· 5 mins read · LIFE SKILLSMOTIVATION

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Do you usually get out of bed in the morning happy? Is it a tough time for you? Or maybe a dreadful i-don’t-want-to-get-out-of-bed-yet moment? I’ve been getting up at 3am (yikes!). Mostly happy. Here’s how…

Getting out of bed previously

mission: get out of bed

Image by Meme Binge via Flickr

Every day when you wake up you’ve got 2 options: 1) You can snooze and go back to dreaming, or 2) You can get out of bed and go pursue your dreams. Which one do you choose?

So much to do yet so little time. That was me. One day in class the trainer asked, “How much time do you spend on TV in a day?” The class responded, “about 2 hours (8pm – 10pm)”.

“That’s 14 hours a week. Or 2 work days you can spend on your side hustle or family. And I’m almost sure you put in more hours than that. Especially on weekends,” said the trainer. Does that resonate with you?

Most of the time, we’re busy during the day with work or school. That leaves early mornings and late evenings as times to catch up on personal agendas.

I chose mornings so I could leave home confident that I paid myself already and I could enjoy evenings with family or friends.

When beating morning traffic means you have to be out of the house at 6am, getting the extra 2 hours means waking up between 3am – 4am. That was tough. Very tough. I snoozed for weeks until I decided to do something about it or give up.

Getting help

I came across the idea of setting up a morning routine – like getting out of bed to do 20 push ups first thing, or drinking a glass of water first thing, or having a maximum number of allowed snoozes.

When these didn’t work well, I decided to pick an activity I’d be excited to get out of bed in the morning to do and make a routine that would work for me.

Advice is meant to be applied, not accepted as gospel. You learn if it works when you apply it.

The activity

I was watching a YouTube video by Dr. Myles Munroe in December 2015 where he mentioned that he’d gone through the Bible every single year since he was a teen. Recently in a class I was taking, someone shared that her dad had done the same thing with their family.

Despite having been brought up in a Christian family, studying CRE (Christian Religious Education) till high school and going to church, I’d never done this.

I made a new year’s resolution to journey through the Bible this year. Yes, I make resolutions. Yearly, monthly, weekly, whenever. Getting past the first five books in the Old Testament was tough. But I did.

I began to realise I’m always excited to find out what happens next. Like watching daily episodes of your favourite drama-love-story series. There’s so much drama and love in this book.

I could see my myself getting out of bed (happy) to do this. Since January 2016 it’s worked out well 95.6% of the time.

Your turn – what activity would you be excited to wake up to most of the time?

The alarm

Some alarms are irritating. Have you heard one of those before? Do you like to start your morning irritated? I don’t. So I made my own morning alarm to motivate me to get out of bed.

My phone “sleeps” far enough that I have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm. Or continue listening to the motivation. Once I’m out and onto my first activity for the day, continuing with the next activities is a breeze.

Have a listen…


You can download the audio file (Right click and Save link as).

Motivation is temporary. It’s up to you to make a plan for times when you’re not motivated.

I’d love to know, what gets you out of bed happy most of the time? Tweet me. If you enjoyed the post, share it with someone who needs some morning inspiration.

– Evans “Happy Mornings” Musomi
P.S: Till next time, I’d like to challenge you to become the most valuable person you were designed to be. Take care.

musomi

Musomi

Helping develop people, software products and learning programs