Win Your Morning! Win Your Day!
If you’re not a morning person, this might help turn you into one. If you are already a morning person, this will help you enjoy your mornings even more!
I’ll start by saying I am not a morning person. Given the opportunity, I could sleep until 10 am pretty much every day. When I do have to get up, I typically hit snooze as many times as possible, calculating in my head the exact number of minutes I need to get out the door. By the time my feet do hit the floor, I’m usually running late and starting my day in a whirlwind of stress. I’ve tried to make myself into a morning person multiple times. I’ve read other blogs, seen the lists of strategies and tried it all with no lasting success. But I think I’ve figured it out this time and I want to invite you into the joy I’ve found by winning my morning!
The, “win your morning, win your day” concept comes from author Brendon Burchard and is entirely based in brain research. The short version says:
- Drink 20-ounces of water right away.
- Read for 20 minutes (I do 10 minutes)
- Move for 20 minutes (I do 10 minutes)
- Meditate for 20 minutes (I do 2-8 minutes)
- Make your bed
- Eat breakfast
- Start with success
I decided I’d give it a try and see if I could make it my own. I knew I wasn’t going to be successful at finding time for 20 minutes of each activity, so I decided to start with 10 minutes. I also know that my warm soft bed has a strong pull so instead of fight it, I decided to try to integrate it.
Day one, I woke up and didn’t hit snooze. WIN! I already had my water bottle beside my bed with 20oz of water in it. Without getting out of bed, I threw on my favorite hoodie, drained my water bottle and picked up my book. I set a timer for 10 minutes so that I wouldn’t have to keep track of time and started reading. It was AMAZING! I literally felt the sleepy brain fog that I usually wander around in for the first couple hours of my day clear up in those ten minutes.
After my timer went off and I got out of bed, set another ten-minute timer, put on some music (my go-to is actually my husband’s new album) and started to move. Having encouraging music helps you wake up and start off your day happy and positive! Find your favorite playlist or try one of Playful Fitness’ suggested playlists. According to Burchard, this is not the time for high-intensity movement. It’s about waking your body up gently. I stretched, rolled on my foam roller and did some slow lunges and slow pushups. All the stiffness that usually follows me around until lunchtime most days totally evaporated. My brain was awake, my body was awake and I felt great!
Then I made my bed. Brain research says that this tiny, menial task actually sets you up to have a successful day because you just accomplished something productive with visible results right at the start.
Last, I sat down on my newly made bed, set another timer and did 10 minutes of meditation. I focused on breathing, read my identity statement (which reminds me who God is and who He says I am), and did the meditation in one of my favorite books called The Daily Office. When my timer went off the last time I’d never felt so good, so awake, so centered and so happy at 7:00 am. WIN!!!
There are a ton of good, guided meditation books and apps out there so try my favorite or find one that you like. I’ve found it super helpful to have something to guide me so my mind doesn’t wander.
My husband and I had a non-rushed breakfast together (with some home-made pumpkin spice coffee creamer), then headed off to start work about two hours earlier than my normal and significantly more awake, present and focused.
The final part of the Win Your Morning concept is counter to what many other experts say, which is, “start with the hardest task to get it out of the way early.” This is what I used to do and it made me dread getting started on work. The Win Your Morning concept says, “start with something you enjoy and know you can accomplish relatively quickly.” This way, you achieve something right from the get-go which gives you momentum for the rest of the day! Once you accomplish that first task, then make a list to help guide the rest of your day. This last part has literally changed the way I work and I get more done than I did before.
You guys, win your morning, win your day is a GAME CHANGER! I am not a morning person and I am LOVING my mornings recently! Ironically, the morning I am writing this post I didn’t get out of bed and win my morning, but I’ve learned over the last several weeks that winning my morning changes my day and it’s worth it! There is no guilt or shame in sleeping in. It just highlights to me how much better my day is when I get up! So tomorrow… I will be winning my morning! Want to join me?
xo
Hally