Welcome to the 5 am club!
Do you love the idea of becoming a morning person, but find it challenging to actually become one? Have you tried hard enough, but do not seem to stick with it? I completely empathize with you. I understand it is one of the most difficult habits to form. I have been through the same journey as yours. I always loved the idea of being a morning person, but for the last several years, the desire to consistently wake up early has eluded me. Although, now I consistently wake up at 5 am.
Today I want to share with you my process. Hopefully, it will help you in building this life-transforming habit.
Why do you want it?
You may ask, how can I ever wake up early in the morning if I go to bed at midnight? Probably, in that case, you might want to ask yourself whether you are happier staying up late at night? You might need to introspect. Ask yourself, do you really want to become a morning person, or are merely fascinated by the idea of it?
Some of us are more productive and have more energy in the latter part of the day. In that case, you might simply need to plan your day in such a way that you get most productive during that time. For me, I always knew I am more productive in the morning. Hence I wanted to wake up early.
Detach with your phones
The problem is never the morning. The problem is always the night before.
While building this habit, it helped me immensely to keep my phone outside the bedroom at night. Because of that, I had to wake up, get out of bed, walk to the living-room, and switch off the alarm in the morning. I was already awake by then. This was in contrast to keeping the phone right next to me where the snooze button is just a tap away.
Bedroom and Living-room have different purposes
I perfectly understand if you find this difficult to implement in the beginning. Most of us seek refuge in some warm comedy of F.R.I.E.N.D.S or in checking our Instagram feed lying in bed after a hard day of work. It relaxes us. I too went through some withdrawal symptoms. To make it easier, I made a simple bargain with myself. I decided that I could watch whatever I wanted on my phone until however late I wanted. But, I could not watch it inside my bedroom.
There is a place for everything. I can indulge in some binge-watching in the living room, but my bedroom is a sanctuary where I come for peace and rest. It is a good idea not to mix them both. Gradually, my time on the phone at night started reducing and I began to come into the bedroom earlier every day.
Give your mind and body the time to adapt
I focused exclusively on building the above habits for a couple of months before I added the next layer. During this time I did not wake up early. I still woke up at my regular time of 7:30 because I did not want to change too much too fast. What is the rush? We have been late risers all our lives, few more weeks won’t change anything. At least, we will enjoy the process of change. We will not pressurize ourselves by wanting to change too much too fast.
Become an early riser, gradually
Once I became comfortable with sleeping early and detaching myself from my phone at night, I gradually started to set my alarm for 7 am. Then again after a few weeks of waking up at 7, I moved my alarm to 6:30 am and so on. It took me 3–4 months to start waking up at 5 am, But I know, it is here to stay.
Waking up early can mean different timings for us. I wanted to go until 5 am. You might not want to go there and that’s completely all right. I will suggest to keep decreasing the alarm time by half an hour every 2–3 weeks and see where you want to stop. Hopefully, you will join me in the 5 am club soon.
Lasting change is often a slow and gradual process. Taking pleasure and savoring it gives us a chance to structure our lives around the new development.
Today I want to urge you to take the first steps towards waking up early. Just be mindful to take it slow and savor the process. Don’t try too many things at once.
PS: If you like this article please leave a clap and share with your friends who are looking for some inspiration to start waking up early.
Also, please pay a visit to my blog https://iammodernmonk.com/ for more articles from my own life experience and the bit of wisdom I have gained so far.
