I thought this would be easy.. I’ve woken up before sunrise for consecutive days many times. For work or whatever else. I didn’t think this would be very challenging at all. I was wrong.
The first day it didn’t seem so bad. I woke up before sunrise and drove to a spot with a nice view of the sunrise. It was beautiful and I loved it. The next day I went on a hike around my house looking for the best place to view the sunset. I found some places and viewpoints I had never been at before.
The third day. I slept in. I woke up from my alarm, but I snoozed it and went back to sleep. I woke up feeling so groggy and tired that there was just no way I was going to stay up. I’d do it tomorrow I told myself. “One day won’t hurt”
Once more, I was wrong.
I broke the young habit I had just been starting and spiraled out of control. Nearly every day I would wake up and just go back to sleep.
Before bed I was always determined. I set 2 alarms, one away from my bed. I found out it’s not that hard to get up, walk across the room, turn off an alarm and go back to sleep.
I wanted to wake up and enjoy the early morning stillness, cool air, and sunrise. I really did. I just couldn’t set a consistent habit for myself. I failed over and over again.
But then something changed.
I had work this week. Monday was a holiday and I was going out on the lake at 7am. I also wanted to get into the habit of working up early for my job where I have to be at work at 6am. That Monday I was able to wake up at 4am, work out, and still have enough time to make it to work. Since then I have woken up early every day in time to see the sunrise and head to work.
The big change is that I have to get up early now. I have to get up early and work out before work.
See how I said “I have to work out before work” That’s because I have already established this habit for myself. I work out every day. Essentially I piggybacked off this other habit and combined it with my new habit in order to get myself up early enough to watch the sunrise. It also helps that it’s summer right now and it blisteringly hot later in the day and I don’t want to work out in that.
As of now I am hoping to continue this habit. I have a big advantage now. I have to get up early for work already so by combining this with my already established habit of working out I am strengthening my habit even more.
TL;DR I learned that by having some sort of time constraint that you are obligated to do it helps you to wake up early and that you can combine a new habit with an already established one to help you strengthen your new habit.
I hope this helps. I can already think of so many other possibilities about how to combine and strengthen my other habits and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.
I really enjoy waking up early and I have found that it helps my productivity a ton.
Jump on the bandwagon and start waking up to watch the sunrise today!
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