Hello there!
What we do on a daily basis forms the foundation of all we can hope to accomplish.
Our daily and specifically, morning routines are made up of either powerful, good (effective) habits or powerfully bad (ineffective) habits. We are either empowered or disempowered by what we habitually do each and every day.
First, let me assure you I’m not bashing routines…they’re wonderful and can be so powerful in getting the most out of our limited time and effort. When they are efficient they lead to order and organization, that could then lead to excellence. BUT, when they’re not efficient or are based on bad habits instead of successful and powerful habits, they add to the ruin of a perfectly great life!
Like a ‘system’ (Save Your Self Time Energy and Money) routines are awesome.
Today, I’d like to focus on your early morning routine. This is the set of activities that has the most impact on your entire day. For the first 15 – 30 minutes of the day, what do you do? Routinely?
Just take a few minutes to reflect on what you do most mornings, and most times without even thinking about it.
Do you have a habit of begrudgingly getting out of bed, feeling your way to the bathroom where after several deep sighs you resign yourself to being among the living?
Does it take you several minutes to even have a positive thought about life, your schedule, work or ‘to do’ list…or perhaps a positive thought is a foreign concept before a cup of caffeine?
Do you immediately, after stumbling into alertness, get dressed (and all that comes before that) and hit the road/computer/phone or some such ‘connecting’ activity?
Or, do you flick the TV on to see ‘what’s happening in the world’?
If anything about the above routines sound familiar to you, I’d stop and reflect.
How’s it working for you? As a person interested or perhaps even committed to creating new success habits that help, the above activities, routinely done can’t be having the most productive and positive impact on your life.
Here’s why:
Our thoughts impact our emotions which impacts our attitude which impacts our activities.
So if you rise with anything less than positive, optimistic thoughts you are unlikely to have a positive, optimistic attitude about rising and getting into right action. If your first thoughts, emotions and actions are routinely hum-drum, reluctant and mind-numbing, your first actions will be as well. What does that say for the rest of the day? It says that it will take great effort to steer that ship – called ‘YoMind’ – around to being positive, grateful, optimistic and enthusiastic. Now of course it can be done and perhaps you routinely do that as well but just think about all the energy that can be saved and used more efficiently if you started you day in the following way – more or less:
(1) Rise with a positive thought of gratitude – for life, and consciousness. This will lead to emotions that produce more creative, productive actions…like….
(2) Drink a clear glass of water within minutes ( I try to have one before my feet touch the ground.) This helps with early morning detoxing, circulating helpful enzymes for digestion, remaining hydrated and some studies suggest significant help with maintaining healthy levels of blood sugar and also boosting our immune system. Of course the claim is also made that staying properly hydrated helps with calorie control and weight management. On the other hand, I have never read one claim that an early morning glass of water has any possible negative side-effects. It’s an excellent early morning habit.
(3) Be still for as long as your schedule can handle. Being still to meditate, pray, breathe… before jumping into the world helps to focus your thoughts and emotions on what you choose to think and feel….not what the television officials have decided would boost their ratings.
(4) Write…about your dream, your plans, your passions, just write for 5 or 10 minutes. Clarity and focused energy will result.
(5) Workout and/or read…choosing an early morning activity that gets your mind informed and inspired or your body pumping leads to higher levels of serotonin, optimism, creativity and productivity. Compare this to taking in all the news of the world. I’m not suggesting being ignorant of world and national events. There is just a time and place for it – and that’s not within the first 30 minutes of your day.
Try these 5 steps – or any 5 steps that can accomplish these results – optimism, joy, productivity, etc – and your days will be transformed! Whatever level of productivity you enjoy now will be increased significantly. And with increased productivity comes JOY!
The first 30 minutes of your day should be about setting you on course for an excellent day. How you start you tend to end if not for serious intervention: So start right. Taking control of your day begins with the very first thought which leads to the first minute which leads to the first 30 minutes of your day.
Let your routine work for you and empower you instead of keeping you stuck in a rut of sameness, mediocrity and stagnation.
Of course keeping your routine fresh is also a good thing…so vary what you read, how you exercise, where you stretch and/or exercise, what you meditate on and about, where you write and what you write in and of course each morning you can challenge yourself to have something different to be grateful for – in addition of course to simply being alive! 🙂
Creating habits that help requires the creation and reinforcing of routines that help. Good luck and have fun…
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Wishing you an abundance of success, love and joy,
~♥~