Groundhog Day or A Successful Morning Routine?

If you’re anything like me, when you hear the words “morning routine,” you probably think of your days in middle school when your mom or dad came into your room to wake you up for school (who you then ignored and slept until the last possible moment). But in the past few years, my opinion on morning routines has significantly changed … especially since I now live alone and have no one to wake me up if I oversleep.

The biggest shift to my way of thinking on morning routines came when I learned that over the course of each day, our willpower and decision-making abilities wean. So for a Libra with decision-paralysis, this means that I have a finite amount of energy (and time) to spend on my decisions during the day and the ability to eliminate unnecessary ones would benefit me exponentially.

So establishing a morning routine was an easy place to start. Why not simplify and streamline the first hour or so of my day and get to the heart of what needs to be done and by when? Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have to pry myself out of my bed some days because I think I don’t really need my job to sustain my lifestyle. I’m only human. But it does mean that when I do get out of bed, I feel secure in the routine that I have set and how long this routine will take me to complete. This allows for maximum sleep and minimal wasted time.

If you’re considering the implementation of a morning routine in your life, let me give you an easy place to start - or rather, an easy question to ask yourself. What is most important for you to do/take care of when you wake up? If the answer is a workout, then workout. If the answer is meditation, meditate. Namaste. The purpose of this question is to define the “must do’s” for you, not your mom or your sister or your best friend - YOU!

Once you’ve established your morning routine, the next (and most important step) is to put your routine into action. So start making changes and if things don’t work the way you want, change your routine … as many times as you need to until you find the right fit. The most important thing is to start. The rest is just decisions.