My Morning Routine & Life Coaching

Life Coaching – Practice What I Preach

During the last few years I have really grown and developed as a person and a lot of this growth simply wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for my morning routine.

My morning rituals set me up for the day. I have established habits to support my mental, physical and emotional wellbeing which allow me to be the best version of me. This isn’t about telling you to have a cold shower every morning, although that is part of my routine! It’s about setting yourself up in a way that suits you. Once you hear how and why, you might be inspired to start your own. When you do, your life will start to get better. You can do this with or without life coaching.

Exercise, meditation, breakfast and feeling grateful are all ingredients for me to have a successful day.  A good morning routine will give you the energy and mindset to be productive and positive. It has a positive effect on my personal and work relationships and it can do the same for you. 

Watch the video to hear what I consider most important first thing in the morning and learn why it is so important to take care of yourself.  If you would prefer to read about it, there is a transcript underneath the video.  

Don’t expect to just wake up tomorrow and implement a new routine flawlessly. You have to start small. Mine has been a work in progress for a while to get it to what it is now. But if you want a better life, gradually developing a morning routine is a great place to start.

I’ve coached very many clients to take the time they need to nourish themselves on many different levels. If you would like to trial a Life Coaching session for yourself you can request a free exploratory session via the button on this page. 

Hi there I’m Gordon McCrorie, The Happiness Guy. And this is a blog about my morning routine!

The transcript from the video is below. And since I posted this blog I’ve also discovered a blog that talks about spiritual mediation, take a look here if you think that might be for you.

Don’t Leave Happiness To chance

I don’t want to leave my happiness, my mental, physical and emotional wellbeing to chance. So my morning routine is what I do to make sure that I get to be the best version of me. Then I can show up for others the way that I want to, without begrudging it, without being drained of energy. 

How I Do It Alongside Life Coaching

I’m going to tell you how I do it. Not everybody is going to do all of this but you can start anywhere with it. I bet some of you already do at least one of the things that I do!

Meditation

I meditate first thing in the morning when I wake up. It is when my brain is in the best state to do that. And I’ll take a minimum of ten minutes depending on the time available, sometimes a bit longer. 

I use one of two apps, I use Headspace or Calm. And sometimes I use no app at all; I’ve been meditating for long enough that no app works perfectly well also. 

But yes, sometimes I quite like to use an app and my favourite at the moment is Calm. So I’ll take ten minutes to just be silent; I will pay attention to whatever is being said on the mediation and I’ll follow the instructions. 

This is just a way to start the day with a little bit of time for yourself. I’ll often do a systems check in it, and ask myself: mentally, emotionally and physically, how am I feeling today? 

So mentally, is my head busy or is it pretty clear? Emotionally how am I feeling? And that might reflect energy levels too. Am I feeling connected, or am I feeling lonely? So how am I feeling and pay attention to my own emotions. Check over myself physically, is there any pain or stiffness?

Moving In The Right Direction

And then I work out what do I need to do to move whichever is the highest priority, and what can I do to move them all in the right direction. In life coaching sessions I help you developing the mindset to do this too.

So I start with meditation. It’s pretty much a daily habit. I don’t do it every single day, sometimes I do it a number of times a day. It is the one thing that I have done that has given me more control and influence over the rest of my life than anything else combined.

Meditation has not just changed my life, it has changed who I am and that is a wonderful thing. I am so grateful that I have been able to change. I used to be reactive, and angry and now I don’t go through life like that. I feel really connected and grateful. Meditation is great for that. Once I’ve had some of that meditation malarkey, then it is straight on to a very nice little coffee. 

A Nice Little Coffee

I may use a little bit of some flavoured syrup. I know that is a bit naughty but it is really tasty!  I really enjoy it, it’s kind of a small thing and it starts to perk me up. I do it because I like the taste of it and coffee is a treat for myself. 

Depending on how my day is structured, the order of some of these next things might change before I set off for a day of life coaching others. 

Exercise

Often the next thing that I will do is get ready and get straight off out the door for some exercise. The exercise is sometimes gentle stretching or it can be weights. It might be treadmill sprints or something like that, but I get some exercise in at least five days out of seven. 

No “Will I? Won’t I?”

I started exercise with three times a week and it was for a minimum of ten minutes. But now exercise is something that I do all the time, and structured exercise five times a week seems to be about the norm.

There is no “Will I, won’t I?”. 

If I want to look and feel how I want to feel I have to do it and make the time for it. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time if you do it often. The idea with the exercise is that I feel better and I’ve got it done first thing in the morning. This avoids the excuse at the end of the day that I didn’t have time.

Keeping On Track

So for me, the mornings work best to exercise. And even ten or twenty minutes keeps me on track.  After that, off for a shower. It depends where I am, if I am at home I’ll have something positive or motivational on You Tube. I won’t be watching it but I will listen and my mind will often drift off to things I am grateful for. 

I will look around the bathroom and think how lucky I am to live in a wonderful flat. Just things like having warm water I am very grateful for. I notice things like the shampoo smells nice and I will look around the bathroom and notice little things. I will take care of myself and I feel good and it’s ritualistic. 

Taking Control

At the end of that shower I turn it into a cold shower for one minute. The reason I do that is because there was an event where not so long ago when I was unreasonably angry about something. That spilled out and upset somebody that I love, I said spilled but exploded out would be more accurate. 

I upset somebody I love and I vowed I wouldn’t do that again so I took control.  Cold showers seem to be a really good way, other than the way they change the physiology, they also remind me of something important every day. So I have a cold shower every day as I think it helps reset my central nervous system and helps keep me calm and centred. 

Nourishment Is Essential

So cold shower done! Dry off and now for breakfast.  Very routine, nothing fancy for me. Typically, even through I am into health and wellbeing breakfast is probably one of my less nutritious meals. I’m happy with something like bran flakes and a banana. I love that, it’s great as I am trying to get a little bit leaner. I love porridge, I also love things like toast and eggs. These are my normal breakfasts.

Fire Up My Brain

As I am eating, I am seated, taking a little bit of time. I’m enjoying it and I like what I am eating. I guess the meditation earlier on the in the day helps with that. Taking that time for myself, then I want to nourish my mind. It might be an audio book, it might be something off YouTube. I want to learn, I want to grow. I want my brain to fire up before I get anywhere near the rest of the day; I want to have upgraded me in some way. 

Depending on times and schedules: If my girlfriend is around I’ll have a little chat with her. And again that just feels really nice. It’s having a little bit of time where we are together even if it’s just five minutes. Whatever the chat is, it helps me feel connected and lucky.

A Gift To Self

All of that, just to run through it:

Meditation. Mentally, emotionally and physically helps me feel like I want to feel.  Coffee is a gift to self. Exercise is a gift I give to the body to keep it in great working order and to help me get physically better.  A shower, that’s basically just taking care of myself. Things like teeth brushing my teeth are in there as well.

Having some breakfast, nourishing myself. Then I have the energy to go through the day. An audio book or motivational video so my brain is primed. Chatting with my girlfriend, feeling connected. 

Having The Energy

And if you do all that before the day starts you are the best you. You are going into the day not begrudging what you have to do. You have the energy for it and you have taken care of yourself first.

And how often do we do prioritise ourselves v’s how often do we neglect ourselvesf? If you are going to help others, you have to put your own mask on first. Self care, and self love is not optional unless you are happy to just run out of energy and begrudge helping the people who you love. 

Setting Priorities

So that is my morning routine. In essence it means that I get to have my time before work starts, and then sometimes at the end of the day there is more time for other good stuff.

I wanted to share how I have grown and developed. It helps to keep me, as me. One key thing I don’t do as part of my morning routine: I don’t check emails, I don’t check What’s App and I don’t check Facebook before I’ve done my rituals. These things are less important – we have to get priorities right in life if we are going to have a great life. 

That’s my morning routine. I hope is has been useful for you. Take care.