Thankful For: Early Mornings

Hello Wednesday!

I’m normally thankful that Wednesdays are the official halfway-to-the-weekend mark, but today I want to take a step back and share something else that I am thankful for (although I am even happier today since it's kind of like a Friday, with tomorrow being a holiday and all!). Since this week is Thanksgiving - and I am now counting down the hours to one of my favorite meals of the year - I am sharing one thing I am thankful for each day. So far I have shared my deep appreciation for opportunity and stability, and today I am sharing my appreciation for being a morning person.

I know, I know, that sounds like such a crazy thing to be thankful for – but you have no idea how my natural love for the wee-hours (and I do mean wee hours) has helped me grow my business while also working a full time job.

I’ve always naturally gotten up early and gone to bed early. I think I got that from my dad, who is a fisherman by hobby and wakes up with the tides (and dawn) on the weekends during the summer. My body has one of those internal clocks where it doesn’t matter where I am; I wake up early and then at the end of the day, when it’s time to go to bed, it is time to go to bed (as in, I will fall asleep wherever I am). I think once, as a child, I fell asleep with a pretzel in my mouth, half eaten, because it was past my bedtime and my body decided it was time to go to bed. Like I said, when my body wants to sleep, it sleeps.

Looking back on high school and college, I think I can credit my staying out of trouble to my sleep habits.  While my friends were out causing trouble having fun, I was most likely already headed home to go to sleep. At the time, I felt like I was missing out on a lot of what my peers were doing, but I look back now and am thankful I never had too much fun (you know, the type of fun where you get one phone call at 3am to mom and dad). 

In high-school being a morning person was weird. As an adult, being a morning person is awesome.

For a good portion of my life I felt like being a morning person was a curse, but it wasn’t until a few months ago that I realized how much of a blessing it can be. Yes, I fall asleep on the sofa at 8:30pm (like clockwork), but I always get 8 hours of sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and ready for a productive morning. In case you’re curious, I naturally (no alarm needed) wake up between 4am-4:30am, and fall asleep around 8:30-9:00pm. Every morning I (try to) work out, design, have coffee, and catch up on emails before heading to my full-time job. It’s great to be able to cross a variety of things of my “list” before the day really starts, and I am thankful that this comes so naturally to me. Also, by doing so much in the morning, I am able to minimize the amount of time I spend working at the end of my day, which allows me to enjoy dinner and some TV with my husband at night. While so many people are burning the midnight oil - getting up so early gives me an excuse to go to bed early - and if I ever do need to sleep in (say, til 5:30am) I am able to do that without seriously delaying any of my day. Pretty awesome, right?

Tonight I do plan on staying up past my bedtime (I mean, it’s Thanksgiving Eve!), as my husband and I have a lot of exciting personal things going on (no, not expecting a baby. Yes, I know you were thinking it) that we're preparing for. But trust me, I'll be up early tomorrow morning!

I'm curious about all of you - are you a morning person or a night person?

Sincerely,