A post about waking up early.

Well, well, well. If it isn’t the guy who was writing posts for a bit and then stopped. Again. At least this time the blog is where I left it. As opposed to having it’s plug pulled quietly in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I’ve been waking up early lately. It’s always been a minor dream of mine. Wake up early, get some work done. Be that guy. It never felt in the cards for me. I would wake up, blearily shut the alarm off (without actually ever gaining consciousness) and drift back into my merry dreams.

Then I came across a post.

It held one key distinction that was helpful, and ultimately lead to me finally becoming an early riser. Likely for good.

And that method?

Practice.

You heard that right. Practice waking up. His whole argument, which makes incredible sense, is that you aren’t you when you wake up. When you’re waking up the reptile brain is saying: “You are safe and warm and rest is good and you aren’t hungry so maybe just catch some more z’s. No large felines can eat you in bed. Also please turn that annoying sound off, thank you.”

Your conscious brain is screaming to be unleashed upon the day, Jocko Willink style, but is being corralled by your stronger, dumber side. The short term side. The warm-fuzzy-sleep-in side.

Yes, practice. Practice makes perfect. In fact the first few nights I did 5-10 reps, and whenever I feel waking up in the morning is getting hard, I do some more. What’s a rep?

You wake up! In the middle of the evening, you put on your onesie, and get your fluffy bunny slippers and put them next to the bed (just like how they are when you wake up). Then you turn off all the lights, lay down, and set your alarm for a few minutes in the future.

You lay, as if in dreamland, and once the hellish sound of your alarm rings through the bedroom, you practice waking up. You sit up, triumphantly toss off the covers and find your slippers.

Then you do it again.

Yes, it looks and feels as dumb as it sounds.

But if it works, is it actually dumb? Or just dumb looking?