When I woke up today, I was feeling totally tired and grumpy. Getting out of bed was the last thing I wanted to do. I was definitely not looking forward to this day.

Then, my husband did something that totally changed the course of my day. It was a seemingly insignificant gesture but it worked like magic. Suddenly, I was ready to jump out of that bed, feeling happy and grateful, looking forward to the day!

The Beginnings of a Crappy Day

When my alarm went off, I was feeling incredibly tired and a bit crappy. Hitting the snooze wasn’t enough for me, so I set up a new alarm to wake me up an hour later. After some tossing and turning, I figured, “What the hell, I’ll just sleep as much as I want today” and turned the alarm off completely.

I didn’t have to go anywhere today, so I was free to procrastinate as much as I wanted. However, I had the alarm set up because even though I had the day off, I didn’t want to sleep in.

By the way, I totally recommend a habit like this. (Setting the alarm, I mean, not the procrastination part. ) If you wake up at the same time each morning, even if you have your day off, your circadian rhythms won’t go totally out of whack. Plus it’s rewarding to wake up early… except if you’re really really tired, like I was today.

Careful if You Wanna Wake Me Up

After some more tossing and turning, my dear lovely husband came into the bedroom. That was the last thing I wanted. I knew some major annoyance was about to come my way.

You see, I absolutely hate it when someone tries to wake me up when I’m dead tired and am trying to sleep in. I’m dangerous if you wake me up too harshly. Mess with me too much in the morning and I may end up being angry for the whole day. For example, once my hubby wanted to tease me a bit in the morning, but he made the mistake of overdoing it. He suddenly stormed into the bedroom, turned the lights on, and pulled the covers off of me with one swift movement.

Let’s just say, um, that all hell broke loose. After that one single incident, he never did the same thing again.

These days, he tries to be a little less annoying, just for his own good, but he still manages to irk me big time and he totally knows it. That bastard. He usually opens the bedroom door and begins to sing or chant some really annoying things to get me out of bed. Usually, he makes me want to throw my alarm clock at him.

Yeah. I’m not a morning person.

The Critical Moment of Magic

While I was tossing and turning, feeling crappy and tired, someone opened the bedroom door. Aha! Major annoyance coming my way.

“Wake uuup!”

There he was, my dear lovely husband, standing at the door, resting his finger on the light switch, looking like he was really tempted to suddenly switch the lights on. I’m glad he didn’t.

“I’m horribly tired. Let me sleep.”

“Someone said she was gonna wake up sooo early today! Remember?”

That bastard. Making fun of me. At this point, I was harboring some very violent thoughts.

“Yeah, but I’m really tired.”

I was ready to reach for the alarm clock so I could throw it at him. Unfortunately, that would have required me to get up.

Then he dropped the bomb and did his magic.

“I made some coffee for you!”

What? Did I hear the magic words? I lifted my head off the pillow and had to make sure I got it right.

“Coffee? You made some coffee?”

“Yep, lots of it. There’s a big pot of coffee waiting for you.”

“Aww, thank you honey!”

ZAP! I instantly jumped out of bed, feeling happy and grateful, looking forward to my coffee. No more crappy feelings or violent thoughts. With this very small gesture, my husband managed to totally change the course of my day.

Why Small Things Matter

You may wonder what’s the big deal with coffee.

Well, coffee just happens to be holy and sacred for me. I love my morning coffee ritual so much I sometimes look forward to it at night, when I’m going to sleep! However, the problem is, I hate loading the coffee maker in the morning. No matter how easy and quick it is, it’s still very annoying when I’ve just woken up.

So, if you want to make me incredibly happy with virtually no effort, just make me some coffee in the morning, and I’ll treat you like a king or queen for the rest of the day in return. This is something most of my friends and loved ones know.

My husband, however, rarely does anything like this. He’s totally clueless when it comes to the small things, but he’s learning. When he actually does something like this, it really has an impact. He knows it and does small things like this every now and then, when he figures I need some extra cheering up.

The lesson of this story? Figure out what are the small gestures that can really make or break the day of someone you love. It really can be something as small as making coffee at the right moment. Small things like this are a win-win for everyone involved: with very little effort, you can make someone very happy.