Hey, everyone! May the Fourth be with you! I hope you’ve all been doing well and staying healthy. It has been a very interesting couple of months and now things are slowly starting to get back some normalcy. Today, I wanted to talk about an experience I had over the weekend. We hear this phrase “win the morning” all the time. Justin Su’a talks about it, ALL the self-help books talk about it, and anyone who’s in the business of performance psychology talks about it. I have had it drilled into my brain, but I can tell you I have never been a morning person and so this huge, powerful atomic habit has never come easy to me. But I had a pretty powerful experience this weekend that has proven to me just how important winning the morning is.
First, let me give you a little background. For the last two weeks or so I have doing a 30 day challenge to create a healthier, more nutritious diet. It’s not a fad diet, it is a way of changing my everyday diet. For the first 8 days I was killing it. I was “quarantined” to my apartment, so it wasn’t convenient anymore to eat out. I couldn’t go out with friends, so there weren’t temptations from peer pressure. And, I had a morning routine. Every single morning, weekdays and weekends, I would get up at 7:30, let my dog out, make my morning fizz drink and tea (coffee substitutes), sit on my couch and read a book, at 8:30 I would make a breakfast shake, read until my shake was gone then shower and start my work for the day. My work was productive, I took several walks, and I would run, bike, or roller blade. It was amazing to me how great I felt and how easy my routine was and how productive I had become. I chalked it up to this new, healthier way of eating. I definitely know that was part of it, but let me tell you about my weekend.
This weekend I had to another city and stay with a friend for work. I was so excited! I went Wednesday night and Thursday morning I had my same morning routine and my day was nearly just as productive as normal and I kept up my healthy food choices. Friday morning everything changed. Friday morning I realized my routine that evening was going to have to change. I was going to have to eat at an unusual time and it wasn’t going to be easy. That morning, I chose to alter my morning routine and the rest of my choices that day suffered. I held on pretty firmly to my diet, until 9 that night. I was starving and I had already made a bunch of excuses early that day so I decided to break my diet. Well, Saturday morning came and my morning was rushed. I didn’t have a chance to do my normal morning routine, and I made one bad choice. Guess what happened Saturday night? Oh yeah, I definitely broke my diet and made unhealthy food choices. The exact same thing happened on Sunday, except even worse.
All weekend I struggled to understand why I was making these terrible choices. I had been doing so well for the past eight days, why was I failing so terribly now. Well, a friend had sent me a video a little over a month ago that I hadn’t watched but decided to yesterday since he called me out on it while at work. As I sat watching this video, it hit me. I had stopped winning the morning. All weekend, I made terrible choices right away in the morning. I had started making excuses about my day before I had even drank my breakfast shake. I now fully understand just how important it is to win our mornings. I now understand why Justin and all the other psychologists preach “win the morning.” It is so important and it sets the tone for the rest of our day. I’m going to add the video I watched to the bottom on this post. I encourage you to check it out! It’s a really good one!
I hope you can all see the value in winning your morning and start to choose your routines more carefully. In the mean time, let’s Find the Positive! Don’t forget to write yours down or leave them in the comments. As always if you have questions, comments, concerns, or just need someone to talk to don’t hesitate to reach out!
FTP:
- I got back into my routine this morning and so far have made a lot of positive choices! It’s been a productive and peaceful day with lots of healthy choices.
- Friends have made my day with Star Wars memes and videos! I’m grateful for friends who are as nerdy as me and who think to brighten my day with videos of lightsaber battles and baby Yodas!
- I got good news that new books are going to be arriving for me tomorrow! I’m excited to check them out and decide on a set of new curriculum for my new classroom next year!
AT CHOICE 