On the latest episode of The Thrive Global Podcast with iHeartRadio, Thrive Global founder and CEO Arianna Huffington sat down with productivity guru, entrepreneur and best-selling author Tim Ferriss to talk about his morning routine, which includes practicing mindful meditation.
Ferriss isn’t alone in this practice: he’s interviewed a lot of successful people over the years who also regularly partake in some form of meditation. “In the last 10 years,” he told Huffington, “I’ve met people in special operations, I’ve met retired generals, I’ve met some of the most effective CEOs on the planet, and at some point or another, they realized that either this type of practice can make them better at almost everything they do, or that they just need it to survive. This is an oxygen mask that they need to continue the pace and the intensity that they enjoy.”
In writing his most recent book Tribe of Mentors, Ferriss told Huffington that it became a common refrain. “Eighty-five to ninety percent of the people interviewed, across every discipline imaginable, who are in other respects as different as two humans could possibly be,” he said, “all have some type of 10 to 20 minute mindfulness practice before they ingest any type of information or receive any input.” Ferriss’ own morning routine includes meditation and journaling while his phone is on airplane mode for an hour. Ferriss also puts his phone on airplane mode every evening after dinner and doesn’t take it off until his morning routine is complete.
Ferriss wasn’t always on the meditation bandwagon, and offered some advice for people who are still skeptical: “For those people who are repelled a bit by the word meditation or mindfulness as I was for decades, the way you could think of the 20 minutes I spend in the morning is in the same way that you would think of going to the gym and doing a certain set of exercises to prepare you for a sport, so that you don’t get injured,” he said, adding, “think of it as pre-hab for the day.”
To hear the full conversation, click here.
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