How we start the day tends to dictate how the rest of the day will continue; so this makes your morning routine the most important part of your day.

With your bigger picture goals in mind; take some time in the morning to start in a positive, focused, happy, and grateful mood. Build your energy with your morning routine rather than deplete it.

I want you to spend a little time pondering this. What do you do first in the morning, how does this make you feel, do you start the day reacting? Or being proactive? Do you know what you strive to achieve? Most of us have a good idea about what work, home and family stuff we must get done, but have you considered how your diet, training, and mindful space is going to be slotted in to the day?

It is good to have a rough plan; its ok to not achieve everything on the list, but having a draft in mind for what you wish to achieve, and what you must get done, means that generally it will happen at some point soon in time.

Why? Because the intention is set to achieve these things; and your subconscious is a pretty neat thing and so long as your goals are aligned with the direction that you wish to go then you will get there (sometimes the universe has its own route and schedule; this is ok too! Be open to diversions; these add substance to our whys).

I am not saying that you don’t have to put the work (action) in, as well as the planning (dreaming), but you need to know where you are going each and every day in order to get there. You also need to be aware of what habits and patterns sabotage your day.

Word of advice, don’t focus on the THERE, as much as you throw yourself in to enjoying EVERY PART OF THE PROCESS, the things that you write on your list of do’s are what build you and grow you; the foundations…. your list is the ‘life’ stuff; not the ‘have to’ stuff.

 

 

What does a perfect start to the day look like?

My day always starts best when I ignore the phone, enjoy a nice coffee, scribble my inspirations and thoughts into my journal, and write my list of the things I wish to achieve in the day. Funny, mine isn’t a to do list, it is a  “what do I want to get done” list. There is a big difference; one is a chore, the other feels like a choice.

I aim to avoid social media and the news in the morning; I am only moderately successful and the avoidance of this intrusion into my morning head space is definitely linked with my mood going forwards.

I work daily to manage social media, rather than it manage me. In my observations social media creates a reactivity to my day, it scatters my brain, pushes me into an endless loop of feeling I must research xyz in relation to health, sports, and medicine as it hits me from various Twitters, LinkedIn, and Facebook posts, and basically changes my focus from what I want to achieve into a mindless scramble down a rabbit hole. It is also tiresome and frequently heavy in energy. Have you ever arrived at work pissed off just because of some argument in the invisible realm, or an endless stream of negatives on the 8am news? Generally neither directly relate to you, but you let them impact you; get it?

I WANT to be leading my day from my heart and intuition; not influenced from the outside. So although I need to know what is going on out there; I must also continue in my quest to be discerning. I believe social media to be a prime stress in our current lives. Be mindful of how much time you waste on it, how it influences your mood and how it pulls your strings.

Many peeps start the day listening to the news and reading the new-stream; how does this make you feel?

 

So #1 in a perfect start to my day, is ignoring my phone until I am ready to start work.

The best coffee of the day, is the first coffee. No coffee after this is the same! I enjoy my coffee, with the kitchen door open to let the day in. This happens pretty much year round; I scribble my journal, and write my day’s list. This may not happen every day; but the days I do are always the better for it.

So #2 in my perfect day is spending a moment with a pen in my hand and my thoughts in a flow.

My training is important to me, so I do this early in the day and before work; this sets me up, allows me quiet time in my mind which is crucial for me, and improves my energy for working with clients. I also sleep better when I train early.

Currently I am training hard for personal goals; once achieved to the best of my ability my morning focus may change to other goals. The morning is the best time to work on the big stuff, why? Because it gets done no excuses!

Motivation is an expendable resource, leave the stuff that matters less to later in the day because some days, you just wont have anything left to drive yourself. This is normal, it’s not you being useless because we only have so much energy. Get the big stuff done first, and use morning time to plan ensuring that you get the other priorities achieved. If it matters, you will make it happen.

So #3 in my perfect day is starting with my priorities; or at the very least making a plan and taking actions to enable getting my priorities done.

 

Food is important in our house, to fuel our training, support our health, maintain our mind and bodies for a high work volume and creativity, and also for me to “walk my talk” so to speak.

I always spend a bit of time in the mornings planning ahead for dinner. This doesn’t take me long, it can be as simple as checking the fridge and taking protein out of the freezer, or as long as half an hour prepping some veggies, a soup, a slow cooker meal, etc. The timer function on ovens and steamers/ slow cookers is a busy persons best friend.

I will always get half of the dinner prepped if I can so that later all we must do is cook the fish/ meat/ eggs. If carbs are needed these can be tossed on later (polenta is fast, brown rice less so but a double batch can be prepared for time-saving the following day etc.).

All of us must eat well for many reasons; start to make this a priority and then make it simpler by planning ahead.

#4 plan ahead for meals.

After this the day generally goes to shit haha; but I get through the best I can, feeling positive.

In my ideal world….

On Monday I was feeling a little tired and overwhelmed by the world. So to start the week off on a positive note I took to the hills for my training run with the dog and let my mind go. In other words I made my training fun; using your training and mother nature is a good example of how to improve your mindset and energy.

I also while running received the inspiration to make a healing remedy for clients (bonus use of my time!). Here is the link if you are curious.

I went back to capture some pictures as it is too pretty to not share.

Today is Sunday, yep, you said it, that makes it already better! I did not lie in, nope, we were up with the alarm because the sun is shining today and the country is gripped by heat wave madness; when the sun shines in Ireland you go and make hay as the saying goes.

Morning swim with a great buddy: 

It’s not a professional swim until we start the finger pointing!

More photos from a perfect start to a productive day:

Let me know how you start your day!

Love,
Andrea

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

Abraham Lincoln – 1809-1865, 16th U.S. President