Do Want to Start Waking up at 5 AM? Here’s How to Do It
Let’s talk about my 5 a.m. morning routine that you can adapt too
If you want to start waking up at 5 AM, this blog post will tell you exactly the secret that other wake-up early tips can’t beat.
We all probably know that everything starts in the morning. How we act in the morning sets the tone for the day.
If your morning starts out lazy, your whole day will have this kind of vibe. If you start your morning on a positive, productive note, your whole day is likely to be more positive and productive.
So yes, the way we begin the day can have a significant impact on how the rest of the day unfolds. A morning routine can help set the tone for the day and provide structure and purpose.
It can also help you feel more in control of your day and make tackling the tasks ahead easier. Besides, it helps you start your day feeling more focused, energized, and motivated.
There are small things you can do in the morning that help you achieve your dream life.
Productive mornings produce productive and successful days. By changing the way you wake up every morning, you will also change every aspect of your life.
Before I go any further, I’ll list some benefits of waking up at 5 a.m.:
- You will have more energy every day to start maximizing your potential.
- You will reduce stress and depression.
- You will improve your health.
- You will increase your productivity.
- You will be more grateful.
- You will increase your possibility of earning money.
- You will find your purpose in life.
- You will stop settling for less than you deserve.
It is important to keep in mind that everyone is different; some people are naturally night owls, which is fine; it’s important to find a schedule that works for you.
Now let’s move on to how to start getting up at 5 a.m.
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Let’s talk about how to wake up at 5 a.m. without feeling tired
As a side note, I would like to mention that you should keep in mind that our outer world is always a reflection of our inner world.
We know what makes us happy, yet we don’t do those things. Why? Because we’re too busy.
Busy with what? Busy with TRYING to be happy instead of really being happy. If you want your life to be different, you have to do something different.
The way you do something is the way you do everything. If you decide to skip your workout by saying, “I’ll do it twice as hard tomorrow,” you’re choosing the easy way.
If you choose the easy way instead of the right way, you’re becoming this person who does what’s easy instead of what’s right.
Every action you take has a huge impact on who you are becoming as a person.
What you’re doing now matters more than what you did a week ago because the actions you take now shape you into the person you’re becoming.
One of the ways to start changing your life is by getting up early in the morning. It’s one of my best tips if you’re looking for easy habits to transform your life.
Sleeping late and hitting the snooze button is a bad habit, right? It’s a terrible habit that prevents you from waking up early.
To achieve what you want, you need to let go of habits that are preventing you from living your dream life. It all comes down to our habits.
Take up new habits that help you achieve your desired results and let go of those that are limiting your potential. If you have no control over your habits, your habits will have control over you.
One of the reasons people fail to change their habits is that they don’t know what’s ahead. Or they have no game plan and are not ready to overcome mental obstacles.
If you have the right strategy, you can change your habits within 30 days.
But the key element here is the STRATEGY. You can’t say you want to start getting up early and then just get out of bed early if you don’t have a plan.
The first 10 days of ditching an old habit and replacing it with a new one are probably the hardest, and that’s where most people fail.
If you go into this battle knowing that if you survive the first 10 days, it will get better, then you’re a winner.
The next 10 days are uncomfortable, but you’re managing. The last 10 days are the time when this new habit becomes part of your reality and your life.
If you’re wondering what my average morning routine looked like before, you can check out this post about proven morning routine tips to change your day.
I highly suggest you check it out, as it’s packed with lots of useful information as well.
However, I recently read Hal Elrod’s “The Miracle Morning,” and it totally changed my outlook on mornings.
I have always wondered how to start getting up early, and I just couldn’t motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning.
However, Hal explains that you should use the first hour of your morning to focus on personal growth.
This is one of the best wake-up early tips I’ve honestly come across because it gives your morning a purpose.
My miracle morning routine
Getting up early in the morning is not easy, I know. Your brain might not even function during that time.
But if you focus on personal growth in the morning, you won’t make excuses for the rest of the day (“I’m too tired”, “I don’t have time,” etc.).
I take the first hour of the day to really focus on personal growth. You can’t change your life if you aren’t doing anything to become the person you need to be to change your life.
So what I do in the mornings is divide the first hour into six sections. It means one section gets 10 minutes.
Then I use these sections to work on specific tasks.
You can change these tasks according to your needs, but my tasks are meditation, practicing affirmations, visualizing, yoga, journaling, and reading.
Then I focus for 10 minutes on each task. I suggest you use a timer instead of a phone to track time. This timer is SUPER cheap, cute, and easy to use.
And that’s actually how to start waking up at 5 a.m. You need to have a purpose that motivates you to get out of bed.
And then you just have to do it. Try it for 30 days, and if you feel like it’s not for you, you can always give it up.
But I highly suggest you try it. You will start to like it. I believe that the exact time when you wake up does not matter because the term “early” has a different meaning for everyone.
What matters is HOW you use these early morning hours.
And let me tell you something. If you’re too busy to work on this 60-minute morning routine, you can actually do it in just 6 minutes as well.
At least you’re doing something to become a better version of yourself. Just focus for one minute on each task, and you’ll see that it’s not that hard to start waking up early and enjoying the mornings.
Now I’m going to guide you through the 60-minute morning routine that helps me become a better person.
As I mentioned before, I focus for 10 minutes on each task, and by doing so, I’m already doing so much to better myself because, after all, you don’t need to read self-help books all day.
The key is to balance everything.
1. Meditate
If you want to reduce your stress, start your day with purposeful silence.
Purposeful silence means that you don’t use this time just to be silent; you use this time to look inside yourself and connect with yourself.
It’s one of those benefits of getting up early that I just can’t overlook.
Meditation helps you reduce stress, helps you sleep better, strengthens your ability to focus and concentrate, and even extends your lifespan.
Let go of your random thoughts and be present. Focus on your breathing, and by focusing, I mean really focusing.
Some random thoughts might pop up, but learn to let them go. Give up the need to constantly think about something.
Now is the time to let go of your problems and take a break from worrying. Be present. Don’t think about anything; don’t do anything; just be.
Focus on your breathing. Imagine that you’re breathing in happiness and positivity and breathing out negativity and toxicity.
Think of meditation as a temporary break from your problems and worries.
You might also like: If you're in a hurry, here are 100 5-minute self-care activities for you
2. Practice positive affirmations
With the help of affirmations, you can become the person you have to be to achieve everything in your life. The dialogue you have with yourself has a huge impact on everything in your life.
In our subconscious mind, we’re programmed to think, believe, and act exactly as we do.
The good thing is that you can reprogram yourself and overcome your fears, bad habits, and insecurities.
Try to repeat affirmations that talk about who you want to be and what you want to do and achieve.
If you repeat these things enough, your subconscious mind will start to believe them, act on them, and then attract things that are associated with them.
Your affirmations should very clearly explain your perfect life in every aspect. Start by writing out very clearly what it is that you really want. Then write down why you want these things.
If you have clarity about your whys and your goals, you’ll have more willpower to work on things that really matter. Keep in mind that your life will become better only after you’ve become better.
Then write down what you need to do to get what you want.
Make sure to include the frequency (how often do I have to do this?), quantity (how much do I have to do this?), and the exact starting and stopping times.
Start with small steps that you can actually keep up with. If you have never gone to the gym, it’s not a very good idea to start by going to the gym every day for an hour straight.
A little progress motivates you to push harder, and you won’t have as many setbacks.
If you feel comfortable with your current goals, then you can start raising your standards and advancing your goals.
When you practice affirmations, you need to really feel them. Just saying them out loud won’t help much. Try to feel connected to them and really believe them.
You also need to be persistent with affirmations. It means you have to repeat them every day.
Repeating affirmations only if you remember to do so is like working out every now and then—it won’t get you far.
It’s also recommended to change your affirmations every now and then. As time passes, you change as a person, and so do your goals and dreams.
That’s why it’s important to keep your affirmations in line with your goals. That’s a huge part of personal growth.
You might also like: Here are 90 body-positive affirmations to improve your self-esteem
3. Visualize
Think about what you really want, who you really want to be, who you really want to become, and what you really want to do.
Visualize your biggest goals, deepest wishes, and most exciting dreams. Include all your senses.
Visualize yourself as if you have already achieved these things, and really feel the good emotions that come with them.
Imagine the person you need to be to achieve your dream life and the actions you take to become that person. Visualize yourself enjoying these activities.
The best books I’ve read about visualizing and manifesting are certainly “The Secret”, “The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham”, and “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams”.
4. Read
Mark Twain once said: “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
Reading helps you gain new knowledge, ideas, and strategies that you need to achieve your dreams.
You don’t need to invent the wheel if there are already successful people whose examples you can follow. There are tons of books available on every possible topic.
You can start by reading for 10 minutes every day. It’s certainly one of the best getting up early benefits.
It won’t hurt you, but if you read 10 pages every day, that means within 365 days you’ve read 3650 pages.
This is approximately 15–20 books. Now, can you tell me these 15–20 books won’t change your approach to life? You will certainly become a new version of yourself.
I’m a huge bookworm. My absolute favorite books that shaped my thinking and that I recommend to everyone are this one, this one, and this one.
5. Exercise
I know, you just started to wake up at 5 a.m., and you might not like it yet, and now I’m telling you to exercise as well.
But hear me out. Robin Sharma once said, “If you don’t take time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.”
It happens quite often that we tend to make excuses. “I’m too tired to exercise” or “I don’t have enough time for that today.”
That’s why it’s crucial to get it done in the morning, when you’re fresh and alert. This way, you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to make excuses.
After all, you don’t have to do anything vigorous. You can just stretch, do yoga, or use these super-affordable resistance bands to come up with your own short routine.
6. Journal
Journaling helps you gain clarity. You will think through your thoughts to understand them. Journaling lets your thoughts and ideas flow and helps you overcome your problems.
Besides, if you write down all those amazing ideas that you have, you’ll have them all in one place, and you won’t forget about them.
It used to happen quite often that I had a great idea, forgot to write it down, and then forgot about it later.
Journaling with the help of these prompts for beginners also helps you take a look at all the lessons you’ve learned and gives you the possibility to see how far you’ve come in your personal development.
This plays a huge part in keeping yourself motivated. Here’s an AWESOME 5 a.m. journal that you can use to gain clarity and master your day.
You might also like: Fun things you can write in your journal when you're bored
Other tips that help you get up earlier in the morning
Now that I’ve talked about this miraculous 60-minute morning routine, I’m going to share some tips for waking up early.
I know how hard getting up early in the morning can be, but if you keep pushing the snooze button, you keep avoiding getting out of bed.
What does this mean? It means you keep avoiding your life. Think about the negative energy that affects you in this way.
1. Find your why
Don’t avoid growth or pain. We don’t have our “why”, so we just slide through life. You don’t need to recognize your life’s purpose.
It’s not set. Only you will decide who you want to be and what you want to do. Think about the reason behind your desire to wake up early in the morning.
If you find the “why” behind your desire to learn the secret behind waking up at 5 AM, it will be much easier to get out of bed without coming up with silly reasons.
And think about all those getting up early benefits that can help you achieve your dream life!
2. Mindset matters so much
We’re told that we need at least 7–9 hours of sleep a day, and I agree with that.
But sometimes you just fall asleep later, and then it’s really easy to keep hitting the snooze button because you haven’t had enough sleep.
In order not to ruin your morning routine, convince yourself that however many hours you get to sleep, that’s enough (unless you slept for like 2-3 hours).
The last thing on your mind before falling asleep is probably the first thing on your mind after waking up.
3. Find a person to go on this journey with
The people with whom you spend your time shape you into the person you’re becoming. Don’t spend time with average people who do you no good.
If you have the right people next to you who share the same mindset as you, it will be much easier to stick to your morning routine.
You can always share your worries with them and keep each other motivated.
4. Move, move, move
Put your alarm bell far enough away that you can’t just reach it, so you have to get up. It makes it harder to hit the snooze button.
Besides, moving your body makes you more alert. Then brush your teeth. Yes, brush your teeth.
By doing things that don’t require extra brain power, you’re giving your body time to wake up. And then put on your workout clothes.
If you do that, you’re already halfway there to getting your morning workout done.
Here’s an alarm clock that will jump off the table, which means you’ll have to chase it. Physically getting up has never been that easy!
5. Drink a glass of water
After sleeping for 7–9 hours, your body is probably dehydrated. Dehydration causes fatigue.
So it’s quite common that when we feel tired, we don’t actually need more sleep, but we do need more water.
While I was struggling with my water intake, I found that this affordable water bottle is actually really inspiring.
It has a time marker with motivational sayings, so it’s really easy to stay on track with it.
6. Stop focusing on the things that you fail at
Stop blaming yourself if you find it hard to jump on this train. Remember, only one thought can change your life. You are giving yourself a gift by focusing on personal development.
95% of society settles for less than it deserves. The first step is to realize that if you don’t focus on thinking differently and taking a different approach, you’ll be among the 95%.
Understand why people settle for less. Figure out what those people do that prevents them from reaching their full potential.
An average person thinks more than 6,000 thoughts a day. 95% of those thoughts are the same ones we had yesterday or the day before yesterday.
We constantly carry our burdens with us. Every time something happens, we say, “No, I can’t do that.”
We’ve all probably googled “how to wake up early in the morning,” and every time we read those tips for waking up early, we tell ourselves, “I can’t do that.” “I’m a night owl.”
These are our limiting beliefs. It always happens like that. Your past is not your future. Stop dwelling on it.
Imagine your limitless life. Don’t set boundaries. Think bigger. You can’t fail. You can only grow and become a better person.
You might also like: 20 more super toxic habits to avoid that are ruining your life
Doesn’t waking up at 5 a.m. every day seem easier now?
How we begin our day has a significant impact on how the rest of the day unfolds; thereby, it is critical to develop a morning routine that sets a positive tone for the day, helps you feel more in control and motivated, and promotes overall well-being.
By changing your inner life, you’re also changing your outer world. The miracle morning routine helps you start your day with discipline, clarity, and self-growth.
You will become the person you need to be to achieve your dream life.
You will be on your way to seeing results that are better than ever. You will change your mindset to one that’s necessary to change your quality of life.
You will experience the physical, intellectual, emotional, and mental benefits of silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling.
You will have more energy, clarity, and motivation to keep moving toward your biggest goals and dreams.
Your life will change AFTER you’ve become the person you need to be to change your life. You see, it’s not really hard to wake up early if you have a plan.
You might also like: Another one-hour morning routine that you'll love for sure
Tell me about your morning routine. What time do you wake up? Are you a morning person? Let me know in the comments below!
Camille
I’d love to spend an hour on personal growth, but I also have to get ready for work. What’s your advice for this? Thanks!
Nisee
Having a morning routine is crucial for daily success and longer-term too. These steps are fantastic. Thank you!
Mae Alexis
Wow, it sounds like we have discovered the same secret (awesome) sauce! That is, focusing on personal development and priming oneself for the day first thing upon waking. I used to have a love/hate relationship with sleeping in late. I could see the benefits of waking up early, but actually doing it was like pulling teeth. The battle was with myself. For about two years now I’ve very consistently been able to wake up early, before the sun, and ready to tackle the day. I too focus on water intake, journaling, meditation and exercise. It’s helped me so much in my own journey of self development!! This was an excellent and very well put together article. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Cooking with Carbs
Great post. I’ve always been the type to try and wake up early. I love the idea of waking up early and focusing on personal growth in that time. I often motivate myself by realizing that if I wake up 1-2 hours earlier than everyone else, that’s 365-730 more hours on growth a year than others. That’s huge!
Sandra
Amazing tips as always!! I think the “find your why” step a very crucial step in committing to waking up early! You make waking up early seem like a piece of cake! ☺️
Nina
I have been trying to wake up early since a long time and sometimes I fall back to my old routine. Thanks for the tips coz that helps! Loved reading this post.
Niki
I’m a hitting-the-snooze-button type of person, and I’m trying to change it by creating a certain morning routine. Those are very helpful tips!! Thank you for posting them 🙂
Jimmy Clare
I like to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. Not too early not too late
Meika
I did wake at 5 AM every morning, but due to the pandemic, I’m slacking up a bit!?
Rose
Thanks for sharing your morning routine!
Katherine
I’ve started waking up at 530 and, although I hate it, after getting it done for the first 2 weeks, it became easier and now is a habit. Although, I do get tired sooner at the end of the day…
Latisha
I am a morning person, but I do not wake up at 5am. Most of the time I am up by 6:30am. I normally, stretch, pray & meditate before getting my day started. Then, I spend time reading God’s Word and journal writing. This morning routine helps set the tone for my day and gives me strength to overcome any challenges that may arise.
Danielle
Loving this post! It’s amazing how powerful a morning routine can be!
TBT
I love your idea about splitting an hour into 6 sections and using 10 minutes to focus on different activities. As well as being super great for your mental health, it is also extremely productive as you’re getting it all done in the first hour of the day! I think what you highlighted about motivation is true; in order to wake up early you need to be motivated by something/ look forward to something. I especially liked the ‘visualising’ idea as it helps put things into perspective and gets you excited to start working on your to-do list so you can get one step closer to achieving your goals!
Monica
Such great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Lani
Struggling, but trying every morning. I consider it my ME time, I definitely see the benefits.
Stephanie Carter
I absolutely love all of the steps that you’ve outlined here! I 100% agree that exercising in the morning is so important because it has you feeling your best and alert right away to start your day. It helps so much with productivity too, and just feeling your overall best. Thank you for writing such a lovely post!!