My Morning Routine
In my last post on Perspective is the key, I mentioned that creating habits helps in gaining or changing your perspective, especially on spiritual matters. In this post, I share my regular routine on how I try to maintain a spiritual perspective in all areas of my life.
How you start your day can play a key role on how productive you are for the rest of that day. I have spent several hours working on developing a consistent habit so that I can maximise my mornings. In this post, I’ll share with you my current morning routine. I say ‘current’ because I am constantly looking for ways to make it even better! Hope you find it useful.
1. My Morning Routine Starts the Night Before
It has taken me some considerable amount of time to realise that my lack of consistency with my morning routine was usually because I wasn’t getting to bed early enough. I am a morning person which means I am most alert first thing in the morning. However, many times I have caught myself trying to burn the candle at both ends. Since becoming aware of this, I now strive to go to bed between 10pm – 11pm. This is realistic as it gives me some degree of flexibility after coming back from an event or from a trip abroad.
2. An Early Start
I usually wake up at 5am. Many times, I will wake up naturally just before the alarm goes off as it is now how my body clock operates. The first thing I do is have a 500ml glass of water and then make myself a cup of coffee, I then read a chapter from a book in the Bible for 30 mins and draw out my insight- this depends on my study plan.
3. Reflection Gives Insight
For the next hour I reflect on a specific area of my life e.g. Marriage, Relationships, Work, Finances, etc. and I then review my vision statement in this area and answer a set of pre-designed questions which enables me to be aware on how I am doing in that particular area in my life. I then identify the things I need to change or do more of and find scriptures to meditate on throughout the day that will enable me rely and stay focused on God’s ability to help me with this. In total, I have discovered 4 R’s that are helpful to having a great QT, so watch out for my next post!
4. Prayer
Having reflected to gain some clarity on the area in my life that needs addressing, as well as other aspects of my life, I go to God in prayer. For around 30 mins (not always), taking this awareness, I seek God’s help and pray for others as well.
5. Exercise
Another area where I have struggled with getting into my morning routine is exercise! However, I found a simple home exercise course that provides high intensity training and I can do it in the comfort of my living room. Maximum time is 25 mins.
Well, this is my morning routine! I confess that I have had seasons in life when my routine has gone really well, which means that I have got into a flow when it all works, but I have also had seasons when for various reasons it hasn’t due to sickness, constant travel or just being tired or lazy! However, I have learnt to always persevere and strive to get back to the routine.
For many of us this is an area we fail. We believe that Jesus was able to rise from the dead but many of us find it difficult to believe that he can raise us up out of our mattress! As you would have noticed my morning routine roughly takes around 2hrs 30 min. I thought to myself spending 10% of my time ensuring that I am ready to be a servant leader to others should be just about right.
What is your morning routine? Do you have any questions or particular area you would want me to focus on in my routine? Please let me know. I would love to hear from you on this and please feel free to share your routine below.