An alarm alone will not get you up in the morning
You need your past too
An alarm is worthless in the morning.
Based on a true story.
I set an alarm for 5 AM. I am determined to wake up early. In fact, I am totally confident I will wake up. I keep my smartphone away from me. Instead, I start reading a book. After the book is closed, I try to sleep early, very early than I am used to. I cannot sleep. I keep turning right to left but I simply cannot sleep. After trying for more than an hour, I lose my mind. I take out my phone and start browsing until I fall asleep. Next morning, I wake up at 9:30 AM. I curse myself. I feel guilty. My whole day is filled with regret.
The moral for the above story IS the topic of this article. This story is my story of every single effort of trying to wake up early in the morning and as you can see, all are failed attempts.
There was actually one success after which I returned back to my old routine. There is no word for what I felt that one day. I woke up early. I prayed. I wore my shoes and went for a run. I came back and took a shower. After that, I read a book. I ate my breakfast. Good and healthy breakfast. I went to my office on time. I had a good time at office.
Every thing was great and I even thought that I will take this forward with me. I thought my life will change from that day but as you already know that did not happen. I fell in the vicious loop again. The same regret and guilt full life. I am not here to whine about my problems. Even if one of you can relate and help me and a dozen others out there who are suffering the same predicament.
We will talk about the title of this article after this section below:
We all live distinct lives. We have our own experiences, which are unique to us. We have our own perspective about ideas.
No two people ever read the same book.
When you read a quote, you will interpret something different from it and the person sitting next to you will absorb a whole another story. Why is this? The words are the same, the story in the book is the same, and even the cover is the same. Then why? Why is it that two people never read the same?
The answer is simple. We all live unique. For example, based on your past and experiences, you will interpret the story as related to you. You will think, ‘OMG! This book is written for me. I can so relate to this.’ Another person, with his own past life, good or bad, will read the book as he wants to. He will too, after reading the book, say the same. When you think about it, isn’t it magical? One book, so many interpretations. Thousands of perspectives.
Why did I talk about perspectives, lives, experiences, and past?
It is because based on who we are, we can either get up early in the morning or not. If you have a baby at home, who needs constant care and food during the night, then there is no morning for you. If you have too much work pressure that you have to stay awake for late hours, then what do you want me to say? If you watch YouTube until 2 am and dream about waking up early, maybe you should really stop dreaming.
It is my story as well. I cannot sleep before 1 am. I have tried (okay, I succeeded once). If I don’t sleep early, I cannot wake up early. It is as simple as that.
The second mistake I did was to do it all at once. You do it too. That is, to wake up at 5 am directly from 10 am. That is 5 hours. Almost a complete sleep schedule. The solution to this problem is simple. Take it slow and easy. You may have heard about improving 1% a day, so that at the end of the year you will be 365% better. That’s it. If you wake up at 10 am set the alarm for 9:45 am. As you get used to that, make it 9:30 am, and so on.
Most of the times, we try to solve a problem without even understanding what the problem is in the first place. Sometimes, we cannot go the forward way but we have to backtrack, re-engineer from front to back. For example, if you want to set a pull-up record, you need to get a pull-up bar and start doing pull-ups. You need to do your homework.
I have been guilty of doing the same mistake. I set an alarm before going to bed at 1 am without any plan of what am I going to do when I wake up and when I do wake up from my alarm, I am overwhelmed by the decisions I have to take. To not worry myself from the choices I have to make, I sleep again. I mean, that is easy right? What did I expect!
I am not perfect. I still cannot wake up early but I do know what the problem is now. I couldn’t write about it because I did not want to sound like a hypocrite. I held it inside for a long time but not anymore. If you are reading this and if you can help me and others like me, it would be appreciated.
You have heard about morning routines a thousand times now. Listen one more time because I am not a sleep therapist giving you solutions but I do know what the problem is. Now you do too.
This may help at least one of you who can relate. If I can do that, I have written something worth of value.
If this helps even one of you (even me) to change and do what you want to do but cannot, I have done something good in my life.
Conclusion
If you have a problem, understand the problem first. If you don’t even know what the problem is or even worse that you don’t even know that you have a problem, you are in loss. You will never find a solution if you don’t know what you are trying to solve.
Sleep early to wake up early. There is no other way. In the same manner of 1%, try sleeping early 15 minutes from the last habit. I say habit because don’t just keep decreasing 15 minutes every day without getting in the habit of waking up at that time. If you do this, you will fail this way. So,
15 minutes → Habit → 15 minute more
Thank you for reading. :)
