Are you sick of dragging yourself out of bed every morning? Don’t feel alone, there are many of us who claim that they are night owls and work better at night (I was one of them), or that they can’t get quality sleep, so they wake up at ridiculously late hours and waste the better part of the day. And although developing healthy habits for sleeping better is important, there are more serious underlying reasons why for many it’s a struggle to get up. The great news is that we know the root cause and are offering some quick solutions to turn all that around.
Have you noticed how wonderful you feel whenever you wake up and you are planning to immerse yourself in something creative, productive, exciting and thinking big? Like when you manage an exciting project, write music, or coach to improve people’s lives. You feel invincible!! You can’t wait to jump out of bed in the morning and tackle what you are passionate about.
And then, when you go back into your “routine” environment, and you notice people being slow, have a “take it easy” attitude, and you see that most of them put in just enough effort to support a minimal survival living. When you’re in this environment, it’s easy to get caught in it and be affected. That’s when you start feeling unhappy, unsatisfied and confused, and you usually don’t know why. The reason is that it’s our innate calling to be productive and creative! Suddenly there is a big gap between doing what excites you and are passionate about, and the dissatisfaction you experience now from dealing with mediocrity; you feel unhappy when you are out of sync with your internal calling, your limitless self.
That’s when you fall into the “victim” attitude; you feel that others are mistreating you, they are not meeting their obligations, at which point you have moved from being cause to being effect and you are doomed because you just gave your control away! All you will be doing from then on is to continuously try to justify how right you are about being a victim, and you will continue to look for, and create ways to prove it! Of course all of these “proofs” are destructive; you will either get sick in proving that you are working too hard, or end up doing something stupid that will get you fired from your job, in order to “show them” that you are in the wrong job.
So what can you do to stay in a constant state of excitement, that will make you wake up every morning totally energized, and stay energized and productive all day? Here is my advice that addresses the root cause of this common problem, along with some solutions:
*Create and stay immersed in an environment that is conducive to bringing out the best in you, stay focused, and develop a morning routine that works for you*
Let me put some substance to the above statement in 4 easy steps:
1. First, you need to detach from all the toxic people in your life who are energy vampires, they don’t communicate, or when they do communicate, their message is intended to slow you down. This step alone, will remove the main barrier that keeps you suppressed and kills your spirit. Get rid of them in a loving way though; it’s important to use positive emotions, even when doing things that you don’t enjoy. Emotions are energy, and energy is what creates worlds.
2. Keep focused on doing the important things! – Look at your plan (you need to have one first) and start with the first step; then take on the next step, and so on… Don’t allow the well-meaning “friends” to get you sidetracked from your plan with suggestions that will confuse more than help you. Every night, before going to bed, review your goals and actions for the next day, and in the morning revisit them again.
3. Stay productive and passionate! The god in you wants you to be creative. Your natural strengths reflect what you are passionate about and what you enjoy; identify what you enjoy most and focus on doing that, and this will keep you in the flow and motivate you to create. Every night before going to sleep, while reviewing your goals, get excited about them by raising your creative energy, while visualizing as if they are happening already.
4. Come up with a morning routine that works for you; Personally, when I get up I don’t look at my emails nor the news until I have gone through my positive affirmations and give gratitude and love. I drink water with a squeeze of lemon to neutralize my PH and increase my energy, and exercise even it’s for a few minutes to get the metabolism going; and the easiest thing that takes only one minute, starts me off in a productive mode and gives me an early sense of accomplishment, is making up my bed!
Michael Sypsomos
Project Executive Coach and CEO
The Mentor Group