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My alarm goes off. I wake up, with half of my head on the pillow and half on the edge of the mattress, the end piece of “bread” to our P-Liv-Me sandwich. To our far left is 2/3 of a comfy king-sized bed. I just don’t understand. 

I reach down and grab my phone, and depending on how much time I have, I check emails, social media, blog comments, and podcast stats with one eye closed. Does anyone else do this?!

Then, I stumble out of bed to the bathroom to splash water on my face, throw on some jeans, a top, and my mom sneakers, then start the before-school Routine.

I put lunches into backpacks, make breakfast for the girls, get them dressed, hair and teeth brushed, then out the door. 

It’s quick, efficient, and not the least bit peaceful or relaxing; a far cry for the motivational personal development books I’ve read. While the authors are meditating and writing in gratitude journals, I’m scrambling eggs in between looking for lost shoes, feeding the dogs, and buttoning the teeny tiny buttons on the back of P’s dress.

The only semi-aspirational thing I do is frequently make a Morning Detox drink before I chug my coffee. This is quickly negated by the fact that I chase the Detox drink with my children’s leftover soggy waffles pretty much every day. 

For a while, I was overly fascinated with Morning Routines. I found it so intriguing to hear about successful entrepreneurs’ morning routines and how they set the tone for the day. At the same time, I knew that these routines weren’t super realistic for me. I even told myself I’d start doing the Miracle Morning and then was up with both girls all night that night. For me, sleep is a rare and treasured commodity right now, so I’m at a phase in my life where I have to seize every second of sleep that I can. Maybe when the girls are a bit older, I’ll be able to wake up earlier and catch a workout and meditate in the morning. For now, I’m sleeping until my alarm goes over, staring squinty-eyed at my phone screen for like 10 minutes, and then racing through the morning routine.

It got me wondering, are there any people out there who have the most un-aspirational morning routines but still are slaying it at life? Does your morning truly dictate your tone for the entire day?

Thanks to the googles, here are some unique morning routines I’ve found: 

(And please don’t let the title of this post fool you. These people aren’t slackers in any way.)

From Blinkist:

From wpcurve:

An interesting article about weird daily habits

I guess in my search I was looking to find some crazy stuff – like someone eating frozen pizza for breakfast each day or hitting snooze 18 times – but I was a bit disappointed. It just gave me a small pang of happiness every time I saw that someone did something unusual – like the guy who eats smoked trout every morning? 

It was interesting to read that there are SO many common routines among successful people (gratitude journals, early exercise, drinking a lot of water when they wake up, cold showers, meditation, etc) but even so, morning routines can obviously vary. I don’t think that a morning routine directly affects someone’s will to succeed or internal motivation.

Some crazy successful people wake up early, seize every second, and accomplish a LOT. But there are also people who are waking up early, forcing themselves to go through these motions, and in a similar spot they were 10 years ago. I’d rather sleep until my alarm goes off and enjoy 30 minutes of before-school chaos, then wake up at 4:45 and cry to myself silently while trying to meditate, ya know? I just hate the mornings.

So, tell me friends: do you have an awesome morning routine? What’s something you do each day that makes you feel more centered and productive to crush it at life? For me, it’s getting outside at some point – whether it’s a walk with the dogs or playing with the girls in the backyard after school – and moving every day. On the days I don’t get in an official workout, I still try to be active in other ways (like chores or enjoying adventures outside with the girls) because it makes me feel a thousand times better. 

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend! A special thank you to all of the veterans and their families who have served.

xo

Gina

* Praying for all of those affected by the devastating fires in California. My heart is with you, and if you’d like to join me in donating to the relief efforts, resources can be found here.

** Congrats to the Beautycounter giveaway winner: Natalie! I’ll get your goodies on the way this week. Stay tuned for LOTS of holiday giveaways headed your way.

*** Today is my b-day! I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a recap of all the fun, but if any of my Peloton friends want to celebrate with me, I’ll be riding in Robin’s class at 5:30 ET and hoping for a b-day shout out. For the rest of the day, I’ll be feeling extra thankful for my amazing family, for this beautiful life, and eating birthday cake. Happy Monday, friends.

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