Anyone that knows me, or reads my blog very much, knows that I have an ongoing battle with self discipline, especially as it relates to getting up early. My nature is to stay up late, sleep until around 7:30 or 8, and then get up and work. The problem is that I have discovered that I am less productive doing this than I am when I get up really early and get going.

Last week I started a new routine that I am loving so far. I go to bed at 10pm each night, and get up at 4:30am each morning. Getting up that early gives me plenty of time to read lots of scripture and have a cup of coffee before I go workout at 5:30am. Then I come home by 6:45am, get ready, and get started working around 7:15 or so. The days that I do this I tend to have a lot more energy and am able to go strong until evening. And, interestingly, the days that I sleep until 5:25am, and go strait to the gym, or the days that I skip the gym and sleep until 7:30am or 8am, I tend to struggle.

Ok, that was the intro into my main thought. The thing is, the above schedule is completely contrary to my nature. I am not a morning person, I like to stay up late. But what I have discovered is that when I discipline myself to do something that I naturally would not do, that is self sacrifice that brings me closer to Jesus.

I know that my sacrifice of discipline brings me closer to Jesus because the days that I get up and moving at 4:30am I can see a clear difference in my attitude, my response to stress, and in my thought processes. I tend to be more patient, kind, loving and thoughtful.

I think this is because by starting my day off with self discipline (getting up) verses self indulgence (sleeping until the last possible second) I am reminding myself that life isn’t about me at all. When I get up, read scripture, work out, come home, get ready and (in the case of today) write a blog post all before the sun is up I am reminding that selfish part of my mind that there are more important things to get done today and that my own selfishness will not be allowed to stand in the way.

I am certainly not perfect in this by any stretch of the imagination. I struggle most mornings, and I’m sure that it will continue to be a struggle. But, I can tell you that today will be a good day, because I started it off by getting over myself and focussing on more important matters.

Any thoughts?