Over the past month I have been consistently getting up at 4 A.M.

In doing so, I’ve learned a lot about myself and the benefits that can come from early rising.

Let’s talk about it.

What’s the goal?

I started early rising with two goals in mind.

  1. Get more work done for the brand.

In order to optimally spend my time, I need to get up earlier.

Because unfortunately, sleeping in will not get me any closer to my goals. But an extra hour or two in the day certainly can if I use them to my advantage.

2. Improve self- discipline

I also am doing this to improve my self- discipline.

With discipline, I will prioritize the right things and do what is best for the brand rather than do what is easiest for me.

Getting up at 4 A.M. is a great way to improve discipline because it is so out of the ordinary for most people.

It’s way easier to just sleep in.

To change your life, you must change yourself first. And sometimes that involves modifying the way you live your life.

But don’t fret, there’s good news.

Practice makes perfect.

Start getting up earlier

Getting up at an early time seemed cool at first. I liked it, I thought it was fun to be up so incredibly early.

Then things changed. After several days of consistently getting up at such an early hour the novelty wore off and so did my eagerness to start the day.

Despite this, I continued. Through the good days and the bad, I have remained consistent to my task.

Getting up may not be the most desirable thing in the world, but now, sleeping in doesn’t seem quite as tempting as it would have before. Now I just get up, because that’s what I have gotten used to.

I’m not saying that It’s always easy. Some days are definitely more difficult than others. However, overall, it has gotten easier to just make myself get up.

This is because our bodies can somewhat accommodate to the changes we make in our sleep schedule, Due to repetitious early rising, we will begin to naturally wake up earlier over time. Which will lead to a lesser likelihood of sleeping in.

Getting up earlier gives you more freedom.

A person relaxing

People often complain about not having enough time in the day to do the things they want. However, that’s not true. There is enough time in the day. You just may not be using it to your advantage.

Getting up early helps give you extra time to do things that work or other responsibilities get in the way of.

You have time to exercise, read a book, check out the sunrise, and much more.

Exercising helps wake you up.

Proper exercise is critical to our mental health. Unfortunately, people often put it on the backburner because of more pressing matters. But early rising can fix that.

If you get up early enough, you can get a workout in before you even need to be at school or work.

Also, exercising can help wake you up rather quickly which is exactly what you need when you just wake up and are wanting to go back to sleep.

All it takes are a few pushups and you will feel more open to the idea of getting out of bed.

The problem is in our heads.

Getting up doesn’t have to be hard. It’s mainly just a challenge of keeping the right mindset. If we can conquer our minds, then we can take on early rising with very little issue.

It just takes a bit of reframing. Because if you think of getting up as a negative thing, you will be way less inclined to do it.

Don’t look at getting up as taking away time you could be sleeping. Look at is as a way of adding time to parts of your life that don’t normally get as much attention.

Our minds can prevent us from getting to where we could be. But if we push back the negative thoughts and replace them with positive one’s instead, we can fundamentally change our lives for the better.

We are capable of more than we realize

Getting up earlier has shown me that we are capable of a lot more than we may realize. Just because something may seem difficult doesn’t mean it is impossible. It just means you have to work harder for it.

Conclusion

Early rising lets us get further along in life. Whether it be occupationally or recreationally. But it’s up to us to make time for it.