I’m starting to appreciate how much grounding a solid morning routine can give me. It’s been a labor of love for the past year where I’ve started to “design” a series of tiny habits that I do within the first hour after waking up. I’ve closely followed [BJ Fogg’s template](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8) to create new, tiny habits by... - Relying on an existing trigger (Waking up, getting out of the shower, etc.) - Starting with a small routine (1 push-up in the beginning) and increasing very gradually, over weeks and months - Making sure I celebrate each time (“Awesome!”) With that process, my morning routine now looks as follows: 1. After I get out of bed, I make my bed right away (Inspired by “[Change the world by making your bed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OoCaGsz94)”) 2. After I’ve made my bed, I stretch and exercise for about 15-20 minutes 3. After I’ve exercised, I take a quick shower and groom 4. After I’ve showered, I do 5 minutes of breathing exercises, 10 minutes of meditation and 5 minutes of relaxation 5. After I’ve relaxed, I read or listen to 15 minutes of positive affirmations 6. After I’ve read or listened, I go through my list of goals and confirm my day’s plan Each routine is followed by a short moment of celebration and self-empowerment (“Nice!”) As you can see, one routine is the hook for the next one. - Creating the exercise routine has been the longest project this year. I started out with 1 push-up and have grown the routine to stretching, jumping rope, 30+ pushups, 30+ leg-lifts and 30+ curls. But it truly started as small as it gets about 12 months ago. - I learned my breathing, meditation and relaxation routine during my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in 2011. That’s been since my most consistent practice in the morning. - The positive affirmations are a new addition but I have to admit, they’re working really, really well. They help me start the day on a high note and create the right emotional setting to review and plan my goals in the next step. - For my goal-setting, planning and execution, I built my own application that I’ve blogged a few times already. That has been working out well, because I have everything I need in one place. If you want to start your routine, I recommend watching the two videos I linked above. They’re fantastic foundations for how I’ve gotten my morning routine to be a “no-brainer.” So far, _**not once**_ did I have to force myself to do any of the practices because I started super-small. It’s been great, I wouldn’t want to change it anymore.