Creating the Perfect Morning Routine for Your Lifestyle
What is the one thing you can do to improve your life significantly? You begin by starting your day off with a morning routine.
If you would have asked me years ago if I had a morning routine, I would have answered in the affirmative. During the more than twenty years I spent in the work force, before coming online as an entrepreneur, writer, and marketer in 2006, I did the same thing day after day. My mornings looked something like this:
- Jump out of bed when the alarm goes off at 4:30am
- Walk my dog
- Quickly shower and dress for the day
- Gulp down cereal, juice, and a banana
- Make my lunch
- Dash out the door by 5:45am
- Rush through my day, only to do it all over again the next morning
This was not an optimal or healthy morning routine on any level. It was simply the way I had structured my life up until that point, and it was not serving me. Now my life is very different and everything, I mean every.little.thing. about my life has changed, and it’s based on what I’m sharing here with you.
A morning routine puts intentionality into your day. It gives your morning form, design, and function. Imagine yourself traveling through each step, calm, cool, and collected. You know exactly what’s needed of you and when. There are no surprises to leave you scrambling. Nor are you likely to forget what’s important. Your morning routine will strengthen your relationship with yourself.
If it seems intimidating to form a routine to do all these things, take heart. Really, there are only five steps you need to worry about to make your day come off without a hitch.
Understand What It’s All About
Embarking on a new routine is hard work, especially as you work to build this routine into something which will be habitual. It’s easy to go back to the old ways you’ve always done things, especially if you feel tired or discouraged.
This is why your first step involves understanding your purpose. Know why you’re striving to have a better morning, and speak these words out loud every morning when you first get up to remind yourself of them. Are you looking for higher productivity? A calmer day? More confidence? You’ll need to figure it out if you don’t know before beginning.
Implement Your Routine in Baby Steps
You can’t change around your entire sleep schedule or make profound changes about your mornings all at once without burning out quickly. This is why it’s important to work out a plan in advance where you know what changes you are making and when. For example, if you normally get up at 9:00am but want to get up at 7:00, you’ll want to make small changes that work toward your goal. So for the first week, you might get up at 8:45 and the week after 8:30, etc…
Commit to Consistency
You’re not going to succeed in building new habits if you don’t do the same thing repeatedly. Realize you can’t do this in half measures. Commit to doing this routine every single day.
Work Out an Evening Routine
Your morning will go better if you use it with an evening routine that sets up a regular bedtime. You can also use evenings to do prep work for the next day, such as laying out your clothes.
Create Your Routine
The key to making your routine is to address all of your needs. So some things you might do for physical health (exercise, eat right) while others benefit you spiritually (meditate, pray), mentally (learn, self-talk), or emotionally (journal, affirmations). The goal is to bring yourself into harmonious balance every day.
Together these five steps will help you create the perfect morning routine. But what about meditation, visualization, and daydreaming as a part of your morning routine?
Using Visualization to Get What You Want in Life
What do you want out of life? More importantly, how do you intend to go about getting it?
We all have so many wants. Some are very simple, such as wanting to lose five pounds in time for swimsuit season. While others, such as changing to a new career, are more complex. What’s interesting is that you can use the very same technique to get precisely what you want, whether your goal is big or small.
Visualization is the technique of picturing a goal in your mind in detail so that you can manifest this change in your life. Sound hard? Really, it’s not. By following these five simple steps, you’ll get exactly what you want in almost no time at all.
Engage Fully in the Vision
You absolutely must put yourself into the visualization as fully as you possibly can. Use all your senses and emotions to experience this vision in a way that is real to you. There can be no holding back here.
Experience Different Viewpoints
What does this visualization feel like to you? Experience it first as yourself so that you can connect emotions to actions. You want to feel every part of it. Now, step back and experience it again as if you’re watching yourself succeed from outside of yourself, like watching a movie. Why? This helps you to see details you might miss otherwise.
Live the Success
When you’re done with the visualization, it’s time to live the part. Become the person you saw at the end of the vision. How does that person move? Think? Act?
Reinforce the Message
Visualization needs need back-up to be successful. The world is full of negative influences, some of them finding root in your own mind. Keep your self-talk positive, use affirmations, and look for ways to constantly reinforce the vision in your mind without tearing it down.
Make the Vision Tangible in a Way You can See it
Creating a dream board or collage will set out your visualization in a place where you are constantly reminded of the experience. Seeing it over and over will also reinforce your goals and strengthen your resolve.
By following these steps, you’ll find you will find your dream becoming more and more solid. Of course, you’re going to have to put in the work to achieve what you want. However, by using visualization, you get clear where you’re going and how to get there.
I’m Connie Ragen Green, visualizing, daydreaming, and meditating my way to the lifestyle design I want and deserve. Come along with me, if you will and together we will explore the universe and all it has to offer to those of us who are striving to reach our full potential as we go about our daily lives.
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