Packing for Adventure

I am inherently a night owl.

When I was a kid, my parents gave up on putting me to bed at bedtime – as long as I was quiet. I’d sneak behind the couch to watch David Letterman’s Top Ten. Despite the fact that I was too young to understand the vast majority of the punchlines, I was fascinated by the Top Ten list.

This habit of staying up late has lasted my whole life. I remember reading Harry Potter when each new book came out all hours of the night, finally going to bed at 4:00 AM and then waking up a few hours later to go to school.

For some reason, I was always tired at school…

As an adult this behavior has not aged well. I am NOT a morning person, but the kids expect morning snuggles and breakfast, and people at work keep adding me to meetings at ungodly hours despite the fact that I keep telling people I’m no good until 10:00 AM.

I have recently decided that if I wish to continue in my goal of continual progress, I will need to start waking up earlier than has been previously precedented.

For the last few weeks, me and my 5-year-old daughter have been waking up a half hour before work starts to jog an apple to the horse down the street. We’ve only done this for the last 3-4 weeks and I’ve noticed that because of my earlier start time, I’m getting more done at work and earlier than ever before.

I will likely never love the morning time, unless I am doing a hike. For some reason my hatred for morning dissipates if I am in nature. I may never wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and I doubt I’ll ever be the kind of person who is chipper for morning scrum. But I’m learning that waking up earlier creates a ripple effect of energy, focus, and even sweet moments with my daughter. While the night will always feel like home to me, I’m starting to see that mornings can hold their own kind of magic.

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