Mornings

There’s power in the morning routine. But there’s also power in letting it go.

As a species, we’ve evolved (or devolved, depending on how you look at things) to a point where many of us worry less about day to day survival and more about existential concerns like, am I being the best version of myself right now? Am I making the most out of life? Could I be doing more?

One thing’s for certain, putting yourself in the driver’s seat, whether that’s working for yourself or aiming for any significant goal in life, the more mentally tough you can be, the better. A solid morning routine can set you up for the day, it can help centre your thoughts and it can give you a sense of achievement before the working day has even begun.

Of course, it’s often easier said than done. All the best intentions and planning in the world can go straight out the window if you have kids for example. An ear infection or a stomach bug doesn’t care if you haven’t finished your 12 minute Headspace meditation. And this is where the predicament lies. If we agree that a morning routine is important, what do we do when it’s completely derailed? It’s all too easy to throw in the towel. Worse than that, it can make us feel like we’ve failed before we’ve even started.

“If we agree that a morning routine is important, what do we do when it’s completely derailed?”

That’s why, rather than looking at mental resilience as something that comes from being rigid and unmoving, it’s more important to focus on the ability to roll with the punches — to be fluid. After all, it’s not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent but the most adaptable to change. That’s why it’s the Homosapien that’s arguably the most successful animal to have existed and not the Neanderthal. With shorter, more muscular limbs, stocky, robust bodies and apparently better eyesight, the Neanderthal was well adapted to the cold climate of the time. But as we humans started to grow in population, none of these strengths were able to protect them against our more sophisticated social structures and ability to communicate. Abilities that ultimately led to us win in a competition over resources.

One way of creating the fluidity without throwing the idea of a morning routine out the window, is to look at it as a default. By default, whenever possible, run through your entire routine but, if you can’t you don’t beat yourself up about it. At the end of the day, as we say in our manifesto “Sustained effort over a long period of time will always generate better results than intense effort over a short period.” Even if you’re interrupted for two months out of twelve, that’s still 305 out of 365 days over the year. By anyone’s estimation, that’s pretty consistent.

“Sustained effort over a long period of time will always generate better results than intense effort over a short period.”

Another way to look at it is to match your routine with the seasons. I have a summer routine and a winter routine. Both involve stretching, breath work, movement and journaling but during the longer, warmer summer days, my body gets warmer faster so I can dedicate more time to exercise. In the winter, trying to lift the same weights without twice the amount of warm up just leads to injury. Although a good sunrise can make the effort worthwhile, waking up in the dark takes more out of me than it puts in. So, rather than pushing against the stream, I get up a little later, I spend more time on stretching, breath work and journaling and generally take things a little slower.

Sometimes, our lives can have seasons too. They may be tougher to spot but once you know what you’re looking for, you can adapt. Often, as a new or exciting project comes up, our instinct can be to take it on without dropping anything else to fit it in. But there are only so many hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year. It can be hard, but by letting some things go to allow space for others, we give ourselves the breathing room not only to make the most of the opportunity but to do it to the best of our ability and without sacrificing our health.

Yes, a morning routine can be incredibly helpful but beating yourself up for not sticking to it is only ever going to be harmful. None of us live in a bubble and life can often get in the way of best intentions. Make the fact that you have a routine your default and match your routine to what you’ve got going on and what’s going on around you.