Want to have a fresh start? Don’t start in the morning!
It was 26 years ago – I was wearing a chartreuse silk shirt dress – I was 18, and I had my first restaurant job. The shift had not gone well. Two people quit right before service. It was my 3rd day. It was dinner on a Thursday night on the west side of Keuka Lake one of the first weeks of being open on a Thursday after the winter season. It was packed.
I went from hostess to bartender to server in that shift. We were nearing the end of the night, and the chef-renowned salad dressing had an encounter with that silk dress. I was handed a tray full of plates….they started to tip and I folded my arms in to catch them like a grenade full of horseradish french salad scraps.
For me this was the end…but the veteran server who had basically handled the entire restaurant that night said “no way – you can not go home – throw on one of the t-shirts we have for lunch shift, we have to close – you have side work to do.”
The restaurant was now at a low murmor, the fireplace that was rarely sit on it’s last embers and I did the side work assigned. She asked ” you opening tomorrow?” While every part of me was not sure I should ever walk back in my voice said “yes” and she nodded “you’ll be glad you closed right.”
And that is when the seed of truth about mornings was planted.
How your morning unfolds is a reflection on how you closed.
I’ve read 5 Am Club, Miracle Morning, and I’ve read all the research on morning routines and rituals; for goodness sake, I am a Morning Person! But no morning routine can work around a crappy close.
How do you know if you have a crappy close:
- You have a backlog of things to do and find yourself overwhelmed regularly
- You rage read or Netflix binge much later into the night than you intended because it’s the only time you have for yourself
- You have no energy to actually do anything after your workday
- You’re tired – in the morning, in the middle and at night
- You don’t know what the day ahead holds