In light of the new year, and with the Healthy Habits Challenge coming up on Feb. 1, I've been feeling really motivated to take the final steps in my current lifestyle goals and actually make them happen rather than just continually planning them on paper. Anyone else a perpetual planner?
One of my big ones is getting up early. I've been wanting to get up early for a while, but changing that pattern has been much more difficult than I expected. First of all, I'm a night owl. I have been for as long as I can remember. I get strong into my creative flow at night and that is when I've had the majority of my great ideas and a-ha moments. The other thing is, that was the only time I was getting to myself during the day. I would wake when the kids woke and be busy all day trying to juggle mom life with my wfh life tasks. And frankly, it wasn't working too well. Some days I would have enough time to get something written and published, or a video shot and edited. But most days, I would end up frustrated that I couldn't get five minutes to do an IG post, so I would sit in my office for an hour or two after the kids went to bed and get it done.
Changing that bedtime habit was the first step in making it possible for me to get up early. I started cutting out all screen time on my phone in the evening. I make dinner, clean up, get my stuff organized for the next day, put my little ones to bed, and then go directly into my bedtime routine. I also have a routine that I do with my oils, one set when I get out of the shower, and another set at my bedside as I'm getting into bed for the night. I have stuck to this routine since I started it and I noticed a difference in the ease of keeping my bedtime goals.
Last night as I was doing my bedtime routine (I will share the full routine and what oils I use in another post) I was thinking, this has been really successful at night, I need something like this for the morning. I needed a set action plan so that when that alarm goes off, instead of grumbling and wanting to hit the snooze button, I can immediately start following the routine I set up for myself. And already, on day one, it made it so much easier to get up and get going!
Okay, so how does this relate to coffee! As I was envisioning how I want my morning to go, I was thinking about my morning cup of coffee (you might be thinking, what? but seriously, the more specific you get with your plan, right down to how and when you do everything, the more success you will have!) I decided that I would like to just sit and drink my cup of coffee, piping hot! not after it has sat around for an hour. Just sit and do nothing else but enjoy my coffee. So this morning, as I was doing that in the quiet of our kitchen, just holding my cup and looking out the window, I realized, this is exactly what my dad would do! Get up early (I think he got up at 6:00 every day, my goal is 5 or 5:30) and sit at the kitchen table doing nothing else but drink a cup of coffee.
Losing my dad has left a permanent scar on my heart, but it's little moments like these that make me feel really close to him, like he's right here with me. And this little ritual of drinking my coffee in the morning is now going to be my daily coffee date with my dad. I'm sure some days other things will come up, like today I actually started writing this post after about five sips! But taking that routine and giving it purpose, doing it with intention, feels really powerful and affirming as I make the changes necessary to meet my goals.
Do you have a morning routine locked down? Anyone else have a coffee ritual or other reward you give yourself for getting up early or meeting a goal? Tell me, I'd love to hear!