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Overall, I’ve been very disciplined in my personal life and business. But recently, I found myself “slipping.” I found myself NOT doing the morning routine I really wanted to do! My desired wake time is 5:00 a.m. — I’ve been an early riser for some years. However, I’ve recently been waking up late, around 7:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m.
When I would wake up this late, I would skip doing things I wanted to do. I’d skip my morning devotions, skip my morning walk, skip my gym time and skip other things.
I knew I had to be more disciplined if I was going to do what’s important to me and have the morning routine I really wanted. I had to change.
Related: 4 Ways to Create a Powerful Morning Routine
Two small changes
So, I made two small changes to my routine, and I’ve seen a huge difference in the past few weeks.
The first change was going to bed earlier.
Instead of staying up late with my wife and going to be around 2:00 a.m. or so, I’ve had to go to bed earlier. I explained to my wife that to do the things in my morning routine, which is so important to me, I had to go to bed earlier. She fully understood.
I had been sitting on the couch and then dozing off, and then my wife and I would get up and go to bed at the same time. But now, I go to bed around 11:00 pm. My wife is now going to bed earlier, too!
The second change was setting my alarm 15 minutes earlier, to 4:45 a.m.
Now that I was going to bed earlier, around 11:00 p.m., I was more rested. Getting about six hours of sleep, maybe five, is perfect for my body. In fact, my eyes open at about 4:30 a.m. automatically.
What’s important to you
What are the simple changes you need to make to live YOUR best life? To know what changes you need to make, you need to know what goals you want to reach.
My morning routine is important to me.
This includes:
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Bible reading and prayer
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Eating fruit, drinking water, having Cafe Bustelo
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30-minute walk, 15 minutes in the gym
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My morning 7:00 a.m. live show
If I do these things, the rest of the day goes well. When I miss out on these things, I feel I’m in catch-up mode.
Related: 8 Tiny Changes to Make Your Life 10 Times More Enjoyable
The power of habits
You’ve probably heard this so many times, but forming good habits is important. You can also develop new habits pretty quickly. I’m now starting to enjoy going to bed “early,” and I’m in the habit of waking up early.
James Clear‘s book Atomic Habits says this about forming habits:
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Make it obvious: Set clear cues for your desired habits.
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Make it attractive: Pair habits you need to do with habits you want to do.
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Make it easy: Reduce friction for good habits and increase it for bad ones.
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Make it satisfying: Create immediate rewards for completing your habits.
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Use the two-minute rule: Scale down your habits to tasks that take two minutes or less to start.
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Use habit stacking: Link a new habit to an existing one.
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Focus on systems over goals: Concentrate on the processes that lead to results.
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Use habit tracking: Measure your progress to maintain motivation.
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Never miss twice: If you slip up, get back on track immediately.
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Shape your environment: Surround yourself with cues that promote good habits.
Communication
It’s so important to communicate with your spouse, close family members and friends about your priorities and habits.
When they know what’s important to you, a good friend or caring family will respect what you’re trying to do. Now that they know what habits are important to you and why, they won’t force you to do things that go against your lifestyle.
When you fail
You will fail on the journey to create better habits for your life. You’re only human. As you start out, you might fail often. But as the habit gets stronger and more routine, you’ll find yourself being more consistent with it.
In fact, you’ll find that you begin to LIKE the habit you’re doing and it becomes second nature to you.
Related: 9 Ways to Actually Adopt the Better Habits You Know Will Help You Succeed
So, let’s summarize
I wanted to be better at doing several things that were important to me for my daily morning routine. “Reverse engineering” why those things weren’t getting done helped me realize what the problem was.
Being able to prioritize and community with my wife was the key to now living a much more balanced life.
Let’s apply this to you
Do you find yourself always pleasing other people?
Are you putting yourself last and feeling busy and unfulfilled?
Do you find your day goes by so fast and you’re tired and a bit annoyed?
Does everyone else seem to get the most out of you and there’s nothing left for yourself?
You don’t have to be in that rut. Do what I did. Prioritize what’s important to you. Know what you really, really want. It’s okay to put yourself first so you can show up as the best version of yourself for others.