I recently listened to a presentation by Jon Gordon and John Maxwell. They were both talking about the importance of mindset and how you have the ability to shift your world each day just by the way you choose to think and speak to yourself every single morning. This starts by creating a morning routine that encourages growth and positivity. A shift in your mindset.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I let the world speak to me through the news or negative things and tell me how I’m going to react in the day. But we can choose what the dominant emotion is in our life. We can choose fear or faith. When you think about how to start a morning routine that changes what you focus on, it can be daunting.
You may be asking: How do I change my morning routine? I don’t even know what a morning routine is! Or perhaps your life is so packed full of time constraints and obligations that you don’t feel like you have time to start a morning routine. You may be having a hard enough time just getting out the door on time in the morning. Keep reading! This post is for you.
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How to Wake up Happy and Motivated
When starting a morning routine, your desire is most likely to wake up happy and motivated. Most people I know wish they had more energy and motivation to get things done because their to-do list is longer than the hours in a day. When stress and overwhelm start to overshadow your joy and happiness, your motivation and energy level decrease.
Paying attention to what you are focusing on is the first step in waking up happy and motivated. If you focus on fear, your fear will grow and start to consume your life. If you focus on faith and read God’s promises and claim them for yourself, your faith will grow and the fear will decrease.
Faith in God instills love in our hearts and “perfect love casts out fear.” I John 4:18 NIV
Your faith in God doesn’t make life easier, but it does make you stronger!
You may have heard this analogy before but boiling water is like adverse circumstances. If you are reading this today, you most likely have one or 100 adverse circumstances in your life right now!
- If you put a carrot in boiling water, it becomes soft and weak.
- If you put an egg in boiling water, it will become hard and angry.
- But if you put a coffee bean in boiling water, it transforms the water! We don’t even call it water anymore. We call it coffee.
I love this analogy because unlike the carrot, egg, and coffee bean, you have a choice of which one you want to be like. You can become hopeless and fearful, hard and angry, or you can transform the world around you in times of difficulty.
Don’t allow your circumstances to alter your faith – allow your faith to alter your circumstances.
How to Start the Day off Right
You may have grown up hearing the saying “you need to start the day on the right foot” or “you got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning”. Both sayings refer to how you start the day off right. When you are looking for ways to start the day on the right foot, you often have to look at the day before to plan for the next day to start off right. Starting the day off on the right foot takes intentional planning and preparation and doesn’t usually happen by accident.
- First of all, you need to decide that you are going to start the day off right. Simply making the decision that tomorrow will be a good day, helps re-set your thoughts and the way your brain will rest during the night. When you make a conscious choice that tomorrow will be a good day, your brain is resilient and can more easily work through difficulties during the day without becoming overcome by them.
- Make the choice to tune out the negative voices that may surround you. If this is watching hours or news or talk shows about the news, take a moment to evaluate if this is helping you be joyful, or creating fear and anxiety in your life. Guard your mind and move forward. This also applies to social media, toxic relationships, work environments, and more. Look at the time you spend with people who are not lifting you up. How can you minimize their impact on your joy? If you have a co-worker who is constantly negative, how can you plan your time or your routines so that you aren’t hanging out during lunch listening to them gripe?
- Intentionally look for ways to spend time loving others, serving, and caring for those around you and you will not have room for fear and anxiety. Gratefulness and thanksgiving do not make room for stress. They create a space filled with joy and happiness.
- RELATED: Emily’s Dresses – a Story of Answered Prayer. This is my story of a mindset choice and choosing faith over fear and disappointment.
- RELATED: How to Become a Morning Person for Night Owls with Children
Start the day off right quotes
Here are some inspiring quotes to help your start the day off right. If you don’t know these authors, you may find it interesting to read about their lives and the challenges they faced. These start the day off right quotes are a testament to the authors’ decisions about starting the day right.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” ~ Henry Ford
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” ~ Mother Teresa
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ~ George Eliot
How to start a morning routine this week
As you consider starting a morning routine this week, here are some steps that will help you plan. Remember, each day is a new day. If one day falls apart, you have a new day tomorrow. Whenever you start a new habit, it takes time and practice. Give yourself some grace and know that there will be roadblocks, situations that arise that are out of your control, and difficulties that may impact your morning routine. But you have the choice every day about how you will respond or react.
- Start the night before. Before you go to bed, make the decision that tomorrow will be a good day.
- Take a few minutes to write down some things you are grateful for. Use a gratitude journal, sticky notes, or an app on your phone, but go to bed with thanksgiving in your heart. You may only be able to think of a couple things, but work on this every day.
- Think about your day tomorrow. What will you need to wear? What do you need to have ready for the kids to go to school? What errands do you need to run? Do you need your grocery list? Mornings are hectic and it’s easy to forget important things if you haven’t had time to prepare. By planning the night before, you can rest easy knowing that you are prepared for the day. What things can you do tonight to help your morning routine go smoothly? Can you lay out your clothes, pack lunches, sign permission slips, pack the kids’ backpacks and put them by the door, etc.
- Plan out your morning routine. You know how much time you need to get ready for the day, get the kids up, lunches made, breakfast ready, etc. Then think about the things that YOU need to do to start the day off right. Make sure to include some quiet time in prayer and Bible study, drinking water, exercise sometime during the day, getting dressed and ready for the day. Things will always come up to distract you, so plan ahead.
- Be flexible with your morning routine. I know this sounds counter-productive, but things will undoubtedly happen. You may be all ready for the day and find that the battery on your car is dead! Or perhaps your windshield is covered with frost or ice and needs 5 minutes to scrape or defrost. Perhaps you child woke up sick and now you have to figure out what that looks like for all of the family.
- You can start again tomorrow. Each day is a new day. If your morning routine didn’t go as planned today, makes some mental notes and see what you can change for tomorrow so you can start the day off right.
- Use Bible verses about the new day to encourage you each morning. God’s mercies are new everyday and He desires that your heart is filled with joy.
- RELATED: Complete Guide to Creating the Best Morning Routine
- RELATED: 18 Powerful Morning Prayers with Scriptures
- RELATED: Morning Prayers for Families
Bible verses about having a good day
God knew that we would be busy and that life happens and is sometimes overwhelming. That isn’t how He created the world, but because of sin, this is the world that we live in. There is a lot of hope in the Bible about new beginnings. Here are some Bible verses about having a good day and Bible verses about a new day.
As you read these Bible verses about having a good day, the good news is that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8) and He will be with you as you work on your morning routine and starting the day off on the right foot.
- Lamentations 3:22-24 – Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
- Psalm 118:24 – The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
- Psalm 143:8 – Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
- Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
- Deuteronomy 30:19 – This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
- Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- Psalm 84:10 – Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
- Joshua 1:8 – Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
- Psalm 68:19 – Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
- Psalm 59:16 – But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.
- Nehemiah 8:10 – Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
- Psalm 27:4 – One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
RELATED: Best Morning Devotions for Women
How Starting a Morning Routine Helps Your Family
When you start a morning routine that focuses on peace, planning, thanksgiving, and joy, this will overflow over to your family members. Your children and spouse can sense mom is stressed and frustrated. By starting your day with a solid routine that includes focusing on God and His blessings while being prepared for the day, you are setting an example for success for your children as well. Even if they are throwing a temper tantrum or upset because they can’t find their favorite socks, you are setting an example of orderliness and preparation that can help them as they grow as well.
Include your children in your morning routine and show them how to start a morning routine for themselves. Teach them to prepare for the day the night before by getting their things ready, laying out their clothes, writing down their thanksgiving, and deciding that tomorrow will be a good day. Help your children start their day on the right foot.
You may also like these posts…
- Praying Moms – Using Scripture to Pray for Others
- Remain in Me – Lessons from John 15
- Joshua 1:9 Prayers for Courage
- Creating a Self-Care Life
- Praying Circles Around the Lives of Your Children
- 31 Bible Promises to Pray for Your Children
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