Playing around with an idea..

If you can overcome the battle of the bed, you can overcome anything

Electively choosing to wake up before you normally do requires preparation from your past self and willpower from your current self.

Your past self must have the foresight to recognize that while you may not feel tired now, you will in the morning. And upon that foresight, you need the discipline to get into bed to achieve the sleep you need to wake up early the next day. Which means you need to complete whatever sleep hygiene protocols you follow earlier than normal, and so on and so on. So the preparation for the following day actually occurs the night before.

The present you must exercise your willpower to actually pull yourself out of bed knowing damn well you could sleep longer.

I probably sound like an absolute psychopath rambling about nothing. But really think about it. If I asked you to wake up an hour before work tomorrow and exercise, it sounds nice, but in practice it can feel terrible.

Maybe you have strong willpower and you can achieve that for a day. Maybe even a week. But how long can you keep that going before you burn out? A month? How long until the novelty of your new change wears off and you’re relying purely on discipline as your motivation dissipates. And as your health improves, will you continue to go knowing you’ve effectively plateau’d and entered a maintenance stage?

Positive change can be really, really hard. And anyone that’s tried to undertake a positive change can surely recognize the dynamism of it. What you learn along the way is probably where the true value lies.

If anyone reads this far I love you and goodnight