I know this should be a no-brainer but your morning routine sets your past for the rest of the day. Do you jump out of bed and rush to get out the door every morning? Then you start your day with stress from the moment you wake up. If you give yourself a few minutes to relax and take in your surroundings, you will start the day with calmer and more able to set your intentions. I get it. As a country we are all lacking sleep and we want to get every possible second we can. But do whatever you have to do in order to get to bed at an hour that you won’t feel exhausted in the morning. I know, easier said than done. But remember what I said I about that phrase? It’s just an excuse. If you really want something, you will figure out a way.
The first thing I’m going to tell you is something you don’t want to hear. A habit that is really hard to break but I promise you it will make your mornings so much better. And much more calm. Stop hitting the snooze button! You have to break this habit. It will be hard. No doubt. Just like it is hard breaking any bad habit you have. But once you conquer it you will never go back. Look at it this way. You are starting your day by breaking a promise to yourself. It’s true. You promised yourself you would get up at 6 am. That is why you set your alarm for that time. And when you hit the snooze button you are breaking that promise. Do not start your day by breaking promises to yourself. Your mornings will be so much better when you don’t have to start out making important decisions while you are in still in bed. Yes, that decision is how many times will I hit the snooze button before I finally get my butt out of bed.
Next, give yourself a little more time in the morning. Even 10 minutes will do. Take a minute to stretch and get your body moving. Have you ever noticed what your pet does first thing after they’ve been lying around for a while? Yes, that’s right…they stretch. It’s instinctive for them. We should be doing it too. Give yourself some time for reflection as well. What do you want out of this brand-new day? How would you like it to go? How can you make it go the way you would like it to? Set an intention. And throw in a little gratitude. Being grateful makes everything better.
Think about your perfect day. How does that day start? What can you incorporate into your daily wake ups? You can do something that you love first thing in the morning. But you must make time for it. It can something as simple as having a cup of coffee by yourself counting your blessings. Or you can read a little. Or you can listen to an inspirational podcast! Get in a little news or a quick workout. Do you know that most successful leaders and CEO’s start their day with a workout? There must be something to doing it first thing in the morning. Do whatever it is that you will make your day start out on the right foot.
My other piece of advice is to go over your must do’s for the day. Prioritize your tasks and figure out what absolutely needs to be done and do them first. Once you get the have to’s out of the way you can focus more on the things you would like to do. Start the day doing the most important things because you (hopefully) are most productive at the start of the day. Not only that, but you won’t spend the day dreading something you don’t really want to do. Get it done and then you will have lifted that weight off in order to feel more free with your acts and intentions for the rest of the day.
Getting an effective morning routine down can be a game changer to how your whole day goes. Just give some of these tips a try. What do you have to lose?
It is already “I wish it were cocktail Friday” Thursday. Think about how your perfect day starts and see which aspects of that you can implement into your daily routine. Now, go make today, your best day yet!
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