It’s so easy to find ourselves getting up in the morning performing the same mindless routine. No thought. Get up, brush teeth, shower, breakfast, grab keys, repeat. We forget that to have the most crazy cool life… there must be rituals we commit to FIRST thing in the day.
I’m going to share with you three things that you should start doing every day. They’re going to make you feel so much better. Your life will feel more in control. And you’ll have more productivity, more balance, more happiness. You’ll feel that sense of calm.
Many of us feel out of control because there are so many diversions – devices, forms of communication, people who demand our attention. This makes it even more important for us to establish good habits early in the day.
Morning rituals allow us to feel centered and give us the ability to put things into perspective.
The following steps I’ve learned through the study of people who I think have smart success. In other words, they really seem calm and balanced. They do what they want, when they want, and they’re living a life completely by their design. That’s how I define smart success.
NUMBER 1: You’ve got to make your bed every day.
When you make your bed, you start your day with order. It goes all the way back to primitive times. It is the place where you rest and heal. It’s your habitat. Your shelter. And gives you life. I mean, we can survive a relatively long time without food and water. But we can’t survive without sleep and, especially, sound sleep. So you’re paying respects, if you will, to the place where you do your most important work – which is sleeping.
Let me just say, I think it would be highly beneficial to share this with your kids, too. You’re never too young to start making your bed!
Number 2: Start off each morning with movement.
This is how we honor God’s gift to us – our health. And until you have it taken away, you don’t realize what a tremendously valuable gift it is.
As I’ve said before, exercising is a drug. It makes you:
- Happier
- Nicer
- Feel better
- Extra creative
- More patient
- Energetic
- Focus
Think of all of those traits! The funny thing is, it’s free. It’s called exercise. That’s why I want you to move every day. You don’t even have to exercise. You can dance. Do Yoga. Practice your stretching. Go up and down your stairs 10 times. Whatever it is, every single morning… please start your day with movement.
Number 3: Plan your day.
Now, I don’t plan every minute of my day. I look at my calendar and see what I have scheduled from the night before.
To guarantee your days are crazy successful and productive, it’s my suggestion to note a few can’t miss things in your SmartLife PUSH Journal or on your post-it (whatever works for you!) before you go to bed. Maybe it’s that doctor’s appointment or gym accountability workout or meeting at work.
The truth is, I usually only have one or two things specifically scheduled, if that.
And in the morning, I’ll look at my calendar, plan everything around those few unavoidable things I have set times for – and reverse engineer!
How do I fill in the rest of the morning?
The brain dump is really key! Just regurgitate every thought in regard to what you’d like to accomplish for the day and put it on paper. Hopefully, there are a few steps in their related to your PUSH goal. You know, that thing that’s going to ensure you reach your overriding goal super fast!
Listen, there’s no law that says you have to get everything on that brain dump finished! It’s purpose is to avoid being held hostage by your day. Like, where you get to the end of the evening and realize, “Shoot! I’ve been busy all day, busy like a mad woman, and I’m really not sure I did anything that has to do with my objectives!”
To get your mornings and, ultimately, your whole life right… pick up your SmartLife PUSH Journals! They were created by YOU. Literally thousands of people have changed their reality by implementing all the steps above WITH the added (and guided) direction of these journals.
Oh! And I just did a Podcast on The Chalene Show, titled “Bedtime Routines to Ensure Successful Mornings”! As mentioned above, I schedule much of my day the night before… so, take a listen to guarantee your whole day – morning through night – is the bomb.com!