Was I successful? Of course, I was.
Before you hastily start calling me overconfident, consider how you measure success, and how you should be measuring success.
To recap, I committed to the following for seven days:
- Continuing my morning coffee routine.
- Waking up immediately when the alarm goes off, without negotiating.
- Making the bed every morning before leaving the house.
- Working smarter by limiting time spent on the beautification process.
So, maybe I didn’t wake up as soon as my alarm went off, and maybe I dashed out the door yesterday without making my bed, and maaaybe ranking the beautification process as secondary was easier said than done. Let me tell you though, coffee was flowin’ like the Nile!
Honestly, my performance sounds far worse than it was. I did everything, most of the time, and as I got a taste of the benefits, I discovered what I needed to start doing in order to become consistent.
Waking up immediately
Sleepy Renée didn’t give a what about waking up immediately when her alarm went off. I told her to #DoItForTheBlog, and she gave me the finger.
Because hitting snooze twice had become a subconscious part of my routine, I needed to accommodate for the fact that I was going to hit snooze two times. Instead of setting one alarm five minutes before I needed to wake up, I set two alarms 20 minutes before I needed to wake up. This mind trick was good enough to fool myself. Criss Angel, who?
Making the bed
Even when I was drowning in projects, coming home to a tidy bed brought a sense of calm that kept me feeling in control. The appearance of order, combined with the preservation of crisp sheets made everything seem right in the world (I am almost positive that I heard my bed whisper, “you’ve got this, girlfriend” as I fell asleep on Thursday night).
Making the bed takes all of two minutes. My inconsistency was due to the fact that until last week, it hadn’t been much of a priority. Nothing compares to crispy sheets, so I’m working on it.
Working smarter
I have referred to my inclination to incorporate glitter glue into various projects, where some might say glitter glue does not belong. Creativity is one of my greatest strengths, but it sometimes leads to feeling like there is no end to my work.
My glitter glue tendencies required a ton of suppression, and I certainly caught myself getting absorbed in beautification on more than one occasion. That said, by limiting the amount of time I spent glitter gluing, I worked hard and smart this week, and felt much more accomplished.
Defining success using your own terms
If I were measuring my success based on how consistently I performed, I would have set myself up for failure. Any new undertaking is going to take some practice; if it were easy to commit to changing habits, we would all be perfect!
Shaking up your schedule helps you to understand yourself, to identify what works for you and what doesn’t, and to determine what you need to do next to become most successful.
Set realistic expectations that challenge you but that leave space for imperfection, and of course, you’ll find success.
What did you learn about your habits this week?
In Control & Caffeinated 
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