Benjamin Franklin was quoted in saying “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” His plan had a routine that was centered around asking himself “what good shall I do this day?” Being an early riser has many benefits. In fact, in a survey conducted by Jim Citrin of Yahoo Finance, 17 CEO’s have this “early riser” routine in common. It doesn’t just stop there — you’ll find that the President of the United States and several highly regarded politicians do the same.
Getting up at 5am has many benefits such as:
- Increased productivity
- Plan your day
- Read – early AM reading can be learned better.
- Time to exercise
- Prepare your mind
- Work on your goals.
- Meditate or pray.
- Going for a walk that early prepares your mind for the day.
- Quiet time – a time for yourself.
- Achieve more – early risers are high achievers.
I love waking up at 5am. The question is – how badly do you want it? The “it” part might be something you’ve been dreaming and thinking about all day and night. At the moment, all I could think about is this new business I am building. It’s on my mind day and night and this is all I could think about.
My 5am routine:
- I look at my vision board and meditate on it for 15 minutes. During this process, I imagine myself living as if I’ve already achieved it. This is very powerful and transformational. To learn more about this, read a book by Shakti Gawain called “Creative Visualization.”
- I exercise for 15 minutes at home. In addition, I go to the gym 4-days a week as well.
- I read for one hour. I try to read one physical book a week so my trick is to divide the number of pages by seven. On average, I read about 35-45 pages in about 60-70 minutes.
- I read my goals and to-dos for the day. If I need to tweak my to-do list, this is the time for that.
Waking up at 5am may sound difficult and it is but only in the beginning. Its like anything else – How do you develop a habit? Just give it a try for 30 days. After doing it for 30 straight days, I was hooked. I ended up getting a whole lot done and I felt accomplished. Of course, you will need to sacrifice late nights but if you have a strong vision and a deep desire to accomplish your goals and live your dreams, you will end up waking up really early. Again, the question to ponder is – how badly do you want it?
Besides being more productive, this is also a time to ponder life and think clearly and accurately. During this moment, the air is clear and you get the sense that thought flows smoother and new ideas come to you more easily. My best ideas come to me during these moments. This is and 100 other reasons are why I am in love with waking up at 5am.
PS: I wrote another blog post about learning how to create virtues similar to those created by Benjamin Franklin. Be sure to check that out as well.
What time do you wake up and what morning rituals do you have? I read and reply back to all comments received! I would love to hear your methods.
