The 20-Minute Morning Routine that Made Me a Better Entrepreneur and a Better Person
It’s very easy for an entrepreneur to find themself in a cycle of procrastination and anxiety. Creating a workflow, prioritizing projects, analyzing R.O.I., and all the things it takes to be a badass lady boss can overwhelm even the most fearless leaders.
In the early days of developing Abundantly, BE, I would wake up the same way I went to sleep—making list after list in my head. I must have downloaded every task management app and half-started a handful of popular “you can have it all” business books. But, nothing haunted me more than the rabbit hole of compare and despair I voluntarily found myself in as I navigated other wellness websites through the googleverse. My hand-picked journals that boasted confident and quirky quotes like “goal digger” were actually filled with Faulkner-like ramblings rather than anything authentically genius.
But, all of that stopped when I changed just ONE thing about my day—how I started it.
Tired from sleep troubled nights full of endless lists and searches, I found myself at a continuing education seminar about anxiety. Rather than focusing on coaching techniques and high-mileage questions to support our clients, the behavioral therapist teaching the class started simply with the science. I have always thought that the brain is the most fascinating and complex wonder of our equally brilliant human body so she had me hooked from the jump.
Learning how the brain actually processes anxiety, worry, and fear and the difference in how we tap into each of these emotional responses empowered me. Later that night on a long walk with Lady something clicked. I didn’t need more information. I didn’t need more structure. I didn’t need to follow anyone else’s proven entrepreneurial method to be successful. I just needed to literally use my brain. But, not the way I had been doing it before. I would use everything neuroscience tells us about our noggin' and set mine up for optimal performance. So I came up with a new way to start my day and what happened after that was pure magic.
You too can experience mind magic by following this 3-step 20-minute morning routine that made me a better entrepreneur and a better person.
Step 1: Eliminate
Most of us wake up to the sweet relief of our morning bathroom ritual, but we tend to neglect the all important brain dump. A firestorm of changes are happening to our body at the start of a new day. Brainwave production begins while your heart and blood pressure increase and your head is flooded with hormones like cortisol. With all of this action happening, us entrepreneurs may find ourselves picking up on the same anxious to-do mentality that kept us up the night before. Who wants to be stressed out before breakfast?
Instead keep a journal and a pen by your nightstand or at your kitchen table. Write whatever comes to mind from remembering a dream to goals for the day, or my all time favorite, a gratitude list. Starting the day with a brain dump will help eliminate stress and mental clutter while improving your happiness, focus, and productivity.
Step 2: Hydrate
Fingers crossed we are waking up from a solid 6 to 8 hours of sleep each morning. That is a long time to go without consuming any water, especially when the brain is made up of 70% H20.
Lack of hydration can lead to fatigue and moodiness when we deny our noodle its all important fuel. So if you would describe yourself as “not a morning person” maybe you are just plain thirsty.
During the night, your body is anything but at rest. It’s actually working hard to repair itself from the stresses of the day by releasing out otherwise harmful toxins. Drinking water first thing in the am helps to flush out the toxins while balancing the immune system and saving the sick days for a fully functional out of office adventure.
Lastly, good ole agua jumpstarts our metabolism aiding in better digestion and absorption of nutrients. So before mindlessly reaching for your morning coffee jolt remind yourself water before coffee everyday, no exceptions.
Step 3: Meditate
Humans are the only living thing on this planet that have the capability to control our breath. I will pause for a well-deserved wow cause that’s pretty great. The ability to speed up and slow down our breath has major brain benefits and meditation is the tool to tap into all the good stuff. Studies from the American Journal of Psychology have shown that meditation shrinks dense brain tissue associated with anxiety and worry. Breathe in, breath out, and don’t worry be happy.
Getting zen also helps focus and process our thoughts connecting us more deeply to our subconscious and all the sticky places the body stores pain, tension, stress, and trauma. So close your eyes, let the thoughts flow, and use the breath to deal will them.
The body will also receive a healthful boost with a regular breathwork routine. The heart rate will regulate as well as the blood flow to the brain when making a mind body connection.