How to Create the Perfect Morning Routine for Success
What’s the perfect morning routine for success?
How long should your morning routine be?
How do you create a morning ritual?
I’ll be sharing the answer to each of these questions in this blog post and I’ll also give you a morning routine checklist so you can create your very own morning ritual for success.
Morning routines are talked about a lot in the online space. And there’s often the pressure or expectation to start your day at 5am if you want to be successful.
If you’re a member of the 5am club, I salute you.
However, despite years of trying to squeeze myself into that box, I’ve finally accepted that I don’t belong in that club. And if you don’t want to be part of it either, you’re in the right place.
*This blog post may contain affiliate links. This won’t cost you a penny but if you purchase using the links, I may receive a small commission.
How we start the day can have a really big impact on us
If we kick things off with a gentle awakening, doing something that increases our positive energy and makes us feel good, we can be more productive, we can feel more confident and we can find it easier to make decisions.
But with so many people telling us exactly what to do when we first wake up, it can be overwhelming to know the ‘right’ morning routine for you.
Over the past 5 years, my morning routine has very much evolved. When I first became a coach, I created an elaborate 2-3 hour routine based on what I was told would make me successful.
I’d force myself out of bed at 5 or 6 am, work through the routine which included yoga, meditation, journaling, affirmations, visualisation, watching inspiring content on YouTube and by 9am, I felt exhausted so I’d need to go back to bed for a nap.
I’ve since let go of the idea that I need to follow certain rules around my morning ritual and now it looks different every single day.
So what is the best kind of morning routine for success?
Watch the video below or scroll down to read the transcript instead.
What’s the best morning routine for success?
Firstly, it’s a routine that feels aligned to you.
There’s so much content online, we see all the social media posts, we see it in blog posts, videos, podcasts, where people tell you what your morning routine should look like.
They tell you that this is the ritual you need to do to become successful.
But oftentimes, those morning routines that people talk about aren't aligned to you and your values, your energy or the type of person you are.
It may not feel exciting to you and because you don’t feel excited about it, you may feel like there’s something wrong with you or you should force yourself to do it anyway.
Never, never do something that doesn’t feel good to you just because a lot of other people rave about it.
When you put yourself into a situation or when you try and do things in the way that somebody else does them so that you can replicate their success, no matter how hard you try or how much you follow their advice to the letter, if it doesn’t feel good, if it isn't aligned with you, it will not work.
You get to create success for yourself in a way that feels good to you, in a way that fits with you and who you are.
For some people, a 5 minute meditation (like the one I have inside The Confidence Kit) may be enough. For others, it may be a 30 minute yoga session. Some people may like to set an alarm to wake them up, while others may prefer to sleep until they wake up naturally.
The best morning routine for success is also one that helps you feel relaxed, inspired and motivated
So it's not necessarily one that pumps you up and gets you really busy and gets you in that frame of mind of, okay, I've got to tackle this and I've got to do this. You don’t need to become hyper.
I know from my own experience that when I pump myself up and give myself a huge boost of energy, I then sit down at my desk and, because I’m not grounded or centred, my brain is all over the place and I can’t be productive because I don’t know where to actually start – though that could just be an ADHD thing.
To have a productive day and to feel confident as you move through your day, you want to practise exercises that help you feel calm, inspired, motivated and allow you to hear your own inner voice, before you start consuming things like the news or other people’s opinions on social media.
I recently created a video sharing 7 confidence-boosting activities that you can add to your morning routine. Watch it here.
The third element of creating the perfect morning routine for success is designing a ritual that’s easy for you to commit to
You don't want to create a massive morning routine for yourself that's going to last an hour or two if you're not going to be able to commit to it every day. And in the same breath, I also want to say that your morning routine doesn’t have to look the same every single day.
You don't need to create a morning routine and then be absolutely rigid in it if you’re like me and feel too constricted by doing the same thing daily.
Some people like the stability and the structure of doing the same thing over and over again, and others, again like me, get bored very easily.
To ensure I’m still setting that time aside for myself first thing, without needing to commit to a solid structure, I simply wake up in the morning and ask myself “How do I want to start the day today?”.
So my commitment is asking myself that question and then doing what I feel called to. I commit to choosing myself before I scroll on social media.
How long should your morning routine be?
My answer to that question is always going to be how long do you want it to be?
Because remember, it needs to be aligned with you.
So how long do you want your morning routine to be? Do you want it to be five minutes, do you want it to be 10 minutes? Do you want to commit to 30 minutes a day?
It always comes down to what makes you feel good. If you know that a 30 minute morning routine every single day is going to make you more productive, is going to help you show up with confidence, is going to make you feel good about yourself and is going to help you achieve your goals quicker, then commit to that 30 minutes a day and no matter what, make that your non-negotiable.
If you know that it's going to make such a dramatic difference, commit to it and don't make any excuses for why you can't do it.
If on the other hand, you have lots of things going on, perhaps you've got children or you've got places that you need to be, then give yourself five minutes. Simply commit to a five minute routine every day. And that five minutes might be standing in front of the mirror repeating affirmations as you brush your teeth.
How do you actually create a morning routine for success?
The first thing I want to say is that it's really a case of trial and error. Spend a few weeks testing out different exercises, trying different practices and see what works and what doesn't. And when you find an activity that you enjoy doing, do more of that.
And equally, if you find yourself not enjoying an exercise or almost avoiding doing a morning routine because you don't want to do that activity, then find something else to do.
It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to decide that you don't enjoy something anymore.
Next, to create a morning routine for success, block off time each morning to ensure you’re trying out these different exercises.
As I said previously, your exercises don't need to be the same every day. If you do the same routine for a week and it feels amazing, but then you wake up on a Monday and you think oh, actually, this is a bit annoying, I don't really want to do that, doesn't matter. Don't do it. Don't put pressure on yourself to be perfect because, despite what the title of this video says, there is no such thing as a perfect morning routine.
Your morning ritual may continually evolve and change as you move through life evolving and changing. If you don't want to commit to the same exercise every day, you could write the exercises down on a piece of paper, put them in a jar and then pull out a brand new exercise each morning.
Create a morning routine that’s based on you and your version of success
What does success mean to you?
What would a morning routine for success look like to you?
Perhaps spend a little time journaling on that so you can come up with your own ideas.
If your version of success is starting work at midday and finishing at 3pm and having an abundance of time to do whatever the hell you want, wonderful.
Don't let anybody else's opinion impact how you define success and always be conscious to be working towards the vision of success you want.
For help creating your own definition of success, listen to this episode of The Confidence Show:
Your morning routine checklist for success
As promised, let’s look at your morning routine checklist so when you’ve finished watching this video you can spend some time creating your very own morning ritual for success:
Make sure that you have time and space just for you to be with yourself
Choose an activity that you feel connected to, or a selection of activities to work through
Leave your phone on the side and make sure it's still on silent
Grab a glass of water or herbal tea to make sure that you're rehydrating because that’ll also make you feel good first thing in the morning
Create a relaxing environment or make sure that you're in a space that feels really good for you
Don't try to make it perfect or do what other people do
Trust that whatever you feel like doing is the right thing for you
You can absolutely trust yourself and your intuition.
And if you’re somebody that doesn't often ask yourself what you need, I really want to encourage you over the next few days or next few weeks to every single day, wake up in the morning and ask yourself “How do I want to start my day?” And then honour that.
If you wake up one morning, and you say, I feel like going back to sleep, and you have the ability to do that, then honour your needs. Allow yourself to just go with what your body desires, rather than trying to force yourself into something too quickly because that's what other people would do.
To recap what we covered:
The best morning routine for success is one that: feels aligned to you, helps you feel relaxed, inspired and motivated and is easy to commit to
We discussed how long your morning routine should be
We talked about how to create the perfect morning routine for success
And I gave you a 7 part morning routine checklist that you can use to create your own
If you’re looking for activities to add to your morning ritual, head over to this blog post where I share 7 confidence-boosting exercises that you can add to your morning routine.