Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 30

What is a habit? We all know what it is, because we all have them, but when can we truly categorize it as a habit? When does it truly become auto pilot? My belief is that a habit is formed when you find yourself noticing when you don't do something rather than when you do something. Feeling the film of build up on your teeth when you haven't brushed your teeth, feeling lethargic when you haven't worked out for the day. 

Today, not waking up at 4.30am doesn't feel detrimental, I'm just drenched in guilt. Trying to be consistent has not been easy. Especially when I travel, I am usually not willing to drop below 6 hours of sleep to be up at 4.30am in whichever time zone I'm in. The point is that I get a workout in, do some writing and thinking, journal and meditate. These core elements of my morning are what drives my 4.30am routine, not the act itself. Although waking up at this time does have other benefits

It trains the mind to comply to your will

Less distractions and interruptions

Getting a psychological win first thing in the morning

 I'm keeping this routine, even though I've kept it to the weekdays and weekends I'm usually going to bed later and waking up at around 6.30 am. Looking back at the past 30 days, I found myself battling the loud inner voice that grew incredibly loud and at the same time giving myself such a hard time if I missed a day due to travel. I think what's important is to be ok with breaks in the routine. Focus on the impact every single day, be grateful and proud about what you are embarking on and let each morning be full of energy and joy. 

The ongoing tweaks in this routine will start with:

How can I refine the elements within the morning routine to be the most impactful?

What sub-routines do I need to develop so I'm going from one thing to the next seamlessly? 

Good luck with YOUR journey!

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 15

Wow. 15 days of getting to bed by 10pm, sometimes 9.30pm and being awake at 4.30am, cutting my sleep by about an hour, but it almost seems normal now. Two weeks ago, it felt pretty ridiculous to even say I want to do that. This is why the idea of experiments work! If we position our mind to take whatever ludicrous idea and say "Hey, I'm just going to give it a go, if it feels right, I'll do more of it, if it doesn't, I'll learn from it" it empowers us to reach far beyond who we think we can be. Something that may feel ridiculous can eventually become normal. The environment and people we interact with sets the anchor for our future. Even if we try to reach beyond our "social class", we'll probably fall short of our potential. Think about how hard it is to transcend even when we are aware of this barrier. Fears and doubt crowds out our drive, our hopes and our dreams. The further we try to reach beyond our bubble, the more scary and unthinkable it becomes. There is more comfort in residing in a terrible state than pursuing an unknown one.

So we focus on executing each day, each routine, not the destination. At this point, I'm trying to tackle every silent alarm, every workout, every journal entry, every meditation session and every post. I'm pretty sure this is a routine I will adopt during the weekdays, allowing some level of catchup over the weekends. What am I catching up on? By having the same sleep schedule with my wife, it allows more time to connect and of course more sleep. I have read that we get a higher quality of sleep if we go to sleep and wake up the same time every day to maintain a consistent body clock. This is something I will monitor, but relationships matter more! We can apply lifestyle changes in our day to day, but often times these "programs" or new habits don't take into account that we live our lives with other people! We can't just adopt an alternative sleep cycle where we sleep 30 min every few hours, or become an extreme fruitarian without having some impact on our personal relationships. Be practical and be gentle with yourselves, I believe we can still get to where we want to go without being extreme.

Although some of you are probably thinking 4.30am is pretty extreme. I sure did. Why don't you try it out for yourself?

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 7

These first seven days were tough. I sat in the dark for 15 min on day three and after shoveling snow the night before day five, I really did not want to get up.

My inner voice continued to dish out undermining thoughts and was really loud. It kept telling me how early it was and my writing was essentially useless and it was not going to change anything. And I just kept telling myself these three things:

You told your wife you were waking up at 4.30am to work out and she thinks you are crazy, so you better just stick to your "fantastic idea" if you don't want to be mocked at for the foreseeable future

You don't want to feel like a slob (like for the past two years) so, I'm sorry, but there is no other time to work out

Let's just do it for the 30 days and see what happens

The first point was the most motivating for me, since who wants to look like a jackass? And especially since I always have harebrained ideas, this would actually be something I pull off. 

The physical tiredness was also grueling. Starting my day feeling like it was the end was definitely not enjoyable. Coffee was definitely my friend. I would drink an espresso with milk at home and then at the office take two more coffees, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the evening around 8pm, I really felt ready to crash, but pushing through to about 9.30pm was what I tried to do, although sometimes it would be 10pm before I was able to hit the hay.

I've decided against waking up at 4.30am on the weekends and use those days to catch up on sleep, which typically is about 30 min more ( 7 total hours instead of 6.5) since I would go to bed at about 11pm and wake up at 6am. We will see if this routine works out, but for now, I'm good with it.

Wish me luck!

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 1

I am not a morning person, but I had to give this a shot. My silent alarm buzzed and I frantically tapped on it to shut it off. I bought a Fitbit especially for this experiment as I wanted a quiet way to wake up without disturbing my wife. My reptilian brain was on full throttle before I rolled out from under the covers. "why don't we start on a Monday?" "do you think this will make any difference in your life at all?" "go ahead and sleep in, it's 1.5 hours more sleep" I continued to move in the dark and reached for my exercise clothes, placed the night before at the top of the stairs on my way down to the basement, where I will spend the next hour working out, journaling and meditating. From there, I will make my way to the office to write for the remaining time before my 2 year old starts to scream.

I could definitely feel the pain in between my eyes especially after the workout. Remind you, this was the first official workout after the birth of my son. I popped in our old but trusty T25 exercise dvd and zoned out for the next 25 minutes. It felt really good. Sean T. utterly kicked my ass and I was soaking wet after the session. The 4.30am experiment started because I needed to find some time to workout, but ultimately I also wanted to try meditating and other morning routines. I wanted to see if I could have the feeling of accomplishment before 6 a.m. Just like what all the "gurus" say about morning routines. In reality I had no choice; with a toddler in the family and me feeling utterly exhausted at the end of the day, any time I want to myself needed to come in the morning.

Next, I meditated with the help of the Headspace app. I must admit, closing my eyes felt great, and even though I was all sweaty and my heart was still pounding, I welcomed the rest for my weary eyes. The 5 min period was not easy, with many thoughts flying around, most of which was my inner voice again "are you really going to do this tomorrow?" "you should just stop now" I know my inner voice would resist, but I never thought it would be this strong.

Journaling was cathartic, as I scribbled down what my inner voice was saying to me and then made it visually clear why I was doing this.

If I want to be somewhat fit and healthy, there is no choice. This needs to happen, and everything I'm doing is for me. I can care less if no one reads a word I'm writing. I need to exercise and this morning time is for me.

Tiptoeing to the office gave me anxiety as I didn't want to wake my son. The worst thing were the creaky wood floors, which were the loudest outside his room, right before I entered the office. I slid into the office, sat down and paused to listen. All clear. As soon as I started typing, it felt fantastic and the time just flew by, really, 45 min is not enough, but it's all I have right now. And just like clockwork, the wailing started at 5.58 am. 

My forehead continued to throb and my eyes stung as I opened his door.

"Good morning sunshine!"