There’s this moment before Barcelona remembers it’s alive. No scooters. No tourists yelling about sangria. Just the hush of a city in between mistakes. That’s when I wake up. 5:17 a.m. Not on purpose. My body just decided that’s the number. Like some stubborn internal alarm with a grudge.
Legs off the bed. Calves whining like they’ve been wronged in a past life. I stand. Sway a bit. Creak toward the bathroom.
The cold tap shrieks when I turn it. Not like a pleasant gurgle — like a banshee trapped in plumbing. I splash water on my face. Shock therapy, Spanish edition. Welcome to another glorious day of adulting through sweat and caffeine.
I keep it simple.
Banana. One. Not two. Two feels indulgent, and I’m not ready to be that person.
Then down to the mat. It’s blue and frayed and smells like the gym I used to coach in above a bakery. I stretch like something prehistoric. Cat-cow. Hip circles. Some weird back-bend thing I learned from a retired dancer named Iker who might’ve once been a monk. I don’t ask questions.
After that? Movement. Breath. Groans. Mostly movement.
I eat breakfast staring out the window like a moody philosopher. Scrambled eggs. Spinach. Sometimes porridge if I’m feeling like a Victorian chimney sweep. And coffee. Always coffee. Black enough to double as asphalt filler.
Thing is, none of this is fancy. I’m not lighting incense or manifesting glutes through chakra alignment. I just do the same small things, every damn morning, like someone trying to outwit chaos.
It’s what I teach my clients too. Whether it’s a solo traveller trying to find a routine or a bunch of execs doing team building Barcelona style — sweaty, awkward, competitive as hell — the goal is the same: consistency that doesn’t rely on motivation.
Because motivation flakes. Routine doesn’t.
Want to try something stupidly easy tomorrow?
- Wake up 15 minutes earlier.
- Splash cold water on your face (tap banshee optional).
- Do three stretches you remember from PE.
- Eat something that didn’t come out of a plastic wrapper.
- Write down one sentence. About anything.
That’s your start line. Not sexy, but reliable. And that’s the trick. You show up for your mornings, your mornings show up for you.
Anyway. Time to wrestle Lola for control of the yoga mat. She wins. She always wins.