Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / #HURDLEMOMENT: 5 Hacks To Help You Become A Morning Person

Transcript

#HURDLEMOMENT: 5 Hacks To Help You Become A Morning Person · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It has been a week and it's only Wednesday. I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: don't know about you, guys, but I'm currently still recovering
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from a ten miler iran on a whim on Sunday
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with a friend while trying to make up for a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: winter of missed vitamin D consumption in the Bahamas on assignment.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Emily Abody here, welcome back to the second installment of
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: my new series called Hurdle Moment, in honor of all
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the small hurdles we're conquering each and every day.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: You guys really.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Know how to make a girl feel loved, because last
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: week's Hurdle Moment was the most trafficked episode in a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: single day ever of the pod. And that just makes
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: me feel all sorts of smiley and mushy and thankful
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and have so much gratitude and I just I love
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: this thing. Like I said last week, the goal of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: this new segment is to give you a little motivation
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: right when you need it on hump Day in the
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: form of a quickie episode. And this will have actionable advice,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: maybe something that's been getting at me over the past
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: week that I figured out some sort of solution worth
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: sharing or techniques for strategies or what have you.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: And to reiterate again, I'm still always going.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: To release a new hurdle every Monday, as I always have,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: but these hurdle moments, they are just little gems for
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: every Wednesday, bumping this whole operation up to two episodes
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a week.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Fun little fact.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I actually ran the Lululemon Half Marathon Sewees last year,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and over the course of that weekend, the brand puts
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on a bunch of fun activations.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And things for race participants to do.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So one of the things they do that I participated
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: in was a goal setting session where I was brought
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: up on stage to share something that was on my radar.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And at the time, I was publishing Hurdle every other week.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Once and I walked up.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: On stage and I said out loud that my goal
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: by twenty twenty was not just to be publishing it weekly,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: but to make this sort of side hustle more of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: my main hustle. And so, anyway, the point of the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: stories to tell you that last week, my listener a Miya,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: who I first connected with over there, she shot me
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a message and she said, I just wanted to point
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: out that when I met you, Hurdle was in one place.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Now it's in this new place.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And that's because you've been working hard and it's just
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: been so awesome to see. And man, what an awesome
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: thing to point out. Whether you're a first time listener
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: or you've been hanging out with me for a while now,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I'm always here to interact and I make a big
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: effort to answer all the messages that come in, whether
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: they're in my email or in my DMS or in
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the comments. With that said, a lot of messages are
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: coming in, so give me a little bit of time
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and if I don't respond, feel free to hit me
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: up again. I'm on Instagram again. It's at Emily a
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Body also at Hurdle Podcast. My email is Emily at
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Hurdle Dots. In this week's installment of Hurdle Moment, I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: am talking about simple strategies to become a morning person
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and I think this one's a goodie. With that, let's
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: get to this week's Hurdle Moment. Mornings are pretty polarizing, right.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It's like you either totally are aware that you're good
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: at mornings or you're the kind of person that would
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent sleep until eleven am every single day
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: if alarms weren't a thing. If you follow me on Instagram,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: then you know that I am indeed one of those
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: early riser kinds. My alarm every day is set specifically
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: for no reason at all, at five point thirty two,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and I'm usually out the door before six. Some days
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I'm functioning earlier, and others I sleep in.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Granted, my version of sleeping in is being in bed
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: until like eight thirty in the morning, but hey, that's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: just me al I have some bad news for some
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I've always been sort of good at this morning thing,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and before I was as into fitness as I am now,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about how that happened in
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: my seventy pound weight loss in college and episode one.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Of the podcast.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I was still in early morning rise at that time.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I was cool with a schedule back in college that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: involved lectures that started at eight am, and honestly even
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: preferred them and loved being able to get stuff done.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, I've never really been good at
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: staying out late, which works for me since I'm not
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: really much of a party animal.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: The way that I view.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Mornings is that they're my opportunity to get a leg
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: up on the day before everyone else wants or needs
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: something from me, which when you're a contractor, feels like constantly.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Mornings are my time. They're my form of self care.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And there's something special about the quiet you get in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: New York City, this bustling place at six am, when
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: everyone's still in bed, still taking it easy, and I'm
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: able to get out there, do my thing and enjoy
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: it in a way that you just can't for the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: rest of the day. So with that, here are my
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: simple hacks for becoming a morning person.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Hack Number one, go to bed early.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I know it sounds so intuitive, but you cannot burn
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the candle at both ends period. There was a time
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: in my life when I was twenty three and now
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: in New York City and more of a night owl
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: than I am now, and could somehow, some way go
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: out until two am to the PhD rooftop and meet
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Packing Dancing and then make it effortlessly to a seven
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to ten am Barry's boot.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Camp class and Chelsea. No problem. That is not me anymore.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Generally, I'm in bed on work nights around nine thirty,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: maybe ten pm at the latest, and sleeping by ten thirty.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: And that means that if I get to bed at
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that time, I'm getting at least seven hours of sleep
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: per night on average. For me, I get tired by
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: that time. It's just something that I've gotten used to.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Everyone's different with how much sleep that they need, but
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: for me, that seven hours is just enough that when
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I wake up the next day, I don't want to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: immediately slam this news button on my phone. This second
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the alarm goes off, which brings me to a very
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: important point. Yes, I sleep with my phone next to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: my bed. I feel like that's like some major confession
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and that I'm not supposed to do it, and Ariana
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Huffington is like shaking her finger at me, even though
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: she probably doesn't know I exist. Listen, I know the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: science of how important it is to reduce blue light,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: or the light that comes from phones and iPads and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: TVs all that stuff before getting into bed. Research shows
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: that at night light can throw off the body's biological
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: clock and your sleep suffers, which can then be triggering
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: for bad things like heart disease and obesity and cancer,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: et cetera. And so obviously, yes, saying all this out
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: loud makes me want to tweak my habit. And the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: good news is that I've already gone as far as
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to buy an alarm clock, so I can maybe maybe
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: start sleeping with the phone a little bit further from
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: my bed. But just like anything else, changes hard, so
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: it takes small steps. Right Like, I wouldn't stop sleeping
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: with the phone next to my bed if I didn't
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: buy the alarm clock.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: So that's step one. Step two is actually using the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: alarm clock.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So maybe right now I'm challenging you, you can challenge me.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Let's try to sleep with the phone like at least
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: five feet away. Cool, okay. Hack number one, go to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: bed early. Hack number two, have a routine. If you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: don't have some sort of plan for your morning, you'll
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: be less motivated to get out of bed in the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: first place. Now, I don't want you guys to think
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: that I'm preaching that by becoming a morning person you
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: have to be a morning exerciser. That's the first thing
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I want to note. Instead, I'm just trying to offer
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: tips here to help me better at functioning in the morning.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: And if you want to incorporate some sort of sweat,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: then so be it. So developing a plan, I'll run
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: through my usual routine to give you an idea of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: what my morning's usually look like. First, my iPhone alarm
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: goes off next to my bed. Yes, I head to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, I brush my teeth, I come out, and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I walk straight to make my bed.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: This is huge.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It's a special significance behind this because I feel like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: once I make my bed, I'm obviously not getting back
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: into it. It also immediately makes me feel more organized
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and like I've accomplished something.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: In my day.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: How easy is it to make your bed? It takes
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: about five seconds, and I swear it's the first key
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to success. Once the bed is made, I reach from
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: my one line a day gratitude journal, which I'll talk
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit more in just a second, and then
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: my mantra cards. And I talked about these mantra motto cards.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: They're from Anthropology in last week's hurdle moment. But I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: draw a card from the deck for the day, snap
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: a photo of it to put on my phone later,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and then I write one thing in the journal that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I'm grateful for. Next up, I ask Alexa what the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: forecast is for the day, and after she tells me,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I put on the day's episode of Up First, which
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: is the news podcast that I love from NPR.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: The episodes usually run ten to.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Twelve minutes, which is just enough time before I head
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: out the door. As that plays, I'm getting dressed to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: work out, so that means sports bras, fandex, lace up
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: my sneakers also for Instagram, and then that's it. I'm
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: out to answer your first question. I know you're gonna have.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: No. I do not drink coffee before I sweat.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Typically I come back home after the work out, so
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: once I'm back home, I put water on the stove
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in a kettle and make my to do list for
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the day and my planner, and then I hop in
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the shower. Quick note about the to do list. Things
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: you should not do write down like thirty things on
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the list. My advice pick five things that have to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: get done that day, and that will certainly help you prioritize.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: At the top of that list.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: If there's anything that has a strict time commitment, like today,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I had to get to UPS before it closed at seven,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I as to risk that so that I remember it's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: an action item. As other things start to get thrown
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: my way as the day goes on. Okay, so I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: made the list, I've showered. Then I take the kettle,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I pour over my coffee, which is so much easier
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: than people make it out to be. And then I
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: bring the coffee mug to my bedroom, where I get dressed,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: do my hair, organize period. I stop back in the kitchen.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I grab my glass shaker bottle from my Athletic Greens,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I shake it up, I bring that and sip it
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: as I organize my bag for the day. I put
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: in my AirPods, find a podcast to listen to on
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: my kimmune, and just like that, I'm out.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: The whole secondary part of my routine takes less than
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: an hour. There are steps to the morning routine. I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: do almost the same exact thing every single day. That
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: gives me structured in my morning. It gives me a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: purpose to get out of my bed, and having that
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: routine makes me just feel more productive. Hack number three
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: have gratitude. Okay, so last year I started with the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: gratitude in the mornings and it's actually been a really
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: big difference maker for me. On the mornings when I
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: feel super groggy and I want to go back to bed,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I can usually muster the energy to get to the
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: point where I pry myself out and make it to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. And when I'm done with that, I know
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that it's my time to be grateful moment after I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: make my bed, and that step is really what keeps
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: me up. Taking a moment to reflect on the past
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours, I'm reminded that every single day I
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: have something to be thankful for, and that's what keeps
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: me kicking. One thing is this. Your gratitude could literally
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: be something as small as like I didn't forget my
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: AirPods at home yesterday. And what this does is that
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: it helps you find the simple little wins for your
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: every day. If you've ever gone through a day without
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: your headphones, you know how much it is a win
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: to remember to throw them in your bag in the morning.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: And before I move on, a quick challenge for all
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of you this week, why don't we all do this
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: gratitude thing together? So I say that because it was
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: so awesome to see your list from last week's episode
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: on How to Live a Life you love. So this week,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: what I want you to do is write down one
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: single thing you're grateful for each day. If you're comfortable
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: with it, share it with me, tag me on Instagram,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and you realize that this is one two minute task
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: that can totally put you in a good mood from
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the moment you roll out of bed, even if your
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: eyes are still totally in that blurry morning stage. Okay,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: hack number four, be single. Okay, I'm kidding, but I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: will say that I have to admit being a single
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: woman living on my own, this routine is a whole
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: lot easier than it is when you have to factor
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: someone else into the equation. With that said, if you
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: want to be a morning person and that's something that's
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: really important to you, then it's really important that you
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: communicate that to your partner. This way, you a won't
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: have animosity toward them if you feel guilty for wanting
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to be a morning person, and b that way the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: two you can talk about what that looks like for
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: both of you. If you're, for say, for instance, a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: morning workout person, maybe that means setting your clothes up
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: the night before so that you don't wake your partner up,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: wrestling through your sock drawer. Maybe it means packing your bag.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Whatever the case may be, there are certain strategies and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: small steps you can take less than twelve hours in
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: advance to set you up for success before your alarm
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: goes off.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: The next morning.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Pack Number five exercise. Okay, I know I told you
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to judge you for what your morning
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: routine involved, and I'm not. But the people I know
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: that are successful mourning people are all people who like
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to work out first thing, So I've got to highlight that.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I actually just interviewed ten successful entrepreneurs and CEOs for
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: an upcoming Woman's Health article, and nine out of ten
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of them told me they work out first thing in
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the morning. So whatever your workout is, it has to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: be something that makes you happy, otherwise you likely won't
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: stay committed to it. So for me, usually that's running,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: but for you maybe that's yoga or spin or just
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: lifting weights at the gym, whatever it is. If it
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: lasts for ten minutes or two hours, it counts, And
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: don't let anybody tell you anything different.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And that's it.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Just five simple hacks to maybe make you a little
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: bit more of a morning person. Again, there's no magic pill.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: It's okay, And remember your routine is just that, it's yours.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: It's cool.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: To snag things from mind that you think might work
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: for you, but it's okay if they don't. Don't be
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: too harsh on yourself. If you truly want to be
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a morning person, and it takes a while to stick,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: just like anything else in life. I really try to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: live my mornings by my motto that all it takes
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: is all you've got. And some mornings I don't got much,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: and that's cool. But again, even small steps in the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: right direction are forward progress. Again, these things don't happen overnight. Well,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess they could happen overnight if you
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: get to bed earlier, if you catch my drift.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: But I'm not the bedtime police over here.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's the sweets hurdle moment again.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: You need anything, you want to comment, shoot me a DM,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: say hi at Emily Body at Hurdle Podcast, Emily at
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: hurdle dot us. Leave a quick review clicking the description
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to this episode here the best Another hurdle conquered.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.