Day 1 of 5 #MayMorningTakeBack Series -- PLAN
Hey, Glow Getters! I’m so glad you’re here for today’s episode of the Glow Getters podcast.
Today is the first day in our 5 Day #MayMorningTakeBack series where I walk you through my daily morning practice so you can design a morning that sets you up to go forth and conquer. Conquer likely looks different for all of us, but no matter how you define it, I know these things are my foundation for a good day.
I didn’t always have a solid morning routine.
Here’s what my life used to be like:
I’d wake up and compete for the shower or bathroom, walk the dog, maybe and leave the house running out the door feeling rushed…spilling coffee all over myself.
I’m a morning person so to me that time is sacred. It’s the time of day when I feel most like me. I feel most alive in the morning.
There’s this lovely quote that says 3 a.m. is the hour of writers, painters, poets, musicians, silence seekers. We know who you are. We can see your light on. Keep keeping on.
I finally had enough of feeling like my mornings were being taken from me. I was done feeling like a victim, so once I had my daughter and I started hanging out with my workout buddies, I realized that working out in the morning was the best time for me to make sure I got it done. Push plan and done, so a routine came of that. I would get up, feed my daughter, and then workout. It made my day feel amazing because I always knew I got something done for me…even if I had to push pause 8 times to get the workout in…
Out of this was born the beginnings of a morning routine. Overtime I built in a few other elements to continue to grow in my personal and professional life.
These are the elements I’m going to share with you during this five-day series. Each day will cover a different topic.
So let’s dive on into today’s topic which is…drum roll please…Planning!
Simply put—have a plan for what you’re going to do in the morning. Better yet, have a plan for how you’re going to ensure you have a successful morning. Notice the difference—this is not just the what, but the how.
This week I’ll share what you’re going today, and today I want to talk about the HOW you’re going to do it.
First thing’s first—You need to wake up uninterrupted. What do I mean by this? I mean you need to be waking up before your kids or your dog or any other thing or person wakes you up. Why is this important? Because when YOU decide when you get up, YOU take back the power. I see my husband rolling out of bed when my daughter cries for him and he’s trying to get dressed, eat, brush his teeth and do all the same things for her at the same time (he’s on morning day care drop off duty). I see him doing this and it makes me cringe. For the most part, our daughter gets up at the same time each day…so if you set your alarm for even 10 more minutes before this, he would be golden..but nope. I’ve talked to him about this, and it seems to work for him, but I know it wouldn’t work for me.
I feel really strongly in doing this so that you can have a slow morning. By slow, I don’t mean lazy…I mean not rushed. You control the time. Remember how I said I would get up, compete for the shower, run out of the apartment spilling coffee, let out the dog, all the things….no more rushing and running. I won’t allow it as a normal morning.
Once you realize you need to get up first, decide what time you’ll wake up. The actions I’m going to share with you take 1 hour plus or minus a few minutes…so think about when you need to be ready before other humans get up and subtract an hour. For some of you, that might mean you’re getting up an hour before everyone else. For me, that means I’m up at 5 a.m. on most days.
Now, some of you have a newborn or small children—doesn’t matter. You still know their “schedule” and have a good idea of when they usually wake up. There will be days when you don’t accomplish getting up like you planned because you were up all night or maybe your kiddo decided to stir earlier than normal. Yup, been there. Makes total sense that this would happen. But that doesn’t have to be your excuse for why you can never do this.
Okay, so now that you know what time you need to wake up, you need to think about sleep. How many of you have a bedtime? I know you’re snickering at me like, bedtimes are for babies and old people. No way, sista. I have myself a bedtime of 9 p.m. I find when I stay up later than this, I am a zombie, and I cannot possibly get out of bed at 5. (There was a period of time with a newborn where I managed to stay up late and get up early with a newborn…you will find what works well for you and your partner. I used to go to bed at 9 p.m. and get up at 2 to pump, then be on baby duty. Then I’d be with Kate until 10 or all day depending if my husband was home. Then I’d go to bed again at 9 p.m. and do it all over again. During that time I had a routine that spanned early waking hours…you are highly capable of adjusting and making it work. I believe in you.)
Okay, so you’re going to bed at your bedtime, you now need to set your alarm for time you said you need to wake up to do so uninterrupted. The trick here is to pick an alarm that actually wakes you up. When I had my alarm to Waterfall by Jon Schmidt, I basically just dreamed about hearing the song and it didn’t wake me up until like minutes later when I realized it was going off. Pick something really annoying or something loud and pleasant. I personally like “Summit” it sounds like birds chirping with some uplifting music. I also like Xylophone…sounds like I’m moving forward.
So you set your alarm to be recurring every day at the time you chose, you go to bed on time, and you hear your alarm in the morning…what do you do?!?
If you said “snooze…” wrong answer. Here’s where when you wake up, you’ve got to imagine your feet touching the ground from your bed…I always think of them going into my comfy slippers, which they do and I get up right away. On the mornings where I hit snooze or worse yet I turn off my alarm and lay there to think some good thoughts, I fall right back asleep! Ahh!
At this point, I’m really proud of you! You’re up!
What do you do next? …Hold up, if you’re about to check your phone and social media, stop. You’ve got to protect your vibes in the morning. Think of it this way…
You wake up uninterrupted so no one has touched your mind yet or influenced your thoughts but you. How cool is that? Can we savor that for a minute? That’s amazing. One major tip I have, and something I’m still working on, is to resist the urge to check your phone right away so you can protect your energy and remain the fresh you. The untouched you. I love this.
And now you are ready to begin your day. Grab some water, some Energize, or your coffee because we are ready to go!
So here’s where we begin learning about the things we DO and not the actual how. Tomorrow’s episode is going to be all about gratitude.
I’ve created a #MayMorningTakeBack Tracker for you to allow you to track each item I’m going to teach you and well and write down any notes you may need during the morning. You’ll learn more about what I mean tomorrow…
And get this… you get to choose a reward that you can give yourself at the end of completing your tasks for a week…so for tomorrow here’s your home work:
1. Decide what time you’re going to get up.
2. Set an appropriate “wakeupable” alarm for that time.
3. Decide when you need to start going to bed to accomplish this.
4. Go download that #MayMorningTakeBack Tracker in the shownotes or on mywebsite at GlowGettersLife.com/FreeDownloads
If you accomplish your homework items, tag me in your IG stories of you listening to this episode and let me know what time you’re getting up, what alarm song you choose, etc.!
See you tomorrow over on the Glow Getters Podcast for Day 2! :D
