Wake up energised, on time and without fail every time! Learn how

As readers may have followed on this blog we have done a few articles on sleep. Why? Well being an entrepreneur I believe it is important to start the day as you mean to go on. Often that will include doing things that you would rather avoid, like getting up. As the famous saying goes, “successful people make a habit of doing the things others avoid”. I am a true believer in this philosophy of thought.

When I was sharing a house in my student days there were people in the house that were far more capable than me and had real potential to go on and do great things. But they haven’t because they typically avoided doing the stuff successful people just get on with. Making that call, speaking to that person, negotiating a better deal, staying positive and working harder than you are paid too. I digress, but the point is we all do this to some extent. It is not wrong and it is not right. Let’s cut to it, if you want to be successful in your chosen field you need to start practicing better habits.

For me oversleeping in the morning was a habit which had the potential to slow my progression towards my ambitions and goals. And this is not just me, think about it…most of us have the intent on getting up early, getting a head start on the day so you can feel great. The reality is our half unconscious mind persuades us to hit the snooze button and get those extra “30 important minutes” our body is telling us to have. It’s funny how we never listen or even see that weaker mind again throughout the day, but first thing in the morning it is the source of all wisdom!

Sooo where is this leading? Well getting up early requires one thing. To get up at the time you plan to get up, simple right? No, for reason previously mentioned getting into a regular sleep routine of waking early is very hard, I know. See, I wanted to wake up at 5am each morning so that I could get some work done, do some exercises and arrive in the office ahead of my day. A concept that I am sure would bring enormous benefit in the long run, I thought.

I tried alarms, they didn’t work. I even purchased a wake up light, which simply waked me up gently before I turned it off and went back to sleep. Finally I thought that if I had something exciting to wake up to then I would be up. I tried to tell myself that doing additional work at 5am would contribute towards by goals. But dreams are dreams until they happen. It’s hard at 5am to really motivate yourself to get up and work, no matter what you’re driving towards. So I had a rethink…

Boom, it dawned on me, excuse the pun. I had been trying too hard to motivate myself with pleasure. The pleasure of doing more work, the pleasure of being up and about before everyone else, the pleasure of seeing the sun rise. It was time to bring another motivator in, pain. As anyone who has studied human behaviour will know, we have two motivators. Pain and pleasure. Everything we do it driven by these forces. If you want to lose weight but don’t, it’s because the pleasure of eating is greater than the pain of dieting. So it was time to get tough and out of frustration I stumbled upon a solution. A way of getting up every morning at whatever time I want without pressing snooze….

READY?

• Go to B&Q or a DIY store and purchase an electronic timer that goes into the mains. They are often used to plug lights into them when you go on holiday and want your house to appear like someone is still there! It has to be digital too, not the analogue ones as they are not as accurate.

• Then buy or find a blender and plug this into the timer at the mains.  Set the timer for your desired wake up time and ensure that the blender is turned on.

• Done that, great! Now put something in the blender of value. An expensive watch perhaps. Your passport. £100, £1000. A special letter from a loved one. Anything that, if you didn’t have it anymore, it would be horrendous. Then go to bed in the knowledge that it will be blending the contents if you are not up before it to turn it off.

• I can guarantee that if the object is as important as you have said it is, you will be up. I have put a very important letter in it that a loved one had left me before they passed away. There is no way I would let that get blended, in fact I’m running downstairs to deactivate the blender before it boots into life. The pain is enough to get me up and once I’m up and downstairs, I’m right by the kettle and will remain up.

What if something happens and your alarm doesn’t wake you up? Stop being a wimp; you need to make sure that this doesn’t happen. I have two alarms. A Sleeptracker Watch which gently wakes me up at 4:57 (and it does too) and then my phone alarm goes off on the highest volume.

So far I have been doing this for two weeks and now I do not need an alarm, I just naturally wake up. I am in the routine that I have tried to get into for years, and it will only get better and easier. Spread the word there is a solution…..

PS: You can also use other things; it doesn’t have to be a blender. Put your laptop in the microwave if you want!!!!