Have you ever felt like you could use a bit more time in the morning? That you feel so rushed and wish you got some time for yourself before the world woke up? Today, we’re going to talk through how to start your day so that you’re off to an amazing start to the rest of your day.

We’ve all been there. Barely rolling out of bed to attend to whatever’s most pressing. Rushing out of the house. Or even worse, laying in bed thinking, “What’s the point of getting up. I have nothing to look forward to today.” The way we start our day is the way we live our days. Do you ever notice that? If you start the day feeling rushed and behind, the whole day feels like you’re rushed and behind. If you start the day feeling energized and ready, you’ll go through your day with this feeling of success and fulfillment.

There’s a stillness that comes in the morning and it’s unlike anything else. Whether it’s the stillness that comes from the way that you approach the morning with a feeling of centered peace, or the stillness that comes from the world being quiet – there’s nothing quite like it. It’s magical and precious. 

I became interested in how I started my day when my girls were little babies. I realized that I felt like I was losing a sense of myself because I would just wake up at these various hours throughout the night and then in the morning, I felt like I had no time because I was so tired and trying to sleep as much as possible. I was in survival mode. While I knew that my schedule had to change A LOT to make space for these new little people in my life, I also knew that it felt like my life was bursting at the seams. I remember having a friend over during maternity leave. I was with the baby and we went out to lunch in the east village. I remember trying to listen to her conversation and tend to the baby at the same time. It felt impossible. I could sense that I wasn’t fully present in either space. I said to my friend then, “it’s like my life was already a full pie and then we just added another third of a pie in there so everything is just oozing out and doesn’t fit anymore”.  I knew something had to change. I didn’t like feeling like I was a pie that was exploding – who does? 

This is what it feels like when I didn’t have an intentional start to my day. This sense of moving through the day but feeling like I was splitting apart at the seams. My head wasn’t fully in this present moment. My heart wasn’t fully in this moment. My body wasn’t fully in this moment. When you can craft a morning routine that works for you, you start the process of reclaiming your life. Our days make up our lives. Each day that we’re alive, above ground, and breathing could be the most beautiful and joyous day you’ve had. When you live that way, you live a life that is always amazing, even when there’s pain or struggle. 

Our lives are always changing and new routines are needed for new stages and seasons of our life. When we want to move forward in our lives but we live exactly the same way we’ve lived yesterday, we’re going to have a hard time seeing this new thing we want so badly in our lives. Whether it’s a sense of calm, joy, stability or passion – all of it is waiting for us to claim it.

My morning routine is not rigid, but it is intentional. There’s freedom in structure, especially when I know why it matters. I know why I meditate in the morning and I’ve seen what it has done for me in my day to day experiences. I have seen massive changes occur in my life from these small rituals. If you want to see specific results in your life, you need to examine the rituals you have in your life. Sometimes, what people don’t realize is that they really DO have a full life. They think of their life as these segments of kids, work, relationships – and forget that there is so much more out there. Our lives were not meant to be lived in just the doing. They were meant to be lived in the being. In the freedom of knowing that you can help to create so many more things from your time alive than you thought was even possible.

Signs that you need to start your day with intention

How do you know you need a morning routine reboot or to create one? Here are some of the signs that a morning routine could help.

1. You’re irritable and are quick to respond harshly to negative events. There are so many reasons that you’re irritable, but often we forget that these feelings are also a choice that we make. We sit and stew and ruminate and keep on telling ourselves why this is so terrible. We don’t want to be helped. We yell, we snap, we are spiteful – and we know that’s not who we really are. If this is you right now, it’s ok – I know it isn’t YOU and that it’s really a sign that you need some more space in your life.
2. You’ve had a major change in your life and you feel like you’re a bit lost. Whether it’s the pandemic, a job change, a new baby, the new school season, new responsibilities will create a sense of a shift and we feel like we’re not prepared. We are moving from a place of proactivity to a place of reactivity where we are leaning on our heels and it’s easy to knock us off balance.
3. You have some new goals you want to achieve. I get it. You’ve got some goals and you know that something’s got to change in order for you to achieve them. This is when you need a new ritual!
4. You want to make changes to your life and see it take a new direction. Change is inevitable, but whether you drive the change or you’re just a casualty of the change is a choice. Taking a new direction in your life is another sign of a need for a ritual upgrade.

Whether you’ve got a way to start the day or not, you might be feeling that you need an upgrade. Perhaps you’ve raised your hand at one or more of these signs that you need a new morning routine. Either way, if you want to see a result in your life, it starts with your routines. Don’t way until it’s too late to do what matters. How do you know what that is? It starts with some intention and a routine that starts your day grounded in what matters. The days are long but the years are short. Let’s make every day count.

If you’re ready to Own Your Best Life, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies. You can access the training at https://may-empson.mykajabi.com/stand-out-and-lead.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call HERE. We’ll see you inside.