10 Things I Do Every Morning To Win My Day
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Dedicating time each morning to focusing on yourself, your goals, your emotions, your priorities, and your growth, is the best place to start when working towards embracing your real. Plus, having an established morning routine will lead you into your day with greater clarity, creativity, energy, purpose, focus, and drive.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I walk you through ten things I do every single morning that help me win my day and embrace my real. I also give you a detailed explanation of why each one is part of my routine and how you can easily implement them into your morning as well.
Already have a morning routine? This episode will inspire you to give yours an update. Don’t have a morning routine? This episode will help you see the value in adopting one. No matter which one you are, I know this episode will provide you with practical tips and actionable takeaways for ensuring you win your day!
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TRANSCRIPTION:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in. Let's go.
Hello and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so grateful that you are here. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Whether you're driving, you're working out, you're cleaning, hanging around the house, so thankful that you are here with me and I am so excited about today's episode because we are, drum roll please, talking about morning routines. I am a firm believer in morning routines and this is coming from a girl who is fly by the seat of her pants type of girl never previously, I would say before two years ago had a solid morning routine.
I was the type of girl especially in high school where I literally had the alarm going off like 18 times and I finally had to have... My mom would come into the room and she would shake me and she'd be like, "Julie, you need to get up. You need to be at school in 10 minutes." I was that like last minute type of girl, always have been. I love my sleep. But about two years ago, I was challenged by one of my mentors to establish a morning routine because I was really trying to level up in my life. I was trying to level up in my business in my health and wellness journey and just overall improve the quality of my life and I am so grateful I took that challenge.
At that time, my mentor challenged me to a 30-day, try for 30 days being consistent in a morning routine and see how your life, your business, your productivity, all of that changes. And I'm so grateful that I did because honestly, if you set aside time in the morning to invest in yourself and your mindset it is inevitable that you will win the day regardless of what is thrown at you. And this is a testament. I mean like I said, I've been doing this religiously for the last two years. I honestly don't think that there has been more than a two-day period in the last two years that I have missed my morning routine simply because I know that it sets me up for success every single day. And even when I'm on vacation, even when I'm in a different place, I have created such a habitual habit that I love it, like I crave it and my body craves it and my mind craves it.
So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through what my morning routine looks like, kind of explain why it's a part of my routine and then how you can implement it into your routine. Some of you listening may already have a morning routine so maybe this episode will inspire you to update your morning routine. For others, maybe you have no routine and you are like, "I need all of this because I'm starting at ground zero. I was with you two years ago. Just two short years ago, I was with you. I didn't really have a solid routine. I didn't really see the importance of it and I know that each and every single one of you are going to take away something from this episode.
So I want to encourage you to take out a piece of pen, paper or just write this down in your notes section of your phone. I honestly think that you'll get something out of every piece that I share or at least that will inspire you to kind of take a look at what you're doing and ask yourself honestly if you want to implement this or if there are some changes that you'd like to make. Without further ado, let's get into today's episode on 10 things that I do every single morning that help me win the day.
All right. So number one, I at least sleep seven to eight hours every single night. I know you might be saying we're talking about a morning routine, why are you talking about sleep? Because sleep sets you up for the next day. So even though this is not technically a part of my morning routine, it is so vital to my morning routine because there are so many benefits to sleep. I'm just going to kind of list off a couple of them, but muscle recovery, you need energy to live your life. Honestly, if you are not getting enough sleep and you're just walking through your life with zero energy or you are just getting your energy from coffee or caffeine, you will see such a big difference when you actually start prioritizing your sleep
Mental clarity, it helps so much to help you show up in the best version of yourself so that you can play the various roles that you play. I know for me I play various roles in my life. I'm a business owner, I'm a wife, I'm a friend, I'm an aunt, I'm a daughter, I'm a leader. There's so many different areas that I show up in my life and having enough sleep is so important. Sleep, also really affects your appetite. It really affects your cravings, it affects controlling your hunger.
So previously when I was not getting enough sleep, I remember in college in particular, I didn't really value sleep that much. I don't know that any of us really did in college, if you did go to college or even in your younger 20s, even late teens. I don't know. I think I slept maybe five, six hours on a good night and I wondered why I was always hungry. I wondered why I was always craving all of these things. Honestly sleep affects your appetite so much. So if you are finding your hunger out of control, your appetite out of control, it could be a lack of sleep.
I feel my best when I sleep enough. I have found this medium for me and there's tons of studies that have shown at least seven hours of sleep every single night, up to nine hours. The average American needs seven to eight hours and I kind of fall in that range. One number one question I get people asking is that's great, that sounds super easy to do, seven, eight hours per night but how do I make time for that? My life is so, so busy and I understand you. I get that. I get that that is a very valid question, but there really is no magical advice. I mean, you just have to prioritize it enough.
You have to make it an intention and make it a non-negotiable in your life. I know as a kid, we had bedtimes and if you're a parent there's bedtimes for kids and you probably look forward to that bedtime for your kids. But you as an adult have to make a bedtime too. I really think that that's honestly like the best piece of advice that I could give you when it comes to really prioritizing your sleep because if you don't make it a priority then things will always happen, the Netflix show, the next episode will continue playing and you'll just stay up another 45 minutes, and then another 45 minutes and then you look at the clock and you're like, "It's 11:30. Oh my goodness. I need to wake up at 6:00 a.m."
You just have to make it a priority. I know for me, I actually set an alarm on my phone so that I get notified 30 minutes before I need to start winding down. So I give myself about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to wind down, so I set my alarm 30 minutes before that and that allows me just to give me kind of a heads-up. So whether if I'm working or if I'm doing something else, I just have that in the back of my mind like, "Okay, I'm going to be winding down very shortly." So kind of wrap up on social media, wrap up on all the devices.
I have found that I have to get off my device, my phone screen time at least 30 minutes before I go to sleep. So I have a pretty detailed nighttime skincare routine which I can maybe talk about on the podcast or I'll share on my Instagram stories, but that kind of allows me the opportunity to do my full skincare routine, not be on my phone, but there have been so many studies that have shown that blue light actually suppresses melatonin which can impact our sleep.
If you are literally on your screen trying to go to sleep, it's actually waking your body up more. Be intentional about that. I know every single person is different. I personally need seven to eight hours. Like I had mentioned earlier, maybe for you it's nine to 10. Just pay attention to how many hours of sleep you're getting the night before and ask yourself am I feeling my best and kind of from there, you can determine your sweet spot.
I know for me, if I oversleep... So the other day we were up at a bed-and-breakfast, and we had blackout curtains and we were exhausted because the day before I was snowboarding. So I was like, "Oh, I'm just going to get myself eight to nine hours." So I ended up sleeping nine and a half hours which was so much sleep for me. I hadn't that in a long time. I felt groggy. I did not feel my best. Everybody is going to be different like I said. Just kind of gauge that and see where you're at so that way you can determine what your sweet spot is.
Number two, I always wake up within 20 seconds of my alarm going off. Now, you might be like what are you talking about. Honestly this sounds crazy and I actually thought I was crazy when I first started doing this, but I heard somewhere, I believe it might have been Tony Robbins or it could have been some other teaching similar to Tony Robbins, but I remember it was the video all about training our subconscious brain and how our subconscious brain just needs the repetition in order for our subconscious to start working for us.
So basically what they had talked about on this video was if you can tell yourself that you're going to be waking up at a specific time at least seven to 10 times like say it out loud. Let's say for example my alarm is going to be going off at 6:15. I tell myself, tomorrow morning I will wake up at 6:14 a.m. Tomorrow morning, I will wake up at 6:14 a.m. And I repeat that out loud seven times. I know it sounds crazy, but it is astonishing how powerful our subconscious brain is when we use repetition to train it. So I have trained myself to at least wake up within 20 seconds. Typically it's about a minute before my alarm even goes off because I've made this such a religious habit.
Again, it's kind of a part of a morning routine. It's more so just like getting myself set up for the morning because if you press snooze in the morning, the first thing before you even get out of bed is you breaking a promise to yourself. I don't want that for you. I know I don't want that for me on a day to day basis. I don't want to break a promise to myself before I even get up, because honestly pressing snooze five or more times is not going to make you feel refreshed and ready to hop out of bed. I can promise you that and when we do train our subconscious brain, it's like our brain is planning for that in advance so it's it's not even relying on the alarm anymore.
I would highly encourage if you haven't tried that to try it. I want to hear how you do it and make sure it's at least seven to 14 times. I think seven to 14 times that you have to say it out loud to yourself, to train your subconscious brain. But it is amazing. It is amazing at how powerful our subconscious brain is if you can train it.
Another quick tip that I would recommend if you have a hard time when the alarm goes off is The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. If you haven't already heard her TED talk, she has a whole book, it's called The 5 Second Rule, but she also has a really amazing TED talk. She also did an interview with Tom, the co-founder of Quest. It's just an incredible interview on how powerful the subconscious again brain is when we are counting down five, four, three, two, one. And on one, you immediately take action. It's amazing.
I mean, there's tons different tips and tricks that I can give you but ultimately there is really no secret to it. It's just something that you have to prioritize. It's something that you have to make a non-negotiable in your life and it does trace back to a bunch of different things in terms of like a lot of times people don't like to get out of bed because they're not having fun in their life. They're not enjoying their life. Maybe they're not passionate about the career path that they've taken or their life is very stressful.
There are many different things that I could encourage you to do. Definitely take a look at those things as well like are the things that you're doing throughout your day, are they bring you true joy and if not, asking yourself if you have to make a tough decision, if you have to make a tough call to weed things out of your life so that you can be more passionate and excited which we'll go back to helping you get out of bed easier. Another tip that I have is if you sleep by a bedside lamp then turning the bed lamp on as soon as your alarm goes off, so getting up, turning on the lamp because it's a lot harder to fall asleep once the light is on. But number two, again, I wake up within at least 20 seconds of my alarm going off.
Number three, I never, never, never sleep with my phone in the room. So if you guys follow me for any length of time on Instagram you might have heard this because I am so religious about it. I've been doing it now for about 17 months and there was a series of things that happen. Once I really realized how detrimental the blue light and screen time is to suppressing the melatonin and also impacting the quality of your sleep, I also at the same time was really again, just trying to level up my life trying to level up my productivity, trying to really be more present in the moment and I realized how much I was mindlessly scrolling on my phone.
I was scrolling on my phone before I went to bed. I was scrolling my phone right after I woke up. And that's just not what I wanted the time in the bedroom to be for me. So for me, I wanted that time to be talking to Josh, being more intentional about communication with him, praying, reading a book. There are so many amazing things that I could do to invest in myself instead of just mindlessly scrolling. So I decided to put my phone in our bathroom which our bathroom is right next to our bedroom, but it's not in the same room. And so I was like if the phone is in the bathroom, I set my alarm then it will force me to get up, to turn the alarm off. And once I'm up, I'm up like. I'm not going to get up, walk all the way across the room to a different room to turn off the alarm and then walk back to my bed and fall asleep.
It has helped so much and there are so many amazing things that I can say about this specific topic, but if you are not already taking your phone and removing it from your room and putting it in a different room when you go to sleep, there's one takeaway from today's episode, it's this because this will single-handedly transform that setting the tone for the day and then setting the tone for kind of your evening round up because I truly believe when you expose yourself within the first few minutes of waking up, whatever you're consuming, it sets the tone for your entire day.
So let's just say for example, I would immediately get up previous to having my phone in my room. I would see all the notifications from the night. So whether it was social media, it was emails, it was my slack, it was team communication, so many different things, and immediately I am in this mindset of responding to everybody else's needs and not even identifying my own. So I would encourage you, encourage you so much to leave the phone out of the bedroom. Leave the phone out of the bedroom. If you want to control your day, if you want to control your emotions, if you want to live more present, if you want to have the tone of your morning to feel full of gratitude and full of just in that moment, get the phone out of your room. I would encourage you to put it in your bathroom, turn it off. You could even have an old-school alarm clock, whatever its going to take for you but you have to set that as a priority. So again, number three, I never sleep with my phone in my room.
Number four, establish gratitude for at least three things in that moment. I love this part of my morning routine. This has honestly become one of my favorites because once I do it... So basically, what happens is my alarm goes off, I get up, I turn my light on, I walk to my bathroom, I turn my alarm off, then I walk back to the edge of my bed then I look out our bay window which looks out at a bunch of scenery like Colorado scenery which I freaking love. I immediately ask myself three to five things that I'm grateful for and I establish it out loud.
And the reason why I'm so adamant about this is because, I think, again, training that subconscious brain of yours through repetition and through speaking out loud. In the same way, I'm a huge firm believer in pen to paper and how important that is subconsciously and also just on a very real emotional level. I mean, this takes less than a minute you guys. Three to five things that you're grateful for, simple things. For me, this morning. For example, I just got these brand new huge oversized cozy socks and I just looked down at them this morning and I was like, "I am so grateful for these cozy socks. I am so incredibly grateful for this down comforter."
Some days, it's going to be common things. Other days, it's going to be maybe a conversation that I had right before I went to sleep or it maybe it was an amazing dream that I had or just basic things like I have a roof over my head. I had food in my belly. I'm about to have coffee. This is a beautiful thing. All of these things that could easily be looked over, I think it's really important that we establish things of gratitude. And no matter how big or small, it's really, really important that you set the tone of your day through that because I truly believe when you start to look at things that you're thankful for, it's like you are training your subconscious brain to continue to look for things throughout the day at what you are incredibly grateful for and then as a result your overall attitude for the day completely shifts. And then you're constantly in this mode of like actively looking for things that are grateful for.
I think honestly it's super easy for us to concentrate on everything that's wrong in our lives. Negativity is so easy to cling to when even there are things positive positive in our life, negativity is the easiest one to complain about, it's the easiest one to fixate on and negativity, honestly can drown out so much good and so much blessing if you're constantly focused on it. And so I think that's why we need to actively search for the positive things in our life and practicing gratitude, again, is such an amazing way to do this.
So whether you believe it or not, you really, really do have so much to be grateful for. Think about it, your job, your home, your family, your friends, your dog, your cat, cozy socks. There are so many things to be grateful for. So I mean, don't overthink it. Simple stuff like bring back the simple joys in our life and focus on that because it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I promise that the more gratitude you express, the more good things you'll find throughout the day appearing in your life. So remember this, the energy that you give out is the energy that you get back. Again, number four, establish gratitude for at least three things in that moment.
Number five, make my breakfast. So my alarm went off. I literally never skip breakfast. I know. So many people are advocates of skipping breakfast. So many people are fasting until later in the day, but for me breakfast makes me feel so good. Breakfast makes me feel so happy. Breakfast helps me immediately start to have energy for the day. I immediately, just feel better about myself and it makes me feel good eating breakfast. So rather than listening to what other people say or what the best fad diet is or the best thing for your body or your metabolism or your detox or whatever, I will always eat within 30 minutes of waking up because that's what makes me feel best.
And this could be totally different for you. You could be one that does intermittent fasting. You could be one that doesn't prefer to have food in their belly while they work out, let's say for example. So recently I've been opting for a one protein bar and the reason I love them is because they're super quick, they're super delicious. They at least get something my belly. There's a couple flavors of one bars that I love, the dark chocolate and the birthday cake. Both of those flavors you can get on Amazon, you can get at Target.
And on the days where I have a little bit more time, for example on the weekends or if I'm even traveling like I said, I do the same thing even when I'm on vacation, I will make a breakfast sandwich. So it will be like a bagel with some egg whites and cheese, sometimes bacon. I'll just make a good hearty breakfast, but I overall feel so much more energized. I feel like I have so much more mental clarity and stamina to really attack my day when I eat something within 30 minutes of waking up. So personally, I love it. Again, do you, I'll do me and we'll support each other in that. So again, number five is make my breakfast.
Number six. I at least drink 16 ounces of water typically before I even eat anything. The reason I do that is because I often times get really dehydrated from the night. Drinking at least 16 to 20 ounces of water just helps digest anything that my stomach might be feeling from the night before. It helps with dehydration and it gives a jumpstart on keeping me hydrated throughout the day. So I personally drink a gallon of water per day. This has been something that I've been doing honestly for the last, I don't know five or six years and I love it.
There are so many benefits to drinking water. Like I mentioned earlier, it helps with digestion, it really helps with dehydration just getting a jump start, but it also helps with boosting your energy, your digestion, metabolism. It helps with muscle recovery. It can help flush out toxins in your body and it can also help burn fat. So definitely I recommend prioritizing water in the morning. Again, there's no real magical thing. I mean, you could add some lemons, you could add some lime ,you could add some fruit to make it really yummy, but you've just got to make it a priority. There's no secret in it, you just have to care enough about it to make it an intention. So number six drink at least 16 to 20 ounces of water before I eat my breakfast.
Number seven. We are getting juicy here, baby. We're going into journal prompts because this is probably the most frequently asked question that I get because I do share a lot that I journal. I have been journaling for a long time like I would say about 17 to 19 months for sure. I started the journaling practice two years ago when I was challenged by my mentor, but I would say I really got intentional about it daily, about 17-ish months ago. I loved journaling because I feel like it allows me to come back to see where I was mentally, where I was in my state of mind, the things that I was establishing gratitude in that moment and it's just an amazing way to kind of keep tracked on my goals, the things that mattered at the time and then I also look back to see how far I've come.
So for some, I know that journaling does not come naturally. So again I want to encourage you to find something that works for you, but I truly believe that journaling is so, so important. I know when I was in that in-between stage about two years ago, I wanted to start journaling so I kind of did it but then I was also like, "Oh, but I just want to journal on my phone because I always have my phone and what if I lose the journal or misplace it or whatever and I just ended up getting super distracted." So I went back to pen and paper. I really think that a key critical component of journaling is being distraction-free.
So I would encourage you to find an area in your house. It could be literally in your closet. No joke. Somewhere where you're not going to get distracted from kids, your husband, your dogs, your cats, whatever other distractions you have. Journaling doesn't have to be this long process. It can start out at five to 10 minutes. So I encourage you to get into a place where you are completely distraction-free, but you will see so much benefit when you choose to prioritize it, because I feel like it has allowed me to really put pen to paper what I'm thinking and digest my feelings.
The next question that I've gotten so many people asking about because I've brought up journaling is where do your prompts come from, what are your prompts, what do you do, how do you do them, et cetera. So we decided to actually come up with our own journal prompt which I'm really excited about. This has been something in the works for a while and this is honestly the exact journal prompts that I do myself in my journal every single day.
Be sure to head over to the show notes because we have a digital version of our Live Better Journal. All you got to do is type in your email address and you can get a free day of what the journal prompts are. I'm so excited to finally release this to you guys because this has been the number one question I get whenever I talk about my journaling on my Instagram. The next question that I get a lot of people asking me is like how long do you journal for? Again, journaling can come natural to some people. For other people, it's not natural at all.
And so I have always tended to be one that does like to journal. Growing up, I did keep a journal. Again, you have to remember that I might be in a different season of life than you. I don't have kids. I work from home. So there are things like that, but I would encourage you at least to take five to 10 minutes and start there and see kind of what feels comfortable and what feels most natural for you. Some days for me, it's shorter, other days it's a bit longer. I know there's been some days where I only have like a couple sentences that I want to write. I'm just not feeling it, but I'm forcing myself into the habit anyways because it's creating that discipline in my life whereas other days, I feel like I could literally write a novel.
So again, go back to what feels natural for you. Instead of focusing on the time, I would really just focus on the quality of what you're actually putting in there. Some people have asked if I ever go back and read my journal entries and I do. So I was mentioning earlier, I love to go back to kind of see how far I came to see what was important at that season in my life and compared to what's important now because I just feel like it's a tangible way to see how much we've grown as individuals which is so fun.
So this is a perfect example of manifestation and how crazy manifesting things are subconsciously through journaling. So last year, in January of 2019, in my journal I followed all the Live Better Journal prompts and then there's always some days where I'm like feeling extra, so I just write more in my journal. I remember writing verbatim, I will work with Toyota on a collaboration. So I put out a dream list of companies that I want to work with, companies that I feel super aligned to, I love their products and I just remember this exactly a year ago actually.
It was me just kind of dreaming big like dreaming really big. I wrote it down. And then I continued to write that down January, February, March and I think at least wrote it down probably five to seven times every single month in my journal from January to November and last November I actually got an email from Toyota and they approached me out of the blue, random, asked if I wanted to work with them. It was so cool to just see something so tangible actually happen. And that's happened. I mean, that's one example but there have been so many examples in my life of just cultivating patience and cultivating aligned connection and really like living and walking into my purpose.
So many things that I have said in my journal that I want to do that have come true simply because I truly believe when you're writing things down and you're really being intentional about that, you're aligning your actions, your thoughts to what you're writing every single day and it's again, your subconscious helping you with that. So let's see what else I have to say about journaling prompts. I think the biggest piece of advice that I would give you about journaling is to not overthink it. I think whether you're doing a five-minute journaling practice or a 45-minute journaling practice, it's a powerful practice regardless and you'll get so much out of it.
Moving on to number eight, devotionals. Devotionals have been a big part of my life for a long time in and out I would say if I can be completely transparent. There have been seasons in my life where I've been really consistent with them and then they've been seasons of my life where they're non-existent. Recently, since the new year, we have been doing a devotional. It's a one year devotional. I'd have to look at it. I don't know exactly. I can't remember what the name of it is, but basically it's just a one pager and it's not reading a bible through the year, but it is taking you on different verses and different topics and whatnot, and that's been super helpful.
Devotionals honestly have impacted my life in so many ways simply because I'm a very spiritual person and when I connect to my Creator and I connect to my soul, I feel at my best, I feel at my fullest. I feel like I'm actually living in my purpose and I love having a structured devotional. One thing that I have found super helpful for me is overall just following something I think is really important and that's key in having it be consistent.
So I would say the devotional part of my morning routine, it varies anywhere from five to 20 minutes. Again, I don't want you to get so fixated on the amount of time that you're spending versus the quality of the time that you're spending or the energy that you are putting into it. I never like to be like, "Okay, I'm going to time it here and once the timer goes off, then I have done my checkoff thing." I really want to let the spirit guide that time and like I said, "Sometimes it's less time, other times it's longer." And so I kind of just like to let that flow.
So another question I've gotten asked with this specific topic is what if you're not religious, what should you do? I would just encourage you to find something that really connects to you. I know for a lot of people poetry like just having words really connects to them. Reading something that's meaningful and really soulful. So whatever that looks like in your life, I can't really say do this because we all live a different life. We all have different passions and we all have different beliefs and that's what I love about our community. So just really finding something that is meaningful in your life.
Number nine, visualization. If you are not already familiar with visualization, I highly suggest that you look into it. It is so fascinating. It is such an incredible practice for your brain, for your actions, for all the things, but essentially what visualization is the very basic level. It is closing your eyes and it is detailed visions of something having already been completed before you even start it. So let me give you an example. So every single morning, I do morning visualizations of my day. So typically the night before or the morning after I journal and do my devo, I will look at my calendar for the day or my to-do list and in the Ledbetter journal prompt, you'll see three things that you're working on today.
So I'll look at that and I'll ask myself, okay, in order for me to be present in this meeting or if I'm showing up somewhere or if I'm having coffee with a friend later or whatever, I visualize me already having completed. This also includes my workout. For example, I am doing legs that day. I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to do a lower body workout." And I kind of visualize my day from the moment that I finished the visualization. So the the first task of the day I start visualizing, and I ask myself a couple questions.
I first ask myself what am I doing. So I'll say I'm going to complete a leg workout. This is all in my mind, so I'm not saying this out loud but I'm going to complete a leg workout and I'm going to go into my workout feeling energized, feeling celebratory of all that my body can do for me. I'm going to work hard. I'm not going to be distracted in my workout and I'm just overall going to get a killer workout in so that I can finish that strong so that I can start my day off on the best note having invested in myself first. I am very, very detailed in my visualizations because it's really important that we're telling our subconscious brain certain things. Because what happens with visualization is once you have already in your mind gone through that entire thing.
So whether it's a workout, it's a meeting that you show up to, it's an interview, it's a coffee date, whatever it is, the different roles and the various roles that you play throughout the day, you are already telling your subconscious brain and kind of painting a picture of how you want to show up. So when it actually happens, your brain can help you out in that moment and it can go back to that visualization because it already saw it and it's mine. So the imaginary part of our brain is so incredible in the sense of like if it's already sees something, then it sees it as familiar and as a result it's a lot easier for it to fulfill that visualization that you did.
Another thing that I like to visualize and be very proactive about is when and if something happens in my day that I was not expecting, how am I going to show up. And a couple things that I always say in my visualization is I choose to release stress in this moment. So even if I'm not feeling stressed in that moment of visualization as I'm thinking it, I am future forecasting if any sort of stress or anxiousness comes up throughout the day because something didn't go according to plan or whatever, I am telling myself that stress and anxiousness is a choice and I choose not to embody those feelings, those emotions and I choose peace, I choose love, I choose optimism, and I choose trust, and ultimately that's trust in God, trust in his way.
I always remind myself that everything is happening for me not to me. And so those are kind of just couple things that I do in my visualizations. When I am visualizing, I like to sit up straight. I like to cross my legs. I like to close my eyes and again I like to be in a place that's pretty distraction-free. Definitely not having your phone by you, not having any other distractions if possible. Your visualization could be as quick as one to two minutes or as long as five to 10 minutes. I even do it throughout the day too like if I'm driving to a specific meeting. I tried to do another visualization of me really showing up as the best version of myself and I want to show up as the best version of myself, what does that look like? How do I prepare myself? How do I walk? How do I talk? What happens when a person asked me questions? Do I want to look them in the eye?
Really thinking detailed oriented things so that my subconscious brain once it's actually in reality, it can help me out. Moving on to the last and final thing, affirmations, the IM statements. Affirmations are a huge, huge part of my morning routine. They are kind of again in my journal prompts. So you'll see that in the Live Better Journal prompt in the show notes. Affirmations have been a huge part of my life I would say for the last 17 months. Really again, reminding my subconscious, reminding my mind, reminding my heart who I am, reminding me that I am worthy, that I am beautiful, that I am productive that I am a leader, that I am trustworthy that I walk in a form of confidence.
The "I am" statements have honestly impacted my life in so many ways because when you are constantly doing something repeatedly over and over and over again, it's almost like you start to embody what you are repeating. Repetition is the mother of skill. If you can repeat it, over and over and over again, you eventually embody it. It will eventually become a skill in your life. And so when you first start affirmations, I will tell you that it can feel a little hooky like I am beautiful, I am worthy. It can kind of feel like you're just going through the motions, but I really want to remind you that it's just repetition that will over time, you'll start to see a difference in your thought patterns, in your mindset, in the ways that you think of yourself, in the ways that you think in terms of confidence in your life like I can do this. I am able to be a problem solver when things happen in my life and just reminding yourself of who you are. Not what you are, but who you are is so, so important.
I would say the affirmation part is, again, it's a part of the journaling process so it's not really a separate part of my morning routine, it's more so in that journaling time. Some of the things that I write every single day is I am in the best shape of my life mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially and I remind myself of that. When you attach "I am" to whatever blank statement it is, it's so much more personal and it connects in your subconscious brain that you are that. You do embody that. And so it's makes such a bigger personal connection to it.
So again number 10, affirmations. Basically, to wrap it up, I love my morning routine. I love my morning routine because I feel like it sets the tone for the day. I feel like it really sets my heart and it sets my mind up for all the things, the challenges, the triumphs, the victories, the hardships. Everything in between, it helps ground me, it helps remind me of who I am. It helps remind myself that it's important to prioritize myself and it really helps me live in the moment. It has helped me be more productive. It has helped me live a more joy filled, peace filled life and I want that for you.
So again, if you have not already created a morning routine, if you've not valued it or maybe you didn't even know it was really a thing, I want to encourage you to take a step and remember you're not going to master your morning routine overnight, but it's definitely something that I want you to prioritize in your life because on your journey of really embracing your real, I think in order for you to embrace your real, you've got to know what your real is and I think that your real starts in your morning routine. And so just remember that. I know that we all have busy schedules. I know that you have a million and 10 different things that you need to be at and do. I know that you might be a mom, you're a wife, a daughter, a co-worker, a boss, a leader. All the different roles that you play in your life.
But remember this, it all starts with how you set the tone for the day. I want you to show up in your life in the most powerful version of yourself, in all those different roles and because of that, I think it's important to prioritize this. So all I would recommend for you to do to start with is to give yourself 20 to 30 minutes for all of this, all of the different things. And again, it doesn't have to be... It can be exactly like mine, it doesn't have to be exact like mine. You can pick and choose, do you and I will do me, but you definitely need to have one.
And so if that means waking up 20, 30 minutes earlier, that means waking up 20, 30 minutes earlier which means probably going to sleep 20 to 30 minutes earlier than you were previously. So really, just again prioritizing it and encouraging you to not give up on yourself before you even get out of bed, a.k.a. pressing the snooze button, breaking that promise yourself.
So I'm just going to recap the 10 different things that I do to win my day every single day. Number one, seven to eight hours of sleep every single night, non-negotiable. Number two, not sleeping with my phone in my room. Number three, I get up immediately once my alarm goes off. Number four, I establish gratitude for at least three things in that moment. Number five, I drink 16 to 20 ounces of water before my breakfast. Number six, I make breakfast, I eat breakfast. Number seven, I have my journaling, my journaling prompts. Number eight, my devotionals. Really important for me. Number nine, visualization, non-negotiable. And lastly number 10, affirmation.
So those last few are bunched into the journaling portion. Remember my morning routine does not have to look like your morning routine. I need you to figure out what makes you feel best, but you need to have a morning routine. You are here to get stuff done and in order for you to get stuff done, you got to set the tone for your day and I promise, I promise it will make you a better human being. It will make you a better person and that's what we all need in our life, okay? So if there is one part of this episode that was really encouraging or inspiring or kind of an aha moment, I would love to see it. So be sure to screenshot, tag me, post it up on Instagram stories Julie A. Ledbetter. Share it with your friends, your family, your co-workers, your sisters, your mom, all of the ladies in your life and I cannot wait to hear and see what comes from it.
If you are just starting a morning routine, I want to know what it looks like. If you complete the Live Better Journal prompts, I want to see it. So again be sure to tag me on Instagram and we will be in this together. So that concludes today's episode and I will see you guys on the next one.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on Instagram, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.