Here Is Why You Should Not Set The Target Of Waking Up At 5:00 A.M.

I have always been a night owl. I tried really hard to wake up early and maintain a productive morning ritual but I failed. I read books like, The 5 a.m. Club and The Miracle Morning on just to know how I can wake up early. After reading these two books, I started believing that I am living in a wrong way and should change my routine from sleeping at 4 a.m. to waking up at 4 a.m.

Result?

I failed!

However, in the process, there is one thing that I realized and that is the value of my personality.

For example: Just as I said, I am a night person. The silence at night feels as if I am taking a break from this otherwise crowded world, and that’s the reason my creativity flows at night.

When I read all those books and articles on the importance of waking up early, I started believing that there is something in the morning time that I am missing. The fear of missing out was more or less making me anxious. I started feeling that I am not productive enough, hence I started sleeping early so that I can wake up at 5 and I used to set a bunch of alarms too. Result?

I snoozed off all the alarms that I set. I became frustrated and irritated as I wasn’t able to wake up early. To top it all, I couldn’t bring creativity to my work as I used to go to sleep early.

So what did I do then?

I know that if I keep trying to wake up early, I will end up sacrificing my night time creativity and will grow frustrated because I can’t wake up early in the morning.

And in the trail of becoming a morning person, I wouldn’t have anything in my hand, neither the calmness of morning nor the creativity of the night.

Hence, I got back to my previous schedule and now I try to make a masterpiece with my work.

Although I sleep late now, I still do what a morning person does, like exercising, journaling, meditation, etc.

But the question is why am I asking you to stop waking up early? Maybe you can become successful in your trail and end up becoming a morning person?

Well, there is a very simple yet powerful reason which I believe you should know before you think of waking up at 5.

Why should you not wake up at 5?

If you are reading this blog, that means you are also struggling to wake up early, ain’t you?

Let’s imagine what your typical day looks like,

You realized that now you want to change your life and for that, no matter what happens, you will wake up early, do the exercise and start your work with full swing. The rush of motivation makes you feel that you can even climb a mountain now.

With the same energy, motivation and mission, you finally set your alarm. Alarm rings at sharp 5 a.m. but the warmth and coziness of your blanket holds you too tight to even think of waking up.

You say to yourself, just 5 minutes more, just 10 more minutes and that’s how you actually end up waking up at 9 a.m.

The first thing you do after waking up is check the time and say, “Damn! I was supposed to wake up at 5”, Shit! I can’t do anything. I should have left the bed.

Okay, so what is the problem in this? I mean maybe you can become successful after a few days? Maybe you end up waking up even before your alarm rings?

Now, let’s take a reality check.

There is one of the most famous techniques of becoming productive that almost everyone talks about and that is, make your bed just after waking up. The reason behind this simple technique is to give your brain a signal that you did the first task of the morning. Your morning became productive with just one task you did.

However, the opposite happens when you set the alarm and don’t wake up on time. You break the first promise that you made to yourself of waking up early. You couldn’t do the first task that you were supposed to do. As a result, you curse yourself and regret snoozing off the alarm.

Robin Sharma says, “The quality of your day depends on how you spend the first hour in the morning”

Now, look at your first morning task. You wake up by cursing yourself, regretting your sleeping behavior and instantly your energy level goes down.

As a result, you successfully complete the first failure of the day. You fail just after waking up. You fail even when your eyes are closed. You fail even before you get out of bed.

Let’s have a look at how your days starts:

Okay, so you woke up regretting and cursing yourself. Now, you take the shower, drink your morning tea/coffee with just one thought, “I am a worthless shit, why couldn’t I wake up early”

Instead of planning about how you are going to spend your day, what all are you going to do, you spend the rest of the day with just one negative thought.

This one negative thought compounds and creates even more negative emotions in your life.

For example: When you can’t wake up on time, you do everything haphazardly. You just try to finish off everything asap so that you don’t run out of time or maybe you try to compensate for the time you slept by doing other tasks in a hurry. As a result, you end up making mistakes in your work, and you also forget some important tasks that are urgent and important.

Now, your irritation level knows no bar. And as you couldn’t do the work with perfection, your mind makes up negative narratives against yourself like, “I can’t do anything”, “I am not intelligent enough”, “I knew this is beyond my capabilities” and so on.

This vicious cycle makes you a victim and creates more self doubt and self sabotaging than creating positivity.

So, what should you do instead?

I am not asking you to stop trying to wake up early. I know that there are tremendous benefits of waking up early but you shouldn’t force yourself to do something that you don’t even want to do.

Waking up early is one of the habits of all the rich people but doing the work when you feel most creative is the habit of exceptional people.

If you think you are a night owl who can create a masterpiece at night, don’t you even think of forcing your mind to wake up early as that will only kill your creative side.

And if you are already a morning person, what else do you need?

Moral of the story: Maintain peace with your brain instead of fighting against it.

Besides, it doesn’t matter at what you wake up, the only thing that matters is what you do after waking up.