Say to yourself “Today is going to be an awesome day”
This is what I say to myself every morning when I wake up, whether I have had a good night’s rest or not. Hopefully you will have some inspiration from my routine so that you have an awesome day.
These eight short and simple words profoundly changes how I approach my day, it helps me recalibrate my mindset and makes me ready for whatever the day brings.
Of course, just by saying these words is just not enough. You need to take action and turn these words into a promise to yourself to make it happen, no matter what your day is like. You need a system to keep you on track and I am going to share with you my system.
Being a father of two little kids, you think you have put in place a good routine, around your family life, however there is always something that happens that is unexpected that throws you off your routine.
Having looked back what can be done, I had come to realisation that I needed to manage my time and create buffer time for unexpected events. Having a routine and good habits was key to my continued success.
“Happiness doesn’t come from big pieces of great success, but from small advantages hammered out day by day.” – Jim Rohn
I realised that there was a lot of room for improvement in my routine, such as, exercising, mindfulness and taking time to read. Reasons for not doing these in the first place is that I was mentally and physically tired by the end of the day and not able to manage my time well.
Like everyone else, I have goals for what I want to accomplish both professional and personally. The ONLY way that I could meet these goals was to get back to creating my daily routine that I had prior to having kids. However, my new routine now needed to now cover new routines to keep me on track and balance the time spent so that I can still continue to enjoy time with the family. This is how I get to have an awesome day. You can still apply this technique if you don’t have kids but have a busy lifestyle.
What’s A Daily Routine And Why Is It Important?
A study by American Psychological Association found that it is more important in developing good habits than meeting goals than self-control. It suggests that we are likely to default to positive habits such as eating a healthy breakfast or going to the gym rather than self-sabotage. This research paper suggests that routine plays an important part in developing good habits.
In order to change your behaviour you should look at how you can develop healthy productive habits. You want to make build your habits in a way so that is its easy and repeatable. Keep on performing your new habit until it becomes a habit.
Due to this behaviour change structure, I decided to focus on three areas to make myself a better person – mind, body and soul.
I am continuously evolving my routine every quarter so that I can review how its going and adjust it to accommodate any lifestyle changes.
My Daily Routine
1) Wake Up Early
I wake up early around 5AM every morning during the weekdays as I find that this is the only time I can have to do what I want to do without the kids being up. Waking up early is very important for me as it then allows me to stick to the rest of my daily routine.
Why? You must have read by now that most successful people wake up earlier as it gives them extra time to fulfil what they have planned. If you always say to yourself you don’t have the time to do what you wanted to do, then by waking up at 5AM you have given yourself extra time – and the beauty of it is that no one else is up to disturb you.
2) Wake Up With A Positive Mindset
As soon as you wake up, I want you to say to yourself out loud, “Today is going to be an AWESOME day” and say it like you mean it.
Why? By saying this out loud it reconfigures your brain to think positively and overcome any negative thoughts you may have. Positive thinking also helps manage stress and can even improve your health.
3) Hydrate Your Body
I would drink a full glass of cold water and some pieces of fruit.
Why? Your body has gone without water whilst you were sleeping for most 6 to 8 hours and is dehydrated. Having a glass of water in the morning will help cleanse and hydrate your body and will help you feel awake.
4) Avoid Looking At Social media or Emails First Thing
I avoid looking at my phone and going on Discord, Twitter, Facebook or checking my email first thing in the morning until I manage to get myself ready for the day.
Why? As soon as you start to look at your emails or social media messages, it can derail you and you will end up scrolling down reading feeds that you think are interesting and responding to messages. Before you know it, you would have spent 15 to 30 minutes on social media and wont be productive.
5) 10 Minutes Mediating
This is very important, how you start the morning most often sets the tone for how your rest of the day unfolds.
Why? Before this routine I always felt that as soon as you wake up you needed to be very productive both mentally and physically until I found a YouTube clip about how your mind needs to be nourished and how simple being in a state of mindfulness helps with influencing your mood and behaviour, builds confidence level and improves learning ability and memory. This is just what I found beneficial, however there are many many benefits of meditating.
