WAKE UP EARLY
I can already hear some of you telling me to “fuck off.” I get it. You’re not a morning person. That’s cool. Sleep is a wonderful, beautiful thing and I often miss the days before kids when I could just wake up naturally. I’m not saying you have to be perky, just that there are some advantages to setting the alarm a little earlier.
The main reason is to wake up early is to have some time to yourself to do anything you damn well please before life gets in the way. If you want to sip coffee and read, great. If you want to run a mile, awesome. If you want to meditate or assemble a puzzle, do it. Personally? I write. With twin toddlers, there isn’t much quiet time in our house, so I use the time when everyone is still asleep and the house is at its lowest volume to be creative and let my mind fill pages of journals, blogs, novels, and scripts. It’s my time to do something for me.
You can find all kinds of “health benefits” to waking up early from various motivational blogs and I can’t vouch for how accurate those may be. But I can tell you that waking up just 30-minutes earlier to do something for yourself, when there is no one in the world holding you responsible for anything, is an incredible gift.
Developing the habit of waking up early, well… It sucks. I won’t lie. There’s no easy way really. You just do it for a few days until your body gets used to it. It helps to go to bed that much earlier so you’re not losing sleep in the process. Just know that after a week or so, you’ll be acclimated and what makes it easier is knowing that you’re waking up to something you want and not something you dread.
Waking up a cranky, groggy bastard isn’t exactly the best way to start your day. Waking up a little earlier so you can do something you love or that excites you sets a better tone. You feel proud of yourself and happy that you got some “me time.” It’s not long before the waking up early part is a non-issue.
Think of something you’ve always wished you had time to do. Maybe you want to paint or run or meditate or learn a new language. All you have to do is set your alarm clock fifteen or thirty minutes earlier and then do that thing you love before anyone lays claim to the rest of your day.
