We were together for a long time.

There were mornings when I would set my alarm an hour before I actually had to wake up—and I would hit the snooze button at least six times in the span of that hour.

There were days when I wouldn’t even hear the alarm, and then wake up late and rush out the door. When conversations stirred around waking up in the morning, I noticed I was not the only one that was snoozing. There were many of us that were cheating on our morning peace with the snooze button.

That day, I reflected on how much time I was wasting by pressing snooze each morning—spending an extra hour in bed each day of every week—that had to at least be seven extra hours!

What could I do with seven extra hours in my week?

I pondered over how I would break up the bittersweet morning relationship that we had; it had to be done. I challenged myself to see if I could go cold turkey. I started reading articles and watching videos on what successful people do each morning, and none of them said anything about pressing the snooze button.

I woke up for seven mornings in a row without giving into the snooze button and it felt great. It started my day with power; not pressing the snooze button felt like I had the control in my hands! It wasn’t only about the extra seven hours I found in my week—it was that from the very onset of my day I decided to be the leader.

There are still days, no doubt, when I love the snooze button—but doing it with more awareness has changed my life.

So to all you snooze-button-lovers out there, I ask you this:

How much of your willpower do you give away right at the start of your day? How many other things could you accomplish in the time that you spend snoozing your life away? What are you going to do to become more conscious about starting each new day?