Do You Loose When You Snooze?

My wife often accuses me of being hyper and strange for getting up really early. This morning my alarm went off at 4 am so I could actually pick up one of our older teens that recently got her first ‘real’ job. This job is at Sky Harbor, Phoenix’s big airport, where she is on the morning shift. This equates to this individual having to be ready to leave so she catch the light rail around 5am. I know that most young adults struggle with getting up in the morning.

I was taught by my mom to be an early bird understanding that it was more likely that I would get a jump on the day and be able to accomplish more and not sleep my life away! She would always be up at dawn with her cup of coffee and cig. This habit became totally reinforced when I was in college with doing an early morning paper route with my wife. This required us to be up around 2:30am and we would finish around 5-5:30 am everyday. We would usually get an inexpensive breakfast at Farley’s a local hangout for many old timers and college students.

The birth of our first child saw this early habit continue because our Heather would get up at 5 am on her own to play in her room. I have found memories of listening to her go back and forth on her rocking horse. This could eventually become annoying if I had wanted to sleep in that day. Today our constant reminder about getting up before dawn happens to be our four canines. Freckles, my puppy pit-bull mix, has a habit of going wild around 5ish in the morning. She will lick you to death and that start jumping on and off the bed. She goes totally bonkers when we start walking downstairs to escape for our canal walk.

It is incredible how much better your day unfolds when you are able to take the time to reflect and think instead of rushing out of the house always behind the proverbial eight ball. I will usually read a Bible verse and have a thought for the day. I will then go over that day’s activities and then text those that are involved. I confess that often I will take a short nap in the afternoon between meetings or evening events.

I do believe that often when you snooze you loose! Yes, there is a difference between the person that struggles to rise and shine in the morning and the other that is up early and ready to make their day rock!