The Power of a Wakeup Call

Morning Peeps! I know . . . it has been awhile. I think it is safe to say that “Covid-fatigue” is more than real. Man, it has kicked me in the behind. But . . . I am finding ways to get in front of it. Slowly but surely. I am writing this in August of 2020, shortly before the kiddos are starting virtual school, before my job gets insanely busy in the month of September, and when I fear we are about to go on “lockdown” again soon and there is nothing in sight to really look forward to without fear it might get canceled.

Depressing huh? Keep reading. If you know me, you know I am not a Debbie Downer or Negative Nancy (or Double N or N Squared as my local farmer Steve, at Rousedale Farm) would refer to this particular character. I am a glass half full person through and through, but that has been admittedly hard lately.

The funny thing though . . . as I am writing this . . . I have more pep to my at 5:42AM and I feel the best I have in days/weeks/months.

Ok, Wendy, what’s the secret!?

I set an alarm for 5AM on the nose.

But don’t you always get up early?

I do. But since COVID and truthfully even before that . . . I just let myself wake up naturally when it was time. I get up early anyway. I figured my body needed the sleep. No big deal. This way I get all the sleep my body needs and I get out of bed when I am good and ready to get out of bed. Doing this, I wake up anywhere from 5:15ish . . . to 5:45ish . . . sometimes before 5. I have noticed I am actually rolling out of bed later and later. I am guessing it is because it is harder to get out of bed since there is no TIME or true outside influence pushing me out of bed. There is no huge rush in the morning with the kiddos to get them out the door, there is no set time I have to be at the office, there are no meetings, there is no “clock-in” anywhere in sight. While I thought that was providing me with some much needed relaxation and “down-time” (and it likely did for awhile). I discovered it now has the opposite effect. With no rush, no deadline, no check-in, I am feeling blah. I feel less motivated. I felt like I was floating through my mornings and days. Don’t get me wrong. I still got everything done I needed to (workout, work, cook, hang, sleep) . . . but something has been missing. My pep, my energy, my optimism . . . it felt flat. I felt flat.

As the saying goes . . . nothing is gonna change, unless you make a change.

So, I did something different last night. I set my alarm for 5AM on the nose. Not 4:50AM so I could have 10 minutes to debate getting out of bed. Not 5:01 to make myself feel better that it wasn’t quite 5. But 5AM. I will tell you what . . . that sucker JARRED me this morning and that alarm was LOUD. But with some Pavlovian response, instilled probably by reading the 5 Second Rule (a book I actually listened to several years ago that changed my life: click here to listen for free!), I hopped right out of bed.

What did I notice?

I was groggy and annoyed at first. But as I came downstairs to the kitchen to make my coffee and pour my water . . . I felt a hint of excitement. I felt a hint of pep. As I was doing my personal development and reading about other people taking time in their day to write . . . I said, it has been so long since you put pen to paper . . . and you actually have TIME this morning to WRITE lady. So, here I am. My heart feels a bit fuller. I have more pep. I am ready for the day.

My advice? Set the damn alarm. 5-4-3-2-1 and get out of bed. Start your day. While writing this, I set the 5AM alarm to repeat daily. Next step, finding an alarm tone that doesn’t wake up the whole house so I actually can take back some more of this morning time for myself!

This was a wakeup call I needed. It is NOT that I need to cram more and be more busy (my guess is my bedtime will start to come a bit earlier as well), it is finding little ways to tweak life and hack into what makes ME feel fulfilled and happy. For me, that is as much quiet morning time in solitude as I can get without risking too much sleep. 5AM is that sweet spot.

During this crazy time, have you been setting an alarm? Did you turn it off? Have you noticed the same? Are you feeling better or worse? I ask you to tune into YOU, play with this, document how you feel, and use that to your advantage!