Foggy Morn

I can't even see the river in this fog. And it's freezing. I'm not really liking the freezing of this past week. It's been hard to get up early in the cold. I wake up throw off the covers . . . and then climb back into the fuzzy sheets as fast as I can lest I turn blue! Except for this morning. Last night I set an alarm. Because I was up late, until 12:30 and then I read for nearly an hour. But I didn't want to sleep the usual 7 or 8 and get up around 9, I wanted to make sure I hit the floor running at 6. Cuz I'm a busy girl and I've got a lot on the go. And not sleeping at all, no longer seems to be an option in my bag of tricks.

So I set the alarm. And even this isn't necessarily a guarantee of anything. I mean Snooze Buttons happen. Sometimes in my sleepy stupor, the whole thing gets turned off and reset for the next day while I'm still mostly in a dream. This morning I didn't want to take any chances, so I followed a plan I'd read about, designed to get you out of bed and raring to go for a great day in under 10 minutes. If repeated daily, my body will be trained to wake at 6am all on it's own and rise excited by the possibilities. I had read about this technique before I actually evolved into a morning person, because anybody can use it to train themselves to be a morning person, and that's what I intended to do.

Anyway, so last night I decided to give it a go. The whole thing only took 7 minutes to complete this morning, but I was a little draggy, it should probably only take about 4 minutes once I've got it memorized and I've developed the habit. Here's the routine:

1. Set your clock for time. Be honest with yourself, use the real time, not 10 minutes either way. Trust yourself to get up on time when you need to.

2. Check the clock to make sure it's set properly for time and set an alarm time. As long as you're not working shift-work, this time should never change, not even on the weekends. Mine is 6am.

3. Place the clock in one spot. I have mine on the shelf beside the bed. It is within arms reach but I have to rise up to hit it. You keep your clock in the same place all the time, it's part of building the habit.

4. When the alarm goes off in the morning, roll over, swing your legs over the side of the bed, sit up and turn the clock off. Resist any urge to lay back down, no matter how cold or tired you are! Once you get up, you'll be fine, and a few more minutes sleep or another hour isn't going to make any difference now, it'll just make you groggier.

5. Clap your hands and say, "I'm having a great day!" Remember when you were a kid on Christmas morning, how excited you'd be to wake up, how excited you'd be about the possibilities the day held for you, well, every day holds great possibilities, so get excited! "I'm having a great day!"

6. Now take a deep breath in through your nose, filling your chest, and exhale through your mouth as you rise to your feet and walk with confidence to your bathroom. Don't drag your feet. Don't mumble and grumble. Stride with confidence! Because you're having a great day!

7. Splash your face with water. (I actually pee first, because I have to, so that's okay too I think.) I don't do the splash, or I didn't this morning at least, I used a facecloth and washed my face. I'm not big on the whole splash thing. But it's up to you. Get some water on your face!

8. Brush your teeth. It's simple, should be part of your regular routine anyway. And nothing says get up and go like a clean mouth.

9. Look in the mirror and smile at yourself. Smile! You can do it! I did.

10. Say: "The day is mine!" And if you've done it all, if you've followed the steps to the letter, by the time you get to this one, you can't help but believe it!

So, this is what I did this morning. And what I'm going to do tomorrow morning. And the morning after that. And so on and so on . . . This is good stuff! Last night when I devised this plan I could not have imagined just how sleepy I'd be this morning, just how much I would want to dive back under the covers. But I didn't. I thought to myself, if someone was going to give me a million dollars to do this thing this morning would I go back to bed or would I go through with it? Of course I'd go through with it! The early bird gets the worm. The new me is a morning person. Early birds and morning people make millions of dollars. It's a no-brainer.

And suddenly some of the fog burns off and I can once again see Chatham Head if not anything above the Frank McKenna Bridge. I'm having a great day!

Mood: excellent
Drinking: i've become rather boring with my water, but it's too early for merlot
Listening To: my fingers clipping over the keyboard anxious to tell you my secrets and share my ideas
Hair: a little flat