Okay, I haven’t posted in a while, (because I post three times a week on Wattpad, if you were wondering) so here is a random share from me 🖤🖤

How do you unlearn a bad habit that you’ve kept for the last ten years?

First, you admit that you have the bad habit. “Hey everyone, I’m a 2-3 time button hitting snoozer in the mornings.”

Then I suppose you tell people you’re gonna beat it. “I’m going to stop snoozing. I’m going to wake up to my first alarm.”

And you do some research, on what it takes to be more of a morning person. “Google search: ‘how to stop snoozing’?”

Okay, wait a minute.

I’m not saying I’m not a morning person. I love mornings almost as much as I love the night. Nights are for enjoying humanity and the earth you live on. Mornings are for yourself, and your own creativity and productivity. For the goals you have and the things you want to change, for the difference you want to be in the world while you are here.

Also, I wouldn’t say I’m not currently a productive and goal focused individual. I think anyone who knows me knows this. I love what Christine Caine once said, that you can have a full calendar and still be energised, so long as it is “Your calling that defines your calendar”, not your calendar that defines your calling.

I’m also not a “late to work” type person. I never have been, but I absolutely love my job (after many years of having jobs that made me a bit miserable), and I’m that overly enthusiastic type who is often in an hour earlier than needed.

All this busyness and the non-stop days amount to my envy of that productivity time I’m missing in the mornings between 6am and 7am that I’m likely to set an alarm and snooze it.

At the start of the week, I labelled this an issue of will-power. “Girl, you will get up at 6:30, because you have goals and dreams you want to achieve and limited time in this life to do them.”

To note, this has been my modus operandi for the last ten years of having the bad habit. But apparently I have a self-discipline issue with regard to this specific area of my life. We’ll call it a ‘selective’ self discipline issue. I managed to get up on time on one day out of 5 this week. But 20% is not even a pass mark. And “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” — thank you, Albert Einstein.

So here is my “different” plan, after doing that quick bit of research on the topic.

Ways to beat the snooze monster who is eating 30 – 60 minutes of the time you have on this planet every day.

1. Appreciate waking up. Well that’s a given, but actually take that moment to consider it, as I said above, we have a little gap in time that has been given to us, a heartbeat in the face of eternity, and I 100% want to do the most I can with that time.

2. Set an alarm time you are happy with (not earlier or later), and change the sound or song every two weeks. I’m starting with the Mumsdollar cover of “Break my stride” by Matthew Wilder 👌🏽

3. Have something to do / a reason to get up. For me, I’ve been wanting to get back into a regular yoga routine every morning, so we will start with that.

4. Set a short goal (a SMART goal, if you are into your nerdy leadership concepts). I’m going to get up on time for the next five working days and see how I do.

5.Go to bed earlier. 11pm for a 6am start would get me the recommended 7 hours of rest. Gah, but yeah, okay.

6.Don’t sleep too comfy. Apparently this is helpful, but I sleep in a coffin and it’s the most comfy bed I’ve ever had and I’m not changing it, so pushing the covers off when my alarm goes might be a good start.

7.Blue light and light from electronic devices in general keep your brain awake. Apparently it’s a good idea to stop using them 30 – 60 mins before you go to bed. Also gah, and possibly unlikely. We’ll see.

8.Try to wake in the right point of your rem cycle. (Because I magically know that?) However, it is less distressing for your body to wake from the lighter end of your sleep cycle than the deeper end. There are loads of great apps like “Sleep Cycle” which is probably the best and I’ve used it before, so I’ll go back to that….

9.Put the alarm on the other side of the room. Good idea, but I’m going to try Sleep Cycle first, and I need my phone near me. Also, not having my phone near me? Stressful. (I’m joking. Kind of.)

10.Turn on the lights. Another great idea for scaring my inner vampire into waking (“Oh no! Not the sun!!”)

11.Drink water, it tells your body to start working again after resting and “fasting” overnight. Check.

12.Maintain the same waking time so your body gets into a routine. Check.

13.Commit to it. I want to do this. I want the benefits of that extra time. I’m going to do it.

See you next week….