How to become an early riser (or at least an earlier riser)
Small steps and incremental effort work wonders for me.
Some people can manage systemic upheaval in their lives as they make a radical change. Not moi. Not that I can’t handle it, I simply prefer the fluidity of the incremental to the shock of all-at-once.
If small changes toward a larger result are more your fashion, then the following method for re-training yourself to awaken earlier will be right up your alley.
My whole life was dedicated to late night living, even when working day jobs. It took a fierce commitment to be among the last of the humans to sleep in my time zone. Once our son was born it became immediately apparent he didn’t care. I lost my late-night companion — Ann — right away.
So if I cared to enjoy more family time I was going to have to adapt quickly
This is how I did it effortlessly, and how you can too.
I did it 15 minutes at a time. What can’t you do in 15 minutes at a time?!
I would set my alarm to go off 15 minutes earlier than was my custom. It would take me a few days to a week to acclimate to the new schedule — and then I would do it again.
By getting up only 15 minutes earlier you don’t activate the distress signal in your brain that you’re getting oh so much less sleep. It’s easy/ier.
And within a day or two or three you find yourself going to sleep a little earlier to accommodate your slightly earlier rising time.
As soon as the new time felt burned in over a few days, I would do it again — again for 15 minutes earlier.
This process worked so effectively I was waking up 2.5 to 3 hours earlier in less than two months. I had re-routed a life pattern without breaking a sweat.
Once there as a newly-minted early riser, I discovered what all the fuss was about. The world is quiet and pregnant with possibility. There is a relaxed reverence in the air, you witness the sparkle of the new day arriving — and there is a voluptuousness to your experience of time because you are no longer hurried.
There is magic in fifteen minutes at a time.
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