If you’re new to this morning routine journey and don’t want to feel overwhelmed with all the things someone says you should do to have a great day, let me put your mind at ease: you only need to start with 3 simple steps! Don’t worry about the other things you may think you should do. If you start with this foundation of eating something to fuel your body, drinking things that flush out your system every day and take a multivitamin at the least, you’re going to be well on your way to feeling happier, healthier and crushing your life goals.

A morning routine that grounds you and empowers you to achieve your goals is going to look different than my morning routine or your best friend’s morning routine or even your spouse’s morning routine. We are uniquely and wonderfully made and each season of life brings on different needs and goals. At this time in my life, I am a working stay-at-home mom (because what stay-at-home mom ISN’T working her ass off?!) trying to run and expand my online business. At the same time, I’m also trying to reach my potential to be the best version of myself in my relationships, health and spiritual life. That’s no small task and the goals you want to achieve aren’t small either. Let’s allow ourselves to explore what we want and who we want to be!

Research shows that creating habits and starting your day on the right side of the bed sets the tone for your day. Days add up to weeks, which add up to months, which adds up to a year. A YEAR! This may seem like a DUH moment, but once I started researching the effects of habits and routines and how those could directly affect the outcome of my achievements, I quickly realized that a few minutes here and a few minutes there doing some small, not so hard things, could really add up to accomplishing my dreams. I realized that we spend so much time doing things that don’t serve us.

Our minds are a powerful thing. The brain is the control center that makes everything go physically, spiritually and emotionally. Think about that for a second. That thing is THE thing that can make or break us! Contrary to popular belief, we are able to control our mind. We control how we feed our brains with the food we eat, the media we consume and by what we tell ourselves. If we feed ourselves with a bunch of junk, we’re going to have clouded minds that feel like a closet we need to clean out. If we feed ourselves with wholesome, nutritious, positive things, our brains will feel strong, tight and ready to run this marathon of life.

Have you ever thought about what your relationship with money looks like? Money is an inanimate thing and it is not inherently good or evil. Inanimate objects can’t talk to us about our day or give us advice on any problems we have, yet we can sometimes expect money to solve all of our problems. Don’t get me wrong, we all need money to live our lives, but somehow we’ve become a slave to money: working for it day in and day out and not really understanding, on a deep soul level, why we’re doing it. At a minimum, we do it to put food on the table, a roof over our family’s head and to have other important things we need. Throw in a few luxuries every now and then (home decor junkie over here!), and you’ve got yourself some pretty good reasons why you’ve got to make that cash. But have you ever stopped and wondered, “but WHY?”

The hardest part about any endeavor is making the next right choice. Born to drug-addicted parents, Liz became homeless in New York at fifteen years old. The final straw for her was when her mother died of AIDS. Liz found a way to get back to high school and graduated, won scholarships and made it to graduating from Harvard. HARVARD, Y’ALL. Today, she is married, has a family, is the co-founder of the Arthur Project and is a traveling keynote speaker. Oh, and no big deal, her book was made into this movie.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been conditioned to think the same way; to push down any negative physical or emotional feelings so that you can get the job done. But, NEWSFLASH, not only are we women that are trying to live our best lives, but we literally bleed every month and create, carry and push babies out. I think it’s time we acknowledge what’s happening in our bodies and give ourselves the love and grace that we deserve.

Nurishment over hangryness equals not sweating the small stuff. Suddenly, my dog needing to be fed, my daughter’s diaper needing to be changed and my husband’s existence are all things that I am actually happy about. When I’m happy and don’t waste my energy on being upset about something trivial (read: hangry), I can use said energy on things like accomplishing my goals.