This is my goal. I am not a natural morning person, although 4 out of my 5 children currently are. I have done early morning seminary and missionary service. I have even worked at 6am across town. But, even given that experience, 7am classes were always a disaster in college and I have always dreaded the early hours. However, the more busy life becomes and the more crazy DH's schedule becomes, the more I realize that if I want any time to myself, I must find it in the wee hours of the morning. This, as I've said, is not easy for me. I will get up early to go running with a friend when it's too hot in our desert home to run later (which it currently is, 5:30 is our current start time). But when I'm just getting up for my own benefit, either to exercise or just be alone with my thoughts, the bed is too powerful and I don't hold myself accountable the same way I would if my failure to get up were bailing out on a friend. We won't even talk about the night hazards of teething babies, nearly 3-year-olds who are trying to be simultaneously night owls AND morning persons or the disaster of tag-teaming children. Since those things we aren't talking about are a regular event here at the Fears homestead, the battle with the power of the bed is being lost and I'm getting so discouraged. I keep telling myself it's all about the baby steps.
So, it is with great pride that I report that, even though I had no early morning plans to run with a friend, and Bam wouldn't successfully stay in bed until 11pm and woke up at 1:30 am and even though Em's 4am shout-out for a friend really made it difficult, I successfully made it out of bed by 5:45 this morning! It was no longer as dark as the picture above, more the early morning greyness that summer in the desert makes me cherish (it's not too hot yet), but the day, despite the wall of exhaustion that I'm sure will reach me later, is already going so much better. I was able to read a little, write a little, think quietly to myself a little, have a shower and get dressed before absolutely everyone was yelling for breakfast. So, I definitely want to keep this up and eventually reach my goal of getting up at 5 am with some regularity and some ease. I need help.
Are there any reformed night owls within the "sound" of my keyboard? Natural morning people won't be able to help me, because I suspect they won't understand why it's so difficult in the first place. But if you too have battled with the comfort of your bed when you know you should heed the call to arise early, how have you done it? How can I emulate your success?
5 comments:
Deep down, I know the day goes much better when I get up before the kids, but like you, if I'm not exercising that day, it's sooo hard to make myself do it (and my kids don't wake up nearly as early as yours do). But even 15 minutes earlier does me a world of good. Kudos to you!
It's funny that you mention this because I'm the same way too. Most mornings, I'm not out of bed much before my husband or kids. But I need the alone time. For a good solid year I ran every morning by myself at 5:30am. I actually like to run by myself and what helped me was having my clothes/shoes right by my bed. I would remind myself that if I didn't get up now, I wouldn't be able to go because, Kyle would have to go to work.
Also when we were preparing to move into this house I kept getting nervous about everything I had to do. I even wanted to have all scrapbooking caught up, all files organized, and several other projects completed along with moving a whole house. I started waking up at 5am every day and would be able to work by myself until about 8am when the kids started coming down. What helped me wake up was just the joy of knowing I could accomplish the world and be by myself with my thoughts. I kept it up for quite awhile until I really had no more big projects to work on. I realized that I probably don't need to wake up that early all the time, but now at least I know I can do it, and how much fun it really is just to be by myself. I'm really weird too cause occasionally if one of the boys gets up in the middle of the night and I can't seem to go back to sleep, instead of tossing and turning, I will go down stairs and write in my journal, pay bills, work on projects until I'm sleepy again and I love it. It's a party in the middle of the night.
As you know, I'm not a morning person and haven't tried to become one yet. I just had to comment to remind you how much has changed. Remember when we'd drive to work together (I think this was post college/pre-mission) and I wasn't allowed to talk to you in the car? You've come a long way, baby!
Angie, I am SO proud of you for doing this. This is coming from someone who thinks getting out of bed in the morning is the most difficult task of the day!
A friend of mine completely turned around herself and said the only thing that worked 100% for her was simple scheduling (getting used to sleeping at an earlier hour and waking up, no matter what, at 6:00 a.m.)...easier said than done for me.
If and when you completely master becoming a morning person, I would love to pick your brain...I have sort of given up. :)
Angie, I'm dying to know how you are progressing with this. I think I'm getting worse. I stayed up until almost 1:00 a.m. reading last night (self-control, self-control!!!). Hopefully, you are doing better than I am.
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