Mornings are hard.
They’re cold, and usually you just want to sleep more.
But, hopefully, you’re like me, and although you love sleep, you don’t love it as much as success and achieving things in your life. Going places you want to go, and generally winning at life, therefore getting up early is a hard part of life that needs to happen.
It’s not easy, but if it were easy, then everyone would be doing it..
The reality is that lots of people just roll out of their beds when they ‘have to’ for work or other commitments, and don’t really take the time to get up that bit earlier to shower and meditate on their life goals.
Whatever your reason for wanting to get up early, you’re here.
You’re here because you probably find it difficult, and believe me I know it’s difficult, but I’ve found a little trick that will ‘program your mind’ to get up early, and even be able to have a cold shower first thing.
So, how do you go about changing your habit of laying in and actually getting up earlier each day, doing more in you day and even fitting a shower in? Well, I’ve got a neat little trick I’d like to share with you.
It’s not a complicated trick.
Nor does it require much effort other than the ‘setup’.
Let’s talk about it.. Assuming you’ve read about the benefits of having a cold shower in the morning, you’re going to want to get up some time before 8 in the morning, and jump in the shower. Doing this alone will cause you to have more energy, you’ll achieve more, and generally be happier.
The little trick to get up and shower every morning
Here’s my little trick. As with any habit, it takes practice and repetition to make it stick. You know that, most people know that.. The hard part is in actually doing it. In this case, the habit we’re trying to create is:
To get up and shower every morning.
The hardest part about this habit, is in fact, getting OUT of bed, and then getting IN the shower. So what do you think we’re going to do?
Practice it.
It sounds so simple when you think about it like this, but your brain needs to do this action several times in order to make it a habit, and waiting a whole day between ‘practices’ doesn’t seem very effective. During that day you have time to think about what you’re doing, and you may ‘talk yourself out of it’.
Don’t give yourself the chance to fail.
All we’re going to do is practice it several times in a day.
Set aside a few hours in the day to practice your new habit. Get into your night clothes, get into bed and get as comfortable as you possibly can. Get really snuggled up as if you were going to sleep, and then..
- Set your alarm to go off in 5 minutes time. During that 5 minutes, just relax, and pretend you are actually trying to go to sleep. Now, when the alarm goes off, your first thought is going to be ‘Get out of the bed’.
- Just do it. You should be awake so it will be easier than when you have actually slept, and that’s the point. You’re practicing the action of getting out of bed.
- Now that you’re out of bed, go downstairs, and hang your towel over your door (or whatever you do to have a shower). Jump in the shower.
Turn the cold tap all the way on, and leave the hot tap alone. (You don’t have to have a cold shower, just have a shower at whatever temperature you normally do, but you should really try and change to cold showers).
Go ahead and have your shower, just as you normally would. When you’re done, get out, dry yourself off, and go back upstairs.
Repetition builds the HABIT of waking up and showering
Now, when you’re dried off, get back into bed.
Set your alarm for 5-10 minutes away, and do the exact same thing again. Easy, right?
It’s worth noting that it’s important to not have any delays when you practice this. You want the action to be drilled into your mind:
Get up > Go into the shower > Have a shower > Start your day
If you faff around in between and do other things like read a paper, or stay in bed while the alarm is going off then it’s a waste of time. Done properly, this will ‘train your mind’ and body to do the action.
I personally guarantee that if you practice this 5-10 times in a day, even the FIRST day you try this in the morning, it will be so much easier than if you hadn’t practiced. It’s a quick way to save DAYS of hard, cold mornings and you wishing you never started the challenge in the first place.
Hopefully you will actually try this and you’ll see what I mean.
It makes it very easy, and your mornings will be a lot better. You’ll feel energetic, healthy and ready for the day after your refreshing shower and you’ll even have more hours in the day to do what you want.
If you have the courage to try this, please comment on our page with your results, get involved. What do you find the most difficult about the mornings? Let us know!