How do you become a morning person? Do you have to be born with the ability to get out of bed when the alarm goes off in what feels like the middle of the night or is it a habit you can develop?
Believe it or not, you can become a morning person.
You’ve just been going about it all wrong!
If you’ve been telling yourself you’re going to wake up early to ride your Peleton, hit Orange Theory, or get in a strength workout, but end up hitting snooze (and not doing it later, this is for you.)
Success Starts The Night Before
Getting up in the early morning rarely feels awesome. Getting to bed on time is ??????? if you want to become a morning person. You’ll be a lot more likely to actually follow through if you’ve set yourself up for success in advance and gotten enough sleep.
?? ????: Make a list of all the things you can do the night before to make the morning as painless as possible. Put your workout clothes in the bathroom, get your shoes, keys, notebook, and water bottle wherever will be the easiest to grab. Take all the thinking out of the morning so you can just go through the motions and end up dressed and ready to go!
Reverse engineer what time you need to go to bed in order to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
Then schedule out the evening so that you can get all the things done before then: cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys, packing lunches, setting out outfits, etc. How long do those things take? What can you delegate? What time do you need to start?
Create a night time schedule for yourself – and stick to it.
Start Really Small
We all know the ol’ “starting Monday I’m going to wake up at 4:30am every morning to exercise for an hour” routine doesn’t happen.
?? ????: Rather than expecting yourself to wake up significantly earlier, start with 5 minutes.
That’s so insignificant that it’s basically the same. You can’t talk yourself out of it.
But it’s not the same; it’s 5 minutes earlier.
Do a quick circuit of Jumping Jacks, Squats, Push-Ups, and Sit-Ups and get on with your morning.
Once that 5 minutes earlier is the new normal, do 5-10 minutes earlier than that.
Keep moving earlier and earlier until you’re waking up at the time you want.
It might seem like this process takes way too long but better to start small, collect some wins, prove to yourself you can follow through on commitments you make to yourself, and use that confidence & motivation to continue improving.
Build In Accountability
It helps to have a little more motivation to follow through when that alarm starts beeping at the crack of dawn.
?? ????: Plan a Peleton ride with a friend or meet one at the gym, reserve an Orange Theory class that’ll charge you a fee for no showing, or tell that coworker you hate you’ll give her $20 if you don’t get up.
Once you’re in the habit, you won’t need this anymore but the thought of letting someone down or throwing away $ might be the push you need at first.
Are you a morning person? What helps you rise & shine?
