Do you feel rushed every morning? How does that make you feel? Irritable? Anxious? How does that affect the rest of your day? How does that affect those around you; family, friends, or co-workers?
Chances are, your morning routine is the same, if not very similar every day. You know exactly what you have to get done in order to get started and attack your day. Maybe you get started with a morning shower, make-up application (for the ladies), getting your clothes ready, making sure the kids are ready, etc. Like most people, you’re probably rushing through your morning routine, putting you in a stressed state before the day’s challenges even come your way. Why is that? Likely because you snooze, snooze, snooze, and then snooze once again until you absolutely can’t snooze anymore. Maybe you’re not a snoozer, but you set your alarm to the exact minute that allows you to maximize the amount of sleep captured in one night. Well, what happens? Aren’t you still tired? Don’t you wish you could snooze again? Don’t you still wish you had more time?
You feel the same way whether you wake up at 5:00AM, or 5:30AM. I have yet to hear someone that wakes up to an alarm clock tell me that they feel refreshed and just can’t take anymore sleep when their alarm goes off. If waking up to an alarm is going to suck anyway, embrace the suck. Take control of your morning before it takes control of you. If you wake up at 5:00AM, you have 30 extra minutes to calmly get ready for your day. You have time to meditate, to calmly reflect on the day’s goals. Reflect on the things that are important to you. How are you going to face your biggest challenge of the day? You’re now ahead of the pack vs. trying to catch up, because you’ve already done what most people aren’t willing to do. Now that you’re less stressed out, your interactions with others will be much more cordial, you won’t be as irritable, and you’ll have time to focus on the details to ensure you’re your best self.
If you don’t truly believe this will make your day better, it won’t. If you think it will be easy, it won’t be. If you’re not ready to sacrifice a few minutes of sleep for sixteen hours of peace, you’ve already read too much. This won’t work unless you’re committed to it. Before you set your alarm at night, set your mind that you’ll pop up right when your alarm goes off. Don’t give your mind the opportunity to talk you into more sleep. Don’t let it convince you that you need more sleep. Don’t let it take over. When your alarm goes off, get up, 100% of the time, 99% won’t do. If you must, set your alarm up on the other side of the room, so you have to get up to turn it off. Once you’re up, you’re up, feeling the same as you would if you allowed yourself additional sleep, only now you have time to enjoy your morning and the rest of your day.
You’ll start the day in control, having already completed one goal. You’ll be more relaxed, and get to enjoy more time in the day. Take time to enjoy watching the sun rise, it’s beautiful when you have time to focus on it and not viewing it through stressed out eyes. You’ll eventually get to the point where you wake up early without the alarm, and that’s when it gets even better.