How to Have Your Best Year Ever
It all starts with waking up earlier.
Now, before you exit out of this or go to the next post, hear me out.
I know we are all busy and most of us are tired. Most people get up in the morning with just enough time to get ready for where they need to go then they rush out the door and on to their day. They’re always feeling like they’re “catching up” and that they never have time. That’s me. Always rushing and always late. It makes for a pretty stressful life. Before I decided to make a change, I felt like I was just going through the motions and felt like I never had enough time to spend on bettering myself. I was just rushing off to my day, coming back from school or my job, making dinner, watching a show or scrolling through my phone to unwind, then going to bed. This endless circle of mediocrity caused by lack of “time.” I felt like I was going nowhere and really hated myself for it.
In this post I’m going to get into my self-help history a little. I’m going to be talking a lot about the books I’m going to mention and go discuss morning routines deeper in later posts but I’m giving a to give a little background in this one so it all makes more sense.
A couple years ago I was following this influencer named Aggie who I watched skyrocket to success over the course of a few months and wondered how she did it. There was something different about her. She radiated gratitude and positivity. She also talked a lot about mornings and her morning routine. About 6 months into following her, she posted a video showcasing her morning routine and I wrote down every step of it. I tried it the next morning. It was very hard to get up but I was excited to make a change for the better and I loved how it made me feel. It created this tangible shift inside of me. I didn’t adopt her entire morning routine but it started me down the right path and introduced me to the self-help world.
I then read Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. Moved to empathetic tears and extremely inspired to get out of my own way, that book gave me permission to be the greatest version of myself. I felt this self-imposed weight lifted off of me. I then found the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod which then gave me the tools and steps for HOW to create the life I wanted to live and BE the greatest version of myself. It showed me how to set myself up for success. That book gave me my testimony of waking up early. It helped me see that the only way you will ever have time to work on yourself is by waking up early. And when I say “early” I mean early enough to meditate or pray, read scriptures or read a helpful book, go over your goals and speak them into existence, write in a journal, work out or stretch, and eat breakfast all before you have to get ready for your day. I would say, the best thing would be to wake up an hour before you need to start getting ready for your day. You can usually get the routine portion done in 30 mins then you can use whatever time you have left over after your morning routine is complete to work toward specific goals or work on something you’ve been holding putting off doing. (Mine is this blog)
So you’re not a morning person?
Don’t worry. Neither was I and neither AM I if I don’t work at it. The good news is, you can become one. And I promise, if you are wanting more out of life and you truly want to BE something or someone, waking up early and having a routine will literally change your entire life. I only say that because it’s 100% changed mine.
The secret formula to getting your @$$ up in the morning:
1. Set your alarm and place it far enough away from your bed that you will have to physically get up and walk over to it in order to turn it off.
2. Immediately go to the bathroom and start brushing your teeth. Your body needs time to wake up. *Also make sure your room is warm when you wake up. It makes going back to a warm bed a lot less inviting.
3. Drink a tall glass of lemon water to both hydrate and give you even more time for your body to wake up. After drinking this huge glass of water, you should be pretty much awake.
4. Put your workout clothes on if you plan to work out in the morning and then go to a separate area or room to do your morning routine. Your day is now started and you’re on your way.
Now, this brings me to how you can make this year your best year yet. Once upon a time I was listening to Ed Mylett’s podcast where he was interviewing Jesse Itzler. Jesse said something extremely profound that resonated with me ever since. He said that no matter what else happened that year, if you ended your year with 12 winning habits, then you had had a hell of a year. I knew right away I wanted to implement that this year so from there I began writing down a list of 12 winning habits. Some were small that I should’ve already had instilled and some bigger that felt scary to commit to. Some of the things I wrote were:
Drink 100 oz of water a day
Wake up and get out of bed when my alarm goes off
Read one book a month
Scriptures daily
Prayers daily
Affirmations daily
Journal daily
Make the bed daily
Clean the floors once a week
Stretch daily
No phone in the morning and the hour before bed
Temple 2x a month
Compliment someone daily
Family Home Evening once a week
Serve someone once a day
Volunteer once a week
Go to church every Sunday
Workout daily
Practice gratitude daily
Green juice daily
Create your own list and commit to working on one winning habit each month. To tie in what I started with at the beginning of this post, waking up earlier will 100% help you accomplish these things. It will give you the time you need to work on your habit of choice and will improve the quality of your life in general. You will feel like you are ahead, which is one of the best feelings in my opinion. And then no matter what else happened that year, if you were diligent and stuck to one habit it each month, you can take comfort in knowing that you have 12 winning habits that are now a part of you and will no doubt take your life to the next level. If committing to 12 new habits sounds way too overwhelming, just take it one habit at a time and one month at a time. If you fail at creating a certain habit one month, try again next month. It’s about progress and not perfection. This is something I have to tell myself over and over again. It’s about being better and doing better than you did yesterday. The important thing is to not give up. I’m a firm believer that we have the power to determine own success. We are in control. SO I just know that at the end of the year when I am self reflecting and preparing for the new year, knowing that I gained at least a few winning habits is going to feel like success. And idk about you but I CRAVE the feeling of success.
This month I’m working on no phone before bed and reading from a book instead. I really enjoy reading but as a phone addict, it’s honestly been really hard. Hahaha. I haven’t been perfect at it but, I feel so much better and am able to really wind down and get much better sleep when I’ve stuck to it so I’ve been loving working on this. Tell me in the comments what you want to work on next or ideas of other winning habits that weren’t listed. I can’t wait to do this together!
xxx,
Sam