Rise

What time do you rise in the morning? Do you set an alarm? Do you hit the snooze button several times before you actually get up? Why do you get up in the mornings?

I've always been an early riser. I mean, I don't wake up and bound out of bed with excitement to get up. No, I would much rather take the dogs potty and then come back to bed for another hour or more. But once I'm awake, I'm glad I'm awake and I go ahead and get started with my day.

Easing into my morning is necessary for me. I don't like to rush in anything that I do. I am more of a slow and steady kind of girl. Getting up early in the morning gives me the opportunity to start my day slow instead of hurried, even if I am getting up way earlier than I wish I was.

I set my alarm for 4:00 a.m. When it goes off I sit up, shut it off, and immediately turn on the light. The dogs are awake by then and ready to go potty so I grab my robe, head downstairs to take them out, and fix myself a cup of hot green tea. Then I am awake.

What in the world do I do at that crazy hour?

First I climb back in bed with my tea, one of the dogs (because the other two head into a kids room to go back to sleep), and do a little reading. This is my time for personal development. Right now I am reading little bits of Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren.

Then I grab my phone for all of that mindless social media junk. I review Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, look at my e-mails (99% junk mail), and then do a little blogging.

At 5:15 a.m. I get up and get on my workout clothes and drink my pre-workout drink, Energize. At 5:30 a.m. it's time to workout with Beachbody on Demand. Finally, it's coffee time! (I don't like to drink coffee until I have my workout complete. It gives my body a chance to take advantage of the antioxidants in the green tea and then be flushed with water and lemon.)

Once I am done working out, I get ready for work. At about 7:00 a.m. I am downstairs making my green smoothie with Shakeology, getting my coffee ready for work, and brushing my teeth.

Then I'm out the door and to work by 7:45 a.m.

And all that will change in just about a week when Brynne goes back to school with 5:30 a.m. basketball practices. On the days she has practice, I will get up at 4:00 a.m., immediately drink my Energize, workout, take her to practice, come home and shower and get ready, and then sit down for some social media, Bible study/personal development, and blogging. I won't like those days as much, so on the days she doesn't have practice I'll go back to the other schedule. The alternative is to get up at 3:00 a.m. to do all that I want to do to ease into my day. But even I'm not that crazy.

Why do I do all of this? To keep my sanity and to be the healthiest version of myself as possible, both physically and mentally.

To make it all work I have to get a solid 7 hours of sleep, which means I am in bed by 8:00 p.m. (most nights) to read and shutting off the light and asleep at 9:00 p.m. On an average day this all works perfectly. But it takes commitment. It takes me saying "No" to a lot of things.

Doing all of this means making myself a priority in my life. Gasp!

Everybody else gets taken care of between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. They are fed, taxied, schooled, dressed, loved, snuggled, disciplined, activitied, and we even usually get in a television show together every night (we love anything Gordon Ramsey!). But the other 12 hours are mine. And they should be because, say it isn't so, this is my life. As I think about it, I don't ask anyone else to do anything else for me at all during the day, except pick up after themselves! It's more than okay if I take the time to take care of myself. And it's okay if you do, too.

That might require you getting up WAY before the sun comes up, and it might require you to go to bed much earlier than you really want. But I guarantee that it is worth it! It's not easy all the time, but it is worth it.

And the added bonus is that I have so much more energy and feel so much better about myself. Getting those things accomplished first thing in the morning, especially working out, has me checking about 5 very important things off my list before the sun even comes up in the morning. Talk about a mood-booster.

I challenge you to give it a try. Make of list of all the things you want to accomplish each day (especially those things you never seem to find the time to do). Figure out how much time you want to devote to each thing. Then count backwards from the time you have to start getting things done for others (for me, that's when the first kid gets out of bed or I have somewhere I need to be.) And that will be the time you need to set your alarm. I used to get up at 5:00 a.m., but I found that I was too rushed. So to make sure I was able to get it all done in a slow and steady manner, I made the decision and commitment to bump it back to 4:00 a.m. That was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Stop letting your life live you and LIVE YOUR LIFE!