2020 Reads

Each year I have a goal of reading more books. In the past, I have started out with the best intentions on January 1st but usually end up derailing somewhere in mid-March.

About 5 years ago, I realized I needed something for myself. I needed to do something to fill up my cup so that I had the energy to show up for my family, my business, and tackle the to do list without feeling completely drained by the end of the day. You see, my fault up until that point was thinking I could continue to pour from an empty cup all day, every day.

I knew I wanted to carve out some time in my day that was only for me. I just had to figure out when I would be able to do that. Having a toddler at the time, reading in the middle of my day just didn’t seem plausible. Reading at the end of my day didn’t seem to be the best option either. After entertaining a toddler, running all the errands, cleaning the house, cooking, keeping up with the laundry, running a business and finishing our home renovations on our house flip, the only thing I wanted to do was get to my pillow and crash at the end of the day.

I had heard about the 5 o’clock club from multiple sources over the years. Each time I heard a leader talk about getting up at 5am, I cringed at the thought of sacrificing more sleep than I had to!

When I really looked at my daily schedule it became painstakingly obvious that the only real time that would accommodate “almost” guaranteed uninterrupted “me” time….was the early morning, before our daughter woke up.

I remember feeling annoyed at first when I realized that my quiet time would mean sacrificing an hour or so of sleep. Honestly, I think I attempted it at first because I didn’t believe it would work. I thought, “I’m going to try this and if I don’t get anything out of it I can go right back to sleeping in.”

Joke was on me. Turns out that quiet time in the morning was not only something that filled me up and gave me energy to tackle my day, but also became pivotal in growing a deeper faith. Being still and quiet became an essential part of praying, listening and learning what God was trying to lay on my heart.

I wish I could tell you that every day since then has been a perfectly quiet, delightful morning. But, I cant. What I can tell you, is that there have been seasons when waking up earlier just wasn’t appealing. When we had our son two years ago, I was seriously sleep deprived for fourteen months…he rarely slept for more than 2-3 hours at a time. (Can anyone relate?) So, I clung to the hope that eventually I would enter a season when I could welcome my morning reading time back.

This past year that season finally arrived. I started waking up earlier in January 2020 and what’s transpired is a year’s worth of personal growth, a deeper faith, a greater sense of purpose, and more confidence. If you have had joining the 5 o’clock club on your bucket list but struggle with committing to it, stay tuned…I’ll have a whole blog post coming about how I trained myself to wake up earlier.

This past year, instead of choosing a specific number of books to read, I kept the rules loose. I decided if I picked up a book but found myself struggling to get through it, I would set it aside and return to it later. If it wasn’t the book for the moment I was in, I wasn’t going to let it haunt me on my nightstand. In previous years, I would start a book, find myself struggling to get through it, set it aside and watch it collect dust until I forced myself to pick it back up and finish it. That way of approaching my reading time severely hindered my ability to check even a handful of books off my ever-growing list of books I’d like to read “someday.”

This year, I had my highlighter and coffee ready and embarked on a journey of personal development and deeper faith. My favorites, the ones that moved me deeply this past year, are asterisked. If you are looking to create and master new habits this year, I would highly recommend the first 5 in that order.

My 2020 book list:

*The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

*The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins

*Atomic Habits by James Clear

*On Fire by John O’leary

*The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod

*Dream Big by Bob Goff

Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money by Dave Ramsey

Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson

Secrets of Six Figure Women by Barbara Stanny

One Word that will change your life by Jon Gordon

Make today a beautiful day,