Setting The Tone For The Day

A lot of people ask the question “how did you sleep last night?” but I think we’re missing the mark. When we ask that question what we really want to know is how the person is feeling now - are they rested and ready to go or still dragging a bit? So let’s be more direct and think about that more specifically.

The moment you wake up and open your eyes your new day starts. It’s a pivotal moment because it sets the tone for how the day is going to go. But beyond just trying to feel rejuvenated from a night of sleep, you can be intentional about the way you spend the first moments of the day to connect with what you want the day to represent. This is just as much a factor for how you feel in the morning as getting rest, yet many people overlook it.

With this in mind, there are some things to avoid and best practices first thing when you wake up to set the tone for the day.

The first thing to avoid is pressing the “Snooze” button. When you “snooze” and delay starting the day, you’re giving yourself permission to allow your emotions to affect your decision making. This often causes you to start the day running behind, which then is an energy that affects how you show up to everything else. I have a lot to share on this, but the main thing I recommend for people who are “snoozing” in the morning is to pre-determine 5 minutes of activity that you begin the second your alarm goes off. If you want to go back to bed and get sleep after that, by all means do it, but now you’re doing it from a place of choice rather than emotional reflex.

The second thing to avoid is checking your phone. Again, this is training yourself to be okay with being reactive to other people rather than captaining your own day. And especially try to avoid social media unless you have a very specific purpose to checking it because it’s designed to hijack your attention and set you off course.

On the best practices side, it’s all a matter of being intentional about how you want to feel. That could be grateful, joyful, inspired, loved, whatever it might be. And what really looks in that feeling is doing a specific activity that allows you to tap into it. For example, the first two things I do when my alarm goes off is I brush my teeth and dance to a high-energy song to prime my day for joy, and then I go back to bed to snuggle my fiancé and tap into a moment of love. And then it’s gratitude journaling.

Similarly for you, start experimenting with what little actions you can start doing to generate positive feelings. 

The summary is - If you want to have a great, inspired, productive, present day, you need to intentionally set the tone. And your best opportunity for that is to paint on a blank emotional canvas as the first thing you do in the morning and fill it with how you want to feel.

I know I might be crazy because of the things that I do, but I’m happy. And to me that’s way more important.