What’s the first thing you did this morning? Did you hit the snooze button or did you wake up excited and grateful to have a new day on this planet?
In this article I’m going to give you 3 reasons why you should have a daily morning ritual in 2017. Are you ready, or do you need a cup of coffee to wake you up?
1) A morning ritual allows you to be proactive instead of reactive.
From the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed, most of us are reactive. First we react to our alarm clocks by hitting the snooze button. Then when we finally manage to wake up, we listen to the news, reacting to and sometimes internalizing whatever is happening in the world. If it’s a gloomy, rainy day we may even let the weather negatively impact our moods. Those are just some of the many ways that reactivity manifests.
A well-designed morning ritual allows you to become proactive from the moment the day begins. You’ll wake up feeling grateful for a new day and instantly start your day with a proactive approach. You’ll take control and make your own decisions. In short, you’ll actively decide what you want to accomplish and set clear goals for the day. No longer will your be at the mercy of your environment.
2) A morning ritual allows you to manage your emotions, thereby improving your sense of well-being.
As Jim Rohn says, “Our emotions need to be as educated as our intellect.”
Do you feel grateful for everything you have in your life? Are you grateful for having food, shelter, and water? Are you grateful for having a job or being healthy?
Most of us have a hard time experiencing gratitude in our everyday lives. This is largely due to the way our brain is designed. Our brain is wired to use to everything we have quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we forget how much of a blessing we had until it’s gone.
A morning ritual allows you to take control of your emotions each day by focusing on what you want to feel. The more you work on bringing up an emotion, the better you’ll become at feeling it.
For instance, you can focus on feeling gratitude by writing down 3 things you’re grateful for every day. Or you could ask yourself “What am I grateful for today?” and make a verbal list of everything you can think of while striving to feel genuine gratitude. You could also use an audio program or music that encourages your ability to get in touch with that emotion.
Yet another thing you can do is use affirmations around a topic that you want to focus on. As your goals change over time, you can change the affirmations to suit your evolving needs.
3) A morning ritual allows you to combine your most powerful habits
Having a morning ritual allows you to bring your best habits together to create a powerful, daily routine. Your ritual will become increasingly automatic as time goes on, which makes it easier to stick to your habits.
Here are some examples of great habits you can include in your morning ritual:
- Gratitude exercises.
- Daily goal setting.
- Affirmations
- Excercising
- Meditation
In conclusion, let me share my morning routine with you. It’s not set in stone and I’m always improving it, but it’ll give you some idea of what a morning ritual looks like.
What I Did This Morning:
- Woke up smiling and thinking of how lucky I am to have another day ahead of me.
- Went for a walk (10 minutes).
- Asked myself empowering questions, which I answered out loud. I asked myself what I was grateful for today, what I was proud of, what I’m currently happy about, what I’m excited about, and what I’m committed to. (10 minutes).
- Recited some affirmations around an emotion I wanted to feel. “I love my life” and “I’m extremely productive” were the two affirmations I used (3 minutes).
- Reminded myself of my mission and repeated it out loud (2 minutes).
- Read the “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind DECLARATIONS” from T.Harv Ecker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (2 minutes).
- Read my quarterly goals (3 minutes).
- Set my daily goals (5 minutes).
- Meditated (10 minutes).
- Took a cold shower (5 minutes).
This morning ritual is just an example. Yours will likely be different and will depend on what resonates with you, as well as what your personal goals and aspirations are.
If you don’t have a morning ritual, I strongly recommend creating one. It will literally change your life. If you do, would you mind sharing it with me below? I’d love to know how you start your day!
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Thibaut Meurisse is the founder of whatispersonaldevelopment.org. Obsessed with improvement, he dedicates his life to finding the best possible ways to durably transform both his life and the lives of others. Check out his free e-book “The 5 Commandments of Personal Development” or order his new book Habits That Stick: The Ultimate Guide To Building Powerful Habits That Stick Once And For All on Amazon now.
