7 Steps to Transform Your Day: The Power of a Morning Routine
Published August 29, 2016 | 13 min read
Wait! Don’t Panic!
YES, I’m going to suggest you wake up one hour earlier than you do right now.
Before you move on, hear me out on why this process may help transform your entire day.
Why is it most successful people in the world have a process or morning routine they do every day? I’m talking Oprah, Tony Robbins, Timothy Ferris, and Grant Cardone, just to name a few.
I have to thank my friend Pat Birkle of Fresno, California, for recommending the book, THE MIRACLE MORNING, by Hal Elrod, to my Book Club.
As a group, we took a 30-day morning routine challenge and reported on our outcomes each week.
The results and a-ha moments that came out of the challenge as a group were amazing.
**Stay with me to the end of this article and I will share the awesome benefits of starting or joining a Book Club.**
And so the saying goes, “if you win the morning, you win the day“.
I will share the seven steps and how I implemented them.
Of course, you don’t have to do exactly as I did; you can make them your own.
I will just make some suggestions to help you transform your entire day.
What do I mean by winning the morning?
Read on, my friend.
Related: Daily Affirmations
The 7 Steps To Transform Your Entire Day
- Wake up and be grateful
- Brush teeth, Wash Face, Put on Exercise Wear
- Meditation
- Vision/Affirmation
- Reading
- Writing
- Exercise
The 7 Steps DEFINED
1. Wake up and be grateful.
The morning routine actually begins the night before.
Setting intention on sleeping well and waking up at a certain time will help provide a peaceful sleep.
As I get into bed each night I say, “tonight I will get exactly the amount of sleep I need“.
I will then wake up at 5AM energized and ready to win the morning.
As my alarm goes off, I spring out of bed and turn off my alarm.
I have now trained myself to wake up prior to the alarm because of the intention I set the night before.
In the book MIRACLE MORNING, he suggested that all those that hit the snooze button should move their alarm across the room so they have to actually get out of bed to turn it off.
Breaking my snooze button habit was the FIRST step in winning the morning.
When I think back to my snooze button days I have to laugh.
If waking up by the first alarm was hard, did I really think that snoozing and waking up over and over was going to be any easier?
I changed my snooze button’s name to the “looze” button.
I don’t want to “looze” the day, I want to “win” the day!
I also play an uplifting song as I am waking up.
One of my favorites is GRATEFUL, by Brotha James.
Even though it is not part of my morning routine, Tony Robbins begins each day with a freezing cold plunge.
If you have the chance to take a cold plunge, it’s worth giving it a try.
It is very invigorating and should help transform your entire day.
2. Brush Teeth, Wash Face, Get Dressed in Exercise Wear
There is something refreshing by immediately washing your face and brushing your teeth.
Following that up with getting dressed in your favorite exercise wear you can quickly be on your way to complete the rest of the seven steps.
By getting dressed in your exercise wear early, it will increase your chances of actually DOING some exercise.
I believe getting the exercise out of the way before you go to work or get ready for the day will help you make better choices when it comes to the types of food you eat, and will give you an abundant amount of energy to get work started.
Gina’s Tip: set out your exercise wear, toothbrush, toothpaste, and whatever you use to wash your face the night before.
Timothy Ferriss, this generations “self-help” guru, makes his bed first thing in the morning.
If you can add this as a bonus, it is a way to tell your brain that sleep time is over.
3. Meditation
There is no right way or wrong way to take this step.
Whether you spend this time quieting your mind, or in prayer or listening to a guided meditation, this step is an important stress reliever and helps to transform your entire day.
It is amazing how much energy you can derive from this step alone!
If you are new to meditation, I suggest setting a goal of quieting your mind for 3 minutes. Just concentrate on your breath as you breathe in and breathe out.
Once you master this, you can move on to longer periods of time.
As part of my morning routine, I spend 10 minutes.
4. Vision/Affirmation
This is one of my favorites.
You can make this step your own.
There are many tips as well as books on how to put together a Vision/Dream board, and how to write and recite your Daily Affirmations.
In TRAIN YOUR BRAIN FOR SUCCESS, Roger Seip writes, “by adding a visual component to your routine, it will heighten your focus and tune up your mind“.
There are several steps I take when it comes to Vision/Affirmation.
The first thing I do is to look at my schedule for the day and mentally walk myself through it, including WHAT time and HOW I am going to drive to work, appointments, lunch, etc.
I mentally walk through what materials I will need for each appointment.
I mentally project a positive outcome for each of my client meetings.
This step alone keeps me on track and on time throughout my day as well as actually GTD (Get Things Done).
The next step I take is scrolling through my private Vision/Dream boards I have built on Pinterest.
Gina’s Tip: Be mindful when delving into Pinterest because it can turn into a time-waster if you don’t stick to working through your Vision/Dream boards, or specifically searching for pins to add to your dream boards! Save the mindless scrolling for your bathroom time.
Affirmations
There are many techniques as to how to write complete affirmations.
I write mine around my goals.
I choose a main goal for the next 90-days and then I write and recite my daily affirmations that support that main target.
When I hit the goal, I choose a new one and write affirmations to support the new goal and so on.
I also break it down into three areas that can help support the main goal: health, professional, and family/personal.
Each of these statements include:
- A statement that is meaningful and energizes me when I read or say it.
- Specificity. Instead of saying “make more money” I would write, make X amount of sales. Another example is instead of saying, “pay off bills” I would write, pay off my Macy’s balance of X amount of money.
- Make it measurable. How will you track your goal?
- A deadline. I like to choose 90-days as a deadline, but you can choose whatever period of time that works for you. In the beginning you might try a 30-day deadline. Once you have a win at the 30-day timeline, set a 60-day deadline, then move to the 90-day deadline. Make it fun!
Gina’s Tip: Write or post your affirmations in several places so you can review them to transform your entire day.
As they say: “what gets focus gets attention.
What gets attention gets done.”
5. Reading
Again, having your reading material ready to go is a time-saver.
Ideas of reading material include: the Bible, uplifting stories, motivational books, etc.
I suggest staying away from CNN (Constant Negative News) during your morning routine.
During my book club’s 30-day challenge I refrained from all news for the entire 30-days.
I really didn’t miss much.
My husband watches and reads a lot of news.
I just asked him if there was anything I needed to know.
Most days there really wasn’t much to report.
I didn’t miss much.
Try the “Media Diet” for 30-days and see if it makes a difference in your life and how it will transform your entire day.
If you are pressed for time, I suggest setting a timer for this step, because it is easy to lose track of time when reading a good positive book.
If you don’t really like to read, this step will benefit you the most because it gets your mind muscle moving.
If it’s been awhile since you read a book, start out with 5-minutes and increase your time as it permits.
6. Writing
This step was the most meaningful to me; therefore, my favorite.
As you can see, all the steps engage your brain in different ways.
I am so excited for those reading this article who will actually put all the steps to practice.
Okay, back to what/when/how to go about writing during your morning routine.
When I started my morning routine, I used the 5-minute Journal, by Intelligentchange.com, a remote company dedicated to helping people create positive habits.
Timothy Ferriss, author of THE 4-HOUR WORK WEEK says he can’t live without.
It is a great start to training your brain to write each morning.
One goal on my someday/maybe list was to begin blogging on the topic of Business Networking, how to maximize the time you spend networking and how to turn those chance encounters into profitable relationships.
I began using my time to write about this topic and have now published about 22 blog posts on the subject.
If I was stuck on what to write for the day, I grabbed my blank page journal and made short journal entries on how I was doing with my 90-day goals, or what happened the day before, or what I was looking forward to doing in the future.
I also keep “thank you” cards with stamped envelopes in my morning routine established area.
This is so I can write thank you notes or words of encouragement to my clients, friends, and family.
Imagine the possibilities!
How long will you write during your morning routine to transform your entire day?
7. Exercise
I believe you have a better chance of actually accomplishing something if you choose a type of exercise you enjoy.
This may be the time you head to the gym.
If not, you may choose to take a walk around the block.
If you have a dog, you might consider taking your furry friend out for a brisk walk or run.
If you are really pressed for time, consider a quick circuit type workout before hitting the shower.
This may include sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, planking, etc.
Even if you have an established workout that you do at the end of the day or when you get off of work, I still suggest including this as part of your morning routine.
Maybe you can dust off the old treadmill or clothes holder and use it for 10-minutes or so.
Putting It All Together To Transform Your Entire Day
I will suggest that you try out all of the seven Steps for 30-days.
If you are pressed for time, author Hal Elrod, suggests trying each step for a minimum of 5 minutes.
You could actually get through all steps in 35-40 minutes.
As I suggested at the beginning of this article, waking up ONE hour earlier than you normally do should help you complete the seven steps.
This may mean you need to go to bed one hour earlier, but it is up to YOU to decide how much sleep you need to stay healthy.
I started out by spending 5-10 minutes on steps 1 through 6, and then 20 minutes on step 7.
For me, I found that I really enjoyed writing and began spending a little more time on that step.
Within my 30-day challenge in July of 2015, I settled into a routine that worked for me.
Now, a year later, I have not missed a single morning routine.
Some days, if I had an early morning meeting, I worked through them quickly.
But most of the time, I was able to give each step undivided attention.
Just like exercise, the best morning routine is the one you enjoy doing.
I suggest that you do not judge yourself or overthink the steps – the main thing is to just get started.
Extra Tips To Get Your Morning Routine Started
If you aren’t convinced that establishing a solid morning routine will transform your entire day and your life, here are a few extra nuggets I will share with you.
WARNING: By transforming your morning routine side-effects may include, but are not limited to: INCREASED ENERGY, HYPER-FOCUS, WEIGHT LOSS, INCREASED CLARITY, INCREASED INCOME, and LESS STRESS, just to name a few.
- By waking up an hour earlier each day and going through you morning routine, it will give you the time you need to actually GET THINGS DONE – energetically even!
- By adopting a strategic morning routine, you will win the morning and a better day should follow.
- Most people are not willing to accept that they are 100% in-charge of their life. Most people just go willy-nilly about their day. If they get anything accomplished, it is by sheer luck.
- By establishing a winning morning routine, you will begin to identify what commonly distracts you, so you can eliminate it and transform your entire day!
**On Joining or Starting a Book Club**
In September of 2014, I attended a ladies’ luncheon with a guest speaker who offered her book for sale afterwards.
As I was standing in line to have the author sign my book, I looked around and noticed several ladies I knew or wanted to get to know better.
While there, I suggested since we were all going to be reading the book, why not discuss it together?
We have been meeting weekly ever since and have read many books together.
The books we read are uplifting, transforming, and helping to improve our business.
As a Financial Consultant from a networking standpoint, it turned out to be quite profitable for me.
I didn’t realize what an impact it would have on my business by hosting the Book Club each week and showcasing my leadership skills.
I wish you well in your endeavor to transform your life by establishing your winning morning routine.
Please feel free to contact me.
I love to hear stories from those that choose to transform their lives by applying these seven steps.
