For the past two years, every morning at 6:30 am sharp, I send my family either an inspirational graphic or a motivational quote. I come from a very close-knit family, but life has taken us all in different directions.
My morning text allows us to keep in touch and connect daily. You see, we live in different households, different states, and we were falling out of touch with each other.
It’s funny how it all started, I woke up one rainy Monday morning and I just felt sad. I didn’t want to go to work that day, but I knew I had to because a couple of people in my work group had already scheduled the day off, so calling in was not a possibility for me.
I got up and sat on the edge of my bed for what seemed like an eternity, trying to will some motivation and positivity into my morning, and it was just not happening. My job was draining the life out of me, and I just didn’t want to go in and deal with all the negativity and conflict, that had invaded my little small work group. But I had no choice I had to go to work that day.
That’s how the morning motivation began. I knew I had to motivate myself and I knew I needed a positive message to start the day. I did a search on Google, found a quote and read it out loud like 5 times. It helped, it put me in a better mood and gave me a better mindset to start my day.
On a lark, I took a screenshot of the quote and sent it off to my mom, my son, my sister, my nephew, my niece and my brother in a group message. The response was overwhelming, everybody texted me back a positive response and it started our morning conversation flow.
When I woke up Tuesday, I did the same thing. Wednesday the same and continued for the entire week, same time every morning 6:30 am, right before I headed out the door on my way to work each morning.
That next Monday, I had the day off, so I did not send the morning motivation. By 6:45 am, my phone was going off with text messages asking for the morning motivation. My family had become accustomed to getting them and told me that they look forward to those messages every morning to start their day.
What’s most important about those morning messages is that as soon as I send them, we start texting back and forth with each other. We also use that same group text to check in periodically throughout the day. We share recipes, riddles, news, everything. It keeps us connected in a positive way.
You see, my family like most families is made up of an elder, a few midlifers, and of course the family millennials. So, Yes, we are all in different stages of our lives, embarking on completely different journeys, but there’s no age limit on a positive mindset, that’s one thing that transcends age.
I don’t know what I would do without our daily group texts. I love my family and yes, we are all different ages, living in different cities, following different journeys and paths. But every morning we come together and communicate as if we were all in the same room. I would not trade it for anything in the world.
If you have immediate family members or friends, that you’re close to, but don’t get to talk to that often, send them a little motivation and encouragement sometimes, you never know how such a small gesture on your part, can completely change the outlook of someone else’s day.