I have been on this 5AM wakeup journey for a few months now and I have moved from struggling with it by waking up only 50% of the time at 5 AM, to being more consistent, to missing the very occasional morning, to streak and approaching the magical 66 day habit. By the end of December I was on 44 day habit, which I regard as the 2nd milestone to creating a long term habit.
I will start off by apologizing for the lateness of this post. I had all the materials but I have been procrastinating with exercise. Maybe I wanted more success in the areas of exercise or other activities? or I was more focussed on goal planning instead? – lets move on.
On the left, is my 5AM Wakeup calendar month, I commented in my November post that I had a number of disruptions that caused the lapses in wakeup times. But happy to say I made a great recovery in December.
December was going to be the most challenging month yet, with family coming to sleepover for Christmas Holidays for a week, a road trip interstate which was about an 800KM drive there and another 800KM back (also for a week) , sleeping on sofas and hotel rooms. But I was determined that these challenges would not stop me from reaching my goal. So despite the short sleep cycles and interruptions to continuous sleeps, I was able to reach my objectives by having “Christmas Naps”. You know the naps you take after Christmas lunch, I just did them more of them.
I do have some funny memories – like the time I woke up just before 5AM in the hotel room, I had to leave the room so I did not wake up my family and spent the first hour of the day chatting to the night duty manager in the lobby downstairs. He switched on the air conditioner for me (it was a sweltering 35 degrees Celsius) and offered to make me a cup of coffee which was really sweet. I had my computer and ipad with me so I was able to work, by myself in an empty restaurant.
The orange colours on my calendar represents my continuous streaks, I have learnt that making small and committed compounding gains is the “secret sauce”. I am convinced that some of the things that have led to my continued commitment are due to practicing the “little things”.
1. Committing to the unfailable habit (drinking water 1st thing in the morning). This little habit is the kickstart for me and after I complete this habit – I have momentum.
2. Positive routines – Motivational quotes and videos are part of my morning ritual. This definitely sets me up to having a better day each morning.
The graph on the far left is my morning drink water habit. By the end of December I was on a streak of 94 checkins. This simple habit is the kickstarter for all my other morning and daily habits.
The graph closest to us is my exercise tracking graph. Lots of gaps in December (I wonder why? 🙂 ). But you know I am fine with it. Something to improve upon in the new year. Since I have been on this journey my exercise routine has been more consistent now than it has every been for years. Also my running times have not suffered too much and on some sessions I have been able to attain personal best times.
Oh! to coincide with this post I have installed a Twitter widget so you can watch me checkin at 5AM every morning. I also have two accountability groups that I check in with every morning.
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