I had a little bit of trouble waking up this morning. I think of myself as a morning person, and in general I am, but the truth is, these days are happening more and more often. I talk about myself as if I still bounce out of bed every morning at 7am and immediately start work, but if I take a cold, hard look at my behavior, that’s no longer true.
When I was an undergraduate, and for much of graduate school (exceptions being when I was too in love to stick to a schedule), I did get out of bed early and followed a fairly rigid pattern. I always thought that as I got older, this would not only remain true, but become more so. In fact, the opposite has happened. Life has become less structured, more chaotic, less predictable. And I’m tired more often! I wouldn’t go back for ANYthing, my goodness, the wisdom and perspective are more than worth the tiredness, but I struggle with it. I think in my ideal day, I’d know what I was doing in advance and I’d do it.
For example:
7am-8am yoga
8am-9am get ready for work
9am-5pm work, no unexpected breaks or meetings, all meetings predictable, all work scheduled in its allotted time slot
etc.
This is how I ran my life during the busiest parts of undergrad. Now, tasks never fit in their allotted time, I’m too tired to exercise in the morning (although I exercise nearly every day, sometimes more than once a day, which is such a blessing) and unexpected things and people are ALWAYS happening!
And more significantly, to me, although everything gets done, when I impose a structure on myself I can’t stick to it. It’s like I’ve gotten sassy with myself now that I know that I CAN and still survive and thrive in my business and personal life. Certainly not the direction I expected to go!
