Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
On the podcast today, I’m answering a question that has come in from a new listener of this podcast, asking me about how to wake up early. And if I have any tips or tricks, I just started listening to your podcast. And I see that you are big into morning routines. I have tried waking up early in the morning, kind of as a habit, but somehow I just cannot. What can I do? So that I can also wake up early like you? Wonderful question. I have done too many things in the space. And it takes some time before you really get this habit. But this is a habit, I don’t think I have any tricks that I can share with you. But what I can do today is I can instill some responsibility. Every time somebody tells me that they cannot do something, or they’re unable to do something, that means that they have not attached proper meaning to their intent, or the intent itself is weak. And there is some drop in responsibility. So if I attach meaning, and I bring in some responsibility into whatever you’re trying to accomplish, I think that will solve this problem. Now, waking up at 4:30 is not easy. I remember as a kid, I used to tell my mother to wake me up early, she would come to wake me up, and I go back to sleep over and over again. And eventually to a point where he started sprinkling water on me to wake me up. So funny. I’ll tell you why this happens back then, as a kid, I couldn’t figure this out. But now I know why this happens. So a lot happens for you to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, the diet the night before the sleep time, the night before, the temperature of the room, the mattress, everything matters. And I’ve done multiple podcast episodes talking about this. But then this question is about how to wake up at 4:30. The simplest answer is to turn the alarm on, schedule the alarm, and then you should be able to wake up, you can do a lot of other things to wake up early. I mean, there are so many, you just Google, there are still so many techniques available.
The alarm is the best way to do it. But then still people struggle with it. I’m kind of guessing here that you tried also setting up an alarm and then not being able to wake up or maybe you do wake up and you go back to sleep. As I said, I used to do that. As a kid, the thing that has worked very well for me is that I keep all the windows open. And that way, you know I started waking up at five o’clock when the sun starts coming out, I used to wake up. And that is how I started. And so I suggest that you keep the windows open. So there is a lot of light that comes in early in the morning. So you can wake up early. My 4:30 am schedule now is I’m only programmed to wake up no matter how late I sleep, I do open my eyes right around 430. And I don’t need an alarm as much anymore. But I still have an arm that’s programmed already to wake me up at 430. The moment I wake up, I walk I get up on a walk across the room, if you wake up and you stay on the bed for more than 30 minutes. That means there is some element of depression also playing a role in it. You don’t have a purpose, you don’t have a drive. So you need to wake up and you need to get off of the bed and go do stuff immediately. So these days, I wake up and I take a walk. And so that I come back and I don’t go back to sleep most people do go back to sleep now.
So there are triggers that you can have in a place like an alarm and you know somebody uplink, sprinkling water on you and all that you can do all of that stuff. But the most important part, as I said are you taking responsibility. If you are getting a day you open your eyes, you need to get up and quickly get into action. one other trick that you can you asked me about tricks. If you get a pet, I read this somewhere, go get a pet and program the pet to have its breakfast at 430 in the morning. The pet will wake you up at 3 am I promise you. But the most important one in all this is the reason why you’re not able to wake up at 4:30 that needs to be investigated. And I did that myself why I was not able to wake up at five or six in the morning. And what I found out is that I was going into a deep sleep not you have sleep cycles. And I was hitting the sleep cycles very late into my sleep like around three o’clock or four o’clock and I was paying maybe around four 30 or so I was hitting the deep cycle and the deep sleep, I would stay there for about 30 or 45 minutes. So if I have to wake up at 430, and I’m hitting my deep sleep cycle right around four o’clock, it’s difficult to wake up. So what I started to realize, and I started making the shift is to go into deep sleep deep cycle, the moment I fall asleep at 11 o’clock in the night, or 12 o’clock in the night, or one o’clock in the night, it’s better to hit the deep cycle, then sleep cycle then, rather than towards the latter part of the night, or early part in the morning. So this is a change. And this is where the quality of sleep comes in. This is where diet and sleep all those that sleep time, you know early, going to bed, all that comes into discussion. So I started shifting the cycle. And I’m starting to see that waking up at 430 becomes much easier now. So there are no tricks. There are some tips or tricks, honestly, all I’m suggesting that you do is take accountability, and take responsibility for who you are, and what your goals are. That way you can attach some meaning to your waking up early in the morning, I wake up because I want to read I wake up because I want to meditate I wake up because I want to exercise I wake up because I want to do this podcast. So all these things are in my mind.
Just waking up for the sake of waking up at 430. I don’t think it’s going to cut it, honestly. So not only that, you wake up, you tell yourself while you’re waking up. But throughout the day, you got a firm. And I’m now thinking of tomorrow, for today am I need to wake up I have to do these things. So it’s there in the back of her mind. So I’m affirming throughout the day what the next day is going to do for me. That’s all for now. I think I’ve answered your question or at least attend to answering your question. If you think this is helpful, let me know. And if you need a little bit more can go back and dig some other podcast episodes I did. Specifically talking about my 4:30 am routines. I think you already listened to those. But if not, let me know and I’ll find those for you also difficult sometimes. Sometimes it’s difficult to go back and search for them in the app. So that’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe and I will talk to you as early as tomorrow. Stay tuned.