Lately I’ve been struggling to get up in the morning when the alarm goes off. There was a time not too long ago when I would leap out of bed, getting up early to start the day. I have memories of summer last year of even earlier starts than I am doing now. 4:30am was a regular wake up time. Perhaps life is catching up with me. Perhaps I’m just getting older and I’ve crested that hill where getting up at 5:00am was easier (I am not convinced this is the case, though).
These days, I need one or two snoozes to get myself to a position where I can get up. Given this is now been happening for a few months, I think in some ways I have built a new habit around this, and inadvertently trained my body that the waking up routine involves snoozing.
As I do want to bring back a habit I let slide, I do need to actually that it happened in the first place. I let a good habit go. I had to be kind to myself. There are seasons to life, weeks/months where it is okay to let things slide or stop doing things altogether. Sometimes our season is hard days. To be in the muck. To get it wrong. To loose some or all of your good habits. And that’s okay. Equally, we now need to move forward and build these habits back.
I have started building new strategies to support this change of habit. What has worked well with my morning routine is how automated it has become. Once I am up, that is. The next actions happen without thought:
- I take off my nose strip
- have a glass of water
- pee
- turn on AppleTV
- load up the foam roller app,
- and away I go.
This provides me with the momentum to continue with the rest of the tasks associated with the morning routine, such as stretching, going to the gym, enjoying a cup of coffee, and writing. Expressed another way, I’ve done the first few minutes, which makes the rest easier to continue.
So how do I automate getting out of bed? I could install a spring loaded bed that then puts pants on me like Wallace and Gromit. That would be awesome. But I don’t think that actually exists. Maybe one day.
Before we go further, I want to clarify what we mean by early. I’m not suggesting that 5:00am is the way to go for everyone and is the key for a deep and good life. For me, it works. For many others, it will also work. We need to acknowledge that we have our own internal operating systems based on our chronotypes. I read The Power of When by Michael Breus PhD last year. This book gave me a great perspective on the natural operating systems we have, and how this drives peak performance during the day, including when we rise and go to bed. I myself am a lion. You may be one too. Or you could be a bear, wolf, or a dolphin. In which case, focus on the time that naturally works for you.
So how do we automate getting out of bed early for us? How do I get back into my habit of rising as soon as the alarm goes off? To start, I went back and reviewed my night routine. I noticed that screen time had crept in later and later (there were a few xbox sessions until 9:00pm), so I have reverted back to what I originally did. After my screen time (typically ending 7:30pm – 8:00pm) I am back to having a hot shower and then reading (now with a candle lit for extra ambience). To make mornings easier, I’ve moved the phone just out of reach, requiring that extra bit of effort to get. Then, I keep telling myself that I used to do this, and that I can. Granted, I still roll back into bed and press my fingers on my head sometimes, but I am getting up quicker.
So, this is a work in progress. Little by little, as I am fond of saying. This morning was my best day yet. We’ll get there.