A well-designed morning routine can have a remarkably positively impact on your ability to make progress. I believe it is essential for sustaining ongoing growth, self-motivation, and peace of mind. So as to be a successful Betterist it is a “must do” sacred habit. I see this as a marvelous way to start your day. As with a rocket’s travel, the launch is one of the most important steps toward a destination. Your morning routine is your launch to a successful start of each day.
Betterism seeks more joy, peace of mind, harmony, health, improved relationships, fun, a sense of purpose, etc. It also pursues efforts to reduce suffering, anger, conflict, despair, low energy, and feelings of inadequacy or meaninglessness. With the state of being called Be the Stream, we continually move forward and quickly pivot past obstacles and setbacks. We go over, under, and around them, continuing on our path of progress. Here, we see detours as the shortest way forward and mistakes as teachers and friends. Setbacks and upsets are handled with our Follow-Up Setback System (FUSS), which allows us to Be Like a School of Fish, pivot quickly, and continue moving forward shortly after a setback occurs. Moments after a significantly undesired experience, we record the setback in our FUSS log. This record will be reviewed and followed up during your Week in Review Session later. This gives you confidence that your FUSS process will properly address an immediate problem in the future. As a result, you are free to move on.
A Betterist views each goal as a journey with a desired destination. Here, journey and destination are symbiotic, each giving context and meaning to the other. Combining wise, empowering language with your goal gives you remarkable clarity and confidence. You will calmly see what works and doesn’t and learn to separate symptoms from causes. This will lead to an enlightened view and provide the wisdom and confidence to know what is right and wrong for you. This is all good news.
There is an important caution here, however. We must be vigilant to avoid becoming distracted and losing our way. We can easily lose positive momentum with our trajectory of progress. Daily life, with its surprises and unexpected detours, can easily divert us. We are continually pulled and pushed by commitments and instantaneous communications from smartphones, text messages, or e-mails. Media frenzy promotes tyrannical language that can confuse us and promote conflict with others. We can easily become overloaded with expectations from others as well as those we have ourselves. Daily events may require us to drop our plans to do damage control. These realities work against our staying on course as Betterists who continually pursue improvement.
Expect Interruptions and Distractions
The law of entropy is that things tend to move toward disorganization and deterioration over time. So, it is with our lives. Interruptions and distractions are inevitable and are to be expected. We can expect the unexpected to occur. Our morning routine is the anchor that keeps us grounded. It is a countermeasure against chaos and uncertainty. It is an elixir for order and certainty. It is a warrior protector who fights back the siege and bombardment we are exposed to daily. Our morning routine is a salvation against the darkness, and it is the light at the beginning of the tunnel that resets you and keeps you on course.
We need a wise morning routine to thwart daily threats to our focus and self-motivation. Your morning routine will have habits within it that serve as bastions and safe havens that encourage, guide, and keep you safely on your path of progress. A well-designed and wisely implemented morning routine will provide you with the following benefits:
• Ground you with gratitude for your accomplishments, gifts, and opportunities. It will be a time to savor and appreciate the current good you have within you and around you.
• Renewed clarity with who you are and what you stand for.
• Promote your self-motivation so your interest and desire continue to fuel your trajectory.
• Ensure you follow up and succeed with learning and improving from past setbacks, mistakes, and undesired experiences. These are some of the best opportunities for gaining wisdom.
• Ensure you follow up on new knowledge and skills important to you. These are proactive aspirational preparations you take for future desired achievements.
• Effectively handle the day ahead.
Great Comfort When We Follow a Wise Plan
The net result of having a wisely designed and consistently used morning routine is that you will have confidence in knowing that you are where you are supposed to be and doing what you are supposed to be doing. You will stop second guessing yourself with those “could have” and “should have” thoughts. This knowledge leads to real results, satisfaction, peace of mind, and the ability to enjoy your day better. It also reduces anxiety, fear, and despair as well. You will come to see and believe, “I got this covered!” There is great comfort and reassurance in believing you are handling important things as best as possible. Your focus will be more like a laser and less like a defused flickering candle.
Key building blocks within a successful morning routine are Intentional, Simple Tiny Efforts for Progress (ISTEPs).
The ISTEP is a morning plan you make and commit to for action(s) later that day. It is:
Intentional – thought through and chosen
Simple – relatively easy to accomplish
Tiny – short in the time required to do it
Efforts -an actual activity as opposed to a thought or an intention
Progress -selected to advance a specific focus for improvement
Examples:
• A tense argument and disagreement happened with a co-worker a few days ago. You recorded it in your FUSS log shortly after it happened for later consideration as part of your Week in Review Session. In your Week in Review Session, you decided to improve communications with that co-worker, as it has been a problem several times in the past. Every morning, you select an ISTEP as part of the morning routine that focuses on improving communications with this co-worker. Today, you plan to talk with them briefly about some benign non-work areas, such as sports or the weather. You hope to promote common ground between you and begin building a healthy relationship.
• You come to believe that your listening skills adversely affect your relationship with someone important. You have decided to make this a focus for improvement. Today, you plan an ISTEP action to read and review Chapter 15 on Relationship Listening from the Journey into Peace book.
• You are convinced that maintaining self-motivation is an important daily responsibility. Today, you chose an ISTEP activity in line with the “Creating & Maintaining your Self-motivation” section on this web site. Today’s ISTEP plan for self-motivation is to listen to a John Maxwell audio while you are driving to work.
One Step at a time with ISTEP (Intentional Simple Tiny Efforts for Progress)
Suggestions for designing and implementing your wise and sustainable Marvelous Start Morning Routine follow:
Link to an Existing Anchor Habit
Link your morning routine to an existing anchor habit. This anchor habit is one you do religiously each morning shortly after you wake up. An example would be to do the morning routine before you drink coffee. In this case, do not drink coffee until the morning routine is completed as designed. You could also decide that immediately after waking and your feet hit the ground, you will begin your morning routine. My experience with coaching clients is that doing the routine before a preexisting anchor habit has been more successful than doing so after an event.
When establishing the routine, some clients put a post-it note on their coffee makers saying, “No coffee until my morning routine is 100% complete.” That way, the coffee becomes a reward for completing the morning routine. Sometimes, clients will mark up a paper calendar with a smiley face each day the 100% completion of their morning routine is accomplished. They then are encouraged to give themselves a mental bravo for this accomplishment. Visual feedback is a benefit, such as looking at a calendar and seeing all those daily successes, especially in the early stages of instituting the routine.
One possible template for a morning routine follows:
1. Begin with gratitude and perspective.
2. Do some simple stretching and or exercise(s).
3. Follow up on a FUSS concern from your Week in Review Session with an ISTEP(s) plan.
4. Follow up with proactive learning measures with an ISTEP(s) plan.
5. Progress self-motivational activities with an ISTEP(s) plan.
6. Dealing with today.
1. Begin with Gratitude and perspective.
Write out a few gratitudes. These are with people or aspects of your life you are pleased with. Take a minute to savor these. Sit back calmly, close your eyes, and immerse yourself in a warm wave of appreciation and gratitude while smiling. “Savor” by appreciating something completely and doing so with gratitude. Dwell a bit on this positive in a relaxed manner. Gratitude is a wonderful beginning for your morning routine.
If you are religious, you may wish to pray at this time.
Review your ten convictions and remind yourself who you are, what you believe in, and what you stand for. Perhaps take one of the ten convictions and contemplate it, then journal a bit on it. Reinforce why you selected this as one of your key convictions and what the benefit of it is for you.
If you have developed a mantra for yourself, this would also be an excellent time to review it.
Chapter 21 speaks of the benefit of a state of being called “Be the Savoring Breath,” which includes a visualization before and after a breathing technique. This can be part of your morning routine as well.
2. Do some simple and short stretches and/or exercises.
3. Follow up with a FUSS initiative from your Week in Review Session. Plan an action for today with an Intentional Tiny Effort for Progress (ISTEP) that supports progress in dealing with a past setback.
As discussed in Chapter 17 you will occasionally record an undesired experience in your FUSS log. You review this record as part of your Week in Review Session. As a result of that review, you decide whether or not you will do something about it, learn from it, and perhaps prevent or minimize it from occurring again. If you choose to take action in response to a FUSS event, this will lead to a commitment to make a daily plan and take action(s) to make progress here. The ISTEP is a specific action(s) relating to making progress in this area.
4. Follow up with your desire for proactive achievement and plan an Intentional Tiny Effort for Progress (ISTEP) that supports this.
As discussed in Chapter 18 with Proactive Learning, there will be times when you wish to improve your knowledge or skills in preparation for a future achievement. Part of your strategy for progressing this initiative is to make a plan during your morning routine in line with an ISTEP action to be completed later that day.
5. Select an ISTEP for nurturing your self-motivation in line with Chapter 8 regarding Desire-power and “Creating & Maintaining your Self-motivation,” covering ways to promote self-motivation.
6. Dealing with today
– Review your scheduled activities and commitments for today
– List your top few critical “to-dos” for that day
With designing your morning routine, I suggest the Goldilocks approach and be mindful of how long it will take to complete. Design it so it is not too long or too short. Ideally, anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes should be adequate. If you design it too long, it will be difficult to sustain. If you design it too short, important initiatives will be neglected.
A wisely designed and implemented morning routine will get your day off to an encouraging start with a process that sustains and maintains continued progress. It will give you the confidence and means to achieve the important things. Your self-efficacy will skyrocket. Start your day with a “Bravo” to yourself.
Designing your Marvelous Start Morning Routine
1. What is the anchor habit you will link your morning routine to?
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2. List several key activities you will include in your morning routine (this should take 15 minutes to 45 minutes to complete):
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3. Will you record your daily 100% completion of your Marvelous Start Morning Routine? If so, where will you do so?
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