How to wake up on the right side of the bed.
Mel Graff
“My future starts when I wake up in the morning.”
Ah, yes, the windy city that is Chicago, Il. There have been more days than not where I wake up and hear the howling wind and see the icey grey sky. I think about the work ahead of me in the day, that big meeting I need to stand up and talk at (agh...).
My initial reaction: "Wow, this sucks. I do NOT want to get up."
... Okay, so, what if I don't get up today? I could take a day off of work, snuggle in my super cozy comforter (I call it the cloud), catch up on some online shopping. Sounds good to me. Done. The day could go by and I do all of those things and then I go to bed and wake up once again. My alarm is coupled with a brutal howl. The people outside look miserable. It happens again, that internal battle. The struggle that makes every morning so unbearable.
That does not sound very appealing. That doesn't sound like fun. That does not sound like a good way to start every day for the rest of my life. So, because it is that simple, I am simply not going to do that. I am going to wake up on the right side of the bed. I am going to start every day being happy that the day has begun. There are ten things [really a few more, but ten seems like an appealing number on a list] that I do every morning, that I look forward to doing every morning:
10. Feet on the floor when the alarm goes off.
Snoozing the alarm ten times is not only pointless because I am already up, but it also adds about 20 minutes of me thinking about how much I don't want to get up, so when i do, I am already resentful.
9. Wash my hands, wash my face, brush my hair, brush my teeth.
So fresh n so clean. Plus, it is easier to get ready when I immediately feel better than I did 30 seconds ago with a bird's nest hair-do and a puffy, tired face.
8. Listen to music.
Turning on the jams calms me down & gets me thinking happy thoughts while I get ready vs. my mind running all over the place with all of the day's stresses that are to come.
7. Open my window shades.
LET THERE BE LIGHT! But really, even when I get up at 5:30 am and it is dark and cold, I am opening the shades to acknowledge the fact that there is an outside world out there, and I am ready for it!!
6. Make my bed.
It ends any chance of me crawling back into it. It also makes the room look clean & organized. [And it makes it THAT much better when I crawl into a nice clean bed at the end of the day]
5. Sit on my made bed, catch up on emails or light reading.
Knowing what I have ahead of me in the day helps, it gets me thinking. I also do a little bit of external reading, ya know, for that elevator chat once I get into the office.
4. Look presentable, smell presentable.
That's not saying that I need to straighten my hair or put on globs of makeup everyday, but I do what I gotta do to look like I give an F about myself and what I am representing.
3. Drink some water, eat breakfast.
Water is good for me, it is necessary for survival. I eat some breakfast, even if it is a yogurt with some fruit, because I like to start the day off with some protein & I also like to avoid the stomach grumbles at my 10 am meetings.
2. Look at my calendar, check my bag.
Gut check to make sure I A) know where I am going and at what time and B) have everything I need for the AWESOME DAY ahead of me.
1. Take one last look in a full length mirror.
Bam. I am proud of myself for where I am. Every morning I get up proves that I can do anything the day brings at me.
We all have those lazy days, I am victim to many. But when it comes down to it, who I am is defined by who I am at all hours of the day and night. I want to be happy, successful, healthy - and I do that by getting up in the morning on the right side of the bed.