One thing I’ve learned in my journey to regain my self-confidence is that if you start your day confidently, it will be much easier to continue that way. When you can get up and get moving in the morning you set yourself up to make it through the day on your terms instead of on other peoples’ terms. The secret, I’ve found, is to create a morning routine that sets you up to start the day feeling confident and in control.
I have to admit, I was never a morning person. For years I would stay up all night and not even go to sleep until the sun started to rise. Forget doing anything more strenuous than turning on the computer before I downed at least half a pot of coffee. A morning routine was not even a consideration in those days. And productivity was definitely not my strong suit.
I learned quickly that in order to feel in control of my day I had to train myself to get up in the morning, and on my terms so that I could act and do the things that were important to me, not just react by waking up when the phone rang, the dogs wanted out, or my son came home from school for lunch.
So, if the idea of a morning routine is as foreign to you as it was to me in those days, here are a few tips to help you get started and creating your own powerful morning routine.
1. Figure out your plan before you start.
Ideally, you want your morning to start on your terms. Knowing what you want to do in the morning before you go to bed the night before gives you a reason to get up and get moving.
The best thing I’ve found is that if you make your early morning “me time” you can follow through on the rest of your day with confidence because you’ve already taken care of yourself first.
2. Train yourself to wake up earlier.
One of the reasons you need to figure out your plan first is because you will need to figure out how much time you will need for your routine. If you’re anything like me, that means you’ll have to learn to get up earlier than you do now.
You can train yourself to gradually get up earlier every day. My preferred method is to set the alarm earlier by 10 minutes every week. You won’t necessarily get your whole routine in the first few weeks, but it makes it easier for your body to get used to getting up earlier if you do it gradually instead of chopping a whole hour of sleep off of your night.
3. Train yourself to go to bed earlier.
There really is something to that whole “early to bed, early to rise” thing. You need at least six hours of sleep in order to let your body refresh and replenish, so in order to get up earlier, you may have to also learn to go to bed that much earlier as well.
4. Get out of your bedroom as fast as you can.
The longer you linger after the alarm goes off, the easier it becomes to stay under the covers and reset the alarm for later. If you get up and go wash your face, brush your teeth and do all that necessary morning stuff, you’ll find it easier to stay up and start your routine.
5. Keep your routine the same every day.
After all, it wouldn’t be a routine if you changed it every day!
Seriously, having a routine gives you confidence because you know what you have to do when you get up in the morning. If you have to answer to other people during the course of your day – and really who doesn’t – starting your day with a routine of your choosing gives you the power and confidence to do that because you have taken the time to take care of you first.
A Sample Morning Routine
Now that you have the steps down, what does your morning routine look like?
A good morning routine should take care of you before you start taking care of everyone else. It should feed your body, mind, and spirit in whatever order works best for you.
My own morning routine goes something like this:
check my fasting glucose numbers
wake up the body with a quick exercise routine I learned from my aqua yoga instructor.
Wake up the spirit with 10 minutes of meditation
Grab a drink of lemon water to jumpstart my metabolism and detox my liver.
Write morning pages (an exercise I learned from Julia Cameron’s The Writing Diet)
20 minutes of yoga to really get the body moving.
By the time I get all that done, my son is up and getting ready to go to work. So we have breakfast together and then he goes to work, and I start writing for the day.
When it comes right down to it, how you start your day is your choice. And that’s as it should be. It’s your day, and you need to create the routine that works best for you and allows you to not only start the day with confidence but to carry that confidence throughout the day. These tips should help you get started.
You’ve got the time, you’ve got the plan. Now make it count, and enjoy the start of your day!
What does your morning routine include? Share your answer in the comments below.
Photo Credit: © Jeraxx | Dreamstime.com
