The Power of a Morning Ritual

SandraMayernik·Dec 31, 2020

Posted in:Health & Wellness Personal Growth

What did Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Steve Jobs, and other high achievers have in common?Morning rituals.They woke up at the same time every day and repeated the same set of habits.Ernest Hemingway awoke each morning around 5:30 am (yes, even if he’d been out late drinking) and immediately began writing. He described his morning ritual as starting well, “just as the sun began rising” and working until he had gotten down all he had to say.Benjamin Franklin started his day by asking himself: “What good shall I do this day?” His answer was the foundation for how he spent the next 24 hours.What about you?What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Do you check emails on your phone while still in bed? Scroll through Facebook to see what everybody else is up to? It’s okay. Many of us used to do this, even though it created constant anxiety and stress.What will you do today?Here’s your first tiny action to start the day: Drink Water as soon as you wake up. Try it for three days.Please SHARE if you know someone that could benefit from #buildinghealthyrituals

SarahDulat·Jan 01, 2021

I need a better morning ritual. Now I scroll through my phone in bed until I feel like getting out of bed.

SandraMayernik·Jan 02, 2021

I hear ya! I started this #buildinghealthyrituals challenge to help hold me accountable and to help others that feel the same way!

Wenlin·Jan 01, 2021

I'm in the process of setting up a 5AM wakeup ritual. Every other day I start with some light movement (functional movement or yoga), then alternating cold hot shower. Then follows meditation, journaling to center in gratitude and goal planning for the day (what's the 1 most important thing to focus on today?) then breakfast, and then some reading/videos for learning.After that I start the day proper, working, answering emails etc. I had some success in december but closer to christmas after the 14th day because of staying up late for work i struggled to be up at 5AM. I tried 2 more times but only managed to do it 2 or 3 days consecutively.I'm back to day 1 now but feeling quite good about it.I highly recommend setting up a morning routine to anyone who's hoping to get more structure and focus, especially to wake up at least half an hour before you start your normal routine to take time to either exercise, journaling or meditation, or even all of these.I try to avoid looking at my phone (email and social media notifications) till after breakfast so i stay focused.

SandraMayernik·Jan 02, 2021

I too tried to do a 5am wakeup ritual but struggled with it and felt like a failure every time it didn't happen... then I realized that since I work from home and don't have a long morning commute I didn't need to be up THAT early so I gave myself permission to wake up later... so I'm curious why did you choose 5am?

Wenlin·Jan 03, 2021

@SandraMayernik what you said makes a lot of sense, my husband said the same. Both of us work for ourselves and work from home. We can fairly easily get up at 630am, or even some days, at 6am.What you said about feeling like a failure every time it didn't happen, I can relate to 100%! The main reasons why I'm continuing are:1. Prior to starting this I've never, ever, woken up at 5AM - so it's incredibly difficult! (and especially given it's my first time experiencing 5AM in winter. Prior to 2020 I lived in singapore which has a tropical climate) 2. If someone else said they have a 5AM routine I would be very impressed with them - I think takes a lot of discipline since most people I know stay up till 11 or later. To keep up this routine, you don't just have to get up early, you necessarily have to either make a conscious effort to sleep earlier, or sleep less! 3. I have decided to choose challenge/change over comfort/convenience in 2021 - I'm not doing this solely to optimise my day; a part of it yes, but I'm doing this mainly to challenge myself and shift my habitual tendencies and mentality about how I approach situations, and life in general. To others it may seem like a small or even irrelevant gesture, but to me a 5AM routine is making a commitment to myself to challenge and change who I am, from inside, which I think will trickle into all other areas of my life :) What about you? What made you consider a 5am ritual? What's your morning ritual like now?

SandraMayernik·Jan 03, 2021

Love your response! And yes when I first started my wfh business I felt the need to "get up early", "do more" before anyone else was up, but I was feeling burnt out and my mentor asked me "why?" and we talked about my response to her question... it was my need to have others "take me seriously" and that by conforming to what others thought was "professional" and a "go getter" I was trying to prove to myself that I was taking this new business seriously.... but I started my business to allow myself more time freedom and that by forcing myself to "be a morning person" I was self sabotaging, and creating a lifestyle that didn't support my goals... and also portraying to my potential team mates that in order to be sucessful in this business you have to get up early, which is not neccesarily the case... so now I get up in time to feed the horses and chickens, have a cup of coffee with hubs, stretch, meditate, do a chore or two then start work....

EvelynSjafii·Jan 03, 2021

I love morning rituals, there's just something magical about them! I used try and get up very early, but these days I am more lenient about when I wake up. I try to do three things in the morning:- affirmations- journaling- 5-minute stretches/yogaI don't always do all of them, but I always try to fit in stream of consciousness journaling in the morning to check in with myself.I think it helps to frame morning rituals as a toolkit to make us feel good, not a checklist.

SandraMayernik·Jan 03, 2021

Love the toolkit concept!