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This lesson will talk about the obstacles to waking early.
Being tired. You hit the snooze button and do not feeling like waking up. This is very common. Don’t beat yourself up if this is the case. The problem of feeling so tires is most likely that you did not get enough sleep. Or to tried to change our sleep schedule too much at once. You’ve been waking up at 8am and now you are waking up at 6am. That is a major jump in your sleep schedule. You can make it work, but trying to do an hour right away can be too much of a change.
I suggest the following:
- Figure out what your sleep schedule was before.
- Shift it just 15 minutes. That is a good shift for 3-4 days.
- Then shift to 30 minutes. Try this for a few days. If it is difficult, just stay there for a while. You don’t have to move too quickly.
Trying to wake up earlier but not going to sleep earlier. The problem is you are not getting enough sleep. You can become very tired in the morning. Having a phone near you could be part of the problem.
The solution:
- Ban yourself from the phone and screens.
- Have a bedtime alarm go off at a certain time.
- Put the phone across the room if you need it to wake up.
- Have a book by the bed with a book light if you want to read.
Our sleep patterns are not something we can shift instantly. Even if you are able to wake up two hours earlier for the entire month, you are going to have a difficult time with it and probably won’t stick to it very long. Sleep schedules take a while to shift.
- Go to bed 15 minutes earlier. Set a bedtime alarm.
- Turn off all screens.
- Read or meditate before bed.
- Try to get your full 7-9 hours of sleep. Find your natural rhythm.
Not being able to sleep is another obstacle. I recommend reading or meditation. One meditation I have used is visually imagining what I did that morning.
- Try and visualize that whole morning process in as much detail as possible. Don’t skip through.
- Visualize every action with lots of detail.
- If you do this in a relaxed state and comfortable position, it is really hard to stay awake for very long.
Turning off the alarm and pushing the snooze button. For this, I recommend putting it across the room. You might even have multiple alarms. If you have trouble waking up you might get someone else in the house to wake you up or get a wake-up call. Loud and vibrating alarms work well.
Spouse or significant other who really likes spending the evening time with you. If you start wanting to go to bed earlier, they may start to feel a sense of loss that you are not doing the evening things with them anymore. It was tour time to unwind and spend time together but now you are shifting that to wake earlier and do the things you want to do in the morning.
- Talk to them about it.
- Tell them why you want to do it.
- Ask them for support.
- Shift your time together earlier in the evening or set aside another time to spend quality time together.
There is no right answer to this, but thinking through ideas and talking it through with them can be a good way to figure out this obstacle.
This Week’s Challenge
First, take a minute to check-in.
This week: What can you do to evolve your First Hour routine? What obstacles have you faced that you can plan around this week? Do you want to wake a little earlier this week? Expand any of the things you do in your routine, or add another small component?
If you have other obstacles, throw them out in the Sea Change community. Maybe others can share their solutions and experiences. Use the community for asking questions and we can answer together to address some of the obstacles you are facing.