If you were to ask any highly effective person what the secret to their success is, they’ll most likely tell you the key is having a “consistent” routine and actually committing and holding themselves accountable to sticking to that routine at least 85% of the time.
When we look at how successful other people have become and what they’ve done to get there, we think things happened either by chance, luck or having a better start or circumstances compared to ourselves. We don’t consider the personal contribution that may also be involved or the simplicity of having a consistent routine.
I never really considered myself to be a morning person by ease. If I was expected someplace, oftentimes work, that required me to be present at a certain time, I made it happen. On days that early morning obligations weren’t expected, I would take advantage by staying up late, sleeping later and sometimes staying in bed well past noon. When I finally decided to get around to personal obligations, I struggled to get started and sometimes get through them all because I’d completely missed out on the entire morning.
I felt like with all the years I’d spent putting in work, I had earned the right to be a little less responsible than usual. It took some time but I began to understand that in order to see the changes I really wanted to make happen, I needed to make a change in routine. This meant becoming the morning person everyday consistently showing up for myself just how I would be expected to show up for someone else. I started to value my time more, being intentional with my goals and finally seeing results small and large scale.
My suggestion when trying to establish a routine is to know your personal expectations and to make things as comfortable as possible. The last thing you’d want, is to go all out and be so abrupt with things that you don’t make it through a month of your new plan, or max out after the first week discouraging yourself from going any further.
What Are Your Expectations?
Having a daily routine without purpose can become mundane. Your routine should reflect the life you want to live. If your goal is to read before work, determine your new time of getting up in order to fit in an hour of reading while still having enough left to prepare and commute to work. If the goal is to be more fit, set a schedule carving out time for your workouts and if appropriate, incorporate daily or weekly meals preps. Try variations and shift things from morning to afternoon/evening until you’ve found a ideal balance that fits . There is no right or wrong way to go about it. Some people find their motivation happens early morning and so they schedule the most rigorous and demanding tasks then since their afternoons are typically sluggish and non productive.
Transition Comfortably
Again, the last thing you want is to get prepared for a change to only be knocked down by the high expectations you set in the beginning. Not everyone is able to go “ALL-IN” and make a change in one day. Theres a lot to consider when making changes and depending on what responsibilities you have, things aren’t guaranteed to go as plan right away.
When I decided to make the transition I started by focusing on time and schedule. I wanted to be up at a certain time and in bed asleep at night at another specified time so that I had enough of the day to plan and execute priorities. Getting my body use to the consistency wasn’t as bad as I expected by I made a commitment and soon built an internal clock that would easily turn on and shut off at the right times. If you’re concerned about an earlier than usual rise, start in smaller increments, allowing your body to adjust, enough to be able to keep up and get use tot he new you.
I will admit that on some days with my workouts being the last difficult thing of the day to get done, I have a hard time motivating myself to get through. On the days I can anticipate a struggle, I reach for a pick me up courtesy of Celsius. I love the flavors these come in and find no effects other than a little boost of energy to get things moving.
Build Momentum
Overthinking leads to procrastination slowing any momentum we may have built up at one point. We believe that our families, supervisors and coworkers expect so much from us that when its time to execute a project we’ve envisioned an outcome we can’t produce, don’t have the resources for or have procrastinated up to the very last minute. Something I found to be helpful with these times is starting with the largest, most time consuming project or task. If this is out of the way early, the pressure will be non existent, less energy will be spent thinking about it and you won’t be distracted.
JUST DO IT!
Whatever it is that you want to do, JUST DO IT! I hate to break it to you but, there is never going to be a perfect time. There are only so many tomorrows or shots to take. You just have to start, where you are and go for it. Find a way to do it with what you have. Being reluctant to take action only keeps you from the progress you truly want to experience even longer. I’ve had my own share of things I waited to start because of my “perfect timing” illusion. Because of that I fell behind, feeling like I’ve had to work harder just to catch up.
So, start the book, write the blog, TAKE THE RISK! Whatever it is JUST DO IT SIS! You’ll be surprised and grateful you did.