I Am Not A Morning Person But I Want To Be

I woke up at 5:40 this morning (it's 11:10 Tuesday night as I write this).  That's about 3 hours earlier than every other day of the week. I meet with a friend for coffee on Tuesday mornings and we settled on an early time to get together. Out of this meeting time I've gained quite a bit of perspective on life, the future, God's sovereignty and will, the power of human choice and more. And I'm sure at some point a lot of what I'm learning from these early morning discussions will make it's way onto this blog but for now I want to discuss something else that I've noticed: Tuesday's are now my most productive days.

It's not even a competition. I get more done on Tuesday's now than I do on Monday and Wednesday combined. For example I had our entire High School youth ministry gathering planned, programmed and written by 9am. That's when I usually get to the church!

I got some reading done, did some detail and logistical work for our mission trip (those of you that know me will understand how amazing that last point is), hung out with some students, and managed to communicate with all of our volunteers.

After work I went to the hardware store, bought some needed supplies, and then applied a coat of varnish to the bar I've been restoring. After that we had our weekly college bible study.

It has been an incredibly full day and I feel great. I'm not even tired.

I wish everyday felt like today.

But here is what is going to happen, I'm going to hit the snooze button on my alarm in the morning because hey, yesterday was so darn successful that I've earned a few more minutes of sleep. And that will lead to a slow morning, which will only make my afternoon stressful.

There is so much about this routine that bothers me. The biggest issue is that day's like tomorrow are completely preventable: don't sleep in, get up and make stuff happen! But I know what my habits are and I know how much I love sleep. It's almost as if I convince myself that I can't get up early on a regular basis, 'I'm not a morning person' I say to myself.

I know it's a mental block, not a physical one.

My body isn't revolting, I don't feel lethargic, I've got energy and I've been up for almost 18 hours. It's a mental block and it is so stupid.

For those of you out there who have dealt with this sort of situation before, how did you change your habits? I'm not looking for a magic bullet here, just some real life stories that can serve as encouragement as I try and figure out what a healthy, long term solution is for my sleeping/waking routine.