Day 9 in which I jump (back) on the "morning routine" bandwagon

The idea of a morning routine is having a moment right now.

This concept has been espoused by motivational speakers like Tony Robbins (who has, over the past few years, shrunk his to a 10 minute session he calls “priming”), and had entire books like “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast” devoted to it.  There are guided meditations built around it. It's more popular than Kale.

In case you’ve somehow missed it, a morning routine (also called hour of power, miracle morning, and surely other names that I, too have missed), is a series of actions one takes first thing in the morning for the purpose of: 

1. Setting your personal and/or business day off to a positive, intentional start and

2. Getting all of those things that, done daily, have a positive and lasting effect on your health and wellness, out of the way first thing.

Most suggested morning routines include things like:

•   Gratitude
•   Journaling
•  Prayer and/or meditation
• Affirmations
• Working on a passion projects
• Spending quality time with family 
•  Exercise 
•  Reading/listening to motivational/inspirational literature
• Setting intentions for the day
• Reviewing your vision and major goals
• Planning tasks/to dos for the day

What’s just as important, perhaps, is what they,  across the board, vehemently EXCLUDE:

•  Checking emails or voice mails
• Logging on to social media
• Turning on the TV or radio
• Consuming news in any form 
•   Starting work

You can read up more on the conceptual part in the links I’ve created above, but you’ve probably already figured out that the idea is simple: do the important but not urgent stuff that makes your life better BEFORE you get dragged into the morass of your day, so that it actually gets done. Set your day off with the right positive attitude and the right grounded-ness, and the day will tend to go better. Think about your day with intention BEFORE your boss/colleagues/staff/family start clamoring for your attention, and you’ll be better able to accomplish the things you want to accomplish.

Let me start my own morning routine story by saying that I’m a believer, though a lapsed one.

In periods where I’ve been consistently disciplined about completing my morning routine before letting Maurice the Mind Monkey convince me to tackle the email monster, I am much more able to maintain some equanimity during my often-chaotic days. I find myself better at not catastrophizing bumps in the road, at letting other people’s priorities remain theirs and not become my problem, at being happy and peaceful even when things—inevitably—don’t go the way I want them to. 

But make no mistake: it IS a discipline. And it’s one I often lose when traveling, or in certain crazy-busy periods in my business. Like time management, I’m not sure it’s a thing I’ll ever master and never find myself having to “get back to”; also like time management, it’s something that kinda has to be done every single day to see any real benefit.

I worked out my morning routine back in 2014, and although some of the details have evolved since then, it's been basically the same things:

1. Wake up, brush teeth, take dog out, etc.
2. Make coffee and what the Smartboy calls my “concoction”: 16 oz of hot lemon water with fresh ginger and turmeric grated into it. Laugh if you will, but I’ve had zero bouts with the flu in 3 years, and have only had colds when I was ‘off’ the routine of drinking it
3. Review my vision  
4. Spend a few minutes writing down things I’m grateful for
5. Journal (though lately, and for the next 91 days, that would be “blog”)
6. Meditate for 20 minutes
7. Choose and write down my 3 “must do” items for the day
8. Listen to motivational/personal growth/business audios (usually just listening to YouTube videos), often simultaneously with:
9. Work out

Yes, it does take a long time: at least 2, and sometimes 3, hours including the hour long workout.

Yes, I do realize that I’m extremely blessed to have a schedule that allows for this kind of morning “me” time.  I have no children (unless you count the Smartboy, who does have to have meals prepared for him lest he try to live on energy bars and yogurt, and who does have to be taken out to play occasionally), I set my own work schedule, and it’s relatively rare that I have an obligation prior to 10 a.m. I've worked hard to create a business that allows me to live like this, but I do get it that not everyone is there in their lives.

At the same time, I do have an overwhelming (there’s that word again, I’m going to have to rethink how I’m thinking about my to-do list. Words matter.) number of projects and tasks begging for my attention at any given moment, so I generally get up between 5 and 6 am (depending on the season of the year) in order to get my morning routine out of the way before the phone starts ringing.

I suppose if I were selling a Morning Routine System to the general public—in other words, to people who won’t buy if they can’t be convinced it’s easy and do-able FOR THEM—I’d say this: don’t worry about how much you’re able to do in your morning routine. Think about how much better, happier, healthier, and longer your life will be if you can just do SOME of the things that make you stronger and better able to cope. If an hour in the morning means you’re more effective all day, or have more peace, or are slowing building up to having that healthy body you want, how can you NOT do that for yourself?

 

I’d also say, get up earlier if you must. I mean, seriously, what are you spending the last hour or two before you go to bed doing, anyway? Is it adding to your life? If not, go to bed. Get up earlier the next day. You’re worth it.

And I’m worth it, which is why I’m recommitting to my morning routine. I know it will be hard at first, because this is not my first rodeo. Maurice will want me elsewhere. It’ll seem like time spent away from “valuable” work. But it will also, experience tells me, make me more present, more resilient, more able to accomplish what I need to accomplish, and more able to not beat myself up when I don’t.