We have all heard the old saying “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. But is there any truth to this age old saying? Turns out there is. Multiple studies have been conducted using some of the worlds most successful individuals. Turns out they all have a few things in common. Like what you ask? Yep, you guessed it, they wake up early. Get ready to find out why you might want to start waking up even earlier.
What You Can Accomplish By Waking Up Early
A lot of families around the world begin their day with a mad dash straight from the shower to the car. When children, work and home tasks are all competing for the same time frame, it’s inevitable that some things will either be rushed, or forgotten about altogether. If this is something that you find common in your home, then you should really consider how different things could be with one small adjustment. This article will be exploring what you can accomplish by waking up early.
Activities You Don’t Usually Have Time For
The most obvious answer to what you can accomplish is simply anything that you don’t normally have time for. This can come in many forms, especially with regard to spending time talking to the family and getting their mindsets in line for the day ahead. Morning are a great time for families to calibrate and realign. Studies show that more functional morning habits garner greater focus from all family members.
Morning Exercise
If you’ve been wanting to get into a morning workout routine, then getting up earlier is the perfect way to make sure that you can add that acuity to your weekly regimen. The best thing about it is that you don’t need to spend 20 – 45 minutes working out. Any morning routine can be as short as 5 – 10 minutes, and you’ll still benefit. Just be sure that you do something different each day to break up the repetitiveness. You can walk pets, have short jog, or just do some isometrics to get your heart pumping.
Emotional and Mental Wellness
Writing a journal can do a lot to help you keep centered and keep track of whatever personal progress that you’ve been making. Writing thoughts and feeling down for later review also gives you a completely unbiased, honest view of how you were thinking about things at the time.
Productive Quiet Time
Sometimes there are small tasks that seem to pile up everywhere when you’re in a hurry, but when you get up earlier, you have the tie to focus and complete these tedious tidbits. In the morning, it’s also usually quiet, so you can get some small tasks or side work done while you contemplate your next move for the day.
Cook Real Breakfast
There’s no substitute for a complete breakfast. Eating nutrient rich foods that you enjoy can help put you in a great mood and give you all that you need to stay alert and effective from sunup to sunset.
For me, mornings are all about me (clearly I have no kids yet). I find myself waking up earlier and earlier for the soul reason that this is when I schedule my personal time. It makes my mornings seem more like a luxury than a punishment, and for someone who at seventeen swore up and down that they would never wake up at 4 am again, it’s a big deal.
Now, I am in no way saying that I have become a morning person. Truth be told I don’t think I ever will be. I can say that I am able to get more done in the first few hours of my day then I do for the rest of the day (clearly dependent on the day itself). In the early morning when the rest of the world is asleep I find the silence to help provide me with laser like focus (and it doesn’t hurt that I get to work on my personal projects in the mornings).
How could your day improve by waking up early? Are you willing to give it a try? Why not try it out for one week and see what changes? Be sure to post in the comments what happens. I would love to see if you are like the most successful people in the world.