If You Don't Like It, Change It

First, let's all say it together: TGIF!

This week, I've been working on getting up a little earlier. Instead of a 9 am wake-up time, I've started my day anywhere from 7 am to 8:30 am (okay, okay... one day, I slept in until 9:30).

I love having the flexibility to create my own schedule, and I'm naturally one to go to bed later and get up later. Plus, I often wake up for a couple hours in the middle of the night (so annoying!), so being able to sleep in a bit is a nice option for those times.

But as much as I wanted to ignore it, I kept feeling this need to wake up earlier. When I did, I always felt more productive.

As my mom has told me: if you don't like something, change it.

via The Everygirl

I wasn't sure if waking up earlier was the answer, but I felt like I could use my time better and get more done during the day, so I decided to try it out and see what happened. If I didn't like it, I could always go back to waking up later. I had nothing to lose.

Well, so far, I do like getting up earlier—once I get past the initial sleepiness and dragging myself out of bed.

I still have time in the morning to browse blogs and social media, check email, and catch up on the latest news flying around the Internet... time to ease into the day. But if I do all of that earlier now, I also have extra time in the morning to do something productive and start my day on the right foot.

In a similar way, I have been slacking on exercise and eating all kinds of carbs lately. I wanted to make some healthy changes—eat better, work out more, that kind of thing. So this week, I tried my first "green smoothie" in order to cram more veggies into my diet. Not too bad! And I went to a Zumba class (haven't been to one of those in years!). As a former dance team member, the easy-to-follow, fast-paced moves and high-energy music turned a workout into FUN.

If you don't like it, change it. You have the power to change your life for the better.

What do you dislike? What change can you make to improve it?