Then I thought of my amazing wife. I call her amazing because she is! She goes out running every morning with her running partner Ramona, no matter what. Rain, sleet, snow, wind, darkness or extreme cold doesn’t stop her. As I looked out the window this morning I knew that my wife was already out there in this miserable storm doing a 10-mile run.

So with that thought I forced myself to get on my hiking gear and drove up to the trailhead for my hike. I pulled on my rain poncho and headed up the trail. By this time it was beginning to get light.

Yesterday I shared some photos of the beautiful fall colors I encountered on a recent hike. Today I was met first with rain and then with SNOW! Since the leaves haven’t all fallen yet they were covered with a heavy coating of wet snow. This weighed the branches down causing them to bend across the trail. It made it a challenge for me to plow through the branches that were blocking my path.

Of course the wet snow soaked my legs and arms that weren’t covered by my rain poncho. So I was cold and wet and you would think – miserable. But I wasn’t miserable! In fact I had a great time. It was a fabulous morning. I loved the crisp air and the snow covered trees.

There is something magical about the combination of exercising your body and being out in nature. You just can’t help but feel good. I noticed as I came down the mountain that I had a huge grin on my face. It came so easily and naturally. It just couldn’t be helped.

It makes me wonder how much depression in the world could be alleviated by being on a program such as this. Instead of drugs and counseling, perhaps all that many people need is daily exercise and a daily experience among God’s creations. What a concept! Maybe you should give it a try.

Have a great day!

Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson

This is what I ran in to. I thought I had prepared well so I could get to bed on time. It was on my mind. I was conscious of it.

First of all Halloween is coming and our kids are actively working on their costumes. My son Preston and I had gone on what we call a daddy date. About once a month I take each of my children on a date. We call it a daddy date. We go out and do whatever it is they want to do. Typically we go eat at some fast food place and go to a movie. But these days it’s hard to find a decent movie that we haven’t already seen. So we couldn’t find a movie to go to, so I asked Preston what we should do. We decided to go to a couple of the local thrift stores and look for costumes. Preston was excited about that. He’s my thirteen year old son.

When we got home Preston started pulling out his vampire costume and all the paraphernalia he had purchased and began trying it on. When my other son, Kenny, saw this he started pulling out his costume trying it on. I had purchased some items for my Halloween costume and so I started trying my things on. We were having fun trying on our costumes.

Now, in my family we have a longstanding tradition of having family prayer and scripture reading before we go to bed. We’ve done this since our children were babies. So I know that this is going to take place and it will last a good fifteen minutes or so.

So my goal was to get that process going by 9:30. I might do another blog entry some day on the concept of family prayer and scripture reading and why we do it and the experience we’ve had as a family. Like I’ve said, I’m a believer in God and I’m a believer in prayer.

So anyway, I began to call the children together to have family prayer. When I told them it was time for family prayer it was like pulling teeth because they were in the middle of doing all this and I was trying to get them to realize it was time to go to bed. There was still homework to be done and we needed to have prayer.

So that took time. It took longer than usual to get them ready. My wife had been gone that evening. She was refereeing a girl’s volley ball game. So when we were finally about to have family prayer she came home and so that delayed things a bit more because I asked her how the game went and how her day was. We finally got going with prayer. We were a little behind schedule but it still looked like things would be okay for me to get to bed on time.

So after prayer, as I was about to go to bed when my wife says, “Have you read the letter we got from Bryce today?” This is our twenty-year-old son who left recently to live in Taiwan for a few years. He had sent us a letter and a CD of pictures that I hadn’t seen yet. So my wife was like, “Oh you have to read his letter and look at the pictures he sent on the CD.”

That’s probably where I made my mistake. I should have said “I’d love to read it and see the photos but I’ll have to do it tomorrow morning.” But instead I thought I could do it real quick right then. The letter was short, just one page and that wasn’t a big deal. But the CD had 150 pictures on it. My son Kenny hadn’t seen the pictures either and so he wanted to see them. So we sat down at the computer. The computer wasn’t even on so we had to wait for the computer to come up, put the CD in, find the right folder and start looking at the photos.

I remember that as I was sitting at the computer looking at the photos I saw the little clock on the computer and saw that it was 10:45 p.m. and I realized then that I had blown it on practically my first day of trying to get to bed on time.

I thought, “How could I mess up so soon?” And like I explained on my other blog entry about getting to bed on time (Staying Up Late – Is it Worth It?) once you get past a certain point you think, “Oh well, I’ve blown it already so I may as well keep going.” So that’s what we did and went ahead and looked at all 150 photos on the CD. So by the time I got ready for bed and brushed my teeth, wrote in my journal and had prayer with my wife – by the time all that happened it was 11:30 p.m.

Okay, that was a very long description to tell you how and why I didn’t make my goal of getting to bed on time.

Now here is my evaluation of how to prevent that:

I should have stopped the process earlier. I was doing okay with getting the family together for prayer, but it was when I decided to read the letter and look at the photos – that’s where I blew it. That’s where my mistake was made.

So what were the results? The results were that I woke up this morning very tired. I was surprised how tired I felt. My alarm went off at five and I hit the snooze button and I didn’t get up until six. So I was behind schedule which threw my whole morning off and so again I’m paying the price of staying up late.

Now granted it wasn’t two in the morning, it was 11:30 p.m. But still, that one hour bumps everything and affects the whole next day.

So the point is you’ve got to be prepared. You’ve got to look ahead and plan because it’s going to catch you. Surprises are going to come up. Somebody’s going to knock on your door. Somebody’s going to call you. Something’s going to happen and it’s going to interrupt your routine or interrupt your commitment and your goal of getting to bed on time.

You’ve got to remember the prices you pay. Is the extra hour or two at night worth the cost? Keep in mind the costs.

Then you’ve got to plan – plan for surprises, plan for changes, plan for the unexpected and be prepared with your answers. Remember your commitment and just say “no.” Say, “I can do that tomorrow. I can do it in the morning. I can get up earlier in the morning.” Have your ammunition ready because it will come. The changes and surprises will come and you need to be prepared for it. I wasn’t prepared last night. So tonight I will be better prepared with this goal of getting to bed on time.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Thank you.

Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson

Is it worth it? I heard that question this morning. If was from my wife Lisa. She knows me too well. Let me back up a bit. I was in the bathroom shaving this morning when my wife walked in. Her greeting wasn’t, “Good morning dear, how did you sleep?” It was, “Soooo…you stayed up until 2:00 in the morning. You know what that does to you. Is it worth it?” I didn’t give her an answer. I didn’t have a good one to give.

I have a character flaw. It is not knowing when to quit a project and go to bed. I was working on some articles last night and before I knew it, it was nearly 2:00 a.m. Lisa had long since gone to bed and was sound asleep. When I crawled into bed she didn’t wake up or roll over or even move a muscle. I thought I was safe and she would never know how late I went to bed. How she knew what time I went to bed is a mystery to me. It’s one of those mysteries of women that men can’t figure out.

So she had me. She asked me if it was worth it because she knows from past experience the price I usually pay for staying up late.

Is it worth it?

Before I can determine if it’s worth it I need to find out why I stay up late, what the benefits are, and what price I end up paying for those benefits. Then I can determine if the benefits are worth the price I pay.

Why do I stay up late?

For different people there are different reasons why they stay up late. If you have this problem then you know what your reasons are. Perhaps you stay up late watching television. Or maybe you love to read. Maybe its endless video games or surfing the internet or chatting with babes online. You know what your reasons are.

For me it usually involves a project I want to get done. Because my days are so full I feel that the only time I have is late at night. I see I have an hour before my normal time to go to bed and I’ll think, “Great, I’ve got a whole hour. I can get an article written in that amount of time. So I’ll begin working on my project. Invariably whatever I’m working on takes much longer than I expected. I grossly underestimate the time it will take.

The next thing that happens is I’ll look at the clock and think, “Well, I’ll just work until eleven.” Before I know it it’s midnight and I still haven’t got my project done. But by now my ideas are flowing. I’m making progress. I’ve got my momentum going. So I think, “I can’t quit now! I can’t stop my flow of ideas and thoughts just as they are getting going!”

It’s so hard for me to stop a project right in the middle. I feel compelled to get it done. I hate loose ends. So I keep going.

By now I’m thinking, “Gee, it’s already so late. I’ve already blown it. I may as well just keep going.” So I keep working until the project is done.

And that, my friend, is how I ended up working until two in the morning!

What are the benefits of staying up late?

So I have to ask myself: What benefits do I gain by staying up late?

1. Of course the main benefit is actually getting something done.
2. Probably the next biggest benefit in my mind is TIME. Time for me seems to be in short supply, so whenever I can find a block of time I grab it.
3. The next benefit would be that the time is uninterrupted time. Not too many people bother you at that time of night. Nobody schedules meetings. No one calls you. You are free from distractions. So having a block of uninterrupted time is a great benefit.
4. Another benefit is going to bed with the feeling of accomplishment, of having finished a project.

What is the price I pay for staying up late?

Let’s now take a moment and examine what I am paying for those benefits. What are the real costs to me? As I have thought about what it costs me I have come to realize that there is a huge domino effect that comes into play. One thing seems to lead to another. Let me explain.

• The first domino to fall is that I feel extremely tired in the morning and it lasts throughout the day.
• The next domino is that I feel lousy. In addition to being exhausted and tired, I usually have a headache because of lack of sleep. Many times that headache will develop into a full-blown migraine and then for sure my day is wasted. 
• The next domino to fall is my inability to get up on time. Because I feel so tired I can’t get up at my regular time.
• The next price I pay is getting that “look” from my wife when she says, “So, you stayed up until 2:00 in the morning.” I could see the look of disappointment on her face because she knows what it costs me when I stay up too late. So the real cost is the erosion of my relationship with my wife.
• The next cost is being behind schedule. Because I didn’t get up on time it messes up my schedule for the whole day.
• Because I’m behind schedule the next price I pay is not being able to exercise in the morning.
• Next is the cost of not being able to do my daily personal study session. Every morning I try to study and ponder good books. I can’t do that when I have no time.
• Another big cost is not having time to plan my day.
• Because my day isn’t planned then I fail to accomplish important tasks that I should have gotten done.
• The next big price I pay is more stress in my life. Because I’m behind schedule I find myself in a big rush and my stress level rises.
• Because I’m stressed then I’m in a bad mood.
• What puts me into a worse mood is having no time to eat breakfast, one of the most important meals of the day. So in addition to feeling lousy and tired and having a headache, I’m also hungry.
• Then I get to work late. Here I come strolling into work 45 minutes or an hour late. How does that look to my boss, my subordinates and the employees I manage in my department? Not good. Big price.
• When I eventually do get to work my productivity and my ability to think clearly is affected because I’m so drained.
• The overall affect continues throughout the day. Because I got to work late in the morning that means I have to stay late to be fair to my employer.
• Because I had to work late then I get home late. The price I pay is getting, for second time of the day, that “look” from my wife when I walk in the door. She doesn’t have to say anything – I can see the disappointment in her eyes.
• Because I’m late getting home I miss having dinner with my family.
• If I have meetings or commitments in the evening then I either have to gobble down my dinner or miss dinner altogether because I don’t have time.
• The tendency to fail in other areas of my life. When I’m tired and hungry and angry and discouraged and stressed and depressed then I’m more susceptible to failing in other areas where I have made commitments. Failure loves company.
• Finally, the last domino to fall is the cost of having an overall feeling of frustration and disappointment with myself. My self-esteem takes a big hit.

As you can see the dominos keep falling, one after the other. Its amazing how one little decision the night before affects the entire next day.

Is it worth it?

After weighing the benefits with the costs, it becomes clear that it’s a huge price you pay for that 2 or 3 hours that you think you are gaining by staying up late.

What is the solution?

Well, duh! The solution is to stop staying up late – right? Easier said than done. Here are some ideas to help in mastering this part of your life.

First: You have to make a serious commitment with yourself that you are not going to stay up late any more for any reason.

Second: You have to have a deadline for going to bed. This means you need to decide what time you will be in bed with your head on the pillow and your lights out.

Third: You have to determine how long it takes you to get ready for bed so you know what time you need to begin going to bed. It takes time to brush your teeth, change into your pajamas and whatever else you do before going to bed. If your goal is to be in bed by 11:00 p.m. and it takes you a half-hour to get ready for bed then you need to begin by 10:30 p.m.

Fourth: You need to think ahead and make sure you don’t start anything you can’t finish or end by 10:30 p.m. You can’t be going to a movie at 9:30 at night because you know a movie is roughly two hours and it takes time to get there and time to get home and you’ll never make it.

Okay, so I’ve laid out a very convincing argument against staying up late. I’ve shown that the costs far outweigh any benefits that might be gained. I’ve also laid out a simple plan to change this habit. And I’ve done it all for your benefit. But really, that would be a lie. You see, this really is a challenge to myself to master this area of my life. It’s something I’ve known for a long time that I needed to change.

So, beginning today, I am going to follow this plan and report back to you how I’m doing. Thanks for listening in as I have attempted to convince myself of all the reasons to change. Wish me luck on this challenge.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Thank you.
Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson