Show of hands: who is not a morning person? Let's see, by this count, I believe the answer is...everyone. Everyone hates mornings. A good morning? Does that even exist? If you say you are a morning person, then I forgive you for lying.
I’m sure I’m not the first to tell you, but let me reiterate that you’re definitely not alone. Besides a cup (or seven) of coffee, not much can get me going in the morning. But, then I’m dealing with jitters, caffeine crashes, and the occasional bout of
slightly unrelated uncontrollable sobbing. But we're all familiar with these symptoms! So, alas, what are we to do?
I assure you, there is a solution. Please, you're so kind, but hold your applause until the end. Kat Lee swooped in and saved me from my chronic Immediate-Onset Bed Withdrawal – totally a real thing – with her new book
Hello, Mornings.
I know what you're thinking. There are a lot of choice words we want to say to mornings, and "hello" is not one of them. Stay with me, hopeful friends.
So, what’s the big secret? Is it an expensive maid service that food-preps a week's worth of paleo meals, does my laundry, and moves my noodle limbs so I'm forced to exercise? No, but it's almost as good. It's just three little words:
God. Plan. Move.
Let me break it down for you. In just three little minutes, you can start your day with the Lord, get your life together, and get your heart pumping.
Sounds great, right? No more habitually crying in the bathroom and blaming our puffy eyes on allergies even though it’s mid-January for us!
Goodbye, tears!
All you need is three minutes in the morning. Everybody has three minutes. And if you don’t, cut out something dumb, like brushing your teeth or feeding your cat. Just kidding, don't cut out feeding your cat. Cats have not truly been domesticated, and they will revolt against us.
But really, three minutes is easy to spare. Don’t snooze the alarm for the fifth time, and instead use those last three minutes of please-don’t-make-me-get-up time to set your whole day on the right track. Your teeth and your cat will thank you.
God:
Your first minute is dedicated to God-time. He gave us His kid, so a single minute in the morning seems like a pretty fair exchange, ya feel? I'm not talking about
fasting or anything here. Just use this God-time to check in with the Big Man Upstairs and see what he’s feeling for you today. You never know what He’s got up His sleeve.
Plan:
The second minute is Plan-time. Relax, take a deep breath, and dive in. If you want to live out your Pinterest dreams and bullet journal, then do it! If that many colors and dots gives you high-level anxiety, don't do it! To have a good morning, this is your time to shine. Break out the multicolored highlighters you bought four years ago when you bought that $60 planner.
Move:
The third minute is Move-time. Okay, quit relaxing, time to get crazy. But good crazy, not any-character-played-by-Jack-Nicholson crazy. No one needs that level of crazy. Your Move-time can be whatever you want it to be. The goal here is not a chiseled set of abs—you can just spray paint those on like the rest of us—but slow but steady progress towards your brand of fitness, whatever that may be. You can literally curl water bottles if you want. Whatever floats your boat, ya know?
Alright. You've done it. You've changed your life in three minutes. I mean, what a bargain. And to think: you signed onto Facebook today for the one-camera cooking videos. Now your life is forever changed. You can applaud now.
Good morning!
Intern Mitch is the hero we deserve, and also the hero we totally need. When he's not doing all of the mailings or opening all of the boxes, he's just trying to find other tasks that keep us from getting massive paper cuts. There's a rumor that he's in his ninth year of college because someone on our team keeps messing up his forms so that he can't graduate...but that's just crazy. Isn't it?
HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., operates Page Chaser, the publisher of Hello, Mornings.
