Mindset Sustainability. The Power of an Early Rise.

What is success?… for you? Have you defined it for yourself? Are you working towards it? In my opinion, success is a state of mind, it is not some peak of a mountain type of thing. It is knowing what you want, having a purpose in your life and working hard to fulfil that purpose, as well as having a clear state of mind and huge heart, living in appreciation and being able to care for others around you in a meaningful way.

Sometimes, you achieve success that is easy to measure, sometimes there are little wins, other times you might be doing your best for a long time, but don’t see results for a while, but you don’t give up. This is ALL part of success.

If you haven’t established what success means for you or haven’t determined your purpose yet, try connecting with your inner voice. Meditations, long walks, reading, putting your thoughts on a paper, travelling, trying new things - all this helps a lot. I get it, we are all busy and who even has the time for this! BUT this would help you replace “being busy running errands” with “being busy with what matters most and gives results”. This could be a huge leap in establishing your success.

Waking up at 5am has changed my life in many ways. The morning energy we have is the most powerful. I start my day with a quick exercise, review my schedule for the day, written the night before, take a cool shower, have a light breakfast and within about an hour I get to working on my priorities for the day. Sometimes, it’s for my full-time work, other times it’s for “Pure By Alina”. In a quietness of the morning, before all the emails, phone calls, appointments, meetings, and other distractions, I get to do so much - these morning hours are my most productive, because they’re quiet and I have the best energy of my day.

My old self would ask how would I even have energy in the morning and how would I get myself out of bed so early? It’s not always easy but here is what helps me:

1. Going to bed early. Most of the late night activities could get done at another time (work is better off done in the morning, floor mopping - on the weekend, binge watching - how about “never”?).

2. Having a good reason for an early rise - mine are written down in my daily planner - long-term goals and a plan for the week. I read them before going to bed as a reminder. When alarm rings in the morning that’s the first thing I think about - the reason.

3. Meditating before going to bed - there are plenty of great apps, “Breethe” is my favourite, but you can pick and choose. It helps to find the inner peace and drift off into a deep sleep.

4. Leaving my alarm outside of the bed area. Anywhere, as long as I can’t shut it off with a stretch of an arm.

5. Having a glass of water on the bed side table. When alarm rings in the morning, and it’s hard to get up, I tell myself: “All you need to do is just drink a glass of water” - this doesn’t seem like a difficult task for my sleepy mind, but obviously it’s just a trick. By the time I sit up and drink the entire glass - I’m half awake - now it’s time to get out of bed.

6. Exercising in the morning, right after I get up. I started with a 20 minute power walk, and progressed to running. This gets my heart beat up, fills me up with oxygen and awakens both my body and mind. Coffee awakens only your mind, remember that.

7. Cool shower - it makes you stronger, happier, and more grateful, trust me, I’m not just saying it. (By the way, it’s sustainable too since less energy is used to heat up water).

8. Light healthy easy-to-make breakfast. This is the last step before I get to work. The next 1-2 hours I spend working on what matters most. Makeup, hair and outfit picking can all wait for a couple of hours, or even later in the day. My phone is on do not disturb or “focus” setting during this time.

By the time it’s 9am I’ve already had a productive morning, yet it’s just starting! Trust me, this makes you feel so accomplished and would boost your confidence. How would you not have a fantastic day after such a great start!

Afterword: environmental sustainability (which is one of the main subjects of my blog) and sustainability of people’s mindsets tie closely together and start with people feeling fulfilled, happy, accomplished and experiencing life to the fullest. Cheers to the greatness, successes, healthy planet and mindsets, and happiness of course!