6 Lessons I learned from waking up early

I apologize for not updating my blog this week. I was a bit occupied lately with my work-life and I was very much focused on my 30-day challenge. A couple of people already told me personally they've recommended my blog to their friends and for that I want to thank you (you know who you are). If you want to comment please comment on the article or send me a mailjoseph.librero@gmail.com. So how was I in my 30-day challenge? Right now I voluntarily wake up between 4AM to 5AM with the exception of today where I woke up at 7.30AM. :( I was not able to sleep early last night causing on an adjustment in my waking time. So what did I learn so far in this experience?








1. Don't sleep late.

If you are an early riser then you probably know this already. Rising early does not mean you need to deprive yourself with sleep. I used to sleep late and try to wake up early and I realized that I cannot keep this kind of lifestyle because it is taking away my productivity and creativity. A restless body creates less than a well-rested one. While it's true that you can function with little sleep but I am pretty sure it's hard to perform at a hundred percent if you don't have enough rest.










2. If you think you are awake don't roll back to sleep - stand up instead.

One of the mistakes we can make in our quest to wake up early is to roll back to sleep when we are about to wake up. This will cause us to fall back to sleep and ultimately make our goal. I know this because I just did it today.:) Also if you are using your internal body clock to wake up, doing this will callous the judgment of your brain causing you repeat the process the next day until you will lose interest in pursuing your goal.




3. Be more focused as the weeks go by.

Within the days of the first week of starting any habit or goal our body gets excited with our mind and everything seems to be "in the flow". Meaning our body will cooperate with the mind and soul so the triumvirate you are working as one so everything is easy as a pie. But after about a week one of them seems to lose track and doing it seems to be a chore. In my case I need to remind myself of my goal and the reason why I'm doing it and that there are people out there who is reading and will be reading my blog who is looking out for me to succeed.:)









4. Get ready for some paradigm-shift.Developing a new habit is not easy if you do not change your frame of mind. If you maintain the thought that waking up is hard then it's almost a guarantee that it will not be long until you will go back to your old self. In life it is the same, you need to change your paradigm (internally) before your body (the externally) will truly change.In my case I have to be convinced that if I have to grow I have to wake up early and I have to change the way I think about waking up. I have to be excited about waking up early instead of doing it as a chore.


5. How are the other "ducks" doing?
No habit is stand-alone. It means that if you try to make a part of you better other parts has to adjust at least a bit. When we try to keep all the "ducks" in line we need to make sure the other "ducks", other aspects of your life, are moving with it as well. In my case, waking up early should mean I come to the office early, I get more things done, I get more things done early, I make decisions more effectively and etc. This should translate to me coming home early or delivering more and getting more things done .


I am aware that for some of you this is a piece of cake and some of the lessons I shared are no-brainer but for some of you who are struggling the way I did I hope you will get inspired and I hope I've triggered a part of you to be better. Probably the best lesson that I've learned so far in this quest to wake up early is that waking up early is way better than not waking up early or waking up late.