Tag: morning routine

The Importance of Habits

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. – Colin Powell

Have you ever thought about the habits that you have? Most people don’t and I can say for a long time that I didn’t. How important are habits, they are the key to changing your life. They can help you become a better person, a better spouse, father, employee or boss. The opposite is also true. Your habits could be keeping you in the same place. The habits that you have now may have gotten you a comfortable life, but they also may be keeping you in that comfort. Habits are very important.

Life Assessment
Morning Routine

My Writing Habit

There have been a couple of times where I have tried to form a new habit with my writing. It’s on my heart to write two books this year. I know that to get those accomplished I need to actually sit down and write. One thing that I’ve learned is that I need a daily writing habit. My goal is writing  500 words a day. That is why most of my articles are right around that length.

The reason that my books aren’t completed is because I haven’t been consistent in my writing. I have a morning routine and have written about the importance of a writing routine, but I still haven’t stuck to it lately. These ups and downs with my writing habit do show me the importance of habits.

Want to know how important habits are? Here are some stats

The Importance of Habits

  • Almost half of the actions you perform each day are habits.
  • Habits are powerful because of neurological cravings.
  • When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making
  • The automatization of your actions free up energy that can be used focus to other tasks.
  • Take control over your habits: Your brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits.

 

The general rule is that it takes 21 Days to start a new habit. The struggle for most of us , myself included, is that we can do good for a couple of days and then it just takes one day to mess up everything and we feel like we have to start all over again.

21 Days to a new Habit...what's holding you back Click To Tweet

Habits are vitally important to us. From the above list, we can see how much of what we do is based on habits.

How often do you think about the route that you take to work? Do you think about the route when you take the kids to school? What about the start of your work day?

The good news is that we can change our habits. We can improve and go from where we are to where we want to be. It’s not about changing the big things in our lives but about changing the things we do on a daily basis.

 

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you ready for 2019? Ready or not it’s here. There are times where we can go through life and things are great and everything seems to go our way and then there are times where it can feel like life slaps us around and it takes everything that we have to keep it all together. I want this new year to be the best year for you. I want to share what I have learned that will help you get the best out of your year.

Happy New Year w/ greenery

These are tools that don’t just apply to the start of the year, but they can be applied whenever you want. You just have to be willing to do the work. Changing or trying upgrade a part of our life doesn’t have to be reserved for January 1st.

Over the past year, I’ve made some adjustments to my schedule. I’ve gone from working nights in a factory to a more corporate job. I’ve learned to balance work, marriage, ministry and friendships. Okay, well I’m learning to balance those things, anybody that tells you that they’ve mastered it is lying, we’re all learning to balance those things everyday. This past year has been filled with ups and downs and this is what I’ve learned that I believe will help us all have a successful new year.

What’s Important

  1. You need a morning routine. This may seem like a fad ,but trust me it matters. I’ve gone through stretches of both and if you want to feel productive, if you want to get the most out of your day then your morning routine matters. I wrote more about morning routines here that you can read about here. 

 

  1. Set Goals. I’m not here to tell you how many goals you need to set, but you should have goals. When doing your goals break the goals down into what you want to accomplish in each quarter of the year. This may take some time, so don’t rush through the process. Nothing great will come of it if you rush through the planning process. I couldn’t fit everything about goals in this section but I wrote more to help us that you can read here. 

 

  1. Your spiritual is just as important as your physical. Some people like to pray, some people like to meditate. I’m not here to argue about religions. I’m a Christian  and I believe in the power of prayer. Your spiritual life is just as important as your physical life. It actually is more important because it impacts your physical life. It does more to keep you balanced than the other way around.

 

This year can be better than the last year, but it won’t happen by accident. We have to be intentional about our time and our lives.

Discussion Question: What has stopped you in the past from accomplishing your goals? What steps will you take to make this year different?

 

5 Things to Add to Your Morning Routine

Netflix & What Would’ve Been

Has this ever happened to you?If you’re like me, you have a “free day” marked on your calendar and you expect  to do whatever you need or want. However, the great plans that you had disappeared when you sit down to catch up on your Netflix queue. Before you know it, you’ve watched an entire season of Luke Cage, it’s 6 o’clock and you still haven’t showered!

Time w/ God

I like to get the most out of my day. I feel like it is a good day when at night I can look back and feel like I accomplished something. It’s a good feeling to have days where you feel productive. Productivity has a way of making you feel better in every area of your life.

Start the Right Way

One of the most important things that I’ve learned over the last couple of years is how important your morning routine is to the start of a great day. You can pretty much Google“How to have a great morning,” and get plenty of advice on how to get the most out of your day. What I see from these tips and morning routines are the biblical principles that God has laid out for us. So what does God say about how we are to start our day.

  1. Plan the night before

The start to a great day actually begins the night before. Proverbs 21:5 Says that “the plans of the diligent leads to abundance”. A successful day actually begins the day before. Too many times we just let the day happen to us. We need to plan how we want our days to look in advance.

  1. Devotional

Having a good devotional is a  benefit. Most devotionals give a daily scripture, some reflection and a prayer at the end. I really like devotionals because they offer a focus for the day. It provides context and gives me a reference for what I can refer to throughout the day. Joshua 1:8 says it best. We are to “meditate on God’s word day and night.” Devotionals are great for this.

  1. Pray

By this point in the morning routine, there you should flow from one thing to the next. It can be easy to flow from the devotional time to a time of personal prayer. For me, I like to begin my personal time with expressing to God how thankful I am. Our prayer time should focus on God rather than ourselves. While there are times we do need to express issues of our lives to God, there should also be times where we are praying for our families, friends and communities.

  1. Journal

I am a big fan of writing in a journal. For me, it’s a great way to reflect on the previous day, and a way to transfer the thoughts in my head out on paper. Sitting down to journal after a time of prayer is a great way of getting in the habit of writing the things down that God tells us. Using a journal as part of your morning routine helps to value God’s voice and His word.

  1. Confessions/Affirmations

Ending the morning routine with confessions or affirmations is an awesome way to build up our confidence and self-esteem before  we step into the world. God’s word is most powerful when we speak it out of our mouths. We don’t just become the things we see and hear, we become what we say. Confessing God’s word over lives builds us up for so many things that we attack during the day.

Have you developed a morning routine? If not, what is holding you back? Let’s start today with getting the most out of our days.