Updated Experience...
As an update, currently I am fighting the urge to fall asleep on the couch after already drinking two cups of coffee and a mocha. This is the final day of this week’s #IntentionalStep (read below for the post from a week ago explaining this week’s challenge). My goal was to make it out of bed by 6am every morning (2 hours earlier than my normal wake-up time). So Sunday night around 1:30am (I guess that’s actually Monday morning) I set my alarm for 5:45am. Monday the alarm seemed to come real quick, but nonetheless I woke up excited about the new challenge and was out of bed at 6:01am. Lindsey and I sat tiredly on the couch and sipped our coffee in our unusually quiet house and watched the sunrise out of our living room window. We enjoyed the silence and the time with each other. We talked together about how nice it was to have time in the morning and not wake up rushing to shower, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, feed Madison, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The next few days went about the same, woke up, enjoyed the morning then off to work.
Then Thursday hit...
The lack of sleep finally caught up to me! Thursday was not a good morning. Full confession, I didn’t make it out of bed till 6:30, but on the bright side, I did make it out of bed, which when my alarm went off at 5:45 was not something that I was sure was going to happen. Not one part of me wanted, nor looked forward, to getting out of bed. It was brutal. However, coffee was had, yawns were frequent, and the world continued to turn.
Interestingly, although I was more tired, I found myself to be more productive at work overall. Instead of taking most of the morning at work to wake up and then hit a groove of productivity, I found myself being able to jump right into my work and get more things done efficiently and earlier in the day. Normally when I show up at work I’ve only been awake for about an hour, but this past week by the time I woke up I had already been awake for 3 hours. I felt more in control of my day, more able to do with my time what I wanted to achieve, instead of constantly trying to catch up.
Maybe the biggest change was, that I began to think differently about work. More often than not I view myself by what I do. I find worth, value, and purpose through my work, but there is more to life than what you do. It is far too easy to be defined by what we do for a living. Inadvertenly we begin to live for work, instead of work for a living. The past week I noticed that I began to approach the day differently, work became only a piece of my day, not my day entirely. I was reminded, I am more than what I do.
Each morning I was presented with a fresh start, a new day to live differently. Each morning I sat and watched the darkness give way to the sunlight of a new morning. No matter what the previous day held, a brand new start was waiting for me the next morning. The familiar words of Lamentations 3 came to life in a new way,
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
This is the beauty of the gospel, everything made new, just like the beauty of a new morning.
Overall, it was a growing experience. It will be something I try to continue during the weekdays. But there is one thing I do know for certain...tomorrow, I’m waking up without an alarm.
Tomorrow I’ll post what I’m doing for next week’s #IntentionalStep. It’s definitely going to be more challenging and it’ll be a good one for you to join me in. Be sure to check it out.
#IntentionalStep - Early Rise
As I mentioned in my earlier post “Why My Life is Boring, and What I Plan to do About it,” this year I am strategically challenging myself to live differently in small ways and reject accidental living.
So this week’s #IntentionalStep is to be out of bed at 6:00am every morning. My wife, Lindsey and I generally don’t wake up most mornings till around 8am, so this will be a stretch starting 2 hours earlier than normal. The only purpose is to see what life is like starting the day 2 hours earlier, no other agenda. Should be exhausting, but a jolt to the normal routine.
I’ll be back at the end of the week to share in the experience. Join me this week and start your days 2 hours earlier and share your experience here.
As I mentioned in my earlier post “Why My Life is Boring, and What I Plan to do About it,” this year I am strategically challenging myself to live differently in small ways and reject accidental living.
So this week’s #IntentionalStep is to be out of bed at 6:00am every morning. My wife, Lindsey and I generally don’t wake up most mornings till around 8am (I know, I know we've got it pretty easy, especially since Madison generally out sleeps us most mornings as well...we're lucky!), so this will be a stretch starting 2 hours earlier than normal. The only purpose is to see what life is like starting the day 2 hours earlier, no other agenda. Should be exhausting, but a jolt to the normal routine.
I’ll be back at the end of the week to share in the experience. Join me this week and start your days 2 hours earlier and share your experience here.