{"id":295,"date":"2016-04-15T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T11:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beawesomenotbroke.com\/?p=295"},"modified":"2017-03-31T14:10:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T14:10:13","slug":"how-creating-a-morning-routine-saved-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beawesomenotbroke.com\/newsletter\/how-creating-a-morning-routine-saved-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How Creating A Morning Routine Saved My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry guys, I’m a few years late on the click-bait headline train, figured I\u2019d try it out. Just this once, I swear.<\/span><\/p>\n

While my new morning routine didn’t necessarily save my life, it has been a surprising source of happiness and satisfaction. So I want to share what those changes have been and how they might help you too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever since starting Be Awesome Not Broke, I\u2019ve never felt like I’ve had enough personal downtime. Not to sit around and watch TV (nothing wrong with that, just not my style), but so I could kick back and do things like catch up on the news, dive into Medium articles or crack open a book. I wasn\u2019t making time for what Stephen Covey calls \u201csharpening the saw\u201d, aka self-renewal. I was doing that stuff as the Founder of Be Awesome Not Broke during the work day, but not as Garrett Philbin the individual.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think part of the blame lies in feeling like I have to work all the time (hence the \u201cWork\/Life Balance<\/a><\/span>\u201d newsletter). It also stems from not having established set work hours, meaning that I\u2019ll usually work until 8 or 9pm, often later. The problem with this working late approach is Parkinson\u2019s Law, which states \u201cwork expands to fill the space given to it\u201d, meaning that by not setting a defined end point for the day, I\u2019m just letting my workload expand to fill that time, whether I\u2019m productive or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

I now AM trying to set clearer boundaries for when I do work by scheduling \u201cNO WORK\u201d times on my calendar after 9pm. And right now I\u2019m just ignoring them. But at least they\u2019re in the Cal and I\u2019m aware I should be doing honoring that. Baby steps, friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

What it really came down to was I wasn\u2019t prioritizing time to do the things that would sharpen the saw – meditating, reading, journaling – that I wanted to be doing on a consistent basis. What finally dawned on me was if I wasn\u2019t making time for these things during my normal work day (or in the evening), I was going to have to do them before everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around the time I started to get serious about creating a new morning routine, I took that trip to Austin and stayed a few days with Kendra Wright (the girl who did the\u00a0Year of Fear<\/a><\/span>\u00a0project), who has a routine that gets her up every morning at 6 AM. That to me definitely seemed aggressive. But it wasn’t until I actually saw her do her routine and witnessed the benefits of what she was able to get done every day before starting work (reading, watching TED talks, working out), that it clicked for me how powerful that time in the morning could be.<\/span><\/p>\n

As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, so I went ahead and tried to copy her. Ever since getting back from Austin I’ve been sticking with this new routine of waking up at 6 AM (with a couple 6:30am\u2019s in there too) and have really loved what it’s allowed me to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it has caused me to be the butt of a few \u201cold man\u201d jokes for consistently getting to bed by 10:30pm, but it\u2019s totally been worth it. And let\u2019s be honest, I\u2019ve been called much worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

So – allow me to share with you what my normal morning looks like. I\u2019ll note why each step is important to me, and what I’ve seen as the benefit of doing each on a consistent basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

6am<\/strong>\u00a0Wake Up<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n