3 Reasons Why Daily Routines Help You Live Your Best Life
Since I’m all about honesty, then I feel I should tell you the original title for this post was “How Daily Routines are Saving My Life Right Now.”
I was pretty far down the rabbit hole about my routines and all the things but as I was re-reading the post, it just didn’t feel right. In my gut, I knew something was off. My heart wasn’t in the writing. So I read and re-read and finally I identified the problem: The post was waaaaay too much about me, and not nearly enough about you.
Here’s the thing: The longer I’m alive, the more I believe that each woman should have the chance to live out the best version of herself – The person God created her to be. A couple of years ago I started out on a journey to begin living the absolute best version of me that I could. And ever since, I’ve felt that this blog should be a place of sharing what’s helped me grow as a person in case what I’ve learned can help someone else. I want to be sure each post is helpful, encouraging, and reminds you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Because if I can figure this stuff out, SO CAN YOU, friend.
So, I deleted my entire first try at this post and re-wrote it in a way that’s hopefully more helpful to you. Are daily routines saving me right now? Abso-freaking-lutely. But what’s more important is that I really believe they can help you, too.
Ok, enough of all my rambling already! Let’s get down to the important stuff, shall we?
1. Setting daily routines will help you reach your Big goals.
I LOVE GOALS. I love setting them, thinking about them, daydreaming, vision boards. EVERYTHING. I’m sheepishly admitting to you right now that I may be the biggest Daydreamer God has ever created.
I’m great at setting goals and seeing the vision. You know what I’m not great at? TAKING ACTION. Lordy.
So the question I’ve often had to ask myself is: How do I get from setting the goal to achieving the goal? You’re a pretty smart cookie so I’m assuming you already know the answer I discovered: ROUTINES!
Routines are the unglamorous yet necessary factor to get you from where you are to where you want to be.
Want to get into the swing of working out? Start getting to the gym at the same time, every day. Whether it’s at 5 AM, 5 PM, or over your lunch hour. Pick THE SAME TIME EACH DAY and get into the routine of being there.
The same thing could be said for eating healthy (start getting into the routine of eating a salad every day at lunch) or writing blog posts (by setting an alarm on your phone for 8:30 every evening to open that laptop and get going!) It goes for everything. If you’re looking to reach a goal, figure out for yourself what routine you need to adopt to start taking action and get your daydreaming-self to the finish line.
(And if you ever need help identifying or setting a goal, let me know because I AM YOUR GIRL.)
2. Getting up early and at the same time each morning is a game changer.
The whole “getting up early and at the same time each day” topic has probably been talked about waaaay too much. Maybe you’ve heard this before and just rolled your eyes when you read it here. I totally get it. Getting up early and at the same time each morning is just not an exciting routine. Because the bed is warm, and the sheets are comfy, and WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD WE WANT TO GET UP WHEN WE DON’T HAVE TO YET?
Hang with me, though.
Getting up at the same time each morning is just another way of saying, start your morning routine off on the right foot by fitting in what you want to rather than spending your morning putting out fires.
What are some things you’d like to do in the morning before you have to roll into “get ready for the day mode?” Would you like to exercise first? Maybe read or journal? Drink a cup of coffee and watch the news for 15 SILENT MINUTES before the kids are up?
My best advice is to figure out what calms your soul, then make time for it first thing in the morning. Figure out however much time you need to get in those precious moments, then set your alarm, and get up at the same time each day. Same time. Same routine. Every-ish morning. (Feel free to take a day off here and there if your body needs the rest. It’s ok to give yourself grace!)
3. Routines reduce the amount of decisions that need to be made every day.
This, in my opinion, is one of the best perks of relying on routines.
Why? I’m so glad you asked! (And yes, I’m cheesy like that.) Let me ask, have you ever heard of “decision fatigue?” If you Google it (and Google knows all so clearly the definition I’m about to provide is valid), decision fatigue as defined as “difficulty in making a good decision experienced as a result of the number of decisions one needs to make.”
So, when you’re following your normal routines, your mind is allowed to go on auto-pilot. You do what you’ve always done without thinking, without needing to make a decision.
Consequently, the less you have on auto-pilot and the more decisions you have to make, the more you mind gets tired from having to make so many choices. This may also lead us to make a poor choice down the road because our mind is sooooo freaking tired from all the other small decisions we had to make earlier in the day.
Ultimately what this all boils down to is: Less decisions to make = less stress.
So creating simple and small routines to relieve the sheer amount of decisions we have to make each day helps us declutter our minds and make room for the important decisions.
Wrapping up.
The best advice I can give you when it comes to setting up daily routines is to test and see what works best for you! Your routines won’t look like mine, and neither of ours will look like Boyonce’s. (Just sayin.)
Think about what goals you want to reach, what you’d like your morning’s to look like, and what simple things you can put on auto-pilot to reduce stress.
Creating a few simple but reliable routines for myself, has definitely created less stress in my life and made room to reach for bigger things. I hope creating a few daily routines has the same effect for you!
OVER TO YOU: What routines do you have right now that are saving your life? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
