Everyone has an opinion of what happiness is: money, possessions, experiences, value, power, etc. My most valuable possession is my mind and I work daily to keep my mind in a joyful state. Happiness is an emotion that is simple to achieve but challenging to maintain.
Life is so much easier when I allow myself to be myself and go with the flow. Whatever that looks like every morning. If I can get quiet enough to truly check in with myself, I usually end up on the right track.
The way I start my day determines my attitude towards the rest of my day. The first step to winning myself is to wake up early. I go on the offence to tackle my day instead of being on the defence and getting overwhelmed by what the day has to offer.
My favourite use of this early morning time is for my personal development and self-care so that I can be at the top of my game during the remaining hours of the day. By setting my Alarm for 03:45 am and eventually rising to shine at 4 AM, I’m able to routinely take time for myself. I meditate, stretch, and prepare my breakfast while listening to audiobooks.
Then it’s a two-hour swim to Hit my morning goal of 1,500 Kcal before breakfast which puts my body in a fat-burning phase. Meditation and stretching get dopamine into my body, but swimming is a massage and workout. The movement of the water over my body as I swim creates a massaging sensation and automatically puts me in a state of relaxation.
Swimming is a low-impact sport, it’s great for anyone suffering from joint pain and it helps to minimise muscle damage making it a good option for any age, ability and especially for dancers. It releases endorphins which give me a sense of well-being and happiness as well as releasing ANP, A stress-reducing hormone.
My physical, mental, and emotional well-being are directly tied to my dopamine levels. When they’re out-of-whack (whether too low or too high) I can become low in energy or engage in negative behaviour. When I experience something positive, dopamine helps me register it as pleasurable and encourages me to do it again. It’s the source of many of my good habits, cravings, and impulses. It is no exaggeration to say that dopamine takes me to my Happy Place.
Have you ever referred to yourself as a “morning person” or “night owl”? I typically use these terms to indicate my preferred time of productivity, but they can signify something much more fundamental to my being. My tendency to be productive at certain times of the day is often hard-wired in me as an internal clock that’s determined by my habits or lifestyle.
The key to making the 4 am club work, and to sustaining it, has everything to do with getting to bed at the right time each evening and being consistent about it. Knowing the exact number of sleep hours that support my peak performance is requisite to success, mine is Five hours.
While I can certainly make accommodations when my schedule forces me to get less sleep, more than a few nights of that in any given month effectively compromises all the systems that work together to make me successful in my day-to-day life. Without enough sleep, my motivation to exercise is zapped, my food choices start moving in a downward spiral, and my daily productivity takes a nosedive.
If you’re going to take a shot at joining the 4 am club, you must go into it knowing that this is a no-excuses kind of practice. Follow the 21/90 rule on average, it takes 21 days (or three full weeks) to form a habit. If the system seems to work for you, another 90 days (about three months) of practice is recommended to turn it into a permanent lifestyle change. That said, you can bet your money on the fact that the first few days will be brutal.
The first morning your alarm goes off at that other-worldly hour, your instinct will be to hit snooze with your inner voice pleading, “just a few more minutes.” A few more minutes inevitably turn into another hour or two, which is not getting you any closer to seeing if this system works for you. Try combating this sleep trap by using the Rule of 5 as soon as you hear your alarm go off. When you hear the buzzer, count to five, pop up and start moving out of bed, no matter how you feel about it at that moment.
It’s normal to move through the motions of the first part of your morning like a zombie at first, but don’t let that stop you from making a routine of it for at least three weeks. Watch out for that sneaky 10-day slump too for some people, the excuses come out after we feel like we’ve accomplished something, and we let our guard down.
Above all, know that every person is wired in their way, and successful habits look different for everyone. Do not try to define yourself by what works for others, instead, let them inspire you to find the routines that drive you toward your goals.
The 4 am club is how I learned to become more protective of my time. One of the greatest productivity hacks I have embraced is saying ‘No’ more often to demands on my time. I’m therefore more selective about events that I attend in the evenings and when I do, will often arrive earlier, and leave soon before the end.
There will naturally be some events that go on longer in the evenings, so it’s just a question of being flexible and adapting to those in the best way possible. By waking up early I can enjoy a powerful workout before my day gets going. Not only is this good from a health perspective, but also for my mind. This daily ritual puts me in a phenomenally empowered peak state which means I’m mentally ready to take on whatever the day may throw my way.
Everything is quiet and peaceful, so I have no distractions. I can get so much more accomplished. Think about it this way: if you woke up just one hour earlier every day for a year, you create extra time equating to over half a month. What could you do with all that extra time? Begin to imagine all the exciting possibilities.