You Are Worth 6 a.m.

You Are Worth 6 a.m.

Invest in yourself much lately?

Working from home has been interesting… emotionally interesting. A while back I ran into a lazy rut that had me in tears! Gavin would come home and I would felt so guilty for having wasted an entire day accomplishing almost nothing. What’s worse is that because I felt so awful about myself I would lose the energy to do anything! The cycle would repeat itself and it just got worse. Here is the thing… I remembered this exact feeling when I was working THREE JOBS! When I got to thinking about it… it was also the same feeling when I used to eat something that was fast but super unhealthy, missing my Jesus-time, skipping a workout, choosing TV over craft I wanted to do, or not getting that thing done that’s been there for a month.  So what was the deal! This crazy self-criticism would grow exponentially with all of these things shouting at me. It was the lack of investing in myself!

BOOM. Mind blown. I had nothing to give because my tank was empty.

First things first, I have always been a morning person for Jesus-time, it puts my whole day on the right track, but I was not getting up early enough to get it in. For some reason at 8 a.m. my brain switches over to business mode and I am way to distracted to even attempt Jesus-time. No Idea why, that’s just me… but I felt entitled to sleep in because I was exhausted from being pregnant. Let me translate that into reality; I felt entitled to punish myself! I was shooting myself in the foot from the moment I wouldn’t wake up. The same goes for every other thing I was denying myself.

So! This had to stop.

My emotional and physical health was worth getting up at 6 a.m., eating better, ignoring the TV to do what I loved, and overall investing in myself. It took me about a month but one tiny triumph at a time I made myself a priority and the change that has occurred and remained since then is amazing. I feel better, have more energy, I have more to give to my friends and family, I sleep better and my confidence is through the roof! The self-criticism monster has been silenced and when it tries to sneak up on me for a tiny failure… I can stomp it out because my tank is full.

In order to get out of lazy rut that was basically self-punishment I…

  •  Made a morning routine that includes Jesus-time, personal development time, and making sure I am ready for the day by 8 a.m. (sometimes this means getting up at 5)
  • Got an accountability partner that I Skype with every Friday where we discuss successes, challenges, ah-ha moments, to-do’s for the next week and prayer requests.
  • made my workout a “no matter what” it’s going to get done 
  • choosing the delicious healthy foods that may take a little more time over the quick unhealthy ones (me and my families bodies are worth the investment) 

As time goes on and my life-stages change there will be new hurdles that I have to get around… but you know what.
I’m worth it. I have to be. Here is my question for you… Are you investing in yourself? The fastest way I have discovered to find out is to sit down and write out “instead of doing X, which does Y, I did A which is causes B” and then discover how you feel about it.

EX: Instead working out today which gives me energy, makes me feel good about myself, and boosts my confidence I chose to watch TV which caused me to feel sluggish and frustrated later because I got nothing done.

Puts a bit of a different spin on it huh?