ritual

Congratulations! You’ve reached the final day of the Getting Your Shit Together Challenge! Do you have your shit together by now?

Probably not. Listen, ladies–this is an ongoing journey. You’d be bored if you already had it together.

But today, I want to help set you up for having more balance when it comes to the chaos in your life.

There’s something that helps people have their shit together no matter what. Beyond measure. Day in, day out.

What is that thing?

It’s ritual.

Let Me Explain Something About Ritual

When we hear the word ritual, our minds often fall to some elaborate, time-consuming procedure. That’s not what ritual is about. You don’t have to drink lemon water or take off your clothes and howl at the moon to get your shit together.

But you’ll never get your shit together if you don’t create some aspect of ritual.

Ritual Is Something Consistent

And consistency is key to getting your shit together.

The stuff that makes you feel chaotic, overwhelmed, and off track are the things that aren’t part of your ritual yet.

If you took the quiz at the beginning of this challenge, you might have found out that you fall right in the middle. You’re not a planner, but you’re not total chaos. Was that a surprise for you?

Most people DO fall somewhere in the middle. Why? Because of ritual.

Everyone has some rituals. Those rituals make you feel like you have your shit together. When you lose your rituals, or when something new comes into the picture that you haven’t ritualized {that’s actually a word?} you feel the chaos.

Case In Point

I’m posting the final blog for this 12-day challenge 3 days late. Why? Because I haven’t ritualized blog posting yet. But I’m working on it.

What Is a Ritual?

Just to show you that you don’t have to go overboard establishing rituals, I’m going to give you some examples of rituals that I follow in my own life.

These are all rituals:

  • Brushing my teeth
  • Prepping and drinking my morning coffee
  • Practicing deep breathing in the car driving the kids to and from school
  • Making the kids lunches when I’m making myself lunch and dinner the day before
  • Moving my body on a regular basis
  • Rubbing my body down with a sugar scrub when I shower
  • Zoning out in front of the TV or a book in the evenings

See? None of these are mind-blowing or extravagant. These are the things that help me feel like I have my shit together.

Rituals are flexible.

They can change over time. However, it can feel difficult to change them. Removing rituals can make you feel like you don’t have your shit together, and making new activities into rituals can make you feel like you don’t have your shit together.

There was a time when I tried so hard to force myself to shed the evening zone-out ritual. You guys, come 7:30pm, I am D.O.N.E. I can’t process a single thought anymore. {Shit, that means that I only have 5 minutes to finish this blog post.}

But I go to bed between 9 and 12. {Obvs, bedtime is NOT one of my rituals.}

That means that I have up to 4.5 hours that I could use to be productive! That thought used to kill me. I felt like I was wasting so much time. But you know what? I don’t feel balanced if I lose my zone-out time.

If I go a few days where I get really productive in the evenings or go out with friends, it feels fine at first. A shift from the ritual is healthy. However, at some point I crash. And when I crash, I fall asleep at like 8pm every night, and then I still don’t get my zone-out time. And then I feel like I just don’t have my head together.

It makes me feel like I don’t have my shit together.

Rituals are why your house is always cluttered.

If you don’t have a decluttering ritual, your house will remain cluttered. Sure, you might spend an entire day color coding your kid’s LEGO, but if you don’t make it a ritual, they’re going to be all over the floor in a week.

And that’s what will make you feel like you don’t have your shit together.

If you don’t have ANY rituals, you’re going to feel like you’re constantly overwhelmed.

The thing is, we all have rituals, even if they are as basic as drinking your coffee in the morning. And how do you feel when you miss your coffee?

See what I mean?

The Good News:

Creating a ritual doesn’t have to be time-intensive or complicated. In fact, the more automated you can make it, the more comfortable it will be to adopt. {Although discomfort is what helps you grow, so don’t shy away from that!!!}

I want you to spend the next few days observing your rituals. Maybe there is something that you have ritualized that you don’t even realize. And maybe there is something that you’re dying to ritualize that just isn’t a priority yet.

Don’t force it. Just watch yourself.

What are your rituals? Share in the comments below… I would love to hear how you mamas make your life less chaotic.

Some of the rituals that I’m working on developing more in the new year are:

  • Waking up earlier
  • Keeping my house clutter free
  • Being more consistent with my writing

If you want to learn more about creating rituals and how they can help you get your shit together, join the Make Your Perfect mailing list below. We’re about to launch another challenge that is going to kick your butt into gear, and you’ll be the first to hear about it!

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