Overcoming Complacency: Lessons from a Foggy Morning Experience

My Brain Meds Hit. My Spiritual Meds Hadn’t.

I woke up at 9:05 this morning instead of 6:30, and my body felt it immediately.

Not just the grogginess of sleeping in. Something deeper. That specific kind of off-ness that comes when you skip the things that hold you together.

The Morning That Started Sideways

The night before, I had stayed up late job searching. So when my alarm went off, I snoozed it. My body was done. I stayed in bed, half asleep, until my phone rang. I let it go to voicemail.

A few minutes later, I listened to it. It was a client. She wanted to book our most expensive photo booth package for as many hours as possible for a wedding. A budget in the $3,000 range. No pushback on pricing.

Here is the thing: literally the day before, I had been praying, low-key high-key crying, asking God to send us clients who wanted to pay our prices without asking for a discount. The summer calendar still had space. So did fall and winter. I was not panicking, but I was not at peace either. And I had asked God, plainly and directly, to send us something real.

He did. And I almost slept through the call.

I flung my sheets off, jumped up, and said out loud: “I have to wake up because the early bird gets the worm, and I am not early.”

Moving But Not Present

I sent the email. I got back on track with the client. On paper, the morning was productive. This could be our second biggest booking of the year. The planner on the other end is exactly the kind of connection Luis and I want to build a long-term relationship with.

But I felt nothing. Not excited. Not grateful. Just… foggy.

I am normally the person who wakes up singing. Picture the birds outside your window first thing in the morning, making that beautiful, loud, chaotic noise. That is me on a regular day. But this morning my body was present, and my mind was somewhere else entirely. Disconnected. Anxious. Running on empty.

My brain meds had kicked in hours ago. That was not the issue. The issue was that I had not taken my spiritual meds.

The Toothbrush Moment

By almost noon, I still had not eaten breakfast. My morning tea was cold. I had been moving nonstop since the second I opened my eyes, and I had not stopped once to center myself.

So I went to the bathroom. And I know this might sound like a tic, but one thing that genuinely helps me reset is brushing my teeth. Two and a half minutes of something physical and intentional. I know the recommendation is two minutes, but I give it the extra thirty seconds. Whatever.

I started brushing and praying. Except the prayer was all over the place. Something like: “Thank you, God, for this day, oh look, there’s a bug.” My mind could not land anywhere. I kept apologizing mid-prayer for not being able to focus, and kept asking God to help me feel like myself again.

Then I opened my Bible app. I am currently in Proverbs, and today’s reading was Proverbs 6. And God, as he tends to do when I finally get quiet enough to listen, was very clear.

The Heavenly Smackdown

The passage stopped me mid-brush.

The way I received it: you have made promises. You have shaken hands, so to speak, with others and with yourself. You said you were going to do A, B, and C. But you keep hitting snooze. You keep saying five more minutes. And then you wonder why you feel behind.

Two days before this, I had cried to Luis and my mom about how hard life was feeling. About not being able to show up at church the way I wanted to. About feeling stuck. And here was God, responding to that conversation in real time, through a book of Proverbs I opened while brushing my teeth at 11:45 in the morning.

I started laugh-crying in the bathroom. The kind of laugh-cry where you know you’ve been caught, and you are relieved about it.

My brain meds had kicked in hours ago. But in that moment, reading that verse, my spiritual meds finally activated.

The Word of the Year

Complacency.

That is the word that kept coming up for me as I stood there in the bathroom having my moment. The comfort of thinking you have enough, want enough, and are doing enough. In your health, your finances, your relationships, your business, your faith. Complacency does not announce itself. It just slowly makes you okay with less than what you said you wanted.

I had been praying for clarity. I always ask God to be direct with me because I am not always great at reading between the lines, and that applies to prayer also. So I ask him to be plain. And this morning he was. So plain that it would have been embarrassing to pretend I had not heard it.

The morning was rough. I felt disconnected for hours. But I am glad it happened, because the lesson landed exactly when it needed to.

Anyway, thank you for stopping by and reading about my brain thoughts of the day. I hope this post gave you a grounding perspective on how to start your day.

Have a blessed day!

Love, Joselyn