I know what it feels like when you’re trying to get an early morning but you can’t seem to break away from your bed’s gravitational pull.
What’s different between our mornings and successful people’s mornings?
The way you choose to start your day can set the tone for the rest of it According to psychology journals, morning people are more proactive and that having a regular morning routine can actually reduce stress and anxiety.
Here are surprising morning routines of successful women:
1. Exercise
I know the last thing on your mind as soon as you wake up would be to pull yourself out of bed, put on a pair of leggings and sports bra and start working out.
Research by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center claim that while some people feel extremely tired and slow when waking up, exercising can get you feeling more energetic because it gets your heart pumping faster.
Other benefits include giving your metabolism a big boost, a surge of dopamine that gets you in a better mood and the overall feeling of accomplishment.
Some examples of successful women that start their morning off by exercising are Michelle Obama (she wakes up as early as 4:30a.m!), Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Oprah!
2. Pursue Your Hobbies
Waking up early to make time for doing what you love can definitely boost your day. Whether it’s a dance class, painting, practicing an instrument or a sport you play for fun.
Hobbies are actually a really good way to motivate you to get out of bed for someone who finds it hard to.
You’re definitely going to be more responsive to the alarm when you know you’re getting up to do something you love rather than rushing to go straight to work. Hobbies can also help put you in a relaxing, peaceful mood and unwind rather than be in that ‘rush, rush, rush!’ state.
It helps you get re-centered and can also get your creative juices flowing!
A great example of a successful woman who kick starts her day by doing what she loves is Anna Wintour.
Yes, she’s the editor-in-chief for Vogue magazine but she also loves playing tennis.
Wintour starts her mornings off with a game at 5:45 in the morning before work!
3. Meditate
Maybe all the proactive activities don’t really work for you. Not everyone’s a morning person – and I get that.
There’s other ways to set the tone for your day too, and one of the best ways is through meditation. When you wake up, take a few moments to structure your thinking.
You’d be surprised to know the life-altering effects meditation can have.
Some benefits include having a peace of mind, inducing determination and motivation for the day, organization, increased awareness and counteract stress.
Meditation definitely works for Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post.
SoulCycle Corporate interviewed Huffington about her success and asked about her daily meditation and ways to de-stress:
It begins the night before, with a good night’s sleep — which, for me, means 7 to 8 hours. And a big part of my morning ritual is about what I don’t do: when I wake up, I don’t start the day by looking at my smartphone. Instead, once I’m awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful, and set my intention for the day. I also practice yoga most mornings. And I breathe! The connection that conscious breathing gives me is something I can return to hundreds of times during the day in an instant. A conscious focus on breathing helps me introduce pauses into my daily life, brings me back into the moment, and helps me transcend upsets and setbacks.
4. Dedicate Time to Loved Ones
In such a fast-paced world, we tend to be guilty of neglecting the ones dearest to our hearts at times.
There are a lot of things to do throughout the day and sometimes, there’s not much time.
This is another reason to rise early and spend time with your family and loved ones before you set off to conquer the day.
Spending just an hour having breakfast together and touching-base with each other can build a stronger connection.
Whether it’s your parents, your children, your husband or your wife, everyone should take time out to dedicate a part of the day towards close ones.
Take Gwyneth Paltrow as an example,
I wake up at 7 am, I get [the kids] fed, and I get them dressed in their uniforms, any bits of homework are finished. I take them to school. She [Apple] gets dropped off at 8:25 am, and he [Moses] gets dropped off at 8:45 am, so we have a croissant together in his school dining room and we do reading together. Then I go home and I work for one hour on all the emails that come in overnight from LA.
5. Eat the Frog
That doesn’t sound too appetizing. What ‘eat the frog’ actually means is that,
If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. – Mark Twain
Still don’t get it?
The philosophy essentially implies that when you get the most important tasks of the day out of the way. This way you can get it out of the way as soon as possible and avoid procrastination.
If you can’t eat the frog, you can always go for the tadpoles first to build momentum.
Gloria Steinhem who is a NYC-based feminist icon manages to take the most important tasks head-on.
Steinhem claims that she usually “wakes up in a panic” because her whole life is pretty much organized around events and deadlines.
Her day starts off catching up with news in the bathroom, breakfast, heading off to get her morning latte and dealing with appointments and meetings for the rest of the day.
Conclusion:
Some of us don’t realize how important mornings truly are.
It’s okay if you don’t have a set routine yet, morning routines are different for everyone and can take a couple of trials to perfect.
You just have to find what’s the best way for you to wake up and be most efficient.
Successful people, in general, all manage to find the time for their family, passion, health and themselves throughout their day.
It’s just about how willing you are to organize your mornings in order to get the best out of yourself.
I guess it’s time to start setting your alarm an hour early.