If you are one of those people, read this list of 8 tips on how to get out of bed and you’ll be amazed at how much actual control you have over those first few minutes of consciousness when you first wake up.
1) Give yourself a mental command before you go to sleep.
This can take whatever form you like, but it would go something like this:
“I will wake up at 5:00 am and get out of bed immediately.”
Seem simplistic? It is, which is why it is so effective. By implanting a mental command into your head before you go to sleep, you prepare yourself to be mentally alert the moment that you wake up. I have successfully used this technique for getting up to catch flights or to go on early morning road trips on less than 2 hours of sleep – without even using an alarm clock.
2) Think of your one definite burning desire as soon as you wake up.
As Napoleon Hill alludes to in the book ‘Think and Grow Rich‘, your one definite purpose in life should be something that you desire so greatly that it is the actual driving force behind everything that you do.
Even if you do not think of yourself as being “on a mission” to accomplish great things in life, you are on a mission to do something, either for yourself or for other people.
In either case, however, you can’t do it while you are asleep, so think of that one definite burning desire as soon as you wake up, and remind yourself that sleeping in will not get you closer to that goal.
3) Smile.
Yes, it seems silly. How can a smile help get you out of bed?
For starters, you need to think of something to smile about. Think of something that you are grateful for in your life, and actually physically smile when you think of it.
You can’t just think happy thoughts – that won’t do it. You will be amazed at how much the physical act of smiling will bring your mind into focus on your life, and also start to shake off the cobwebs of sleep.
This has the added bonus of energetically setting yourself up to attract even more things to be grateful for, so you get two perks for the price of one by simply smiling like you mean it!
4) Think of your “want to do” list.
Everyone has tasks they feel that they need to do each day, but in the grand scheme of things, you don’t “need” to do anything. Every single task that you accomplish in life is based on the fact that you want something.
You get up and go to work because you want a paycheck. You get up and exercise because you want to be healthy, lose weight, or accomplish a fitness goal. You get up and help your family get ready for the day because you want them to be happy, or because it benefits you in some way to send them on their way.
By thinking of how
you will benefit from accomplishing your tasks, you not only make the entire process about your own desires, but you will also start your day with a
positive attitude, rather than feeling like someone who is simply slaving away at life for the benefit of other people.
5) Think of the benefits that come from getting up and getting your day started.
If you have a morning ritual that you enjoy or that brings an immediate benefit to you – and onlyyou – think about how it will feel to get up and start enjoying that benefit.
For me, my day starts around 5:15am, and includes 30 minutes of total quiet time with a cup of coffee and an enjoyable assessment of my personal and business accomplishments from the previous day. That 30-minute session is followed immediately by a total mind/body prosperity session while I run or briskly walk outdoors for 60 minutes.
That entire 90-minute period is all about me, and rarely do I even interact with another human being accept for the occasional run in with a fellow early morning exerciser. By the time I am back home by 7:00am, I feel like a million bucks and I am fully energized to focus 100% on another day of personal and business accomplishments.
6) Plan your first “reward”.
Other than the personal benefits that you get from accomplishing that first task or two after waking up, plan the first reward that you will give yourself for staying on track with your sleep schedule.
I am a firm believer in people “giving back” to themselves after accomplishing goals or tasks, so as you are laying in bed trying to motivate yourself to get up, plan the first reward that you will get as a result of rolling out of bed and getting your day started.
Maybe it is a mid-morning or afternoon nap, maybe it is a pleasant lunch with a friend or family member, or it could be something as simple as an hour of “play time” that you give yourself to do whatever you want to do. Make sure you stick to your integrity by not allowing yourself to have that reward unless you get out of bed on schedule!
7) Make a commitment to other people a part of your morning routine.
If you have other members of your household who are counting on you to be up and focused by a certain time of day, that can help motivate you to get up and do exactly that.
No one likes to feel like they let someone else down, and on that some note, most people like to feel wanted or needed. By making commitments to others that you can only accomplish by getting out of bed on time, you will be motivated to do exactly that.
Caveat: Remember, though – it is imperative that you do things for other people because you want to. If it starts to feel like a chore, or that it is expected of you, it will actually have the opposite effect, causing you to feel like a worker, rather than a trusted friend, family member, or co-worker.
8) Put yourself on a schedule that is non-negotiable.
Depending on what your morning routine is, there are very likely things that need to be done during a certain time frame, or it will cause stress or negativity in your life or in the lives of others. By locking your tasks into a certain block of time, you remove the luxury of possibly allowing yourself to sleep in.
Again, using my early morning cardiovascular routine as an example, I have no choice but to do that within a very specific window of time. Summertime in northeast Florida means that the sun is fully up and blazing by 7:15 am, and it is already 75-degrees (or more!) and very humid as well. If I am not pounding the pavement by 6:15 am at the latest, I will not have 60 minutes to exercise before the sun becomes a debilitating factor.
If you use this method of putting yourself on a schedule, make sure once again that you keep the right frame of mind. You put yourself on that schedule because of something that you wanted, not something that you had to do.
Let me close this piece about how to get out of bed by saying that I love to sleep! I could sleep for 8 hours a night and still be perfectly happy to take a 2-hour nap every day. Sleep is wonderful and is something that I both enjoy and endorse.
However, my love for sleep is overshadowed by my burning desire to accomplish both my physical fitness goals, as well as my personal and business goals. I only point that out because I want you, dear reader, to know that this list was not written by some robot who only needs 4 hours of sleep per night.
I get my butt out of bed early in the morning because I have goals to accomplish. If you are having trouble getting up each day, maybe you should think about whether or not your desires in life are actually strong enough to launch you out of bed and into action!
About Steven Aitchison
