How to wake up early

Imagine that you are a Native American youth in the year 1208AD. Being the fittest member of your tribe, you have been assigned to cross 4 horizons to fetch a rare herb that could cure an ailing member of the tribe. You will have to leave before sun is up so that you could return safely before sunset. To execute this mission, you will need a failsafe alarm clock, and the question of how to wake up early won’t be a point to bother.

What Native Americans – many early civilizations did was to drink lots of water. The earlier you needed to wake up, the more water you drank. And then the onus of waking you up falls, not on your brain, but your bladder. Mission accomplished.

Apache warriors used the same technique to launch surprise attacks on the enemy before dawn. Today, we have a lot of sophisticated technology to help us with this concept of how to wake up early. But that isn’t helping, is it?

At a very high level, both the body and the mind play a role in determining our willingness to wake up early. How to wake up early, and the benefits of doing that is being made so popular by Robin Sharma, and he is regarding as the Success Coach who made getting up early popular.  Most of the top Leadership Coaches in the world, and top NLP trainers in the world talk a lot about this concept with respect to productivity.  In the end, it is a subjective and personal choice, and for those who are looking to find ways of doing this, here is an NLP technique to get up early morning.

Managing the body to get up early morning

Let’s quickly tackle the simpler problem of managing the body so that it is primed for the morning. It’s important here to make a distinction between the brain and the mind. The brain is an organ of the body. The mind is that intangible thing which uses the brain.

Here are a few simple tips for how to wake up early:

• Go to bed early. This is the most obvious tip, and the most ignored. A well-rested body is a body that responds quickly to stimuli – like that of an alarm clock.
• Avoid screens before bedtime. Studies have shown that our brains find similarities between the blue light of our gadgets and sunlight; therefore, the brain finds it more difficult to slow down and relax. And a stimulated brain is not a brain ready for sleep.
• Have an early dinner. At least 2 hours before bedtime – so that the body’s digestive overdrive doesn’t impede the quick onset of sleep.
• Relax with suitable activities. Reading or listening to soothing music should put your brain at ease.
• Retain the early schedule for the weekend. Otherwise, you are confusing your sleep cycle and inviting the tyranny of indiscipline.

Managing the mind to get up early morning 

For a lot of us, the very first conflict of any given day is the one we have with the alarm clock. When this helpful tool beeps, it sounds like an arch enemy – demanding that you leave the warm confines of your blanket to welcome the cold day. This is where simple NLP techniques can help in terms of how to wake up early.

Technique 1: Find a joyous context

Sheela sets a 5 am alarm to do yoga. At 5 am, she snoozes the alarm, telling herself, “I can do my yoga and get to work on time even if I wake up at 6 am.” At 6 am, she snoozes her alarm for another hour, telling herself, “I’ll skip breakfast and have a quick shower. And maybe only do half an hour of yoga today.” At 7 am, when the alarm rings again, she recalls the irate face of her boss, warning her about her lack of punctuality. This time, she is up in a flash.

Fear can be a great motivator. Our brain does not postpone responding to huge threats. But should we live our lives in constant fear? Surely there’s a better way?
There is. As it turns out, joy can be as great a motivator as fear. For instance, Sheela visited the Jim Corbett National Park last month. An amateur wildlife photographer, she booked herself into the 6 am safari, brimming with joy at the prospect of seeing tigers in their natural habitat. On the morning of the safari, she woke up at 5 am without a fuss. The alarm did not even beep a third time.

This episode reveals to us that we are always operating in the context of our immediate future. If that context offers joy, we approach it with enthusiasm and without lethargy.

If only Sheela could find a joyous context for yoga, she would not be in a constant battle with her alarm clock. As she starts this transformative journey, and before yoga becomes as enjoyable as wildlife photography, she could add an exciting task into her morning routine. She could maybe cook herself her favorite breakfast, or watch the sunrise, or make a habit of reading wildlife articles as soon as she wakes up. This adds potency to the desire to wake up on time.

Technique 2: Raise the stakes

If you are a considerate person who doesn’t want others to be inconvenienced, this technique will work very well. Let’s say you set the alarm for 5 am. It rings at that hour, softly, so that nobody else is roused. It is placed right on your bedside table. You have the option to snooze it and steal a few more minutes of sleep. However, your brain reminds you that another alarm is about to go off in 2 minutes. This alarm will be loud and it is placed in a location that will disturb a loved one – perhaps your infant child, perhaps your elderly parent, perhaps your loving spouse. As a considerate person, you will be on your feet, quickly, to turn off the second alarm. And your awake mind can easily defuse the temptation to snooze.

In conclusion

Waking up early, or late, is a habit. Habits are formed over time and they are unlearnt over time. The measures suggested here are the best way to help your body and mind learn a new habit. A better habit.  You can also look at designing and mastering NLP well defined outcomes.

In the long run, having a life filled with purpose and energy gets you out of bed like a bunny who has spotted a carrot. Just the carrot. You won’t need the stick.  To know more about creating habits, learning how to change behaviors, setting powerful beliefs, consider to join for our NLP Practitioner program where you will get to learn the most powerful ways to change!