Can just one habit completely transform your life? Sounds kinda unbelievable, right?

Turns out, cultivating just one daily habit like creating a morning routine CAN change your life, your health and your business.

Morning Routines are a hot topic among the Slow Living Set, and for good reason. But maybe you’ve seen the posts and thought –

What? Getting up even earlier???! I’m not getting enough sleep as it is! How can giving up 2-3 hours of sleep possibly make my life better??

But let me ask you this :

• Are you feeling overwhelmed?
• Feel busy all day but rarely have anything to show for it?
• Are you working hard on your goals but barely moving the needle?
• Or are you like I was, starting each morning screeching at everyone within 10 feet to back off till you’ve at least had a sip of freaking coffee?

Not pretty, right?

Now, don’t get me wrong. Our morning routine with the kids was a lot better than some. My kids are great at THEIR morning routine. Which made me realize, Shoot, maybe I better get one of my own!

So I focused on creating a habit of a morning routine, and something kinda magic happened . . . my life completely changed.

By cultivating a morning routine I:

• Began to finally shift the last of the stubborn baby-weight (like, only 6 years later, but whose countin’)
• Exploded my business to the tune of a 1200% increase in revenue year-over-year
• Finally launched this blog, which had been on my heart for aaaages
• Scored a feature of my business by a major tech company directly as a result of that redonkadonk revenue increase
• Felt more calm and in control of my life than I had in years
• Took my monthly Pinterest views from 1.7 k to 1.7 MILLION in just 6 months
• Started crossin’ off goals from my great big life-to-do-list like a BOSS

Here’s the thing about habits :

a) They’re mostly unconscious and most of us rarely examine ours, other than once a year under the glaring light of new years resolutions

and

b) They completely shape our lives; our health, our relationships, our finances you name it.

Most importantly –

c) They aren’t engraved in stone! We can change them, build them to suit our goals and set our success up to automate just like our email lists. It takes effort, intention and self-awareness, but IT IS POSSIBLE. Yeah!

So where the heck does a morning routine fit into this?

Developing an intentional morning routine fosters habits that empower you, rather than, you know, make your favourite wide leg crops too tight in the tummy.

As a mom to two young kids, a business owner and farmer, let’s just say time isn’t easy to come by. Especially that mythical creature of motherhood – uninterrupted time.

But ya know what, I figure hey – I’ve got the same number of hours in my day as Oprah, Steve Jobs and, ya know, the Queen of England.  No excuses. Either I was going to prioritize MY goals or someone else was gonna fill my day with THEIRS.

So I committed to getting up each morning at 5 am. Yes, FIVE.

Would I call myself a morning person before this? Not particularly.

I got up because if I didn’t small humans would start wailing for food. I wasn’t exactly “beginning each day as if on purpose” as that lovely little quote goes. My morning routine completely changed this.

But before we talk about the how, let’s talk about WHY you should get up 1, 2 or even (dang!) 3 HOURS earlier than usual for your morning routine

Yes, yes I know like I sound like I’ve completely lost my mind. I get it. Buuut just go with me here for a sec, k?

1) Mamas – the number one reason to have an early morning routine – You will GET TO DRINK AN ENTIRE CUP OF COFFEE WHILE IT IS STILL HOT.

Can I get an amen??? Yaaaas.

That one reason alone should get you positively springin’ out of bed at 5 am! Honestly though, getting up early has been the greatest gift of self-care I have ever given myself.

As mothers with big dreams, gal dang it, we’re tired! Our brain is stuffed chok-a-blok full of OTHER people’s needs 105% of the day. It’s freaking exhausting, amiright??

Ok, segue . . . Ever play that kid “chubby bunnies” at summer camp? Ya know, where you take turns ramming marshmallows into your mouth and the last person to be able to say “chubby bunnies” without spewing their mouthful of marshmallows wins?

Anybody? No?? Just me?

Well anyway . . . Motherhood is a lot like that. We have a tendency to cram as much in a possible to our lives, our heads, our to-do list, our ever-growing List Of Things To Worry About and let’s be honest. Not a lot of room in there for US.

Getting up early before your kids or husband or whomever else you’re responsible for gives you a little grace time for YOU. Selfish? Maybe. Mostly though in my experience its been about self-preservation. Ladies, we gotta protect that asset! And guess what – your most valuable asset? It’s YOU.

Which leads me to the second reason to get up at 5 am:

2) Improved Mental Health

Ah – to be able to have two seconds to just think. To simply BE. This has had a huge positive impact on my well-being, and the well-being of my family. By the time my kids are up I am awake, focused and actually happy to see them. Yay.

Anxiety, depression, postpartum depression and anxiety, extreme stress and just generally feeling sucky are all things many of us struggle with (often silently) as Mamas and entrepreneurs.

Taking time every day to just check in, breathe and practice gratitude has had a huge positive impact on my own mental health.

Even when the rest of your life is swirling in chaos, having a few minutes of calm that you can count on goes a long way to keeping an even keel and so ya know, you don’t find yourself screaming at your barista first thing in the morning. (Former barista here sayin’ be kind before you caffeinate, k?)

3) Better Physical Health

Work-at-home-Mamas: Do you really have time for the gym? Or yoga? Or just a brisk stroll around the block with the dog?

Now you do.

You’re welcome.

Aaaaaand last but not least:

4) Your Business will EXPLODE

Within literally weeks of starting my morning routine, my business revenue exploded by 1200%. No, that extra zero isn’t a mistake.

BOOM.

Turns out taking time everyday to not just work IN my business but to set high-level goals, action plans and work on MYSELF is really, really good for business.

5) Routines Put Self-Improvement on Auto-Pilot

Ever driven to work or school, pulled into your parking spot and realized you have ZERO memory of driving there? Freaky, right?

That’s routine at work.

Our brains need routines and habits so that that great big blob of goo between our ears can focus on more important stuff than how to drive to work.

Think about how hard driving was when you were first learning. You had to think about EVERY. DARN. THING. Where to put your feet, how to hold your hands, when and where to look at exactly what time, too much acceleration, not enough? It was exhausting, right?

Ya, your brain agrees. So it’s developed this magic trick of habit that allows it to more or less tune out. Brains are hungry buggers. If they needed to actively make all those decisions every time, they’d have no energy for anything else and we’d still be bonking one another over the head in a cave somewhere. Or extinct. So, ya – moral of the story? Habit is your friend.

If you are diligent with your habit building and make it sticky (which we’ll cover in the next post) pretty soon your morning routine can be just like driving to work. Automatic. ‘Cept for instead of pulling into a parking spot, the result will be your life, body, business and happiness will totally transform.

Cool, hey?

Added bonus, these types of behaviours are contagious. Once you learn how to create a habit that sticks, you just might find yourself creating new, awesome habits in other parts of your life, too! Gooooo YOU! (I’m jumping in the air with pom-poms there, just FYI.)

So now you know a few reasons WHY you should have a morning routine, how the heck do you do it?

Stay tuned for our next post with simple, actionable steps to craft your OWN morning routine.