Have you ever had a day where things went wrong in the morning, either you woke up late or you car could’t start that somehow snowball through the day and make your day worse? If you did, read on, I’m gonna let you in an easy fix.
A great morning can make or break your day.
Yes, I said it. If you didn’t start your morning right, everything else will go wrong. So, how to fix that? Easy, we just have to be more intentional in starting our day and adjust things that we can actually control, our mind.
There are 8 habits that i have adopted in my morning routine that i find really helpful in starting my day right.
One simple trick i used is what i learn from Mel Robbins in her 5 Second Rule book, which is whenever my alarm went off in the morning, the first thing i did was count 5 backward and once i reached to 1, I straight away got up and wash my face.
The second thing i did, after i finish a glass of water and get a cup of coffee ready, I sat down and start writing in my journal. I used to do 3 pages journal, but i stop after i received my High Performance Journal by Brendon Burchard. That is totally life changing tool for me because rather that writing whatever it is i want, it prompted me with a series of question that make my brain move. Seriously, you need to get one.
In the journal, there’s also some area for calendar, but i stick to my digital calendar. So, I used the space to write things that I’m feeling and my thought etc. freely. Reconnecting with myself and my thought from early morning really helps us become clear on what’s on our mind.
One other thing i picked up from Rachel Hollis’s book Girl, Wash Your Face! is writing 10 dreams in 10 years. I’ve been doing this everyday and it sort of like reminded us that you have that dream, are you gonna take action that move you towards it? You get what i mean, right?
Practicing gratitude is once of the important thing I practiced.
I used to be super negative person and always imagining the worse in everything. By practising gratitude in the morning everyday really help ground me and make me actually see things differently. I wrote down even the little bit things like how my husband, Anas iron my work clothe last night because he know i was tired, to something like, there no rain yesterday so my clothes i hanged dry perfectly.
And Rachel Hollis also say, if you start finding it, you’ll keep seeing it. So if you practice gratitude, you’ll keep finding things in your daily life that you are actually grateful for.
After all those writing, at 7am, my schedule notification went off and it’s time for meditation. I’m currently using Headspace which i seriously love. It’s a guided meditation apps that you can access for free, but limited. I personally upgraded to premium because I love it so much which cost about Rm160/year (due to year end discount, original price might be around RM250/year).
Meditate actually help me slow down and stuff thinking about stuff. You know, women tend to overthink alot, all the time. It’s like our mind never really shuts down. Thats why meditate really help calm myself. and actually relax without doing any thinking.
I’ll be honest, I hate exercising. But my body is not the same anymore, so i know i need to incorporate exercise in my routine. I thought i’ll be going for exercise after i got back from work, but that didn’t happen. So now I’m trying to slot in some exercise in the morning after my meditation. I love guided stuff so of course I’d find one for exercise as well. Currently using Workout For Women Apps where I can access alot of different set of exercise. My favourite is of course the 7 minutes workout (see, i told you how lazy i am at exercising that my favourite is the bare minimum)
Getting ready for work can also be an opportunity to set us up.
When I’m getting ready, I always watched inspirational youtube video. I usually watched from two great Youtuber, Evan Carmichael and Brandon Burchard. you can pick whatever topics that you think suits your day on that particular day, they cover alot in inspiration, motivation and personal development.
Even when I’m driving, I’ll listen to podcast (can’t really watched youtube video while driving). And the fun part is, Brendon Burchard has his own podcast too, The Brendon Show where he extracted the audio from his video (mostly) and HPX Podcast where he features other amazing podcaster in the same niche. Pretty cool, right?
You have to pump yourself with great energy to set your day up. Simple.
And at work, always start your day with a smile. Smiling release endorphins so you’ll be happier, even if you smile for no reason when you’re in your car. Smiling at colleague also help you add more endorphins so you’ll be more than happy to start doing the work you are paid to do, whether you actually love it or not. This really helps.
Lastly, one thing i always do when i sat on my chair at the office, and go through my To Do List. Cross of things you already did yesterday. Schedule things up on things that need to get done today, and voila, you’re ready for whatever life throws your way.
Yes yes, there are days when I did’t do the whole routine and just a few, but i’ll always note on that and keep working on it every day. After all, if it weren’t for you to take action to change your life, who’s gonna do it for you?
Till next time, thanks for reading!
