Morning Routine

A lot of folks have morning routines or things they do every day to wake up and start their day. I personally until recently have lived by a routine of waiting until the latest possible time I can to wake up, shower, eat s breakfast on the go, and then off to school/work. For the entirety of my life that has mostly been my default morning routine. About 2 years ago I read The Miracle Morning after hearing the author Hal Elrod on the Bigger Pocket’s podcast. Hal’s idea was around identifying the routine’s of successful people and mirroring their mornings. In his research, he boiled it down into 6 different habits that he did every morning each one for 10 minutes. He saw great success and then started telling others about his routine.

After I read that I decided I wanted to give it a go. Needless to say, I didn’t stick with it. It may have lasted 2 weeks or I’d skip a few days or a few of the items. Waking up early to do habits was not natural for me and went against my default of sleeping until the last possible moment. From that experience, I started implementing those habits at different times. Over the past 2 years, I have gone on spurts of waking up early, going to the gym, meditating, journaling, and reading. I’ve made it a habit to try and instill habits that lasted at most a couple of weeks. Yet through that experimentation in the last 2 months, I have settled into a morning routine. A caveat I still don’t do it every single morning, but I make it a point to do those activities at some point in the day or if have a particularly difficult day, to start again the next day.

I’ve now developed a routine that I quite thoroughly enjoy and helps get my day off to a successful one. Most people enjoy accomplishing tasks and feeling productive which the routine I’ve fallen into tends to do. My routine is simple –

• Wake up at 5:30am
• Meditate for 15 minutes
• Exercise
• Blend a breakfast shake (I use a plant-based protein shake from Isagenix, frozen fruit, and water)E
• Eat 1 spoonful of coconut oil & take vitamins
• Journal

This entire routine takes me about an hour and a half meaning I wrap up typically around 7am. A couple of practical hacks that help me ensure I wake up are:

1. Placing my phone with my alarm across the room at night before bed. This accomplishes 2 things it forces me to get out of bed making it harder to press snooze and it allows me to unwind at night.
2. Layout my workout clothes the night before next to my phone charger. When I go to turn off my alarm I immediately put on the clothes I have laid out forcing me to get into the mindset of getting ready to be active.

For the last few months, I’ve really enjoyed this routine and will likely add or adapt as I move forward. For anyone who like me defaulted to sleeping as late as possible before quickly showering and going about your day, it is worth prioritizing the non-negotiables in your life and knocking those out early. Having no morning routine is the same as having one. By not having a morning routine you passively choose to allow your days to start. Why not take control of your routine and start your day with the most important activities? You have nothing to lose…

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