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I’m starting to appreciate how much grounding a solid morning routine can give me. It’s been a labor of love for the past year where I’ve started to “design” a series of tiny habits that I do within the first hour after waking up. I’ve closely followed BJ Fogg’s template to create new, tiny habits by…

• Relying on an existing trigger (Waking up, getting out of the shower, etc.)
• Starting with a small routine (1 push-up in the beginning) and increasing very gradually, over weeks and months
• Making sure I celebrate each time (“Awesome!”)

With that process, my morning routine now looks as follows:

1. After I get out of bed, I make my bed right away (Inspired by “Change the world by making your bed”)
2. After I’ve made my bed, I stretch and exercise for about 15-20 minutes
3. After I’ve exercised, I take a quick shower and groom
4. After I’ve showered, I do 5 minutes of breathing exercises, 10 minutes of meditation and 5 minutes of relaxation
5. After I’ve relaxed, I read or listen to 15 minutes of positive affirmations
6. After I’ve read or listened, I go through my list of goals and confirm my day’s plan

Each routine is followed by a short moment of celebration and self-empowerment (“Nice!”)

As you can see, one routine is the hook for the next one.

• Creating the exercise routine has been the longest project this year. I started out with 1 push-up and have grown the routine to stretching, jumping rope, 30+ pushups, 30+ leg-lifts and 30+ curls. But it truly started as small as it gets about 12 months ago.
• I learned my breathing, meditation and relaxation routine during my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in 2011. That’s been since my most consistent practice in the morning.
• The positive affirmations are a new addition but I have to admit, they’re working really, really well. They help me start the day on a high note and create the right emotional setting to review and plan my goals in the next step.
• For my goal-setting, planning and execution, I built my own application that I’ve blogged a few times already. That has been working out well, because I have everything I need in one place.

If you want to start your routine, I recommend watching the two videos I linked above. They’re fantastic foundations for how I’ve gotten my morning routine to be a “no-brainer.”

So far, not once did I have to force myself to do any of the practices because I started super-small.

It’s been great, I wouldn’t want to change it anymore.