Habits can make or break us...

“There’s no better way to get your mind right than waking up before daybreak and clanking some iron, stretching the muscles, elevated the heart rate, and changing the physiology of the body.” – Todd Durkin, Get Your Mind Right.

How do we become a person of routine?

Having a routine is another way of saying that you’ve established certain customs or patterns of behavior, which are better known as habits. Everybody has habits whether they know them or not.

Do we tend to stay up late, sleep in, then rush off to work? Only to find, at the end of the day, we’re too tired from the drive home and its dinner then family and back to bed?

Or maybe in our free time we spend it scrolling on social media, playing a game on the phone or watching Netflix…

How can we flip the switch to creating habits that are going to get us to our goals?

To help us lead a healthy life.

To help us stay on the right track.

I’m going to share a few that my mentor and Coach Todd has outlined in his book:

1. Make a commitment, and when you do, stick to it. So many of us go through life without committing to anything. We take life as it comes. Or we’re too busy to do anything beyond the basics that I described above.
2. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer. A thermometer has the single purpose of telling you the temperature of the environment. It it’s hot or freezing outside, the thermometer will tell you if it’s in the 90’s or freezing. A thermostat, regulates the environment. It’s you who decides how hot or how cold, and you can control the temperature. Constantly monitor your surrounding and making adjustments. Influence your surroundings instead of letting them influence you.
3. Be prepared to do things people never see. Those who set their alarms at 4:30am, splash water on their face and head out to exercise. Success is rooted in unseen, uncelebrated sacrifices. But talk to those who get up early to exercise, and they will tell you that the results speak for themselves. They get their minds right because they decided they would do something to improve their lives and acted upon those commitments.
4. Remind yourself that it takes time to establish new habits. I’m not really a believer in it takes 21 days to create a habit. As I’ve mentioned before, change itself is a skill. Sometime we need to prepare for the preparation of even thinking about change. Sometimes it’s a lightbulb moment and we can start right away. Other times, it takes some more convincing of ourselves that we can even be successful with it.
5. Don’t turn your phone on right after you wake up. That time is so precious to your morning routine and belongs to your body, mind and soul.
6. Start your day by taking ten to twenty minutes to nurture your soul. This could be quite meditation, prayer and/or journaling.
7. Journal to quiet your mind and establish your goals. This is not a to-do list. This talking to yourself in a language that is positive, visualizing what you see ahead. Once I started doing this every day, things started to unfold and open up more and more.
8. When you’re done nurturing your soul, get a move on. Despite what you may think, a quick 20-30 is all you need to get the blood pumping, the feel good hormones firing and setting the tone for the day. There are so many things you can do at home with just body weight or minimal equipment, not to mention heading out for a quick walk.
9. Eat a healthy breakfast. I won’t get into specifics here but coffee, bagels and donuts won’t cut it.
10. Create a PM routine. Your morning routine will only be successful if you are prepared the night before. Review your journal, power down the electronics, read something inspirational, leave your phone in the kitchen at night (get a cheap old fashioned alarm clock if you need to), get your clothes ready, maybe even prep your lunch for the next day, and don’t hit that snooze button!

 
I hope these tips help you establish a routine to eliminate your limits, overwhelm and frustration and on the road to a healthy and balanced life!
Let me know if this resonated with you or if you need to set up a discovery call, send me a message and let’s chat!

Nourish your purpose now,
Rebecca