Do you wake up not wanting to talk to a soul? Miserable? Groggy? Let’s face it, you’re not a morning person and guess what? It’s fine.. for now. It was only until recently that I developed a deep appreciation for mornings, so don’t worry, it can change.

#Throwback to only a year ago when I was attending high school and I dreaded mornings. Every morning someone at school would piss me off and to top it off, I was already known for walking around with a serious b*tch face. Looking back, it was surely unhealthy and because of that, I had no energy nor motivation to do the things that mattered, or should’ve mattered to me the most.

So today, I’m going to share with you a few tips to incorporate into your daily routine to make mornings much more appealing and appreciated in your life.

1. Find your purpose

This isn’t an overnight miracle, no. This takes time, diligence, willingness, and effort. With each day you’re given, try to discover your true abilities, what you like , what you don’t like, where you need to be by a certain point in your life and work towards it. This is a mere stepping stone into building your successful future. With all the work that needs to be done, you’ve got to come to the realization that lazing around in bed on a weekday morning isn’t worth destroying your future. Chop chop, get to it!

2. Organization

Many people embrace the mess, while many fall apart in it. If you can embrace it and work efficiently in it, I admire you, if not, lists! I live by lists, from shopping lists to my daily list of things to do, to the most important of them all, my list of goals. The night before, or after your morning coffee- whichever works best for you- sit down by your work desk and plan out your daily activities. The more you break down your activities into bite size pieces, the easier it is to get everything done. Come on! Who doesn’t enjoy crossing things off on their agendas? But be realistic, don’t try to overdo it.

When you make visual aids, you feel more inclined to get stuff done asap. Hence waking up early enough to kick start your day.

3. Rewards

What’s hard work without rewards? On a personal note, I reward myself a lot, sometimes I think I overdo it, but when I see progress, there’s nothing wrong with a little extra rewarding. When writing your lists, be sure to incorporate a midday reward for a morning’s worth of work well executed or if you wish to wait it out, include a great movie at the end of the day!

4. A Clean Environment

Nobody likes to wake up in mess. I’m like this, if I wake up and my room is messy, I literally fight to keep my eyes shut. I’ll wake up and groan all morning because I have to clean up what’s suppose to be my office/bedroom which takes up all the energy that I was to use to execute my morning tasks. So, my advice is to clean up as you go and schedule major clean-ups at the end of the week.

5. Stay well-rested

Nothing beats sleep. Ensure, and I cannot stop preaching this, to get 7-8 hours sleep each night. Waking up and feeling like a drag because you spent 4 hours binge watching Gossip Girl isn’t excusable! (speaking from experience). Save Gossip Girl for your end of the day reward, then go to bed as early as possible to get up early enough to kick-start the next day. If you have trouble falling asleep like me, you can either read yourself to sleep or take Magnesium in the supplement form, it’s a healthy sleeping aid.

Also, you can schedule a 20-30 minute nap during your day to give you an energy boost!

6. Eat well

Although Kate Spade endorses it, I don’t advise you to eat cake for breakfast. Plan fun and healthy breakfasts in advance so you can look forward to it. Here’s my secret: I buy cute coffee mugs which I look forward to using every single morning lool, can you blame me?

Plan your meals ahead so you don’t waste precious time figuring out what to cook or to buy. This technique gives you the advantage of not buying food off impulse which is usually unhealthy fast food.

7. Inspiration

What is life without inspiration? Whether we set out to inspire or be inspired should be enough motivation to get us going. Find something or someone who inspires you. Find someone or many someones to inspire, like I do with you and my blog, I love you guys really. Set out to find the match that sets your soul on fire and at the end of the day, you won’t regret it.

8. Appreciation

The main thing that should motivate you to wake up early is your appreciation for life and the opportunities you’re blessed with. By taking advantage of them, you will maximize your chances for major improvement. Appreciate the people you get to wake up and see every day, the clothes you get to wear, the food you get to eat and the experiences you get to live. It all boils down to appreciation.

Mornings as a kid or a teenager, are for staying in bed and watching tv. As you get older and you begin to discover who you are and what you want to do with your life, mornings will turn into the kick-ass hours that God blesses you with every day. One you start to work your mornings right, you will find that you feel better about your entire day and you will see much more progress in whatever you’re doing. Unless you work a night job where mornings are the hours you sleep, then I advise you to get up early, plan your day, make breakfast get dressed and do some kick-assery! You’ll love it!