Skip Your Morning Motivation Routine & Do This Instead

When I first began my personal development journey, one mantra that I kept hearing about over and over was mastering the morning routine.  I've even written about morning rituals a few times on in the past.  Although you can customize a morning routine, most gurus suggest that we include a combination of gratitude, exercise, prayer/meditation and focusing on your daily goals.

I used to execute a rock solid morning routine.  And doing so made such a difference in the direction of my day (and life).  But over time, I wasn't as diligent about enforcing the morning ritual.  And, once you allow the morning ritual to slip through your fingers, a sense of guilt starts to set in. To combat this, I've developed an alternative that may be just as beneficial.

The role of a morning routine is to essentially set yourself up to enjoy an amazing day.  It helps us set our energy and intention so we aren't living our days on autopilot.  I used to execute a daily morning routine without fail.  I'm a morning person so getting up early to read, meditate and connect with my goals was a breeze.  But then I decided to use those precious morning hours to actually work on my goals, not just journal about them.  Before I knew it, the morning routine had fallen by the wayside.

Instead of reinstalling this morning ritual, I decided that I needed to find an alternative.  Little did I know that the solution was to revamp my evening routine.  The hours before I head to bed was severely underutilized.  Basically, all I do at night is spend a few hours surfing the web or catching up on missed episodes.  Other than that, I don't really do anything substantial. What if I created an evening routine that could change the course of my life?

What would it look like?

Unlike mornings when time is limited, our evenings allow for a bit more time to explore different activities that can end your day powerfully and set you up for a better tomorrow.  Here are some options that I'm considering adding to my nightly routine.

• Journaling a recap of all the good things that happened today.  This can include a recap of lessons learned, small manifestations, and things that I'm grateful for.
• A review of my activities and if they aligned with my goals.  A question I can ask myself on a daily basis is to identify which actions brought me closer to reaching my desired outcomes.
• Planning for the day ahead. I find it easier and much more effective to execute an already determined plan.  When I wake up the following morning, I can jump immediately into action. 
• Evening wind down activities like yoga stretches, enjoying a cup of tea, or drinking water before bed.
• Visualizing my ideal day.  I tried this experiment once of visually planning my next day in my head and found that this helped me to have a more productive day than when I just went to sleep.  
• An enhanced beauty routine. Sometimes I don't have time in the morning to do the extra stuff like facial massages, use my LED, microcurrent or masking before bed.  Evenings are the perfect time for a pamper session. 
• Once upon a time, I used to invest fifteen to twenty minutes each night cleaning the house before bed. Sometimes I'd spruce up my office as my last task of the day.  The next morning, I'd enter the room having forgotten what I did the night before. It was a nice little surprise to wake up to. It also motivated me to get a bunch of stuff done at the start of the day. 
• Another activity that I currently do now is to fill my mind with motivational material right before bed.  Sometimes I listen to YouTube videos on manifesting or meditation as I drift off to sleep.  
• I can execute an ultra-intense beauty session before bed complete with a sauna session, full body exfoliation and slathering my body with nourishing oils.  This doesn't have to happen every night of the week, but it helps create baby soft skin that lasts several days.  
• A 15-20 minute light workout session at home.  
• Maybe a little reading before bed to help my brain disconnect from all of the challenges of the day.

The possibilities for the evening routine are endless.  I'm only limited by my imagination. This doesn't mean that you have to give your morning routine, but some folks don't have much time in the mornings. Perhaps you want to use that precious time to knock out a few critical items on your to-do lists or spend time with the family before they head out for the day.

I probably won't do everything on the list every single night.  But I do have some options available if I want to bring a powerful close to my day.  Basically, what I want to avoid is ending my day by going to bed without doing anything to make sure that my day is absolutely phenomenal.