Morning Routines
How you start your morning determines the tone of your day. For years, waking up hungover and groggy and immediately doom-scrolling through my phone was my routine.
I never felt great.
One day I stumbled across Jim Kwik's lecture about what he does in the morning to help kick-start his day. “First you make your habits, then your habits make you” he said.
Remember your dreams, make your bed, & drink water
Take deep breaths, meditate, & move
Take cold showers
Feed your brain, keep a journal, & make a to-do list
Make a smoothie
Read
Okay, wow. I was inspired, but also a bit overwhelmed. How could doing all of this make me more productive when just thinking about his list wore me out? So I decided to experiment with a handful of tasks that I gravitated towards and see how this new reset went.
Make my bed
Drink collagen coffee
Write in my grateful journal
Move
I kept it at four, and every day as soon as I got out of bed, I swore by these simple activities. During the first week, I encountered a great deal of resistance. It's okay, fill in your grateful journal tomorrow - you can write for both days. It's fine, you're tired - you can skip movement today. But I had to suppress the thoughts, and as difficult as it was initially, my body eventually got used to these four activities by the third or fourth week, and by year three, missing any one of them throws my whole day off.
Do I think morning routines are important?
Yes. By expending energy on things that are rewarding for me, I actually gain more energy to kick-start my day. So, instead of diverting my attention from my day by getting lost in the social media world or dragging my mornings out to avoid work, I pour it into things help light up my soul. For example, writing out goals in a journal and inviting gentle movement into my body. Because everything is energy, I should invest in things that offer me more good energy rather than drain it, which is especially effective in the morning.
So what is your morning routine? :)
Author: Leslie Lung 