My Family's Genetic Musical Gift Skipped Me

A Screaming Goat Wins Four Grammy Awards (2/3)

What strikes me most about this story is how often it repeats itself and how some teachers who are supposed to encourage little ones make unsupportive comments about their students' pursuits.

However, it is not only teachers who make these comments; parents do, too.

My dad's side of the family was all very musical.

My grandma played the piano, and my grandpa locked himself in his studio early in the morning, drank whiskey, and listened to records until it was time for dinner.

My uncles played guitars and sang, and my aunts were all part of the Catholic choir in their neighborhood church. They would get together and sing at family parties.

My dad would serenade all of his love prospects.

It was part of their blueprint.

I would've loved that blueprint. I wanted to learn how to play guitar since I was a little boy. But my dad converted to Evangelical Christianity, and he could no longer play the music of the world. So, I never learned how to play guitar.

My sister inherited his melodic voice. People loved to hear her sing.
My mom would fawn over her any time she sang. I wanted a little bit of that glory.

So, I would sing for my mom, too. And then, I would ask her, "Mom, what do you think of my singing." And she would say, "Your sister has a beautiful voice, and you..."

I would stare at her expectantly waiting for the end of her sentence that would confirm that I, too, was melodic as Garbiras can be, "You are good at math."

She wasn't wrong.

I was good at math.

But that was not the response I was looking for.

Maybe I just wanted a little encouragement that would help me feel comfortable singing outside the shower.

There is a reason why it is hard to wake up early, and it goes beyond, "Well, my sheets are just too comfy." I'm sure that's true. But one of the main reasons is that "waking up" is a new behavior, and its preceding behavior, "sleeping," is just too biologically compelling to ignore. It seems so simple, yet so many people struggle to wake up a little earlier to work on something they enjoy.

The reason is simple: sleeping is a tough behavior to anchor a new habit to, meaning you can't create a sequence from it. You need to introduce a disruption from sleep, and sometimes an alarm is enough. But it is not enough when waking up before sunrise is unnatural.

Here is one that can help you.

Set your phone with its alarm away from your bed and right on top of your working space. Introducing motion into your "waking up" cluster of behaviors can help your body get a signal that you are done with sleep. But also you are at your working station. Boot up your computer and go after it!

But that's only one cue. 

When you are trying to establish a new behavior, you need to pile on the cues to ensure success.

If you have always wanted to carve out time for a writing practice, then join me next week on my webinar, "Wake Up & Write." I'll be going live on Zoom on Thursday, May 8th, at 8 AM Pacific Time. I'll cover the habits necessary to create a morning routine that includes the keystone behaviors necessary to consistently wake up early and write.