A 5am morning routine is an elite way to accelerate your success and transform your life. This personal ritual is arguably a golden step in creating your dream life. In fact, this kind of personal ritual seems to be a common denominator among some of the most successful human beings on the planet.
Some successful early risers are:
- Michelle Obama who wakes up at 4:30 am for a workout
- Benjamin Franklin who planned his routine around waking up at 5 am
- Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and Disney’s CEO Robert Iger both get up at 4:30 am
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The small habit of waking up earlier in our day seems to snowball into other healthy and powerful habits that propel you to success. So should you focus on waking up extremely early every morning and then suddenly all your problems will be solved? Not exactly, a very powerful book named Atomic Habits, makes mention that using habits to achieve a goal means that you will constantly chase a motivator to perform the habit.
So, if you’re desire is to lose 10 pounds you may stop your healthy habits at the 10 pound drop. If you focus on the system of getting healthy, you are likely to continue these activities indefinitely. Its about a system of continual refinement.
Success has very little to do with the goals I set and everything to do with the systems I follow.” – James Clear Author of Atomic Habits
To put this in prospective, being an early riser is a habit that should be apart of a larger system to be successful. If you set the system in place to be a success then its likely to come true. And what’s more is that you’re likely to continue the system because you are playing for the long game and not quick gratification.
If you’re interested in creating a system that will wire you for success, keep reading!
Benefits of the 5am Morning Routine
As mentioned earlier, getting up early is an atomic habit that can transform the way you approach your life. According to INC people who wake up earlier are more productive and happy because they get to anticipate the day. This lends to being more comfortable adjusting to challenges that present during your waking hours. You become more proactive in your life. Below are a few more benefits of waking up at 5am.
- You get the maximum time to you yourself
- Less distractions
- Perfect atmosphere to plan and strategize your day and set intentions
Why the 5am Morning Routine?
The 5am morning has been trending on social media, especially on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, even reddit. And its no secret that social media often times pushes the direction of culture. So, yea my curiosity was piqued by all the fanfare. But then, as I really thought about it, waking up at 5am to start your routine allows for maximum time to exercise, plan, eat breakfast and get ready for the day ahead.
Its not obscenely early where you feel deprived of sleep and not too late that you have to rush your routine. For this reason, I wanted to explore this topic more. That’s not to say that any morning routine wouldn’t work. But for the purpose of this article, 5am will be our starting point. Oh and do feel free to adjust your wakeup time to fit your lifestyle.
Because as it turns out, having a moment to yourself before phone calls, deadlines, traffic, a boss and so on has a very positive outlook for your own personal happiness. You get to express self-love and prioritize time with you. Keep reading for more tactics on how you can become an early riser.
Tactics for getting up for your 5am Morning Routine
Getting up this early can be challenging for anyone. Even those who wake up for work at lets say 8am will still find waking up at 5am challenging. Therefore, the key to learning how to start a 5am morning routine is to ease into this new normal slowly. Try waking up a half hour earlier for a week. Then a half hour earlier than that in the following week. You do this until you reach 5am. Here are a few other tactics that can help you get up earlier.
- Set your alarm clock and place it across the room.
- Set your TV to turn on at a particular time.
- Automate your blinds to open at a set time.
- Ask your spouse, kid, or friend to wake you up.
5am Morning Routine Book
If you’re looking for motivation on how to start your morning routine, feel free to look into the book below.
Exercise for your 5am Morning Routine
Exercise is not only healthy for you in the long run, but its a great way to wake you up in the morning and clear your mind for the day ahead. Exercise is known to improve focus, put you in a great mood and keep you overall healthy by staving off lifestyle diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure.
So while your striving to be excellent in other areas of your life, don’t neglect exercise as a vital part of that.
Meditation for your 5am Morning Routine
Meditation involves focusing on the present moment while taking an attitude of nonjudgment. This practice is used to clear the mind and produce a calming effect on the senses. Using your morning to incorporate meditation is a powerful way strengthen your mind, body and spirit. As a result you are more emotionally prepared to handle your day. While I use spiritual meditation by praying, there are many meditation techniques you can choose from. According to Healthline, there are 9 forms of meditation. They are the following:
Mindfulness Meditation for your 5am morning routine
Spiritual Meditation
Focused Meditation
Movement Meditation
Mantra Meditation
Transcendental Meditation
If you re not confident in which meditation style suits you feel free to take the quiz below. I found it to be very accurate when I took it, I hope you find this helpful as well.
Incorporate Journaling in your 5am Morning Routine
The cool thing about meditation is that you can use different mediums in your practice. As mentioned earlier, I use prayer. However, sometimes I journal my prayer instead of saying it. Journaling is a popular and therapeutic trend geared toward helping you reflect and prioritize your feelings and thoughts.
For those that are new around here, I’m pretty big on journaling and its benefits. During the morning take advantage of journal as a easy way to set your intentions for the day. If you’re not sure how to begin, take a look at this article where I outline journal prompts you can use in your daily life.
Plan your day during your 5am Morning Routine
Stay ahead of the competition by getting your ducks in a row before the sun comes up. Are you familiar with the saying, “The early bird catches the worm?” Well there is some truth to it. Having time in the dead of the morning with so little distraction allows for clarity of thought and focus. Use this to your advantage and review your day and plan accordingly.
Let Sunlight In during your 5am Morning Routine
Waking up to the sun in the morning is like getting a nice bright reminder that you have another day to reach your greatest potential. The sun provides us with vitamin D, it can kill bacteria, improve our mood, and strengthen our bones. So the next time you wake up, open the blinds and let some light in.
If you wake up in winter at 5am then it will likely dark. And this can be a major deterrent from rising early. Therefore, it may be adventitious to invest in a Wake up Alarm Clock – a sunrise alarm clock.
Ever heard of the circadian rhythm? This is the rhythm in which we wake up and go to sleep. Its largely affected by sunlight and darkness. And its crucial to our overall sleep health. The sunrise alarm clock simulates sunlight, which helps your body to wake up during the darker months. These clocks, according to The Washington posts interview with Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, “Using a sunrise alarm clock could help establish a regular rhythm of light exposure, which in turn could lead to more consistent wake times and sleep times”
Healthy breakfast during the 5am Morning Routine
Keep the momentum going by eating a diet beneficial to your overall health. Each of us have different dietary needs, so be sure to speak with your physician on what exactly your body needs to operate at its optimal level and stick with it. Generally we shouldn’t be eating excessive sugar, fat or salt – everything in balance. And nothing diminishes the hard work you just put in the gym than eating unhealthy foods right after.
Drink Water
You’ve probably heard this a lot. The human body is mostly water. We need a lot of water for our body to function. Water flushes out toxins and helps you feel awake and focused first thing in the morning. If you’re bored of water, try to spice it up by adding cucumbers or lemon to it. Here are a few benefits of drinking water upon waking:
- Increases Skin Radiance for a beautiful Complexion.
- Helps Weight Loss.
- Improve Metabolism.
- Increase Shine and Hair Texture
- Strengthens Immune System.
Things Not To Do for your 5am Morning routine
While there are things that can bring you closer to success in the morning. There are habits that can pull you farther away form your goals. They reek havoc on your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. These toxic rituals have the potential to demotivate, distract, drain and spark anxiety or depression. They are the following:
- Grabbing your phone, laptop or turning on the TV to consume negative news
- Eating a high fat, high sugar breakfast.
- Drink alcohol in the morning (Yes some people actually do this)
- Oversleeping
My 5am Morning Routine
For many people, a morning routine is a piece of the puzzle for success. So, I decided to give this routine a try to see if it fits with my lifestyle. I personally love this ritual because everyone is sleeping and I get zero distractions. Because I am working on various projects its helpful to have uninterrupted time to process and plan my day.
5:00am: Wake up, drink water, eat something small like a fruit, head to the gym (meditate on treadmill)
5:30 am: Shower, eat breakfast like oats and berries or avocado toast
6:00am: Plan and organize my day.
6:00am – 7:15am : Get to dressed and begin my day.
Will I continue with this morning routine? Not sure, but I found that I am more productive, happy and energetic when I set my days up like this. If you’re interested in what others morning routine looks like feel free to read this article at Self called “39 Morning People Share the Extremely Productive Things They Do While You’re Sleeping.”
About the Author
De’Shante’ Grant – Parris
De’Shante’ is a Lifestyle and Wellness blogger with a degree in Psychology. De’Shante’s love for living a life in balance was heightened through her experiences watching people in her life lose themselves to the rat race of life. De ‘Shante believes unbearable stress and neglect can lead to many preventable illnesses. She is an advocate for a life of wellness and self-care as top priority in our human experience.
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