What Gets Me Up in the Morning?

I've been writing about thoughts I've had while reading Blue Zones--9 Lessons for Living Longer from the people who've lived the longest. The last of the characteristics which centenarians in "blue zones"--those regions that have a disproportionate number of individuals who live to be over 100--shared across the globe was a "sense of purpose."  I particularly liked the Okinawan's embrace of "ikigai"--the reason they get up in the morning.

While I've always felt like we have a reason that we are in the world, and I've also thought that it evolves over our lives, I've generally had the mental model of life purpose as a major contribution to the world.  However, in the blue zones the reason that gets people up in the morning is a focus of activity that individuals take with them through life.  For one, it is maintaining his ability to do certain physical exercises.  For another, it is hiking to the top of a ridge he has scaled every day for 80 years to see the spectacular view. For still another, it is caring for her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and sheer delight in holding her first great-great-grandchild.

Whatever it is for each of these, it is something that gets them out of bed in the morning.

I've actually been struggling with getting up in the morning during my transition period.  Not in a depressed way.  After a lifetime of bouncing up and hitting the day running, as the old commercial used to say, "My get-up-and-go got up and went."  I have shifted to a night-owl schedule which is more natural to me.  And, I really wanted not to have to b aroused by an alarm ever again.  I used to wake after 7-1/2 or 8 hours of sleep, even without the alarm, so why should I need it?  At first, when I slept long, I thought it was years of exhaustion accumulated and demanding rest.

Once I am up and moving, I can focus from activity to activity, and I get a reasonable amount accomplished.  I've been ticking things off my to-do list, and I am pleased to say that a long Outlook task list was completed today.  I've taken a number of webinars and am reading several books in parallel.  When I start moving, I have plenty of focus and energy.

It's just getting started.  About a week ago, I even started setting the alarm again, but except on the day when I had to report for surgery, I've shut it off and gone back to sleep.  Then I read about ikigai. While I have lots to keep me busy once I am awake, I don't feel like I have a reason that compels me to get up in the morning.  In large part, that is what this transition is about--finding that new purpose. But perhaps I've been aiming too high.  Maybe my purpose could be as simple as living the best life to carry me to 100 or writing in this blog every day, even though there are many days when no one reads it.

What, I've been asking myself, will make me want to bound from bed the way serving my clients did when I had a regular job? (And when that was gone, it told me that it was time to find something different to focus on in my life.)  I'm not there yet, but having the question will allow me to play around with some options when the alarm goes off in the morning.