The moment my sisters had kids, they said goodbye to a normal sleep schedule.
My sisters are not morning people.
But they wake up at any hour of the day to tend to their newborns.
Hanging around parents made me realize that the capability of waking early – and doing it – is more important than being a “morning person.”
I was reminded of the times I woke up at insane hours, like catching that 6am flight out of Madrid or rising early to for job interviews.
You don’t have to become a morning person to wake up early. You just need to have something to wake up for.
What’s more important than a flight or interview?
What about a baby to take care of?
What about… life purpose?
How I rewired my brain to wake up earlier
I was initially motivated to become a morning person when I started having unstructured workdays.
Then I failed, hard.
Snoozing the alarm endlessly and not waking up early at all. Worse yet, I was waking up grumpy.
It was all because I associated waking up with a sense of obligation.
Until I read this innocuous passage in the Miracle Morning book…
“When are you going to develop yourself into the person you need to be to create the levels of health, wealth, happiness, success, and freedom that you truly want and deserve?
What if your life could finally be something that you can’t wait to be conscious for?”
That passage haunted me.
It made me realize that I wasn’t dreaming big enough. I didn’t have an audacious goal that I was eager to work on in the morning.
So I clarified and refined my new purpose:
Create a million dollar publishing company.
It’s rough and imperfect. But even saying it out loud shook me to my core.
This output goal was big enough to motivate me.
Waking up early is about making time for personal development
All my success (and lack thereof) is directly tied to my level of personal development.
That includes habits, routines and level of self-care.
After clarifying my purpose, it became obvious that early mornings are the best time for personal development.
A special time carved out for things I’m excited to work on. Before the day’s duties have started.
I gave it shot. I managed to wake up early for a week…then another week. It was finally working!
There are a million tips for waking up earlier. Move your alarm clock to another room, take a shower first thing in the morning or drink a cold glass of water.
Those are all external variables that certainly help to establish a morning habit.
It was the internal reframe of waking up with purpose that changed the game for me.
I went from waking up with a sense of obligation to a feeling of purpose and excitement.
My brain now associates early mornings with personal development time.
Now when I sleep, I don’t only have dreams, but I’m just as excited to wake up to work on them.