A Sustainable Morning Routine: 3 Simple Steps to Set Yourself Up for Success

The Importance of a Good Morning Routine:

The way we choose to spend our morning is what sets us up for the rest of the day.

I love love love routines, especially morning routines. However, it is easy to get carried away making 12 step morning routines. Cue the ice roller, lemon water, creatine, coffee, 10 minute stretch , workout, affirmations, bible study, breakfast, journal, gratitude list, podcast, make the bed, wash your face brush your teeth, blah blah blah.

Morning routines become dreadful when we add so much extra fluff and unnecessary “to do’s”. I am sure you have enough things on your daily “to-do” list, there is no need to add 12 more check boxes to JUST your morning. But, I do find value in adding many of these tasks into my morning routine, so I wanted to come up with a way to incorporate just SOME into a steady routine.

Morning routines can also become dreadful on the days when you wake up feeling less than your best or days where you don’t have a lot of time to spare. Life happens, just go with it. Especially as a woman dealing with varying hormone cycles. It can become discouraging when you wake up dealing with cramps, feeling emotional, and just overall unmotivated. Or, maybe your work schedule doesn’t allow for you to get a good nights sleep AND have a two hour long morning routine. So I wanted my morning routine to leave room for life to happen, in whatever unpredictable way it happens each day.

I came up with THREE main categories of morning activities that make me feel my best for the rest of my day. The three categories I came up with are grounding, inspiration, and movement. I found that doing just one action from each of these categories every morning sets me up to have a happy and productive day.

I. Grounding

The first step in my morning routine is grounding. This mainly entails of spending time with God and getting in His word. This step allows me to ground myself in my faith daily, and remind me of who I want to show up as every day: Which is someone who reflects Jesus in her daily life and is a light to others. It is SO SO important to start of the day grounded in faith.

Grounding Activities:

  • reading my Bible
  • writing in my prayer journal
  • doing a devotional

II. Inspiration

The second step in my morning routine is inspiration. This step entails of doing things that motivate me to show up as my best self daily, inspire me to encourage others, and give me new ideas. Some of these ideas take merely 10 minutes and others can take an hour. So depending on my mood, and the time I have, I can choose accordingly.

Inspiration Activities:

  • read a self help book
  • scroll through Pinterest
  • listen to a podcast

III.Movement

The third step of my morning routine is movement. Once you are awake in the morning it is important to stay AWAKE. A body in motion, stays in motion! Or at least thats what they told me in my high school science classes. This doesn’t have to be an hour long workout, but it is important to get your body moving in the morning and kick start your day.

  • lift at the gym
  • 10 minute stretch
  • workout class
  • at home workout video
  • hot girl walk

Conclusion:

I love this routine because it is simple yet effective. It allows you to start your day with three wins and not a crazy amount of effort.

Other Morning Habits & Advice

As someone who loves the mornings I have some other habits & advice that I wanted to share with you!

  • make the bed!
  • taking vitamins & supplements
  • listen to music that makes you happy!
  • set out workout clothes the night before
  • invest in a smart lightbulb that you can set to turn on 5 minutes before your alarm to give you a more natural wake up! (or get a hatch alarm clock lol)

-xoxo, jenny <3