When you talk to successful female entrepreneurs you’ll often find that they rely on a morning routine that serves as an anchor for their productivity, happiness, and frankly, their sanity.
The ability to juggle multiple demands while finding time to prioritize can feel like it’s own skill but it’s necessary to ensure you can work toward your goals all while staying centered, and motivated.
So, how do you make time for yourself, especially when you’re being pulled in a million different directions?
The truth is there is no one magic formula because none of us are the same, but there are three steps we swear by that can serve as a guide to creating the morning routine that brings you motivation, clarity, and peace.
Make time for you in the morning
The first and most crucial step is to give yourself 30 minutes of quiet time before life starts making demands of you. When we say demands we mean checking (and responding to) emails, making breakfast for your family, getting the kids ready for school.
Is it easy to wake up 30 minutes earlier than you normally would? Frankly no, but making that effort provides you with the precious alone time you need to focus on you, and most importantly, fill your cup.
Work up a sweat
The second step is to move your body. Not only does it get those endorphins going but it helps clear your head and sustain your focus throughout the day- two things we can all use more of.
Pick the workout you love and try to give yourself 10-15 minutes of moving your body. Whether you’re walking, running, doing yoga, pilates, even swimming, you’re waking up your muscles and getting those endorphins going which we know are huge mood boosters.
Pause and reflect
The third and final step is self-reflection. This can be through bullet journalling or free-writing and we love it because it helps to empty all of the stresses, concerns, questions, tasks onto a piece of paper. Studies show that just the act of putting your thoughts onto paper makes them more manageable which makes them instantly less daunting.
Now, we know many of you are in different stages of life. Some of you are loving the single life while others are raising young kids or even caring for aging parents. So we know finding time to squeeze in these 3 steps each morning can feel unrealistic and we get it. That’s why we’re saying to start where you are.
Start with one of the three steps and build from there. With consistency, you’ll begin to notice small but significant changes in your clarity, motivation, and focus which create a ripple effect in all areas of your life.
And, don’t forget to pick the activities within each step that excite you. Don’t just try to do what you see other people doing, do the things that make getting out of bed worth it for you. Keep in mind, what works for you may be completely different from what works for me, and that’s OK, and in fact it’s a good thing. Remember, A morning routine is no more set in stone than our personalities.
We encourage you to start today and dedicate 10-30 minutes each morning to the three steps above and notice the small changes you start to notice throughout the week. Want to share your progress with us? Tag #vmmornings and we’ll feature you across our social channels!
