“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
That was the message on my Sober Time app today….at one month and 7 days.

It’s true though – the way your day starts typically determines how the rest of it will go. My morning routine on days I didn’t have to go to the office used to go something like this:

• Wake up at around 7
• Reach for my phone
• Check my work email and let that dictate how long I could lay in bed. If I could answer some emails from there, I did that
• Scroll through Facebook
• Realise an hour had passed and I’d wasted it
• Get up and get ready for work

There were times over the years where I’ve had a strict workout schedule and gotten up at 5:30am, driven to the gym half asleep, worked out and then gone to the office. As much as I hated that 5:30am wake up call for a 6am workout, I always felt so much better after.

But this year, with the quarantine, my lazy morning routine had taken hold. Gyms were closed and there were no early morning meetings to get to. So the ‘lazing around in bed’ type of morning took over.

Until I made a decision a few months ago to bring more discipline to my life. I decided that regardless of what time I woke up, I had to do a 30min workout before work. The trick here is that I start having small panic attacks if I’m not online and available to my team by 8:30am. I had to make my workouts a priority though, so that meant getting out of bed earlier as I was prioritizing my workouts over being online working.

When this 90 day experiment started, I began waking up without an alarm at 5:30…getting up without looking at my phone…sitting on the couch with a coffee and writing this journal/blog. I began to love the quiet time before the sun came up…and my cat began to expect it. Want to make a getting up early habit stick? Get your pet used to being fed at that time. Works like a charm!

Now that the cooler temps are coming, the sun is rising later. I wake up to a gentle alarm on my watch at 6:30…stretch and wake up slowly, getting up out of bed by 6:45…grab a coffee, feed my furball, and sit on the couch to write, read, and start my day. I’m not online by 8:30 as I’m typically starting my workout at 8 now rather than 7…but the anxiety is no longer there.

I’ve put some discipline in place and chosen to run my day, so that it doesn’t run me. And I’m so much happier for it!

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