There’s a variation of a quote from Carl Jung that states, You are what you do, not who you say you are. I’ve been hearing it in my head at the end of nearly every day lately. It’s my conscience telling me that my actions and routines as of late don’t align with the person I tell myself I am.

Sure, there is some aspirational-me in the person I describe to myself. But I’m not talking about those qualities. It’s more like my routines are broken, which is just setting myself up to fail. I’m less mindful. I’m less intentional. I’m less active. My mind, body, and soul need more than what I am giving it.

I feel like fixing my mornings will get me half way there. Time for some Atomic Habits, system resetting. To succeed I need to make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying.

Here’s the plan, the mantra: wake. water. twelve. eat. shower. five.

WAKE

In order to make this work, waking up has to be easy—and done on time. Waking up right starts the night before, so no more phone in or around the bed. I also adjusted my alarms to have my physical alarm clock sound first. Then, my phone alarm from across the room will go off a few minutes later, forcing me up if the first attempt failed.

WATER

Before I do anything else, drink eight ounces of water or AG1 to jump start my system with something it craves. I used to be great at this but have totally fallen off the wagon. To make this easy, I’ll start with setting water near the bed the night before.

TWELVE

Next, twelve minutes of yoga. There are plenty of morning yoga stretches and flows I have tried over the years. I have a few YouTube videos queued up to help me get back into the rhythm. I’ll add variation to those after a month, likely some bodyweight exercises. Why twelve? It’s the largest single syllable number, making the mantra easy to remember.

EAT

After some physical activity, time for a light breakfast. This is not only part of the routine, but a reward for completing the first three steps. It’s part of the habit loop—cue, craving, response, reward. My breakfast routine used to be solid, now it’s very hit or miss based on how many times I hit snooze. Less snooze, more eggs.

SHOWER

Time to wash up, get dressed, and prepare to face the day ahead. There are some things I’m looking to correct here as well, including finishing my shower cold. This has been another hit or miss behavior as of late, relying way too much on my willpower or attitude in the morning.

FIVE

Almost ready to start my day, but first I need to meditate and set my intention. If I was mindful throughout the rest of the morning, this will be easy. I don’t suspect that’ll be the case at first. I’ll likely do lots of practicing—sitting, focusing on my breath, mind wandering, noticing, refocusing on my breath.

And there it is, a plan. Because a goal without a plan is just hoping. Ultimately, this adds 17 minutes to my morning (12+5), and resets the expectation around eating breakfast. 17 minutes to improve how I engage with the next several hours feels like a small commitment to myself and my family to start my days with intention.

routine