A successful morning routine has one job, and that is to get your day started in the best way possible. It does not matter if you're a morning person or if you think your a habit person or not. The mission is to get the day started in the best way, and that means that it can always improve. It will never happen though if you don't stop making excuses.
You never have the perfect morning routine; there can still be a new tweak. As you grow and change, so will your routine. I won't sleep until you have all the tools, resources, and info you need to get you started in the best way possible. I have been able to experience first hand how much power is in starting your day on your terms.
You never have the perfect morning routine; there can still be a new tweak. As you grow and change, so will your routine.
The Problem
Before we can layout the solution, you must grasp what the problem is in the first place. It begins with school and how you start attending it. Babies wake up and sleep when they want; they experience the ultimate freedom. Then all sudden you start going to school, and you need to be alert and going by a specific time.
The natural resistance to this is to try and fight it by getting as much sleep as possible that seems like how you win. The only problem is that it makes the problem much worse in the long run. Instead of waking up and being able to relax, you now have to rush to get everything done. There is no rhythm to the morning. The beginning of the day is now on school time or your parents time. You do this for so long that you think its how life should be.
Time to Stop Making Excuses and Build a Successful Morning Routine
The morning routine puts rules and boundaries on how you start your day. Instead of saying you're getting up to be somewhere, you are not getting up because its what you do. That is a significant shift because it gives you ownership for the start of your day. The second thing the morning routine allows you to do is to start the day with things you think are essential. Most people never have a chance to think about this because they expect crazy mornings. Your morning should consist of more than showering and shaving. There is nothing wrong with those things, but there are better ways to start the day.
The Solution to Building a Successful Morning Routine
We created four key to kick off your morning right. A morning routine made of your go-to habits. After years of playing with this and trying things out, I found a method called habit stacking. It's by far the most effective method for building a morning routine.
What is Habit Stacking and How Does It Build Successful Morning Routine?
For a habit to build, it requires a cue, routine, and a reward. The signal often something external that happens. For example, every time you see the Las Vegas sign, it makes you crave watching the movie "The Hangover." The cue creates that desire. The routine is watching the film, and the movie is entertaining the reward.
Habit Stacking removes the cue and uses another habit. Instead of relying on external cues, you build your habits on the back of a habit. You already are consistent with. The problem with this is that it has to be something you can count on daily or the rest of your habits fall away.
Waking up is a fantastic way to do this because of the only day that most people wake up every day. If you don't wake up, you have more significant problems. It serves as the first habit that begins your entire habit stack.
The Keys to a Successful Morning Routine
All you have to do is follow these four steps every morning, and you will have a beautiful morning routine. It's not complicated, and it's easy to remember. Let's break it down key by key.
Stack
Habit Stacking is how you are going to build a successful morning routine. To do this, you need to know what habits you want to get done each day and rank them in order of importance. The Habit Stacker app will do that part for you. Once you know the order, the goal is to knock as many out back to back as you can.
Start
The habit stack has to be at the beginning of your day. If you save it for the end of the day, it's risky. By the end of each day, you have the least amount of energy, and will power. When you wake up in the morning, you need to be ready to snap into your habits. Wake up 30 minutes earlier to make time for this. The success of your morning routine depends on waking up early to have extra time to complete your tasks.
Schedule
Scheduling means you will block the time at the start of the day and guard it with your life. If you only have 30 minutes for your morning habits, then protect that time. Whatever time you block the goal is to get through as many of your habits without rushing.
Step four is the most important of the bunch. No matter what system you follow or what you believe, habits go nowhere if you don't show up for them every day. No one is going to do this for you. If you plan to work out, you have to get up out of bed and go and do it.
There is no way to hold your hand through these parts or give you crazy secrets. Some things help that I go over in the Habit Mastery course that will help you out. At the end of the day, though, you can use every trick and hack and still not show up. You have to stop making excuses, and make sure you do what needs to be done.