What little things mean the most?
Let’s face it, mornings generally suck.
The typical morning for me is waking up later than I planned to (generally because the snooze button is way too easy to press) and waddling down the stairs half alive wishing that time would magically stand still so I can return to my nice warm bed for a few more hours. As I sip my coffee and as the anxiety of the day builds I attempt to jump start my brain because the day is going to start weather I like it or not. So I munch on my granola, gulp my coffee and wait. I wait for my body to wake up, I wait for the coffee to kick in, I wait until I figure out what to do next… I wait because I want to feel ready before I start.
As I write this post it’s 5:07 am and my mind is telling me “close the laptop, your creativity has not woken up yet, you can do it later, wait”
What I have found is that taking action ALWAYS helps (oh, and it’s ALWAYS hard). You can always wait, most people do. It’s easy to wait, the problem is that the waiting never ends, you never take action and inaction breeds more inaction. Instead you need to ACT and you need to start NOW.
One thing I’ve started doing in the morning is emptying the dishwasher when I get up. Why the dishwasher?
- It’s relatively easy to do
- It gives me instant gratification
- It’s means a lot to my wife
That last point is the key. While the other things are great and are reasons by themselves to do it, the last one is the one that pushes me to do it those mornings that my mind tells me “you can skip today”. I know that her morning routine is much harder than mine, she has two kids to get dressed, to feed and to entertain. The little things really add up, and any little bit counts. It helps her mornings suck just a little less.
