Creating a morning routine to thrive

The importance of a morning routine cannot be understated in daily life. A well-designed morning routine can make the difference between a ‘bad’ day and a great day.

Having created and used different morning routines over the years, I have learned that morning routines should include five key elements for them to be effective. In this article, I’ll reveal those elements and share my current morning routine.

Morning routine key elements

1. Get up early

Setting your alarm early to give you enough time to complete and enjoy your morning routine is key. It may be difficult at first – it took me a week or so to get used to waking up earlier than I had been used to!

2. Start easy

If you’re like me and getting up early and going out into the cold for a run encourages you to stay in bed, then you should ensure that the first part of your morning routine is easy to complete! There are many options here such as writing in your daily journal; reading a few pages of an inspirational book, meditating, etc. This will help you wake up!

3. Make it fun

There’s nothing worse in the morning than dreading doing your morning routine. Including fun activities that make you look forward to the morning really helps. This could be listening to a crazy song that makes you laugh or dancing for five minutes. It doesn’t really matter what it is as long as it’s fun for you!

4. Make it flexible

Variety is the spice of life! So, adjusting your morning routine can help to ensure that you continue with your morning routine every day. You may want to do different morning activities on different days, or you make think of a new activity to include in your routine to ‘jazz it up’ - so being flexible and including variety in what you do can be a real boost each morning! For me, I adjust my workouts each day – one day I’ll do weights and another day I’ll do HIIT (high-intensity interval training) or go for a run.

5. Engage the mind and the body

Understanding the mind-body connection was a key distinction for me: You need both your mind and body to live a fulfilled life. So, including elements in your morning routine that engage both your mind and body will truly help you get your day off to a great start!
 
OK, so there we have the five key elements to help you design your morning routine.

My morning routine

Before we finish this article, I want to share my current morning routine. Here we go:

Wake up at 5:45 am - I go to bed at 10 pm to ensure I have enough time to sleep.

‘Daily priming’ – This is a 15-minute Tony Robbins video that truly engages my mind every time I use it. It’s a place for me to be grateful; think of what I want to achieve in the future and what I want to focus on today. An alternative to this could be meditating.

Workout – I spend at least 30 minutes exercising. I mentioned before that this is the element, I am most flexible with so I mix up what I do each day. I’ve just signed up for the Cancer Research ‘Push-up Challenge’ where I will do 100 push-ups each day in November and raise money for the charity. Not an easy one for me but I’m training in preparation for this! I also include HIIT workouts, weights and running on different days. 

Journaling – I write in my journal every day. I note my thoughts and plans for the day. I also write the answer to the following questions every day in my journal:

• How do I feel today?
• What will I focus on today?
• Who or what am I grateful for today?
• What will I let go of today?

Review my goals – I spend time reviewing my goals over the next 12 months and beyond. I assign a goal category to each day of the week. For example:

• Monday – my business goals
• Tuesday – my health goals
• Wednesday – my relationships
• Thursday – me
• Friday – my financial goals

Your morning routine may be very different from mine, of course. However, I do encourage you to consider the five key elements we discussed earlier when designing your morning routine.

I cannot imagine living life without a morning routine – I want to live my life on my terms. I want to start my day engaged and full of energy. My morning routine ensures this!

I hope you have fun creating yours and thrive!