I feel like I’ve snoozed the best years of my life away. Being a naturally lazy person, I’ve filled my life with t.v., eating, alcohol, screen time, and sleeping.
For as long as I can remember, mornings have never been pleasant, except the weekends of course. My routine went something like this.
Sleep in as late as possible. When my alarm would go off, I would ALWAYS hit the snooze button -unable to face the challenges of the day. I would press the snooze button until the last possible moment. At that point, it would be a frantic race out the door. Many times I wouldn’t even bring a lunch.
On average, I would snooze between 20 and 30 minutes every morning. The final push would come from my wife who would yell at me to get up and help with the kids. Mornings were frantic, unenjoyable, and something to dread.
If it wasn’t for other people designing my life for me, I would remain stationary. The only productive things that I’ve achieved in life was because someone else had put the goal in front of me.
I needed other people to put goals in front of me to achieve success. I depended on my employer and university to setup goals for me. And of course, I would complain about them. But hey, I’m a lazy person that needs external motivation to move from a state of inertia.
I needed to be told what to do and I had nothing to fill my free time other than staring at a mindless screen. When I was a kid, it was the t.v. that hooked me in. As an adult, it’s my phone and laptop.
I always heard of these successful people that wake up early. I thought they were freaks. Why would anyone wake up early when sleeping in feels so good? But does it really?
It’s always difficult to receive news or information that contradicts what you have always done in the past. Reconciling this information is painful because you have to acknowledge what you thought was right, was actually wrong. This phenomenon is know as cognitive dissonance. It is very uncomfortable for people and we will do what we can to decrease that discomfort by rationalizing or defending.
It’s been difficult for me to accept the fact that I’ve drifted through most of my life.
I first heard of drifting from the author and speaker, Dominick Quartuccio. But the seminal term for drifting was coined by Napoleon Hill in his book Outwitting the Devil.
“Drifting through life without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure.” ~ Napoleon Hill
Something happened to me this year. I hit 40 and I’ve come to the sudden realization that if I don’t change the way I live, the next 20 years will look very similar to that last 20. One thing I wanted to change was my mornings.
A piece of advice that I see recurrently in self-help books was the concept of waking up early. Disgusting! Why would anyone want to do that? It gives me flashbacks from when I was a kid of my dad waking me up at 6:30am to go to work.
If you do a quick google search for what time highly successful people wake up at, you’ll get an answer between 5:00am and 6:00am. I decided to split the difference and wake up at 5:30am but with no snoozing. When the alarm goes off, I instantly roll off the bed.
By waking up early, you are shifting your free time hours to the morning when you have the most energy, focus, and self control. Obviously, if you wake up early to do the same things you did at night, then your life won’t change much.
I thought this was an impossible task. But I’ve managed to keep it going for over 3 months. So, what do I do with my mornings and how has it changed my life?
I take my dog for a run
This is the first important thing I try to do everyday. Soon after I wake up, I get my running gear that I laid out the night before. Once I’m ready to go, I usually mindlessly scroll through my phone for 10 minutes. This is a waste of time but the power of the phone is so strong. I’m working on it.
When I take the first step outside and the cold air enters my lungs, I know I made the right choice. My dog and I walk until she takes a pee and then we start to jog. The stillness, quiet, and lack of light is peaceful.
I’ll always see a few other people and we always greet each other. There is camaraderie with early risers, especially early rising runners.
It doesn’t take long for me to fully wake up once I’m outside.
As soon as I return from my run, I get started on preparing food for the family and making coffee.
Kitchen Time
Before I started waking up at 5:30am, we were in such a mad rush to get out of the house every morning. A big part of the reason for this was that I never changed the amount of time I needed to get myself ready in the morning.
In my head, it takes me 30 minutes from waking up to get out the door. This was my routine when I was single and living alone. But as my wife reminds me, we also have two kids to get out the door every morning too.
I now make breakfast for my wife, empty the dishwasher, and setup the lunch kits before anyone else wakes up. Now when my wife and kids wake up, things are setup for a smoother start.
1 Litre of Water
Dehydration is a tell tale sign of drifting. If you aren’t listening to your body, then it’s easy to go through most of the day without any water. This is why many people feel like crap at the end of the day. A crucial part of my new morning routine is drinking 1 litre of water before I leave the house in the morning.
It was difficult at first because I wasn’t used to drinking that much fluid in the morning. Now I can drink the whole 1L bottle in under 10 minutes. This water injection helps keep my brain and body sharp.
Push Ups and Yoga
Usually somewhere in between making breakfast and coffee, I’ll do 6 pushups. I know that number sounds small but I’m increasing the number by one each month. The main thing for me is to establish the habit.
I recently added yoga to my morning routine. As a 40 year old male, I have poor posture habits that I have built over my life. When I work at a computer, I often hunch over.
Doing yoga helps stretch and strengthen my legs and core. I found some easy yoga stretches to do on YouTube and I’m slowly increasing the amount of stretches into my routine.
Reading and Passion Projects
It’s easy to make excuses to avoid reading books. There’s so many other things that get in the way of reading. But I feel it’s important to make time for it. I have a non-fiction book on my desk that I try to read 2 pages a day at the very least.
Usually, I read 5-10 pages but 2 is the minimum. Which is a very achievable goal. Reading at this rate, combined with longer weekend periods, allows me to finish a book in about a month. Reading non-fiction in the mornings helps stimulate my mind for the day ahead.
If you’re wondering what my passion project is, you may have guessed it, TrueNorthFI. It’s very difficult for me to write and do other creative work in the evenings. My brain is just too fried. The mornings are the best time for my brain to work with uninterrupted focus. Waking up early gives me 30 minutes of time to work on the blog.
Moving Ahead
I’ve come to love my mornings because they are just for me. Nobody else has control over them and the world isn’t awake yet to bother me. I really enjoy making small changes to my morning routine every month. This keeps the routine fresh and interesting.
Exercising, hydrating, reading, and creating are great things to include into a morning routine. They are all important and can’t be left to jam in at the end of the day.
Start your day off strong by taking control of your mornings.
P.S. Please feel free to share any early morning habits or tips in the comment section below.