Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - New Year 7-Day Challenge: Day 1, Own It

Episode Date: January 1, 2022

Today is day 1 of the 7-day challenge. We'll take an accounting of our lives and own every aspect of it. Enjoying Wake Me Up? Get ad-free access to the entire WMU catalog + bonus content by joining the WMU Premium Feed. Sign up and start your 7-day free trial at https://wakemeup.supercast.com/. Follow the show on Spotify - Apple Podcasts - Podchaser Say hi or request an episode at www.wakemeuppodcast.com/contact. And find the podcast on Instagram and TikTok. **Only partake in the physical movements suggested in Wake Me Up episodes if you are physically able and in safe surroundings. All movements are done at the individual's own risk. Be safe, and always consult a doctor if you have any questions or concerns.** Have a wonderful day 😃 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you'd like to enjoy Wake Me Up completely ad-free and get access to exclusive bonus content, check out the link in the show notes for the Wake Me Up premium feed. Good morning and welcome to Wake Me Up. I'm Tyler, your host, and I'm so glad to have you here, because this is the very first day of our seven-day challenge to start the new year. This episode is all about taking ownership of your life. celebrating your wins, acknowledging your losses, and assessing where you stand, how you feel about everything, and what direction you want to go from here. So in today's episode, we'll focus on the

status quo. We'll take an accounting of our lives, noting what's working well and what we would like to improve. I encourage you to go through this with radical honesty, acceptance, and self-love. We all are full of beautiful things, and we all are full of flaws. And it's all good. This is what makes life fun and interesting. So, I hope you're excited to begin this journey. I'm so grateful to have you here. Before we get up, let's take one moment to think of one thing

that we're grateful for. A reason you have to be excited for today. And it might be that this is the first day of a brand new year. You've made it. Another time around the sun.

That's always something to celebrate. For me, I'll say that I'm grateful to have you. It really means so much to me, and I've put together this program specifically for you. I want to see you thrive. So let's not waste another moment in bed and let's start getting after it. Take a big inhale, and as you exhale, roll over in bed and make your way to standing up. Now that we're all standing, let's do a quick stretch to help wake the body.

As with all stretches on this show, only take part if you're physically able. And if you'd prefer to do something else, then please do that instead. This is your time and your morning, and you should do exactly as you want with it. Since we're embarking on a brand new journey, let's do a stretch that opens the heart and mind to new opportunities. And it's really simple. Just spread your arms out wide. as far to the sides as you can. Feel the stretch across your chest.

And then close your arms, wrap them around yourself, and give yourself a big hug, opening across the back as you do this. And we'll do this a couple times more. So inhale and extend your arms out wide. Again, feeling that stretch across the chest. Nice and gentle.

And then exhale, close your arms, Give yourself that hug. One more time now, inhale, spreading your arms out wide, and exhale, wrap yourself up. Now this time, inhale and reach your hands all the way to the sky. We're going to do my favorite stretch. Reach as far as you possibly can, all the way to the ceiling. And then exhale and fold forward at your waist.

Nice and slow, make your way down. And when you get there, let everything relax. Soften your neck. Let your arms hang down. And maybe you have a nice bend in your knee. You can sit perfectly still here if you'd like. I personally like to sway side to side. You can bend one knee and then the other.

Explore this stretch in whatever way feels right for you. Nobody knows your body better than you do. So take whatever you need. All right, now slowly begin to roll up to standing. And when you get there, roll your shoulders up, back, and down. Wonderful. So if you want to do more stretches, then by all means, do so. You can press pause and come back whenever you're ready.

For everyone else who's ready to move on, then find a comfortable seat and go ahead and grab a piece of paper. and something to write with. Instead of doing a meditation today, we're going to do a mindfulness exercise. And I think you'll find that even though it's not meditation, this exercise offers a certain clarity of mind. So hopefully you've found somewhere to sit down

and you have something to write on and something to write with. What we're going to do today is take a quick accounting of our lives. It's a very simple process. What I want you to do first is draw one line straight down the middle of this piece of paper. Divide it in half. And then towards the top, draw a line horizontally. So you have a T. On the left side, write positive.

On the right side, write negative. What we're going to do is go through a handful of topics that will give a cross-section of the major parts of your life. There will be time allotted for each topic, and during that time, just free flow write, journal, list positive and negative things, everything in between. Seriously, whatever comes to mind, write it down.

This is a brainstorming exercise. So there are no limits. We'll filter through it later and decide what's relevant and important. So for now, just focus on getting everything down. And don't worry, I'll guide you through everything. So you should have your piece of paper with a positive column on the left and a negative column on the right. And as we go through this, you probably want to make a little section for each of these individual topics. The first one is your health.

What positive things can you say about your health? aspects of your health cause you stress or you feel like you could improve. Write down anything that comes to mind. It really is a free flow exercise. That's enough time on our health topic. Let's move to the next one. Relationships. This is your friends, your family, any significant other or love relationships,

or lack thereof for any of those. Start with the main people who, are your main positive relationships. What relationships cause you the most stress and the most problems? What are some positive relationships that you'd like to explore more of, that you'd like to grow? Do you feel like you're lacking relationships in any sense? All right, let's move to our next topic. And we'll call this one your focus of productivity. It might be your career, it could be school, could be caring for a loved one. It's going to be different for all of us.

But whatever it is for you, what aspects of it do you enjoy? What positives does it bring to your life? Aspects of it cause you stress or problems. What parts of it do you not enjoy? Consider whether this is what you want to spend the main thrust of your productive time on and ask yourself whether you find fulfillment out of faith.

this. All right, let's move to our next topic. And we'll call this one interests, hobbies, things that you're learning, side projects, anything of that nature. It could be buying a house or a creative outlet. We've all got different ones. So just begin by listing a few of them. And start with the main ones. Do you have one? Do you have many that come to mind? Do you want to spend more or less time on your interests? And if so, which ones specifically? Do you find fulfillment out of one or more of these interests? Are there any negative sides to pursuing these interests?

And let's move to our last category. And I'd like to call this one holes or gaps, things that are missing in your life. What is that you find yourself dating? dreaming about. What inspires you that you're not yet doing? Problems or stressors are leaving you feeling empty. And maybe some of these things are addressed in prior categories, but maybe they're not. You should see this as sort of our catch-all category for other things we haven't addressed yet. All right. So that completes all of our brainstorming. And the first thing we should do after completing this is take a moment of gratitude and celebration for all of the good things going on in your

life. Look at all those positives. You see, you're already winning. Give yourself a pat on the back because you deserve it, but I'm sure that there are also some negatives, and we'll come to address those. Give yourself credit for acknowledging them, for being honest with yourself and committing to growth because there's a lot of people who are too scared to do that. Now hold on to this piece of paper because we'll come back to it

a few more times this week. And don't let this exercise disappear into the void. As you go through your day, think back on this. If new things come to mind, write them down. I'll tell you this over and over this week.

Everything we're doing here is a work in progress. You're not committed to anything, and you will truly never be done growing. My friends, whatever you have going on, whatever problems and setbacks, whatever excitements, at this very moment,

take complete ownership of your life. No, you don't control everything that happens to you, but you've made choice after choice, choice after choice. And that is largely what has brought you to where you are today. Only you have the power and the ability to change your current circumstances. But to do that, you have to own your current status quo. You can't blame others for your life. That's a waste of time and energy. Every second you blame someone else is a second you could have been changing it yourself. It's only once you own it and are completely

honest with yourself about your strengths, your weaknesses, what interests you and what doesn't, about what fulfills you and what doesn't. It's only after you own all of this that you can begin to change it. Otherwise, you'll be driving down a path blind. And don't be scared of owning your life. We all have things we want to change. You should take pride in the fact that you're doing it. And trust me, when you truly own your life, it is such an empowering feeling

because finally, you can begin to move forward. You can stop being chained down by your past. You can form a future that inspired. you, that fulfills you, that makes you want to get up every morning and chase it, create it, with every ounce of energy in your body. So my friends, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a wonderful start. I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow. Until then, go out and make this day a fantastic one.