{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Staring At the Clock","description":"On this week's Keepin' It Real, what was Cam doing today at 4:59am? Well, he wasn't getting out of bed. That we know for sure. ----- Most mornings I\u2019m staring at the clock about 4:30 am waiting to get up. I won\u2019t allow myself to get out of bed before 5am. Getting your day started at 5am means you\u2019re aggressive. You\u2019re eager to get going. Getting out of bed before 5am means you have a problem. They\u2019re slight gradations. Minutes matter and 4:59am is a good bit different from 5am. I stare at the clock until it turns 5 when I feel like it\u2019s ok to jump up and get the coffee started. Most of my friends are much the same. I sat at my kitchen table last Saturday night with two friends as we waited for the beef ribs to get to 203 degrees, which, according to one of my kitchen guests, is the magic temperature for beef ribs. Each of us talking about how early we get up and what we do in those early morning hours. It\u2019s worth noting that none of us do anything much interesting at all at this time of day. We make busy. We putter around. Each thinking that our behavior at that hour must be fascinating to others and we can\u2019t wait to tell them about it. It\u2019s not. As different as we think we are, we\u2019re all remarkably the same at that time of day. Years back I saw that when I accomplished something at that time of day it set a precedent for getting stuff done throughout the day. If I could check something off my list first thing in the morning \u2013 even something small - then I was likely to accomplish more during the day. This is to avoid staring into my phone as my first action of the day which leads to a poor beginning to the day. So at night, I cue up my early morning project. It\u2019s simple stuff \u2013 I fold laundry, empty the dishwasher, take trash to the street, change a lightbulb. Something small done with one eye on the coffee maker. Because when the coffee maker beeps that the coffee is ready, the projects stop, the coffee goes into my cup, and it\u2019s go-time for the day. But, in that short amount of time the coffee is brewing, I\u2019ve made progress on having a good day. It\u2019s unfair that the first fifteen minutes of each day has such great influence over the following sixteen hours. I\u2019m more like a child protecting its pacifier than any sort of adult doing adult things. But I\u2019ve learned, so goes my morning, so goes my day. A more mentally disciplined person would never allow that to happen \u2013 they can set a positive trajectory by shaping their thoughts anytime of the day. I, however, am vulnerable to those first fifteen minutes. It\u2019s shocking and, frankly it disappoints me about myself. Amazing how beholden we are to our routines, isn\u2019t it? Amazing how we count on them like we do. I can choose to get out of my routine and enjoy it. But knock me out of my routine unwillingly and I struggle to keep my day from deteriorating. So I protect it. And any parent knows what I know about myself \u2013 you don\u2019t mess with the pacifier. I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"