My mornings are works-in-progress, there is no denying it. For years I’ve tried to get around the fact that the way you start your morning has a major effect on the rest of your day. I’ve read book after book by very successful people who all have morning rituals. I’ve read article after article on how to become a morning person. And I’ve failed and failed and kept on failing at trying to master my mornings.
Finally I’ve come to an important realization: you can master your mornings even if you aren’t perfect at them yet. If every book tells you to get up at 4:30 a.m., but you can barely drag your butt up by 8:00 a.m., that doesn’t mean you can’t still have stellar mornings!
You can create a morning routine that works for YOU. The way to master your mornings is to keep working at them.
As long as you feel fulfilled and in the right headspace for the day, your morning has been a success! This will look different for every person, but here are a few things that are currently working for me:
1. 5-4-3-2-1 Your way out of bed a la Mel Robbins.
If you haven’t read The 5-Second Rule by Mel Robbins, I highly recommend it, as it’s a way to not only master your first action in the morning, but also to stop hesitating and start doing more every moment of every day. I recently finished the book and I really took a lot from it, but I still don’t quite have this 5 second countdown mastered. If you’re like me, you might have to start counting at 1,000, but keep working on it. The moment you hit zero, your feet better hit the floor and you better launch yourself into your day.
If it doesn’t happen the first few times you try, keep on trying. The only way to master something is to keep failing at it until you ultimately succeed.
2. Make your bed.
Yes, you’re going to get back into in a few hours. Yes, making it will totally erase the joy you just got from rolling out of it, but every time you pass by it for the rest of the day you will feel calm and a small sense of satisfaction, and why wouldn’t you want to start your day that way? This is a habit that I resisted for so many years, and now I wonder why. It seriously is a little boost when I walk past and see that smooth, straight comforter. (Wow, that sounds ridiculous to type, but I swear the satisfaction is real.)
3. Let natural light in.
On your way to the kitchen (for coffee, what else?), take a second to open the blinds or curtains on your windows. If you tend to walk around nude in the mornings, maybe do your neighbors a favor and don’t pull them all the way open. That little bit of natural light, whether it’s a sunny morning or not, will do wonders for waking up your brain and getting you accustomed to the thought that you’ll have to go outside at some point. Even living in a frigid climate for most of the year, opening the curtains in the morning (even when the ground is snow-covered and it looks a bit like a frozen hellscape) always makes me feel a little bit more energized and inspired.
4. Focus on something other than your phone/the television/your computer.
Here’s where your morning routine is going to vary wildly from person to person. I totally encourage you to find something to start your morning off that requires concentration yet is still relaxing and that will not allow you to start playing the comparison game before you’ve even finished your coffee. I love social media and I love the internet, but I think we’ve all fallen into that trap from time to time, and that headspace is not the way to start a successful morning.
Q. What might you focus on instead?
A. There are SO MANY options here!
- If you love to read literature, start with slowly reading a poem and reflecting on it.
- If you are into personal development, find a great book to inspire you.
- If you are religious, a daily devotion or section of scripture.
- If you need some “pumping up”, create a list of affirmations to read to yourself daily.
- If music inspires you, craft the perfect playlist to get your day started.
5. Eat a good breakfast
I am a believer that you should have the same breakfast every single day. It’s the Steve Jobs/black turtleneck theory: eliminate unnecessary choices so you can focus your attention on bigger and better things. Maybe you aren’t the head of technology empire quite yet, but the idea holds. We are bombarded with choices daily. It takes effort to keep making good ones. When you find something that works for you, hold on to it with both hands!
For me, something that works is taking the choice out of breakfast. Given the choice, I would eat cookies or donuts immediately upon waking, which leads to a whole other string of not-great-decisions throughout the day. Knowing exactly what I’m going to eat in the morning takes away the guesswork, the desire to eat poorly, and any chance that I’ll just wait around and get hangry (not a pretty picture).
I eat these amazing carrot cake muffins everyday and have for about two months. They are the perfect blend of vegetables, proteins, and carbs, and I add healthy fat by topping them with natural peanut butter and unsweetened shredded coconut. I can’t take any credit for making them, as my husband/personal chef is responsible for this deliciousness. You can check out his recipe HERE.
6. Create a system that you can keep returning to.
Your priorities are going to change day to day and week to week. Your morning routine shouldn’t.
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod is another book I’ve read in my quest to fix my mornings. While I like the outline Elrod gives as a guideline for scheduling your morning, perhaps my favorite part of the book is his agreement that your “miracle morning” doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the morning.
- If you just can’t swing a morning workout, that’s okay! Do it later in the day when it makes sense for you.
- If reading in the morning makes you want to crawl back in bed, make time for it in the afternoon.
You can build these routines for success into your day wherever they are most beneficial for you! If you don’t have a picture perfect morning, your day/week/life will not fall apart!
Make your routine something to look forward to each day, not a list of tasks that you have to check off and dread. I build minutes of sitting with my coffee and my dog into every single morning, no matter what else I have to do that day, and it is honestly my favorite part of the day.
Curled up in a soft blanket, hot cup of coffee in my hand, dog by my side, and natural light streaming in from my uncovered windows. If that doesn’t put you in a positive mindset, I don’t know what will.
It might just sound like an Instagram photo, but it can be your reality. And it doesn’t have to be an entire hour of your day. Miracle Mornings can be done in as little as six minutes if you are in a rush. If worst comes to worst, just keep the dog cuddles and coffee as non-negotiables. You can figure the rest out later. 🙂
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