Good Morning Success!

The fastest way to jumpstart your success in anything — especially an art career — is creating and guarding your morning routine.

What is a morning routine?

Choose the time you wake up and designate at least two hours to inspire, motivate, and prepare yourself for the day.

The worst thing you can do is wake up late, rush to whatever you are late for, face the rest of your day behind the ball and unprepared, and then go to bed exhausted so you can do it again the next day. This is an unhealthy pattern that will hold you back from choosing your best life and fulfilling your dreams.

How do you establish your morning routine? It’s not as hard as you think.

It starts with writing down your nighttime routine.

First, determine when you want to wake up in the morning and count backward 8 hours. That is your bedtime. Yes! You need a bedtime!

Your nighttime routine should start at least an hour before bed.

Write out your before-bed rituals. Things like:

• wash face
• brush teeth
• plan outfit for tomorrow
• set out workout clothes
• journal for 15 minutes
• pray/meditate
• learn a language on an app
• read
• plan your calendar
• make a to-do list

These are the things that will make it easier to fall asleep. A lot of the planning ahead will alleviate the need to worry, stress, or feel unprepared for the following day.

DO NOT look at social media, play with your phone, play video games, watch TV, or eat right before bedtime. These are the things that will keep you up and make it difficult to unwind and actually fall asleep.

Avoiding planning and preparing for the next day will add subconscious stress and worry that could keep you up.

Once your nighttime routine is designed and written down, you can plan your morning routine.

From the time you wake up, plan time for yourself. It is best if you beat the sun and get up 2 hours before the other people in your life. This is the time you choose to do what you really want for yourself.

Here are some ideas:

• exercise
• go for a walk
• meditate/pray
• write
• journal
• make sources
• paint
• set goals
• visualize your success and the life you want
• and learn something new

What you DON’T want to do: clean the house, do the dishes, answer messages and emails, do your taxes, pay bills, etc.

Don't do the things you feel you need to catch up on. Those things will take care of themselves. Don't do things that are obligations or drudgery. This is your sacred time just for you. It should be the things that inspire you and make you feel motivated afterward. This is the time to do the things you have wished you could do but felt you didn't have time for.

Implementing a solid, consistent morning routine will absolutely change your life!

Whether you are a mom or dad, extra busy, or have nothing to do and can sleep until noon, this is what you need in order to achieve your goals. You will be a better parent, employee, artist, friend, and spouse for having this crucial ME time each morning.

When I wake up at 5:00 am and it’s still dark and often cold, I think about my warm bed and sometimes think it’s better for me to sleep more and be cozy.

Then I think about the paintings I want to finish, my body that is getting stronger every week from my workouts, and all that I’m learning about business and what's new in the art world from listening to books and podcasts.

I think about how I’m learning to type properly and learning German and Greek on Rosetta Stone.

I think about how so many people ask how am I able to accomplish so much in a day.

I owe it all to my morning routine and the fact that I’ve beaten resistance as my first act of the day! I am at war with my bed every morning, but I won't let it beat me. I won't allow the seductive warmth of my blanket to hold me down. I swing my legs over the side of it and defiantly stand to my feet. I march into my closet and find my workout clothes laid out from the night before.

My second act of the day is beating resistance again as I put on my workout clothes. I grab my water bottle and march to the water jug for a refill. This is my third act of defiance over resistance; I have to work hard at drinking enough water. I plow downstairs to my studio and resist looking at my phone. It’s easy. I’ve already beaten resistance 3 or 4 times now.

I paint until 7:30 am and then go work out for thirty minutes. Next comes walking the dogs with John at 8:00, back down to the studio by 8:30.

Sit in my chair already feeling quite accomplished; it’s time to review my schedule and goals for the day. This is when I write down some of the things I heard in my spirit while I painted or worked out.

By 9:30, I start work.

Calling all culture warriors from the Beauty Battalion! You world-changers and lovers! This is the time to get serious!

The future is now.

Make war with your bed.

Master your morning and allow all of that Greatness inside of you to abound.

You change the world with the first 2 hours of your day. Let it be for the better!