Morning Change

I am not, repeat not, a morning person. For decades, I have loved sleep more than most things in life and have allowed that attitude to rule my accomplishments. For most of my life, I have longed to stay up into the wee hours and hug the pillow as long as possible. I have loved late-night television and old movies that stretch well past midnight.

Some contributing factors to my sleep patterns were things beyond my control. I worked on the afternoon shift for many years, often with my quitting times after midnight being a significant factor. Those situations only served to drive my natural tendencies deeper into my psyche. Whether it was pizza making, factory maintenance, the pickle plant, or driving a truck- when you got home late and unwound for a few minutes, it wasn't easy to be bright and cheery immediately after the sun rose.  

Fast forward an entire lifetime to a few of years ago. While writing my first book, I read tons. Everything from historical fiction to self-help authors. I was devouring a book or two a week. In the myriad of pages, I discovered that I was the only one responsible for me. Until then, I had brushed against the concept and even had thought I agreed with it— in principle, anyway. Yet, the mere intellectual nod toward a particular idea does not mean you have trusted the concept or adopted the resulting life changes into your lifestyle.

New beliefs require a change of heart, it is said— by someone. I know genuine change is more profound. The people who live near me notice how I interact with my world. Those friends get to see and experience how I act in different situations. The things I say under duress, how I handle conflict, and the areas where I am selfish and broken. The closer the connection, the better we know. So, they must notice a genuine "change of heart" for it to be authentic. The motive for that type of change lies deep inside us, in the place where what we value is located.

This is why developing a new habit takes a minimum of sixty-six days for it to be a genuine rewiring. During those sixty-six days we have to act like we are different, using the force of will to rewire things under our hood,so to speak. We will find that acting will help change how we talk to ourselves and others around us. However, the key to life change is located below what we believe and say. One vital element in any significant change is to excavate the graveyard of what we value and then evaluate those morsels in the light of truth. Truth that is objective not subjective. This is difficult. We must compare what we value to what we say we want. The devil is in that detail— because we always return to doing what we value, like sleeping in late.  

Deep, personal levels of change flourish when someone who cares about you comes alongside you to help in the quest.

Now, my alarm is set for 5:30 and I’m good with it.

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