Almost overnight we have been forced to stay home. Some of us will work from home. Others will not work.
In this age of social distancing and quarantining we are beginning to (re)discover healthier life-rhythms and relational closeness.
A friend who is publishing daily posts on Facebook during this season of unprecedented change wrote this: “Things I will embrace during this time
#1: long, unhurried mornings with my kids.”
This is THE PERFECT TIME to (re)establish a custom-made morning routine that breathes life into your soul and provides the fuel for a productive day.
Let me help you.
Video Transcript:
I have never been known as a morning person.
People who know me best know this to be absolutely, categorically true. I could tell you stories of being a teenager and feigning not being able to wake up, and allowing my sister to actually do our paper route because I couldn’t get up.
I am not a morning person.
Over the last 60 days or so, I had kind of fallen into bad habits again, especially approaching the new year and into January.
I also suffer from seasonal affective disorder. (SAD) So, the idea of being productive and getting up at 5am, as Hal Elrod tells us to do in the Miracle Morning, seemed laughable for me.
And yet, it’s an obstacle that I am overcoming.
It’s an obstacle that I’m overcoming in pursuing my dream because I know that what Hal Elrod says in his book,
The Miracle Morning is absolutely true.
People that get up in the morning early are more productive than most.
I get way more done in the morning before nine o’clock if I get up at 5am than if I sleep in till nine o’clock. Just makes sense, right?
So, that’s an obstacle I’m overcoming.
And I think it’s an obstacle that a lot of people have when they’re pursuing their dream and they’re trying to execute on something.
You can be highly motivated, and have it be difficult to get up in the morning.
So, what I want to do is share with you today, two things that I do that helped me overcome this barrier to me pursuing my dream. These are two little tips to overcome your sleepiness, if you will.
#1 Brush My Teeth
This might seem so radically simple, that to you it’s laughable. But, it is so profoundly effective.
I want to share it with you. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning…and, by the way, I put my alarm clock, I put my phone in the other room outside of my bedroom to get up and get out of bed. Get it away from your nightstand!
I go into the bathroom, and the first thing I do is brush my teeth. I use the toothbrush called Quip. It forces me 30 seconds on every piece of my mouth front, back in the lower, front, back in the top.
Two minutes full on brushing my teeth and it helps me wake up.
#2 SAVERS
The second thing I do is (I stole this from Hal Elrod in his book, The 5am miracle….actually The Miracle Morning) He talks about SAVERS (S.A.V.E.R.S) as a daily morning routine.
I’ve changed it and made it my own and call it SPARKS
S–silence, sometimes scripture. The P stands for plan and pray. I plan my day. And as I’m planning my day, I pray through it, that I would be intentional and that God would bless and keep me aware of the opportunities in front of me during the day. A is affirmation. I write down in my journal something positive, because I have a tendency towards negative self talk. So I write down something positive today. It was this idea of affirmation, that people need the content that I’m going to share with them, that gave me some motivation to actually shoot this video. Affirmation. The R is run, or exercise. I like to run. So, get out and run three miles, five miles, whatever it’s going to be. K is knowledge. Learn something in the morning, read a book. Or, do a course online to help me build a skill. Then S is scribe or write. Right now I’m writing a book. So I’m writing a certain number of words each day.
So that’s mine (morning routine)…SPARKS . (What is yours? I would love for you to share it in the comments!)
Brush your teeth, get a morning routine that works for you. And, make it memorable. For me it’s SPARKS.
What is it for you? (Share! Your sharing may help someone else!)
I’d like to help you out today. If this is encouraging to you, one of the things that got me going in February again… I’ve started filling out a daily routine metrics. It’s kind of a circle with all of these, the SPARKS in the metrics. And I use color pencil to color them and track how I’m doing. And that actually has helped me stay accountable.
I’d like to share with you a downloadable, FREE downloadable worksheet that you can use to develop your own SPARKS.
And then to use this tracking system to help you. It’s available FREE right here at this link.
Just click on it, and it’s all yours.
Have a great day.
