Trying to be a Lark

Last summer, I stayed up until around 4AM every night. I loved it. Every morning I'd roll out of bed around noon or one - I was only working evenings, had no commitments and could therefore do whatever I wanted. Staying up late holds a certain magic for me - whiling away the hours reading, catching up on TV, or reading blogs is really one of my favourite things to do and it's even better at 3AM. However, this summer I'm working fulltime and obviously, 4AM bedtimes just wouldn't cut it.

I naturally started going to bed earlier because working 12 hour days is exhausting. I noticed that on the nights I got any less than 7 hours of sleep, I'd hit snooze, drag myself out of bed only to lie on the sofa downstairs. However, if I got seven hours, I would be awake and alert in the morning: ready to go and feeling motivated. I also realized that on the weekends when I slept in until 11 or 12, I was just as exhausted and got absolutely nothing done in the day.

Then, some blog and book reading inspired me. What the Most Successful People do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam talked about people's morning priorities and how easy it is to get things done in the early morning. According to research, self control is easier in the morning because restraint is actually susceptible to overuse. By the end of the day, you've stuck to your diet, worked hard, etc...and you're just ready to give in and eat that entire cake. In the morning, you can wake up and tell yourself to exercise or write a blog post - and it will be easier.

After reading this, I decided to make over my mornings. I never get anything real done; I just go through my routine, get myself ready, and head out the door. I'm going to use my mornings to wake up and work to achieve my goals! I'm still working on what those goals are, but for now I have the following:

• Get really good at crosswords - I'm going to do the newspaper crossword every morning.
• Learn how to cook breakfast - Right now I can do cereal. Lots of room for improvement.
• Read the classics - I've never loved classic books, but I want to. 20 minutes of reading them every morning might help.
• Keep a journal - I had a few consistent months of journal-writing last year but I've fallen out of it. The morning will be a great time!
• Continue to grow this blog - The morning provides a good time to sit down and write a post, as well as do research on how to be successful.

I'd love to hear about your mornings and how they help you reach for your dreams.