A Thirty-Minute Gift: Reward Yourself with a New Morning Routine

What would you do if you woke up 30-minutes early? Before the alarm. Before you NEED to get up? Would you go back to sleep or use it as a gift?

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!”
-          Rumi

I have heard of this quote for years, and if I ever wake up just a little before my alarm I consider staying up, but my Indulger usually gets the better of me and I choose to go back to sleep.

What can you do in thirty minutes that would be worth losing that little catnap? What would be a gift to you? What do you WANT to do with that time?

• Meditate, exercise, or journal?

• Take a leisurely shower?

• Get a “jump on your day”?

• Spend quality time with someone?

Your morning routine can set your day in motion with joy and ease or panic and chaos. You can be filled with confidence and clarity or anxiety and worry. You can enjoy connection with others or brush them off because you “don’t have time”.

The Perils of the Snooze Button

I set my alarm to wake me up with the radio, rather than a jarring alarm. Softly, slowly, I wake up to the jolly banter of my favorite radio team – Anna and Raven. If I time it right, I can listen to the “Couples Court”, where the radio audience helps to solve a couple’s dilemma (I think of this as research - did you know I coach couples?).

More often than not, this “routine” has turned into a delay tactic; the radio teases me with one entertaining bit after another. I really “should” be getting up and dressed, then going downstairs to say hi to my early-bird husband (who is at his computer by 6:30 am), make my breakfast, and then head to my home office.

I usually get to my first appointment of the day with little time to spare. I start the day feeling disappointed or undisciplined because I didn’t do what I said I would do this time – ease into my day and take a few minutes to gather my thoughts and plan out my morning. I’ve given my Inner Judge the opportunity it needs to berate me once again.

A Better Way to Launch Your Day

Every morning we have a choice – to wake up with the “secrets of the dawn” and use that extra time wisely, or we can let our Indulger keep hitting the snooze button and then suffer from our Judge telling us we screwed up again. Based on my years of coaching, there are at least 50% of my readers who wish they had a better morning routine.

I challenge you to rethink and rework your morning routine, designing it to launch your day with ease and flow. What do you want? What would make your day go more smoothly? What new habit would support you? It takes weeks to develop new habits, so declare what you want, celebrate the intermittent wins, and stick with it. Listen to your Wiser Self – Don’t go back to sleep!

Now if I would just go to bed 30 minutes earlier…

Destiny

I just read an article by John Corbett, the actor. In it, he describes what led him to become an actor.

From a steel mill job that his Dad helped him get, to a disabling injury, and ultimately to a local community college, John’s young adult path appeared to be going nowhere. He had no confidence in his future. What changed his destiny was a chance conversation with a bunch of acting students at the college. They invited him to their improv class and the rest, as they say, is history.

He didn’t set out to become an actor. It wasn’t on his radar. And yet now he is very successful and happy and doing what he loves.

Corbett says, “I’ve learned, like the priest I play in All Saints (a new movie coming out where he plays the lead), that when God sends a suggestion our way, the best thing we can do for ourselves is say yes.”

This brings me to why I am writing today; to share my own “how did it happen” story.

In 2006 my sister Grace, a coach and instructor, invited me to a coaching class; a 3-day weekend course that would change my life. I was a respiratory therapist at the time, working 3 shifts a week in the Intensive Care Units at a local hospital. From the Newborn ICU, to Surgical ICU, to the Burn unit, I was part of the team taking care of patients who were on ventilators and in other crisis situations. I liked what I did but I didn’t like working weekends and holidays. A weekend class with my sister – on my birthday no less – sounded fun, so I went. I had no expectations that it would lead to anything but I was curious.

After taking that coaching class, I was hooked. It took over a year for me to finish the other classes, another 25 weeks to get certified, and another year before I fully quit respiratory therapy, but I’ve never looked back.

I love what I do as a coach. People come in with questions, concerns, and frustrations and come out with confidence, clarity, and new life-changing skills and understanding. It is so rewarding! I challenge myself along the way as well. Each client brings me new understanding of myself and others. Each moment of my life – from the things I read, to the stories I hear, and the people I come in contact with – has the potential to inspire me to acquire a new skill or level of awareness that will make the learning – and the living, a little bit easier.

I didn’t set out to be a coach, but my education, my life experiences, and the encouragement of my sister and others has led me to a career I really love. I love to help people find clarity. I love to help people regain a sense of peace and calm that comes from knowing the direction they are heading. I love seeing relationships grow with new skills to boost more positivity and understanding. I love watching my clients achieve the dreams and goals they care so much about!

And now, a new chapter begins for me as the owner of a training center! I didn’t set out to rent an office, but when one of my clients showed me the building he was renovating for commercial use, the minute I stepped in the door I knew it had to be a conference room – it was full of light and had unexplainable energy for me. It has enough room for a dozen or so people to transform their minds and their hearts and just the right space for me to grow as a business owner.

It’s taken almost a year, but Inner Work Training Center is ready for business! I got a nudge and I followed it; first with coaching, and now with my new coaching and training center. I could have ignored the call, but I’m really glad I didn’t. I’m anxious to see where this new chapter takes me.

If you live nearby, I hope you’ll set up a time to drop in!