Mornings and I haven’t seen much of each other for the better part of a decade. The only way I was getting up with the sun was to put in a round of 18 with my father and brothers at our favorite golf course. Living the 10 am to 3 am life had its perks, but that life has long passed. I’m still not an early riser by many standards, however, I’ve made the shift happen by using one simple trick: Be successful as soon as possible after waking.
Don’t Consume, Create!
There’s a plague silently befalling the modern connected world. It happens across the country each morning causing the loss of precious time to live: The Social Media scroll. Many mornings today start with a roll-over, checking the time on a phone, and then time-travel 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour into the future after falling into the black hole of social media. Then, starting the day after this mind-numbing, unbeneficial activity is slow, groggy, and probably rushed because your addiction to the scroll took your brain away from time-awareness and you’re late for everything. No wonder so many people hate mornings more than ever.
The only thing we should be consuming in the morning is breakfast, water, and coffee. Let’s use that coffee addiction to trick ourselves into better mornings. Many people are already queuing up their favorite morning excuse “I can’t do anything before I have my coffee.” Well, bullshit. If you’re that dependant on coffee to get moving in the morning, there are other areas of your life that need fixing, it’s not the coffee.
What can you do tomorrow morning that will take 5 minutes, maybe 10 minutes, that will earn you that coffee? Here’s a 7-minute workout ios app. Run for 5 minutes in one direction, turn around and come back. Meditate. Journal or work on a small article. Work on that side-project you’ve been dreaming of for years. Don’t play video games, don’t read, don’t watch television, stay away from social media. You need to produce something of meaning. Something that will help you to feel accomplished before that perfect caffeinated elixir touches your lips. After a few days of this, you’ll own your mornings rather than your morning coffee owning you.