How we start each day has a profound effect on how our whole day will play out. If you wake up feeling lethargic and tired, the chances are this will last all day. On the flip side, if you wake up feeling positive and energetic, this will likely last all day too. Luckily, there is a way we can influence how our days play out and this is by performing some specific morning routines every day. By being intentional first thing in the morning we can set ourselves up to have a great day.
A great quote by Robin Sharma illustrates this point perfectly:
“Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself”
Before jumping into the 5 unique morning routines we will take a look at 3 key benefits of a morning ritual and what our morning rituals should look like.
3 Key Benefits of Morning Routines
It’s really important to understand the benefits associated with building a morning ritual otherwise it’s going to be hard to pull yourself out of bed early every morning to do them. Hopefully, by knowing the benefits it will help you to create the habit needed to perform the morning ritual day in, and day out. The 3 benefits outlined below are not a definitive list but they are what I consider to be the most important.
1. Morning Routines Help You Develop Positive, Keystone Habits
Morning routines that you perform every day can very easily become the keystone habit that sparks a whole host of other positive habits in your life. It’s common for people who start a morning ritual to start exercising more, eating healthier, and increasing their productivity.
Essentially by starting 1 new habit (the morning ritual), you can automatically start building more and more habits without really trying that hard on the others. Who doesn’t want 3 new positive habits for the price of one?
2. Morning Routines Allow You To Have More Time
By following a morning ritual you will probably have to start waking up a little bit earlier to fit it in. At first, you may find this to be a struggle, however, as you start to notice the positive changes in yourself you will probably want to start waking up even earlier so you can make your morning rituals longer.
This will help you to build the habit of waking up earlier each day. And by waking up earlier every day it will give you more time to do the things you want to do every day.
3. Morning Routines Can Brighten Your Mood
By waking up with a purpose every morning it will often result in you being in a more positive mood for the rest of the day. It’s very common for those who start a morning ritual to report back that their general mood improves very quickly. The intention of waking every day knowing exactly what you need to do gives you real clarity. By having clarity you are less distracted and know exactly what it is you need to focus on.
What Should Our Morning Routines Look Like?
Morning routines are not an entirely new concept but they are becoming increasingly popular. And with that, you will get lots of different views about what the perfect morning ritual should consist of. However, ultimately you need to find something that you enjoy doing otherwise you will find it really hard to find the motivation to get up early in the morning to do the ritual. You will find that you probably need to do some experimenting before you land on the right morning ritual combination that you enjoy doing and can sustain for a period of time.
Everyone is different so there is no one size fits all. It can be useful to keep your morning routines relatively short, to begin with, and then increase the time as you get used to the morning ritual. For example, you could start with just 15 minutes to begin with, and as you get used to waking up earlier, increase it by 5 minutes each week and build it up for a time-frame that you feel is optimal.
If you are struggling to find something you enjoy doing, make sure you mix it up quickly otherwise you will get bored and lose any momentum you have built up.
5 Beneficial Morning Routines
In this part of the post, I will show you 5 unique morning rituals that I have used to radically transform how I perform each day. Most other posts about morning rituals suggest running more, journaling, or meditating. These are all great suggestions, however, I am hoping I can provide some fresh totally new ideas you haven’t come across before.
1. Start Your Day With A Cold Shower
This is something that will definitely wake you up! Having a cold shower has so many benefits such as reduced muscle fatigue and inflammation. As well as feeling more refreshed and awake it helps to increase circulation and boost weight loss. Admittedly this one is going to be tough to start with. However, if you persevere you will start to notice the benefits quickly.
A good way to start is by having a normal shower and then for the last 30 seconds turning it cold. Over time you will be able to increase that 30 second time period.
2. Watch The Sunrise
Whenever you have watched the sunrise, how good does it feel? Amazing right. It’s strange then how we don’t do this more often. Imagine starting your day every day by watching the sunrise.
You can do this by sitting at home and gazing out of the window as the sun comes up or you could take a walk to a nice spot where you know you can see the sun come up. Combine it with something else you enjoy doing like having a nice cup of coffee.
3. Set Daily Intentions
Building a morning ritual into your life is all about being intentional about what you are doing first thing in the morning. To go with this it can be extremely powerful to start each day with an intention. Having a clear intention every day can help you give you clarity and direction about what it is you need to do every day to have a good day. Often we get to the end of each day and don’t really know what we have achieved. By setting an intention we can reflect at the end of the day to see if we did what we said we would do.
4. Start Speed Reading
Reading is a great way to improve our knowledge which can help us to become more successful. The likes of Richard Branson and Warren Buffet attribute much of their success to the amount of time they dedicate to reading.
Luckily, to read even more books you can train yourself to speed read. Brain trainer Jim Kwik teaches how to speed read and says he can double your reading speed. Imagine how much more you could learn by reading double the amount of books.
5. Enjoy The Peace & Quietness
How often do you sit still and just enjoy the quietness without any distractions what so ever? Probably not that often. This is my favourite morning ritual as it is so simple yet something that is hard to find the time to do during the day.
In the morning there are fewer people around, fewer messages popping up on your phone, and generally less happening. It’s an amazing time to just sit still and enjoy the quietness.
In Summary
Hopefully, the rituals above have given you some ideas about what you would like to incorporate into your morning routine. To start with it is probably best to pick one or two of the ideas above and test them out. If you like them great, if not pick another one and try that to see if you like it better.
Remember when you start your morning ritual, start slowly, and build up over time once you have found a set ritual that works well for you.
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