How to Wake Up Early with Motivation and Start Strong

Your mornings are the most important time of each day. Hence, waking up with motivation should be one of your key habits to develop.

There is a saying:

How you start your day is how you’re going to live your day. And how you live your day is the way you live life.

Louise Hay

And this is why every one of us wants to start strong. Nobody wants to wake up in a sleepy and tired manner. We all want to wake up full of energy and motivation.

We want to go through a brand new day with a great morning.

As human beings, every one of us goes through days when we feel motivated and days when we feel slumpy.

There are mornings when we feel tired and lazy to get up. And there are also days when we feel so highly pumped that we can’t wait to jump out of the bed and get going.

Successful people do what they need to do, whether they feel like it or not.

I like how Haruki Murakami puts it during an interview. Being a successful writer, Murakami has developed the habit of taking action no matter what happens. This is what he said:

“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m.

I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”

Haruki Murakami

If you want to produce extraordinary results in what you do, you must learn to maintain your motivation each day.

More importantly, you must master yourself so that you can wake up with the motivation to work on your goals, day-in and day-out.

Also, this was what Ernest Hemingway used to say:

Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.

It is normal that motivation comes and goes. But to be successful, you must master your motivation so that you can go through each day feeling inspired, motivated, and driven.

And here are 10 great tips on how you can wake up with motivation and start your day strong, every day.

1. Give yourself an exciting reason to wake up

If you want to wake up with motivation each morning, you must give yourself an exciting reason to do so.

• Why do you want to wake up in the morning?
• What makes your life exciting?
• What makes you want to jump out of bed and start doing?
• What are you looking forward to doing or accomplishing?

Make your reasons so exciting that you can’t wait but jump out of bed with excitement.

If your only reason to wake up each day is that you need to go to work, I bet that each morning you will have a hard time waking up.

You need a more exciting reason to get up, my friend.

Think about all the successful people in the world, especially those who inspired you. Learn from their purpose and why they do what they do.

Read: How to Find Your Purpose in Life

If you have always wanted to visit Korea and suddenly you get a chance to do so, I believe that you will feel the excitement when the day comes to travel there. You’ll jump out of your bed when the alarm rings in the morning. Perhaps, you feel so excited that you can’t even fall asleep the night before.

When you have something exciting to look forward to, like enjoying a great breakfast with your lover, it is easier to wake up.

Thus, you need to find a passionate reason to get up each morning, my friend.

2. Use an outrageous alarm tone

Most of us wake up with the alarm clock. So it is the first thing that triggers us to get up.

Hence, make your alarm tone exciting. If you are using your phone as an alarm, get the app called The Rock Clock.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wakes up at 4 AM almost every day and kick-start his morning workout session while most of us still sleeping.

Dwayne then created this motivational app to help you wake up early to tackle your goals.

It is a free app for anyone to use. Well, for your information, Dwayne is not a fan of the snooze button, hence, this app doesn’t come with the snooze function.

Besides using The Rock Clock, you can also use a motivational song such as the Rocky Theme or any other song or music as your alarm tone.

I like the music from Two Steps From Hell. Some movies’ themes are great too, like The Avengers’ Theme. Check them out on YouTube.

By the way, do you know that I also shared personal development videos on YouTube? I create most of my videos using this amazing tool called Veed.io. You should check it out.

By the way, do you know that you can turn your own voice recording into your alarm tone?

Just be creative. The key is to choose an alarm tone that motivates you and is able to remind you of your dreams and goals.

3. Use the 5-Second Rule

I found that the 5-Second Rule from Mel Robbins works well.

Each morning, after my alarm rings, I use the 5-Second Rule and countdown to zero.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then I wake up, switch off my alarm, and walk straight to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

The 5-Second Rule works because it stops our brains from making decisions based on our feelings.

When you just wake up, you FEEL lazy and you FEEL that it is more comfortable to continue to sleep.

And thus, your brain FEELS your feelings and decided to continue to sleep rather than wake up.

Things change when you do the countdown. You have a 5 seconds window to listen more consciously to what you really want. And this is how it helps you make a better decision.

Of course, if you want to know how the 5-Second Rule works, read the book, The 5-Second Rule.

However, you don’t have to understand how it works in order to apply the rule.

Starting from tomorrow onward, countdown from 5 to 0 after your alarm fires. When you reach zero, get up, off the alarm, and start your morning routine.

4. Make your most exciting dreams and goals visible to you

Waking up with motivation requires a lot of mental work, and one of the techniques you can use is to create a trigger to remind yourself of your goals and dreams.

First, your goals and dreams must be able to inspire and motivate you.

Once you fulfilled the first condition, you can create a trigger and make your goals and dreams visible to you the first thing you open your eyes.

Jack Canfield, the worldwide best-selling author shared his experience and how he used his vision boards to motivate him to get up. Here’s what he said on his blog:

“I’ve been using vision boards in one form or another since the 1970s. My first ‘vision board’ was a $100,000 bill that I made myself.

I taped it to the ceiling above my bed so that I would see it every day when I woke up. I set the goal for myself that I wanted to make $100,000 in one year. At that point, I was making $8,000 a year so this was more than 12 times my annual income.

Every morning when I would wake up, I would visualize that. I would close my eyes and visualize my $100,000 lifestyle.

What it would be like…
Where I would live…
The Navajo rugs I was going to buy I put on my walls…
The little lake house I would have…
The car I would own…
And everything else I could think of.

Guess what happened? Within about 30 days, I started having hundred thousand dollar ideas for the first time in my life.

Within a year I had earned $92,000. It was an amazing breakthrough.

At the end of that year, my wife asked me, “Do you think it’ll work for a million dollars?” I said, “I don’t know, It worked for $100,000. So, let’s do it.”

We made a million dollar bill and put that on the ceiling. And within a few years, I received my first $1,000,000 check for a book royalty for the first Chicken Soup For The Soul.”

I strongly suggest you read the entire article to get inspired by Jack’s words himself.

As you can see, you need to remind yourself of your dreams and your goals each day. Preferably, every morning right after you open your eyes, like what Jack did.

Therefore, create a vision board or put your goals or any material that can motivate you next to your bed.

You can do like what Jack did and put your vision board on the ceiling too!

Read: Vision Boards – The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Living Your Dream Life

5. Drink a glass of water

Drinking a glass of water upon rising is one of the best things you can do to get fully awake.

You have gone through long hours of dehydration during your sleep. And when you wake up, it is time to hydrate your body so that your body can function properly.

Studies have discovered that there are many benefits to drinking a glass of water upon waking up.

The benefits include improving your metabolism rate, helping your body rid the toxins, reinforcing healthy weight loss, promoting skin radiance, strengthening your immune system, and of course, making you more alert and awake.

It is a simple yet very beneficial way to make yourself motivated in the morning.

This article from Business Insider said:

“Drinking lemon water as soon as you wake up spikes your energy levels physically and mentally,” Bradberry wrote. “By improving nutrient absorption in your stomach, it gives you a steady, natural energy buzz that lasts the length of the day.”

If highly successful people believe that drinking a glass of water can make their day more productive and drive them forward, don’t you think you should do the same?

6. Exercise and move your body

Do I need to explain more on this one? I guess not.

We all already know that exercise and living an active lifestyle is good for our health, but what is more important is that when you move your body in the morning as part of your routine, you prepare yourself mentally and physically for what’s coming.

You have to understand one thing, our emotions are affected by our motions.

Whenever you feel sleepy, tired, and lack energy and motivation, try to move your body.

Sit straight, stand up, and jump a few times. You will see that your mood instantly changes.

Motions create emotions, my friend.

This is why a lot of highly successful people choose to exercise in the morning as part of their morning habits.

You should do the same.

When you wake up feeling lazy and have no motivation, move your body. Exercise and workout.

After the workout session, you will feel much better. You will that you are ready to take on the world and your mood gets better.

Read this book, What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and you will understand that exercise is a crucial habit that extraordinary people practice.

7. Condition yourself for a great start

Motivation may not come to you automatically. You have to do something to make yourself driven.

And this is why you have to condition yourself for a great start. This is what successful people do, too, as they condition themselves with better mood with exercise.

If you want to wake up with motivation, you just need to do something that will drive up your mood.

Here are some good suggestions you can consider:

Meditation – Meditation is hot now and it has slowly become mainstream where more and more people are accepting meditation and credit it for their success.

People such as Oprah Winfrey, Arianna Huffington, Jeff Weiner, Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Dalio, Bob Stiller, Russell Simmons, Steve Jobs, and more, are examples of extraordinary people who practice meditation on a regular basis.

Vision boards and visualization – This is another great way how you can condition yourself for success and motivation in the morning.

Just like the example I shared with you above where Jack Canfield put his vision board on the ceiling of his bed so that every morning when he opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is his vision board.

You can do the same by conditioning yourself using vision boards. More importantly, you must give yourself at least a couple of minutes to visualize and see yourself achieving what you want.

Visualization is a powerful tool that you can use to boost your level of motivation and prepare yourself for what’s coming.

Affirmations – Affirmations work just like visualization, but instead of envisioning yourself, you repeat the sayings to condition yourself subconsciously to believe in what you say.

We all know that self-talk is important. We become what we say to ourselves most of the time. And thus, if you practice affirmations every morning after you wake up, you can condition yourself for success and get yourself ready for a great day.

Read: 5 Simple Rules How To Make Your Affirmations Work

Read books – Yes, reading helps. You should read motivational books in the morning to make yourself feel driven so that you can start your day strong.

If you want to know what books to read, check out my success books recommendation.

Journaling – Another great way to start your day with motivation is to journal and write down your thoughts. There are many things you can record down.

For instance, you can write down your goals. Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, said that before he became famous and successful as a cartoonist, he would practice writing down his affirmation (his goal) 15 times a day.

No matter whether you choose meditation, visualization, journaling, or motivating yourself through affirmations, you must do it passionately.

Don’t do it for the sake of doing it.

If you want to seriously elevate your mood and make yourself motivated to start your day, do it with passion.

8. Include one thing you love doing in your morning routine

If you don’t like what you do each day, you won’t have the motivation and the drive to wake up.

Common sense, right? Thus, include one thing that you love doing in your morning routine to help you get up easier.

For example, if you love to play with your cat, you can do so in the morning as part of your routine. It makes your day and is able to drive you to wake up because your cat is waiting for you.

Tony Robbins says it well:

“There are 2 different kinds of motivation: Push requires willpower, and willpower never lasts. What will last is pull – having something so exciting, so attractive, something you desire so much that you have a hard time going to sleep at night, you get up so early in the morning and take it to the next level.”

So use the “pull” motivation to inspire, excites, and get you up in the morning.

I love and enjoy having a cup of coffee while reading. Thus, each morning, I will make coffee and read for about 15 minutes. This is what I love doing, and I’m willing to get up early to do it.

What about you? What do you love doing? Include it as part of your morning routine so that you will have no problem getting up early with motivation.

9. Create an uplifting environment

Your surroundings and the environment you are in are extremely important. It is one of the most underrated factors that can greatly impact our lives.

If you want to know how your environment can impact our lives, read this article:

• 10 Tips How to Change Your Environment for Greater Motivation

Take a look at this picture below and tell me how does it make you feel?

Do feel that waking up in the morning is bliss? Or it makes you feel misery?

From the picture above, the right environment, such as the window that allows the morning sunshine to come in plays an important role.

This is why you must make your environment work for you, not against you.

Waking up with the morning sun and getting the fresh morning breeze is one of the best moments that can impact your mood.

Suddenly, you will feel that your stress is gone and you are ready to take on the world again because it is a fresh beginning.

So change and alter your surroundings so that you feel motivated to wake up in the morning.

Take a look at this picture below. Compare it to the picture above and let me know which one you think is a better environment that helps you wake up.

I bet you know the answer.

Therefore, build an inspirational and supportive environment. Turn your environment into your friend, not foe.

Read: 10 Tips How to Build a Positive Work Environment for Solopreneur

10. Get to bed early the day before

If you want to get up in the morning with motivation, just go to bed early and get enough sleep.

How can you have the motivation and energy if you don’t have enough sleep?

This is a fundamental problem that most people neglected. They want to wake up early with greatness, but they don’t want to get enough sleep.

It is like you want more fire but you don’t want to put in more woods.

And then you decide to use caffeine to boost your alertness, which is the same as pouring gasoline into the woods to get more fire.

Get more sleep, my friend.

Don’t sacrifice your health for the sake of getting up early. Many people have the wrong perception by thinking that if they sleep less, they are more productive because they have more hours to work.

However, this is not the case at all.

In fact, having not enough sleep makes you less productive. You want productive hours, not long hours.

There is no point to produce mediocre work because you feel so sleepy and can’t concentrate on your work.

It is better to get enough sleep, and then be able to focus and produce quality work.

What you want is quality, not quantity, my friend.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute published a great article on the effect of sleep deprivation and deficiency that I think you should check out.

Here’s what the article says:

“The way you feel while you’re awake depends in part on what happens while you’re sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.

The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.”

So do not look down on the importance of getting enough sleep.

If you want to wake up with motivation and productivity, the first thing you need to do is to get enough sleep.

Conclusion

We may not be able to maintain our motivation every day, but we can do something to make sure that we stay motivated.

Follow the 10 tips above to wake up with motivation and start your day strong.

So what are going to do tomorrow to wake up early and still have the motivation to go through the day?

Do share your opinion with me in the comment section below. Cheers.