Admitting is the first step, right?
My name is Joelle, and I am a lapsed morning person.
Pre-pandemic, I was the person who rose before the sun and hit the gym (or went for a run, or hopped into a 6am yoga class), just about every day of the week. Monday through Friday like clockwork, I was up and out to sweat at o’dark-thirty before the grind of the work day. I’d been doing that — my morning exercise habit and that same routine — basically since I got out of grad school and started working full-time. I lived in Washington, D.C. back then and was working on the Hill, and not long after I’d moved there, I realized that the professional working version of myself really, really didn’t enjoy going for a run after work. I felt like I was always forcing myself, and if I didn’t pack my gym clothes with me to bring to work, no workout was happening. If I forgot something (socks, or my running shoes) and had to stop back home to my apartment, it was game over. I was never going back out, unless it was to meet friends for dinner or happy hour. Not to sweat.
So, I started waking up earlier, and dragging my butt to the gym before work. And it kind of just stuck. That was 11 years ago, at this point.
But then, the pandemic. By April 2020, I no longer had a workout studio or gym to go to, and I was working remotely (like so many others, obviously), and quickly realized I didn’t necessarily need to keep getting up at 5am to workout before hurrying to shower and swipe on makeup and do all the things since I wasn’t commuting to the office. I could literally start my day in sweaty, just-worked-out shorts and a sports bra, or do that at-home workout in the middle of the day on a lunch break, and no one would be the wiser. It was like there were suddenly no rules.
And, because I’m nine years old, I soon began revenge bedtime procrastinating, aka staying up waaaaay past my usual bedtime (why? still not totally sure, although this article breaks the concept down a bit). [P.S. if you have insomnia, this article is helpful!] Long story short, I was too tired to get up at 5am even if I wanted to… so I stopped. For a while, I even fell out of the habit of working out first thing in the morning, under the guise of “Oh I can just fit in later!!” …. and I would, but it always felt like it was disrupting my whole day, and interrupting my ability to get in a flow at work. Work, which, I should point out, is a few steps away from my workout equipment and yoga mat.
This summer, I half-heartedly tried to get back into working out in the mornings, at least a bit more consistently, because I really just like starting my day off that way, and missed it (I actually like the early morning hours); it makes me feel calmer and more put together for the rest of the day, always has. But I didn’t commit fully to any sort of change, not really; I was still going to bed late, so waking up as early as I needed to to not then feel rushed, like I had to sit down to my computer immediately after the workout, was just not happening. Nothing like standing around in your sweaty workout clothes for hours because you have back to back calls, you know?
A couple of weeks ago, I had a moment where I realized that I was doing this to myself; I was perpetuating this cycle — no one was forcing me. I’d imprisoned myself in a routine I didn’t want, and really for no reason other than that I was unmotivated to genuinely commit to doing something about it (because with everything going on in the world, it’s felt difficult to muster motivation about much of anything). But it was within my power to change it, if I wanted to; most things are. Yes, we’re still mostly living the pandemic life around here — still working from home and still doing all my workouts there too — but that doesn’t have to mean I’m forever doomed to go to bed at 11:30pm and feel disheveled or rushed the next day. I didn’t have to be a former morning person; I could start to wake up earlier again — maybe not necessarily at 5am (because honestly, that wasn’t so fun back in regular times either), but 6am or 7am isn’t a ridiculous idea. It’s not impossible. It’s an easy thing to do really, compared to a lot else going on in the world, right? And just because I’ve had a habit for the last 18 months, doesn’t mean it has to continue. We ARE capable of changing, of breaking our habits, and doing something new. Or, something old, in my case.
My light bulb clicked on around the same time I saw that a book was coming out from the editor-in-chief of Women’s Health magazine, Liz Plosser, a woman who has long inspired me to be more consistent about owning my morning. The book she wrote is literally called Own Your Morning, and is about… yep, being a morning person, and resetting your morning routine. (She is definitely not a lapsed morning person.) I bought it, mainly because I wanted to support Liz, and didn’t necessarily expect it to tell me too much I didn’t already know, but I’m glad I did! It kind of reads like a magazine, with interesting factoids and personal essays, but best of all, it’s been the extra kick I needed to really commit to creating a new and improved morning routine.
These last two weeks I’ve committed to waking up 15-30 minutes earlier, and trying to get into bed before 11pm. It may not seem like a lot — baby steps — but that’s intentional, because I want it to stick. I’m trying not to hit ‘snooze’ and to get to my workout soon after my eyes open (because sweating in the a.m. is how I personally define a good morning). And so far, it’s working! Come nighttime, I’m definitely sleepier a little earlier than usual, but I’m proud of making this change… Frankly I’m happy to cling to any tiny victory I can get my hands on, and that 100% includes being in my bed at 10:59pm, and able to have coffee before my first meeting.
Apparently this is 35. It’s very glamorous, I know.
Anyways, they say it takes 3 weeks to form a habit, so guess we’ll see how well I’m doing by next Friday. 😜
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Enjoy your weekend, friends! Thank you for reading, as always, and let me know: are you a lapsed morning person? A never-been morning person? Have you found it easy/difficult to stick to a routine since we’ve been in this weird upside down?
Sending you all the YAYs,
Joelle
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