How To Successfully (And Want To) Get Up Early In The Morning!

“Rise & Shine!” My mom shouted as I covered myself with the blanket to shield myself from the bright, radiant sun. I look at my 2nd generation iPhone alarm clock. It’s Saturday, and it’s 12 PM. "You know what?" I thought to myself, "let me go back to sleep.”

I was never a morning person growing up. I’m not very different now except that I have 3 children who are early risers (Yes! They REALLY enjoy life) and force me to get off my behind to tend to them every early morning.

As I’m half awake, the only thing I’m always looking forward to in the morning is my wife making me a cup of coffee to get me going. But I still ask myself, why can’t I just get going with the day as soon as I wake up on my own?

I wanted to break this habit so I searched on Amazon and I came across and highly recommend the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. You can find it on Amazon.

After reading it, it provided some insight about breaking old habits and making new ones. I convinced myself, I will focus on changing the habit of rising early every day over time instead of trying to do it in an abrupt cessation. I focused on setting small goals such as waking up at 5 am once for the first week. Then the following week wake up at 5 am twice. And then by the 7th week, I'm setting a goal to wake up every day for the entire week.

I find that after quantifying my goal, the smaller goals were more achievable and made it more satisfying to keep going. I found this method more reachable, and achievable. After 2 months, the consistency built up over time was giving me satisfaction and the results gave more encouragement in helping me get up before my kids wake up. The best part of this process was that I did it willingly.

The willingness comes from the desire of the heart, not the knowledge of our head. We know the benefits of getting up early to start the day, and the most successful individuals you know have this early rise and shine habit. Yet, what drives the willingness and desire according to James Clear is our emotions because emotions drive our decisions. Even when there are logical reasons for doing something, it is our feelings that subconsciously make you act upon them. We assess our actions after we execute them. When our actions are satisfying my brain, we create connections in our brain to remind us to repeat these actions.

The question is how do we control or manipulate our emotions? My answer is Prayer & Meditation. Tell yourself or better yet, ask a high power to give you the power to change the desires in your mind and give you the willpower. I find the best way to practice this is to calm ourselves through music. Music helps us calm down as we search and figure out our emotions and desires. Repeat in your mind, body, and soul the desires of your heart while you listen to music.

So if you want to get up early or change a habit, the next time you wake up in the morning, listen to our instrumental track "Rise" (perfect instrumental for morning inspiration) as you pray and meditate before you start your day.

Now, ironically, when my kids shout early in the morning, "Rise & Shine, Daddy!", every time I shout back, "Rise & Shine, boys!"