Setting Up my Alarm for Success

Last week, I really struggled towards the end of the week to get out of bed. I wasn’t sleeping well (no change there!) and was more tired each morning than I had been going to bed.

I just didn’t want to get up.

I had been listening to Elizabeth Elliot, one of my favourite Bible teachers, and she had said that her father used to get up out of bed at 430am each morning to spend time with God.

Over the years, people had asked her how he had managed that, and Elizabeth replied that he had always stated that he got out of bed first and thought about it later!

I liked that! Of course, the longer we lie in bed thinking about getting up, the longer we have to persuade ourselves that it is really not such a great idea.

And so it was for me last week.

‘Just five more minutes’ morphed into me spending almost all day in bed! Such is the power of my minds.

This week I am intent of getting out of bed first and thinking about it after.

But how do I practically do this?

Over the weekend, Gary took the tv from our bedroom down to his shed. I now had a lovely spacious top of a chest of drawers.

I decided to move all my electronics there instead of by my bedside table.

That in and of itself has been so healthy. No lights at night, no beeping or alerts to tell me something is charged and no temptation to take one last look at social media before heading to bed.

Another advantage, which was the one I was looking for, is that my phone is no longer near me. In order to turn off the alarm in the morning, I have to actually get out of bed.

Of course, getting out of bed is half the battle of early mornings and once I’m up I have no wish to get back into bed.

Having my alarm situated away from me has been very beneficial and is definitely a keeper.

I have also moved my sunrise alarm onto the chest of drawers, which means the whole room lights up in the morning, not just the corner by my bed.

These are just two small changes which have made it a little more doable to get up so early each morning.

Now, I simply get up and don’t even need to think about it later…which of course was the very point of Elizabeth’s father’s statement!