Zest practices: our founder's 4:00 a.m. morning routine

People often ask me how Peter Lemonjello, our founder and visionary, gets so much done. The answer is simple: he wakes up at 4:00 a.m., and by 4:05 a.m. he is already thinking about lemons. I have been his Chief of Staff for three years. Here is his routine, shared with his permission and his enthusiastic insistence.

4:00 a.m.: The rising

Peter wakes without an alarm. He says the lemons wake him. When asked which lemons, he simply points outside.

4:10 a.m.: Gratitude

He writes down three things he is grateful for. In three years, all three have been lemons. Once, he wrote “lemon” and then crossed it out and wrote “LEMON,” which I think marked a period of growth.

4:30 a.m.: Cold squeeze

Some leaders take cold showers. Peter takes a cold squeeze: he holds one chilled lemon in each hand for ten minutes. He calls this “getting centered.” His hands call it “very cold.”

Every great company starts with one person who refuses to stop talking about lemons.

5:00 a.m.: Telling the sun

Peter goes outside, waits for the sun to rise, and tells it about lemonjello. He believes the sun “gets it.” The sun has not confirmed this, but it does keep coming back.

6:00 a.m.: Strategy

By 6:00 a.m. he has done more than most people do all day, and he arrives at the office with a single sentence that will define our quarter. Last quarter’s was “When life gives you lemons, lemonjello!” The quarter before that was also “When life gives you lemons, lemonjello!” Consistency is a leadership trait.

If you want to live your wildest dreams, try waking up at 4:00 a.m. If that seems hard, try just thinking about lemons a little more. Peter says that is where it all starts.