Is it Non-Negotiable?

Over the weekend, we had family staying with us in our guest room.  They arrived Friday evening and they left when the kids and I left for school on Monday morning.  My workout room, which has all my weights, bands, and morning routine accessories, doubles as our guest room.  Right now, I’m on my fourth round of 80 Day Obsession and this includes six days of workouts with Sunday as my rest day.  Saturday’s workout is a cardio workout and I could easily do the workout in our room once hubby got up.  Check that one off the list.

However, today (Monday) wasn’t so easy.  It was a weight lifting workout today, and I needed to find another location for my early morning routine.  Working out with weights at 5:30 am in our room as my husband sleeps was just not going to be possible.

Yes, I could have skipped the workout.  Yes, I could have rescheduled it for after work (and double-crossed my fingers I would find time after baseball practice/dinner/etc).  Yes, I could have slept in and just postponed everything I do during my Miracle Morning.  And yes, I could have set myself up for a very rough day.

My mornings are my mom time.  They are the time of the day I get all to myself.  When the kids are awake in the morning, I’m getting them food and getting them and myself ready.  At work, I’m getting things done for others and have meetings upon meetings and conference calls upon calls.  After work, I’m kid-focused again with dinner and showers and clean up. Finally, after the kids are in bed, I like to spend quality time with my husband.  Rinse, repeat.

But my mornings, ah, those mornings.  I get up at 5:00am and have two full hours to myself.  I read, I meditate, I write about what I’m grateful for, and most importantly, I workout. Quietly. Without interruptions.

Which is the exact reason why I carried my SelectTech dumbbells upstairs to the playroom yesterday along with my bands and my tracking sheets.  Also the reason why I spent a good ten minutes clearing the playroom floor enough to have space for my workout. And again, the exact reason why I made my pre-workout smoothie hiding in the mudroom as to not wake our guests.  It’s all about priorities.

Which brings me to an interesting question I’ve been asking myself today.  If I can spend so much time making sure I get my non-negotiable workout and morning routine in, what other things in my life could I (or should I) be making non-negotiable?  I’ve been struggling a lot lately with keeping up on cleaning tasks.  Why are these not non-negotiable? Is it because they aren’t “fun”? How can I turn these simple 15-minutes tasks I’d like to do every day into non-negotiables?

I don’t have an answer, but I will be using this week to brainstorm ideas on how I can make other things in my life non-negotiable.  What is non-negotiable for you?