A Day in the Life (behind-the-scenes of my daily routines)
It can feel like so much of our life is out of our control. And some of it truly is. But there is also so much we can intentionally control and influence in our life! There are so many things we do have control over that set us up for success no matter what our days hold.
It can be tempting to approach each day as if we’re waiting to see what will happen or we’re waiting on God to do something when there is SO MUCH we can do ourselves to put us in a position for success! It simply takes intentionality on our part. There are 6 things I do every day to remove barriers to my success.
Whatever my days hold, I’ve found that there are 6 areas of my life that I prioritize every day to help me be my best regardless of what my day holds.
No, I didn’t suddenly start doing all six of these in one day. But I've gradually worked each of them into my daily habits and now consider every one of them as necessary as brushing my teeth.
Working Out
If you read my post about the most important thing I do every day, you already know that I wake up early to workout. I used to workout after work. But cold, dark Minnesota winters made it way too easy to drive straight past the gym to my cozy couch at home. 10 years ago, I started consistently waking up early to workout because I figured out that if I got it done in the morning then it wouldn’t be one more thing in the back of my mind that I needed to get done later in the day. And once I started training for my Ironman in 2014, morning workouts officially became my norm!
For workouts, I’ve done everything from videos in my living room to an hour at the gym, to yoga and spin classes, to triathlon training, to prenatal and postnatal youtube videos. What I’m doing doesn’t matter so much as finding a workout that motivates me to get out of bed at 5 am and finish it. (Don’t get me wrong, there are mornings I don’t want to, but it’s usually either because I’m going to bed too late at night or coming down with an illness). The physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual benefits I get from working out compare to nothing else. Our bodies were created to move and I'm truly at my best when workouts are part of my daily routine.
Read and Journal
These days, after working out, I spend an hour reading and journaling. I went into this in detail in another post. But I’ll say here that this daily practice is the most important thing I do every day. There are seasons when doing this daily becomes incredibly difficult (especially during seasons of grief, like losing my dad nearly two years ago, or having a newborn to care for, etc.). But when I find myself getting back to this practice after a short time away, it’s the most refreshing thing for my soul and my life! It sets me up to confidently face anything that my day holds!
Eating Well
I’ve always loved food. For most of my favorite memories, I can tell you what I was eating! Nearly 15 years ago, I found out that I have celiac disease so I haven’t eaten gluten since before giving it up was common. Since then, I’ve slowly been figuring out how to fuel my body with the nutrients it needs to function as well as possible.
We all inherit genetic things that we have no control over (both my grandma and biological father had heart disease). But there are specific things that we absolutely do have control over, like what we put into our bodies, that can help them to function to their highest capacity. And this is the reality that I’ve let guide my nutrition journey for over a decade. Knowing I only get one life and one body, I don’t want to knowingly contribute to health issues. Instead, I want to eliminate any health and physical barriers that I can through nutrition.
Drinking More Water
I can’t talk about what I put into my body without also talking about water. While I’ve always had water to drink during the day, I used to switch to Diet Coke in the afternoons during my afternoon slump. But, after being challenged to give it up for a month (which I thought was totally impossible), and discovered that I could, in fact, live without it, I decided to give it up for good! And I replaced all that Diet Coke with more water. Sure, I consume other beverages (I love starting out my morning with coffee, or now tea because the baby has decided coffee tastes bad...we'll talk about this when he's older), but 98% of what I drink throughout the day is water. The benefits are too many to count!
Keeping my Phone out of my Bedroom
The latest improvement that I’ve made to eliminating barriers to my success, is plugging my phone in at night in our dining room. Instead of using my phone for my alarm, I’ve gone old school and use an alarm I manually set! And I love it!
I love not being tempted to look at my phone while drifting off to sleep. And even more so, I love not being tempted to read through all my notifications immediately after my alarm goes off in the morning keeping me in bed way longer than I want to be. Even though I’ve always set my phone on Do Not Disturb mode at night so only emergency calls could come through, I found that it wasn’t enough to promote healthy sleep for me. I needed to take it a step further and just get my phone out of our bedroom completely.
Sleeping
And last but definitely not least, I prioritize my sleep! I’ve always been
I let my morning wake up time dictate when I go to sleep at night. If I want to be up at 5, I go to bed at 9. If I want to chance it and sleep in until 6 (praying our son also sleeps in until 6), I’ll stay up until 10. But during the week, I’m definitely in bed by 9! Since my husband doesn’t need as much sleep as I do and is usually still awake when I go to sleep, I’ve started wearing a sleep mask to block out his reading light. Best decision! It is the most glorious thing! I just love it using it!
No matter what the day holds, these six daily habits eliminate barriers to my success. They help set me up to give my best every day! There are so many things we actually can control that contribute to our success, so these are the things I prioritize daily! Don't underestimate the power of your physical, mental, emotional, and health to contribute to your success! Who you are inside and out has everything to do with it.