Today, I want you to think about how you start your day. Your morning routine can propel you to the best start possible or you will spend the rest of the day trying to catch up and overcome your morning.
We all have routines in our morning start. What would happen if you replaced a few of the things you are doing with something better? Your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. If your morning is hectic and rushed you are going to feel stressed and anxious before you even get out the door. That type of start doesn’t set you up for success because when you get to work another pile of stress will be waiting for you. So why would you want to drain your energy tank so early in the day?
Your mornings can be less stressful and actually be a time you look forward to if you charted a smarter start. What do you do in the morning that fills your tank and recharges you? When you leave your home you are probably entering a world that will suck your energy and passion out of you. So if you did nothing but hit the snooze button 3 times and yell at your kids for moving too slow, you (and your kids) are going to be on empty before lunch time. Not to mention what you’ll feel like when you finally get back home.
So take a minute and think about your current morning routine. What does it involve? How many times do you hit snooze? How much time do you give yourself before you need to leave for work? What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? What does your breakfast look like?
If you are like most people you hit snooze 3 times, you check Facebook while still in bed, turn on a negative morning show with doom and gloom “news”, skip breakfast or go through a drive-thru, and feel rushed and stressed.
The most successful people I know have a different start to their day. They get up around two hours earlier than they need to leave. Their morning routine includes things like 15 minutes of just being quite, reviewing their blessings, praying & reading their Bible, exercising, having a solid breakfast…you get the idea.
How would your family dynamics change if you changed a few parts of how you start your day? What if you were the first one to wake up and you were ready to greet your kids with a hug and breakfast? Would you have the time to put a note in with their lunch or notebook? Your kids will mirror your emotional state. I know you don’t want to send them off to school frantic and stressed. What changes would you need to make to dial down the morning drama?
You’ve probably heard you need a good breakfast to fuel your day. It’s more than that. You need a great start to fuel your day. You already have a morning routine, so what if you just replaced a few things…not radical changes but small changes. For example, instead of checking Facebook first thing when you wake up what if you recited the Lord’s Prayer instead (Matthew 6:9-13)? A wise mentor of mine does this every morning before his feet hit the floor. Doing something like this will require you to not use your phone as an alarm clock and charge it somewhere else. You should move your phone to a different location than your bedroom anyway so you won’t be tempted to check it first thing in the morning or if you get up in the middle of the night.
I can’t tell you what a perfect morning would look like for you. I can tell you it will include things like prayer, quiet, reading the Bible, exercising/stretching, and a healthy breakfast. You’ll have to experiment to see what helps you feel most charged and ready to face the world. I would encourage you to spend 5 minutes and just write out what the perfect morning would look like for you that would give you and your family the best start possible.
