My Exact Morning Routines That Have Changed My Life
9 May 2024 · 16 min
Lori Harder’s podcast episode explains her philosophy of "earn your happy"—happiness as something you cultivate through daily routines rather than an entitlement. She details her morning practices (mantra, coffee choices, protein breakfast, walking, Power 9 gratitude/manifest routine, brief visualization) and explains why flexibility and small, consistent habit changes matter. The episode also emphasizes gut health (probiotics/prebiotics, microbiome) and includes product/app mentions (Growth Day, Glösy, Nutpods, Clear Stem) and brief sponsor reads (Shopify, Working Genius).
Chapters
Let me just tell you, being able to listen to these people who are so high vibe and crushing it in life and business is like, that's the most important thing that we can do in the morning. Either read something or listen to something that was written by someone who has done it before or who is speaking life into you and they're in a high vibration. Like, it's going to change your vibration. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the show. It's time for another quickie because there's always, always time to fit in inspiration. And this morning, I have decided to do a podcast all about kind of how I get my day started, my morning routine, how I get my mind right, what exactly am I doing? I've been listening to some different podcasts, and some of the podcasts that I have been enjoying the most are actually knowing, like, step by step how people are living their life. Like, I want to know the ins and outs of what is actually working for you and what's going on in your routine. So I want to share some of the things that I'm using, some of the things that I'm doing so you guys could maybe give them a try and see how you like them too. So every single morning when I wake up, I typically don't feel like I want to absolutely jump out of bed and start singing like show tunes, but I get there. It just takes me a little bit. And if you guys don't know the story behind this actual podcast name, earn your happy. It's because majority of my life, I wondered why everyone else was happy and I didn't feel that way. And I wanted to figure out what actually made people happy. Because the conversation out there for me, like 15, 20 years ago or growing up was, some people are just happy and some people have these blessed lives and some people don't. And I put myself on the spectrum of the person that didn't and the person that. That wasn't for that money wasn't for that happiness wasn't for that. You know, the feeling of being able to do anything or accomplish your goals was not for. And so as I started to break it down, this concept, literally, it came to me in a meditation. It was when I really, really started meditating, which, by the way, I don't do too much anymore. You'll hear in my morning routine. I kind of do a lot of different things now, but I got really into meditation for a while. When I say really into meditation, I would say that I was meditating for 15, 20 minutes every single day, which for Me, that was, like, mind blowing that I did that for a few years. Because now I even find it challenging to meditate for five or 10 minutes. So when I first started getting into it, all of a sudden, you know, you're deep in your practice. Maybe you've been doing it for a while. And I'm sitting there meditating. Who knows what time I was on? Maybe it was five minutes in, maybe it was 10 minutes in. But I literally saw this phrase, so I'm really vis visual and audible. I heard the phrase, earn, you're happy. And I saw the phrase, earn, you're happy. And it was in green, and earn had like a little dollar sign through it. Like, it was like the dollar sign E. And it was this moment of, wait a minute, you're not born happy. You're not meant to be happy all of the time. You are not going to inherently be happy. You are not going to just given happiness. It's not something that we are owed at all. It's something that you have to earn. So the inherent thing and the owed thing just went out the window for me. It was like, wait a minute. All of these people who are happy are not people who just randomly wake up this way. They do things every single day to earn that experience. And now I don't think happiness is a feeling that you should freaking strive for every single day. You'll be a miserable person. But what I think is that you should wake up every single day and do the things to earn the emotions and earn the life that you want and earn the relationships that you want. You know, some people say you should just know that you inherently deserve to feel worthy. And I do believe that. But I don't think that we inherently deserve to have a good life or inherently deserve to feel happy all the time. I think that you have to put in the work in order to do that. And I think there's a reason why we do that. I think it's to make ourselves proud every day. I think it's to make ourselves feel confident. I think it's to become the person that we're here to become. I believe it's about the journey and the process of becoming that actually makes you feel like a filled, accomplished, connected human. That'd be like saying, okay, guys, get in a relationship and get married and you don't have to do anything because you're owed a good marriage. You're just inherently owed a good relationship. No, you have to earn that relationship by not only being the person that makes yourself proud and by Taking care of yourself and making sure you're good on your own and that you're fulfilled on your own. But you also have to add to that bucket of your relationship of are you adding value? Are you a nurturing, loving person who is earning the right of that person's affection and love? And I think you have to earn it every day. I think you have to earn your health, I think you have to earn your relationships. I think you have to earn the emotions that you're in. And again, I just want to point out every emotion is very valid and very important on the journey. So if you're striving for happiness every single day, it's probably going to be a very empty journey because you're not going to feel happy every day. But I will tell you that if you stick with the routines that quote, unquote, make you happy and make you fit and make you have a great relationship, I promise you that those other emotions are going to be visitors rather than renters. They're just going to be visitors, let's just say, rather than homeowners, right? Rather than permanent roommates. I also think it's important that you understand that emotions have to be accepted when they're rejected all of the time. Or you don't want to be in that emotion, or you don't ask the emotion, like, what are you here to teach me? Why are you here? Are you trying to make me stronger? Are you trying to make me have this hard conversation in this relationship that I'm avoiding? But I have massive anxiety and I'm gonna keep having anxiety until I actually visit this hard conversation. They're not just there because you're like, oh, I woke up this way. No, they're there because maybe you ate shit food last night. Maybe you drank too much wine and you're like, I'm so anxious and I'm so depressed. Yeah, that feeling is coming from a red flag saying, don't do this all the time. Or you have to change something about this. Or if you feel complete panic and anxiety, it could be because you're not fulfilling the purpose, why you're here. Or like I said that hard conversation, or you're being completely avoidant in your life. Trust me, been there, done that. So let's get into some of the routines that I do every single day in order to earn my happy. Now, there are certain things in my routine that I swear to you change all the time. And then there are solids that either have stayed permanently or stay for years and years. I am a really Routine person. In fact, in my human design, it says that I am here to help people in their daily routines, to help people really fall into a powerful routine. And I resonate with that more than I can possibly tell you, because I am all about routines, but I'm also about flexibility within those routines. Because once in a while, and this has happened to me, our routines that feel like they once freed us can actually make us feel like we're imprisoned. It's like, oh, this thing once worked for me and it's stopped working. But you can't let it go because you're like, it worked once. No, things change all of the time. That would be like having a launch and doing it once great. And all of a sudden the money starts going down and you're like, I'm just going to keep doing the way I've always done it. And nothing is gonna change because the world had changed around you. And what's happening is that you're changing and the world is changing around you. So you do need to change up your routines. Like, if you weren't a parent before and now you're a parent, guess what's gonna have to shift? Your routines are gonna have to shift around this new version of who you are and what your life is. So every single morning, I wake up anywhere between six and seven, and we have a mantra that Chris and I say to each other. He always says it first because he is that person who normally wakes up happy. I don't know how I found one and married one, but thank God that I did. Sometimes it's annoying. And now I love it. And the mantra is, I'm happier, healthier, wealthier, and more fit than I was yesterday. And he makes me say it until I sound like I mean it, which is also annoying, but it really helps. And I'll tell you why a mantra helps, is because all of a sudden, your brain, the moment you wake up, wants to go to what you have to do, what you have to do for the day. The to do list, maybe you're kind of noticing that you slept funny or you don't feel great, or you're a little bit groggy. And instead of thinking those things, which is a, you know, a thought is a magnet for another thought, another, like, thought. So instead of thinking those kind of low vibe thoughts and that kind of drag you down, a mantra kind of is like, oh, that's right. I want to choose the way that I think. Because the way that your body wants to and your mind wants to think is not how you want to wake up. So we want to put that in there real quick and as a little reminder, like, hey, you want to think positive today? Like, you want to think about what you want to go, right? You want to think about what you want, not what you don't want. So wake up to the mantra head downstairs. And I always pour my cup of coffee. Right now I am using nut pods because I was using this other creamer that I love. I think it's called Khalifa Farms. You guys know the one I'm talking about? Like, I can never pronounce it. And I was using this Cinnabon creamer, which I absolutely freaking love. Oh, my God. But it had so much sugar in it. And I'm just trying not to have as much sugar at all right now because I have just learned so much about how sugar is not super great for you, especially first thing in the morning. So I'm doing the unsweetened coconut flavor nut pods. I also like their flavored nut pods, but honestly, Instacart is delivering that one to me right now, and they're out of all of the other flavors. So that's what's going down. That's what's happening. For coffee, I ebb and flow. I try to do something organic and light roast just because we also know how many chemicals can go into coffee. And I also just had a filter. I can't tell you what kind, but a water filter put on my sink, which I think especially living in California is important for your water. I have to add in what I'm doing for breakfast right now. So I had intermittent fasted for literally, I think it was like eight years. And I recently decided that I wanted to start eating in the morning. My friend Gabrielle Lyon, who is one of the most incredible doctors on planet Earth, she. She wrote a book all about protein, essentially forever strong. And ever since hearing her and getting to spend time with her, I'm like, the importance of protein is blowing my mind. So I will either make some eggs in the morning. I just do like three. I don't really need a lot, so I'll have like three eggs with the yolks, because that just fills me up and makes me feel super solid before I work out and start my day, or I do a protein bar, which you guys might know, especially if you've known me from the past. I have literally been a part of Isagenix for like over 15 years. So I have used a shake or a bar of theirs probably once a day for the past 15 years. It just makes my life way easier and it's an easy way for me to get protein and it tastes really good. So I will do like either a half of an Isagenix bar if I'm going to go work out quick and have the rest when I'm home because I just don't feel like I need a lot. But I need something in my stomach. I feel like now, I don't know, it's like your body shifts and changes. So that is what I'm doing in the morning and I'm super flexible with it. It's kind of like whatever I have time for and whatever I can do. But I always try to get my protein in.
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Com. You'll be glad you did it. So then I feed the dogs, and actually I feed them farmer's dog. This is not an ad. I'm not even associated. But let me just tell you, I should and I do farmer's dog because it's so easy. And I also am like, these are my children. I really want to make sure that they are eating well as well. We used to do their food homemade. And let me just tell you that that is not something that I can keep up with anymore. So I do feel like this is the next best thing. And sometimes in life you're going to be doing a lot of next best things and it's going to give you some energy back, which I just think is going to make your life so much better. Then I go and I sit down and I either listen to a podcast or I read a book or I listen to Growth Day and somebody on the Growth Day app. So, you guys, if you don't know what the Growth Day app is, it has been a huge life changer in my life. I always used to try to journal, but it never really stuck for me. Like, I would be like, yes, I'm on month two. And then all of a sudden something would happen. I have all these journals around my house with like a month or two of journaling in them, which I guess is cool because I can kind of look back at all of that. But what's cool about the Growth Day app is that I that it's on your phone and you can have reminders on your phone. You can go in and listen to something positive every single day. From Brendan Burchard to Jenna Kutcher to Anthony Trucks to Trent Shelton to Natalie Ellis to Ed Mylett, Let me just tell you, being able to listen to these people who are so high vibe and crushing it in life and business is like, that's the most important thing that we can do in the morning. Either read something or listen to something that was written by someone who has done it before or who is speaking life into you and they're in a high vibration. Like, it's gonna change your vibration, you guys. So I love the Girls Day app. I actually love Gabby Bernstein's app, too. It's so good. I love listening to her talks. I've listened to her talks for years, so I love that I can access some of her talks from 15 years ago or from 10 years ago, actually, that I used to listen to all of the time. I believe it's about 10 years now. I'm terrible with dates. If you listen to some of my podcasts, you'll be like, wait, you said that, right? Was 2006, and then in this one, you said 2008. Yeah, I have no idea. Chris always makes fun of me. He's like, nope, that was this date. That was this date. I'm like, I am not a chronological genius by any means. That is not my strength. So I love the Gabby Bernstein app. I love reading books, just anything positive. I'm really, really into health podcasts right now as well, because I am just obsessed with learning about how to really dial in my health, my fitness. I'm, like, taking my fitness to another level right now, which feels really good, and I'm doing it in a different way than I used to. I feel like I'm not, you know, killing myself in the gym. I'm really enjoying the process. I'm not lifting as heavy. I literally can't. It hurts my joints. Yes, I said that out loud. I don't like that I said it out loud, but I'm just being honest of, like, I want to work out different. I want to enjoy how I'm working out. So. So I'm still lifting weights, and yes, they're still moderately heavy, for sure, but I'm just not going as heavy as I used to go. I can put on muscle really easy, and I don't. I actually am not wanting to be a little bit more bulky. Some people cannot put on muscle, so they need to lift a lot heavier. But it's always just kind of been a natural thing for me to put on a lot of muscle quickly. So I am listening to a lot of health podcasts. So I am loving the Skinny Confidential. I am obsessed, obsessed with Lauren and Michael Bostic. I think that they are geniuses with marketing. I think that they're so freaking fun and I think, like them. So it's really fun to hear just like the next level of how they think they're such big thinkers while also being really down to earth, really fun and just so real and honest. That that's just. That is my vibe right now. Like, how can I bring more of that into my life? I. I am loving Dr. Hyman, Will Cole, and of course, you guys also know I just love good entrepreneurial podcasts and motivational podcasts as well. So I'm kind of all over the place with that, but also really, really focused on health podcasts because I am just in this world right now with Glocee, and I'm listening to a lot about probiotics, and it is rocking my world. The importance of your microbiome, you guys, Microbiome is so insanely crazy. I was just listening to a Dr. Hyman podcast and he was talking about one of his old books that he had written, but talking about the importance of microbiome, and he said, this is crazy. What they did is they studied these mice and they took the poop from an overweight mouse and put it. Or they took the poop from a thin mouse, like a normal sized mouse, and put it into an overweight mouse. Okay. And the poop is because they were. They wanted the microbiome from the thin mouse and they put it in the overweight mouse and the overweight mouse started losing weight. You guys, there is so much about your gut health, your microbiome that has to do with your mood, with your body weight, with your anxiety levels, with so much of how we function with. Are you absorbing your nutrients? That's why I am like, like, oh, my gosh, let's cut back on the sugar because we know that that's not good. Let's, like, really focus on a great protein. Let's focus on prebiotic and probiotic foods. Like, it's blowing my mind. When I created Glossy, I knew these things about probiotics, but when I am, like going so deep into probiotics right now, I am literally like, I will never, ever not take a probiotic. And that's the thing about probiotics. Probiotics is you have to take them every single day or you have to make sure that you're eating a lot of prebiotic and probiotic food if you're not doing it. So, you guys, I'm telling you, if you don't have A probiotic and a prebiotic. Absolutely. Go grab glossy or look at something else. Like it does not matter to me. Go and do something to start working on your gut and don't just do probiotics alone. Alone. Like try to eat a little bit healthier and try to cut back your sugar a little bit. And I am all about small goals every single day. So just try to make a 10% improvement or less. Literally even a 5% improvement done week over week is going to make a huge difference in your mood, how you feel, your body composition, literally everything. So, you guys, I also want to give you a coupon code. If you have not tried glocy yet and you want to do a probiotic and we have prebiotic fibers in there with the prickly pear as well. If you want to try it, you can use code Happy and go to getglosi.com to go grab that. And if you are not into supplementation, then go and look up pre and probiotic foods and try to get just a little bit every single day and cut back on that sugar. Okay? So the next thing that I do every morning is, is to go for a walk. And this has been vital for me. I can't tell you how walking has changed my entire life. It resets my mindset, it gives me hope for the day. I get excited, I move my body, I shake off the freaking funk that I feel if I'm feeling it. You get sunlight in your eyes, which we know is so incredibly important in the morning, which is going to really help with your circadian rhythm and it's going to help you sleep at night if you get out in the morning and experience sunlight. I try to really take deep breaths while I'm walking. A few times I say a thank you prayer to God. Chris and I always do our Power 9, which is three things you're grateful for, three things you're excited about, and three things you want to manifest. And if I am not with him, which he's gone all week, he's traveling so much right now and so am I, I send a voice note or I say it out loud to myself, which, yes, some people might think, think this is crazy, but if no one's around, like, I think saying things out loud through your body and using that vibration of your voice is really powerful. I think it takes your gratitudes and your manifests to the next level. So power nine is always, always really big for me in the morning. And you know what I'm trying to incorporate again right now is a little bit of visualization. So if I don't do this before my walk and take five minutes and kind of close my eyes, it's really hard for me to do because my dogs are freaking crazy right off the bat. They're like, we're up. We want to eat. We want to go for our walk asap. And so if I can't get a little visualization in, I try to do it on a walk. So I try to just really think about what my vision is for Glossy, what my vision is for Ambassadors, what I want this company to be the ambassadors. Experiencing and paying the Ambassadors, what I want the customer to be feeling and experiencing. I visualize that woman and pouring Glossy into her water bottle and really loving that this water bottle represents her identity with that quote on the outside of it and that she's feeling better about taking this one moment in this one ritual to do something good for herself. And knowing what the hyaluronic acid and prickly pear and the probiotic and the prebiotic fibers and the vitamin C and knowing that this is like in zinc and for immune function and digestion suggestion and body composition and knowing like, this is something I'm doing so good for me right now that I want this to be the domino and ripple effect for the rest of my day. I'm telling you, that's how it works. If you haven't read Atomic Habits yet, go and check Atomic Habits out. It's one simple step. Like, it's. It's habit stacking. It's the little things that equal the big things. I'm telling you, I used to be super extreme, and it doesn't work. It will work for a tiny bit. And the problem is you're both brain is like, oh, that worked. And you try to go back to that, and it just. It's like this loop. It's like this failure loop because you can't. It's not sustainable. So it's the small things done every single day. Like, you guys are hearing these little tiny things that I do every day. But over years, it's changed my entire entire life. Like, I don't really identify with being an unhappy, anxious person anymore because I just have too many routines that don't allow me to do that. Some of the things that I do when I get back, so I don't really like, the only thing I do before I go for my walk, as far as other things getting ready is I'll brush my teeth. And I'm trying, I'm trying so hard to use a clean toothpaste that doesn't have chemicals in it, but my God, that's hard. Like it doesn't foam. I miss the foam. But I am trying to use, I think it's hello. So I use hello and then I also use use this other doctor. I can't remember the name of it, but I like hello because it's a little bit of a cleaner toothpaste and it still just feels like it's got a modern vibe to it. Like it doesn't come in that metal container like other ones have come in and it's easy to travel with. So I'll brush my teeth, but when I'm back, I wash my face. I use a sunscreen. You guys, right now I am using Skinny Confidentials new sunscreen and I am obsessed. I also use the Hot Mess ice roller by Lauren Bostick, Skinny Confidential. It's one of my favorite things. So when I get back I'll de puff my face or I do it while I'm drinking coffee. I'll use that sunscreen out on the walk. I'll use my natural toothpaste. And then I am in love with Clear Stem's Hydra Glow lotion. So that particular one doesn't have a sun sunscreen in it. So I use it after my walk and after I wash my face. But I love, love, love their lotion. So it's their Hydro Hydro Glow Clear stem lotion because it's non acne causing and it's really light. I can tend to have, I have dry and oily skin. So it's like my T zone can be oily and I just feel like this one is like it still moisturizes but it doesn't like like over moisturize so that I'm super greasy by the end of the day. I just feel like it's the perfect amount for me. And some of the moisturizers that I had bought that I think I thought were really great, they also caused some acne for me and I'm like, I never get acne. So I typically know that it's my products for that that are causing acne. So by the time I get home and do all those things and start getting ready, that is my morning morning. You guys, I would love to hear if you want to know more about my daily routines. Do you want to know my nightly routine? Do you want to know my afternoon routine and kind of what I'm up to? But I am so grateful for you. I hope that you enjoy some of these products if you have not used them again, not affiliated and not an ad. These are just things that I absolutely love and a lot of them are also female owned businesses and started as small businesses. Some are still small businesses, but I just love when women solve their own problems and create products that change their lives. And that's what a lot of these are as well. So you guys, I hope that you enjoy the podcast and I'm so grateful for you. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye everyone.
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