Originally published on LinkedIn July 22, 2022

I am generally a happy person. In the time before (pre-COVID) when we didn’t wear masks all the time, people would comment that I’m always smiling. I am.

I love my life, my husband, my family, and my job. The people I see regularly tend to think that I wake up like this. That I pop out of bed and smile and start my day in the best mood.

 Well, nope.

I’m not happy in the morning when my alarm goes off. I push the snooze a few times. I have to set three alarms including a Blake Shelton one on my bedroom Echo that says “Isn’t it time for a drink? I mean coffee. You better get up!” over and over. I must yell “ALEXA, OFF!!!!” to make it stop.

Since childhood, I have a hard time waking up and getting in a good mood. When I was a kid, I hated when my mom would come in to wake me. I would say “I’m not getting up yet.” She would ask me why and I would say “I don’t feel like it right now!”

This was a good saying, I thought, because it was one she taught me. Whenever another kid wanted me to do something I didn’t want to do I was to say “No thank you. I don’t feel like doing that right now.” Or some version of that. She was trying to teach me to be polite and less, let’s just say, direct (AKA rude).

She was not trying to teach me to avoid something necessary. We weren’t allowed to avoid something necessary.

When I pulled the “I don’t feel like it right now!” on any given morning, my mom said one of her top three tips for life, depending on the circumstance. Usually, the top three started with something like “Well, that’s not going to work.”

So, she would say “Well, that’s not going to work. You have school. Get up and wash your face. You will feel better.” I would and I did feel better. This is how I learned to get up and get going. It still works.

My mom’s top three tips for life:

• Get up and wash your face. You will feel better.
• Walk around the block. You will feel better.
• Drink some water. You will feel better.

As an adult, I see her genius. These tips work for just about everything a kid might say: I’m bored. I’m hungry. I’m tired. I’m hot. I’m mad.

To this day, once I’m up and wash my face, I feel much better.

Once I’ve had a bit of coffee, I drink a glass of water and I feel better.

Then, I head out to walk before I go to work. I am blessed to live in the same town with two of my three sisters and we walk early together on weekdays. It makes me feel so much better.

My sisters, my brother, and I lost both parents in the last few years. I think about them often. They were good parents. Our dad worked long hours when we were young, so I spent more time with mom as a kid.

I think about her every day. She was the first person who really knew me and loved me anyway.  

My mom took a grumpy, rude kid and turned her into a nice person who cares about others.

That’s why she spills over into my LinkedIn. She spills over into every part of me and I feel so much better!

I highly recommend her tips for you to try. You will feel better.

Trust me. My mom was never wrong.