Night owl to worm catchin’

In October Im waking up before the sun. Something old me would have thought completely ridiculous.

In case you missed it, I turned 30 last month and have decided to celebrate my year with new goals each month. September was 30 days of yoga. It went well. Mostly it was a great way for me to get back into working out. I discovered that post injury Im really enjoying finding new activities and broadening my workout horizons. I also spent time meditating daily. Both are practices I intend to continue.

Octobers goals seemed obvious right away. I want to wake up early. Every day.

My family schedule has changed to where I now have a couple of hours after I drop my daughter off before I have to be at work. This gives me plenty of time to workout and get ready for work. But thats the trouble. Its plenty of time. Time that I can putter away doing something else. Time I could (and often do) spend making dinner so it can just be warmed up when I get home. Its too much time.

Research shows that waking up early (Im talking way before you have to) is the best way to get personal growth activities done. Things like meditation, working out, personal writing, are best done before anything or anyone else can pop up and become more important.

Ive found that when I wake up at the crack of dawn and workout I find ways to get other stuff done while Im at it and then Im buzzing all day from the extra energy. It feels great.

Thus, Im dedicating October to early rising. Its going to make for a wonderful new habit. Im signed up for classes 5 days a week (spin, yoga and cardio) that gives an added accountability factor to this goal. A nice thing Ive found about taking a class first thing is that the problem of being a little groggy headed isnt important because youre being instructed. By the time you fully wake up youre all stretched out and ready to go!

I want to be clear that this would have once upon a time been crazy talk for me. I have always been a night owl. I stayed up late as hell, always fighting bed time. I woke up late, usually late enough to have missed something or to need to rush around. The idea of waking up early, on purpose, with no one paying me to do so, would have been nuts.

Part of that changed when Lola was born. It became impossible to be in a hurry to get somewhere. As you may know, having a child means you need to build in a half hour to all transitions just to be safe. It is inevitable that your child will have some minor emergency right at go time. But mostly I discovered that I hated being in a hurry. I hated being in a hurry so much that the story I told myself about being a person who is always late was no longer important. So the half hour wiggle room became 45 minutes and now Im chronically early.

Having broken this life long pattern already makes taking the plunge from night owl to early riser seem less daunting. And I really love the idea of having exciting plans in the wee hours instead of always dreading the alarm.

To make this goal easier Im cutting out alcohol (who wakes up before 7am with a hang over?) Ive recently found that my tolerance level has decreased to pathetic anyway so even a small amount makes a big impact Im okay with not feeling. I will also be making every effort to be in bed in the 10pm hour.

This change will give me about 3 extra hours of alone time daily to do whatever the hell I want. I intend to do the following:

workout. meditate. write. read. walk/run my dog. be still. welcome the day. make a nice breakfast. take longer showers. paint my nails. listen to music. experience quiet.

So Im pumped. Im excited to see how this impacts my energy level and sleep schedule over time. Ill keep you posted.

Are you making goals with me? What are you doing in October?

xoxo, Mama