I’ve made the decision to take action and become an Early Riser. What’s an early riser? Well to me it’s someone who wakes up before at least 8 in the morning, feels refreshed, and sleeps less than 10-11 hours in a night. Why is that my definition? It’s because I can’t remember a time when I didn’t struggle to wake up before 10 A.M., felt refreshed throughout the entire day, and slept less than 10 hours with the ability to function the next day. I am not an Early Riser. I want to become one.
Recently I stumbled upon Steve Pavlina’s website and one of his blogs was about being an Early Riser. The first thing that struck me was his mention that he sleeps from roughly 10-11 PM until 5 AM… 5:00 AM!!!!! I usually fall asleep around midnight and I can’t get up without feeling completely disconnected until 10-11! How do I do sleep while holding a decent job? I live dazed and confused until roughly 3, then I mentally wakeup. Now on to the better question; How in the world does he go to bed an hour or two before me and get up FIVE hours before I do, and does it feeling refreshed? I read a little further and he mentions scrapping the idea of consciously getting up. To me that is very sensible. Who in the right mind would ever want to get up, especially to go to work! 
Instead he suggests building a routine, setting yourself on autopilot, and taking over when your actually ready. Seems reasonable.
Yesterday after reading through the Early Riser article I gathered the different ideas and thought sure, I could give this a try. What’s to lose? But here’s where I got a laugh today. That’s pretty much where it ended. I didn’t do any physical dry runs. I didn’t go through any mental wakeup routine practices. I did think of when I wanted to wake up, my wife set the alarm, and VIOLA! BEEP BEEP BEEP…. the alarm sounded at 5:50 AM. Before I realized anything I was already taking a deep breath and stretching. I opened my eyes and started getting up out of bed. It wasn’t until this point that I remembered, “Hey, I actually wanted to get up right away!” And I did! This is a revelation! I actually woke up before my wife. SHE slapped the alarm, and slept in later. Here now going on 3:30 PM, I still feel great. I’m not tired, groggy, disconnected, and I’ve accomplished a ton compared to a ‘normal’ for me.
So for Day 1 of becoming an Early Riser, I declare victory.
I’ll soon find out if Day 2 is a different story.
