Millionaires! Today we'll talk about how to create a sustainable morning routine and what that should look like. But first, before we get into this life changing content let me tell you why you should join the 5 a.m. club! Our free telegram community that meets Every Wednesday between 7 and 8 a.m. Each of us is responsible for getting up at 5 a.m. We hold each other accountable to ensure that our morning routines are strong, whether we're working out, meditating, budgeting, reading, journaling, or planning.
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Do you all have a morning routine? If you do, how consistent are you with sticking to your routine? If you are inconsistent, it is time to rethink your morning routine and why it isn't working. You may discover it could be things in your routine that you don't need or may seem redundant. Assume your morning routine is either lacking or excessively motivating, if it takes a lot of time, that could also make it difficult to stick with it, right? I used to wake up with barely enough time to dress, leave, and get to work. You, me, and hundreds of thousands of others around the world are all the same. Regardless of extra sleep, I occasionally go to bed early and wake up at 8:30. I'll head out for work and by the time I come home, I'll be super exhausted and unable to function. Despite if I've had a long and exhausting day or not.
Why You Need A Morning Routine
What is the reason for morning routines? What is the purpose of routines in general?
The sense of being unaccomplished is draining. Even if you had a productive day at work, if your work isn't aligned with your life's work, meaning you have a nine to five and you're really just doing it to be a "responsible adult" and pay bills to provide for your family, that could be why you come home from work feeling exhausted and tired. It may not be something you see yourself doing long term; you may have a great paying job that you are very good at, and you may have even completed your To-Do lists at work. But again, if you don't feel accomplished with yourself, with your life goals, and your life's work, you'll be exhausted when you get home from work because you feel like you didn't achieve any of the things you truly desire. Being successful on a daily basis keeps you going, keeps you excited, and provides you with a natural energy boost. Not feeling accomplished, again, can be draining. Having a morning routine can help you achieve this.
A morning routine will leave you feeling refreshed, energized, and ready to face the rest of your day. The rest of the day also becomes more intentional as a result.
Consider waking up with enough time in the morning to complete three, four, or five tasks on your To-Do list. You've already completed five self-fulfilling tasks before you go to work! This is all about your goals, you know, personal things you've wanted to get done and things you've been telling yourself over and over. That will motivate you to get to work. And you'll notice that you're different from your peers because you simply carry this energy. Everyone else is dragging because they woke up with barely enough time to get ready, they'd probably got stuck in traffic, they probably wouldn't have enough time to make their bed, and then probably forgot something because they were rushing out the door. Now, granted, that was a lot of "probably's" but that's exactly how unpredictable and hectic most morning looks when you do not budget your time with a routine.
Imagine if you were to go about your days in this manner on a regular basis, you will find yourself in an environment where you already feel defeated, discombobulated, and lost. If, however, you enter an environment where you feel accomplished, meaning you have completed and checked off some items on your to-do list for your morning routine, you feel like a champion, and you enter the next environment motivated to see what else you can accomplish and check off.
I actually carry around my daily to-do list with me everywhere I go (for the most part).
What Life With Routine Looks Like
Many people hesitate with routines because they feel it takes away from the spontaneity of life. I digress, because even though my morning appear to be predictable, I am actually learning something new everyday, and create block focuses that allow me to switch things up based on how I'm feeling. For example, I'll dedicate an hour of study time and personal development in the morning where I allow myself the flexibility of reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching a youtube video or taking a course.
I've learned that even contemplating a morning routine can cause us to become much more intentional and less likely to live life accidentally. Meaning just having the awareness of creating a morning routine and working towards improving it is enough to start to create some strong habits, even if your performance and consistency in your routine isn't perfect. When you simply get out of bed and go with the flow, a lot of things happen by chance to you. I don't know about you, but I would much rather live on purpose than by chance. If I come across success by chance, it makes it very difficult for me to duplicate that success. I want to do so on purpose so that I can replicate it and pass down those behaviors and habits to others. However, if I do things by accident, whether good or bad, I have no idea what I did right or wrong, and there is no way to avoid or duplicate it. Having a morning routine simply allows you to be more intentional in your movements. You want your life to have meaning, and all meanings serve purpose.
This is also a test of your discipline. For example, how long can you go without missing your morning routine? Can you dedicate a full week? Okay, you got through a week; can you get through a month? Can you commit to the entire year? How reliable are you?
As a result, this morning routine is now challenging you to maintain that discipline on a consistent basis.
Here are action steps you should take to begin implementing and developing a sustainable morning routine:
Make a "To-Do" List
First and foremost, make a to-do list. Make a list of things you want to get done before heading to work, or how you want to begin your day. These activities can include meditation and prayer, making the bed, reading, journaling, going for a run, going to the gym, stretching, walking your dog, make breakfast; make a list of to-dos and things that you really want to be able to accomplish in the morning. I have to go to the gym, and I'd like to start eating breakfast because I'm spending too much money eating out. As a result, I'd like to include breakfast in my morning routine, instead of falling asleep after my morning showers after the gym, I'm now incorporating that.
Make a note of "Why"
Next to each task, you should make a note of the purpose. This looks like if you're going to meditate, write down your motivations, If you have reading in your routine, write down what you want to read and why you want to read it. Why do you want to go for a run if you're already going for a run? More often than not, there are times when we will simply leave a task as what it is without understanding why. And simply not knowing why can make maintaining that behavior difficult. Even if the tast is actually difficult, understanding why you're doing something allows you to snap out of the temporary defeat, because you understand why you're doing it.
It's almost as if the difference between making sacrifices as a single adult and as a parent is that you're constantly reminded that you now have this big why, which are your children, which makes it easier for you to make these difficult decisions because other people's lives are depending on you, and you very quickly realize your why.
If you are single and live alone or with a roommate, however, it can be easy to lose track of time and become disorganized when you don't have any children. Writing down the purpose and why you want to accomplish each item in the morning, will increases the likelihood that you will be able to sustain it and stay consistent in doing so. As you start to track the why behind the what, you also want to record how much time each item will take. So, if I say I'm going to meditate, how long should I meditate first thing in the morning, and how many times should I meditate throughout the day? You do not have to meditate first thing in the morning; and you can meditate for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour at the end of the day. People I know can meditate for an hour or two, but I've only ever meditated for about 20 minutes. But it all comes down to your wants and needs. Also, I think it's important to recognize meditation looks different for everyone too. It can look like going for a walk, going for a swim/paddle board, laying in a tub of bubbles, etc.
Stay Consistent
You'll like this. It's important. Sometimes I'm inconsistent. Self-reflection and awareness is how I'm able to focus on it and improve. I say that to say that you too can give yourself grace and understanding. You're still figuring things out and that is okay! Meditation is the practice centering yourself, this will make it way easier for you to find yourself. YouTube has guided meditations and meditative music you can listen to. Allow all of the thoughts and voices in and focus on singling out the strongest one. Make it part of your morning ritual by setting a time limit. That's important.
Be flexible about what that means. For things like reading, how much time do you want to spend reading in the morning, 15 minutes, 30 minutes an hour? If you read 30 minutes a day, you'll finish the average self-help book in about 8-10 days. So, 30 minutes a day can get you through a book in 10 days, right?! That's two books that you can read every month while two per year seems to. be the average for ordinary people.
Imagine: Reading for 30 minutes daily is great. I want you to consider how long each item will take on your list so you can create a routine timetable. Time it, add it up, and use that to determine the time you need to wake up. If you used to wake up at 8, you could now choose, do you want to wake up with just enough time to dress, brush your teeth, leave the house, and get delayed in traffic. But if you discover full execution of your routine will take Two hours, instead of waking up at 8 a.m, you must wake up at 6 a.m. to finish these tasks and then get ready at 8 a.m. You can also choose a different time to get ready. Having more time will be helpful. If you just want to wake up and let your body rest. Also fine. Consider these factors while calculating the total duration and selecting when to wake up to move in slow motion.
Create Incentives
Most importantly, especially in the beginning stages of finding your routine, you have to find creative ways to motivate yourself. We discussed how disciplined you need to be about your morning routine, now create awards for sticking to your morning routine for a week, month, and quarter. What do those benefits look like? Keeping a morning routine for 90 days is ideal. You deserve more than a cheat day. Right? So, after 90 days of performing my morning routine, I'm going to treat myself to a trip. 3 months may not seem that long but trust me, there is a lot you can learn about yourself through 90 days of consistent action! I can only think how much I've changed, learned, and made by adhering to my schedule for an entire quarter.
It takes time to be consistent with doing things you didn't imagine yourself doing a year ago. I sometimes at a fault can over do things and go all out by making bets on myself because I hate losing. When I first started working on my routine, I lost $500 to my wife after betting I'd wake up at 5 a.m. for 90 days. I thought it was a good idea because I typically do well will impulsive challenges. It's hard for me to quit when I don't give myself time to think of any excuses not to start, like when I gave up meat ten years ago. I told Haneef, my brother, the day before that this was my final time eating meat. I had a buffalo chicken pizza. This was my childhood favorite dinner, now my "Last Supper" I've avoided meat since then. That was a quick decision. Being decisive means destroying the ship without a backup plan on an island. If you're as extreme as I am and don't enjoy losing money, make bets with your relatives and friends that you'll stay consistent on something, maybe not for 90 days, but for a week, to start.
Be Intentional
Make yourself some self-rewards. If necessary, punishments as well. It is critical to reward. You're going to stick to your new morning routine. I follow a schedule. My 3 hour routine sometimes is difficult. Ask yourself: Is your routine effective? Do you believe you are completing all of your tasks? Reevaluating your routine on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis may help you identify flaws that you can improve. Your habits evolve alongside you. The tasks from the previous quarter may not be the same as those from this quarter. Going to the gym after work may no longer be feasible, so go earlier or later. There are always new goals to pursue, reevaluate whether your current routine is successful, efficient, and effective for the new goals you're setting. New goals and accomplishments sometimes call for new routines. We must always look for ways to improve. You got it! Routine is important. I'm being tough on you because I care, and I've given myself grace and skipped my workouts for weeks, months, and years. Then I remember how much better I am when I have a routine than when I don't. When compared to not having a plan and just waking up and going about your day like everyone else, having a schedule is like night and day. Those who intentionally design their lives will be successful.
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