You “Should” Get Up Early

Trying to talk yourself into getting up early because you “should” just makes it less compelling. Using fear or shame to motivate yourself is not a good strategy, it may occasionally work in the short term, but it has been proven to be ineffective for lasting change.

To make getting up compelling and build the habit of doing so, you need to flip your thinking and focus on what you want.

Wanting to Get Up Early

What would make you leap out of bed early with enthusiasm even if you were tired and very comfortable? Use your imagination for this, no need to be practical yet.

For me it’s alpacas in the sunrise.

When I was at the Kickstartology coaching retreat for women at the amazing Promised Land Animal Sanctuary I looked out the window at 6:55am and saw the alpaca and a sunrise I lept. I threw on my (slightly ridiculous but practical) onsie, brushed my teeth and ran out.

I didn’t make my bed, which for me is completely unheard of.

That might not sound like a big deal but I realized that it was a clear illustration of something much bigger: Consider this, humans are driven by two opposite forces:

1. The desire to feel safe and comfortable with order, predictability, and certainty.

2. The desire to feel truly alive with connection, novelty, learning, and growth.

The problem is, when this gets out of balance people often try to stockpile safety and comfort to mitigate all risk and uncertainty. This is categorically impossible and leads to emotionally checking out of your life, or trying to fill that void with something outside yourself (hello binge eating/shopping/watching, doom scrolling, excessive drinking…).

And here’s the deal, all the good stuff that makes you feel the most alive requires giving up some control, some risk, or getting through some resistance. Often all three in varying magnitudes.

All the good stuff that makes you feel the most alive requires giving up some control, some risk, or getting through some resistance.

I was so compelled by the alpaca sunrise that I sacrificed the order of making my bed and the ease of staying in bed.

Getting Up When Things Are Blah

There is no alpaca sunrise on most days in my life, so in order to feel that drive I need to connect to desires that are further out. How do I get to more days with the alpaca sunrise joy? If I know I’m working towards that, I’m compelled. 

Learning to find motivation in longer term goals takes intention and practice but it works.

Every day we are constantly making decisions that take us to the familiar or towards something new, and when we aren’t feeling compelled enough by the new, we default to the familiar, even if we know intellectually that it’s not the best choice for the long term.

When something out of your “normal” is compelling enough to get you to do something new I’m going to start calling it the “alpaca sunrise factor”.

Through Life and Mindset Alignment Coaching I get to help people find their alpaca sunrise factor. This is for you if you want to unlock and explode your potential because you know you’re capable of more.

And by the way, the alpaca sunrise was glorious, and then it got even better because I got to feed Kevin the pig his breakfast.