My Morning Routine
Image taken on an early morning training run in Garden of the Gods CO.
Morning are somewhere I don’t really excel. I mean sure, I wake up and start my day but it isn’t pretty. Or at least it wasn’t. I am not suggesting I am some incredible morning guru but I will say that developing a routine has helped me out - immensely.
I didn’t really even learn about the value of a morning routine until I became a father. Suddenly you find yourself sleep deprived holding a a deformed goblin that wouldn’t stop wailing through the wee hours of the morning and now it is time to get ready for work. The need for a life raft become clear quickly. For me that life raft was a morning routine.
It starts with respecting my bed time. I realize that may seem silly. A morning routine that begins at night?? But seriously getting to sleep on time makes it soooooooo much easier to follow a morning routine.
Respect the alarm! I avoid hitting snooze. Getting up under my own authority allows for a ton of advantages. I can make sure to have some me time before the toddlers begin galloping about the house. This also help me not feel undue pressure or stress. The day unfolds with intent versus chaos - at least in theory anyway.
I try to delay drinking coffee too early. I find it best to instead drink a pint or more of cool clear water and get hydrated over getting caffeinated. Although I definitely enjoy my coffee too.
Mobility work is a life changer. I have always been into fitness but I had never built mobility into my practice. I used to be one of those guys that said “you never see a lion stretching after taking down a gazelle…” but owning a cat has taught me they do stretch - just dynamically and in a way that is unrelated to actual fitness. I changed my mind set to mobility and it saved my life. I don’t do hours of intense yoga poses - actual it is pretty simple. I squat, for time. I’ll provie the details another time but squatting in the morning with a few other auxiliary drills is something everyone should do.
I actually break a fast. I am not advocating anything radical here, just the simple act of fasting every night and then mindfully deciding to break the fast with the well named “breakfast”.
Notice this routine isn’t a series of scheduled micro interactions well calibrated and defined like a computer program. It is much more a set of macros or guidelines. Anyone with kids understands that making defined plans is a recipe for disappointment. This routine gives me the flexibility to deal with an extremely early morning ballerina or a night time monster eviction and still get the basics of my morning met.
You’ll also notice I didn’t talk about my fitness and training routine. The answer for that is simple. If I can fit in a training plan in my morning I do. If I can’t that’s okay too. Flexibility is a powerful tool in the life a parent and entrepreneur and if the morning doesn’t provide me with the time to train it doesn’t blow up my training plan I simply get the work down later in the day.
I will say that in the last few weeks since the birth of our twins this routine has been blasted to smithereens, but I take courage in knowing that these early months with the up at all hours twins from Hyades will pass and I will be back to some since of normalcy and routine. Healthy and whole with three kiddos to wrangle every morning.
