I have been reading about this thing called a keystone habit, listened to a podcast from andy stanley (find it here) about it.  The idea is that there are certain habits that lead to other habits.  So waking early is a keystone habit for me because when I do that one thing so many other wonderful habits happen.  Like praying, reading/journaling, exercise, making my bed etc, sometimes solitude and silence etc.  They say in order to make a habit work there has to be a reward, a tangible thing.  Like some people enjoy a piece of chocolate after a run or coffee when rising early or allowing myself 10 minutes on Pinterest, reading a fav book etc.  None of those sounded tempting enough to drag my butt out of bed.

One morning I was choosing to sleep in and I just tossed and turned trying to figure out what my reward for rising early was.  And then it hit me- My reward for rising early is PEACE.   I know this is not something physical but it is very tempting.  

I want to spend time doing things that give me life before I even start my day.  I want to feel filled up instead of totally empty and it is only 7:30am.

It is not easy.  It requires me to be disciplined and go to bed earlier.  It takes serious effort to not roll over like I did this morning. 😉  

But the lure of peace and sanity is winning over a little extra sleep.  The sleep is tempting but usually has no pay off- I frazzled and rushed not well rested.

So I just wanted to share my journey with you.  I have many friends who do their best work at night but thought I should share my struggle to see if it resonates with anyone else.  My whole life I have prided myself on not being a morning person.  But only recently have I discovered that the morning hours have been a gift to my soul.  Not only was I not a morning person but I was also not a night person.  I was just an EXHAUSTED person all the time.

An amazing post from another blogger that completely captured I feel about this, find it here