For years I’ve been telling myself I need to get physically active again and I keep making excuses for myself. So let’s forget about what I used to do or what my excuses are. Here’s what I’m going to do:

Sleep

I am one of those people that doesn’t need too much sleep so I can get by with just six, but no less. I’m going to give myself 7 hours to sleep because I figure I should budget time for a buffer in case I have trouble falling asleep or for some reason end up waking earlier. If I should get the full 7 hours, then that would be even better. I just want to make sure I don’t budget for exactly 6 and set myself up for failure.

So tonight I will go to bed at 10pm instead of 1 or 1:30am. By disclosing that I go to bed that late, you may be inclined to believe that I am a night owl. On the contrary, I am miserably unproductive at such a late hour, but I always crave those quiet hours. The early mornings are even more quiet and I have the added bonus of being more productive. So if you’ve jumped ahead and done the math, I will set my alarm for 5am!

Exercise

So now I’m up earlier than most people…now what? Exercise! I learned firsthand years ago that nothing will ever interrupt your workout if you do it very early: no last-minute meeting, no phone call, no breaking news, nothing. So I plan on heading out the door at 5:30am. I only want to do a half hour to start, so I should be back and showered long before the sun is set to rise at 7:12am.

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The honest truth is that I am hesitant to push the publish button on this post (if you’re reading this, I overcame my fear). The worst thing that can happen is me not doing any of this and then write about it on here. It’s pretty much only me reading this, so I mostly don’t want to let myself down.

So I’m going to hover my mouse over the button, close my eyes, and click!