, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, recommends consuming at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Similarly, Tim Ferriss, in his book The 4-Hour Body, recommends 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking up.

According to Tim, his father did this and lost 19 pounds in one month. Protein-rich foods keep you full longer than other foods, because they take longer to leave the stomach.

5. Take a cold shower

Tony Robbins starts every morning by jumping into a 57-degree-Fahrenheit swimming pool. Why would he do such a thing?

Cold-water immersion radically facilitates physical and mental wellness. When practiced regularly, it provides long-lasting changes to your body's immune, lymphatic, circulatory, and digestive systems that improve the quality of your life. It can also increase weight loss, because it boosts your metabolism.

6. Listen to or read uplifting content

Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning. It is common for the world's most successful people to read at least one book per week. They are constantly learning.

7. Review your life vision

Your goals should be written down -- short term and long term. Taking just a few minutes to read your life vision puts your day into perspective.

If you read your long-term goals every day, you will think about them every day. If you think about them every day, and spend your days working toward them, they'll manifest.

8. Do at least one thing toward long-term goals

Willpower is like a muscle, because it depletes when it is exercised. Similarly, our ability to make high-quality decisions becomes fatigued over the course of the day. The more decisions you make, the lower their quality  and the weaker your willpower.