February 25th, 2013
The Early Bird Special
I am coming out of the closet in this blog: I like to go to bed early, some nights by 9pm . . . I lie . . . by 8:30pm . . . lying again . . . by 7:30pm!
I remember in high school telling my mother that if any friend called after 7:30pm that she was to wake me up and not to tell the friend I was sleeping (this was before cell phones, texting, email and running water).
In fact, although I was a very difficult child, I had one saving grace for my night owl parents: never once did they tell me to go to bed. Instead I just disappeared in the early evening and when my head hit the pillow I was out like a light!
But I wanted to be cool, and over the years have tried several times to modify my internal clock.
Heck, I am not cool, at least not in the conventional sense.
Yet once again, and over the past two months, I have tried several ways to shift my body clock so that I can enjoy what everyone tells me there is to enjoy after 7:30pm.
Here is what I have discovered . . .
– I am less patient in the evenings.
– I make poor decisions in the evenings.
– I do not like booze or caffeine and that seems to be a way people stay up later.
– I watch too much TV and my brain feels like jelly in the evenings.
– I wake up later in the morning and accomplish less.
– I wake up later in the morning and therefore exercise less.
– I miss the darkness of the morning and the peace it brings to me.
The energy with which I normally engage in life, albeit during the morning and afternoon hours, has been diffused, leaving me feeling blah and un-Scott-like.
Funny how even at 42 I am still denying an essential part of who I am.
So instead of changing something that has had no appreciable negative impact on my well-being, I am creating a new club: The under-65 Early Bird Club.
I was trying to change because of the constant noise I hear about how good it would be for me . . . when actually there is no evidence to support that hypothesis.
So no more experiments in night-owl living. If there is an event, sure I will go. I will probably enjoy it and leave early.
But if I am home, I will continue to love jumping under the covers and falling asleep within the first ten minutes of a Seinfeld episode . . . and yes the one that starts at 7:30pm!
Who wants to join my club? We meet at 5:30am, no booze, but lots of milk and lots of laughs!
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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.