Over the past 30 years, I have come to see mornings as the foundation upon which I build my entire day. I also came to recognize, during the past 30 years, how I feel mentally, physically, and spiritually all day is directly connected to how I start my day.
I have found that when I begin my day by utilizing the concepts and principles I will share with you in this article, I am more productive, happier, more energetic, more positive, and more focused during my entire day - without coffee, Red Bull or any other type of energy drink.
Having a morning routine will create unreasonably positive new possibilities for you. I like to call my routine 8 before 8. These are eight things I make a commitment to do before 8 a.m. My 8 tasks have changed over time, however, these are 8 things that I can observe and measure. These are 8 things that allow me to feel accomplished at the beginning of my day.
Take a look at a scenario of two different mornings.
Morning Number 1:
You need to be at work by 8:00 am and you need to be out of the house by 7:15 am due to your commute. The alarm sounds at 6:00 am and you push the snooze button. I submit that by pushing the snooze button, you have already began your day with negativity, because you were likely having a negative conversation with yourself and now it is 6:15 am and the alarm sounds again. You begrudgingly turn it off and drag yourself out of the bed as you continue the negative conversation with yourself
Then, as many other people do, you turn on the news or read the newspaper, which is also negative.
You recognize that you need to speed up this process to be out the door by 7:15. You wake up the kids and they are dragging out of bed and because you are in a hurry now, you get frustrated at them, never recognizing that you have likely been the creator of the negative chaos you are experiencing in the mornings in your home.
You rush off to shower, grab a bite to eat, get the kids out the door and then rush to work and arrive in that funky energy.
Morning Number 2:
You need to be at work at 8:00 am and you need to be out the door by 7:15 am due to your commute. You deliberately have moved the alarm clock across the room, with a commitment to yourself that when the alarm goes off, you will get up and turn it off, never hitting the snooze button again. You deliberately set the alarm to sound 15 minutes earlier than you normally get up.
The next thing you do is deliberately read something positive. You have created your list of 8 specific tasks that you will perform before 8:00 am. At this point two of them have already been accomplished. The 8 tasks should be focused on having a positive start to your day because of you, rather than waiting on life to happen to you.
The other six tasks that show up on your list of 8 before 8 should be specific tasks that allow you, in your specific situation, to create calm and effective communication with the people in your home and at work.
This second scenario is a story only you can write for your situation, however, some of the things that have been on my list that were successful in getting to my positive outcomes were choosing to have my four sons participate in selecting what they would wear to school in the morning on the night before. I would present them with 2 choices of outfits and they got to pick the outfit they would wear the following day. We also determined what they would eat for breakfast in the morning and I taught them to get up and take care of that for themselves.
Some of the other things that have appeared on my list were spending time talking to my significant other about ways to positively improve our relationship, listening to positive, motivational music or watching positive, motivational YouTube videos, meditating, and drinking a specific amount of water each morning before 8.
I encourage you to create your list of 8 before 8 and make a commitment to do them daily. The list for your weekend morning routine will likely be different from the one you develop for the work week.
Establishing a positive, deliberate morning routine will ensure that you start the day in a positive attitude, putting positive points on the score board that will produce new positive opportunities at work and at home.
