How to become an early riser (or at least an earlier riser)

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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