Do You Dread Waking Up in the Morning?
Hey there. This is Bethanie Hansen, your coach at the Mindset for Life podcast. And I asked you this question today to start off the podcast. This is the topic we're going to be talking about. And the question is, "Do you dread waking up in the morning?"

Now that might seem like a really strange question to be asking you. But I'm Bethanie Hansen, known as "Dr. B," educator and coach. I help teachers, leaders, and coaches stop Sunday night dread and reclaim their power and purpose.

I've discovered that leaders, teachers and coaches care about the people they lead and the direction they're headed. They care about their students, they care about their clients and their customers. Everybody wants to feel confident in their role and treat people with love and integrity, even when other people are very challenging to be with.

I've been an educator and a coach for 28 years. And in my experience, sometimes it is hard to get up in the morning because of what's going to happen the next day. Somewhere in there, a sense of Sunday night dread creeps in. And we wish there might be a day off coming up.

At the same time, we even feel guilty for thinking it.

Well, what's helped me the most have been some of the tools, strategies and thought patterns that I now share with clients through education and professional coaching.

These very same things helped me to wake up and to reduce my own stress levels, to improve my sense of overall well being, and to be able to move through tough challenges with greater purpose. Now, I don't feel "that" way anymore.

Yesterday was a holiday. I got up, and I was so excited to be awake. I remember thinking, "I've got this whole, empty day. Nobody expects anything from me. I don't have to go to work. I get to do those things that have been on my list for weeks and weeks." I did some of those things. I cleaned the kitchen.

I did the dishes, I wiped down all the counters. It had been a mess for quite some time. Not a super clean kitchen. Went over to my mother's house, planted some things. Cleaned up some pots in the backyard. Really, really enjoyed the day. It felt great, felt amazing, in fact. And then today, it was a day to go to work. I got to do some coaching this afternoon.

I was looking forward to getting up. But at the same time, I wasn't. I remember waking up and laying in bed, and thinking, "Oh my goodness, do I have to get up this early? Why did I set my alarm for this hour?"

As I thought about it, I contemplated just like pushing the snooze button. I thought I might roll over and just go back to sleep. Then, I remembered my husband asking me politely a couple of days ago not to press the student snooze button over and over again while he was still sleeping. Because I'm just going to keep waking him up, right?

So as I'm thinking about staying in bed, I'm also thinking about how to be kind to my husband and thinking in the name of kindness to my husband, I'm going to be good to myself at the same time.

And I'm going to get out of bed quickly. I'm going to shower, and I'm going to put some energy behind it. I'm going to really try to wake up with vigor. And I'm going to get excited about this day.

That did not happen either. I got out of bed, I took the shower, I was still dragging. I just wasn't feeling that great. Then, I realized it was a sunny, beautiful day. And I rekindled that energy by taking a walk outside. That did it.

That helped. I was energized. I was ready to go. I entered one of my meetings, one of my calls, and I was able to participate and get some work done. I was very excited about how the day started.

Do you ever have a day like that where you get up and you start thinking about all the ways you could sleep in, just turn over, cover your head, reset the alarm and sleep a little bit longer? In fact, sometimes we have a whole arsenal of stories behind that, like why we deserve it,