5 Ways to Establish a Life-changing Routine

It’s never too late to go after something you want and make your life better.
One of the most important steps to change your life is to establish routines.
Discipline is hard, but creating routines is easy.

Here are 5 tips to establish routines and reach your dreams:

1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT

First, decide what you want in your new life. How do you want your life to be? What are your priorities? Do you want to workout more? Find a good school for your kids? Create a home business? Dedicate more time to a hobby?

For example, my family and I recently moved to a new city and for me, my priorities were:
1. finding a good daycare for my son
2. finding a good gym for me and
3. working on my blog.

With those three things in mind, I began the search.

Go Further Into the Details of What You Want

The daycare (especially) and the gym needed to be top quality. They needed to reach or exceed my standards.

When creating your ideal life, it’s very important to know what you want (and what you don’t want.) 

I knew I didn’t want a circuit type gym or a gym with just machines. I wanted a gym that offered a lot of exercise classes and machines (because I like doing the classes).  I started visualizing this even before we moved there. And, guess what? It’s exactly what turned up. (Manifesting stuff still amazes me!!)

The gym has a large cafe next door with free wifi. This was my third wish – to work on my blog – and this was a great place to do it – with no time wasted in between.

Thinking about what you want, writing it down or talking about it out loud helps you make it more “real” and also helps you refine your vision.

2.  KNOW YOUR SITUATION. KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS.

This is important: Acknowledge your situation and your limitations and work with what you’ve got.

Don’t cry, bemoan or beat yourself up about your current situation. It is what it is. You have to start from where you are right now. Be grateful for what you have and use what you have. It’ll get better and better.

I love this quote by Esther Hicks:

“Feel appreciation for what is and eagerness for what is coming.”

How can you create what you want with your current situation?

Example of a situation: You don’t have a car.  Or maybe your family has only one car and you have to share it. Whatever your current (because everything changes) situation, accept it and work with it. So you know in order to fulfill your wishes, you would like a gym walking distance. Or get creative. No car? Find a gym buddy you can carpool with.

Example of a situation #2: There isn’t a gym near you. Then work out at home. Here are some good online workouts that I like:

www.fitnessblender.com is a great exercise website with tons of free videos.
www.bettyrocker.com – love her! Great workouts & healthy eating tips.
www.badwitchworkout.com is fast, fun and affordable.
www.barre.com also has some good online options.
Try workout videos from the library.

3.  PREPARE THE DAY BEFORE

Carving out a new routine is not a cakewalk. It takes practice, continual tweaking and doing it every day. Sometimes we don’t feel like doing it.
What we have to do is: Make it as easy as possible to succeed. Prep for your success.

Design your life to make it as easy as possible to succeed.

Waking up early is not for everyone, but realizing the only time available during your day is at 6 am, then that’s what you have to do.
Waking up early can be difficult. For those of us who have a hard time waking up early (I’m talking 6 am, 7 am or even 8 am (I’m naturally an 8 am type) – prepare for it the day before. Decision fatigue is a real thing. If you are using that one operational brain cell in the morning to figure out what to wear, you will give up quick. Making decisions takes brain power and energy. Make those decisions when you are fully functional and not in a rush.

Get your clothes ready the day before
If you plan to head to the gym or workout first thing in the morning, get your clothes ready the evening before.
Get your kid’s clothes and their lunch ready the evening before.
If you need to send your child to school with lunch, prepare it the day before or at least know what it’s going to be – you know you will include the yogurt (that is currently purchased and sitting inside your fridge). Sandwiches can be made the night before, or even having the Tupperware with the leftovers ready is job done.
I like @momables @laurafuentes for lunch prep ideas for the family.

Get your things ready the day before: Get your gym bag ready too – the water bottle is in the fridge. The earbuds (or headphones – those earbuds don’t stay in my ears!) are in your bag. Your phone or music device is fully charged. Don’t forget the towel and other stuff if you will shower there.

Get your breakfast ready the day before:  Overnight Oats has become one of my favorite things. (Check out Pinterest for lots of recipes!)
You can prepare three at one time and leave them in the fridge. In the morning, just grab the jar, put it in your bag and go. Healthy and less expensive than spending money on what will most likely be a bad (and expensive) choice when you’re hungry and short on time – (NO, don’t order that bagel with cream cheese! shouts my brain. “I’ll have a bagel with cream cheese.” says my mouth. And out must come a $5 dollar bill to add insult to injury.)

Know where you will be going the next day:
One of my priorities is writing and building this blog. I work at home, but I often work at cafes or at the library too. Think about where you like to work. Is it at home? At a cafe? At the library?

I also know I like to switch up where I work from time to time. Sometimes I work from home, but I find I’m more distracted there. I start cleaning or eating more than I need to. Plus the distractions break into my precious time because soon I have to pick up my child from school! Anyone feel me on this?

So PLAN where you will be working from the day before. (“Tomorrow I will go to the coffee shop.” or “Tomorrow I will head to the library after the gym.”)  (PS If you’re working on your stuff on the weekends, know the hours of the library or whatever place you plan to be. Business hours can change and then your plan is shot and valuable time lost). Apply this to whatever situation you have in your life.

Pack your bag the night before:
We talked about the gym bag, but get your work bag ready too. I pack my backpack with my laptop,  battery fully charged – because I know the cafe I usually go to doesn’t have a lot of outlets –  laptop charger, my headphones, my notebooks and pens – and my overnight oats. I usually buy a coffee at the cafe.

When you prepare yourself and execute a good morning, the rest is downhill.

4.  SET SHORT, MEDIUM AND LONG TERM GOALS

I have to admit, I’m not big on setting goals. I’ve failed so many goals that I don’t plan goals too far into the future because I start to feel overwhelmed, nervous and I quit. It’s happened too many times.

But once you are in a routine, setting a small goal will help you keep moving forward.
Keeping up a routine is not always easy.  Placing little treats along your path will help you keep moving forward. There will be times you will want to simply stay in bed all day. (And if you have that luxury, by all means, do it every once in awhile!)

With working out, in the beginning, it will be hard.
Plus, if you are not used to working out 3-5 days per week, your body will be sending you all kinds of indecipherable messages. You may feel tired, sore, irritable, annoyed, impatient. It’s all normal.
As with the workouts themselves, we have to muscle through these uncomfortable moments. It does get better and once you start seeing the changes in your body, it’s such a rush, you’re not going to want to stop.

But it’s also important to hear what your body is telling you and take a rest from the gym or from working on your project if it feels like too much. Taking a break every now and then will help you keep going in the long run.

Short term goal may be: I will work out 3 days this week.
Medium goal may be: I will weigh myself again in 3 weeks.
Long term goal: When I reach losing 5 lbs, I will treat myself to (fill in something you really want or that motivates you. Ex: a new dress, a fun date night with your love, or a girls night at a cool bar you’ve been wanting to try.).

5. TWEAK, POLISH & PERFECT

After a while of living your routine, you will discover better, faster and easier ways to continue pursuing your goals. The road forward will broaden and you will meet people on the same path as you that will help you continue on – such as a new friend at the gym that motivates you to try a new class. Enjoy the strides you begin to make and keep going! Don’t be scared of making changes, as change is what you are manifesting. In the end, it is a tweak, polish, and perfecting of yourself! Enjoy the new and improved you! Celebrate your wins and then get back to work!

What are some tips and tricks you use to set up your routine? How are you making your dreams a reality? Let me know in the comments below.