Never. Hit. Snooze.

I wake up to my alarm everyday at 5:15 am. The message reads: "You chose this life." I put those words on my alarm label because it reminds me every single morning that nobody is forcing me to get out of bed and take on the day. Nobody is telling me what schedule I need to live my life on. I am the one who sets the alarm and chooses to live my life the way I do.

I'm not saying sleeping in is a bad thing. I'm not saying you have to wake up at 5 am in order to have a successful lifestyle. Everyone is different and requires different sleeping habits and schedules. I am saying that if you are intentionally setting an alarm to wake up at a certain time, (whether that's 6 am or noon) it is imperative that you get up when the alarm goes off. That is your contract with yourself, purposefully stating the time you'll get up and start your day.

Hitting snooze simply sets a bad precedent for the day, and a bad principle for your life. It establishes the mindset that you are okay with ignoring your call to get up. You're okay with wasting precious minutes and hours of your day. It means you'd rather fight for five more minutes of sleep than treasuring the gift of time to be awake and alive.

My advice is to hear the alarm and just get up. Remember... you chose this life. You have to find a reason to jump out of bed in the morning, something that simply makes you want to live a fuller life. If you have nothing driving you to get out of bed, then you're probably stuck in the cycle of hitting snooze. That's okay. That's okay if living an average lifestyle is all you're seeking. However, if you're like me and want to chase your dreams and give this life every ounce of effort that you possibly could, you have to stop hitting snooze and wake up to reality. You have to choose your life over the snooze button.

We each only get 24 hours in the day. There will come a time when you can't get out of bed, when you've taken your last breath here on earth. In that moment, I know I don't want to look back and regret all the wasted minutes the snooze button took away from my life. I want to look back and be satisfied knowing I did everything I could to live my life to the fullest.

I challenge you to start this initiative today. It's officially No Snooze September. Think about this: if you stop snoozing and get out of bed 5 minutes earlier every day, you will have earned an additional 150 minutes in the month of September alone. Now, if you multiply that by a year, you'll have 1,825 extra minutes. That's over 30 hours, a whole additional day you can add to the year. If you start this today, and you create the habit of getting out of bed without hitting snooze, imagine how many additional minutes, hours, and days you will give yourself over the course of your lifetime? This principle can truly change your life. It's definitely changed mine. It's time for you to wake up and take control of your life. Never. Hit. Snooze.

Xoxo,

Kaci