I have a love-hate relationship with routines, I can make one, stick to it a few days and then, sure enough, I forget a step and the whole thing comes crumbling down. When I started writing with my lovely team at Troy University I decided to challenge myself to just a strict and simple morning routine. My only rule was that for 30 days, I had to stick to it.

My routine is as follows: Wake up, feed my fish, wash my face, brush my hair, prepare food, eat, get dressed, brush teeth, put on my shoes, take my vitamins, pack my bag, and leave.

It's simple and concise, perfect for my (slightly) busy college lifestyle. It was 30 days of the challenge. As that ever-so-busy college-goer, I violently love sleeping in. With that being said, I violently despise all alarms. I persisted and for some unapparent reason, even when the 30 days were up, I couldn't stop waking up at 7:30 AM even on days where my earliest class is 10 AM. But, that made me susceptible to the imminent urge to nap (and boy, do I love naps). Fighting back naps were not my only struggle, though. When I am in the bathroom, I feel the need to do all of the bathroom things at the same time (wash face, brush hair, brush teeth, etc.) I am glad that I persisted though because I am much happier brushing my teeth after I eat.

Aside from my slight 2 PM fatigue and squeaky clean teeth, I learned a perhaps deeper and more valuable lesson. My habits began to change, I began to let things go and find more time in my day for things that actually matter. As I was waking up earlier I began to find time for things I love doing that otherwise, I "had no time for". I discovered the things that were truly important and I realized that some things were out of my control and my simple morning routine was not one of those things.

My overall health began to change as well. My skin has been clearing up slowly because I've forced myself to wash my face every single morning. My hair would come out in chunks because of all of the stress but my routine made me realize that a lot of the stressors weren't worth my time.

My routine has shown me a "brighter" side of life. Everything that I do or can control has value now. I take more time to appreciate what I have and I don't have to deal with menial things if I don't want to anymore.