Hello life optimizer! It’s Sunday morning, cold and windy, but beautiful here in Denmark, and I’m feeling great after a good night’s sleep. 

As I get ready for my weekly review journal, where I reflect on the past week and plan for the next, I can’t help but think about how important my morning routine is.

Let’s face it. We all have dreams of being a morning person and having a perfect morning routine. A cup of coffee, meeting the sunrise, exercising and building energy for the day – it all sounds so inspiring and exciting! But how do you actually make this a reality?

The key is to start small — and be consistent. My routine is the same every morning. I have tested and built it one habit at a time and I do my morning activities in a particular order. We will get back to why I do this and why it is working.

A Morning Ritual Is A Personal Thing, But We All Need It

I have read books and watched a lot of videos to learn about how to build my morning routine. I found some research that shows that those of us who prefer routines experience more meaningfulness in our lives than those who do not. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167218795133

That’s interesting and having a morning routine counts towards this as well.

I smile as I write this. Don’t get me wrong. I love my morning routine, but it has not always been this way. I needed to learn how to embrace getting up early and having a structured morning.

I used to wake up just in time and I often had stressful mornings. And trust me, I am not going back to this way of starting my day!

I want to be in control and be intentional about how to start my day. The morning is a perfect time to do meaningful activities. This will lead to beneficial outcomes not only during the day but long term as well.

That said, your personal morning ritual is completely up to you — I want you to make it your own 🚀😁 💪

First Identify Your Why – You Will Need it When Things Get Tough!

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of happy Instagram accounts highlighting perfect coffee sipping mornings as the gold standard for productivity. But, I’ve learned from my personal experience that it is not what you do each morning that matters most – but rather why and how you are doing it.

Chances are you’ve heard it before, and you will hear it again: “The most important part of your morning routine is… identifying your WHY!”

For most people looking to install an optimized morning routine, this advice might sound like an unnecessary added layer of complexity. But please don’t get overwhelmed – Identifying your why has big benefits.

When things get tough or maybe just after a bad night’s sleep, it’s important to know your “why”.

If you have a deeper meaning, it will help you get back on track faster. It’s how we stay disciplined and motivated in spite of our inevitable moments of doubt and distractions.

So what does identifying your why look like? All it means is having some kind of meaningful purpose or reason for getting up early and start working on your morning habits.

Whether it’s achieving business success, spending more time with your family, or becoming healthier, owning that purpose should become the primary reason for creating a morning ritual.

So, before you assemble the pieces of your masterpiece morning routine, it’s important to answer why am I doing this? And why is it important to me?

Use those answers as a coat rack to hang all your activities upon because once you know why it is valuable, you can stay consistent and the results will follow.

How To Create An Effective Morning Routine

You don’t need to create your perfect morning routine overnight. Start small – maybe just by setting your alarm fifteen minutes earlier or doing one quick exercise upon waking up and build from there.

And listen to what works and what doesn’t work for you personally. You can learn and mae adjustments accordingly and sooner or later you have a routine that works for you every morning!

For example, I use Mel Robbins 5-second rule to get out of bed and I drink a glass of water as soon as I get up. Next up I do my first set of burpees while my first cup of coffee is prepared.

Then I do 10 minutes of yoga and meditation combined with light therapy to tell my body it’s time to wake up. I also have a daily journal exercise and a cold shower before my family wakes up.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if something doesn’t work. Use it as an opportunity to reflect, adapt and experiment until you find something that really works for you. It takes practice, so take your time and be patient with yourself during this process.

Each activity can be tailored according to your personal needs; the important thing is that it gives you structure without being too constricting. Additionally, try setting up habit tracking devices, so you can keep track of what works and what doesn’t work for you. I use heroic.us it is quite powerful.

The one thing that changed everything for me when it came to establishing a consistent morning routine was getting inspired by the “Miracle Morning” philosophy.

I had been struggling and having a hard time getting out of bed, even though I knew I wanted to create better habits and start my morning off right.

Once I learned about the Miracle Morning’s 6 steps (as created by Hal Elrod), it got me thinking about how I could make my own checklist-like morning routine to get myself out of bed and into productivity mode.

So I created a specific morning routine with small tasks throughout that focused on things like mindfulness, physical activity, and planning for the day ahead.

That approach worked perfectly and now every morning I know exactly what action steps to take—I don’t have to think so much or waste time deciding what’s next!

I have one more thing that is important for me and I am going to share it in my next post. 

It is time to take action – are you ready?

Are you ready to make positive changes in your life? The morning is a great time to start fresh and set the tone for the rest of the day.

Ask yourself, what is the one thing you want to install in my morning routine, and why?

Maybe it’s a few minutes of meditation or deep breathing exercises. Maybe it’s going for a short walk or jog around your neighborhood.

Whatever it is, your morning ritual should be something that brings positivity and joy into your life. Start taking small steps towards achieving whatever goals you have set for yourself and watch as they slowly unfurl throughout the day! Don’t wait any longer – be brave, be bold and get started today!

– let’s optimize together!!

 Ps. I am working on a post where I go more into detail about my morning routine. Please let me know in the comments if you want me to post it, thanks.