You now know that if you get up at 5 am and follow a great morning routine it can change your life. But there’s just that one tiny detail . . .

How the heck do I get up at 5 am??!!

Let’s get started with a review from our last post on How A Morning Routine Can Change Your Life.

First things first : WHY the heck you should get up at 5 am for your own morning routine?

1. Mamas – the number one reason to get out of bed early – 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.
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.
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.
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.

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

How to get up at 5 am

Not gonna lie, the thought was AWEFUL. 5 am!?? Whyyyyyyy!!!!?

But I DID do it.

Here’s how to get up at 5 am like you mean it:

1. Start the night before. Have everything you need for your morning routine ready.
2. Set your alarm with NO SNOOZE and if possible place it far away from your bed.
3. Set your intention before you go to bed. Tell yourself that you’re going to wake up at five am feeling refreshed, excited and ready to take on your day.
4. Remember that all you need is 20 seconds of intense courage and action. Don’t allow yourself to get into a negotiation with your sleepy-self.
5. Remember that the THOUGHT of getting up that early is WAY WORSE than actually getting up. The results will be worth it, I promise.
6. Open the blinds / turn on the lights right away when you get up. Better yet, if you can, go outside. This helps reset your internal clock.

These are the exact steps I followed to get up a full TWO HOURS earlier than normal and guess what, within three days of being diligent, I was waking up at five am – WITH NO ALARM. 4:55 would roll around and POP my eyes would open up and I’d be actually AWAKE, feeling excited and ready to tuck into my morning routine.

Pretty soon, I actually went to bed LOOKING FORWARD to getting up at 5!! How crazy is THAT?

How to create your own morning routine

1) Set your goals for your morning routine

What do you want out of your routine? Like anything, if you want to be successful, you have to know what the heck “success” looks like!

Lots of women who write about morning routines include everything and the kitchen sink in their mornings, which is fine for some, but let’s face it – might feel more than a little overwhelming for others.

Planning a 20 step routine might seem a bit much when you still can’t even wrap your head around getting out of bed before 7! So don’t worry. Be gentle with yourself. It’s better to start than be “perfect”. You can always add / tweak / change your routine as you learn what does and doesn’t work for you.

What’s the area of your life you want to focus on? Starting with just one helps.

• Are you a busy Mama to young kids? Maybe your primary goal will be taking a few minutes for yourself in the morning to feel ready to face the day.
• Maybe you’re dreaming of starting a side hustle, but haven’t been able to carve out time.
• You want to get back into shape but between work and kids it keeps slipping to the back burner

This is a choose-your-own-adventure scenario. Just like everything else with Slow Living – pick what speaks to you and leave the rest. Your morning routine can be 10 minutes or 2 hours or more. You get to decide.
Whatever your goal is, make it clear and write it down.

2) Decide what you want to be part of your morning routine, based on your goals.

Now that you know what your goal is, you’ll have an easier time deciding what, and more importantly – what NOT to include in your morning routine.

Here’s some ideas of things to include in your morning routine:

• get outside : walk the dog, watch the sun come up, go for a run
• meditate or pray
• practice self-care
• write in a gratitude journal
• write or speak your affirmations
• visualize what your life will be like when you achieve your goals, in detail
• read
• review your goals both long term and for the day
• plan your day
• spend time on your primary goal
• exercise / go the gym
• nourish your body
• make your bed
• do a quick tidy up

A successful morning routine also includes a DON’T DO list:

• Don’t check your phone
• Don’t open your email
• Stay off the internet
• Don’t use social media
• Don’t get into the weeds in details. This time is for big picture stuff and focused, intentional work.

3) Set your morning routine up for success the night before.

A successful morning routine begins the night before. Set out everything you need for the next day.

• a big glass of water
• have the coffee or tea ready to go
• have breakfast prepped ( I keep pre-measured smoothie ingredients in the freezer )
• set out your workout clothes and sneakers
• set out your First Light Workbook and your favourite pen

4) Decide on the structure of your morning routine.

Keep in mind these don’t need to be a set amount of time. You can vary the length depending on the demands of your day and your personal goals.

For best results even if you vary the length of the total routine, try to do things in the same order every day. You want your routine to become something you can do on auto-pilot, without having to decide at each stage what to do next.

Decision fatigue is real, my friends. Do your best to reduce it as much as possible, especially in your routines.

Set your morning routine habit up to make it sticky in advance.

There are lots of ways to increase your chances of sticking with your habit of your morning routine.

1) Anticipate the Benefits

Focus on how good you feel after your morning jog, or how much better your day will be if you start off with intention, whatever is your biggest payoff. Focus on that and teach yourself to crave that feeling. It will help lock your routine into a habit.

2) Set Clear Cues

Habits work based on triggers – time, feeling, seeing or hearing something in particular that trigger us to respond in a habitual way.

One easy way to do this is time-based triggers. For example, every morning at 5 am I wake up and start my routine.

I also like to use other associative triggers. I always do my morning routine in the same place and I play the same Beethoven piano sonatas every morning.

Visual cues could include setting your workout clothes next to your bed where you’ll see them as soon as you wake up, or having a full glass of water waiting on the bathroom vanity.

3) Use Habit Stacking

Habit stacking works by attaching new habits to existing ones.

You probably brush your teeth without thinking every morning. Want to include taking supplements as part of your routine? Stack them onto your toothbrushing habit by taking them immediately after.

Toothbrushing will become the cue to remember to take your vitamins.

4) Prepare for the Hard Parts

Knowing that the first 10 days or so might completely suck, you can mentally prepare for it and view it as a challenge, rather than giving up.

Cultivating habits takes time. Common wisdom is 21 days, but Hal of Miracle Morning encourages us to view habits as taking at least 30 days – that gets us through the hardest bits and gives us time to actually start enjoying the habit.

Allowing time to develop enjoyment gives our brain a chance to start anticipating the benefits, helping our habit stick. It also allows us to start shifting our identity to include our habit – Hey I AM a morning person, afterall! 

Once we start to link our identity to our habits, they become incredibly powerful. Suddenly instead of running being the dreaded step 5 of your morning routine, You ARE a runner, and runners run.

You don’t have to think about it anymore because it’s just part of who you are.

See? Magic.

Do you have a morning routine? What are your biggest roadblocks in getting a morning routine established?