Lauren: You built your product, you launched your business. You saw success, money in the bank, growing team, happy client, but now you feel like you’re drowning. I’m here to help you get your head above water. I’m Lauren Goldstein. My clients call me the Business Doctor.

Together, we’ll diagnose the root cause of your business. Worries. Whether it’s your people, your process, your product will clarify your business. So you can scale without the burnout and then we will simplify it all. So your business can do what it’s designed to do, make a profit and an impact. Welcome to the biz doctor podcast.

Welcome back to the show. In today’s episode, I’m gonna dive into a highly controversial topic morning. Some people swear ’em off. And some people swear by them. Which camp are you in me? I’m a newly converted fan who now knows that nothing sets your day up for success more than a morning. Routine studies have shown that a good morning routine is linked to less stress, boosted, mood and energy throughout the day.

And as someone who is always the skeptic, I wanted to see for myself, if that was true over the course of 14 days, just how different my life. First, I think it’s time to talk about best practices cuz there’s a lot of stuff out there for me personally. I recommend not biting off more than you can chew, start small and then build up because consistency is key.

You don’t wanna have like a 40 long thing for your morning routine that you can’t do or that takes hours and hours of your day. I find it better to again, start small and build on it or play around with it. It’s kinda like a choose your own a. Next. And this one is the night. All might have been the hardest for me set aside the time, which may mean that you have to get up a little bit earlier or shift your calendar.

Third. This one plays into the one before, but build some buffer time around it. So you aren’t rushed. There’ll be some mornings when I was super efficient and it went flawlessly and I got done very fast and there were other days when I journaled and needed more time having that buffer allowed me to be present and calm and not rush through the motions of my morning routine, just to get it done.

That’s something that I think is really, I. When we and Chris, in our previous podcast episode touched on this, when we make something a habit and then it just becomes something that we do when we lose the connection to it. Then it just becomes another thing that we’re doing like a checklist. And we’re checking off the day.

It’s really important for your morning routine to be intentional and present to it so that you could feel the impact. Fourth, just like you’re a unique person. So your morning routine should be too choose your own adventure. Like I said before, choose what fits you? I think the fastest way to not having a supportive morning routine is adopting someone else’s that doesn’t support you.

Like there are some people out there that their morning routine is getting up at 4:00 AM and doing a polar plunge, more power to you. I mean, I live in Texas, so maybe. Maybe the polar plunge wouldn’t be too bad, but the 4:00 AM, I don’t think that’s very supportive for me as somebody who’s a night owl and routinely goes to bed around midnight or after.

So just because somebody out there is doing it one way doesn’t mean that it’s gonna be supportive for you. So again, find something that works for you, build on it and then see where it takes you. Maybe you need to add things, maybe take things away. That’s the best part. It’s your life. It’s your morning routine, make it something that’s gonna make a difference in your life.

And lastly, I know this might sound silly, but do not check your phone before you do your morning routine. I know this might seem like a no brainer, but I think it needs to be said, cuz one morning when I was still getting the hang of this and wanted to check, I hadn’t missed anything cuz yes, I made a little outline of things that I wanted to do, but I hadn’t quite made sure that it was committed to memory.

And I pulled up my phone and it derailed me for at least 20 minutes, cuz I got sucked into the distractions of my day, faster than Alan Parrish and Jumanji. It was terrible. And then, you know, you’re flustered and your morning routine kind of gets off track. That’s my best advice for the best practices of how to have a morning routine.

That’s really gonna set you up for success. Now I’m gonna share my routine again. I don’t, I don’t think anyone should copy someone else’s, but I think there are components of mine that I saw really make a difference in my life. So if one of these speaks to you feel free to adopt it, the first thing, um, you know, something that I’m really focused on right now is health.

So the first three things of my morning routine support my health and that is one glass of water. One glass of celery juice and one hot lemon water. All of those are really helping improve gut health, helping rehydrate from the night and setting myself up for success for the day. That’s I think the magic of the morning routine is that it’s setting you the foundation for the day.

So really think about like the areas of your life that you wanna improve and then see how you can create a morning routine. That’s gonna support. The second two things I read  to expand my perspective. I read daily pattern and daily stoic message. It’s an amazing book and I will link it in the show notes.

And then I get in my little bit of woo and pull a card for my favorite deck. It’s the untamed elemental, which again, I will link in the show notes. And again, that’s just to get outside clarity. You guys have heard me say, you can’t read the label when you’re in the bottle. And so I like to learn from outside sources and kind of get a different perspective.

Then I write my daily commitment and attention for the day. So what am I creating for the day and how do I wanna feel journaling, anything that’s coming up that might get the way of my daily commitment or that I feel is just taking up a lot of brain space. Cuz an interesting fact is if you suffer from insomnia or anxiety, Chances are it’s because you have a lot of unfinished business going on in your mind, whether it’s a task list or things that you just said you were gonna do and you haven’t gotten to.

And so sometimes just writing those things down and giving it attention will actually pull it out of your brain and reground you and help. Sleep better and also help you get through your day better . And so I look at how do I wanna feel in my business, my practice and what it’s gonna feel like to me in those feelings and emotions, and really get intentional with how I’m going through my day.

And then I really look at gratitude, um, which if you want to dig deeper into that, go back and listen to our episode with gratitude guru, Chris Sheba. Gratitude literally creates miracles in your life. And so I have a gratitude practice around that. And then this one, this next one is actually honestly, one of the biggest things that I saw impact my day.

And that’s writing myself a love letter. And I know this one might seem weird, but honestly, as I said, it was the most impactful. Let me get vulnerable with you for a minute and tell you. I realized rather recently that I have a very harsh inner critic. I don’t know if any of you have a harsh critic, inner itty bitty shitty committee, or like inner person that’s just playing in your ear.

But I have one that sometimes only notices my mistakes and missteps and sweeps all my amazing qualities and accomplishments under the rug. Honestly, she’s kind of a Buch . So I decided to write myself a love letter of all the things that I love about myself, my gifts, my successes really anything’s game.

And let me tell you what I can tell the difference between the days I do and the days that I don’t, because there were a few days in this stretch that I was in bed, sick with bronchitis. Which of you tuned in before you might hear in my voice? um, cuz I’m still recovering, but I digress those days sickness aside because there were a few days in there where I was sick, but also did my self love ritual.

I really felt like the world was off. Like if I hadn’t done the love letter, my world was off and I was just going through the motions. Whereas when I did my love letter things just flowed, I got more smiles, felt lighter, happier. Things started moving in the business more easily. And it was just like, I woke up on the right side of the bed.

Crazy. I know, but if you’re gonna adopt a morning routine from someone, this is the one thing I recommend the most. And then the last thing I do is listen to my favorite. I am mantras and stretch my body to get all the energy flowing. So now, you know, a little bit about my. Morning, practice my morning routine.

So now I’m gonna talk about the benefits that I saw. I was happier. I was less stressed. I saw an increase in productivity and tackling my day and I felt a greater sense of control over my day. It was like I could take a bigger, deep breath before diving into running my business and serving my clients.

Honestly, win-wins all. Now as a converted morning retainer, I would say that I would recommend it to everyone. It just starts your day on an intentional and positive note. It’s like getting outta bed on the right side every day and getting grounded instead of feeling like you’re at the mercy of your day.

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that where you’re just like, I can’t seem to get ahead of it. Or your day just starts before you. So my best advice is again, as I said before, choose your own adventure, try a few things on, see what fits add, subtract tweak until your morning routine is not only something that fits you, but that you look forward to every day.

Cuz I really, I was skeptical, but I’ve seen the changes. I’ve seen the benefits and it’s something that when you consistently integrate it, I think you’ll be amazed at how your life will change. And. So that is it for this week’s episode. I’d love to hear from you and your biggest takeaways. So make sure that you’re following along, tag me on Instagram and it’s Lauren Goldstein or LinkedIn, or wherever you hang out on the interwebs.

Thanks so much for listing and we’ll see you next week.

So which part of your business needs love and attention? You might be wondering that, Hmm, here are your next steps.

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