Death to the snooze button!

What happened to the good ‘ol days? Where has personal responsibility gone? What happened to self-discipline? We are inundated with tools designed to help us rely on US…less and less. I couldn’t believe my eyes as watched a TV commercial for a car advertising a new system to help you stay in your lane…or hit the brakes…or wake up. WHAT? Have we really come so far that we need technology to tell us what a horrible irresponsible driver we are? If you can’t stay awake or in your lane..PLEASE don’t get in the car in the first place! Rather than softly chiming a zen-like bell to tell us we are about to either die or end the lives of other people…what if you received an email saying your insurance just went up 15% for each infraction. I would imagine when the monthly premium hit $1,500 a month for one driver – someone would start paying attention!

I have always thought it was crazy how some people set their alarms to wake up for a time well ahead of the ACTUAL time they plan to wake up. They slap the snooze button (or what I call the FAILURE button) for the next 30 minutes over and over so they can “feel” like they are getting more sleep. WHAT? I have an idea: Set your alarm for 30 minutes ahead of when you were planning to GO TO SLEEP the night before – early! I would like to encourage you to adopt the mentality that “when that alarm goes off, it’s time to wake up. PERIOD. There is no time to waste, no time to finish those dreams – it is time to wake up and start your day. I believe that by hitting the snooze button you are not only telling yourself it’s ok to NOT start the day with discipline…but you are also programming yourself to believe this is an acceptable action that later transcends in to other areas of life. There are more and more resources to rely on taking the place of self discipline. I would be the first in line if these resources helped us IMPROVE ourselves, but instead, they have become comfortable, acceptable forms of reliance on something besides ourselves.

Ok, here’s a big one: Auto-correct. How many times a day do you write an email, a proposal, a research paper, or a text and when the program gives you the red-dotted underline saying you have a typo, you click the word and select the proper spelling. BAM! You just relied on someone else telling you not only that you had a typo in the first place, but you had to put 0% thought in to correcting the error. You allowed someone else to fix your problems. (Of course I must insert here, that there are some people [not mentioning my sister’s name] I really wish would proofread their message before they send it. They are in such a hurry especially in texts  they don’t bother to see what obvious words they spelled wrong – much less do anything to fix them…so I get texts that are somewhere between obscure foreign languages, hieroglyphics filled with random unrelated words – that causes me to stare at my phone for several minutes trying figure out what in the WORLD they could have possible intended to say)

You might have heard about the 21/90 rule. It simply says if you do something for 21 days (three weeks) and then continue to do it over the following 90 days, it will become a habit…or something that comes “naturally” to you rather than leaving stickies and setting alarms to remind you of things. I have been waking up at 4:45 for so long, I don’t even need an alarm clock anymore, although I still set it – mostly because I feel accomplished right out of the gate when I wake up BEFORE it goes off and I don’t hit “snooze” instead I hit “off” because I am already up!  All these tools can be used in a very positive way and they could come in handy for people who try to do 28 hours of work in 24 or have things happening all day that can distract your thoughts. That is not a problem…it becomes a problem when we RELY on these tools to help us, guide us, remind us as opposed to being disciplined enough to handle it yourself.

Try starting your day with a great accomplishment…wake up when it is time to wake up. There has also been scientific proof that alarm clocks cause us to end a deep sleep cycle suddenly and that affects our blood pressure and many other things that can lead to serious complications. So by using the snooze “whack-a-mole” routine, you could be causing health issues you weren’t aware you were affecting. Some of these risks could be quite serious. Beyond the health implications of these convenience tools, consider the long-term affect on your general attitude and how you deal with other situations. Hold yourself accountable to managing yourself…not leaving that in the hands of your alarm clock or smart car. There is a good chance you will see other areas of your life improving as you regain control through responsibility and discipline!