Success Advice
How To Wake Up Early: 5 AM Morning Secrets
Published
5 years agoon
Looking for a foolproof method on how to wake up early? Then make sure you read this entire post and follow the step by step instructions.
Whether you want to wake up at 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM or whenever you set your alarm I’m confident this technique is going to work for you.
The benefits of waking up early in the morning
If you have a specific reason for wanting to wake up early, if you’re someone who has difficulty waking up in the morning and you’re looking for tips for how to get up on time you probably know the benefits of waking up early.
If you’ve just stumbled across this post then let me tell you waking up early is an absolute gamechanger for your levels of success.
Robin Sharma, author of The 5 AM Club and coach to some of the top executives and billionaires in the world states many reasons why the likes of Howard Schultz, Michelle Obama and Tim Cook, to name a few get up before dawn.
Sharma states that the hours between 4 AM and 6 AM are the times of least distraction in this age of dramatic interruption. He also states that the hours before the sun rises is when your brain is most available to your primary creativity. Your thinking is fresh and your gifts and talents are most available to you.
For me personally, the reason why I wanted to wake up at 5 AM was that it gives me an hour of time for myself and helps me go to the gym in the morning. My morning routine consists of things like meditation, visualization, mirror work, gratitude, and self-love. It’s a time when I can focus on my goals and peacefully reflect without getting interrupted by family, friends or work.
Another idea from Robin Sharma’s 5 AM Club is that part-time commitment leads to part-time results. It’s not about having time, it’s about making time and you can make the time to do all the life-changing things you want by waking up at 5 AM.
Using NLP to wake up at 5 AM
I’ve never had a problem waking up early when I know I have somewhere to go where I am being held accountable by someone else.
As a student and employee punctuality was important to me. The thought of being late was a scary one. But when I was self-employed and accountable only to myself I found it easy to rationalize staying in bed.
As an entrepreneur, there were bouts of self-sabotage and depression too where I wasn’t motivated to get up. Subconsciously I was screwing up my day from the moment the alarm went off. Have you ever had those days where the night before you’ve resolved to wake up at a certain time to be super productive, yet the following morning you find yourself hitting the snooze button repeatedly?
I’ve also spent the best part of 3 years traveling, sleeping in many different beds and time zones and well it can all create some bad sleeping and waking up habits.
I knew that if I was ever going to start reaching my full potential waking up early and using the first hour of my day wisely were imperative to my success.
The great news is that changing your habits can be easy.
Anchoring is a simple NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) technique you can use to change the way you wake up starting tomorrow morning.
Build the habit of waking up early
What you need to realize is that everything we do is based on habits. My old habitual way of waking up had become:
Grab my phone to press snooze or turn off the alarm, check my phone notifications and messages, scroll through Facebook and Instagram, close my eyes again and tell myself I need 10 more minutes, 20 more minutes, 30 more minutes…
That’s a pretty shit way of waking up and poor habits create a poor quality of life.
By using anchoring you can make yourself feel and behave any way you want to any particular stimulus or trigger. It’s classical conditioning like Pavlov’s dogs. So when you hear your alarm in the morning you can make it so you get up the way you want. You can create a new habituated response to your alarm.
My new chosen method of waking up early is to wake up with a smile on my face, get out of bed with energy, stretch my arms in the air and tell myself “this day is mine, it’s going to be a great day.” I then make my bed and leave my bedroom.
That being said, I kid you not there have also been a few times since I did this technique where I’ve had so much energy and alertness that I have even been able to get up like The Undertaker…
Below you’ll find a foolproof method on how to wake up early by using NLP anchoring.
How to wake up early: Step by step
Step 1: Decide how you want to wake up
Step 1 is simply deciding how you want to wake up in the morning. Do you want to have a silly big smile on your face? Do you want to say some positive self-talk to yourself? Do you want to think of anything in particular upon rising out of bed? Do you want to wake up with lots of energy? Get out of bed fast?…
Consciously decide how you wish you wake up in the morning and just practice that once or twice.
Step 2: Anchor waking up to your alarm
Now that you know how you want to wake up you can do the anchoring process. I would advise you to do this at night before going to bed because you will be a little tired. That means you’ll get used to waking up when you’re tired.
To anchor yourself waking up to your alarm when you are going to sleep set your alarm for 2 minutes later and then pretend as if you are going to sleep. When your alarm goes off, wake up how you want to. If you want to wake up full of energy with a smile on your face, telling yourself something motivational then practice waking up in that way exactly.
Then once you’ve done that set your alarm again for 2 minutes later and practice waking up the way you want again. Repeat this 5 times in total and then set your alarm for the time you want to wake up in the morning and go to sleep normally.
For example: If you go to bed at 10 PM, then set your alarm for 10:02 PM and wake up as you want to. Then set the alarm for 10:04 PM wake up again, then 10:06 PM… then 10:08 PM… then 10:10 PM… then set your alarm for 5 AM or whenever you wake to wake up and go to sleep normally.
You’ll find that you effortlessly wake up the next morning just as you wanted to.
Step 3: Make waking up early a habit
According to research conducted at the University of London it takes 66 days to create a habit. Luckily for you this will make waking up early for the next 66 days a doddle.
Step 3 is simply to solidify the anchor. Repeat step 2, the bedtime routine for the next 7 days. That’s all there is to it!
Pro tips and strategies for waking up early
The above technique is super effective and pretty foolproof in my opinion. The first time I did it I was shocked at how well it worked. I shared it with a few friends and they too were astounded by the results.
That said, I still have some extra tips for waking up early and getting the best out of this process:
Set a new alarm sound
For this anchoring process, I think its best to set a new alarm sound. Something motivational, something inspiring, something that you like. Progressively intensifying sounds that advance from very soft to louder work best. Nothing so loud that it shocks you out of bed.
Put your alarm clock far from your bed
Make sure that your alarm clock or phone is not at arms reach. Doing this ensures you have to get up and move your body to switch off the alarm.
Get out of bed and out of the bedroom
This might sound a little obvious but it really helps. Make sure that as soon as your alarm goes off you get up to switch it off and get out of bed and even the bedroom. That way you’re less likely to rationalize and talk yourself into going back to sleep.
Go to sleep early
One of the benefits of waking up early is that you will find yourself naturally inclined to go to sleep early too. Try to have a regular sleeping pattern where you aim to sleep and wake up at the same hours every day.
Plan to allow yourself to sleep in once in a while
The goal is not to wake up at 5 AM every morning like a machine. You should enjoy your new habit of waking up. You should feel good, energized and empowered. The main goal is to wake up when you had planned the night before, so sometimes it’s nice to have a planned sleep in if you feel like you haven’t been sleeping enough or you feel your body requires some extra rest. The main thing is that you consciously planned it the night before.
Use this technique to wake up early starting tonight
To summarise, I want to leave you with a bit more of Robin Sharma’s wisdom: Ideas do not work for people who are unwilling to do the work.
If you have had trouble waking up early in the past then use this technique starting tonight. It only takes 10 minutes so make sure you act upon it.
It has made a major impact on my life and transformed my mornings. I’d love to hear your feedback and results and please share this post with others.
I'm the Founder of SucceedFeed.com and I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my posts and being apart of the Succeed Feed community. I started this website because I wanted to help people like you to maximize your potential and achieve your dreams. Feel free to reach out and connect. If I can be of any help to you on your journey I'll do my best.
You may like
-
31 NoFap Benefits That Will Change Your Life
-
21 Proven Benefits Of Waking Up Early
-
61 Wake Up Quotes That Will Make You An Early Riser
-
How Complaining Physically Rewires Your Brain For Negativity, Anxiety & Depression
-
75 Howard Schultz Quotes On Business, Leadership & Success
-
11 Simple Self-Esteem Boosters That Will Change Your Life