Ask my family…ask my friends…ask my coworkers…ask anybody who remotely knows me…I am not and never have been known as a “Morning Person.”
Childhood Mornings
For as long as I can remember, mornings have always been a struggle. My earliest memories consist of my mother flipping the light switch on-and-off to wake me up for school. Bundle that with her clapping and singing This Is The Day (#baptistKid)…mornings were not a favorite at the Parrish household, to put it lightly. But, the woman had to do what she had to do.
Mom, if you’re reading this, I love you, and I’m sorry.
College Mornings
Fast forward to college, and you’ll find me registering for courses as soon as humanly possible to nab those non-8 A.M. classes, which worked in my favor most of the time. However, I remember not being so lucky with one of my required courses, called Identity Design.
Now, for a budding graphic design major, Identity Design was the class you must do well in, but, of course, was taught by the most strict professor who had zero tolerance for late-comers. If you arrived to class at 8:01 A.M., you were locked out of the room, left with an F for participation, and an S for shame.
To avoid impacting my grades, I asked a classmate to wake me up each morning with a text or call. To me and my G.P.A.’s avail, this tactic worked. But boy, would I have loved knowing about The Miracle Morning as a college student.
Twenty-Something Mornings
I got lucky. My first couple of jobs out of college were with companies with relatively lax arrival times. Leaning hard into the “creative” stereotype, I was never the person who arrived to work early.
But let’s talk about actually waking up for work. Utilizing my expert-level skills at snoozing, I let myself stay in bed for as long as humanely possible…down to the second. Although efficient, it was never sufficient. (See what I did there.)
Rushing through the mornings, and often leaving the house in a sweaty-tizzy (thanks, Texas), I arrived to work already stressed-out. I viewed waking up as a chore that got me one step closer to bedtime that night. How sad is that?! My primary motivation to pry myself out of bed each morning was to focus on getting the day over with and returning back to bed.
Inspired by my strong love for sleep, I created this collection which includes a cute little throw pillow (and more comfy options!) which you can purchase from on my Society 6 shop – Check it out!
Quarantine-Mornings
Once working from home became a reality, I was thrilled about the extra sleep I was going to start receiving! Removing the commute AND the rigamarole of making myself presentable for work yielded an extra 2-3 hours in each day! Whaddup, sleep-in central! And, yes–the first couple of weeks with extra sleep was, indeed, beautiful. However, week after week of this new sleep cycle had me feeling down in the dumps. Extremely uninspired and unmotivated. The late nights mixed with the late mornings were, unbeknownst to me, slowly affecting my mental health.
Wait…Oversleeping is a thing?
It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it!? You can’t fall asleep at night because of the nerves and uncertainties in the news, but you also need more sleep than ever since it impacts your mood the next day. Many studies have been done on sleep and dreams, which I have always found fascinating. Sleep psychologist Michelle Drerup, PsyD, DBSM, says that “If someone’s oversleeping, they may wake up and feel like they’ve missed out on the day…they feel like they’re behind and they don’t have the ability to get done the things they wanted.” Sound familiar?
Everything you do, you’ll do better with a good night’s sleep.
Ariana Huffington
Miracle Mornings
As someone who loves sleep so so much, the most groundbreaking tip I gleaned from reading Hal Elrod’s, The Miracle Morning, was the portion on changing your mindset towards mornings. And, here’s the thing–it all starts with the intentions you set the night before!
“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days—which inevitably create a successful life—in the same way, that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life.” –Hal Elrod
In other words, by allowing yourself to sleep in, you are forfeiting hours you could be spending leveling up your quality of life!
It sounds so obvious when you read it, but the trick is actually living out what you learn, right? That, my friends, is the key! I know Hal Elrod is not necessarily writing earth-shattering news here…we all know that “early birds get the worm”, and being productive is important, but the differentiator is about the strategy he imparts on the reader to take action. Knowledge is obsolete without ACTION.
Kelcy’s Considerations
“Whether you currently consider yourself to be a ‘morning person’ or not, you’re going to learn how to make waking up every day easier than it’s ever been before”
–Hal Elrod
Are you ready to give The Miracle Morning a try?* Or are you hesitant to commit to something so lofty? Spoiler: There’s a lot more to it than just waking up early, but I’ll get to that later. Also, you don’t have to do it in the morning, that is just what works best for most individuals.
Maybe try easing into it. Start with waking up just 30 minutes earlier than usual. See some tips below! 👇🏼
Here are 5 Simple Steps To Wake Up Early:
- Set Your Intention the Night Before. Trick your mind into thinking something really really incredible is going to happen the next day. And believe it. Hal often compares it to that excitement of looking forward to Christmas Morning (which I love.)
- Get Out of Bed To Turn Off Your Alarm Clock. (Motion creates energy!)
- Brush Your Teeth. (*Use Listerine to add extra oomph!)
- Drink a Glass of Water. (You just went 6+ hours without water! Hydrate yourself!)
- Get Dressed. I recommend throwing on workout clothes to help motivate yourself to get that exercise done before your day starts!
Consider these simple changes to your bedtime and morning routine and let me know in the comments (or on Instagram) if your morning productivity increases.
*Disclaimer: I am in no way receiving compensation by promoting this book even though it may sound like it. That’s just how much I believe in the strategy! It worked for me and thousands of others – don’t you think it could work on you, too?
Next post, I’ll touch on the benefits that have revealed themselves to me (in just 3 months!) by dedicating a chunk of time a day to personal development. I’ll also start diving into TMM strategy of S.A.V.E.R.S.
Stay tuned!
X – Kelcy
