A new life.
That’s how I feel like. Today is the first day I started waking up at 6am in the morning. My life and mind has changed already.
Problem: Sleeping a lot. (more than 8 hours)
Solution: Changing mindset and habits.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I had a sleeping issue. A lot of people has sleeping issues as they can’t sleep. I opposite, can sleep anywhere, but more, I sleep a lot. For a long time, I tried to wake up early. It just logically makes sense, oversleeping is such a waste of time, we’ll sleep forever when we’re passed away, right?! And I can do a lot more if I wake up early.
It didn’t work. I tried a lot of things to change it. I listened motivational podcasts, listened music, put 10 different alarms, etc.. I can wake up any time, no problem with that, but after that, I think consciously, “you know what I think I’ll feel better if I sleep 1 more hour” So I was going to bed with feeling not guilty. This 1 hour sleep is never 1 hour. It’s just a beginning. I wake up, sleep back, wake up, sleep back, and go on and on. Wake up tired and half of the day is gone.
Going to gym in the morning, 6:30am I guess.. A very good energy was flowing in my body
Yesterday, I met a guy who’s waking up at 6am everyday, and he has his own business. So he doesn’t have to wake up early. He said “I have to wake up early, I can’t lose time”. I said, “you don’t have to wake up early”. He said “No I have to, especially it’s my business, I’m not working for someone else anymore, I gotta work harder now”.
I was so motivated, and also, it changed my mindset. We had the same thing, he thought and felt he HAVE TO, as where I was feeling, I DON’T HAVE TO. More, he has some practices if he gets hangover and sleep so late, he was still waking up at 6am, going to gym.. He was punishing himself, and no escape from that. So he was very disciplined.
How to wake up early:
– Before you go to bed, think about something you’ll do when you wake up. Visualize yourself. Get excited about how awesome it’ll be.
– Get out from the bed immediately.
– Do not sit in front of computer, or sit at all.
– Have a shower, or go to the gym, or go have a quick walk, make some tea, buy some tea.
– Action brings action. Move your body for more movement.
– Make it very difficult to go to bed and sleep.
– Sleep early.
– Never say, you sleep a lot, you’re lazy, etc.. Your words send commands to your subconscious and you keep doing whatever you say.
– Say I wake up early. Or maybe early is a scary word, just say I wake up at 8am. I wake up at 4am. For instance, I’ll tell everyone, like this blog post to all of you, I wake up at 6am. I go to gym, shower, and breakfast and tea. That’s my daily routine.
– Yes I just started today, it’s a total new life. I love it, I’ll keep doing it.
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And waking up 6am today, and here’s the differences I’m experiencing:
– First of all, it’s never ending. 🙂 I do a lot of things, and the time is still early (old me would be in bed normally).
– The restaurants, cafes I used to eat my breakfast/lunch are closed! Everywhere is closed till 11am. I had to find a place open (dinner, 24 hours open)
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I’ll keep posted here, for the next days till May 3rd.
Day 1. Today as I’m writing here. 🙂 I woke up 6am sharp. Took a nap between 2pm & 3:30pm, went to bed at 1:20am.
Day 2. Thursday: Woke up at 5:57am. No time for napping. 🙁 Slept around 2am.
Day 3. Friday: Alarm didn’t work. Woke up at 7:30. Forced myself to not nap. My body’s tired (all day biking). Going to bed now 11:40pm
Day 4. Saturday: Woke up at 5:57am and decided to sleep 1 more hour, end result 11am, I woke up. Went to bed at 3am.
Day 5. Sunday: Woke up at 7am. Finished editing the video. Slept back at 9am till 11am with multiple breaks. Went to bed at 4:00am.
Day 6. Monday: Woke up at 7am. Went bed at 11:30pm.
Day 7. Tuesday: Woke up at 6am, questioned why I’m awake in the dark, couldn’t find a reason, slept back. Woke up 11:30am!!! Going to bed at 2:15am.
Day 8. Wednesday: I can’t pronounce how late I woke up. It’ll never ever happen again. I’m embarrassed and not happy about it. Going to bed at 2am. (I should start sleeping earlier!!)
Day 9. Thursday: Woke up at 6:15am. Big day today with (#99uconf)! Sleeping at 1am.
Day 10. Friday: Wake up 7amish
Day 11. Saturday: Wake up 9am. Had a conference and flight that day.
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Update, 6/13/2014:
I’m gladly letting you know that after a month trip to my country, I’m back. I wake up at 6am everyday. I feel f*cking (sorry for the language) awesome with my day. I’m a dayperson now. I wake up at 6am and go to gym, eat my breakfast, start my day. Yay yay yay!!!! 🙂
I love myself, I got my confidence back. And, I love you.
I’ll make a video about my daily routine soon.
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Update, 7/14/2014:
Good. Everything good. Just wanted to let you know. I wake up early regardless whenever I sleep. The gym thing happens 2 times in a week for sure. And I play pingpong twice in a week (I LOVE IT).
Early means, Wednesdays 6:30, for 7am gym class. The other days I wake up at 7am but sometimes 9am.. 🙂 (Cheating? Maybe.. I just thought this fits more.. Cause I still like sleeping, and I need it, even though I tell myself I can act like a robot..
Better idea. Take a pill. lol
No pills! 🙂
you’re a big sleeper. Getting up early is great time of day. Quiet. birds are singing. Newspaper in the driveway. Neighbors leaving for work. I love the early morning.
Birds are singing. New York? Hello? Actually I can hear them, but that’s not a common thing here Johnny, just like newspapers in driveways 🙂
Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow
But how many hours is normal? 7-8 hours of sleeping? if one night i sleep 5 hours, and the next 10, that makes an average of 7.5 which i think it’s normal, i would count on a weekly basis not a daily basis, because living is an ongoing process and a nights sleep depends on previous activities, how many hours do you sleep a week? Some people are perfectionists and if they sleep 8 hours they think they loose time, some habits that are normal might seem bad to perfectionists. I would like to NOT sleep at all if i could, be awake for 24 hours but that’s not real. Sleep deprivation is counterproductive and the quality of sleep counts as well: is the bed good, no noises, fresh air access. However there is a drastic and “funny” way of getting rid of bad habits: make a baby!! :)) if you’ll sleep more than 5 hours you’ll be lucky. If the bad habit persists: make one more baby, and keep repeating this until all the bad habits disappear :))) Anyway, if sometimes i sleep and extra hour, then i don’t punish myself, i consider that a limited life pleasure that will disappear with the onset of fatherhood :)))
Babies.. Good suggestion.. A reminder why we all should be happy for our singleness.. (for now!!) 🙂
True story: A man walks in to a psychiatrist office in California accusing depression. The doctor asked him what caused the depressive feelings. That man felt terribly depressed because during the previous year he earned only 2 million dollars from investments, while his brother earned 20 million$? :). That’s a real case of extreme perfectionism. And many rich people use anti depressants, why are they depressed for?. When is a bad habit bad? i think that has to do with our desire to achieve perfectionism. However, we all have limited life spans and without ground breaking advancements in medicine one day we will die. I would like to enjoy life until that happens which includes a few bad habits here and there, from time to time.
Sergio,
I loved what you say.. I am a little perfectionist with my not perfect self. I always say our imperfections makes us perfect. But I’m on top of my habits, or desires.. I control them or at least thinking that I control them..
Sleep, 7-8 is fine.. But for instance now, 2am, I’m still awake, I will wake up early because it’s my fault sleeping so late.. Even though sleeping 5 – 6 hours will make me less happy, I think I take the responsibility. I need to sleep early.
And, look at your example. The guy made 2 million $. Is this bad he’s trying his best? (of course I think he should keep his happiness tho. Money, fame, all, doesn’t matter if we’re not happy and healthy..
Well thanks for writing! Sorry for late reply. Been busy.. 🙂
Hey Rich thanks!!! I act like a robot (sometimes), whenever I sleep doesn’t matter. I just wake up.. 🙂 But to make it a habit I should better start sleeping early…