Which self will you listen to?

Have you ever had this experience?

Your alarm goes off in the morning and you groan, slap it silent, and roll back over?

It goes off again 15 minutes later and you do it again?

It goes off at least one more time until finally you heave yourself out of bed into awakeness?

Each time it goes off: I don’t want to wake up now.

Yet you’re the one who set the alarm the night before.

Or are you?

The person who programmed your phone alarm to go off at the ungodly hour of 6:15am seems not to be the person who is fast asleep in dreamland when that phone alarm starts to make noise the next morning. The person who set the alarm – rude person! – assumed way too much. That person thought that X amount of hours of sleep would be plenty, that you’d feel rested and fresh and ready to bound out of bed once the alarm actually rings.

That person is long gone by the time wee-dawn hours of morning roll around and you’re dead tired and cannot bear the idea of facing the day.

The one who gets so rudely awakened by the damn alarm is nowhere near the same person as the one who set the darn thing in the first place.

Which person are you?

In actuality, you’re neither, as you can recognize when you finally haul yourself out of bed and make it to the kitchen for coffee, and the shower. Once you’re awake, that log-tired “I won’t get up” person is long gone. That person is replaced by the “Oh SHIT I’m so godd-mn late now!” panicky person who is cursing like mad at the lazy bum who couldn’t get out of bed on time.

These are clearly separate people, amirite?

Because what sane person would not get up when that alarm first starts beeping, given all that you’re supposed to do today, and how long it takes you just to get out of the house?

I’m here to tell you that there is a Self who is telling you to WAKE UP. That Self may not be heard all that often, but it’s there, prodding you, cajoling you, waiting. That Self is always ready for you to make a move and act. That Self is the one with the good intentions – the best of intentions – who only wants you to succeed in your joy.

Which self will you listen to?