Success is found in your daily routine.
As moms it can be crazy hard to find time for a “routine”. Our lives are littered with the “should”, “ought to”, “couldn’t get to it” and “ I wish…” and the days can just seem to slip by…
We give so much of ourselves and well… it can be hard to find the time or the inclination to make the choice of saying no to so many things, to say yes to something else.
Sadly, we love to blame the piled up emails on the vacation, the extra pounds on the holidays, the lack of time on our newest deadline… but the truth is that those are not the things that make or break us… it’s what we do EVERY DAY that determines our outcomes.
As parents it’s so easy to get caught up in catching up that we miss out on the fact that we actually do have systems and routines in place… we’re just not noticing them anymore.
Mindfulness is a huge part of so many physical and mental practices for a reason… yoga, several martial arts, mindful eating, even weight lifting… if you are PRESENT you make different choices and have different results.
But before going on, let’s break this down.
Systems, Tools and Routines are 3 different animals. Mastering them (which is easier than you think) means you are in control of creating the life you want, and more importantly, you can do them ON PURPOSE, which can then dramatically improve your home environment, and give you some extra time (and what mama doesn’t want that?).
System (S) = How you do something
Tool (T) = What you use to do it
Routine (R) = Something you do consistently over time
Examples:
S = Organized summer schedule
T = Time blocking
R = Same bedtime every day
S = Daily workout
T = Specific program in a home workout library
R = Work out at 5:30 am every day
S = Family calendars are synced
T = Google calendar
R = Weekly 5min meeting to go over calendars
EVERYONE does this, friends. Yes, YOU DO THIS. The gold is to do it on purpose.
The easiest way to attach intention to your day to day is to firstly take stock. Go through one day paying attention to what you do… what do you do when you wake up, what your family does during the day, what routines you have for meals, bedtime and naps, how your family schedules things, where you find breathing space for yourself, etc etc.
This is NOT homework… this is simply going on with your day PAYING ATTENTION to what is going on.
If you are happy with the results, if you are pleased with your life, your home and yourself, AWESOME! Check in with what’s working and keep it up.
If there are any areas where you are not pleased with what’s happening… you can change. You can find or tweak systems, tools and routines.
How? The same way you eat an elephant… one bite at a time.
Firstly, BREATHE. You’ve got this, you have super powers, use them.
Choose one thing… work on that. Choose another… work on that. You will discover that the more intention to put into your daily actions the easier it becomes to choose what aligns with your purpose.
Keeping it simple,
AK
Ps. If you haven’t yet, check out my resources and download the free time blocking guide.