How Just 5 Days Changed My Entire Life

From Hating to Loving My Life

Matthew M.
Aug 31, 2018 · 5 min read
Photo by Lex Sirikiat on Unsplash

Let me start by saying this all occurred my first week of my junior year of high school. Which means early wake ups and no more 1 AM bedtime.

Here is what my face looked like at the start of the week:

Photo by Analise Benevides on Unsplash

Here is what my face looked like by the end of the week:

Photo by Eduardo Dutra on Unsplash

Routine Change

On a normal school day for me I would wake up at 6:10 AM, take a REALLY LONG shower, almost drown in the shower while falling asleep, get out of the shower and put some clothes on along with some other essentials like that magical stuff that keeps your pits from sweating for 24 hours(at least thats what it says on the label) and then run downstairs for breakfast. I eat breakfast as fast as I can without throwing up and finally run back upstairs to brush my teeth and then I am out the door by 6:40 AM to catch my bus which comes at 6:39 AM(The bus driver is kind enough to wait for me EVERY morning). But this year was different. You see a few weeks prior to this week I was in Los Cabos, Mexico for our yearly family vacation and since I couldn’t bring my bike I started running for the first time ever and I liked it. Truth be told I did not like it, I LOVED IT! If you want to know more about how all of this came to be and how I felt the first time when I ran you can read another one of my articles which is linked here. Anyways as I was saying I LOVED running so I my goal once I got back was to do 2 miles everyday and run a time of 6 minutes a mile by the time next spring rolled around(spring of 2019). So for the next week I ran with a friend at a park nearby around 9:00 AM as school did not start until the following week. On our last run of the week(Friday, as that weekend was crazy for both of us) we talked a lot after the run and I joked with him wouldn’t it be funny if I got up at 5 AM and ran? And he laughed and said yeah you’d be crazy to do that. And I agreed with him. But you know what I am crazy and I wanted to run daily and after school it would be too hot. So here is what happened the first day of school comes around and at 5 AM my Amazon Alexa wakes me up and my day starts. I put on my bright, yellow vest like thing and I went outside. My first thought was “How in the name of God am I going to do this? I’d be lucky if I don’t fall asleep and run into a tree.” But as I started to run something incredible happened… I refer to this moment as “waking up”. Now all jokes aside I did actually start waking up during the run more and more until I was fully active and ready for the day to come. In one hand was my phone and in the other was well nothing. In my ears was my wireless earbuds jamming away to some songs by Kygo.

Realization

On that first day I realized something. It wasn’t about the running itself or even waking up at 5 AM but it was about where these actions landed me.

You see one could do all the right things in the world but if they don’t know what there actions were for then they will have worked for nothing.

After my run I knew exactly what my actions were for and what they meant to me. You see running in the early morning was something that I looked forward to every one of the 5 days from that point on as it gave me many positive outcomes. Some of which included mindfulness, peace, exercise and relief from stress. All of those things are important to me and to have the ability to incorporate them into one activity was something that I found to be awesome.

Running became an escape from everyday life and its challenges for me.

Goal

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

So what is my point here? Am I saying to get up at 5 AM and go for a 2 mile run? If you want to go ahead I will not stop you nor should anyone else but do you have to? Not at all. My point is that for me its running for you it may be something else at a completely different time but I would say that if you could try and find something, really anything whether its a book to read, breathing techniques or an activity whatever it may be find something that you enjoy doing and DO IT! Everyday! If your schedule is packed then try your best to do bits and pieces of it throughout your day as bits and pieces is better than nothing at all. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health if not more. So please do us all a favor and go for a run in the morning, read a chapter of a book, or just listen to music but do something that you know is guaranteed to have a positive effect on your life and will make you a better person overall. Just 5 days earlier I was someone who you did NOT want to mess with especially in the morning but now I am a totally different, happier, kinder and more positive person throughout my entire day which to me is a life change for the better. So give it a few minutes for at least 5 days straight and maybe just maybe your life might change like mine.

If you enjoyed this article please give it a few claps and share it with others. Thank you and remember to have a great day/night and to always stay awesome!

If you have any questions, comments or anything else about this article or another one of mine you can always DM me on my Twitter which is linked in my bio or you can email me at mmech2001@gmail.com.

Matthew M.

Written by

I love exploring, writing and reading about technology. Technology is something that is so powerful and intuitive. It is one of a kind.

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