The Confines We Put On Ourselves

Well, there’s no way I could do all of that in the morning and be at my desk by 9:00. I need to journal. I need to have a cup of coffee. I need to take the dog out. I need to eat before I work out. If I work out in the morning I can’t have a cup of coffee before hand. If I journal and take the dog out I won’t have time to work out. If I don’t journal then I am out of whack. If I don’t work out I get cranky and tired but if I work out in the morning I can’t have my cup of coffee but when I wait until the afternoon by the time it’s time to work out I’m over it and tired and hungry and there’s just no way this all can get done and none of it sounds fun.”

Right. What that does sound like? Totally annoying.

If there’s one thing you can count on me for, it’s to know that I am aware when I am being annoying. Now, that doesn’t necessarily STOP be from being annoying, but aware I am.

As that inner dialogue raced through my head a few weeks ago, I got fully annoyed. Then I got fully curious. I thought wait: are all these of parameters I’ve placed on why and why not I can get stuff done in the morning actually true?

How long will this stuff take me?

Is there a new way to look at it all?

I grabbed a post it note. I wrote down the timing of activities. For once in my life I wrote down the actual time and not my hoped for time (which is on average 30 minutes to two months shorter than what it time it really takes). Sure enough. If I woke up at 6:00 (not hard) I could journal, have coffee, workout, take the dog out, eat a little something, and still have my BIC in my office by 9:00. THIS IS DOABLE.

And now, IT HAS BEEN DONE. For a month.

Now you’re not going to hear me spout off about morning routines and cold plunges and mediating and drinking your AG1 and staring at the sun and breath work and WIN THE MORNING WITH THE DAY YOU DON’T HAVE TO YOU GET TO nonsense. (To be fair, it’s not ALL nonsense.) To be fair, I also did just share my morning ritual as it were.😉 #aware

I’m not here to tell you what your ritual should be. I’m here to tell you maybe there’s a new way to look at some of the confines, parameters, rules you’ve put on certain things that perhaps aren’t true. Like me with my initial thought pattern that I’ve held on to for YEARS: that I can’t get all that I am currently doing in the morning now, done.

Maybe you’re inadvertently fighting things that don’t need to be a fight: I CAN’T WORK OUT BECAUSE I NEED A CUP OF COFFEE. (I mean Erin, get a grip.)

That maybe a post it note, a pencil, and a reverse engineering of time can shine a whole lot of new light on a schedule, and on a whole new way of thinking.

Maybe your parameters sound like, “I’m not good in front of people.” “I don’t do well when I’m put on the spot.” “I don’t like being in group settings.” “I have to make sure this sounds eloquent.” (Just a few I heard from clients and friends this week.)

My awareness has lead me to realize that more than ever this summer, I need some grounding and connection with myself and with this earth. My awareness has also lead me to realize that I am Goldilocks and need the temperature to be just right and therefore I do not go outside from about 9 am until 7 pm in Florida from the months of June to September bc I melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.

So I took a minute. I asked, “What’s important? How can I make it work? What constructs am I holding on to that aren’t serving me?”

OK I asked the first two but the third sounded more like, “Erin where are you bullshitting yourself and what do you need to get over to make what you actually want to happen, happen?”

I wanted to be outside. I want to see the sunrises. I want to continue to get jacked* and healthy. I want to journal. I want to drink a cup of coffee in the morning and not have to microwave it 32432 times because I got distracted. I want to walk the dog and not be doing all of those things at the same time.

With that, I’ve declared this summer my summer of sunrises and sunsets. I get up, I walk to the beach, I watch the sunrise, I journal sipping on my mug of coffee. I come back, I work out, I take the dog out, I eat some grub, my butt is in my chair (BIC) by 9.

7 pm, or 8, or even sometimes 9 pm, I’m back on the beach. Walking sometimes. Sitting sometimes. Staring into the ocean sometimes. All of the above most times.

Are there benefits to all of those things, sure, ofc. What has really struck me and open up a portal of curiosity is where else…Where else have I put the rules, the parameters, the constructs, that are not helping me move forward, grow, and live an intentional life?

What might be different if I grabbed another post it note and changed some more stuff up?

What do YOU want? What rules do you have in place that might be broken? What stories do you have rockin’ in your head that can be re-written? Can you hear, look at, or see a construct you have on repeat and ask, “Is that true?”

I can’t believe how easy it all became once I let the un-true story go.

Maybe, in your situation, it won’t drop off so easily. Maybe it will.

I’d invite you to grab a post-it note and write what you want different, what you want to have happen. Reverse engineer it, writing what is true. See what you got…and run with it.

It’s not just about “winning the morning,” it’s about living a meaningful life on your terms. Awareness, jostling some thinking and habits around, and action…and you are taking ownership of your terms.

Talk soon,