How I started my morning routine
I never saw it coming but all of a sudden I had a morning routine. Well, it didn’t really happen overnight, I slowly developed one that works for me.
Getting up early slowly got into my life when we moved to South Africa. You can read all about it in one of my previous blogs. But something that only developed the past couple of months is my Morning Routine.
It kinda started when I enrolled for a course, that was hosted in Australia and I kind of forgot about the time difference ??♀️ This meant I had to get up daily at 03.00 AM if I wanted to attend the daily live workshops. So I did!
They only took up one hour so I was done by 04.00 AM. Wide awake now I thought it was of no use to go to bed again, my day had already started.
At that same moment, I had just read the Miracle Morning from Hal Elrod and I was busy reading The 5AM club from Robin Sharma. Both books on how to start your morning in the best way possible.
Since I was up anyway, I thought that there was no better time to put the theory into practice. As I am writing this we are July, the course has long been finished but the morning routine is still there and I’m loving it!
What does my morning routine look like?
My morning routine is based on the two books Miracle Morning and The 5AM club. I tweaked it to my personal likings.
21.00 – go to bed
No, it’s no typo, my morning routine starts the evening before. If I want to get up early and get enough sleep, I need to get to bed on time. For me, that is about 21.00.
I also make sure that my workout outfit is ready so that I have no excuses NOT to get out of bed in the morning.
04.40 – wake up
I set my alarm to wake up early but I’m usually awake before it goes. Which means I had plenty of rest. I jump into my workout clothes, brush my teeth and wash my face. I feel fresh and ready to tackle the morning!
05.00 – 05.20 – mobility and Exercise
For many years I’ve been participating in the Whole Life Challenge. A 6-week challenge to incorporate 7 healthy habits. Two of the habits is 10 min. mobility and 10 min. exercise. I used to find mobility a big chore and I just kinda forgot about it. Until I started to incorporate it into my morning routine! So those are my first twenty minutes of my morning routine.
Since I start to like the morning stretching routine now and see the benefits of it, I continued doing it, also in between the challenges.
Getting your heart rate up first thing in the morning is something I learned from Robin Sharma.
As soon as the Summer starts I’ll be going outside for a nice morning walk!
05.20 – 05.40 – morning meditation and journaling
I was never keen on meditation but I really try to be open-minded about new experiences so I gave it a try. My mind still goes everywhere but I’m getting the hang of it. Let’s just say it’s a work in progress!
Also, the morning journaling routine is something new for me. Apparently, it has got a lot of benefits but I’ll leave that to the professionals to tell you more about that 🙂 One of the journaling benefits that work for me is that it gives me a much better direction of what I want to achieve. Getting a step closer towards my goals also means stepping out of that comfort zone!
05.40 – 06.00 – learn something new!
In my last twenty minutes, I use to learn something new. It can be either a course I enrolled for, listen to a podcast, or read a book. Whatever I am busy with for that moment.
At 06.00 my day really starts…
My morning routine is ME time!
As you can read, my morning routine is not about working. My morning routine is about time for ME, time to work on my own personal growth.
No interruptions, no interference. The only distraction you can have is seeing the sun rise but I’m happy with that 🙂
