I’m Not a Morning Person
There. I’ve said it. I am not a morning person, which if you know me, well you know. I probably see a couple of articles a week saying something like “8 things every person should do before 8 a.m.” or “5 morning habits of highly successful people”. Those were ripped from the headlines!
The world is set up for morning people. If you have to be at work by 8:30 am and have a 45 minute to 1 hour commute (which I had) that means I had to be up by 6:30 in the morning to get to work in time. It wasn’t pretty.
Let’s not forget that if you aren’t a morning person the implication is you aren’t a highly successful person. Do you want to know what 8 things I’ve gotten done before 8 am. Not much. Ask me how much stuff I got done between 10am and 6pm and I’ve got a super long list! I’m not so much a night owl, more of a mid morning/late afternoon bird.
The first thing I had to do was to let go of the idea that I was a failure because I wasn’t up at 5am saving the world. The next was to let go of the notion that I had to have a strict morning routine and hit the computer running first thing. I had a great talk with members of The Grove Community and found that a) I wasn’t the only one who didn’t do mornings and b) maybe I should embrace my meandering morning.
Now I wake up naturally without an alarm. My fatigue has significantly dropped because I’m embracing my natural rhythm and not having to hit snooze 10 ten times (not an exaggeration). I get up, shower, feed the bunny and get dressed. Then I make some coffee and try to remember to do my morning pages. I usually do some reading, research or writing first thing, instead of jumping on emails, because this fuels me. Finally I hop on the computer and do administrative tasks.
My mood has shifted and I feel so much more productive in the mornings. Embracing my natural routine has made me feel so much more rested and I’m starting my day doing the work that fills me up so I can shift to the administrative tasks. Letting go of the notion that you have to be a morning person with an insane list of things to do before 8am has made me a happier, healthier human being.
