Is Your Mind Making it Hard for You To Wake Up Early?
May 29, 2020
This is a story of NOT waking up at 5:00 am
Last night: “It’s not that I can’t wake up at 5:00 am, it’s that I’m not sure If I’m going to.” I said to Marco.
I had just watched Marie Forleo’s episode with Robin Sharma (he wrote “The 5 AM Club”) and felt inspired, remembering the days I used to wake up at 5:00 am and the magic that is truly in that hour.
But then my alarm went off this morning and thoughts ensued…
What was I thinking?
What’s so “MAGIC” about this?
I’m tired.
Sleep is so nice.
You’re going to get sick if you wake up this early.
Just 5 more minutes.
Maybe 5:30?
Maybe 5:45?
Maybe 6:00 will be just as magic.
Let’s call this “Confusion.”
It happens to us A LOT.
Something lights us up, deep down in our gut. Let’s call that SPARK “Intuition.”
It resonates deeply. We see the good in it.
But then Confusion shows up. She talks us out of anything that feels hard. She justifies not doing the thing that lit a spark.
So here’s my question for us: Who do we like following more? Confusion? Or Intuition?
Do we like the result of HEARING and KNOWING what would be good (Intuition), and then not doing it because Confusion showed up to talk us out of it?
Or would we like to hear what is good, decide what to do, and then do it?
What would it be like for us if we just decided? If we made a decision in advance to do what lit us up and then did those things. We did not entertain Confusion at all.
I think life would get pretty powerful.
Try it: Pay attention this week to Intuition (lights you up) and Confusion (talks you out of what lit you up). No judgement. Just notice and observe.
I did, by the way, finally get up at 5:45 am.
And I did, by the way, have a fantastic morning. I’m writing to you within that fantastic morning.
How my magic morning ended up going (ooo, I like the sound of “magic morning” – that’s gonna stick).
5:45 finally get out of bed
5:50 make coffee
6:00 sit at desk with coffee, read Jesus Calling devotional, write in journal (such a great entry full of reflection), and read John 1-2 in the Bible (doing a study right now with friends)
6:45 start writing this newsletter on my laptop while full of inspiration (I got excited to talk with you!)
My brain: This is great. Let’s do this again tomorrow.
Intuition: See! I told you… Listen to me…!
Note to self: Your intuition is awesome and wants you to live your best possible life. Just listen to her and drop “confusion.”
Confusion just wants to keep you from what’s good.
I wrote another post on how to bypass your mind/confusion and get up anyway here. I’ve been successfully waking up early since writing this post and I can say: my Intuition was so right – it’s been great!
This post on first appeared as an email newsletter. To get my newsletters straight to your inbox (always encouraging) enter your name/email into the form at the bottom of this post.