Morning routines are totally the new night out and I am 100% here for that. I am a morning person, I love the early hours. Admittedly though, when I decided to create a morning routine that would allow me to live my best life and set myself up for success and all of that magic stuff… I overwhelmed myself a little bit with all of the to do’s.
I found myself stretching out thin to drink room temp water, make the green smoothie, stretch, walk, meditate, journal, read, listen to a podcast, and not DARE touch my phone… or everything will be counteracted immediately.
PHEW.
That kind of exhausted me just to type out and remember all of the bits and pieces I tried to squeeze in before my day began.
Before we talk more about how I created a balanced out morning routine, and how you can create a routine that’s right for YOU… Let’s talk about why morning routines actually are good to have.
Why have a morning routine
Even after burning myself out with the world’s most intense morning routine, I still believe in the power of morning routines. In fact, if anything, that crazy morning routine taught me the importance of grounding yourself first thing in the morning even more.
So why start your day out with a routine?
Every new day is a fresh start, like a blank page. Anything that happened the day before is no longer with us, anything that’s happening tomorrow is not here yet. We are starting TODAY. And how you begin that day, is much like the first words written on the page of a book. When you read the first chapter of a book it sets the stage, it gives you an idea of if you are going to like this read or not. Sometimes you even decide if you’ll keep reading or not.
Think of your mornings like the first chapter, you are setting the stage for your day, deciding if you are going to like this day or not. Sometimes you even decide before the day has begun if it’s going to totally rock or totally suck.
With a powerful morning routine in place… the idea is that you’re ready for every day to totally rock.
Okay, but what about the actual bad days…
Like when you wake up and get in an arguement with your partner, or you have something at work you are dreading, or even if something extra horrible happened the day before…
You still have the chance to ground yourself into that day. YOU are the only person who is in control of your mood. YOU are the only person who chooses how you feel. Having a morning routine grounds you into the day and gets you centered with your thoughts and feelings that you will bring into the day.
Possible side effects of having a morning routine: Deep inner peace, complete ease, confidence, clarity, joy, less anxiety, less worry, less stress, excitement, ready to jump out of bed, urge to dance, desire throw joy out like confetti, success….
Basically, creating a morning routine that works for you will make a you a cute little badass ready to conquer the day.
Let’s talk about how to create a morning routine that works for you…
How To Create Your Own Kick Ass Morning Routine
Okay, so the goal here is to create a routine that feels really good to you and most importantly works for your lifestyle. It’s not about having the “perfect” morning routine. It’s about balancing out into your center so you are ready for whatever the day brings you.
It doesn’t matter if you are a singlel lady building a business or a momma of a thousand kids… you can still have a kickass morning routine.
Let’s break this down into 3 parts…
1. What time frame are you working with?
Get clear on this first. If you have a job to make it to in the morning or kids to get to school in the morning, and you roll out of bed 1 minutes before time to leave, it’s going to be hard to ground yourself into the day. Not impossible… but a bit rushed.
So are you going to wake up early, what time? Do you need an alarm set for this? Do you need to create a new habit so this routine sticks? How will you hold yourself accountable?
When do you want to kick off this morning routine and how long do you want to commit to?
Someone recently asked me if it was counterproductive to schedule in self care time… NO! It’s actually quite smart to treat self care as just of an important task as everything else.
2. Set an intention
What do you want to feel at the start of your day? Energized, grounded, calm, happy, peaceful, free, positive…
Get clear on what you want to create at the start of the day and it will be much easier to create action that supports this.
For example, I like to feel nice and grounded into the day. I like to have space and get rid of any lingering overwhelm. Early morning workouts are not (always) the right thing for me. I like to start a little more slow.
Align your morning actions with your intentions and priorities.
4. Experiment with your mornings
Find the things that set your day up best, and find the things that create different results for you.
So, let’s say you wake up one morning and you’re not really craving your normal grounding but more of an energy boost. You might not want to jump straight into your journal but maybe get outside and walk in fresh air.
Try out different things that set your morning up for success and piece together what works for you.
Since I thrive off of variety and change, I have a morning routine toolkit. I check in with my feeling first thing in the morning, ask myself my intention for the day and then I choose morning action from there.
Below I made you a free list of 20 things you can do to set your day up for success.
Listen, friend… Morning routines are like real life magic if you set it up in a way that works for you…
It doesn’t matter if you do a full on yoga routine before sipping organic coffee blessed by a shaman or you are journaling on the counter as your kids wipe syrup around the counter.
If it feels good in your soul, you’re doing it right.
Bonus tip: Just add coffee.
And finally… I have to squeeze this in here…
If you grab your phone first thing in the morning…
The world will not implode.
You didn’t do it wrong.
You didn’t fail your morning routine.
You didn’t ruin the day.
Don’t shame yourself for being human. Ask yourself if it’s something that is fun, serving you, or hurting your peace. And from there decide to choose a new action.
Simple as that.
Have a fab morning gorgeous!
Don’t forget to tell yourself you are FREAKING AWESOME…. ASAP in the morning too 🙂
Snag the list of 20 things you can do to amp up your morning routine below + if you loved this post, pin it to spread the love!
Get ready to be inspired!
I’m Megan, a life coach for women who challenges you to get out of your comfort zone and confidently into a life you are obsessed with!
Ready to be obsessed with your life?
I help women create balance in life before burn out so they can have it all.