Do you REALLY want it?

Let me tell you - I absolutely hate getting up in the mornings.

Ok - let me rephrase that. I am not a morning person and while when I do get up early and accomplish things I feel fantastic, I will make every excuse possible to delay getting out of bed. Even if it means doing my makeup in the parking lot at work, not packing my lunch, and/or being late. I know - terrible. I've always said I have an unhealthy relationship with my bed - I don't want to leave it.

But because I know that kind of laziness does not equal productivity and definitely not what successful people do, I've been trying to change this so I can grow and accomplish more!

I've done so so many challenges & life hacks for waking up early. I feel like I have 150 alarms set (ok, maybe more like 8) because I will normally sleep through at least one. I've tried setting my phone on the other side of the room. All the tricks. I've tried accountability challenges. One of the most enjoyable was the Early to Rise Challenge that I did through Money Saving Mom. {She has a fantastic blog (and it's not just for moms)!} I really enjoyed the book "The Early To Rise Experience" by Andy Traub. It's a great read and I can say I did learn so much from this book!

But it didn't last.

I tried getting up and going for a walk through my subdivision this summer - which was amazing the times I got to do it - until a sprained my ankle.

So I tried an accountability partner. We would message encouraging quotes or affirmations to take on the day and I even starting waking up earlier than planned and even before my alarm! I found that when I had something look forward to or so my partner didn't think I was failing, I did a flawless job at waking up. But unfortunately, she was unable to continue waking up early, so I fell right back to sleeping in again.

Then I heard about the #last90dayschallenge with Rachel Hollis. First of all - I love her and her spirit (seriously - clink her name and watch her video. Talk about inspiration and motivation). Especially  She is an amazing woman of God and I love her how raw she is in her business and life. So here is her "5 to Thrive" for the Last 90 days challenge. Do you see #1? 

"Get up an hour earlier than you normally do and use the time for YOURSELF."

Well, since I hardly get up in enough time to just get ready, I didn't even know what time I would need to get up to spend time for just myself. So I didn't even try to think about that one because I told myself since I couldn't even get up in enough time to really get ready for the day, there was no way I would get up an hour earlier than that because that would be like 5am?! Nope.
The guys I work with know I'm doing this challenge as I tote around my ginormous water bottle trying to get in #3 - "Drink half of your body weight in ounces of water each day" and they joke that I'm doing the "3 to survive". Because I've been the most consistent with #2, then #3, and #5.

Then came my epiphany.

So for Halloween this year, I took on a character I had been wanting to be for a long time - Elphaba from Wicked! You can check out my transformation on my instagram here - blog post on all of the details of getting ready coming soon.
After a practice run of my makeup, I counted back to be at work by 8am, I would need to be up and getting ready (not just waking up) by 5am. You know I needn't even try to talk myself out of that? I even backed it up by 15 minutes! I was so excited about this character and I knew to make it perfect I had to do this at this time. I woke up on time, I jumped out of bed within 5 minutes of my alarm going off and got to work on getting ready.
 It hit me driving to work the next day - when I slept in like usual - that getting up early has everything to do with how bad I really want the results of getting up early and not that I just can't do it or I'm "not a morning person".
I need to adjust my mindset - like I did Halloween morning to get ready - to focus on what I want my morning routine to look like and be excited about those things I need or want to get done for day instead of choosing my bed - and laziness!

 It is less than 60 days until the end of the year, and I plan to create this habit so I can really kickstart the new year and take on some big goals I have set for myself!

Keep checking back for an update!