What’s Your Morning Routine?

by | Dec 1, 2018 | Habit formation, Meaning and Purpose

“Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” – Alex Hitchens, Hitch

Google “morning routines” and you’ll get about 83,500,000 results. That’s crazy! Why are so many of us so interested in this one topic?

Because it matters. 

How we start our day sets us up for a positive, neutral, or negative experience. And who really wants to spend their life being neutral or negative? 

In Michael Steger’s Ted Talk, “What makes life meaningful,” he said, “Life is short. It’s easy to waste and hard to use.” If we aren’t active participants in our lives, why should anyone else be?

If you haven’t committed to establishing your morning routine, then you’re basically letting everyone else do it for you. That’s living in the neutral zone.

If your day starts with a negative, what are the odds that it’ll be that way all or most of the day? Steger also said, “they’re also all those other people right who litter all of our collective landscapes with these tragically misspent moments, these destructive ticking time bombs of a life not considered.”

Are you that “ticking time bomb?”

Let’s pinky swear right now that none of us will ever be that.

But where should we begin?

A logical place to start making changes is with how we begin our day. There are a few important ideas to keep in mind as you tackle this new habit.

  • You need to get up at a specific, consistent time every day. (Google “Why do I need to get up at the same time every day?” You’ll get about 245,000,000 results if you want to know why or Search Google Scholar for “the importance of consistent sleep habits.”)
  • Get physical! Get your heart pumping a little bit.
  • Spend some time with your thoughts. (Mindfulness activities like meditation — I like Sun Salutations in the morning, breathing, and body scanning all are good mental check-ins.)
  • Plan your day. I love my Panda Planner! Be sure to identify your passion project and big rocks for the day. Anything related to those need to happen before you go to bed.
  • Delegate whatever can be delegated. You don’t need to do everything all of the time. 
  • If you’re the primary caregiver, then you’ll probably need to get up a little earlier so you can have the “me time” necessary to calibrate your day. (I call my morning routine calibration and my evening routine re-calibration.)
  • Accept that there will be times when things don’t go according to plan. That’s okay! Pick up where you left off, and just “keep swimming!” (By now you should know I make a lot of move references. Dory is awesome.)

Living our lives on purpose every, single, day means engaging with ourselves. After we do that, then we’re better able to be of service to others. And honestly, that’s what helps our lives have meaning. 

I started with a movie quote, so I should end with one.

“I don’t want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.” – Frank Costello, The Departed

Having never seen the movie, I feel I need to add, “In a positive, pro-social, pro-active, loving way that allows us to be of service to others.”

References

Steger, M. (2018). What makes life meaningful? Retrieved December 1, 2018 from http://www.michaelfsteger.com/

Steger, M. Current and past research. Retrieved December 1, 2018 from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=T7nZ93UAAAAJ&hl=en