Ep 39 - My Morning & Evening Rituals For Business Success

Episode Show Notes

Hi, it’s Sarah Almond Bushell! I’m so glad you’re joining me for this episode of Beyond the Clinic. Today, we’re tackling a topic that resonates with many of us, how to set yourself up for success every single day. Whether your mornings feel chaotic or you’re struggling to stay consistent with routines, this episode has something for you.

Episode Summary:

In this transformative episode, we explore the power of morning and evening routines. Drawing from personal experiences and science-backed strategies, I share practical tips to cultivate habits that improve your mindset, boost productivity, and accelerate business growth.

You’ll hear about:

• How I used routines to rebuild focus and grow my private practice during a challenging life chapter.

• The importance of daily rituals for mindset, productivity, and overall success.

• A deep dive into the SAVERS framework from Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning.

• Simple evening practices to clear mental clutter, embrace gratitude, and set up your next day for success.

• Why routines aren’t about waking up earlier but starting your day with intention.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have actionable steps to create personalized routines that work for your unique lifestyle and goals.

Key Takeaways:

1. Morning Routines Are Transformational: They aren’t about the time you wake up but the intention you set for your day.

2. The SAVERS Framework: Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing are game-changers for focus and momentum.

3. Evening Routines Prepare You for Success: Practices like celebrating your wins, brain-dumping, and gratitude clear mental clutter and promote restful sleep.

4. Consistency Over Perfection: Even a six-minute routine can have a massive impact when done daily.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

• Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondtheclinicbusiness

Your Action Step:

Choose one routine, morning or evening, and commit to practicing it for the next seven days. It only takes a few minutes to get started

If you found this episode helpful, I’d love to hear from you! Tag me on Instagram or drop a note in our Facebook group. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review to help more listeners like you discover Beyond the Clinic.

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The Master Plan:

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Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome to Beyond the Clinic, the podcast for health professionals ready to transform their expertise into innovative income streams that extend beyond the traditional clinic model. I'm Sarah Almond Bushell, I'm a registered dietitian and certified business coach and proud owner of two successful online businesses.

[00:00:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: I understand the leap from the security of a regular salary can feel intimidating because I've been there too but it doesn't have to be scary and you do not have to do this alone. Here you'll learn tangible strategies to accelerate your business growth so if you're dreaming of using your expertise to create impact and a life of freedom then you're in the right place.

[00:00:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome to today's episode of Beyond the Clinic. I am so glad you're here because we're diving into a question today that I know many of you had wondered about. How to set yourself up for success each day. So whether your mornings feel chaotic and you're rushed or you're looking for ways to stay consistent with a routine, this episode is for you.

[00:01:09] Sarah Almond Bushell: You'll learn how implementing a simple but intentional morning and evening routine can transform your mindset, improve your productivity and even help you grow your business faster. I'm going to share the exact routines that I use Backed by science to start my day with focus and intention, as well as how I wind down at night to prepare for the day ahead.

[00:01:36] Sarah Almond Bushell: So by the end of this episode, you'll have all the tools that you need to create your own routines, no matter what your schedule looks like, or whether you're a morning person. Or a night owl. Let's go. Today's episode answers a question that I was recently asked by one of you lovely listeners. Shout out to Anne, who asked me, Do you have a morning routine and how do you set yourself up for success?

[00:02:02] Sarah Almond Bushell: Maybe you're wondering the same thing because your mornings feel quite rushed or chaotic or a bit unproductive, or perhaps you've tried to have a routine before but it never really stuck and you've fallen back into old habits. It's Such a great question as yes, I do have a morning routine and a bedtime one too, which I'll share with you in a moment.

[00:02:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: But first of all, I want to explain why these daily rituals are super important and what impact they actually have on your mindset and helping you to become the best version of yourself. So I first learned about the importance of morning routines back in September 2018. For those of you who know the story, my mum passed away in the June of that year, and I took a three month sabbatical from my job in the NHS to be with my dad in Spain to help him out.

[00:02:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: And I felt a bit untethered, to be honest. I wasn't really sure what direction I wanted my life to take at this point in time, or how I'd pull myself out of the haze and the grief, really, of uncertainty about what the future might look like. And it was this experience of losing my mum that made me take my private practice a bit more seriously, and it inspired me to turn it into what I feel is an epic, successful business.

[00:03:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: Life to me felt, really did feel too short to be stuck at a job that I really didn't enjoy, especially because at that point in time, I was only in my early forties, meaning that I had at least another 25 plus years of work ahead of me. So during this time I would go for long walks. They lived in Menorca in the countryside with my parents dogs.

[00:03:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: And I would pop my earbuds in and I would listen to podcasts. And one of them was Amy Porterfield. And she was explaining her morning routine and the daily habits of successful business owners. And she attributed this small but consistent. Rituals, really, that she did on a day to day basis consistently.

[00:04:16] Sarah Almond Bushell: She attributed that without fail to her success. So that led me down a bit of a rabbit hole of research, reading, and trying to find evidence that what you did first thing in the morning could make or break your day ahead and the business that I was hoping to build in that time. So I knew that I wanted to.

[00:04:36] Sarah Almond Bushell: Grow the biggest and best business that I could. And at first it was so that I could quit my job in the NHS, but there was also a bit of personal ambition there as well. So what I found was a survey published in 2010 in the Harvard Business Review by a German university researcher. And he reported that the most productive people in business tended to be early risers.

[00:05:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: It was just a survey but what he found was that early risers were better able to anticipate and minimize problems. They tended to be better at planning. They were proactive rather than reactive. They were calmer, had more energy, more focus. Essentially, more productivity. They also had better mood better sleep and they were just generally better in business.

[00:05:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: Better than those people who were actually night owls. But I know that I'm a night owl. I've had my DNA tested and it's clear that my chronotype shows that I'm not a morning person. I actually really struggle to get up in the mornings and I need at minimum two cups of strong coffee to get going with my day.

[00:05:47] Sarah Almond Bushell: If you're a night owl like me, you'll know that the hardest part is the waking up part. The predetermined decision to hit snooze on your alarm and grab another five minutes sleep. And that's because the limbic systems in our brain, the part which is set up to keep us safe, recognises the alarm going off in the morning as a threat.

[00:06:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: This limbic system, it works on automation. Without any logical thought, and therefore staying asleep is automatically its preference. And to wake up when we're not ready to, we've got to override this automation by taking conscious steps. And that is managed and triggered by the prefrontal cortex in the brain.

[00:06:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: So essentially, if you're not a morning person, you've got to take charge of your waking up by activating that prefrontal cortex bit and overriding the automatic limbic system, which is really hard. But most people, whether they are up with the larks or they're night owls, what they'll do is they'll silence their alarm, they'll roll over.

[00:06:53] Sarah Almond Bushell: Snooze for a little bit longer. And actually this is procrastination in its simplest form. It affects your mindset and it can actually set you up for a day of overwhelm. So after learning all of this, I wanted to know how I could take advantage of these early riser benefits seen repeatedly in high performing business owners whilst having this genetically predetermined night owl chronotype and essentially avoiding setting my mindset up for procrastination and overwhelm.

[00:07:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: So what I learned was it's not actually about getting up earlier. It's about the mindset that you begin your work day with. It's the first things you do before you sit at your desk that set you up for success. So it doesn't really chronotype is. It's about making time to practice these rituals. Whether it's a 5am start or 9. 30am after you've done the school run. So why do mornings matter? What you do first, before you sit down to do any work, is going to impact on your mindset for the rest of the day. So morning routines work by positively influencing our mindset, our productivity, our sense of achievement, and actually there's been some research that shows impacts on our mental health as well.

[00:08:18] Sarah Almond Bushell: So essentially a good morning routine means you'll get more stuff done and your business will grow more quickly as a result. When you don't have that structure, it's really easy to lose focus. You might start the day scrolling through emails or social media, only to look up and realize that hours have passed and nothing meaningful has been accomplished.

[00:08:38] Sarah Almond Bushell: We've all been there. But it's not just about that lost productivity. Without having an intention, you're left reacting to the day rather than leading it, which actually can feel really overwhelming and ultimately demotivating. So here's how it all works. Most people have got good intentions when it comes to work and what they plan to achieve, but most people within the first half an hour or so have lost this intention, having become distracted or sometimes just not being able to get focused in the first place, and then everything spirals and nothing gets done.

[00:09:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: Does this sound familiar? This is what happens to me when I don't start the day with my morning rituals. So when you have a disciplined morning routine, it works well because it actually involves just a set of really small, easy tasks that you do one after the other, which means that you achieve several small things which make you feel in control.

[00:09:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this is the internal locus of control and when you're in control of achieving just these small things, it sets you up for success, which has a knock on impact on the rest of your day. An internal locus of control is highly motivating because you are in control and have achieved things that you set out to do rather than external things happening to you.

[00:10:13] Sarah Almond Bushell: When your day feels dictated by these external events like clients contacting you, emails, family needs, it's easy to feel like you're just putting out fires. That constant reaction mode leaves little room for growth or creativity, or actually sometimes just the confidence to go out there and push your business forwards.

[00:10:35] Sarah Almond Bushell: This internal locus of control is highly motivating because it helps us cope better with stress. By achieving these small, tick off able tasks, you actually invoke a feeling of making progress, which encourages us to take on Bigger tasks. Essentially just getting more stuff done. And also the neurotransmitter dopamine is involved in this process as well, because this neurotransmitter makes you feel good in anticipation of achieving something.

[00:11:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now the feeling you get is short lived, but it's highly addictive, which means it encourages us to seek out more of that behavior that caused that initial dopamine hit. Because of What you achieve from your morning and actually your evening rituals, the routine itself becomes addictive as well and actually you just then look forward to it and so this behavior perpetuates day in, day out. And after a few weeks of doing this daily, you'll develop something called a bias towards action. And this is where the sense of achievement, the wellbeing, the fulfillment, it escalates. It gets greater and greater. So that's how it becomes habit forming. You'll want to do it more. And with that grows confidence, and that means better results.

[00:11:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: And of course, more business growth. Simply because you're just getting more stuff done. So without that sense of achievement, it's really easy to spiral into procrastination. You might put off big tasks because they can feel overwhelming and without these little small wins to build momentum, the day can feel stagnant before you've even really got started.

[00:12:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: Okay, that's a lot of background to all of this, so now I'm going to share with you my morning and evening rituals. And actually, I'm going to start with my evening one, and the reason for this is that the last thing that you think of at night is often the first thing that you think of in the morning.

[00:12:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: And so this is something you can do to really set yourself up for success. Okay, it's just three things. So the first thing I do when I get into bed at night is I just take a moment to celebrate what I've achieved that day. So I know that as business owners, as parents, as healthcare professionals, we're constantly thinking about what's next, what we didn't get done, what's still on our plates.

[00:13:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: But I want to flip that script. So before you go to sleep, and I do this whilst I'm lying in bed, I write down everything I've accomplished during the day. Everything, big and small. So it could be something as awesome as landing a new client, or being asked to speak at an event, or it could be something as simple as having a great conversation with a colleague, or getting the washing on the line, or even just taking a lunch break away from your desk.

[00:13:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, why is this important? It's important because when you acknowledge your wins, no matter how small they are, you're reinforcing a positive mindset. You're telling your brain, Hey, I'm making progress here. And that creates that dopamine boost, that natural way your brain has of rewarding you. So for me, this little practice has become total game changer.

[00:13:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's helped me end my day feeling accomplished and I sleep soundly and it's built my confidence actually over time as well. So when you're lying in bed tonight, I just want you to ask yourself, what went really well today? What am I proud of today? What did I get down and just note it down in your journal?

[00:14:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: Okay, the second thing I do is just a brain dump. It's clearing the mental clutter. In that same notebook, I want you to write down everything that's swimming in your head. This could be work tasks, it could be personal errands, it could be random reminders. Whatever's there, get it out.

[00:14:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, this step is crucial because it stops your brain from trying to hold on to these thoughts. I like to think of it as just decluttering. You're saying to your mind, it's okay, I've captured this, I don't need to keep on thinking about it. And not only does this help you sleep better, but it also ensures that when you wake up in the morning, you're not immediately overwhelmed by a million swirling thoughts.

[00:14:58] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then the third thing that I do is just gratitude practice. Finally, before I drift off to sleep, so this might come a bit later if I've sat up and read my book for a little while, as I'm lying down in my bed with my eyes closed and the lights off, I just think about everything that I'm grateful for.

[00:15:14] Sarah Almond Bushell: This doesn't need to be written down, just close your eyes and reflect. It could be things that are really small, like the way the sun felt on your skin On your face that afternoon, or for me, I'm always grateful for coffee, or it could be something bigger, like a milestone that you hit in your business.

[00:15:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: But gratitude practice has a profound effect on mental health. And when you're ending your day with these positive thoughts, it really helps you sleep with a sense of peace and a sense of contentment. And by going to sleep with positivity, you're much more likely to wake up with a positive mindset too.

[00:15:55] Sarah Almond Bushell: So now that your evening routine has set you up for a good night's sleep, let's talk about how you start your day with purpose and focus. So the framework I used is called SAVERS and it's described best By Hal Elrod in his book, The Miracle Morning. This is what I'd read back in 2018 during my time in Menorca and it's stuck with me ever since.

[00:16:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: So I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already, and I will pop a link in the show notes for you. So SAVERS, it's an acronym for six simple practices that help you ground yourself and help you build confidence and create momentum for the rest of your day. So let me walk you through them one by one.

[00:16:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: Number one, S in Savers is silence, and really this just means meditation or mindfulness. It could be meditation, it could be deep breathing, it could just be sitting quietly for a few moments. But the idea is to start your day in a calm and intentional state, rather than just jumping straight into your to do list or reacting to things that have come in.

[00:17:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's about holding space for yourself to slow down, to find peace, by just sitting with yourself and observing your thoughts whilst focusing on just one thing like your breath. So we know that meditation changes how you respond to negative or even triggering events. in a more positive way. It can help you feel grounded, it creates mental clarity, so you can face the day ahead with calm and confidence.

[00:17:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: And also, people who meditate have been found to have improved physical health and mental health too. So for me, I tend to listen to guided meditations. Sometimes, they're really short, like three minutes if I don't have a lot of time, and other times I will let them go on for a bit longer. The second thing in Savers is A, and that's Affirmations, which really is just positive self talk.

[00:17:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's self talk that helps you challenge unhelpful thoughts, and it reminds you of your capabilities, it reminds you of your goals, and the person that you want to become. in order to achieve those goals. And the key with affirmations is to say these in the present tense like they've already happened to you.

[00:18:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: So I'll give you an example for my business. I say, I help a lot of people and I make a lot of money. You could also have, I attract opportunities and I take bold actions in my business. Or you could have something like, I have the energy and focus to do great things. So,, Affirmations work because they reprogram your subconscious and they replace any self doubt with confidence.

[00:18:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: And yes, there is some science behind this. It's all based on psychology, obviously. Something called self affirmation theory, where MRI evidence shows that the neural pathways that are created in the brain are strengthened when people practice self affirmation. So you can absolutely write your own, or you can find an inspirational quote that you like, because these words, they just simply feed your subconscious mind with positivity on a day to day repetitive basis.

[00:19:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's been found that people who speak affirmations have less stress, improves resilience, it creates optimism, and it's even been shown to positively influence academic achievement. So when I first started this practice, it felt a bit awkward, if I'm honest with you. It felt a bit weird, but over time, I actually started to notice how much it influenced my mindset for the better.

[00:19:41] Sarah Almond Bushell: Find a time when you don't feel too embarrassed. Do it in the shower where the noise of the water drowns it out if you're feeling a little bit self conscious. Okay, step three is V in Savers and this is visualization. And actually, Another way to think about this is it's just a mental rehearsal of your future success.

[00:20:04] Sarah Almond Bushell: Visualization is one of the most powerful tools in this routine. This is painting a picture in your mind of what you want your future to look like So, It's really well known that we stimulate the same brain regions when we visualize something and when we actually do it. In fact, the human brain can't tell the difference, and there's loads of evidence for this.

[00:20:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: Visualization is a standard part of preparation for elite athletes who are preparing for events. They're more likely to win their race if they visualize running it first. And even in stroke patients, it's been shown that they can increase blood flow to the damaged areas if they visualize using that affected part of their body.

[00:20:54] Sarah Almond Bushell: You might have heard Muhammad Ali's really famous quote, if my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it. Here, you just close your eyes and you imagine yourself achieving your goals. For example, if you want to write a book, visualize yourself walking into Waterstones, for example, and seeing your book on the shelves.

[00:21:18] Sarah Almond Bushell: Picture yourself flicking through the pages and seeing your professional headshot on the dust jacket. If you want to grow a thriving private practice, Picture the clinic room, the waiting area with loads of people filling up the chairs, your associate clinician in the room next door, your receptionist greeting clients as they come in, offering them some freshly brewed coffee.

[00:21:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: And tap into your senses with this. Can you smell the coffee? Can you smell a bunch of roses in the glass vase on the reception desk? Can you feel the sunlight shining through the window and warming your skin? The reason why I say this is the clearer that you can be with your vision, the more effective this will be for you.

[00:22:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: And research shows that when you visualize success, your brain responds as if you've already achieved it, and this builds motivation and it prepares you to take action. Okay, step four in savers. e for exercise. And it's really just about moving your body. Now, I'm not going to preach to the converted here.

[00:22:24] Sarah Almond Bushell: We all know how good exercise is for us. But what I will say is that as well as physical and mental health benefits, you'll also achieve clarity of thought and productivity from the increased blood flow. and oxygen to your brain. And also a really positive mental state from that lovely endorphin release.

[00:22:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: So it doesn't have to mean a full gym workout, it's more about movement. So it could be as simple as stretching or yoga or going for a walk. I live by the beach and so I often take the dog for a walk after the school run in the morning. It's just about. Fitting in when I can. Okay, step five is R in Savers, and this is reading.

[00:23:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: And the way I like to think of this is learning something new. The purpose here is to inspire, it's to empower, it's to educate ourselves. Giving, Our brain's a really positive focus for the day. As professionals, we all know how important it is to be at the top of our game by embracing lifelong learning.

[00:23:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: Although R is for reading, you can still get the same benefits from listening to podcasts, for example, or audiobooks, or even watching a motivational YouTube video. That works just as well. So choose something that aligns with your personal growth or your professional development, or even something that's linked into your business goals.

[00:23:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: So for me, this is where I get all my ideas from. I find learning massively motivating. So I often listen to audio books or podcasts, either while driving back from the school run or whilst taking the dog for that walk on the beach. Again, it's just about fitting it into my lifestyle. And Step six, the final step, is the S in Savers and that stands for Scribe or Journaling.

[00:24:16] Sarah Almond Bushell: It simply means writing stuff down. It could be journaling your to do list for the day ahead. It could be jotting down thoughts and ideas that are on your mind. Struggling with something or feeling stuck in an area of your life, write down what you're feeling and self coach yourself by asking yourself why and then write some more.

[00:24:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's a really useful way of exploring what blocks or hold ups you might be facing and find out what gain these provide you. Because even though something is stopping you and getting in your way, there's often a secondary gain for that. And I find that when you journal things out, often your mind knows what to do.

[00:25:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's an amazing way to connect with your intuition. Solutions often sit within the subconscious mind and come out through the end of your pen in your writing. It will really help you move forward with an area you're stuck on. And if you don't have something on your mind, I like to start by just writing down things that I'm grateful for.

[00:25:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: So again, gratitude, it just shifts my mindset, it focuses on the positive, which sets a really powerful tone for the day. And then I'll note down my top three priorities, the things that I want to get done today, and that gives me clarity and focus for when I start work. So this journaling part, it doesn't have to be complicated.

[00:25:42] Sarah Almond Bushell: It doesn't have to take long. Even just a few sentences can really just help you reflect. It can help clear your mind and it can help you set intentions for the day ahead. Okay. So there you have it. My morning and my evening routines and a little bit about the science behind doing these consistently.

[00:26:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: But. What I haven't mentioned to you is how long these actually take. And to be honest with you, you can spend as much time or as little as you like on these. Now Hal Elrod describes a six minute miracle morning in his version of his book aimed at entrepreneurs. And this is where you spend just one minute on each of the savers.

[00:26:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: And if I think about it, my evening routine is probably no more than one or two minutes as well. I think the key thing here is the consistency. By practicing this every morning and every evening, you'll start to create new habits that set you up for success, that help you start each day calmly and with focus.

[00:26:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: You will be better equipped to deal with your business challenges. You'll be more proactive rather than reactive and you will become more productive and ultimately you should be able to build a more successful business as a result.

[00:26:59] Sarah Almond Bushell: So my action step, here's what I want you to do today. So just choose either the morning or the evening routine and commit to doing it for the next seven days. You literally need six minutes in the morning and one or two minutes before you go to bed at night. Whether it's jotting down your wins and your to do list before you go to bed or diving into the full Savers routine, commit to one or both and just make it part of your daily rhythm and see how that feels after a week.

[00:27:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: Okay, we have covered a lot today, haven't we? From why routines matter, to those specific steps that you can take to create a powerful morning and evening ritual that truly sets you up for success. These small but powerful practices aren't just about ticking things off a list, they're about Living with intention about you taking control of your mindset so that you can build momentum and create a solid foundation for your personal and your professional business growth.

[00:28:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: What's most exciting is how these habits compound over time. It's not about doing it perfectly, but it is about doing it consistently. And I can't wait to hear how this works out for you. Tag me on Instagram or drop a note in our Beyond the Clinic Business Facebook group to let me know how you're doing.

[00:28:18] Sarah Almond Bushell: new routine is going. And as this episode was inspired by a question from one of our listeners, I'd love to invite you to ask a question too. All right. Bye for now.

[00:28:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: That's it for another week. Thank you so much for joining me as we explore the abundance of strategies to help you recapture that feeling of possibility and excitement as you drive your business forwards and beyond the clinic room. If you found today's episode inspirational, then don't forget to like and subscribe to the show to stay in the loop for more valuable advice that I'm going to be sharing each week.

[00:28:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: If you want to be the first to hear about new episode releases, news and ways that I can support your business growth, then please don't forget to check out the links in the show notes. And you can also connect with me from there. Don't keep me a secret, I would be delighted if you left a review and shared this podcast with your colleagues.

[00:29:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: Until next time, bye for now.