A couple things you should know about me:

1. I do not enjoy waking up to an alarm
2. I especially do not enjoy waking up to an alarm when its sole purpose is to get me up for a workout

Recently, the hubs and I started a new workout regime. It’s intense. It’s challenging. And it’s schooling my body on muscles I never knew existed. Yet despite the daily soreness and occasional dosing of anti-inflammatory meds, I’m surprisingly getting into it. I’m jumping on boxes, attempting rope climbs, and still chasing the elusive unassisted pull-up—yet my biggest hurdle remains whether or not I can get myself out of bed.

Due to our schedule, one of us has to choose the 5 a.m. class so the other can go to the 7 a.m. class. No brainer for me, right? I’ll take “Late Gym Workouts” for $200, Alex. That being said, I’ve actually made a handful of the 5 a.m. classes much to the astonishment of me and my husband. I figure if he got up at 4 a.m. every day of his life for 22-plus years in the military, I should certainly be able handle…well…a few.

On the eve of one of these “few,” rare 5 a.m. commitments, the hubs informs me as we’re headed to bed that he’s changed his mind about the 7 a.m. workout.

“Why don’t you take it?” he offers. “I’ll go later in the day and you can sleep in.”

Easiest yes of my life.

“Really? Ok, sure!” I answer back as I change my alarm to a much more reasonable time.

The next morning, my alarm goes off at 5:55 a.m. Per my usual response, I hit snooze. The alarm wakes me again, and I hit snooze again.

I’m tired. I’m unmotivated. And my window of opportunity to make it to the gym is quickly shrinking. And then I hear it.

It’s not my alarm again…but rather a voice in my head.

“Sarah…you’ve been given a gift. Don’t waste the gift.”

My husband had graciously offered up his time slot and here I lay in all my lazy gloriousness about to throw that opportunity away.

“It’s a gift,” I echoed quietly back, then glanced at my phone. It was 6:15. I willed myself out of bed, quickly dressed, and made it to class.

At that point, it didn’t even matter to me if I had lifted a single weight. Just getting there was a personal victory. A victory made possible because of a simple shift in my perspective.

Instead of focusing on my alarm (which, let’s be honest, feels like the enemy of my soul), or the fact that I was feeling tired and lazy…I decided to focus on this moment as the gift that it was.

The gift of time given to me by husband. The gift of health to be physically able to go and workout. The gift of finances that allows us both to have a gym membership. The gift of self-care where I can take time just for me to do something personally rewarding and rejuvenating.

You see friend, when we start to view our lives as a gift, things start to radically change. We begin to value and honor people more. We start to see challenges as opportunities. We become better stewards of the possessions and responsibilities we’ve been given, showing them greater care and appreciation.

We become better.

We become glass half-full people.

We become hopeful.

We become the person God intended for us to be.

And sometimes, it’s as easy—or hard—as viewing your alarm clock as a gift and not a curse. It’s waking me up with and for a purpose.

We’re in this together, friend. Let’s choose to make the most of our lives. Let’s choose not to waste the opportunities we’ve been given. Let’s choose—quite literally in my case—not to snooze, but seize the day.

Life is a gift and so are you. Let’s do this!