6 Morning Rituals To Win Your Day

If you have ever read any of Napoleon Hill’s work, or the many edited versions of his work, you will know that developing positive habits is very important. Positive habits are easier to build in a morning for some reason. Maybe it is because sleep hits an internal reset button, or maybe it is because positive habits are easier to build when you are at your freshest. Here are six morning rituals that may just change your life.

1. Write down the dream you had

It sounds like an odd ritual to start your day with, but you have to accept that we do not really know that much about dreams or why we have them. There are plenty of theories about them, but very little usable proof. Write down your dreams and you will feel the benefits mentioned below.

Your dreams may offer solutions to problems you were not even aware of. Your dreams may be a gateway to your intuition and gut feelings. Your dreams may inspire you and they may set your mood for the rest of the day.

How your dreams affect your mood may be important. If you wake up in a bad or negative mood and write down your dreams, you may come to understand that your attitude was/is caused by your dream. Similarly, if you are in a good mood, you may write down your dream and reflect upon why it put you in a good mood. Could you replicate what happened in the dream to make yourself happy again?

• Do not forget you may use a Dictaphone app instead of writing
• Do not forget that you can write your dream down while using the toilet
• Do not try to act on your dream; simply make a note of it

2. Fix an annoyance

Ideally, you should fix such annoyances at the end of your workday and/or before you go to bed, but sometimes that is not possible. Instead of allowing yourself to be irritated, and instead of tolerating the annoyance, take the time to fix it. Start the day as you mean to go on, which means solving problems, being efficient and being productive.

You may consider the annoyance trivial. For example, there may be empty toilet roll holders in the bathroom, or your laundry may have spilled out from the basket, or your shower curtain has become grimy. No matter what it is, take care of it so long as you can do it quickly and efficiently. Fixing a minor annoyance is often liberating and helps start your day off on the correct foot.

• Do not undertake a big issue unless you planned it in advance
• Do not allow the fixing process to take too long
• Do not fix something that doesn’t genuinely bother you

3. Undertake the plan you wrote last night

Before you end your workday, or before you go to bed, you should write a plan for the next day. Do not do it the morning after because writing the plan actually eats into your productive time. Write your plan at night and/or after work to be sure you can hit the ground running in the morning.

• Do not procrastinate when it comes to starting your plan
• Do not spend your morning making plans
• Do not forget that you can change and edit your plan in the morning if needed

4. Drink lots of fluid and get your heart racing

You lose a fair amount of fluid as you sleep, so drink a glass or two of water when you wake up. After a while has passed and you feel more awake, simply take a few minutes to do a little physical exertion that gets your heart racing. It wakes you up and gets your juices flowing. It also makes it harder for you to be sluggish in a morning, especially if you get into the habit of getting your heart racing shortly after waking up.

• Do not substitute a big cup of coffee for a big glass of water
• Do not try a power workout; concentrate on cardio only
• Do not overextend yourself; remember you only need to raise your pulse rate

5. Start the day as you mean to go on

The attitude you have in the morning will affect the way you act all day. For example, if you eat a big pizza in the morning, are you more or less likely to continue the trend during the day? If you eat healthy food in the morning, would you not find it more difficult to eat junk food later? If you start your day in a negative way, you are going to have to work harder to pull yourself out of it as your day goes on.

• Do not start the day with a distraction such as games, TV shows or social media
• Do not start the day with junk food and/or a lazy attitude
• Do not forget that sex is okay, but don’t use sex as an excuse to stay in bed

6. Pray, reflect, or simply take a moment

If you consider yourself religious, or even if you wonder if there is a creator, consider praying. Good people, be they born good or be they good because they have good moral values, are often plagued by the horrors that occur in this world. When you pray, simply thank the creator for all the good things in your life. Your empathy makes you concentrate on the bad stuff, and the creator reminds you of the good stuff.

If you are not sure whether there is a creator, then take time to reflect on what you have and how glad you are that you still have it. Most people only reflect in this manner when something bad happens to them or somebody they love, but the fact is that you are lucky to be where you are and lucky to have what you have.

If you are not keen on reflecting or praying, then each morning you should take a moment to consider how lucky you are to still be breathing and alive. While you slept, thousands of people, creatures and plants died, but you are still here. Concentrate on the bigger picture and how lucky you are to still be here, and you will find that the trivialities of life no longer matter as much.

• If you pray, do not ask; simply give thanks for all the blessings in your life
• If you reflect, only reflect on the things you are glad you still have
• If you take a moment, consider how lucky you are to still be alive right now

This article doesn’t contain advice about what to eat in a morning or even if you should eat in a morning. Some people may like to meditate, and some people may find it a waste of time. Others may prefer yoga, and others may think yoga is counterproductive if said person wishes to have an efficient day. The morning rituals that matter to one person may not matter to another, so they have been omitted. The points made in this article are built to suit everybody.

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