HOW TO WIN THE DAY WITH YOUR MORNING ROUTINE.    

It has taken me years to understand how important it is to have a morning routine that helps win the day. My mornings used to be the worst, I’d wake up at 10 am, be too groggy to do anything constructive and I’d watch television, as a high school, this was normal for me. Then I went to college and it was rough, my bad routine made it hard to do anything. I was always late for class and when I’d go to class, I used to sleep.

It is embarrassing to admit that I was that kind of student. It took me years to realize that we take mornings for granted and because of that most of us don’t excel at our mornings. This is normal, but the most pivotal hours in your day are the early mornings. By the time mid-day comes or the afternoon, it is hard to be alert or to concentrate on certain things.

When I was twenty-one I realized that if I wanted to win the day, I had to understand how to create a morning routine that will help me win the day. The last couple of years I have discovered the secrets behind a successful morning routine so that you can win the day. Most of us underestimate the importance of routine so we don’t win the day. As a result of this, we don’t make as many strides as we would like and we don’t progress past a certain point. 

Here’s what you need to realize we all have choices and it starts early in the morning. Every bad decision we make doesn’t push us forward instead it pushes us back. The more we keep going back, the harder it is to become successful in our efforts. The more cumbersome it is to excel in any area and that is the problem. 

When you make the decision to not listen to your alarm, you are training yourself to not follow-through. And that is why many people struggle with self-discipline. How you end the day starts with how you begin it. I have listed all the ways you can win the day, this is a snippet of what a successful morning routine looks like. 

This is so powerful that when you start implementing it your life will change. 

 Hour of power

I learned about this from the great Tony Robbins who advocates how important it is to spend time thinking about your day. An hour is a lot so you don’t have to do it for that long. This strategy will help you win the day because it consists of you thinking about what you want to do. When you are clear with your goals, it is easier to achieve.  

How you go about doing this depends on how much time you have to give and what you want to achieve in the day. When I was doing this, I did it to the tee. But with time I shortened it to 30 minutes. The hour of power consists of visualization, writing down your goals, reflection, exercise, meditation, and gratitude. Why should you try out the hour of power because it is Tony Robbins. He is the leading expert on how to have a successful morning routine to win the day. 

What I like about the hour of power is that it will help you build your life. When you are starting from scratch it is difficult to know which direction you should take and that is where the hour of power comes in. It will help you change the way you think and give you a start to your day that is guaranteed to make you happier.

If you want more information on how to do it and what it entails, you can find it here.

Protein breakfast

Carbs will make you feel tired and it is the worst thing to have in the morning. Not saying you can’t have carbs, but make sure your breakfast is for champions. Have you ever wondered why athletes drink egg yolks. When I was I kid, I used to think they were crazy, but now I have come to realize that is not the case.

Despite, it being disgusting egg yolks actually fuel athletes. I am not saying go and eat egg yolks, that is crazy and unless you are training for a marathon and are used to eating raw things, I don’t recommend it. Though, you can still have a protein breakfast. There are dozens of recipes out there with eggs in it that will give you energy so you can win the day. The key here is to find out which one works for you.

Another secret to getting energy is by making yourself a banana chocolate smoothie. When I started drinking this early in the morning, everything changed for me. I used to be so tired in the morning and I’d drag my feet, but when I added a banana chocolate smoothie to my morning routine everything changed. I no longer was dragging my feet through the day, but I was now doing more. Learning more and I wasn’t as tired as I used to be. 

When I don’t drink my smoothie, I do feel extremely tired and I struggle to do any work. If you follow any successful person, you will realize that many start their day with a breakfast that helps give them energy. If you want to start the day right, I’d recommend changing your breakfast. Figuring out what will give you the best chance to win the day.

Your go-to mantras

What do you do when things get difficult? What do you do when you are stuck on a problem and there seems like there’s nothing you can do about it. Everything you do, you have to be careful because it can affect you in more ways than you can imagine.  

It is so easy to lose sight of things, for you to get lost among the rumble and have no clue on what next to do. No one is born being great at solving problems and it does take time to figure everything out. For you to understand what you should do next. I get that, but that is why it is great to have a go to mantra so that when life gives you lemons you can make something out of it.

Throughout your day there will be times when life gets a hold of you and won’t let you go. Your emotions will run rampant and your thoughts will go wide. Negative thoughts will plant in your mind and it will be difficult to get rid of them. So write down your list of mantras and look at them when you are down or when you lose sight of your dreams.

Here are a few examples of what it could look like

• I can do this
• If I have problem X, I need to take time to think about how I can fix it
• I made this mistake, how can I make sure that I don’t make it again
• What should I do when I am not getting the results that I want
• Reflect on my successes through the month
• What did I do right?
• This is not the end of the world

These are a few examples, right down your go-to mantras or sayings that you will tell yourself. Why is this important? Because if you want to win the day you can’t think negatively. You can’t dwell on your emotions, you need to focus on your strengths. That is what makes the successful who they are, they try to not let doubt affect how they run the day. 

Practice Stoicism

Marcus Aurelius is known for being a stoic philosopher and he used this philosophy to live his life. You might be wondering what is stoic philosophy. It is an

ancient Greek Philosophy that was developed by Zeno Citium basically it teaches people self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive 

thinking.

Why is this philosophy important to win your day? This is where Stoicism comes into play and why Marcus Aurelius is known for his display of this philosophy.

Many of us spend the day angry over things we can’t control. We are so used to using our emotions to control our days that by the end of the day, we are so tired 

because we were consumed with things that had nothing to do with us.

It takes time to implement this, but you will have a more productive morning if you start practicing this philosophy. How do emotions ruin our day, because 

throughout the day they will be things that test us from the driver who almost caused an accident to the annoying traffic jam, you co-workers who are talking

about you or your boss that refuses to give you a raise.

If you can’t change anything about it, stop worrying about it and refuse to let it control your day. Most successful people use stoicism to control their morning.

Why should this be part of your routine because, in the beginning, this won’t come naturally?

Whenever something happens that you can’t control, you need to take a few seconds to ask yourself if it is worth worrying about it. If it isn’t, take a deep breath

and concentrate on your goals and think about how you want to achieve them.  

Gratitude list

Most of us think about think about anything else because you ask yourself what did I do wrong. This is a normal response to life not happening the way you want. We all go through it, but when you focus on what you don’t have, you will never be grateful for what you have. It is important to be grateful. There’s an awesome exercise you can do to make life easier for you and also to help you win the day. I learned this from Peter Voogd who often talks about how important it is to have a routine that will help you win the day.

Though this exercise is not solely a gratitude list, it does help you reflect on what you should make life happen for you. Life doesn’t happen to you even though we have been made to believe that, it happens because of you. Your decisions impact how your day will start and end. Every little thing you do matters, so this might  seem stupid, but in the long run, it is beneficial. If you want to know more about what habits you should have to make your life better, here’s a post about it.

• Three things you are grateful
• Three things you are committed to making happen?
• What are you willing to give up?                                                                                  

Wake up early

I didn’t start with this because I wanted to show you how important it is to start the day and have a morning routine that will help you win the day. However, you won’t be able to win the day if you don’t wake early. How early you want to wake up depends on you and what your goals are? It depends on where you want to go and what you want to do.

Some people wake up at 5 am and that works for them, some wake up at 4 and there are few who wake up at 3 am. Waking up early is not only mentally beneficial for you, but it is also physically beneficial. The reason why most of us are always tired is that we sleep late and wake up late. When you sleep late, you sleep longer than you normally would have if you went to bed earlier.

It does matter what time you wake up and what you sleep. And I can’t stress enough how important it is, but I will list a few benefits of how important it is to wake up early. Hopefully, I can convince you how beneficial it is.

• Get things done in a shorter period of time
• Can concentrate and prepare for the day
• Won’t have to rush to get to work therefore making you stressed
• This will take the pressure off
• Can think about how the goals you want to achieve throughout the day
• You will feel lighter and happier
• Reduces grogginess
• Reduces brain fog

Review your morning

When it comes to your morning routine, it will constantly change and that is a good thing because what works for someone else might not work for you. But you won’t know what is working and what isn’t if you don’t review your mornings or your days. 

This is by far one of the most important things to do so that you can win the day. Reflect on what you achieved, what mistakes you made or what you didn’t do. Keep reviewing your life so that you can understand how to improve it.

Reviewing doesn’t have to be bland as you might think it is. Imagine your life as a movie on a big screen and you are watching yourself on screen. Think about every action you did in the morning as if you are watching a character.  If you were a movie critic what would you say about that character? 

This is more than just about your morning routine, but also about your actions. What decisions are helping you and which ones are messing you up? Maybe, you spend too much time gossiping with your co-worker, does this help you or does it do more harm. Maybe, you yelled at a friend because they said something you didn’t like. 

It is normal to become emotional, but you need to ask yourself if it is worth arguing with your friends, manager or co-worker. Does that help you achieve your goals? Write down your trigger words. These can be anything that makes you emotional and next to it, you can write down how to let yourself not get emotional.

When we are emotional, we make rash decisions that can affect us long after the day has gone. To win the day, you have to understand how to control your emotions.

 When you start implementing this, your life will change and you won’t believe how so much will change. It will be much easier for you to win the day. Here’s a post on why self-reflecting on your day is important.

What is your main takeaway from this and does your morning routine look like? Comment below

                                                          Keep Pushing                                           

                                                             Vanessa