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.

Do you think you’re an artist? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, employee, student or stay-at-home parent, you are an artist and creator. We are all the creators of our lives and not a day goes by without us creating something to make our lives happen. An artist has to create work. An entrepreneur has to create the structure of their organization. An employee is a part of creating ways to move the company’s mission forward. A student creates their future with their work in the classroom. A stay-at-home parent is typically the creator of how their household runs. Ultimately, we’re all artists of our lives and creating is something we all do each and every day.