If you begin every day feeling like you’re coming down with a “case of the Mondays,” or you battle the all-too prevalent imposter syndrome, it’s time to give your morning routine a makeover. No, this doesn’t mean you have to get up before the sun to exercise, meditate and write in your gratitude journal (though how life-affirming would those things be?!). The last thing you need right now is to give yourself one more task to fail at and beat yourself up over. It means taking 10 minutes out of your existing routine to boost your confidence and face the day with intention. Here are a few things to try. Pick one or pick them all without cutting into precious morning time meant for other things.
Post a favorite quote or mantra on your bathroom wall so it’s the first thing you lay eyes on. We see lots of inspiring quotes online, hear them in podcasts, and read them in books, but they seem to go in one ear and out the other. Jotting them down on a sticky note and putting them somewhere you will see them daily is more powerful than you realize. What we tell ourselves becomes our reality, so force yourself to read something empowering first thing in the morning
Write down quick goals you want to achieve by the end of the day. We’re talkin’ baby steps here, people. This is not a soul-searching endeavor. If there is one simple thing you can commit to taking off your to-do list by the day’s end, jot it down. Making that phone call or appointment, writing that thank-you note, dropping that package off at the Post Office, or whatever it may be will actually make you feel capable of accomplishing more. At the very least, you did something; yay!
Remind yourself of one good thing that happened yesterday, and visualize one good thing that will happen today. Even if you think yesterday was a complete train wreck, there is something salvageable in the wreckage. Imagine you are talking to your child or your best friend, since we’re often more generous and gracious towards them than we are to ourselves. Find something positive to say about yesterday, and then imagine what will happen today, even if it will be an incredibly small win.
When thinking about what went wrong yesterday, imagine what you can do today to prevent that from happening again. Inevitably, you’ll think of everything you did wrong yesterday while sifting through it all to find something positive to say. And in the moment you start to beat yourself up, it’s important that you don’t get stuck there. Instead, own the mistake or negative situation and come up with a constructive plan for how to avoid it in the future. The key to confidence here is learning from the past, while remaining hopeful for the future.
So tell me, what would you add to this list? What do you do in the morning to feel more confident?
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