Having A Killer & Consistent Morning Routine

Is a morning routine something you've longed for, but feel unmotivated or totally confused on where to begin?

Today's conversations, we'll lean into the benefits of a morning routine as well as how to create one that is CUSTOM-to-YOU.

Transcript

Hey friend, welcome back to a nother episode of The sowhat podcast. My name is Anna McGuire. And I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today about sowing intentionally into our lives so that we can reap abundantly in the days, weeks, months, and even years to come. With the new year comes new goals, which honestly, I absolutely love. I think I've alluded to this a handful of times, and I'll just keep it brief here again, is that I really think there is something so incredibly powerful about having goals and vision for your life. And so I like to revisit and look at the goals that I have not just on a yearly basis, but really, every week, and every month, I'm looking at what are things I am working towards. And really, I believe the start of a new year or a fresh season, whether it's like you're going into the spring or the winter or summer, winter fall, it is a really good spot to evaluate goals and vision for your life. And so I'm just excited. It's still, as I'm recording this January. And so there is still so much to look forward to in 2022. And I would really ask you have you evaluated what are some things you want to accomplish in this year. So I love setting new goals. Like I said, I've alluded to it, I've shared about it. And one of my goals this year, well, I'll get to that in a second. So when when I really set some really big goals for my year, my birthday is in the middle of November, falls on November 12. So I really set up my goals around my birthday, not just the new year, it's kind of like helpful, like it falls in November. So it's kind of like a new year ago, but if I was with my birthday, and so now we'll get to the goal. One of my goals, one of my main focuses, my main focus for my 29th year is to have a strong foundation in my life. And so that looks like being really good at the basics. That's really what my heart is feeling drawn to in this new year. And the word that I'm using to describe that as as integrity, like we talked about, like the integrity of the foundation of a house, like what's the integrity of this house or its foundation. That's what I'm really leaning into this year, his integrity, a strong foundation, that the things that I value, and the things that I believe that it's not just something I value and believe, but there is an alignment, that there is this congruent between what I believe in value and what my actions show. And so that's really what I'm focusing on this year. But with having that strong foundation. One area that I'm specifically focusing on is my morning routine. I love and I'm all about morning routines. However, I see that this season this year, my life, it needs to be recalibrated. It needs to be strengthened. I've experienced over the last handful of years, the power of having a morning routine, as well as the struggles that come with not having a morning routine. And seasons when I haven't had a strong morning routine, I've had trouble getting out of bed. I've had trouble being consistent in my health. I've had trouble really feeling up and perky throughout the day and having vision throughout the day. And honestly, I just don't know how to describe it other than in seasons where I haven't had a strong morning routine. It's like the first four or five, six hours of my day, I just feel like depleted.
But on the other hand, when my morning routine has been consistent, even on days when I'm really tired, and I didn't get the amount of sleep that I had hoped to because I have a toddler in the room next to me, like hollering for, you know, whatever reason it may be. I still feel more driven and more purpose and more clear minded. Because I had a morning routine. There's a bunch of research. I have Forbes did a bunch of research on people who have morning routines and the benefits of having a consistent morning routine. And this is the way they outlined it is that people who have consistent morning routines are more productive throughout their day, because they feel more awake and energized and purposed and have vision. They feel less stressed, which I can totally speak to this personally. So there's this piece of it where it's like if you have a morning routine your morning starts out predictably. You don't have to wonder or question What is the plan for the day or you don't have to wonder if something unexpected is going to happen that morning. You have Have a plan for the morning, which puts your brain and your body at ease. So they found that people are more productive from having a morning routine, that they're less stress and they are genuinely, physically healthier. People who have consistent morning routines are generally physically healthier than those who do not. So I don't understand why I wouldn't want to have a morning routine just based on those three, three things who were more productive. They're less stressed Hello, that's really helpful in today's culture, and world. And they're physically healthier. I want to be healthy. You might say, Well, how do they say they're either physically healthier as a result of it? Well, they say, because there's less stress that puts a less on your cardiovascular system. And that people who have a morning routine, they're generally eating something in the morning, which kick starts your metabolism of your eating a good breakfast. And people with a morning routine are typically better hydrated, because they're getting water in because they're not super, super rushed. I didn't like just like scream out the door or log on to their computer immediately. Instead, they have some time to really get their day started. So research shows more productive, less stressed, physically healthier. And here's the really cool thing. Not only do you benefit from having a morning routine, but this research shows that also your relationships and career benefit from it. Because again, you're more productive, which helps your career, your job or whatever it is that your assignments are for the day, you're less stressed. So that definitely benefits your relationships, and you're physically healthier, so you can be more present in your relationships and your work. So benefits you and the people around you also benefit, which is a win win, in my opinion. So you might say, okay, Anna, I love the idea of having a morning routine. I know that it's helpful and beneficial. But how I've tried How do I have a killer and consistent morning routine? Here's my thing that I'm going to like hang my hat on is that your morning routine? First and foremost has to be custom to you. It has to be custom to you. So before you even jump into starting a morning routine, ask yourself if you could do two, three, or even four things before your day fully begins? What would those things be? Two, three or four things before your day fully begins? What would they be? Would it be journaling? Would it be reading your Bible in prayer? Would it be working out? But to be fully getting ready? Like I'm going to do my hair? If you choose to wear makeup? Like I'm going to do my makeup? Reading, eating a healthy breakfast like what? What a routine that fuels you look like? What would that look like? For me, I I have friends and even family members that like reading like non fictional books in the morning. I can't do that. That is not customary, but for them. It is energizing, and it fuels them. It does not do that for me or whatsoever. I'm not a huge fiction book reader. I'm trying to get there. My friend gave me a couple of books. I've been slowly painfully working through these fiction books. But for me, that's not going to be part of my morning routine
that does not fuel me. However, what does fuel me is reading my Bible prayer, fully getting ready. And journaling. I love those things. And one element that I've been adding is working out in the morning, which has been so awesome. But for you ask yourself what are two, three or even four things that you would love to do before your day fully begins? What are those things that would benefit you things that you're like, I know this would make me feel really good. If I were able to do this before I started work, or before my kids woke up or fill in the blank. So nail down those things and then that's when the implementation comes. So first you got to know what you want. You can't just like set your alarm for like 5:30am and be like all right now what know have a plan know what you want to do. And then where I would say from there is you begin with one. I call this stacking. So like Archie he loves to play with like the Dumbo blocks or I can't even think about what they're called. But anyways, they're like the big giant Legos. And the way they work is you have to lay down one before you put the other before you can get a great tower that Archie will later like knock down but you got to put one down first before you can really build something monumental. And that really looks this Same way, when it comes to your morning routine, lay down one piece of your morning routine. First. Don't try to go from zero to all four, or all three are both of the the two things you want to accomplish before your day fully begins instead, take one thing and start from there. Don't plan to go from zero morning routine to this perfected one hour, two hour morning routine. Start simple. pick just one, pick the one thing. So let's say I'm going to use the example of Bible reading. Build the consistency with that one thing with Bible reading. Set the alarm 15 minutes earlier every morning and implement that one part of your morning routine. Then once that muscle is built, and you're feeling comfortable and confident, and it doesn't even require much thinking anymore to do that, then add another. And so you're adding Bible reading and now let's say it is you're going to journal to okay add another 10 minutes to your morning routine wake up 10 minutes earlier. And now you're you're stacking these habits, you're building consistency. Alright, I got that in no big deal. Let's go for another you add another this is really what has helped me build a strong morning routine is I slowly built it over time. I didn't go from nothing to everything. It was one piece at a time it was stacking these things together. So i i My heart breaks sometimes because people are like how do I get started and I'm I'm I'm a person that like I'm like all in like I'm like, I want a morning routine. Let's just like do it. Let's do a morning routine, like boom. And it's like, I'll wake up at 430 or 5:30am. And I'm going to get this going. And then we do it maybe one day. But because the habit hasn't been built like because we didn't make it like attainable to keep going. It doesn't last. So start, start small, pick one thing and start building on that. And then once that is solid, which might only take a couple days, it might take a week might take a week and a half, two weeks, three weeks, then you add another piece, and then another piece and then another piece. And before you know it, you're going to have a morning routine that is not only custom and refueling for you. But that is also consistent. When we implement a morning routine on a consistent basis, that's when we really start to see the benefits. Like with working out, if I go to the gym one time, and then come home and flex my muscles in the mirror, I'm probably not going to see much of anything. In when I do it again, the second day, I'm going to come home and I'm probably not going to see much of anything. Maybe the third day, maybe I'll start seeing a little bit more definition. But it's after five days, six days, seven days a week, you know, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, three months, that you really start to see the difference in the consistency that the results show up that the benefits show up. And so when it comes to your morning routine,
the goal is consistency. It's not even like a time block. Your morning routine can be 1520 30 minutes, that's great as long as it's consistent. And it refuels you and it's intentional. Consistency is where you see the results. And here's the deal, you might say Well, Anna will 15 minutes make a difference will you know building 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes one habit at a time stacking at a time? Will it ever get me to where I want to go? Well, let me just give this example is if you dive into the deep end of the pool, and you don't know how to quote unquote swim, you're going to get exhausted, you're gonna be tired, it's going to be unfulfilling, it's not going to be fun. However, if you slowly enter the pool if because you don't know how to swim, and you slowly learn to swim at the different depths of the pool. Once you get to the deep end, it is going to be significantly easier like this is cake I got this. And it's the same thing again with creating this like morning resilience this morning consistency, start small, build the resilience, build the consistency. And before you know it, your morning routine is going to look like exactly what you want it to be. And not only is it going to look like what you want it to be, but it's also going to have incredible benefits to it. So this year, maybe you haven't set any goals yet but maybe just maybe the goal that you can start off Right now is creating a killer and consistent morning routine. It doesn't have to be fancy. You don't have to have this like bougie place to sit down and have quiet time and journaling time and reading time or you don't have to have some fancy workout facility to go to or you don't have to have a gym in your house. Create a morning routine, pick two, three, or even four things, maybe even more that you would love to accomplish before your day fully begins. And then choose one of those things, get good at it, get consistent with it and then build from there. I'm with you friends in this I'm recalibrating, really leaning into my morning routine, looking at evaluating it seeing okay, how can I grow all the more because I've seen how this has been a game changer in my life and as I head into this next season, I want it to be on point. Friend, I want you to know I am always in your corner. And I'm cheering you on. And I believe that as you choose to so intentionally, you will reap abundantly.
You will reap abundantly. I love you friend, and I can't wait to talk to you next week.