What gets me into an optimistic, energetic state to take on the day? I wake up each morning weekdays at 6:30 am, write content, throw the fruit, protein powder and greens into the blender, brew freshly grounded coffee, meditate, sit with my kids to share a bigger breakfast, sometimes do my daughter’s hair, give a kiss good-bye and try to hit the gym as part of my morning ritual. Long-winded, but this all actually helps me to breathe. I have goals: “career”, business, family — that come next on the agenda, yes, the same ones every morning, and these require that breathing as I revisit them. So, I meditate once more for a few minutes to feel into what I can do that day to facilitate them. And, somewhere in the morning I network with people from all over the world — just to say hi, can I help, or can you do me a favour.
All of these things ground me, connect me and expand me. And here’s the crux of creating a morning routine for a successful day — whatever I do, through success principles I ensure I am on my game. I’m not immune to stressors. But that’s why I follow a morning routine that ensures I start off right, and I hope that by sharing what I do in my morning, you too can create more success in your day.
Is there a blueprint for a successful day? Absolutely! Research has shown that a morning program that hits key aspects for enhancing well-being sets course for the rest of the day. The blueprint for my morning routine is essentially the integral life practice, developed by Terry Patten and Ken Wilber, which I enthusiastically teach clients who come to me with problems they want solved. While I work on finding the leverage points within people’s business or organization to pin point where to enhance productivity, together we go straight to life practices.
What are the success principles of this blueprint?
- Including more perspectives
The first is to endeavour to include more perspectives of what make you feel fulfilled and impactful in your life and through your work. Can performance, for example, include succeeding at finding leverage points in addition to being more efficient at what you do? In other words, could the definition of performance for you be one that allows taking a step back to see the big picture to find the opportunities for innovation, even if that compromised efficiency or even death of the old ways of doing things? When I feel into my goals, I allow myself the opportunity to “feel” something else emerging that maybe didn’t exist at the time of writing out my goals and I would otherwise miss if I followed a clearly outlined list of things to do to achieve my goals.
2. Mindfulness
There are so many pathways to connecting within and expanding into a higher consciousness. The goal is to connect with oneself, first of all, gain more perspectives in awareness and, from there, live purposefully. What I pursue as career and as a mother, for example, has everything to do with what is fulfilling to me and what I feel is making an impact in this world. This means being connected with myself first of all. Without feeling whole, authentic and grounded, I cannot hope to gain all that comes as a result to get me through my day. The results are resiliency, adaptability, calmness, faith, and trust that I am being guided to the best solutions and outcomes.
3. Sharpening the mind
Writing content as the first thing I do sharpens my mind and boosts my confidence. It supports the creative flow that carries me through the day. By getting the neurons firing I get in my innovative mojo. I feel automatically inspired and capable. This step is important for me for all challenges I might walk into and take on during the day.
4. Discovering limiting beliefs
The successful don’t just survive; they seek to thrive. To create a thriving mindset requires being totally honest with and embracing the parts of us and our thinking patterns that are conditioned and are, well, not very helpful to having the success we want. Spending that precious time with kids and networking not only serves to create connections but inevitably brings up things within me, parts of me, that push me to reflect. Here, I am reminded to give myself opportunity to approach situations in the day with greater acceptance and personal insight into how I may be enhancing or, in fact, compromising personal and group success.
5. Health and wellness
I can’t emphasize enough just how much exercise and eating well affects productivity, optimism, and innovation. Studies show a direct correlation between eating healthy and exercise and productivity. Even my purpose of being the most amazing mom requires that I take care of myself to be there fully for my kids, mentally and physically.
6. Emotional strengthening
Enhancing emotional connection to my kids and people all over is an essential part of my morning. For one, it takes care of the stress hormone, cortisol, that, again, I am not immune from! But, it’s a principle. It’s those connections that are what keep me going during tough times and thriving during easier ones. It’s that awareness that I’m a part of someone else’s life that fulfills me. Productivity is not simply about a list of items. Productivity is firstly about how you connect with others and expand opportunities for the flourishing of humanity.
Originally published at medium.com