Episode 499: 5 Steps to Creating a Sustainable Morning Routine (Mindset & Self-Care) with Megan Porta

EBT499 – Morning Routine

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Brittany Roche)  00:37

Hey, food bloggers have you always wanted to diversify your income with brand partnerships but don’t want to feel gross and salesy or maybe you’re just overwhelmed by all the advice out there about working with brands and don’t even know where to start. I’m Brittany Roche, a food blogger at PlantPowerCouple.com and a blogging coach who focuses specifically on helping bloggers like you build a system for working with brands that helps them reach their business goals, but also feels natural and genuine to them. Whether you’re looking to make brand partnerships a consistent part of your monthly revenue or just want to have a solid system in place that you can pull out of your back pocket. Anytime you see your RPMs take a hit and you need to bring in some extra income. My three month goal and mindset based coaching and support program can help you break through your own mental barriers and start making it happen. If you have any questions about coaching or want to sign up just send me an email at [email protected] That’s Brittany with two T’s A N Y You can also sign up for my free weekly blogging email for brand work focus tips, ideas, motivation and support by going to plantpowercouple.com/coaching. Thanks for taking time out of this episode to listen back to you, Megan.

Megan Porta  01:47

Food bloggers, hello, welcome to this self-care and mindset focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. In this episode, we are going to talk about five steps to creating a sustainable morning routine. Having a morning routine has contributed greatly to my consistency in my business, and to the successes I’ve had in my business. And just to showing up for the people in my life and myself in a positive way that is mostly filled with energy, I definitely have my periods where I am lacking energy. But for the most part, my morning routine has really changed my life and it has changed my business. I am a huge proponent of the morning routine. And I’ve been pretty vocal about this on the podcast. And I know that some people really diss on the morning routine, they say that they don’t need it that it doesn’t work for them. They don’t like getting up early. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t resonate with some people. While I acknowledge that there are probably people out there who don’t need it or who it really doesn’t work for. I strongly believe that most people, most of you listening and most people in the world would greatly benefit from having an established morning routine. I wrote out just a few benefits that I could think of I’m sure there are more. But here are some things that I came up with. 

Megan Porta  03:16

As far as just ways that a morning routine can benefit you and your life and your business. It can increase your productivity for the entire day ahead not just for the morning, but for the whole day. Consistently showing up for yourself in the morning, it can increase your competence, especially over time. It can improve your mood, your mental health and your physical health. It sets a positive tone for the day ahead with a focus on gratitude and inspiration. It can cause you to organize your day and mind so that you know what you’re getting into before you get into the day. It keeps your goals and dreams are at the top of your mind. It helps you to prioritize learning, self development and business growth. It offers a great opportunity to habit stack, which is a term from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, which is just a way of building habits on already established habits. It sets a good example for your family members. If you are prioritizing yourself in the morning. This is a really good way to let them know that you prioritize you and that they should prioritize them as well. It allows you to start the day with focus and motivation and it puts you in the flow of just feeling good to start your day. It starts your day with you so that you have energy for you. And you also have energy for your loved ones and the people around you. 

Megan Porta  04:07

We’ve all heard those success stories of entrepreneurs are people who are just crushing it in their lives and their business. Those people who have found happiness and joy and peace and success in some way whatever they your definition of success might be involved in most of those stories that we hear about these people are morning routines. Most of them, I would even be willing to bet that all of them have some sort of established morning routine that they start their day with. I have had a morning routine for quite a few years. Mine is not perfect. It waxes and wanes, there are periods when I’m really low in energy, and I just don’t prioritize it. But I do always seem to come back to it on some level, it’s always evolving. And this will be the case for you most likely. So embrace this, know that you will prioritize it differently, depending on the season that you’re in, in your life or the season of the year. And that’s okay. The goal is to establish something so that you have it to fall back on for the rest of your life. 

Megan Porta  05:54

Every time I hear someone downplay the power of the morning routine, I cringe a little bit inside because I’ve seen the power of it in my life in so many other people’s lives. And I really do feel that a little bit can go a long way you don’t need a three hour morning routine. In order to find success with it, you can have a 10 minute morning routine, and still have it impact your life in a positive way. Start exactly where you are right now in this moment and work with that. And don’t feel like you need to adopt anyone else’s morning routine, I’m going to share mine with you in a little bit. My routine is not going to look like yours and vice versa. This is your journey. So start with where you are, and build your very own morning routine, one that works for you right now. We want to create something that is sustainable, that doesn’t feel so overwhelming that you give up on it in a week. Don’t overwhelm yourself, do what you can to stay consistent with it. This is really the most important piece of this whole thing. Consistency is key. Find something that works for you that you can sustain and be consistent with over time. You want to carry this routine as long as you can throughout your life. I think the older you get to the more important it is for you to have that routine in the morning, to center yourself and to make yourself feel good in ways that you need to. Let’s talk through the five steps to creating a sustainable morning routine. 

Megan Porta  07:23

Number one is design your dream morning routine. So for this one, I want you to pull out your computer or get out a piece of paper and write out your absolute dream routine. There are no time constraints, there are no equipment restraints, there are no restraints at all in your dream routine. So this is something that you can work up to. And it might take a year, it might take five years, it could take 10 years. Maybe getting into a sauna every morning is part of your dream routine, and you don’t have a sauna. So that’s something that is going to take time to build up to. But I think it’s really important that we start with the dream. And also when you’re writing this out, write down why you are designing your morning routine. Think of some of those benefits I touched on earlier. So productivity, showing up for you consistently showing up for other people consistently improving your mood, improving energy. Do you want better mental health? Do you want better physical health. So find those things that really light you up? And that inspire you to create this morning routine? And write that down as well. When you are mapping out your dream morning routine, consider what unique things for you are going to fill you up to start your day. How many hours do you need to really feel filled up? I think some people can do a really quick morning routine and feel totally filled up and fueled for their day. And some people need a longer routine. I personally love my long morning routines. And I have a version for this. And I also have a scaled down version, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. But right now we’re just creating the ultimate morning routine. Get it all out on paper. 

Megan Porta  09:09

Think through those things that will give you an edge in life in your day. What are the things that are going to boost your energy? What do you need? And what do you want? What fills your cup? What fills your tank? Here are a few considerations to think through as you’re creating your dream morning routine. Think about physical movement. Do you like to work out? Do you like to go for a walk? Think about food to like to eat something to start your day? Do you like sitting down with coffee or tea or maybe just starting out with a huge glass of water? Do you want to start your day with learning or self development of some sort? Maybe it’s learning about your business through a podcast or an audiobook or maybe it’s reading the Bible or reading a book of any kind. Maybe it’s reading a book that is fiction just to kind of clear your mind to start the day, maybe you want to have some quiet time just sitting in nature sitting in your living room. It could be more of a meditative state. You could sit down with meditation, such as a guided meditation or just using meditation music or just the quiet of your house. Perhaps you love creating art and you want some creative time in the morning to draw or paint or sculpt. Do you want to think through your goals and your dreams every morning just to stay in tune with those. You can also include taking a shower and getting ready in the morning. For some people that is laborious and annoying. But for some people that might be part of a morning routine, you might want to read inspiring stories, or focus on gratitude, write in your gratitude journal, or just think through some things that you’re really grateful for to start the day. Journaling might be a part of your morning routine, sitting in a sauna or a hot tub could be as well. Taking a quick walk around the block, getting in nature, doing some sort of mindset work to get your mind in the right place to start the day. These are all really great ideas, and you might have your own version of these that you can focus on too. 

Megan Porta  11:12

My morning routine has evolved quite a bit over the years. It looks different all the time, but it is always evolving. And I’ll just talk through my ideal morning routine. To give you an example of what I do. On my ideal days. This routine only happens a couple of times a week because it is lengthy. From start to finish. If I do everything I talked about, it’s probably a two hour morning routine. It is not realistic for me to do this every day. And I don’t. So I will talk in a little bit about what I do on the mornings when I don’t have two hours to focus on a morning routine. But for now I’ll just talk you through my ideal dream morning routine. I start with a workout that includes cardio and heavy weights. This is a huge focus because it really does help to frame my day and to make me feel good physically and mentally. This is always the first thing that I do. On an ideal day, I then go out and I sit in our hot tub for probably 20 minutes. And if I’m alone, if my husband doesn’t join me, I will sit and all visualize something that I want to bring into my life or that I’m really trying to focus on while I’m in the hot tubs kind of kill two birds with one stone there. After that, I take a cold shower. This is a new thing I’ve been doing and it gives me so much energy. I will probably record an episode about this in an upcoming self-care focused episode. So far, this one little thing that I do has been a total game changer for my energy. After that, I get ready, I get dressed. I don’t spend a lot of time on this. But I also don’t feel rushed to get through it. After that I write in my gratitude journal just for a couple of minutes, I write out around 10 things that I’m just feeling particularly grateful for that morning. I purposefully do this at my art table because I like to go right from gratitude to creating art. When my mom passed away, she left me a ton of art supplies that I’m now using, and feel super inspired by so I love just spending probably 15 to 20 minutes on an ideal morning, creating some sort of art right now I’m working on something that’s colored pencil, and it’s just beautiful. And it makes me feel so creative and fulfilled to start the day. Also, while I’m creating the art, this is another time when I do two things at once to get kind of two things done at the same time, I will listen to something inspiring. So that’s usually a podcast. Sometimes it’s an audio book. And sometimes I’ll even just turn on like really relaxing music, just to get in that flow of creativity. After this, I go downstairs on an ideal day I will write something in my journal if there’s been something that has been, I don’t know holding me back or bothering me or tripping me up somehow I’ll just write through it in my journal, whether that’s on my computer or in my notebook. Then I will open my goals and dreams document that I have on my computer. And I will also open up this new document that I created recently at a retreat, which focuses on manifestations that is probably a topic for another time but I’ll open those documents up and I will review every single thing that I’ve written down for my goals dreams and manifestations for the coming year. I read through those I believe them and then if anything comes up as I’m reading through like sometimes I’ll be inspired to plan a date with my husband or I don’t know clean out my closet that day or reach out to this person for a podcast interview. I will write it down so I don’t forget it. After that I add to the list of already started of inspiration and I will just add my work and life tasks that I want to accomplish that day. So when I’m done, I have just a list of things to do that day, anywhere on the scope of just inspiration to decluttering my life, to work tasks to relationships. And it feels like a really nice comprehensive list that I’ve given a lot of thought to. If I have time, I will sit and do a quick meditation, I usually don’t meditate for longer than 10 to 15 minutes, even on an ideal day, and I added this on my list, but I really don’t typically do this. I hope to add this as a piece of my morning routine in the future. But it is not currently. But that is doing breathing exercises. I do this very sporadically. But that is one thing that I would really love to add to my ideal routine. This is a lot, I do this probably twice a week. 

Megan Porta  15:51

The other days are a hodgepodge of all of these things. But one thing that I do not skimp on is doing the routine, even if it’s a baseline version of the routine, which leads to number two, come up with a baseline morning routine. Honestly, most of my days, I feel like I have limited time I have calls that start at nine most mornings, I have to help get my boys off to school. So that leaves me kind of a short window of time. If you’re listening and you have kids, you know this is true for most morning with school, and homeschooling and breakfast, and all of those things we have to do to take care of our children before we get started with work. So most likely most of you listening are going to have kind of a squished amount of time that you need to fit this into, which is totally fine. Start with that. first figure out what amount of time do you have to a lot for your morning routine. On the trickiest day, maybe it’s 10 minutes, maybe it’s 30 minutes, whatever it is take that time. And we’re going to reverse engineer the process. And by the way, if it is 10 minutes, that’s fine. You can work with that. Anyone. And I mean, anyone can find an extra 10 minutes in their morning, to play with this routine. I used to be one of those people who made the excuse I don’t have the time in the morning, I can’t find the time, There literally is no time. But there was always time. Of course I could have found the time, time is always there, it’s just a matter of what you’re choosing to prioritize. So if you feel the need to prioritize this morning routine, you will do it. So you have the amount of time that you know you can spend on a morning routine. Now you need to decide which things you need to include. This can be one thing, it can be two things, it can be three things, it can be 10 to 12 things, just make sure you can get it all done in the time that you have allotted for it. So sit down and write that out. Here’s my baseline. 

Megan Porta  17:51

On my baseline days, I will do at least this, write out the things that you will do for your morning routine, specifically an example I will do five minutes of yoga and I will do five minutes of meditation. Or I will do five minutes of gratitude and 10 minutes of walking, whatever it is write it out and also write the amount of time allotted for each. I’m at a stage in my life where my kids are not super little. So although I do get up and help them off to school, it’s not a stress on me anymore. So I have a little bit more time as my baseline then a lot of you might. So my minimum is currently 30 minutes. On my trickiest day, I have 30 minutes of time to play with in the morning before my work starts. For me, this looks like 10 minutes of working out. Here’s a little side note if you want to work out but don’t have 30 to 40 minutes to do so, go to YouTube and just search 10 minute workout. There’s so many options. There’s even like a seven minute workout a five minute workout. On my baseline days, a 10 minute workout through YouTube is enough. After that I do a three minute cold shower. Then I spend about five minutes getting ready two minutes in my gratitude journal. I’ll make my inspiration and task list for the day in about five minutes. And then I’ll spend about five minutes doing a meditation. Your list is going to look different do what is going to fill you up the most and fits that time that you have set aside for your morning routine. So now you have a dream morning routine written down and you also have a baseline morning routine written down. You don’t have to stick to one or the other. You can do an assortment of your dream morning routine on any given day. So don’t feel like you have to get up and do one exact routine and if you don’t, you may as well throw in the towel. That is not how this goes. The point of this is that you are just doing something every morning to fill you up and keep you energized or whatever your goal is and sustaining that overtime. Customize it just be consistent with it. 

Megan Porta  19:59

Number three is is prepare in advance. So you’ve already kind of prepared, you’ve talked through your dream, you’ve talked through your baseline, that is great preparation. But to take it a step further, there are things you can do, to continually prepare yourself to keep this morning routine going. So you can think through your routine before you go to bed at night. Let’s say it’s a Thursday, you know that Friday, you happen to have an hour where you can play with for your morning routine, think through what you’re going to do, you’re going to work out, you’re going to do exactly this workout with weights, and it’s going to be in your basement, that’s going to be for 25 minutes. And then you’re going to go and you’re going to write in your journal for 10 minutes. It doesn’t have to take long, but sit down and visualize that for just a minute before you go to bed. There is so much power in introducing a visualization like this to your subconscious before you go to bed. Because your subconscious will kind of chew on that as you sleep. When you wake up, you’ll be even more equipped and ready to tackle your morning routine, don’t discount that there is a lot of power there. You could even throw the times in there. So I’m going to wake up at 6h45. And I’m going to do this, this and this to start my day on a good note. This will provide me with energy to take care of myself and my kids. And it’s going to make me feel refreshed. That does not take long, it took me less than 30 seconds to say all of that. And it really does go a long way. Also to prepare to go to bed early if you need to even 10 minutes earlier just to reset your system. If nothing else, it’s a bit of a mindset trick. So you’re going to bed 10 minutes earlier getting extra sleep in order to prepare you for your morning routine. One thing I’ve started doing recently is not sleeping next to my phone for years, I had my phone just right next to my bed. Even though I didn’t get up and like check my phone or anything, I just feel like knowing it’s there is a little bit of a mental distraction. So I’ve started keeping my phone in a different room while I sleep. And I swear this helps me sleep. Get accountability if you need to. If you have a partner or a spouse or something or even your children, let them know what time you intend to wake up and have them show up for you so that if you feel like you’re going to sleep in or skip it or find some excuse not to do it, they will hold you accountable. If you need to get up earlier to establish your morning routine plan for that. And this is really important to just make the decision that you’re committing to this. When you make a decision about this or anything you’re killing off any other option to do anything else you are deciding this is how it’s going to be. So once you make the decision, you are going to follow through with your morning routine. Also just stay in touch with why you’re doing this. Remember what you’re wanting, you’re wanting more energy, you’re wanting more productivity, a better mood, just keep this at the top of your mind and even write it down. If you need to put it on your fridge, put it on your mirror, I’ve started putting post it notes on my bathroom mirror of things like this that I just don’t want to forget. I want to remember why I’m doing the things I’m doing. And that really does help. It’s a really good way to remind myself why the heck I am taking a cold shower, because that’s not comfortable. Those reminders really can be important. And again, consistency is so key with this, do what you need to do to set yourself up for success. Even if it’s just starting with a 10 minute morning routine. Once you are all prepared and you feel ready to go, move on to number four, which is set it in motion. 

Megan Porta  23:43

Now it’s time to do it. Just get started with it. Stop putting it off. No more excuses. I love that feeling a few minutes into a workout I’ve started when I realized that, oh my goodness, we are going I am in it. There’s no stopping now that’s what it’s going to be like once you start your morning routine. I am going I just started I just did it. I’m so impressed with myself and proud. That is how you should feel. Maybe you already have a morning routine, but you’re just looking to level up with it. If that’s the case, extend the amount of time for your morning routine. So if you are currently doing semi consistently 20 minutes in the morning, maybe you make a decision to level up and do 30 minutes consistently every day. You could also consider adding things that are not yet in your current routine. Maybe I mentioned something earlier that sparked inspiration for you that you really want to start adding to your routine. So if you fall into that category where you’re not just starting one, but you are leveling up, then set that in motion, whatever it is that you’re doing, just get started with it. And I recommend not saying I’m going to do this next week or even like I’ll start Monday. Do it now start tomorrow. I encourage you to just jump in and it’s going to feel really good. It doesn’t have to be perfect. but just get started. Remember that when you take small steps consistently over time, really big things can happen in your life. Anticipating doing something is far more difficult than it is to actually do the thing. How many times have you started something? And then you say to yourself, Why was I so worried about that? Or why was I anticipating that so much, this is so easy, you’re going to find that about the morning routine to that it’s way easier than you perceive it to be. 

Megan Porta  25:31

And number five is refine and repeat. If you skip a day of your morning routine, and you decide to sleep in a little bit extra, it’s okay have grace with yourself. There are definitely mornings when I know that my body just needs extra sleep, versus getting up and working out and doing all the things and I am okay with this. Your morning routine does not have to be perfect, it does not have to happen every single morning. It should happen most mornings, but have grace for yourself if and when it doesn’t happen. Also, keep in mind, there’s always refining to be done for your morning routine. Even if you have an established three hour morning routine, you’re still going to refine it over time, you are going to stop doing certain things, eventually, you’re going to add certain things to your routine, you’re going to manifest a hot tub into your life like I did recently, and then add that to your morning routine, things are going to change the amount of times that you do certain tasks within your routine are going to change as well. And the number of days a week that you do a full dream morning routine will evolve too. Once you’ve started this and it’s turned into a habit you are going to start seeing benefits. You’ll see benefits from the consistency of the actual morning routine as a whole. But you’re also going to start seeing benefits from each individual component that is inside your morning routine. So you’ll start seeing the benefits of the cold showers, you’re going to start getting more energy from those, the creative time you do is going to fill you up with ideas to start your day. The journaling is going to help you achieve a breakthrough. The time that you sit with your goals each day is going to help you prioritize what’s actually important in your life and your business. The time meditating is going to bring you clarity about something or a bunch of some things. And on and on. The benefits come from the entire morning routine as a whole as an entity in itself, but also from those individual components, which is super cool and super powerful. Let’s summarize the five steps to creating a sustainable morning routine. Number one, you’re going to design your dream morning routine, get that written down, get as elaborate as you want. Number two, come up with a baseline morning routine. So the things you’re going to do on the trickiest of days. Number three, prepare in advance, do whatever you need to get your mind and your life aligned with this routine that you’re about to set in motion. Number four, set it in motion, just do it just get started. And number five, refine and repeat. I really hope this inspires some of you to start or to level up with your morning routines and to create something that’s just really sustainable for you. And that produces extra energy productivity all the good things we’ve talked about. So many good things can come from a solid morning routine. And I truly hope that you see some of those benefits. As always, thank you for being here. Thanks for listening to this episode. I will see you next week. 

Outro  35:58

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on eat blog talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.