Have you ever found yourself stumbling upon a book, video, an online course that promises a ‘cure all’ solution to issues you’ve been battling for months or even years… you implement the advice given and you find it does help you!
You’re excited, because you’ve needed this for so long, and now you get so excited by the results you’re seeing, that you’re buying this book for everyone you know because you want this solution to also be a solution for them! (am I on the right track here? can you relate? 🙂 )
Weeks carry on and something happens in life that deflates the momentum you built of living and feeling healthier. Perhaps you were triggered emotionally, you hosted visitors in your home that changes your routine for the day, or you go on vacation… The metaphorical wagon you’ve been cruising on hit a bump in the road that caused you to not just lose balance and teeter off of your routine – you’re now feeling like roadkill with your face firmly planted in the dirt. Your motivation is zapped…
Now, what do you do? Give up, because if you can’t be the example to everyone you gave the book to, why even bother? Back into the shadow you go in hopes nobody will notice?
No! What better example is there than to show that you can still succeed even when you “fail”. Imperfection is the perfect path to success!
Remember, failure = feedback.
What’s the feedback from falling off the wagon?
How about we consider the truth in what it means to dust ourselves off and rediscover our way back to the habits that helped us feel and live a healthier and satisfying life?
Let me take you through what I have been recently going through in my own life of finding my way back to what has helped me the most in my day-to-day life, to feel healthier & happier [with myself]. My morning routine…
Rediscovering the Morning Routine
- Get back on the wagon by starting small – for example, drink a glass of water first thing in the morning to help yourself wake up. Before climbing into bed at night, set your phone walking distance from your bed so you have to get up – out of bed – to turn off the alarm. This also helps you in feeling less tempted to look at your phone as you’re trying to fall asleep.
- Set realistic goals and reward yourself when you reach them. The goal is to get movement going, so even if you are not doing everything you used to do in your morning routine before, celebrate the small wins! This is all about rediscovering what worked before, not being perfect right away… how many times have we seen in our life that shooting for perfect out of the gate is temporary pleasure, only to land us in the end with greater disappointment when we run out of that steam? This is a renewed lifestyle we’re slowly building so we can understand the feedback from what landed us with a face full of dirt…
- What safety measures do we need to help us avoid falling off the wagon again? Is there any part of the routine we need to simplify?
- And if we do, how can we make the landing softer so it’s easier to get back on the wagon?
- Find an accountability partner who will help keep you accountable to your goals. One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in life is the importance of building a tribe of like-minded people you feel you can trust. Reach out to someone who has similar goals to your own, and find ways where you both have equal interests in building healthy habits, and commit to being accountability partners where you check in with each other daily.
Partners serve multiple purposes in being someone who helps you not feel alone with the ups and downs of building a new habit. They can also provide an outside perspective to help you reset your mind, reframe your thoughts when you get discouraged, and help remind you of what you’re really wanting for your future. It’s much easier to give up on the difficult and challenging things in life when we’re left to our own thoughts & feelings… When we have someone to show up for each day, who we know is expecting our daily check-in, we’re far more likely to show up, even if it is only partial or a report of “today wasn’t that awesome, but I at least did_____.” They, along with yourself, can celebrate those small wins -because that’s all that matters, that we showed up for ourselves, and for them!
What I do as a check in with my accountabilty partner, is that I take a picture of my daily journal and a page(s) from my morning study and text them to show what I was able to accomplish. - At least 30 minutes walking outside (or on the treadmill). Researchers have found that regular aerobic exercise appears to increase the size of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory. A single session of exercise increased activation in the brain circuits associated with recalling information, and concentrating.
- Harvard Health – “Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills“
- Positive Psychology – “10 Neurological Benefits of Exercise“
- US National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health (NCBI) – “Aerobic Exercise Increases Hippocampal Volume in Older Women with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment“
- Use healthy cooking recipes as opposed to ordering takeout. The small wins in this healthy habit is starting with the goal to have more healthy dinners than takeout each week. You can have those restaurant visits be a special event instead of a daily go-to. Also, when you do cook up dinner, make a large batch so you don’t have to cook every night. Part of our battle is running out of steam, right? So actively looking for ways to make the task easier is the key in finding the success and small wins! To help get started, check out my recipe for “The Imperfect Vegetable Soup” for one way you can cook that is stress free and you don’t have to be a professional chef to cook something healthy that tastes good.
- Make sure that your home is stocked with healthy foods instead of junk food at all times so that it’s easier to resist temptation if it comes up unexpectedly. One way that triggers my stumbling off or leaning off the wagon is treats… when I get stressed I turn to food (who else can relate?)… A rule for me is that if I want it bad enough, I will hop in the car and go and get it. Otherwise, I will reach for whatever I can find… so, if the only thing I can find is Dark Chocolate (no less than 70% cocoa) and an orange, that will be ‘good enough’… and the positive thing about that, is that it’s a HEALTHY solution for ‘stuffing’ my feelings with food. 🙂
Start the Day Organized
Lastly, the key part of my morning routine and getting back to my daily healthy habits is how I organize it all to begin with. I used to use a bullet journal to write down my goals for the day, for the week, and for the month… but the one thing I found in rediscovering my morning routine is how discouraged I was that I hardly ever looked back at my weekly goals and monthly goals until the week ended or the month ended. My [ADHD] brain type struggles with things that are ‘out of sight’. It’s very easy for me to forget if I don’t see it regularly. So this time around I created a journal page to provide a solution to that feedback I found. I intentionally created this page so I would see everything, every day. This way I can be reminded of what I am trying to focus on moving forward each day.
I also want to reward myself with praise for at least doing ONE needful thing, so that is why I added the ‘Win for the Day’ highlight. I’ve also found in working with my doctors that it’s helpful feedback to keep track of your moods. I do keep track of my moods in detail with my app, but I also wanted to be able to visibly look back on paper how I was feeling at the beginning of that day when I wrote down my goals.
Affirmations are also hugely important in reprogramming the brain. Affirmations have been a significant part of my healing, so I knew I needed a section for that as well to review daily.
In addition to this journal page that helps build a framework for your day, you can add personal study as part of the mindfulness exercise. You can make it your goal to build a routine that helps you feel satisfied such that if your one win for the day was just doing this routine – you would feel like you’re building a healthier and more fulfilling daily life. You’re showing up for yourself with positive intention!
This is what I include in my complete morning routine study:
- First thing in the morning after I wake up & get dressed, take a drink of water w/ my important medication, I walk 30-60 minutes outside with my dog Henry while I listen to a podcast (Glennon Doyle, Good Life Project, Super Soul w/ Oprah, Slight Change of Plans w/ Dr. Maya Shankar…
- I tidy up the kitchen while I listen to 8D Music and make my breakfast shake and take my supplements, I then head downstairs to my office…
- I fill out my Morning Routine journal page…
- I read my personal scriptures…
- I complete a short lesson from Amen University course studies…
- I read a small section from a nutrition focused-book /or other self-help book…
Once I complete my routine I text my check-in report to my accountability partner. The next morning I review yesterday’s journal page before I begin the new day journal page goals so I can write down what my win from yesterday was and fill that section in as well as mark down everything I had completed. This teaches me what is worth writing down for the next day and if I need to simplify my goals so I can check more things off. 🙂
If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends! 💚
If you have any ideas on how to build a successful daily routine and how to rediscover a morning routine that works, please add your feedback and personal experience below of what has been helpful for you! As a tribe, we can support each other in discovering the small wins that keep us moving forward! 🙂 💚
