It doesn’t need more people following the norms of society.

Average is over.

To be average in today’s world is to be addicted to technology, stimulants, unhealthy eating, and distraction.

To be average today is to spend more than half of your work day in a semi-conscious state, in-and-out of focus. You ride caffeine buzzes for shorter and shorter amounts. Day-by-day, you lower your personal standards for what you can do with your time.

You get in life what you tolerate, as Tony Robbins has said.

And most people have developed tolerances for distraction and addiction. They’ve become okay with it. They’ve settled for that reality.

To be average is to lack purpose in your life. It’s to be apathetic, and to not really believe in anything with enough conviction to sacrifice for it, invest in it, and fight for it.

To be average is to be going backwards.

There is no neutral ground.

You can’t stand still in today’s environment. It’s too intense. Too demanding. And the agendas are becoming increasingly transparent.

The beauty of the present situation is that, if you create enough space in your life to make powerful decisions, you can do things previous generations could never imagine.

You can absolutely live your wildest dreams.

But there are a few pivotal requirements.

Here is a list of the bare essentials:

“Peak experiences as rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter.” – Abraham Maslow

According to Abraham Maslow, the psychologist who coined the term and framework for self-actualization, a “peak experience” is “rare.”

However, having peak experiences certainly doesn’t have to be rare.

Actually, having peak experiences, or putting yourself into a peak state, should be something you do on a daily basis.

The reason people consider peak experiences to be rare is because they haven’t set up their lives to have them on a regular basis.

Again, most people are very disconnected from themselves. They are living in an addictive and reactive state. In those few moments when people purposefully pull themselves from their mesmerized state of unconscious, peak experiences happen.

They are predictable.

You can create them.

What if you made being in a peak state a priority?

What if you literally needed to operate at peak levels on a daily basis in order to achieve your goals?

What if that was your standard?

Being in a peak state means you’re operating at the level you want to be, so that you can achieve ambitions beyond anything you’ve done before.

If you’re not currently pursuing something you’ve never done before, you probably don’t need to have regular peak experiences.

But if you’re in a state of growth, you’ll need to position your life to have peak moments more frequently.

Even more – you need to set your trajectory from a peak state. Because how you start something is generally how you finish it. If you start right, you’ll usually be able to stay right. But if you start wrong, it’s very very difficult to get things right.

This doesn’t mean you won’t iterate along the way. It simply means that the power behind your initial decision will determine the trajectory.

Most people make weak decisions from a non-peak state. Very few people, actually, truly make any real decisions at all. Most people don’t have enough conviction to truly make a decision. They aren’t definitive. They aren’t dead-set. The stakes aren’t high enough.

Instead, they are like a ship without a sail. They go wherever life takes them. Theirs’ is a random and unconscious evolution. Their behaviors are reactive and without much consequence. It doesn’t matter if they blow several hours roaming around on the internet.

However, if you want to set a new path in your life, you need to make a powerful and definitive decision. And you want to be in a peak state while you make that decision.

How do you get into a peak state?

You need to get out of your day-to-day routine. You need to give yourself some space. That doesn’t mean you need to go away for several days or weeks (although if you can, it would be very helpful).

You need to get your body moving. Before speaking for several hours to his audience of thousands, Tony Robbins purposefully and continually puts himself into a peak state.

He does this by jumping up and down, spinning around, fist pumping, standing with his arms outstretched, and even bouncing on a trampoline backstage.

Although this may sound weird, I challenge you to take a 15 second pause while reading this article, and stand up and try the following:

• Clap your hands together intensely for 5-10 seconds
• Then shake out your arms while extended fully out
• Close your eyes, smile, and take three or four deep inhaling breathes – in your nose for 5-10 seconds, than slowly out your mouth for 5-10 seconds (making the ahhhhhh sound on the way out)

How are you feeling?

Getting your body moving and breathing deeply are some of the easiest ways to get into a peak state.

Listening to music that motivates you can trigger a peak state.

Giving a genuine compliment or being kind to someone can also put you into an incredible mood.

Learning and expanding your mind can put you into a peak state.

The core purpose for having a morning routine is to put yourself into a peak state in the morning – so you can then operate from that state for the rest of your day.

Rather than being reactive, addicted, and unconscious in your morning – it’s far better to proactively put yourself in a peak state in a ritualistic manner.

Morning rituals are essential.

If you want to overcome an addiction – you need a morning ritual.

If you want to be a prolific writer or creator – you need a morning ritual.

If you want to be discerning, inspired, and present in your relationships on a daily basis – you need a morning ritual.

Because you need to trigger a state beyond your old ways of acting. If you want a different life, you must be a different person. Your morning ritual is what triggers a peak state. That state then reminds you of who you want to be and how you want to act. You then act from that state, as that person, for the remainder of your day.

If you’re wanting to change your trajectory in life, the two best places to do that are:

• In the morning after a powerful and ritualized morning routine
• Completely out of your routine and in an environment optimized for learning, growth, connection, rest, and recovery

You need to make a decision. You need to put yourself in a position and environment to make the most powerful decision possible.

If you make a decision to live at a higher level, there will naturally be lots of resistance to your living out that decision.

You have an environment built around you to keep things how they are.

You have a mental model that matches your current life. If not so, your life would be different.

Your confidence also matches your current life. If not so, your life would be different.

So, when you make a definitive decision to live differently, you need to continually re-create the experience that spawned the decision.

That experience – and its accompanying mindset – need to become your new normal.

So, you need to develop a routine of regularly getting yourself into a peak state.

The best time to do that is immediately upon waking up.

Because if you don’t do it the moment you wake up, you’ll immediately slip into your current state of operating, which is below the level of your decision. Thus, despite your best intentions, your behaviors will continue to match your current reality.

Consequently, your current reality will persist, and your dreams will remain dreams. If such is the case, then in honesty, you should admit that the “decision” you made wasn’t really a decision.

It wasn’t a decision because you didn’t care enough about it to live it out on a daily basis.

You didn’t care enough about it to put yourself into that place.

You didn’t care enough to create a peak state, and then operate from that state on a daily basis.

You must first be a certain way, then act from that place, in order to have what you want.