I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve given up on being a morning person.
You don’t need to be into self-improvement to have heard the long list of health benefits from waking up early and getting off to a good start.
We’ve all met the happy-go-lucky early riser before, annoyingly energetic, super productive, radiating skin – everything they touch just turns to gold.
Ever since I found out Santa doesn’t exist (spoiler), the quality of my sleep has never been the same. No joke, I’ve had upside down sleep schedules with dinner for breakfast, and breakfast for dinner.
Add on the fact that my mind loves to ponder life’s meaning at 1AM, followed by brainstorming how AI will take over the world at 3AM, its safe to say sleep has never been my forte.
Despite all this, I recently experienced the greatest sleep I’ve ever had since I was in my mother’s womb.
The irony of it all, is that it took being in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by nothingness (except sharks), on a classified Major Hazard Facility, operating 24 hours a day, to teach me the most important lesson(s) that have been missing from the hundreds of failed attempts over the years.
True change occurs from the inside out
Be honest, how many times have you said to yourself “Yep, today’s the day I change for the better!”
You get pumped up from watching David Goggins running at 4 AM, listen to a few Huberman podcasts, set your alarm to 5 AM and look forward to your list of morning activities such as meditating, journaling, and jogging.
The worst part is, you might actually achieve what you set out for the first few days, maybe even weeks. Come day 79? Day 114?
Yeah, not likely.
I’m no stranger to this repetitive cycle. At least for me, I always found myself slowly sliding back to old ways as the initial burst of energy that started it all, slowly started to betray me.
Making me feel even more guilty and ashamed than before, and as a result, negatively impacting my motivation for the next self-improvement endeavour.
So what’s the deal? Why is the heart willing but not the body? How do we make changes that last?
The problem is not our levels of motivation but the level of behaviour we’re trying to change.
To understand the heart of the problem, let’s look under the hood of behavioural psychology or the Three layers of behavioural change:
- Outcome: This level is about what you get, like winning a medal, gaining muscle, or publishing a book. The goals you set for yourself are associated with this layer.
- Process: This level is about what you do, like implementing a new gym routine, a journalling habit, or a new meditation practice. The habits you build are associated with this layer.
- Identity: This level is about what you believe, how you see the world, what values you hold, what self-image you hold, and/or judgement of others. Your biases, assumptions, and beliefs are associated with this layer.
When it comes down to building solid habits, the ones that really last, whether for creative or destructive purposes, the problem isn’t that one layer is superior to the other.
The problem is the direction in which we try to change.
For me, every time I would seek to change my sleeping habits, I would hyper-fixate on the “5 AM” outcome first, whilst simultaneously embodying the spirit of the “night owl” who “hates mornings”, even if at a subconscious level.
It’s so natural for us to focus on the what when trying to change, instead, we should be focusing on who we wish to become.
Behind every system of actions is a system of beliefs
Offshore work is risky business. Ever seen the movie Deep Water Horizon? (if not, highly recommend)
In a nutshell, my role onboard was to help ensure a Deep Water Horizon 2 would never see the big screen.
As with any job description, my role as Offshore Health, Safety, & Environment Manager came pre-assembled with certain expectations, responsibilities, and core values such as leadership, accountability, & integrity – all under the umbrella of a strong collective vision.
- To have a safe operation.
“Visions” aren’t some spiritual nonsense that people so easily disregard, but an absolute pre-requisite to demanding long-lasting behaviours.
Every morning a 15-minute briefing or “pre-tour” would commence to ensure everyone about to commence their shift is signed on, up to date, informed, and aligned with their respective agendas.
I would deliver a brief safety update at the start of each pre-tour which meant that I’d have to be up and ready by 4:30 AM to meet with and receive handover notes from my night shift companion.
It’s important to note that I was relatively new to this campaign and I took great pride in upholding the responsibilities that were expected of me.
It was this pride in delivering my duties as well as the fear of consequences for not upholding my end, that losing to the snooze button was simply not an option.
Everything clicked together and flowed like water, from the abstract (vision) to the concrete (habits), by embodying the system of beliefs expected of my role, my processes (layer 2), and outcomes (layer 1) followed suit.
“The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader”
“The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner”
“The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician”
— Atomic Habits
Or in my case, the goal was not to wake up at 4:30AM, the goal was to be a Leader.
The key lesson learned here is you can tinker with, set different alarm sounds, pump yourself with sleep supplements, and make a list of morning activities, but at the end of the day if you don’t have an absolute purpose, based on a strong vision, with real-world consequences, then your relapse is only a matter of time.
This principle can be applied across any pattern of habits and is not limited to just sleep.
The 3-step process to waking up at 5 AM every day for maximum productivity:
I’m well aware that you probably don’t live in constant threat of your house blowing up, engulfed in flames, and made into a NetFlix docuseries. So I’ve distilled the core lessons above to simulate the same effects under normal conditions and is the same process I use whenever old habits start kicking in.
1) Clarify your vision
Not all visions are created equally. A general rule of thumb when crafting a vision would be to:
- satisfy the self, and
- satisfy the collective
Straying to either extremity is like building a house with twigs over a foundation of quicksand – it ain’t going to last, and neither will your habits.
In my case, being onboard meant that achieving said vision would ensure my own personal safety, as well as the safety of the other 115 human lives on board. I had genuine skin in the game.
Grab a pen and paper and write down the outcome you’d like to change. Perform a simple root cause analysis by asking “why” 5 times to break down the core purpose of your vision, and test it against the criteria. An example may look like:
- I want to wake up at 5 AM
- So that I have more time to write
- So that I can share my lessons on sleep
- To help others who might be struggling
- The world would be better if people struggled less
A bit rough but you get the idea. A belief that “the world would be better if people struggled less” is made conscious for a specific identity to be based upon. Remember that identities are nothing more than a system of beliefs.
2) Prove your identity with small wins
Now that you’ve revealed a certain identity born from a strong vision, it’s time to prove it to yourself with a body of evidence.
Your identity isn’t going to change overnight, and that’s okay, it’s the overwhelming number of undeniable evidence that stack on each other that solidifies the self-belief your identity emerges from.
You do this by accumulating small wins every day by setting yourself up for success.
i) Morning routine
This post isn’t intended to give you the “perfect” morning routine, as only you can know what works for you, but will focus on the psychology of attaining “small wins”.
One of the biggest reasons people fail to keep their own promises (at least in the long run) is that they severely overestimate their own abilities.
First, limit your routine to no more than 3 key activities or objectives. It doesn’t matter what they are as long as you’re consistently winning.
The purpose of the morning routine, at least in the initial stages of change, is to actually win the morning.
So do yourself a favour and set the bar low, pick something you actually want to do if you have to – there’s always time to add more on the menu when you’ve mastered the basics.
ii) Environment
Going off the same philosophy, your sleep environment needs to be set up for success. The name of the game is to remove distractions.
The rooms onboard were amazingly ideal for sleep. They were dark, cool temperatures, but most importantly, the WiFi connection felt like 90s dial-up.
I honestly couldn’t tell you if this was by design but this was a blessing in disguise. If it were a fight between temptation and willpower, my money is on temptation every day of the week.
Make it so temptation doesn’t even make it to the fight, you have to sacrifice something in order to change. Keep this in mind when setting up your sleep environment.
3) Set non-negotiables (with real-world consequences)
I don’t like to think of how I’d feel if I was a no-show to those morning pre-tours.
As mentioned, I was relatively new to the campaign and setting a negative tone early would’ve completely ruined my reputation, credibility, & authority, no matter how much I’d make up for it later.
It was the genuine threat of real-world consequences that made the prospect of failing non-negotiable. When trying to reset your sleep schedule, aim to simulate this kind of effect at least early on to boost the initial stages of change. Something as simple as:
- Letting 5 friends know that you’ll message them “good morning” at exactly 5:30 AM for the next 7 days or
- Telling your partner to not cook your favourite meal etc. Get creative, and turn it into a mini-game/challenge.
And that’s a wrap 😊 I hope you found value in this article and if you did, consider signing up to my newsletter the Dosage for weekly deep dives just like this.
Wishing you all the best and sleep well!
