We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare. About how if we set off too fast we may feel like we’re winning, but then we get tired and need to take a nap – we wake up disoriented and then can’t quite pick ourselves up again to get going in the right direction and the race is lost.

I know this to be true when running races, but it’s often how my days feel like to me. I get up with a flourish, start attacking my to do list and am exhausted by lunch time. In a drive to shoe I’m being productive, I battle on and then call it quits early because I’m not achieving anything. As well as being tiring, it can be frustrating.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been taking a different approach. My mornings have been slower to get started “properly” (as I would have described it). My first activity has been creative – writing – not for business but for pleasure. A challenge to write a short story – no limits as to how long or by when – meant I had to find time to do it, to write at least a few words. And some mornings it’s been lots of words, which has been great, and when I run out I can stop and pick it up again the next morning.

Sometimes you’ve got to force yourself to find the time to do the things that you enjoy and once you start it’s amazing how time can get away from you, and how you can forget about any stresses or anxieties whilst you’re doing it. My mornings feel like they’ve been extended and this in turn makes it feel as if the daily routine has shifted, with a later lunch (coinciding with my slump time) and picking up again later.

By owning my mornings a bit more – whether by exercising, stretching or creating – and by starting the day more slowly it can set the tone to be more deliberate about what I do, feels more productive and may get me to my goals faster.

Any significant change will take daily actions. Agree a daily action with yourself and every day you make it happen put a visible mark in your calendar. That way, you won’t want to break the chain and it will give you an extra incentive to keep going.

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Can I help you to get to your goals faster? If you’re feeling overwhelmed and too busy to do the things you want, send me a message to arrange a chat about how I can help you feel calmer and see the actions you need to take to start doing your dreams.