MORNINGS can be VERY IMPORTANT PARTS OF OUR DAYS
Can you remember the last time you had a bad mood in the morning? Let me guess, somehow it ended up affecting some, most, or the rest of your day.
Mornings have a way of touching the rest of the day. So, it’s no coincidence that if you start your morning crushing your goals and feeling great, you could carry that through the rest of the day. What if we can be more intentional about how we get through our morning and set ourselves up for a successful rest of the day? Well, here are some very practical ways.
#1 – SET ONE MORNING GOAL BEFORE YOU GO TO BED
A lot of times we set goals for the entire day without necessarily allocating a specific time. What ends up happening is that we fix our eyes on this big goal for the day, which ends up being muddled with other activities that further reduces its chances of being achieved. When you set a goal to achieve in the morning, you wake up with a purpose. Your eyes flip open knowing you have something you need to do as soon as possible. In setting a goal for your morning, you can target a big goal or smaller pieces of your overall goal for the day to get a head start on your plans for the day.
#2 – KEEP YOUR PHONE FAR AWAY FROM YOUR BEDSIDE
Most of us have experienced that time sink of picking up your phone when you wake up and spending hours and hours on it before you even realize it. Cell phones are tempting and also one of the biggest distractions. Overcoming this takes a lot of discipline and self will, but one way to start is remove the option of rolling over and picking up your phone. When you keep your phone away from your bed, you end up having to get up to turn off your alarm (win). Your feet touching the ground has a way of setting the day in motion (win). You can also enforce other self-discipline habits like leaving your phone there and doing other things (Win! Win! Win!).
#3 – DO A SIMPLE EXERCISE WHEN YOU WAKE UP
This may or may not be your main workout for the day. It could something as simple as a few stretches or squats. Doing a small or simple exercise will help wake you up even more, increase your metabolism, and provide some vigor for your day. Exercising every morning also helps you develop a routine and self discipline you need to rock your morning.
#4 – SUSPEND YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA APPS UNTIL LATER IN THE MORNING/day
Social media can be the best and worst part of our day. While it is a source of entertainment, inspiration, and friendship, nothing challenges your time like those apps. I have gone on Instagram to look at my notifications and just ended spending hours and hours doing absolutely nothing. One way to get ahead of this is to suspend your apps. I currently do it multiple times during the day to have blocks of time for concentration but you can start by just doing it in the morning. My recommendation for this is an app called FLIPD. It suspends your apps and pretty much freezes your phone only allowing calls for a period of time that you use. I also like that it has very good options for free users if you don’t want to pay for the premium option which is fairly affordable. There are other options out there and it really doesn’t matter what you use, as long as it helps you concentrate. Social media is pretty addictive, getting ahead of it will help you maximize your morning.
#5 – START WORKING ON YOUR GOALS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Everyone of us has a morning routine whether you realize it or not. Some people can’t do anything until they brush their teeth, some have to drink water or walk around their houses. When I wake up in the morning, I pray, check my emails, and brush my teeth. Sometimes I check emails first (covers face)! It may be difficult to rearrange or completely change that routine, so I recommend you start your goals as soon as you are done with your routine. Once you get used to getting work done in the morning, you may find yourself rearranging your morning to maximize the experience. The big thing to remember here is do not get carried away doing anything else after those routine. Strictly say to yourself, as soon as I’m done with brushing my teeth (an example), I will start working on this goal. Again, if you let anything else come in the way, the morning time will get away from you without you doing much
#6- REWARD YOURSELF FOR ACHIEVING YOUR MORNING GOALS
Speaking of drive and motivation, nothing pushes you like looking forward to something you love. Research has shown that having something we love to look forward to can stimulate a mental drive to get a task done. For me, I LOVE COFFEE. So to incorporate reward into my morning, I can start my day with a cup of tea and get through morning goals and routines and just have my coffee at the end as my reward. Yours can be anything as long as it excites you enough to look forward to it.
What I love about these tips is how simple and practical they are. I’m excited for you to try some or all of them.
Be easy on yourself. You may not do this very well the first few times. What is important is that you keep trying until crushing goals becomes the main part of your morning. Now it’s your turn, tell me how you rock your morning!
Make It A Winning-Day
Winie