Take a minute and think about how you wake up? Now take a minute and think about an “ideal morning routine” and then journal about the differences between what you want and what is happening now to give yourself something to strive for. My husband gets up at 5:00am (former Marine!) and read while calmly sipping his coffee while I hit snooze and then zoom around toasting waffles and looking for lost mittens as I get my four kids off to school but slowly I have found that getting up a few minutes before the kids and planning my day makes my whole week better so I decided to share a few tips that I am working on to make my morning routine more impactful. Let me know what works best for you.
A morning routine is an important step towards success. How you wake up sets the tone for the day. Take a few minutes and write down your perfect morning routine and feel free to use these five tips as you create your morning rituals.
Tip #1 Make It Inspiring
Inspiration is about determining your goals and going for them!
You aren’t going to jump out of bed and do anything new (for long) if you aren’t inspired. We can give you a new recipe or suggest that you pray, write, or meditate, but if you aren’t inspired to strive towards your desired lifestyle, chances are that you won’t stick to your plan.
So, how do you get inspired?
Think about what you want to attract to your life to make it more exciting or fulfilling. What do you want to improve? What transition are you ready to make? Do you want better health, improved relationships, a more fulfilling career, or all of these things? Being clear about what you want makes it so much easier to participate in inspired living. Plus, action steps flow more easily when you’re in a productive mood.
Suggestions: Pour a cup of tea, read a book by an inspirational author, or free write.
Tip #2 Make It Purposeful
Spend some time each morning considering your life vision and the goals to get there.
In what way are you going to make this year, season, week, or day better? The morning is a great time to consider your destiny. Your goals are crafted to lead you toward your life’s ambition, so spend some time in the morning touching upon your goals, tweaking, reviewing, writing about, and meditating on them.
This practice will help remind you of the direction in which your life is headed. Dedicating the time to think about your vision will make it more present in your life and set you on your way to fulfilling the destiny that you desire.
Suggestions: Write, meditate, pray, or even plan out your daily “big frog”.
Tip #3 Make An Action List
Set some time aside for mastering your craft.
How are you going to become the best you that you can be? By creating habits that support success as soon as you wake up! Getting into action will energize you instantly, helping you take steps toward your desired lifestyle.
The morning is a great time to start taking daily actions (or at least planning them) so that you see progress in your life and are able to feel motivated throughout the day.
Motivation is contagious, so whether you’re working on health, wealth, or wisdom, accomplishing goals in one area will often trickle down into other areas as well. Do you want music in your life? Don’t just listen to others perform—start taking lessons and use your mornings to practice. As you move toward accomplishing these mastery goals, you will find yourself increasingly more motivated.
Suggestions: Take a daily vitamin and fish oil supplement to improve your health, sign up for an online class that will help you develop your career skills, or learn to play a new instrument.
#4 Make It Well Rounded
Create plans that feel balanced in all areas of your life.
Think about your health, career, and relationships and check to ensure that you are moving forward in each of these areas. The military has a rule of three because a person can only really track three things at once—make sure that your three things include these essential areas!
So, as you set out to think about, write on, and plan out the start to your day, try to mentally check in on each of these three areas. The morning is a great time check in regarding your work, your loved ones, and your health.
Is your calendar filled with work commitments? Maybe you need to plan a date with your spouse. Are you cranking out a work project but haven’t had the chance to exercise all week? Try to fit in a short walk or 10-minute aerobics or yoga session between tasks.
Take a moment in the morning to prioritize your day and balance out your planner in terms of these three elements.
Suggestions: Put a leisure activity in your day planner and prioritize it as much as a work commitment, touch base with loved ones and make some plans, go for a walk.
#5 Make It Celebratory
Make some time each morning to stop and smell the roses.
My grandfather Aksel, who lived to be 100, took a two-mile walk every day. Along this walk, he would stop and literally smell the flowers. This moment allowed him to appreciate nature and just enjoy being alive.
How often do we slow down enough to smell the roses? It’s important that we appreciate living in the present and remember to take it all in. When you wake up, can you open a window and breathe in some fresh air, burn a favorite candle, or smell some fresh flowers in a vase? Think about rituals that may elevate your mood as much as my grandfather’s walk did for him.
Suggestions: Write in a gratitude journal, post a thank you note from a client, stop and smell the flowers.
Create a morning routine that makes you excited to get up!
By focusing on these five easy tips and developing a morning routine that considers your own needs as well as your family members, you’ll be able to make progress on your goals. This practice will help you maintain a healthy, loving, and productive life.
Make a list of five new things you would like to add to your morning routine, try them for a few weeks, and let me know which tips are most helpful!