7 Crucial Habits

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7 habits that have worked exceptionally well for ME.

Should you copy my routines, habits, and goals?

No.

Different things will work for you.

One thing is certain though:

You have to try these.

No excuses.

I’m going to tell you:

• why I started the habit

• how I made it habitual

• the benefits (my perceived ones)

Plus I’ll break a limiting belief or two.

Enjoy!

Let’s quickly speak about the absolute fundamentals of habits.

What’s a habit?

A habit is a solution to a problem you repeatedly face.

If you were to remove the habit, even after performing it for months, the problem would come back.

Example:

Having a consistent sleep schedule.

Aka going to bed and waking up at the same time.

What’s the problem you’re dealing with?

→ Bad sleep

Your sleep gets better because of a sleep schedule.

What happens if you stop that habit?

→ Sleep turns back to Wolf shit

This is why we do habits daily.

Either:

A daily habit has to tick one of those boxes.

Why does this matter?

To avoid unnecessary habits.

You have limited time in your day, you cannot waste it on stuff you don’t need.

Try every habit I mention.

But if you don’t feel like you need it…

You probably don’t.

No excuses.

Cold showers are a non-negotiable.

“BuT I dOnT liKe ThE CoOOolD”

Shut up.

That’s the point → Cold Showers suck.

I’ve been taking cold showers every morning for around 7 months.

Why did I start?

Two things:

• mental toughness

• biological health benefits and whatnot

I was (and still am) an avid Andrew Huberman viewer.

He loves cold exposure.

And he convinced me that I do too.

How to turn into a habit?

I started by integrating them into my morning routine.

They’re still part of it today.

I don’t allow myself to step out of the shower until I turn the knob.

I NEVER broke that rule.

How to cold shower?

Most people do it wrong (lol).

You have to let the water run cold first.

Like you’d let it run to turn warm before getting in.

Let the water turn icy cold, turn it off again, then step under the shower head.

Fight your demons.

Turn it on.

The shock you experience brings multiple benefits with it.

In short:

• put it into your morning routine

• let the water run cold first

• don’t get out before you get ice-splashed

I love cold showers and hate them at the same time.

It’s a true toxic relationship.

In this case, that is what you want.

Benefits:

• supreme immune and health function → no joke, I haven’t gotten sick since I started

• cold adaptation → I don’t feel cold anymore in general

• mental toughness → it keeps your discipline up daily

• increase in motivation and energy afterward

In conclusion, there are no negatives of cold showers.

It takes a few minutes a day but offers so many benefits.

By the way, showering cold will NOT reduce hypertrophy (muscle growth).

The studies on cold exposure that notice hypertrophy decreases use ice baths (way colder + whole body immersed at all times) and check right after training.

→ you’ll NOT lose gains showering cold in the morning

Another non-negotiable.

I’ve been meditating since I started my Self-Improvement journey (Christmas 2022).

Why did I start?

→ the mental health benefits

I was struggling with anxiety and “depression”.

As most young men getting on to Self-Improvement.

Did it work?

In short, yes.

How to turn it into a habit?

I wasn’t always consistent with it, especially at the start.

The real change occurred when I routined the F out of my days.

Don’t sleep on the power of regular, daily routines.

It used to be in my morning routine, now meditation serves as a break between work sessions.

How to meditate?

The beautiful thing about meditation is that there are so many forms of it.

• metta or loving-kindness

• gratitude or affirmations

• mindfulness or focus-based

• sensory-based and body scans

• open-awareness

Just to name a few. I’ll do a newsletter on meditation at some point.

Everybody starts with focus-based meditation, focusing on your breath.

The simple idea works like the following:

Focus on breath → Mind goes wandering → You realize it went off → Refocus on breath

If you never meditated before, you might find it boring.

Starting, it’s fine if you simply do 3 minutes a day.

I use an app called Medito, you can find it for free on Google and Apple.

Benefits

• mental health benefits

• increase in mindfulness and awareness

• training and learning of patience

• calm mind, clarity of thought

If you meditate daily, those are guaranteed.

There is no downside to meditation.

You don’t have the time? → shut up of course you have 5 minutes a day

You’re not good at it & get distracted so often? → well practice more bozo

It’s unnecessary, you don’t need it? → take care of your ego

Surprise.

This is a list of DAILY habits.

Yes, I hit the gym daily and I think others should do the same.

This is a personal thing so I’ll get a bit ranty.

Why did I start?

Rest days are stupid, that’s why.

I don’t get how young, high testosterone (maybe there’s the problem) males can work out 5-6 days a week and just “chill” a day off.

What are you doing?

Daily consistency is the best medicine for everything.

And you have to make exercise a daily thing, no excuses.

How to turn it into a habit?

You probably already have a gym routine.

You go at the same time.

Continue.

But do it every day.

I want you to mark a daily exercise session in your calendar.

How to?

Here is the thing: I love weightlifting 7 days a week.

Simplified: It’s Arms, Chest, Back, Legs, repeat → they’re not tied to weekdays.

But the important thing is to exercise every day, not weightlift in particular.

Let’s say you're on 6 days/week Push Pull Legs and you don’t want to go for my superior split.

Do half an hour of cardio on day 7.

You don’t have to go to the gym, a simple jog is enough.

I want to get you moving, doing something hard, daily.

It’s about the mental mind you build.

Benefits

• mental toughness → no excuses, it’s only hard in your head

• Gainzzz → superior muscle building (if you weightlift 7/7)

• even more similar daily schedule → ultra-consistency with exercise and everything else

What about overtraining?
→ start to look like you lift first before worrying about that shyt

That’s hard I like my rest day
→ smh

Try it out for a month.

If you hate it for some reason, stop.

But it would be a shame if you never found out how far you can push yourself.

Getting onto Self-Improvement, I heard about journaling.

I thought normal journaling was cringe.

I was scared of my thoughts.

But I started journaling daily a few months back.

Why did I start?

I got a super nice journal.

And that motivated me to try writing daily journal entries.

That’s a tip on how to make it a habit right there:

Buy a journal so nice you want to fill it + a nice pencil/pen.

How to turn it into a habit?

It’s all about routines.

I journal before going to bed, it’s part of my nighttime routine.

First gratitude journaling.

Then a stream-of-consciousness type journaling afterwards.

Simple & great for winding down before bed.

How to?

→ Gratitude journaling

Write down at least 5 sentences.

Like this:

“I am grateful for [my family, gym, bed, sleep, cat, friends, X, work, whatever]”

→ Journaling

I don’t like using prompts, I start with whatever comes to my head.

Before bed, you’ll be thinking about stuff.

Write it down.

There is only one rule:

Be brutally honest with yourself.

Benefits

• increase in mental health + awareness

• anxiety and stress reduction

• clarity of thought, constant making of plans

It’s a useful tool to become aware of what is bothering you.

Often, you also find the solution to the problem in the same session.

Give it a try, and you’ll notice how good you feel.

I don’t know why more people aren’t doing this.

Stretching in the morning feels amazing.

I’ve been doing it for a year now.

Why did I start?

I started because I felt stiff.

Even though I went to the gym and moved around, I was (and still am) sitting in a chair for a lot of my time.

I was simply unflexible.

How to turn it into a habit?

I already mentioned it.

Multiple times.

Just put it in a damn routine.

Doing it first thing in the morning is the best time for stretching in my opinion.

How to?

Open YouTube and search for a 10-minute stretching routine.

Pick whatever you like.

Mine is in German so I won’t link it here, find your favorite one.

Get a yoga mat or a towel and follow the instructions.

It’s not that hard.

You’ll be shitty at it first, of course, but you’ll get better pretty fast.

Benefits

• increased flexibility, also when training in the gym

• fewer aches, stiffness, and feeling uncomfortable in your body

• energy in the morning

It feels liberating overall.

Another topic that deserves its own newsletter.

It’s the best way to get work done.

It makes it possible to get paid for output, not time input.

I learned about the concept of Deep Work, or rather Flow State in September last year.

I have been getting into this state daily ever since.

Why did I start?

Because I wanted to experience flow regularly.

I used to have these random moments of “getting into the zone”, but I didn’t know what it was.

Or why it happened.

The concepts of Deep Work and Flow State though promised to get you into that zone, by command.

How to turn it into a habit?

There are two things you need for Deep Work:

• something you work on

• 90 minutes minimum of time

Make that happen in the morning.

Your focus is going to be best 30 minutes to 1 hour after waking.

So again, this makes you have to put it into a routine.

Which is what consistency is all about.

How to?

This is where it gets a touch complicated.

There are certain strategies, no-nos, tactics, etc. that you can, should, or have to use to get into Deep Work.

Which means.

Stay tuned for next week.

I’m going to teach you how to use laser focus, get your work done, and feel amazing while you do it.

Benefits

I listed them already.

One more thing: You're motivated to do your work.

Let’s go to the last point.

Non-negotiable.

I don’t care about your excuses → You can bulk at the same time.

You’re supposed to feel hungry in the morning.

Breakfast is by far the worst meal of the day.

I’ve been fasting from waking up until lunch since around last April.

Why did I start?

I was coming off a bulk myself.

I never really tried fasting on purpose, but I figured it was a good tool to lose some of that body fat I gained.

Plus, people on the internet told me it was good for many different reasons.

How to make it a habit?

Simple.

Don’t waste any time eating anything in the morning.

This isn’t about adding but subtracting something.

Now you saved yourself some Deep Work time as well.

USE IT

How to?

We're going with the 0-calorie approach.

Which means:

• water

• coffee

and that’s it.

No milk or anything sweet in your coffee, drink it black like an Alpha Wolf does.

The rules are simple.

Let’s see if you can follow them.

Benefits

• better focus and MORE energy throughout the day

• various health benefits according to science

• far better workouts (if you train in the morning, fasted)

• better Deep Work sessions, clear-headedness, etc.

It makes your brain sharp.

Productivity hack number 1.

Try this out for a few weeks.

I’m currently on a lean bulk myself, I can get enough calories in from lunch to dinner.

So you can too.

Thank you for reading!

Hopefully, I could inspire you to try out a thing or two on this list.

Trying won’t cost you anything, but could gain you a lifelong, amazing daily habit.

Keep Improving!

~ Improvement Wolf

Read my previous newsletter on hacking your body here:
https://imprvmntwolf-newsletter-0187.beehiiv.com/p/hack-body