“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” — Rumi
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” — John C. Maxwell
Many people admit that they would like to have a morning routine to start their day. Most people are feeling that jumping out of bed, grabbing a quick coffee, and rushing out the door, may not be the best way to start the day. We can all relate to that.
However, to start a morning routine does not mean we have to jump straight into a frigid lake or be Rocky Balboa, chug down eight raw eggs, and take to the streets for a cold morning run to have a great start to the day or even wake up at 3:00 am to work out with our trainer like Mark Wahlberg. This may work for some.
For most people, this approach is not sustainable, easy nor is it any fun. We do still want to catch an episode of Survivor once in a while, and we perhaps might like to have a late-night snack. The best approach is flexible, sustainable, and above all things, fun.
These are some good rules of thumb for kick-starting a daily morning practice
1. Start small. Stay small, and then naturally scale up.
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar.
If you are just starting, it is always best to start small. Small is easy to start and easy to complete. If you start too big and go too fast or too strong, then it puts too much stress and strain on your system, and you end up giving up a few days in.
But, when you start small, it’s easier to keep going, especially when motivation goes out the window on the third day.
2. Customize to your personality and needs.
Some books and recommendations have a rigid set of things to do when you wake up. However, everyone is different. Not many people want to go jogging when they wake up. Some like to sit with a warm cup of tea and watch the sunrise.
It’s important to remember that the best morning practices are ones that are personalized to each individual, their needs, desires, and goals.
So, start with something that you would really like to do, or would get you feeling really good. Like setting your alarm to your favorite song.
3. Keep it holistic.
It’s a good idea to keep in mind to use a holistic approach when designing your morning routine. Do include a practice to attend, nurture and nourish each part of our intelligence that God has blessed us with: Soul, Physical, Mind, Emotions, and our dreams and desires. So, it’s a good idea to start with gratitude.
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius
Then, include some activity like stretching or exercise, meditation or slow breathing in our morning routines or a nature walk.
4. Keep it flexible.
No two days are the same. We all have sick days. So, do remember to keep an experimenter mindset in mind, and keep tweaking, and re-arranging to find the right mix. Some days, you may wish to scale it back to just 15 mins and some days, you may naturally feel like scaling it to an hour or two. Both are great. We have to just remember that doing it daily is the main key to establishing this practice, and getting the benefit from it.
5. Above all things, remember why you are doing this, every morning when you wake up.
“Having a routine is great, but only if it serves your goals. If it’s not doing that, it’s called a rut.” — Josh LaJaunie
Sometimes, when we start something, we often forget why we doing it after some time has passed. When we start our daily morning practice, it’s always a good idea to find a minute or two to remind ourselves, that we are doing this in the first place. It will help to keep the momentum going.
Remember, all things are possible, with God’s grace.
The key is to just get started.
“A year from now, you may wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb
Hope this is helpful in your Shine Journey to be inspired, learn, grow, get better and improve the quality of our not just own lives, but our families, and the world around us, in small, simple, and easy ways.
Remember, Shine starts with small, and if sustained, becomes significant over time.
Shine On, and wishing you the best to inspire and help others shine as well!
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