Before 6 am and the reality of changing a lifestyle

I have been a night owl since I can remember. Even when younger, I absolutely loved staying up late, linger around my room and just be. And ‘lingering’ meant getting stuff done, I’d sometimes re-orient the furniture in my room, by myself, at the the age of 12 – all during the late evening hours. I appreciated the quiet when everyone else was sleeping. It was my absolute favorite thing and I was able to pull it off quiet long growing up actually, definitely through high school and university (because who needs sleep anyhow) and even when I started working, I ended up in the late(r) shifts- that no one wanted to work- because they had a different lifestyle.

But times change, people grow and starting to work in management, I learned it is frowned upon to get to work at 10am. It’s reviewed as not being on top of things, or as lollygagging. And that really is too bad. I’m pretty confident to know I can influence change, but I also have enough perspective to know that I won’t be the one changing the face of the hospitality industry anytime soon.  

So the day came, I needed to change this lifestyle up, and I did. Though I am absolutely convinced that the reason I started getting Botox injections in my mid-twenties was because I frowned so much while getting up early that I formed pre-mature wrinkles on my forehead, I disliked it just so much. (#RealTalk)

Only a couple month ago I started to make peace with this change in lifestyle, after realizing that after all those years; that A) I have got to stop frowning so much and B) you have to make the best out of every situation. Let’s go! 

Here is how I did it: 

1. Find your reason why

It’s like with everything else in life, find your why and you’ll find a way! As you may think my why was keeping up my perception of being a good working manager in the hospitality industry it was actually the fact that I wanted to get back in the gym and the only way I could was by making it there, well, before 6am! 

2. Plan ahead and do the legwork 

Bottom line is that if I do not prep my gym bag the night before, I will probably not going to be able to get up just early enough to do it in the morning. You have to take time to plan ahead and do it the night before. If you can remove your make up, you also can pack your gym bag. 

But doing the legwork of changing a lifestyle from night owl to early riser-ish, also means that you need to get to bed earlier. 5:00am comes around the corner real fast if you just fell asleep at 1:30am. If you can’t fall asleep earlier then try some night-time sleep tea (obviously you already know to stay away from over-the-counter-or-otherwise sleep aids; they are really tough to get off of, stick to the naturals), after a few days getting up early you’ll surely be a lot more tired at night naturally. 

3. Do it and stick with it for a week; then review and reconsider 

You want to get up at 5:00am to hit the gym before 6? When that alarm goes off, just get up. I snooze sometimes; I really try not to though. Just get up and do it. Do it for one week and I promise you it’ll be easier day by day. 

And?

After a few days, the amazing things start to happen, like, I really love getting my workout done in the AM. It makes me feel so accomplished. In fact it makes me feel so accomplished that when I get to work at 8:30am my day is so much better already. Checking a task off the list. 

Though, if you’ve done it for a week and you don’t love it, don’t be afraid to cut it back out and file it under ‘been there-done that’. No regrets. That’s what reconsideration is for. 
Thank you so much for reading and stay motivated!