Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Early Riser Mom?



Awhile back, I wrote about the Maximize Your Mornings Challenge over at Inspired to Action. It was basically a Challenge that I read about that challenged moms to get up before their kids in the morning to spend precious, quiet time with God, get some kind of workout in, and start to plan their day. There was some awesome accountability on Twitter, opportunities to study the same things in the morning, and just that mom camaraderie of being intentional together to make our health and relationship with God a priority. Over the years, I have gone back and forth between getting up early and sleeping in. But I must say, when I get up early, I have a head-start on my day, and when I sleep in, the day seems to run me.
With all my responsibilities these days, I really need to get up before my kids, spend quiet time with God (the key word being quiet), get my workout in, and know what I need to get done that day. It seems so simple, and yet the concept is so profound. I want this to be a new habit this year. To consistently get up early. Not just now and then. Not just 2-3 times per week. But that my norm would be to set that alarm for 5:20 or earlier, and be disciplined enough to get going. On the Maximize Your Mornings Challenge, they even encourage moms to not hit the snooze button. To be disciplined enough to just get out of bed when the alarm goes off. Is it possible?
I think being a stay-at-home mom affords me the opportunity for many freedoms in how to run my day. I am in charge. I am in charge of so many things. I am in charge of the house, finances, homeschooling my children, our CC community, my Beachbody business, the menu for the day (so essentially, the health of my family!), and so many more little things. It gets busy. I think when things get busy and overwhelming, the tendency can be to get lazy. To sleep in. To stay up late to "relax" but then struggle to get up in the morning. And these bad habits may be contributing to my "depression" and "anxiety" that have plagued me this last semester. I put quotes around these words to sort of label my feelings but not necessarily diagnose a super serious version of these things.
So, as a New Year's Resolution of sorts, I want to commit to getting up early. And in doing that, to put my relationship with God and my health as 2 of my first priorities in my day. I get up, spend time with God (usually doing my Bible Study that is over the book of Galatians) and then do my workout for the day. I seem to be more motivated to get up when I know I am not working out right away. I get to drink my coffee and pre-workout formula, and just relax in God's Word in the quiet of my house! That kind of motivates me to get up!!
The key to making this a reality is to plan the night before. If I don't lay out my pre-workout formula, coffee, Bible Study, workout clothes, tennis shoes, workout dvds, and water bottle the night before, then chances are I'm not going to get up at 5:20 and dig around for those things.
I have to plan. I have to plan to succeed. And THAT is what I plan to do.

How do you start your mornings?

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