June 19, 2025 • 15 mins
What would your life look like if you started every day in the lead instead of at the mercy of notifications, demands, and distractions? The way we begin our day sets the pace for everything that follows.
Ready to shift the way you start your day? This could be the one simple habit that helps you shift everything else.
Listen now, then share with someone who might need this message too.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently.
Whether you feel stuck insurvival, navigating a change,
or seeking more for your life,may this podcast be your weekly
nudge to take a risk to build alife that is uniquely bold,
authentic and in alignment withyour deepest values.
What if you worried less aboutthe bumps in the road and
(00:23):
instead got equipped for thejourney?
Get ready to rethink what'spossible.
If I could gift you one simplehabit that you could incorporate
into your life that had thepotential to change the course
(00:44):
of your day and, ultimately,your life, this one habit would
be the way you start your day,also known as morning routine,
or I like to call it creatingyour day.
We all have one.
We just might not realize it orhave stopped to actually look
(01:07):
at it.
Your morning routine may havejust happened by default.
Maybe it came from watching orseeing someone model it for you.
It may just be there as a wayof surviving and getting up
every day and getting started,and there's not a lot of
intentionality around it.
(01:28):
But we all have a morningroutine.
I want to invite you duringthis episode to take an honest
look at what it is today andwhat would be possible if you
made some simple shifts to yourmorning routine, the way you
start your every day.
If you currently haven't everhad a morning routine or created
(01:52):
one intentionally, it mightfeel or look like this Imagine
getting in the car to take atrip and you've just thrown
everything in the car.
You have a vague idea aboutwhere you're headed, but haven't
mapped out the best way to getthere.
You've just had your first sipof coffee.
The kids are in the back seatand throwing their stuff in, and
(02:13):
they're already needing thingsfrom you and have questions, and
you aren't even sure whichdirection to head first.
On the contrast, imagine youwake up early, you've charted
your path, you've had a cup ofcoffee already, you've thought
about the trip ahead of you andthe time you want to create for
(02:34):
your family.
You've moved your body andwoken it up.
The car is pretty much loadedand you get the kids up and
you're now available for them.
You're present and you get thekids up and you're now available
for them.
You're present.
You're available because you'vealready prepared yourself and
you're ready for this adventure.
You know where you're going.
This, my friends, is the powerof a morning routine.
(02:57):
Serenivus Rao said the greatestwork of your life is inside you
.
Give it the fertile soil itneeds to see the light of day.
Plant the seeds today for whoyou eventually want to become
and you'll open yourself up toan infinite set of possibilities
.
I love to think about a morningroutine as the fertile soil
(03:20):
that you cultivate every singleday to start your day on.
Starting your day by payingattention to the inside, to
cultivate a space where you feelcentered and grounded, is a
game changer.
Understanding how to lead yourday is inside of you.
(03:40):
Knowing which thing to focus onfirst is inside of you.
Recognizing the one thing thatyou could get done today that
would have the greatest impacton your day and week and life is
inside of you.
So often we look to the outerworld for direction or we just
start our day sort of at themercy of the alarm clock and the
dings on our phone, ofnotifications of new email and
(04:04):
the phone calls of peopleneeding things, and we start our
day off track.
We don't start in the lead.
What would happen if youstarted in the lead each and
every day?
It's easy to feel frustratedand feel at the mercy of your
time or your job or your manager, your to-do list or your
demands of your kids and usingthese things as an excuse.
(04:26):
It's really easy, I get it.
It can be convincing and it'swhat most people do, but not
making what is important to youa priority is not their job,
it's your job.
It's up to you to guard yourprecious time.
I love this idea of creatingyour day, I think because for so
(04:48):
many years I felt powerless andat the mercy of my
circumstances and what othersneeded.
The pop-up notifications on mycomputer and it all sort of
thwarted my plan for the day.
I learned as a young mom howimportant my sanity was, after
feeling like it was slippingaway, and how important it would
(05:08):
be to carve out space to takecare of myself, for my children,
for my marriage, for my home,for my life.
That habit stuck and it's oneof those little structures that
has rippled to every part of mylife.
It started with putting my alarmclock outside of the room so
(05:29):
that I had to get out of bed toturn it off.
This was a trick I had read toactually get yourself out of bed
so you don't keep hittingsnooze.
I began with 15 minutes or 30minutes waking up before anybody
else in the house was awake.
I started really small, but itwas a few minutes to find my own
(05:50):
center, to journal and write,to clear my head, to pray, to
plan my day, before anyone elseneeded me.
And that simple chunk of spaceand time allowed me to show up
more fully as a mom.
And when the boys did wake upwith their sleepy little faces,
(06:13):
I was present and eager.
When their faces appearedaround the corner, I used to let
the outer world dictate myinner world and felt completely
powerless and I'd start my dayoff with hope hope it was going
to be a good day, but notrecognizing or owning the power
I have to influence the qualityor shape of it.
Beginning a morning routine wasa step of tuning in and taking
(06:36):
care of my inner world, learningto cultivate a place inside
where I felt centered andgrounded and focused on what
matters most.
And over time I discovered thatthis helped me to show up,
regardless of what was happeningin my day, with a lot greater
ease.
I think I know you and I knowthat you have things on your
(06:59):
heart that you're not makingtraction or time for, and I know
that that gnaws at you.
What if I told you that amorning routine could be the
thing that actually has youstart to make progress, put
attention on the things thatmatter the very most.
And let me say a couple things.
(07:20):
Our minds, they want us tobelieve that we need big chunks
of time.
We put things off because ourmind gives us the illusion that
it's going to be a better timelater or our life will be in a
different chapter and we'll havemore time and space.
And this just isn't the timeand we have other priorities.
And it can be so convincing.
(07:41):
The truth is, there won't betime unless you intentionally
make time Even later, when youhave more space.
There won't be time unless youbuild the muscle to create that
time.
And it requires you tochallenge your thinking and what
is possible.
And it can happen with micromovements, a ton of commitment
(08:04):
and some consistency.
Most people are operating bytheir feelings, what they feel
like doing, and a morningroutine will be very hard to be
consistent if you're allowingyour feelings to run the show.
So it's really important thatyou set up a commitment and you
just show up for that commitment.
No need to overthink it, noneed to check in and see if you
(08:26):
feel like it.
It's really just a matter ofshowing up more and more
consistently to what you'recommitted to and, if you want to
dive a little bit deeper infeelings versus commitments, I
did an episode in May a fewepisodes ago that goes a little
deeper into that topic.
A morning routine is essentialto starting your day centered,
(08:47):
positive, inspired, grateful andready to lead an amazing day.
And it doesn't have to take alot of time.
You can begin anywhere from sixminutes to 30 minutes to two
hours, starting your day with apriority to center yourself and
get focused, set yourself up forthe entire day.
(09:11):
Choose elements to create yourown amazing blend for a morning
routine, a way to create yourday.
Here are some ideas, elementsof a morning routine.
You can start small and buildas you go.
You want to create anexperiment, so you might start
(09:34):
with doing it for three days, ordoing it for one week, or doing
it for two weeks, or committingto 30 days.
Trust yourself to know theright length of time, and then
you can revisit and adjust andcommit again.
My morning routine is acombination of coffee, reading,
prayer, writing, moving my body,music, sometimes being creative
(10:00):
.
I adjust it as I need to.
I don't believe there's aperfect formula.
Look to your heart to guideyour own morning routine.
Ask yourself what blend ofactivities would help to center
and guide and set up your day.
Is there one thing, maybe, fromthe answer to the question in
(10:22):
the beginning that you couldcheck off first thing that would
set you up for the entire restof the day?
And that question, in case Iforgot to state it in the
beginning was if you were giftedone more hour of time to your
day, what would you fill it with?
(10:42):
What would you?
How would you spend it?
The answer to that questionmight be components that you put
into your morning routine.
Some other ideas or elements ofa morning routine can be to
drink water.
It can be to breathing justintentional breathing or
meditation, writing orjournaling, drawing or doodling,
(11:06):
body movement, exercise, goalsetting, healthy eating.
You get to create it.
It's your blend.
And you might just start withHal Elrod's idea of a six minute
morning routine.
He gives a really great exampleof this.
(11:27):
Hal Elrod wrote a book calledthe Miracle Morning.
It's an amazing book.
His story is really, reallyinspiring.
But he came up with this sixminute morning miracle and I'm
going to share it with you, justas an idea of what, if you just
started with six minutes and hegives this blend of minute one
(11:49):
is silence, just waking up andjust allowing yourself to sit,
calm, peaceful, breathe, maybe aprayer of gratitude.
Minute two is affirmations,just daily reminders of your
most important priorities, whoyou really are and what you're
up to in your life prioritieswho you really are and what
(12:13):
you're up to in your life.
Minute three would be a shortvisualization.
Visualization can include yourgoals and what it's going to
look like when you and feel likewhen you reach them.
You might visualize your daygoing really smooth or exactly
how you want it to go.
Minute four is writing, pullingout a journal and taking a few
(12:34):
minutes to write down whatyou're grateful for, what you're
proud of and the results you'recommitted to creating for this
day.
Minute five spend a minutereading.
Grab a book that you've beenreading and spend one minute.
If you did that every day,you'd move along in that book
and you might learn a new ideaor something that you pull into
your day.
And minute six exercise Standup.
(12:57):
Spend the last minute doing 60minutes of jumping jacks.
Get your heart rate up, getenergized, wake yourself up so
you can have an amazing day.
That's six minutes.
We all can carve out sixminutes.
What would life look like if youjust did a six minute
intentional morning routineevery day?
(13:18):
You guys, some of the benefitsof this.
We could go on and on and on,but I think you can begin to see
perhaps a calmer mind, aclearer perspective, a lot more
gratitude, an increased focusfor your day, crossing off of a
checkbox of something thatreally matters to you, and doing
(13:40):
that every day before you evenstart the rest of your day, like
starting with that win,bringing more awareness and
intention.
That every day before you evenstart the rest of your day, like
starting with that win,bringing more awareness and
intention to your day, anincreased focus on your goals.
And how would that likelyripple to your day?
And on and on and on.
The key is to begin.
I invite you to start.
(14:01):
What's it going to look likefor you?
Remember to start smallexperiment, grow it into
something bigger that literallyfuels every facet of your life.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of Differently.
(14:21):
It's been an honor to sharethis conversation with you.
You know, one of the keys toliving fully is to take action
when you're inspired to do so.
I hope you found that spark ofinspiration today and would you
help us spread the word.
Did someone you know come tomind while you were listening?
If this episode could impactsomeone you know, please share
(14:44):
it and pass it along.
New episodes drop weekly, sotap that subscribe button and
join us next time as we continueto challenge the status quo and
get equipped to live lifedifferently.
I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently.
Whether you feel stuck insurvival, navigating a change,
or seeking more for your life,may this podcast be your weekly
nudge to take a risk to build alife that is uniquely bold,
authentic and in alignment withyour deepest values.
What if you worried less aboutthe bumps in the road and
(00:23):
instead got equipped for thejourney?
Get ready to rethink what'spossible.
If I could gift you one simplehabit that you could incorporate
into your life that had thepotential to change the course
(00:44):
of your day and, ultimately,your life, this one habit would
be the way you start your day,also known as morning routine,
or I like to call it creatingyour day.
We all have one.
We just might not realize it orhave stopped to actually look
(01:07):
at it.
Your morning routine may havejust happened by default.
Maybe it came from watching orseeing someone model it for you.
It may just be there as a wayof surviving and getting up
every day and getting started,and there's not a lot of
intentionality around it.
(01:28):
But we all have a morningroutine.
I want to invite you duringthis episode to take an honest
look at what it is today andwhat would be possible if you
made some simple shifts to yourmorning routine, the way you
start your every day.
If you currently haven't everhad a morning routine or created
(01:52):
one intentionally, it mightfeel or look like this Imagine
getting in the car to take atrip and you've just thrown
everything in the car.
You have a vague idea aboutwhere you're headed, but haven't
mapped out the best way to getthere.
You've just had your first sipof coffee.
The kids are in the back seatand throwing their stuff in, and
(02:13):
they're already needing thingsfrom you and have questions, and
you aren't even sure whichdirection to head first.
On the contrast, imagine youwake up early, you've charted
your path, you've had a cup ofcoffee already, you've thought
about the trip ahead of you andthe time you want to create for
(02:34):
your family.
You've moved your body andwoken it up.
The car is pretty much loadedand you get the kids up and
you're now available for them.
You're present and you get thekids up and you're now available
for them.
You're present.
You're available because you'vealready prepared yourself and
you're ready for this adventure.
You know where you're going.
This, my friends, is the powerof a morning routine.
(02:57):
Serenivus Rao said the greatestwork of your life is inside you
.
Give it the fertile soil itneeds to see the light of day.
Plant the seeds today for whoyou eventually want to become
and you'll open yourself up toan infinite set of possibilities
.
I love to think about a morningroutine as the fertile soil
(03:20):
that you cultivate every singleday to start your day on.
Starting your day by payingattention to the inside, to
cultivate a space where you feelcentered and grounded, is a
game changer.
Understanding how to lead yourday is inside of you.
(03:40):
Knowing which thing to focus onfirst is inside of you.
Recognizing the one thing thatyou could get done today that
would have the greatest impacton your day and week and life is
inside of you.
So often we look to the outerworld for direction or we just
start our day sort of at themercy of the alarm clock and the
dings on our phone, ofnotifications of new email and
(04:04):
the phone calls of peopleneeding things, and we start our
day off track.
We don't start in the lead.
What would happen if youstarted in the lead each and
every day?
It's easy to feel frustratedand feel at the mercy of your
time or your job or your manager, your to-do list or your
demands of your kids and usingthese things as an excuse.
(04:26):
It's really easy, I get it.
It can be convincing and it'swhat most people do, but not
making what is important to youa priority is not their job,
it's your job.
It's up to you to guard yourprecious time.
I love this idea of creatingyour day, I think because for so
(04:48):
many years I felt powerless andat the mercy of my
circumstances and what othersneeded.
The pop-up notifications on mycomputer and it all sort of
thwarted my plan for the day.
I learned as a young mom howimportant my sanity was, after
feeling like it was slippingaway, and how important it would
(05:08):
be to carve out space to takecare of myself, for my children,
for my marriage, for my home,for my life.
That habit stuck and it's oneof those little structures that
has rippled to every part of mylife.
It started with putting my alarmclock outside of the room so
(05:29):
that I had to get out of bed toturn it off.
This was a trick I had read toactually get yourself out of bed
so you don't keep hittingsnooze.
I began with 15 minutes or 30minutes waking up before anybody
else in the house was awake.
I started really small, but itwas a few minutes to find my own
(05:50):
center, to journal and write,to clear my head, to pray, to
plan my day, before anyone elseneeded me.
And that simple chunk of spaceand time allowed me to show up
more fully as a mom.
And when the boys did wake upwith their sleepy little faces,
(06:13):
I was present and eager.
When their faces appearedaround the corner, I used to let
the outer world dictate myinner world and felt completely
powerless and I'd start my dayoff with hope hope it was going
to be a good day, but notrecognizing or owning the power
I have to influence the qualityor shape of it.
Beginning a morning routine wasa step of tuning in and taking
(06:36):
care of my inner world, learningto cultivate a place inside
where I felt centered andgrounded and focused on what
matters most.
And over time I discovered thatthis helped me to show up,
regardless of what was happeningin my day, with a lot greater
ease.
I think I know you and I knowthat you have things on your
(06:59):
heart that you're not makingtraction or time for, and I know
that that gnaws at you.
What if I told you that amorning routine could be the
thing that actually has youstart to make progress, put
attention on the things thatmatter the very most.
And let me say a couple things.
(07:20):
Our minds, they want us tobelieve that we need big chunks
of time.
We put things off because ourmind gives us the illusion that
it's going to be a better timelater or our life will be in a
different chapter and we'll havemore time and space.
And this just isn't the timeand we have other priorities.
And it can be so convincing.
(07:41):
The truth is, there won't betime unless you intentionally
make time Even later, when youhave more space.
There won't be time unless youbuild the muscle to create that
time.
And it requires you tochallenge your thinking and what
is possible.
And it can happen with micromovements, a ton of commitment
(08:04):
and some consistency.
Most people are operating bytheir feelings, what they feel
like doing, and a morningroutine will be very hard to be
consistent if you're allowingyour feelings to run the show.
So it's really important thatyou set up a commitment and you
just show up for that commitment.
No need to overthink it, noneed to check in and see if you
(08:26):
feel like it.
It's really just a matter ofshowing up more and more
consistently to what you'recommitted to and, if you want to
dive a little bit deeper infeelings versus commitments, I
did an episode in May a fewepisodes ago that goes a little
deeper into that topic.
A morning routine is essentialto starting your day centered,
(08:47):
positive, inspired, grateful andready to lead an amazing day.
And it doesn't have to take alot of time.
You can begin anywhere from sixminutes to 30 minutes to two
hours, starting your day with apriority to center yourself and
get focused, set yourself up forthe entire day.
(09:11):
Choose elements to create yourown amazing blend for a morning
routine, a way to create yourday.
Here are some ideas, elementsof a morning routine.
You can start small and buildas you go.
You want to create anexperiment, so you might start
(09:34):
with doing it for three days, ordoing it for one week, or doing
it for two weeks, or committingto 30 days.
Trust yourself to know theright length of time, and then
you can revisit and adjust andcommit again.
My morning routine is acombination of coffee, reading,
prayer, writing, moving my body,music, sometimes being creative
(10:00):
.
I adjust it as I need to.
I don't believe there's aperfect formula.
Look to your heart to guideyour own morning routine.
Ask yourself what blend ofactivities would help to center
and guide and set up your day.
Is there one thing, maybe, fromthe answer to the question in
(10:22):
the beginning that you couldcheck off first thing that would
set you up for the entire restof the day?
And that question, in case Iforgot to state it in the
beginning was if you were giftedone more hour of time to your
day, what would you fill it with?
(10:42):
What would you?
How would you spend it?
The answer to that questionmight be components that you put
into your morning routine.
Some other ideas or elements ofa morning routine can be to
drink water.
It can be to breathing justintentional breathing or
meditation, writing orjournaling, drawing or doodling,
(11:06):
body movement, exercise, goalsetting, healthy eating.
You get to create it.
It's your blend.
And you might just start withHal Elrod's idea of a six minute
morning routine.
He gives a really great exampleof this.
(11:27):
Hal Elrod wrote a book calledthe Miracle Morning.
It's an amazing book.
His story is really, reallyinspiring.
But he came up with this sixminute morning miracle and I'm
going to share it with you, justas an idea of what, if you just
started with six minutes and hegives this blend of minute one
(11:49):
is silence, just waking up andjust allowing yourself to sit,
calm, peaceful, breathe, maybe aprayer of gratitude.
Minute two is affirmations,just daily reminders of your
most important priorities, whoyou really are and what you're
up to in your life prioritieswho you really are and what
(12:13):
you're up to in your life.
Minute three would be a shortvisualization.
Visualization can include yourgoals and what it's going to
look like when you and feel likewhen you reach them.
You might visualize your daygoing really smooth or exactly
how you want it to go.
Minute four is writing, pullingout a journal and taking a few
(12:34):
minutes to write down whatyou're grateful for, what you're
proud of and the results you'recommitted to creating for this
day.
Minute five spend a minutereading.
Grab a book that you've beenreading and spend one minute.
If you did that every day,you'd move along in that book
and you might learn a new ideaor something that you pull into
your day.
And minute six exercise Standup.
(12:57):
Spend the last minute doing 60minutes of jumping jacks.
Get your heart rate up, getenergized, wake yourself up so
you can have an amazing day.
That's six minutes.
We all can carve out sixminutes.
What would life look like if youjust did a six minute
intentional morning routineevery day?
(13:18):
You guys, some of the benefitsof this.
We could go on and on and on,but I think you can begin to see
perhaps a calmer mind, aclearer perspective, a lot more
gratitude, an increased focusfor your day, crossing off of a
checkbox of something thatreally matters to you, and doing
(13:40):
that every day before you evenstart the rest of your day, like
starting with that win,bringing more awareness and
intention.
That every day before you evenstart the rest of your day, like
starting with that win,bringing more awareness and
intention to your day, anincreased focus on your goals.
And how would that likelyripple to your day?
And on and on and on.
The key is to begin.
I invite you to start.
(14:01):
What's it going to look likefor you?
Remember to start smallexperiment, grow it into
something bigger that literallyfuels every facet of your life.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of Differently.
(14:21):
It's been an honor to sharethis conversation with you.
You know, one of the keys toliving fully is to take action
when you're inspired to do so.
I hope you found that spark ofinspiration today and would you
help us spread the word.
Did someone you know come tomind while you were listening?
If this episode could impactsomeone you know, please share
(14:44):
it and pass it along.
New episodes drop weekly, sotap that subscribe button and
join us next time as we continueto challenge the status quo and
get equipped to live lifedifferently.
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