Do you have the desire to do more with your morning but you just don’t seem to be able to do it?
Is your motivation to wake up early only strong enough to last for a couple of days?
Here is a guide that can help you to wake up earlier and switch your resentment for mornings into enjoying the morning glory.

“The early morning has gold in its mouth”

-  Benjamin Franklin

In November 2018 I decided to switch my internal clock around and turn myself into an “early bird” instead of sticking with being an expert “night owl”.

I had enough!!!!

Enough of what you ask?

• of aimlessly waking up just a tad too late (read way too late)

• feeling rushed to do whatever I had to do

• not fulfilling my own needs to reflect on my thoughts, feelings, and actions

• pass on setting my intentions for the day

• dragging myself to do whatever other people or “work” wanted me to do

• not having clarity for myself

• not knowing what I really want of my days

I felt empty, not in control, and just not fulfilled with what I was doing with my life.

Why is this helpful for you?

I want to give you my personal experience of how I started to love early mornings and why I wake up significantly earlier than I did before.
For me, it was more of a mindset thing than anything else. I’d like to share with you what made the difference for me and how I learned to enjoy it.
Hopefully, it helps you to get focused and stick it out for the long run.

It’s hard to let go of habits and routines, especially when concerning sleep.
If you have a desire to wake up earlier to do a morning routine or to wake up earlier to do something you never seemed to have time for, it takes some effort.

When you are a typical “night owl” and have trouble getting to bed earlier, here are some tips and tricks to get you fired up to start your mornings early;

• What’s your why > what result would be worth it

• Start at your pace > make waking up early easy

• Snooze? You lose! > why would you do that?

• Body is Boss vs. Mind over Mattress > how to find balance in this

• What about the Weekend? > give yourself some space to enjoy life

• Reflection and Gratitude > How am I actually doing?

If you are on the verge of starting to wake up early but don’t think you have a solid foundation to actually sustain it and take full advantage of it. This is the guide to help you out.

Don’t forget to get your own Morning Mindset Ritual as a FREE download.
You can use it as a guide to get you started in the right direction and build a mindset that will help you succeed in whatever you set your mind to.

What’s your why

I could make this post really long but to save your time, here is a question for you:
What would be the #1 reason for you to even think about waking earlier?
If you have one reason, good! If you have several, great!
Start with a maximum of 3 not to overwhelm yourself at first.

“When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve”

- Napoleon Hill

Explore your why
Take this reason or reasons and explore why this is so important to you.
Take a piece of paper or use your computer and take some time to really investigate why this reason(s) is so important to you. Just pour your heart, desires, and will out. Don’t be shy about this! This will determine the quality of your outcome.
Think of as many reasons as you want, but note at least 10. Think that it’s too much? Really use your brainpower and creativity here and just think of it. Even when it seems small, it does not come up for no reason, write it down.

Why this will benefit you
List the top 5 things how this will benefit your life. Do you think this is the same as the reason? It might be, but think again and a bit further. Will your reason to do this also affect other aspects of your life in a positive way?

Effect on your life
Of each of those 5 things note what effect this will have on your life. Is this going to be daily or are you working to complete or develop something for the future?

Example
This is of course a really personal aspect. To help you out, here is a short example;

#1 Reason: Finally have time to dig deeper into myself and find what makes my clock tick and follow this (new) passion.

Why this is important to me:
1. Sense of fulfillment
2. Sense of self
3. Peace of mind
4. Self-exploration
5. New hobbies/experiences
6. Better health
7. Growth mindset
8. Learning new things and insights
9. Self-development
10. Self-discipline

How will this benefit my life:

1. Enjoyment of life will increase
2. Create stronger self-discipline
3. Self-knowledge will increase
4. New ideas and fuel for life
5. My self-worth will go up

Effect of the benefits:

• Enjoyment of life will increase: when I am enjoying my days more and eventually my years, my life will be better.

• Create stronger discipline: when I wake up early every day I will create stronger self-discipline.  This will not only benefit me in this area but can also be beneficial in other areas of life.

• Self-knowledge will increase: when I am no stranger to myself, I will be able to get myself onto new heights and stretch myself in my capabilities.

• New ideas and fuel for life: when I am exploring new things I get motivated because of learning new insights and new perspectives on life.  

• My self-worth will go up: because of all the above-mentioned effects, my self-worth will go up since I am growing as a person.

I realize this is a concise example but it is just to give you an idea.

When your foundation is set, write down your benefits on a post-it and put them in a place where you can see them daily so you are reminded of why you are actually doing this.

Here’s a link to our other blog post about Morning Routines and finding your why.

‘5 Signs you are ready for a Morning Routine in your life’.

Start at your pace

Waking up 2 hours earlier can be hard at first. Therefore it is essential to give your body the space and time to adjust. Some people might not have problems with going Ninja on this but I think most of us will need some time to calibrate.

First, start with waking up 15 minutes earlier than what you usually do. When you are at the point that this is comfortable (maybe 1 or 2 weeks in). Add another 15 minutes and so on.

Don’t forget to go to bed earlier as well, you have to get your hours of sleep.

It’s important to make this feel as natural and as comfortable as possible so you will not feel any resistance in doing so.

Snooze? You lose!

Personally, I would like to hit the snooze button every time it goes off for just those few more minutes of broken and shallow sleep. I know that those minutes of snoozing after you already woke up are just rubbish, but somehow it feels indulging.

After realizing what I was doing when I pressed that snooze button for those ‘amazing’ few more minutes (like it would actually do something for me) it literally “woke me up”. No joke……

Do you ever wonder what is it good for?

The sleep you get after snoozing is not beneficial for your body or whatsoever.

You actually have to wake up for a second time, a third time and so on. Why not be done with it the first time if you really dislike waking up?

When you set yourself a goal to get your feet next to your bed the first time that alarm goes off, and then make your way to the bathroom, you already accomplished your first goal!

There are many tricks to get you actually out of bed when your alarm goes off.
Put your alarm at the other end of the room or outside your room to turn it off. Make the noise so unbearably loud or annoying that you just have to turn it off. This worked for me 😉

Body is Boss vs. Mind over Mattress

You might have heard before that the mind is our master and we can do everything that we set our minds to. Nevertheless, we also have to take our body into consideration.

‘We should listen to our body’ is what I also learned through Yoga and other practices. In the beginning, I found it hard to find my peace and balance with this.
Of course, we have to be the boss of our mood and not let that little (lazy) voice get between our goals and our results. On the other hand, our bodies might need something else at some point then our mind wants to. What is the right choice or decision here?
This all depends on how you feel, what makes the most sense and what’s acceptable for you. Use some logic in this case since we are not robots.

If you went to bed on time as planned, set your alarm at 4:30 AM like you always do, but you actually slept 3 hours in total because the dog kept waking you up every 30 minutes, it might be wise to give your body some rest here.
You might be able to get out of bed, be a true gladiator and do your thing, but the man with the hammer might (definitely) come later in the day, which may be even more inconvenient. (speaking out of experience here.)
When you know you had an okay-ish night but would like to sleep a bit more, because it would be nice. Here is where your commitment needs to step in.
Of course, we all want our perfect 7-8 hours of sleep and wake up refreshed and alert on any day of the week. Sometimes (more often than I wish) this is not the case.

We do have to stand guard at our commitments to ourselves and remember why we do this in the first place.

Again, the progress is in what you do within the hours that you’re up early, not the hours themselves. If you can find the time to do your routine later in the day, you can choose to do so and not be squint-eyed at the end of your workday because of exhaustion.

However, stick to your commitments as strictly as possible.

This is also a learning process. You have to be able to judge for yourself where your limits are. Everybody is different.  

What about the Weekend?

In the beginning, I was consistent with my weekly schedule and also inserted this into my weekend. However, I found out that since I had to go to bed quite early if I wanted to wake up at the same time, I would miss out on a lot of things: social gatherings, parties, movies, dinners etc.

Since not everybody in my environment is doing the same morning routine as I do, we could hardly meet up or have (enough) quality time to spend with each other. Of course, we have to make decisions, choices, and sacrifices but the price should be fair. Not being able to spend good time with family or friends is too steep for me.

That is why I have a different wake-up time during the weekend than I do during the week. I give myself roughly 2 hours of space here. Sometimes, when it is necessary, I give myself more space depending on the event.

What is most important is to stick to your routine and ‘just doing it’. The actual time isn’t what matters here. It’s the routine.

For example, if you wake up every day at 5 AM but decide to watch movies or play video games, you might miss the point here.  

Reflection and Gratitude

It is important to also reflect on your days and the progress you made so far.
Take 5 minutes each morning to think about the day before and what you did.

• What went well?

• Are there things that need improvement?

• What I am grateful for?

That last question is to be taken as brought as you want to. This could be your morning coffee, that good conversation with your friend, or your car for instance.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you on your own quest to wake up early.

What made the difference for me is the results that I get and the realization of what could be if I made the effort to take time for me. My ‘why foundation’ became so strong that I see it as an opportunity to wake up early and make the best of it. I hope your possible results will motivate you as well.

I have to say, the reason why I started to wake up earlier is because of how I felt and my drive to become a better version of myself. However, I did not wake up one day (late or not) and just started some routine. I deliberately sought sources where I could find inspiration and the ‘how’ in doing this.

The book that really inspired me to start this, is the book by Hal Elrod ‘The Miracle Morning’.

This was my kickstart to wake up early. I made my own version of my miracle morning, which the book also suggests, and I love what a morning routine brought me so far.

There is no going back for me now! The early bird is the best bird for me!

Do you want to read other posts on Morning Routines? Click here.