It’s Not You. Getting Started Is Hard

Welcome to the community where together, we’ll dive deep and find the strength to never give up because Great Things Take Time.

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Here's what's in today's email

• Tips For Getting Your Morning Started

• Moments with Maurice (Eddie)

• Eddie Came Out To Dish

• What's Got Me Smilin'

• Couch Potato (Italy Version)

• Damn! You Put Your Foot In This Fall Lentil Soup

It’s Not You. Getting Started Is Hard

You did it! You started your day (whether or not you got out of bed is entirely a different conversation). To be clear, I mean this in the least passive-aggressive manner possible. Starting your day, especially at the beginning of your week, can be HARD. Whether your Sunday scaries turn into Monday anxiety, many of us face challenges in getting momentum going. 

When I was younger, it was a struggle for my Nana to get me out of bed. In fact, she would probably laugh at how early I get up now or that I do it for work. She would come into my room and sing a church song every morning, “Rise and shine, and give God your glory,” until I eventually budged from under the covers.

Sorry Kylie, Nana did “Rise and Shine” first.

Mornings were not for me; it wasn’t until I had early morning clients in the fitness world that I learned to appreciate early mornings and eventually love them. Now, I see early mornings as a personal investment for myself. It’s something that I’m doing to give back to myself. But it wasn’t easy getting to that point, and I had to work to find the right formula to get me going. Here are my tips to help get you started earlier in the morning: 

Adrian William’s Tips To Getting Your Morning Started

Set Yourself Up

Start reverse engineering your day on Friday or Saturday. Once you’ve gotten into a routine, you won’t need to spend as much time setting things up but plan what needs to be done the night before to set you up for Monday morning. Do you have your coffee ready to be brewed? Are your workout clothes and work clothes clean and ready to be laid out? Kids lunches packed? Knowing what needs to be done and set up when will prepare you to have a smooth morning. 

End Everything Early

Go to bed earlier, set your phone to a dimmer setting in the evening, and get off social media at least two hours before bed. No one needs their heart racing about something the algorithm fed to you at 9pm. That’s not how you deregulate yourself before bed! Something I was taught was to change the color tone on your phone. Your phone won’t seem nearly as interesting and will limit the dopamine hit.

Limit Excuses

If you’re trying to work out early in the morning, finding an excuse to skip it can be SO easy. If you didn’t plan and stayed up late doing laundry, it wouldn’t be hard to talk yourself into snoozing your alarm and getting up later. 

Find Your People (who you don’t want to disappoint)

It’s made me happy to see the Great Things Collective members planning to take classes together and holding each other accountable to showing up. If you know that people are counting on you, a virtual group, an in-person group, or a trainer, it makes it harder not to skip out on them. It can be easy to give yourself an excuse (I didn’t have any clean matching socks), but try saying that to someone else, and you’ll realize you’re just looking for an out. Plus, moving your body is so much more fun when you’re not just listening to the sound of your own breathing. 

Communication is Key

Make sure to voice your needs and what you’re working on to your partner or those around you. You might think that when you’ve told people that you’re getting up at 5am to get things done, they’d try not to keep you up at night, but things aren’t always that obvious. It can be as simple as, “Hey, I need to get up at 5am tomorrow. Could you help me finish things so I can start my bedtime routine by 7:30 pm?”

What You Tell Yourself Is Important

When you tell yourself you hate waking up early, that’s what your body will believe. It’s the same if you tell yourself you can’t do something when working out. Your body will stop being able to do what you want it to because your mind is more powerful. You must create the mindset, even if it’s a lie at first.

Something To Look Forward To

I get it; my various arm series or finishers might not be something you necessarily look forward to when it comes to moving your body early in the morning, but maybe you’re looking forward to your coffee. Or those five minutes before the rest of the house or neighborhood wakes up? Find that thing that gets you excited every time and use it as your motivation for what to look forward to.

Give Yourself A Countdown

When all else fails and that alarm goes off in the morning, give yourself a 5 or 10 count to be sitting up or standing. It goes a lot faster if your alarm is on the other side of the room 😉 

When all is said and done, if getting started in the morning still seems hard, cut yourself some slack. You might also come to find out that you’re not a morning person at all or that there are other habits you need to focus on changing first. Some say that when we wake up can be based on genetics, but there are also many factors that impact a person’s ability to wake up in the morning.

No matter when you get up though, promise me that you’ll at least try to drink enough water. It’s amazing what staying hydrated can do for things. Great Things May Take Time, but hydration can impact you pretty quickly.

Moments with Maurice Eddie

Last week, my planned mid-week content got commandeered by my friend Eddie while I was in Italy. Being out of the country, he took the reigns to give you a bit of insight into what it’s like to be my friend and if I’m really the same in person.

Speaking of being in Italy, is this something you’d like me to dive more in depth next week? Tell me below!

Eddie’s content centered around examining friendships and how we don’t reflect on the ones we’ve held onto for a long time. People can be instrumental to our growth, but sometimes we forget that, or we don’t see it.

Because no matter what, there is always something to smile about.

• Routine Switch: You know I’m an iced coffee guy, but the whole time I was in Italy, I drank hot coffee. If you asked for an iced coffee, they’d look at you like you had 15 heads. Silly American!

• Emotionally Charged Week: All week long I tried hard to disconnect from my phone to dive deep into conversations and appreciate the beauty around me. Because others were trying the same, everyone was more present and less likely to hold back. It made me grateful to have moments like these and wonder how I can manipulate my life to find time like this. You can’t always be disconnected (there are responsibilities like kids, work, and more) but how is it possible to create the little pockets of time?

  

  Chosen Family

• Groundbreaking Moments: A close friend learned to do something around our chosen family that could have been something they were taught by a professional. Instead, we all got to be part of their wins and celebrate them. It was special to be in a position of trust and share in the joy.

• Billy’s Tacos: I don’t know who Billy is, and why he has a restaurant in Italy, but he should not be making tacos. Nevertheless, it’s a funny story to tell and makes me grateful for all the wonderful food I had on the trip. You can’t have the good food without the bad!

• Italian Food: It is like they say, the food is different over there. There were a bunch of food sensitivities and allergies on this trip and no one felt effects of eating food that caused them problems. The quality of the source of Italian food made it so there really were no side effects from bread, pasta, and dairy that were consumed.

  

This week, there wasn’t much time spent watching TV, but rather having deep conversations. If you find yourself with people you trust, I recommend including some of the below in your conversations, you’ll feel good that you did.

• Loss: What does it mean to you? What loss have you dealt with recently? Pets, relationships, breakups, life transitions. Loss teaches you a lot about your life.

• Direct Honesty: Coaching and cheering each other on to be direct and honest with what you want to say to each other. Come from a place of love, but don’t beat around the bush.

• Rigidity: Where can you release rigidity? Are you really as strict with your requirements of people as you say you are? Specifically when it comes to dating and friendships, can you bend a little on your requirements? Why is everything (looks/job/hobbies) a hard no? A good person is a good person and being open to giving someone more than one chance may surprise you.

• Vulnerability: What do you really need from your partner or friendships? What are you scared to admit to each other? (I say each other, because so often it’s both people holding back from each other)

Food is a universal way of sharing and experiencing each other.

My grandma, my mom, and I have always been the same, it brings us joy to see people enjoying what we’ve made. Because of that, I want to give space for the community to share recipes that are so full of love, it makes people say "damn, you put your foot in this!" 

Each week, I’ll highlight a recipe from the community, sharing the story behind why this meal, dish or drink is special to them. What better way for us to get to know each other better and maybe even cook together?

Lentil Soup Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp coconut oil

• 2 tsp ground ginger

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp ground coriander

• 2 tsp ground turmeric

• 1 white or yellow onion, diced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 1 butternut squash, cubed (1-inch pieces)

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

• 32 oz vegetable stock

• 1 cup lentils

• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, rinsed

Recipe

1. Heat the oil and spices: In a large pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the ginger, cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant.

2. Cook the vegetables: Add the diced onion, garlic, bell pepper, and butternut squash. Cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften.

3. Season and add tomato paste: Add salt and pepper to taste, then stir in the tomato paste until well combined.

4. Add liquids and lentils: Pour in the coconut milk and stir until fully mixed. Then add the vegetable stock, lentils, and rinsed kidney beans. Stir to combine.

5. Bring to a boil and simmer: Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Adjust liquid (optional): If you prefer a thinner consistency, add water during the cooking process to reach your desired texture.

7. Serve: Taste and adjust seasoning as needed before serving. Enjoy!

Submit your recipes and story here

What To Expect From Me:

Monday’s newsletter will always be accessible to anyone that has subscribed to Great Things Take Time. I’ll highlight moments of my week, announcements, things that have brought me joy, and other things worth sharing. But to bring you even more great content we have the Great Things Collective, a paid subscription level for $9 a month that gets you the following:

• Access to a Subscribers’ Only Discord community to interact with myself and other like-minded friends. 

• Additional editions of the Great Things Take Time newsletter where I share stories from my life, lessons I’ve learned, guest authors, personal growth prompts and so much more!

• Exclusive access to in-person and virtual events. 

• The ability for YOU to share more in-depth with the Great Things Take Time community. 

• First in line to get all announcements, merch drops, and anything else fun I have planned to share with you. 

Thanks for being with me on this journey. I’m excited to see where this takes us, and what we’re going to achieve together. I know this is far from perfect, but together I hope we can grow it into exactly what it’s meant to be.

Remember:

-Adrian