HOW TO WAKE UP AT 4:00AM
When you’re used to waking up at 12pm
This past year, I faced one of the hardest challenges to keep consistent — waking up early. Although I firmly believed in the “the early bird gets the first worm” mantra, I lacked the discipline to follow through with it on a consistent bases.
After watching Eric Thomas’s Real Time video, I began to feel guilty every time I slept in past 9am. Although the guilt quickly wore off, I desired to change it. But as for everything we should do, most of the time we don’t. I believe this is due to complacency, laziness and the perceived lack of immediate negative consequences if we don’t hold ourselves accountable.
However, my breakthrough happened one morning after a snooze button rampage.
I came across a quote in the book “The Miracle Morning,” by Hal Elrod. After reading this passage, I concluded that enough is enough.“When the buzzer goes off in the morning and you’re tempted to snooze, you start thinking wait — this is not who I want to become — someone who doesn’t even have enough discipline to get out of bed in the morning.” — Pg 32 The following morning of Sunday Jan 11th, I set my alarm to go off at 4:30am. It went off, and I woke up!
Nonetheless I felt very tired, yet I planted myself to my chair and started working. Later that night I went to a friend’s house. I told him that I felt exhausted because I woke up at 4:30am that morning. Coincidentally, he also shared a similar goal; he turned into my 4am accountability partner from that day forward. This is day number 15 for me. Day 3 was the hardest day to push past, but once I did it, I had my breakthrough. I woke up today feeling ready. My body was cooperating a lot more with my mind this morning, and getting out of bed at 4 am is starting to feel like getting out of bed at 9 am. I am setting this habit in stone. If there is a way for me to wake up at 4am that doesn’t consist of running off three hours or less of sleep, then I’m up!
These are my 4 steps to waking up at 4am:
Have an accountability partner. (@alexbanaga, on twitter if you need one, 4am…TWEET!).
Listen or read something that inspires you right before falling asleep.
Set an alarm that you have to physically get up and walk to.
Stand or sit. Never lie down.
Now that we’ve gone over the initial push, here are 5 tips to not crashing mid-day:
Do something for you.
Listen to motivation audios all day.
Drink something with caffeine.
Follow up with your accountability partner mid day.
Never lie down
Just as a heads up, Your first few days are going to be HELL. The worst part is mid day…but if your feeling tired, call your accountability partner! They can usually talk some sense into you, when they hear that you might be giving in while they’re awake.
Conclusion: Waking up early is arguably one of my most essential daily rituals. If 4 am is too much, shoot for 6 am to 8 am (max). Why not get the most out of your day? Why not gain leverage against the competition? It’s time to rise and grind. Quit giving yourself a break — Push, push, push! I would love to hear all about the success you’ve acquired with this new ritual. Share your story on twitter @ me (@alexbanaga). Show me how powerful waking up early can really be!
