006: Personal: Personal Routines

5 minute read

Outline

Why they are important
What a morning routine could include
How we came up with our personal routines
Benefits of a morning routine

Why take time for yourself

When you are being pulled in so many directions, you need to make time for yourself. Morning is a good time set aside to do that before the day really starts and you get pulled off in many directions.

Analogy: Before takeoff on an airplane, a stewardess explains where all the emergency exits are located and how to use life vests. She explains that when the oxygen masks drop down, you are to place the mask on yourself first, and then help those elderly or children around you. When you take time to focus on yourself first and renew yourself, you are in a better position to help others around you.

What are some possible routines

Exercise
Uplifting reading
Prayer and meditation
Write in journal or blog, write in a writing project of sorts, write down what you are grateful for

Evaluate what is most important to you and do that the first part of your day.

Consider doing it before checking email or Facebook or anything that can be so distracting.

Dave likes to walk, read scriptures, work on list of to-dos.

When the kids were little, Amy would exercise first, then read, say her morning prayers, and keep up on finances or tasks at her desk before everyone in the house started waking up.

Now we have teenagers who are up late and leave for school super early. It’s hard to get up earlier than they do after being up late waiting for them to get home. Amy’s morning schedule has changed a little over time, but she still makes time to read Scriptures, give Thanks, Exercise and Pray each morning.

First STEP of the day:

S – Scriptures
T – Thanks
E – Exercise
P – Pray

Amy’s new routine starts by doing just part of her routine, like reading and praying, then she gets kids off to school, and she does the rest of routine like exercise, since she can’t get up early enough to do it all before they go.

Summer is a whole different schedule. Without school, you can sleep a little later and still have time for your routine before kids start getting up.

The key is to find what’s most important to you and work that into your morning routine. Don’t forget to keep it flexible as stages change with kids and times of the year.

Vacations routines are very different. You can exercise with other family members which help motivate you after a late night with family. But with so much family around, it can also be hard to find that quiet time alone. It’s a lot more challenging. It’s okay to change your expectations. Be realistic. Try not to get frustrated. There are a lot more people around in a close place. You may not get as big a chunk of time or you may have more interruptions, but keep working at making time for your morning routine, and you’ll be at your best when you are with the ones you love most.

How we came up with our routines

Dave mentioned a book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. Hal studied the lives of several successful people and noticed they all have a morning routine. If they are attributing their success to one of 6 common factors in the morning, then he wanted to do all 6 of them. After doing his Miracle Morning routine, Hal noticed his stress levels dropped, and he had an increase in energy and happiness and motivation. With these new levels of energy, clarity and focus he was able to easily set goals that led him to greater success.

His acronym SAVERS stands for:

S – Silence (meditate, pray, reflect, breathe deep, give thanks)
A – Affirmations (what you want, why you want it, whom you are committed to BEING to create it, what you’re committed to DOING to attain it, supported with inspirational quotes and philosophies)
V – Visualization (see, feel, hear, touch, taste, and smell every detail of your dream)
E – Exercise (should be part of every morning routine)
R – Reading (read 10 -15 pages a day from a personal development or other inspirational text)
S – Scribing (write in a journal or a blog each morning to gain clarity, capture ideas, review lessons, and acknowledge your progress)

You can do each of these steps for 10 minutes every morning. You can switch it up and do some for 5 minutes and others for 20 minutes. Or if you are really busy, you can do all 6 of these for just one minute each for a 6-minute morning routine. Do these things and it will help with increased energy. And Hal attributed this to gaining a breakthough every 6 months.

Amy read an article where several gentlemen were given some high demand positions. A new gentlemen was being called to work in the same position as these others, so he asked some of the experienced ones what they did that helped lead them to being successful in that position. They all said getting up early was their secret. If they all said that, then he was going to try that too.

If there are so many successful individuals who say a morning routine is how they succeed, then that is worth considering.

First things first. Focus on those things that are most important to you. Clear your head. Get ready for the day, like a knight getting armor on. Center on what’s most important for the attack. (Dave is in a fighting mode.) You’ll be ready to handle any situation if you are prepared.

One of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits is “Put First Things First”.

Dave created a schedule to make everything fit in his morning. In order to get up at 5:00 a.m. though, he aims to get to bed by 10:00 to get enough sleep.

Some people are not morning people, which can be challenging. Find your time when it’s quiet and calm.

What if you aren’t a morning person? When do you recharge your batteries? Then try using your evenings to read when the family has gone to bed. Exercising around 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening can also be an option.

Benefits of morning routines

recharge your batteries
keep mind and body at optimal
not dragging and tired and drained
gives you a little spark for the day
helps give you focus on yourself so you’re not lost in all the other demands of the day