The Top 7 Morning Habits of Successful Women

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen me talk about my morning routine. If you haven’t well it pretty much goes a little something like this…

5:45 AM : Alarm goes off and I hit snooze

6:00 -6:15 AM: Meditate and set my intention for the day. This has to do with just breathing and focusing my thoughts on the way I want my day to look.

6:15 – 6:30 AM : Get ready for my morning workout

6:30 – 7:15 AM: Run, bike around my neighborhood, hit the gym or turn on some type of cardio exercise on YouTube (love this one)

7:15 -7:30 AM: Have a cup of coffee and relax while I listen to either an inspirational podcast or a murder mystery podcast (my 10 fav podcasts will be a another post for another day)

8:10-8:15 AM: Head out the door to work

This wasn’t always my morning routine. In fact, I used to hit snooze 2-3 times before I actually woke up. Then,  I’d hop right on social media and check in on everyone else’s life before I even started worrying about my own. This uninspiring routine made me really start to dread coming into work each day, and at a job I actually really enjoy!  So I knew I had to do something to change things. What I began to realize is that, I couldn’t go work for another person and give them 8 hours of my day without first taking care of myself.

So how do you create a morning routine that’s both inspiring, motivating, self nurturing and doesn’t drain you or make you late for work? Well if you’re me, you research the morning habits of other successful women to get some ideas to incorporate into your own.

Now while my research wasn’t exhaustive, there were some  points that I saw continue to appear throughout each woman’s routine. The women I researched are entrepreneurs Like Arianna Huffington and Oprah Winfrey, but I also researched women in tech and other industries like marketing and design. I wanted to get an overall sense of what worked and what didn’t, but I also wanted to tailor my routine so that I stayed true to what I enjoy.

So here’s the list in no particular order. I hope you can use it to frame your own routine or change what you’re doing currently.

1.Meditate, Pray Set your Intention Before you Start your Day

The idea of starting your day with quiet mediation or prayer was prevalent in most of the stories I read. The act of creating some calm before the chaos of what the day may bring, allows you to stay calm even in said chaos. Many women said that having that short period of time to practice their breathing, or think about how THEY wanted the day to unfold was like a positive domino effect. Many could see the difference in their own behavior when they’d skip the practice( short temper, little to no patience). Start small was the advice given, try 10 minutes at a time to begin, sitting in a comfortable upright position (so you don’t fall asleep) and just practice breathing in and out. Thoughts will come, and you should let them, but the trick is not to get frustrated with your thoughts, it’s to just observe them as they appear. You, let your thoughts  come and go, but always try to bring yourself back to intentional breathing. While thinking about the best possible outcome of your day, imagine what you want your day to look like, what do you feel like when your day unfolds as you want it to? You should even imagine  how you’d like your coffee to taste! This act really gets the universe’s wheels turning so that you’re in control of the days outcome and the outcome isn’t controlling you.

2. Stay off Social Media!

This one is hard for me still! But the thought behind this is to keep yourself on track time wise. Social media is such a time sucker so you may find yourself scrolling through your feed for what feels like 5 minutes but look up and you’ve been on it for  20. Another reason to stay off social media is because FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real emotion and one that promotes comparison, and an unhappiness that can stunt your own growth. Think about it this way, social media isn’t going anywhere soon, so you’re not missing anything by choosing not to indulge in the morning.

3. Get your exercise in!

This one was especially important to those women who were very health conscious. To get one of the most dreaded things out-of-the-way early in your day just really frees your evenings up. I like to refer to this one as eating your frog. Which I know sounds pretty gross, but let’s imagine that you had to eat a frog before the end of your day. Wouldn’t you want to get that out-of-the-way first thing so you wouldn’t be dreading it all day long? That’s what working out in the morning is like for me, so when I do it first thing I’m not dreading it all day which leads to me making excuses as to why I shouldn’t do it in the evening. Science also notes, that when you work out in the morning it  releases crazy endorphin’s and does a lot of what mediation helps you do. I’ve been doing this myself and I can’t tell you how freeing it is! I now look forward to getting off of work and meeting up with my friends for happy hour because I don’t feel guilty that I haven’t gotten my workout in.

4. Wake up early! 

Now I know the world is broken up into two types of people, night owls and morning people. I count myself among the latter. I’ve been getting up early like clockwork since I was in high school much to the chagrin of my friends. But there’s just something about the energy of the morning, the promise it brings, the stillness of it centers me and in that stillness I get energy. There are also studies that show that getting up early improves your sleep, can help you earn better grades, be more optimistic and productive among many other things. The women I researched all got up by 6:00 AM and said they  even feel like they are more creative because of it.

5. Eat Breakfast

It’s my favorite meal of the day, but for many people eating breakfast is almost stomach churning. But allowing yourself even the smallest bite (no coffee doesn’t count) can effect what you choose to eat throughout the day. I find that when I skip breakfast I am a savage at lunch and I don’t make healthy decisions. But when I eat first thing, I tend not to crave the crap I would had I missed it. The successful women I studied didn’t pig out but had simple meals, fruit  and protein shakes being at the top of the list.

6. Connect with a Loved One

Whether it’s your kids, or your partner set some time aside to show the people you dwell with some uninterrupted love. Snuggle, kiss, look them in the eye and tell them what you appreciate most about them, whatever you do show the people you love some love…and if you live alone send a text letting someone you appreciate in your life know you do and why. This act does more for you then the other person in that it creates a sense of gratitude and we’ve all heard how gratitude just brings us happiness right?

7. Plan your Look the Night Before

If you’re someone who agonizes over what they will wear each day (*raises hand and lowers head slowly*) then this piece of advice is for you! Having your clothes prepared the night before frees your brain up and gets you moving quicker. That may be the difference in you can sitting down to breakfast with your family, or having time to write in your journal. Because how I feel when I walk out the door is very based upon whether I feel my outfit represents who I want to be that day (sometimes I want to be professional bad ass corporate warrior and others I want to be a bohemian goddess who sprinkles her positive fairy dust wherever she goes. It’s called range people), it’s important that I just get this act out-of-the-way so that I’m not walking around not being the bad ass version of myself I’ve imagined for the day.

Ok so now it’s your turn! I know I have some kick ass men and women who read this blog and have nailed their own morning routines. Let me know how you run your morning in the comments below!