Wake Up Happy
How to Motivate Yourself Out Of Bed
The most fantastic feeling is to wake up happy and excited for a brand new day. Unfortunately very few of us manage to do this. Instead we feel anxiety, stress and plain old tiredness. I am going to take a new perspective here on how to wake up early by making sure you are strongly motivated every single morning.
This 4-step guide will eliminate all your excuses and negative feelings in the mornings. I've been able to help and immense amount of people through this approach - from people that constantly slept over to people that couldn't even hear the alarm. Now they are all able to wake up happy. So you better be ready and do all your best to try the exercises. Here goes...
Step 1 - Decide Your Morning Activity
As soon as you wake up, you MUST have it all clear in your mind what you are going to do. If you leave just a second of doubt, your lazy mind is going to jump in and take over. And before you know it you will wake up an hour later...
If you are having trouble deciding, ask yourself the following questions:
- How would I like to start my day to set it up for success?
- What activity have I been putting off for too long?
- What would inspire me to be an early riser?
There are 4 main areas you can look into to found a suitable activity.
Spirituality – Health – Personal Goals – Work
The fourth one, work, I would recommend you to avoid if you really want to wake up happy. Even though you might feel that by working a bit more you can be more relaxed at work. Sorry to say, but it doesn’t work like that.
Unless you have the job of your dreams (congratulations by the way), this is not something that would get you up easily. And most likely you won’t get less to do at work just because you do some extra work. In general - work smarter, not harder.
- Spirituality - Developing your spiritual realm, e.g. by meditating, can provide you with a calm feeling strong enough to carry you throughout your day. Anything that will make your awareness increase and develop you as a human being is a fantastic manner to begin the morning.
- Health - A healthy start of the day is an excellent recommendation. Going for a jog, practicing yoga or moving your body in any other way really gets your body ready for a high-energy day.
- Personal Goals - Lastly, spending time on your personal goals can be very exhilarating and will most surely get you rising easily. If you e.g. want to write a book or learn a new skill, then the morning time is when you can make huge progress effortlessly. The reason being that your mind is clear and your ability to focus will be at its peak.
As you can see, there is a wide range of possible things to do in the morning, Whatever will make you wake up happy is a great choice. When you are done, let's move to the next step.
Step 2 - Decide Your Reason
You want to be crisp clear about why you want to do this activity. If not, then you will procrastinate. Then you will hit that snooze button. You see, there’s always another time to do things, so you must know the answer to the question:
Why Now?
I want you to take your activity and list five strong compelling reasons to why you want to do this activity first thing in the morning. As an example, let me share with you the reasons written down by one lady performing this exercise. She wanted to lose that extra holiday weight, so she decided to go out for a 15-minute jog at 0600 five days a week. Here are her reasons:
- To get back into shape and feel healthier
- To have some me-time and really focus on myself
- To get my blood pumping so my body is ready for a hectic day
- To be a leading example for my kids
- To feel the peace and quiet of a new day arriving
I want you to do the exact same thing here. Do not read on unless you've done it. No. Write it all down. And remember the "Why now"-question. For her it was to really ensure she would not get interrupted by other chores.
Feel the answers as you write them. The single most important thing we want to achieve is a feeling of motivation and utter determination.
The Chinese word for determination is juexin meaning that you "have decided in your heart". Now that is the level of motivation we are talking about here!
Step 3 - Decide Your Goal
Based on the activity you've decided for and the reasons for why you want to do that activity in the morning let us now dig into setting a goal and a wanted position.
Yes I know you might be thinking... “setting goals again, what?” But as we do know, this is the only way to achieve a long-lasting effect. As long as you make sure that your goal is...
- S – Specific - Is it clear enough so you know when you are moving towards your goal?
- M – Motivational - Do you feel motivated? Are you determined?
- A – Actionable - Can you take action immediately?
- R – Relevant - Does it fit into who you are and what you truly want?
- T – Trackable - Can you keep track and measure your progress?
...then you will succeed. I am not going to into detail about all of these as this is not a goal setting course, however, I will say that making sure that your goal is motivational and actionable is key when it comes to waking up early. By making sure that your wake up goal is SMART, you truly increase your chances of success.
Just take the time to do the exercise and write down how you will track your progress, why you feel motivated etc. and you will see the benefits as waking up early turns into a great habit.
Step 4 - Decide, Decide, Decide !
It is time to really decide. To take the road of no return. Therefore, as a final step to reinforce your new wake up early habit, I recommend you to take a deep look at yourself. What I mean is that being able to wake up happy can be so much more than just a better morning - it can mean a better life!
So let’s go straight into the following exercise that I personally have found great in eliciting a person’s true motivation and thereby reasons for wanting to wake up happy, early and easy.
I want you to think back of an event in your life when you felt strongly motivated. It can be for whatever activity or task, as long you felt clear and powerful motivation to act on something. Travel back in time through your mind and get into that feeling you once had.
Once you have a strong feeling, I want you to ask yourself the following questions:
- Where is this feeling of motivation exactly located? (Is it a tingling feeling in your stomach? Sense of urgency in your arms?)
- What did you focus on in the situation? (The glory of achievement? The immediate fun? Being with friends?)
- How did you carry yourself? (Where you standing with a straight back? Where you stable)
What we are doing here is breaking down a previous motivated moment to be able to investigate the building blocks. I want you to be able to learn from earlier events in life. If you really master this skill, you will be able to turn your motivation up for anything you want! Imagine being able to feel compelled to go for a jog each morning. It could be that simple if you just decided you wanted to.
So look into the answers to the questions and try to find the core. What really created that feeling of motivation? Then use that building block and try to incorporate it into your new morning activity. If you get motivated by doing something with friends, engage a friend and do something together in the morning. You gotta take action and do your best if you really want to wake up happy.
By following these 4 steps to wake up happy, I feel confident that you will. Just take one step at a time and make sure it really sticks. Choose an activity you know will work for you and with some motivation on top of that you are good to go.
Although finding your true motivation is only the first step to become an early riser. Make sure you look into step 2 as well where you'll learn how to wake up early easy and feeling fresh.
1. Get Motivated
I hope this helped, now good luck and enjoy your mornings!
Early Riser > Wake Up Early > Wake Up Happy
Thanks for reading! By Matthew M. McEwan
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