This morning I popped out of bed, or at least wide-awake in bed around two in the morning. Now, this is typical because we have an eight month year old child, and he wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to be fed. That’s understandable, but this one was a little bit different. It was a little bit different because my child hadn’t actually woken me up. When I woke up, I was just wide awake. Now granted, my wife and I go to bed really early now to counter this interrupted sleep patterns that we have now. But, I sat there for a while and laid in bed and tried to go back to sleep, as I typically would, but this time I could just tell it was a little bit different.
So I got up out of bed and put my clothes on that I set out, my workout clothes, the night before, which I hope you’re doing as well for your workout days. I went downstairs. I went downstairs with the intention of just getting a few things done around the house, making sure not to turn on too many lights, so I would fall right back asleep. In fact, I planned on falling asleep on the couch so I wouldn’t wake my wife up. But convention would have it that I would lay in bed. In the past, I would, and toss and turn and move my pillow around, and really kind of fight it. I would be up, pretty much, laying in bed tossing and turning till 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m., or whenever I decided to actually get up and go about my day.
Now this happened to be a Saturday morning, so usually, I sleep in a little bit on Saturday and get up around five anyway, but I sleep in a little bit more. But this time, what I did is I got up and I did a few things around the house, just got things done in my home office here. I found myself getting more and more energized. You know, I looked at my email briefly, just because it was on one of my monitors, and I saw that I had three requests for coaching consultations for private coaching. One of the requests was for a referral. I always get really excited when someone trusts in me to want to help take them on their journey. So when I was looking at that, and also when I can help somebody by directing them in another direction to another coach or professional or mentor, that really lights me up.
Well fast forward, it was getting 3:00, 3:30 in the morning. It was clear and evident by this point that I wasn’t going back to sleep. So I threw on a pot of coffee, had a cup and just enjoyed my morning. My family got up around 6:30 in the morning. They came downstairs, and I had done the laundry. I had done a lot of work in my office on my businesses. I was able to have a really productive, fun-filled morning doing my morning routine.
Now, the reason I’m telling you this isn’t to be braggadocios or to you make you feel bad for me that I’d been up for so long, but really was just the idea of really changing my standards and changing the lens, and listening to the inside, listening to me and what was different. See, that 2:30 wake-up call wasn’t what I wanted to do. In fact, it sucked. I didn’t want to do it at all. I wanted to sleep and be rested and energized. But I was energized. Instead of going with the conventional thought that I needed to have those eight hours of sleep, really I was rested and ready to go.
Today, if you look at today, all the things that I got done. I had an extremely productive full work day that I actually enjoyed. I got to read a book. So I gotta do all this before the average person gets up on a Saturday morning. Back in my early 20s, I would’ve been out to 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, not just simply waking up at this time. I was able to go on an amazing adventure with my family. Early in the morning, we went on a hike through a river. It was just unbelievable.
So I ask you this question. Where in your Five to Thrive are you just going with the conventional feel of what you think you should be doing, rather than listening to your inner self, rather than listening to what’s going on inside you? Is this in your mind? Are you studying something or reading something because a leader, a thought leader … I suggested it, or somebody else might have recommended. Is there a book? This happens often when I talk to people about what books they’re reading. I expect them to come out with such passion about what they’re reading, and oftentimes it just sounds so drab, and they’re like, “Ah, this book kind of sucks, Doug, and I don’t really know.” Well put it down! We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Put it down. Get another book that lights you up.
Or is it in your body? Are you doing a specific workout or are you eating certain foods or following a diet because you should, but really inside, you know what you need to do? Maybe you just need to stretch more, right? Men, especially us men in the office, this is a common one. We think we still need to go lift the heavyweights. That’s great, and I love lifting heavy, but maybe it’s yoga. Feel loose. I can tell you based on my experience when I loosened up my body … And I didn’t even realize how tight I was, that I actually had more joy and more abundance, more energy. I could take that to the weight room, as well.
Is this is in your area of your soul? Are you feeling like you should meditate because everybody says, “Hey, meditation’s great.” Maybe it’s not for you. You know? That’s okay. Maybe it’s your religious practice. Maybe you grew up a specific religion and it’s just not really resonating with you, but you think you should practice it. I would highly recommend checking into that. Maybe it’s in an area of your relationships. Maybe you think you should be dating somebody. Maybe you think you should be doing something specific. Maybe you think you should be straight or gay or whatever it is, but it doesn’t feel right inside of you.
Too many people do I know that have not felt right about their sexuality until they actually explored, and they explored it deeply and actually found true love and passion. I want that for you. You deserve it. You have one of these lives to go through. We know that for sure. You have one shot, so make it the best.
Maybe it’s in your business. I coach business owners to personalize and help them with their business. So oftentimes, I see this area as a whole list of “shoulds”. I should be doing these things, I should be advertising on Facebook, because that’s what everybody is talking about. Well, they’re talking about it probably because it’s easy for them to talk about. Advertising and marketing contains a whole broad spectrum. It should be done in a full stack approach. Or maybe your KPIs, your Key Performance Indicators, in your business just aren’t the right ones and you’re following a guru or somebody else, and just misunderstanding the sound bites they were trying to give you. Or maybe in your business, you’re actually going after the wrong product or service.
Maybe you don’t own a business and you work for somebody, and it’s just not lighting you up. You know deep down inside you need a change. Well today is that time. Today is that time for all of your Five to Thrive to be following where your heart is guiding you. You see, we have gut feelings. We feel it in our heart, we make all these analogies for these bodily expressions. How often are we actually listening to them and following them.
So what I’m going to invite you to do today is grab your journal. Write out your Five to Thrive, your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business. What I want you to do is take a gut check. Where should you be doing … Not should. Where would you want to go in those areas? Are there certain dogmas or other practices that you think you should be doing, but doesn’t feel right to you.
Again, I’m relating this back to laying in bed, and gosh, I’ve had sleep issues in the past and I’ve read everything you could think of to get quality sleep. I’ve talked to experts, and I’m supposed to be in bed. They say, “Just stay in bed. Keep your eyes closed.” It doesn’t always work for me. You know, when I get up and I actually go about my day, and I attack my day with the vigor and the passion that I have, I just feel more rewarded and energized. I can take a nap. It’s not a big deal for me. I have the Author of Your Own Story lifestyle, so my schedule allows me to be extremely flexible, especially on the weekends.
So where is it for you? I invite you to explore that the way I explored it this morning. It’s really filled me up. It’s really filled me up and opened me up, and just kind of another bread crumb on the road to reassure me that listening to myself, listening to both my heart, my gut, and just kind of the way I’m feeling is the right way to go. Especially on this path that I call the Author of Your Own Story. You get to write this story each and every day. You get to write the kind of person you want to be, the mother, the father, the husband, the wife, the business owner. What do you want to be? Today you can make that change.
If you’ve always been a dick, you can change it today. Obviously, you’re probably not if you’re listening to this, but if there’s something in your life that you’ve always wanted to make a shift … You don’t want to be the shy one anymore. You want to be the person that steps into the light. Well, I give you that permission right here, right now. Today is your time.
That’s it for me today. Go over to AuthorOfYourOwnStory.com, get the latest tips, tricks and techniques delivered right to your email inbox each and every day. Share this with at least three people, a minimum of three. Can you think of three people right now? Your office, three business owners that you know? Yes you can. Share it with them. They deserve it. They deserve the opportunity to get new tips and insights.
This might trigger something totally different than what I’m talking about. It might trigger a response that will allow them to step into their own light, into their passion, and hopefully help you do to you, too. Then of course, as always, what I want you to do is go out, inspire someone by being yourself, going after your dreams, chasing them and grabbing them by the tail, and pulling them in each and every day, by being the Author of Your Own Story. I will see you tomorrow.
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