5 Things You Can Do Every Morning to Start Your Day Off Right
92% of successful people have a regular morning routine that they credit for helping them manage stress, stay focused, and be productive throughout the day.1 Imagine your morning as the start of a relay race. But instead of a baton, you’re carrying a full load of responsibilities, decisions, and the weight of leading others. How you step up to that start line can make all the difference between a day when you feel in control and one where you're just trying to keep up. Most people jump in without thinking twice, but what if a few intentional actions each morning could give you the edge? What if the way you start could fuel not just your day, but your impact as a leader? Here are five unexpected ways to own your mornings, helping you show up with purpose, energy, and resilience.
Set intentions
Being intentional sounds so simple. I can attest that it is far more difficult than it seems. But beginning your day with specific intentions on what you want to accomplish and how you will do so can make all the difference. Connecting the work you are planning for the day to your goals and the outcomes you know you need to achieve for the week. Whether you use a journal to write this out, or take the time to do add the intentional actions to your daily task list, is up to you. Just getting the captured and then thought through will set you up for success during the day.
Energize physically
Think beyond exercise, though that works. It can also be as simple as stretching several different muscle groups. Take a cold shower to stimulate your body and your brain. It doesn’t have to be ice bath cold, just not the nice warm shower you always take. You can even just take the last minute or two of your shower and just turn the temperature down to really give you a jump start. During the winter, even a short walk outside in the cold, crisp air can ignite your mind and rev you up for the day ahead. Need something that remains inside and without taking a lot of space? How about a quick set of jumping jacks or touching your toes, then reaching for the sky (this is good for the back too). Five minutes of mindfulness is also a great way to get the day started. There are plenty of apps to help guide your through this.
Quick learning
Take ten minutes to listen to a snippet of a podcast that will stimulate your thinking. Or find a YouTube video on a subject you are eager to learn more about. Using a 2x speed setting, you can get 20 minutes of videos into a ten-minute time frame. This is also an excellent time to read a few pages or a chapter of a book. Even with just ten minutes each morning, you may be surprised how many books that will put on your list across the course of a year.
Mindset shifting
Take a challenge and shift it into an opportunity. ‘Have to’ becomes ‘gets to’. See the possibilities versus the limitations. Ask yourself ‘what if…’ and use a positive outcome in your solution. Use real life challenges and shift them to see the wins that can come from that. Challenge: I am understaffed and need to get positions filled. Mindset shift: I get to bring on new talent, that I choose, that can bring new energy and teach us new ways of getting things done. There can be great energy created when looking at things from a fresh perspective.
Positivity
Remove the energy vampires from your day, especially early in the day. Start your mornings with things you are grateful for. Recent successes—think about what the win felt like. Recall the steps you took to get over the finish line. Find an inspiring quote you can read each day that will make you smile, laugh, or really think positively. You can always check out the leadership quotes I post each week. Just click here to go to the Leadership Quotes page on effectiveretailleader.com.
Starting your day in a positive, emerging, and productive way does not need to be difficult. Use these steps as a starting point that will work best for you. You don’t need to do all five. And I would certainly not suggest that they be completed in any type of order. Rather, these can be thought starters to make your own and use to build your own morning routine that will help you get ahead of the day and be intentional about the successes you know are possible.
How will you change your morning start up routine to incorporate some of these ideas, or your own, to get the day off on the right foot?
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Photo by Frames For Your Heart on Unsplash
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1 (American Psychological Association)