Remember when The Army had that slogan "We get more done before 9am than most people get done all day"?This is pretty much true for me now, too, due to my morning routine! (Who says you have to join the army to be productive!)The History of My Morning RoutineBecause I have so much going on, I'm OBSESSED with creating systems and routines to make sure I get stuff done. There was a period of maybe 2 years where I just felt so lazy and never got anything done. I am NEVER going back to living like that again, and creating a morning routine is a big reason why.I first started tinkering with creating my own morning routine in college. I was a full-time student, had an internship, a part-time job, AND I was involved in different activities on campus. Within 6 months of having so much to do, I quickly got stressed out.In fact, not only was I stressed out but I was ticked off. I was mad that I had to get up an immediately give almost my whole day to someone else (my boss, my professors, etc). I HATED the idea of getting up an immediately having to work on someone else's agenda, while my dreams just sat on the sidelines.Eventually I got so sick and tired of being sick and tired that I decided to do something about it -- I decided I needed a morning routine. Without knowing anything about morning routines or how to create one, I just started getting up earlier, reading my bible and praying, then working on my personal stuff. I would make sure I had at least an hour to work on myself before I even began to get ready to do something for someone else. That was about 5 years ago and I haven't looked back since!While my routine has evolved over the years, I still believe it is the single most important part of my day. Devoting time to work on *my* agenda first thing in the morning has allowed me to make progress on projects in ways I know would not be possible without a morning routine.Introducing: The Morning Mindset RitualIf you aren't regularly in the practice of creating a morning routine, I HIGHLY recommend you start one right away. However, because I know that getting up early and starting a full-out morning routine can be hard, today I have a podcast for you where I share my "Morning Mindset Ritual".This "mindset ritual" is how I spend the first 30 minutes of my morning routine. I use that time to literally "get my mind right" and make sure that I have the right mindset to make the most out of my day. Since it only takes 30 minutes, you can try this "mindset ritual" tomorrow! In fact, I did a podcast (with detailed notes in case you can't listen right now) for you today explaining it in detail:>>>>>>>click here to follow me on Soundcloud<<<<<<<Podcast NotesWhen I first wake up, I go into 30 minutes of what I call "getting my mind right". I spend 30 minutes doing the following in order to get me in a motivated, productive state:1. Pray. Firstly, I say a prayer and pretty much tell God EVERYTHING that's on my mind. Every concern, fear, want, wish, whatever, I give it all to Him. I mostly do prayer the normal way where I'm verbally saying them (taking), but sometimes I'll do what I call "stream of consciousness" prayer where I just free-write my thoughts to God in my journal. I really enjoy writing prayers because you can look back at them over time and see how much your life has changed and how God has answered your prayers. Also, it depends on your personality but I'm the kind of personal that feels most clear mentally when I've written things down. The act of writing feels like I'm literally taking things out of my head and leaving them on paper, so writing my prayers out this way helps me to feel even more peaceful and free.2. Re-read my favorite Bible verses. Since I generally don't have time to do a full out Bible study on weekday mornings (I save that for the weekends), I review my favorite verses on daily basis instead. As I do my longer, more in-depth Bible study on the weekends, I make sure to save all the verses that really stand out to me. To make this easy, I save all my favorite Bible verses in my all-time favorite app, Evernote. Evernote is a digital note-taking app that allows you to save unlimited notes in your digital "notebook." It also has a great categorizing feature called "tags", where you can add a label to each of your notes for easy reference later. For the Bible verses I find that I want to re-read everyday, I save them as individual notes in Evernote then add the tag (label) "daily" to them. Then in the mornings, I open the Evernote app on my phone, click the "daily" tag and boom! All my favorite verses come right up!

3. Say my affirmations. You can check out my full list of affirmations here. Right after I review my Bible verses, I review my affirmations and say them out-loud. I also have my affirmations saved in an Evernote note with the tag "daily", so they come right up along with my Bible verses.4. Review my book notes and highlights. I'm a glutton for books. Not only is my world not right unless I have 6 on my nightstand and three in my purse (which makes for a very sore shoulder!) but I have to take notes on everything I read too. Right after I go through my bible verses and affirmations, I like to review notes/highlights I've made for my favorite books.Because I read most of my books on kindle now, saving notes has never been easier. If you go to kindle.amazon.com and click the "Your Highlights" button, all the passages you've ever highlighted will come right up in one place, organized by book. I then select all those highlights and copy and paste them into Evernote.

My highlights from one of my books on kindle

Those same notes saved in Evernote and tagged "daily"

Then, for the book highlights I want to re-read daily, I just add the "daily" tag to them and boom! (Lots of "booms!" with Evernote if you haven't noticed...), they come right up with my verses and affirmations that I read daily. I love re-reading highlights from my favorite books because it really drills the knowledge into my head and reminds me of what I've learned.5. Re-read my One Big Goal. Lastly, I re-read my One Big Goal. I first learned the importance of re-reading goals daily from the book, Think and Grow Rich. The author, Napoleon Hill, recommends re-reading your goal daily (twice daily, actually) because once you've embedded you goal so deep in your brain, your subconscious mind will begin to give you suggestions (he calls this "autosuggestion") on how to make your dream a reality. He writes:

"AUTOSUGGESTION is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind. You were instructed, in the last of the six steps described in the chapter on Desire, to read ALOUD twice daily the WRITTEN statement of your [DESIRE], and to SEE AND FEEL yourself ALREADY in possession of [your desire]! By following these instructions, you communicate the object of your DESIRE directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind in a spirit of absolute FAITH. Through repetition of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought habits which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its [real-life] equivalent."

In my experience, re-reading my goal everyday works! I find that I come up with more ideas throughout the day on how to make my goal happen, even when I'm not actively thinking about it. It's like my brain is working behind the scenes, sending up random plans and strategies when I least expect it.For the full audio, please check out the podcast on iTunes and Soundcloud.[podcast]So this is my very simple, but very powerful "morning mindset routine". It only takes 30 minutes so there's no reason why you can't try it tomorrow morning!

Leave a Comment:

What struggles do you have when it comes to "getting your mind right"?

Photo Credit: Carli Jean