If You Snooze, You Lose!

Today’s article is a punishment of sorts for myself. I believe that this morning I set a new personal record, maybe even a new world record. I actually hit my snooze button for ninety minutes before getting out of bed! Yes, I confess! This is not normal for me and I am not typically a snoozer, but today it got me! Granted, my alarm went off at 4:15 in the morning for my daily date with the gym, but that’s no excuse. My mind had the greatest intentions in the world to get up, but apparently my sleepy body was in total disagreement. I guess this morning it was body over mind and the battle to get to the gym was lost. Needless to say, I’m not thrilled with the outcome, so I figured I’d write a quick post and take some action to help prevent this from happening again in the future. Uggh…

My issue isn’t so much that I overslept, apparently I needed that. It’s more the fact that I had a goal and a plan, but I didn’t take the necessary action to reach my goal. So, when this happens to me I try to ask myself the following questions: What went wrong? And, how do I prevent it in the future? In today’s case, these questions are easy to answer. What went wrong? I didn’t get enough sleep and it was too easy to hit and re-hit and re-re-hit, etc my snooze button.

What can I do to prevent this in the future? Well, that’s an interesting question. Obviously, I can try to get more sleep. But realistically, that’s not always going to happen. For me, I don’t consider not enough sleep a good enough reason to miss the gym. I think the more important thing for me to figure out is how I can prevent myself from hitting the snooze button over and over. The first thing that came to mind was to move my alarm clock to the other side of the room. That way, I’ll have to actually get out of bed to shut it off. (I’ll be moving my clock tonight.) But, check this out… I remember hearing an advertisement or a story (not sure which) on the radio a while back for a funky alarm clock that apparently goes nuts when you hit the snooze more than once. I did some research this morning and I found it. It’s called “Clocky”. It’s funny, this clock is on wheels and if you hit the snooze button more than once, it actually rolls off of the nightstand and runs around your room while making all kinds of annoying noises. It forces you to get out of bed, track it down (probably under your bed or something), and then figure out how to turn it off. Haha – that’s quite a visual! I’m not sure that I need to go to the “Clocky” extreme, but some of you might.

So, to wrap it all up, what’s my point from a coach’s perspective? I think there are two points here. First, if you fall victim to the snooze trap, and as a result miss out on following through with your action plans, do something to remove the snooze option, or at least make it more difficult to use. But, the more important message here is that when you encounter any kind of obstacle that prevents you from reaching your goals, take action to fix it! Do something to prevent those obstacles from getting in your way in the first place. As always, quickly learn from your mistakes and prevent them from happening in the future.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel better now!

By: Brian Osher

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Brian Osher is a certified Life Coach and motivational blogger, specializing in personal productivity, life balance, and limitless transition. He is a natural motivator and has a passion for helping others make meaningful strides in their lives. To learn more about Brian, please visit www.gainlifecoaching.com or e-mail him at brian@gainlifecoaching.com.