By Motivational Books Author Denise Turney

Power up with daily motivation and shift your life in the right direction. It’s easy. But it takes discipline. Start early. As a matter of fact, there may be no better time than morning, when you first waken, to start filling your mind with positive motivation.

Struggling to Get Motivated? What’s Your Morning Mood?

Why morning? Mental and behavioral habits kick-off in the morning. A good way to discover the power of morning habits is to use a journal, spreadsheet or a notebook to write down the first thoughts and/or images that pop into your mind when you wake up.

Do you wake with positive thoughts similar to those below in your mind?

• “I’m going to learn a lot of new, exciting things today!”
• “What a wonderful day to continue moving closer to fulfilling my destiny!”
• “So happy that I have another opportunity to be with my family and friends.”
• “Birds singing outside my window! What a blessing!”
• “Did I ever sleep wonderfully last night. So happy to wake rested and ready to go!”

Morning Motivation

Or are these more in line with the first thoughts that surface in your mind after you wake?

• “Do I have to face another day of trouble and hard times?”
• “I hate morning. I’m just not a morning person.”
• “Probably going to be another long day where I have to drive to and from work in bumper-to-bumper traffic then spend 8 hours with my stupid manager and dumb co-workers.”
• “My neighbors are such a pain. Their dog better not have crapped in my yard last night.”
• “Hope that community project I’m working on doesn’t fall apart. It’s been nothing but a headache since I started working on it, not to mention the fact that I’ve been working long hours, harder than anybody else on the project.”

Admittedly, I’ve awaken with both types of thoughts. For years, I thought I had no control over thoughts that pop into my mind, even thoughts I continue to noodle on as the day extends. What I did notice was how thoughts connected with how I felt.

Let Morning Goodness Motivate You

If you pay attention to how you feel in the morning, you might see the connection between your thoughts and emotions more clearly. Morning is important because it may be the best time to stop yourself from going too far in a negative direction. Regarding the power of morning, Psychreg shares, “The morning routine is a process of habit formation which produces better mental health and sleep patterns.”¹

When it’s morning, you might also:

• Feel more energized
• Ride the strength of a good dream
• Be more open to change
• Not be impacted by the energy and behavior of other people as much as you could be later in the day

So, how do you power up with daily motivation? How do you power up, starting each day with positive, motivating thoughts, especially if you’ve spent years engaging one negative thought after another?

Setting a Powerful Motivational Intention

Start by setting an intention to focus on positive, love-based thoughts. This doesn’t mean that you ignore experiences you’re having. For instance, if you’ve recently experienced a loved one’s transitioning, your thoughts might broaden or deepen. Anger, sadness, frustration, hopelessness and rage could be a range of emotions that you feel as you work through the transitioning.

Thoughts that might pop into your mind in the morning as you work through the transitioning might include “my life is over”, “nothing matters anymore”, “life is so hard” or “I’ve had enough.” To shift these thoughts, you could:

• Ask yourself why you think or feel the way that you do (often thoughts and definitely emotions don’t apply to you alone, so it’s good to ask why you think or feel the way you’re thinking or feeling)
• Swap out one negative thought for two positive, motivational thoughts
• Write down a motivational quote and read it each morning

Small Actions to Get Motivated

Consider starting small if you’re in the habit of starting the morning focusing on negative thoughts. As an example, if you have spent years telling yourself that you’re not a morning person and have, therefore, allowed or even encouraged yourself to think and feel negatively simply because it’s morning, small actions might prove empowering. Types of small actions you could take include:

• Raising your hands as soon as you waken and saying “Thank you!” Avoid trying to feel a specific emotion. Simply start your morning by raising your hands and saying, “Thank you!”
• Stretching in the morning. This is a great way to waken more fully, removing or reducing stiffness. When you stretch, you could also feel more energized.
• Singing an upbeat song as you make your way from your bed to the bathroom
• Taking in the gentle scent of a candle or fruity herbs when you get out of bed
• Turning on soft, soothing music as you wash up
• Counting 5 blessings before you brush your teeth and get dressed
• Exercising for 5 to 10 minutes – rev up with a short, burst of cardio

Adding these small actions to your morning could cause your thoughts to shift in a surprising way. Keep at it and the changes could reach your subconscious, potentially helping you get off to a better start each day.

Time Saving Motivational Tips

Even more, these actions only take a few minutes, if not less, to complete. And that’s the key. Go with small changes. The more important need is to set the intention to power up with daily motivation. Absent setting the intention to start your day in a mindset of motivation or great positive expectation, you could drift into old morning mental routines which could rob you of a good day.

As you grow your good morning routines, another easy approach to power up could be to get a deck of motivational quote cards and read a quote a day. Or you could focus on a single motivational quote for an entire week. Reading uplifting books is another effective action. Both point back to intention.

You have to want to feel good. You have to intend to focus on positive thoughts. After all, this world has love-based and fear-based thoughts and experiences in it. Think of intention this way. Whether you focus on love-based or fear-based thoughts and experiences is up to you.

Make Joy Your Aim

Because joy is the aim, choose love-based thoughts and experiences. This single choice will impact all of your life in beneficial ways. Intention is critical whether you’re at home or work. In fact, CNBC shares that starting the day looking at a to-do list could shift you into a stressful mindset.²

Little actions set off a domino effect. Set the intention to power up with daily motivation and watch ideas surface. You might end up listening to a joke first thing in the morning, sitting on the porch and listening to birds sing or riding an exercise bike.

Over time, actions you take to power up might change, filling your life with diverse love-based activities. You might even keep your mobile device off until after you’ve been up for 30 minutes. Keep at it. You’ll learn what works best for you. Whatever actions you take, watch your thoughts, choose love-based thoughts, live with confidence and make joy your aim.

Resources:

1. https://www.psychreg.org/psychology-morning-routine/
2. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/18/psychologists-morning-habits-to-help-you-be-happier-more-productive.html