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Do you lack the motivation to get out of bed in the morning? Are you hitting the snooze button to delay getting up until the last minute?
If you’re like most people, you delay waking up for as long as possible. You hit the snooze button and, ultimately, only drag yourself out of bed because there’s somewhere you must be. However, what you’re doing when you hit the snooze button is resisting your life, your day, and creating the life you want.
With this in mind, here’s how to muster up the motivation to get out of bed in the morning and seize the day with passion and enthusiasm.
Do You Drag Yourself Out of Bed in the Morning? Here’s Why
If you lack the motivation to get out of bed in the morning, the reason is likely less to do with how you feel about waking up, but rather how you feel about your life in general. If you don’t have a reason to get up other than having to be somewhere, it’s a sign that you’re stuck: You’re simply going through the motions, lacking a larger vision for your life and a belief that you can make that vision a reality.
When you operate in the through-the-motions mode, you’re settling for mediocrity. Mediocrity is the norm because most people—95%—don’t succeed. They settle for the life they have and live with regret, without realizing they have the ability to be who they want to be, do what they want to do, and have whatever they want. To break this cycle, you must reject mediocrity and commit to developing into the person capable of creating the life of your dreams.
To escape mediocrity, you need to have a purpose. A life purpose can be anything that’s meaningful to you, that inspires you and directs your daily actions and priorities. It isn’t something you “discover”—you decide what your purpose will be. When you commit yourself to a purpose bigger than your problems, you’ll be bursting with motivation to get out of bed and proceed to start your day.
TITLE: The Miracle Morning
AUTHOR: Hal Elrod
TIME: 22
READS: 26.1
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/miracle-morning-cover.jpg
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: the-miracle-morning-summary-hal-elrod
AMZN_ID: B00AKKS278
How to Find Your Purpose
To decide what your purpose will be, you need to reflect on what moves you on a deep level. In his book Success Principles, Jack Canfield suggests several strategies for reflecting on your purpose:
1. List the times you have felt most happy. Evaluate whether they share any similar characteristics, and brainstorm ways you could earn your living from them.
2. Meditate. Quiet your mind and ask yourself what your purpose or role in the world is.
3. Make a Life Purpose Statement. Here are the steps:
- Write two characteristics you like about yourself, such as “creative” or “deep-thinker.”
- Write two verbs that capture how you enjoy expressing those qualities, such as “facilitate” and “collaborate.”
- In the present tense, describe your ideal world and what everyone would be doing. For example, “Everyone is being kind to their neighbor.”
- Use your answers to the above questions to write a short statement describing your life’s purpose. For example: “My purpose is to use my creativity and planning skills to facilitate the development of equitably designed neighborhoods.” Once you’ve made your statement, read it every day, or write it down and place it where you’ll see it. You can also create art that represents your goal and put it where you’ll see it every day. This will remind you to align your actions with that statement in order to achieve your goals.
4. Complete a “Passion Test,” a 10-question exercise described in the book The Passion Test by Chris and Janet Attwood.
5. Complete Canfield’s “Life Purpose Guided Visualization” from his Awakening Power meditation series.
TITLE: The Success Principles
AUTHOR: Jack Canfield
TIME: 90
READS: 118.1
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/the-success-principles-cover.png
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: the-success-principles-summary-jack-canfield
AMZN_ID: XYZ
Prime Yourself to Seize the Day
Even if you do have a purpose, there will inevitably be days when you’ll struggle to summon the motivation to get out of bed and tackle your day with enthusiasm. That’s why you need to learn how to put yourself in that state on demand. Tony Robbins refers to it as “priming,” and that’s the very first thing he does upon waking up.
The aim of priming, according to Tony, is to get your head right by “putting yourself into a state where your mind and body will respond accordingly.” The priming technique involves three steps: a breathing exercise, a visualization exercise, and setting three goals for the day. You can see how it’s done here.
Morning Power Questions
In addition to using the priming technique, Tony Robbins recommends asking yourself a series of questions each morning, which he calls the “Morning Power Questions.” The aim of asking yourself these questions is to set the tone for your pattern of thinking for the day.
For each of the questions, think of two or three answers, elaborate on how it makes you feel, and specify why you feel that way. If you struggle to come up with an answer to any question, add “could” to the question—for example, if you can’t think of anything that makes you happy, try to come up with an answer for “What could make me happy?”
The Morning Power Questions include:
- What in my life makes me happy?
- What in my life excites me?
- What in my life am I proud of?
- What in my life am I grateful for?
- What in my life do I enjoy most?
- What in my life am I committed to?
- Who do I love? What makes me a loving person?
- Who loves me?
When you make a habit of asking these questions every morning, they’ll begin to shape your experiences. For example, if you always ask yourself what you’ve learned each day, you’ll start going through your days looking for things you can learn.
TITLE: Awaken the Giant Within
AUTHOR: Tony Robbins
TIME: 88
READS: 233.7
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/awaken-the-giant-within-cover.png
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: awaken-the-giant-within-summary-tony-robbins
AMZN_ID: XYZ
Create a Routine
Another way to summon the motivation to get out of bed every morning is to create a routine that gets you pumped up and ready to go. Once you establish an energizing morning routine, it’ll be easier to get out of bed in anticipation of that feeling.
In addition to giving you a boost of motivation to get out of bed, a morning routine can help you set the tone for the rest of the day. When you start your day off right, it’ll likely end that way.
As an idea, you can create a morning routine according to Robin Sharma’s 20 20 20 formula (The 5 AM Club) The 20 20 20 formula describes the three 20-minute periods that make up your first hour upon waking up. Here’s how it goes:
- Get Moving. In the first 20-minute period, engage in vigorous physical activity. You can go for a jog, do jumping jacks, take an exercise class, or dance. Do whatever activity suits you, but it must make you sweat. When you sweat first thing in the morning, you activate positive chemical reactions in your brain that will benefit you for the rest of your day.
- Reflect. Dedicate the second 20-minute period to reflection. You might reflect by sitting quietly, meditating, or journaling for these 20 minutes, but a combination of all three is recommended. When you take the time to be still and allow yourself to focus on what you hope to accomplish that day and how it feeds into your vision of the person you want to be, you’ll feel more motivated to start your day.
- Learn. Spend the final 20 minutes enhancing your knowledge of the world and your craft. For example, you can read books about people in your field or great influencers of the world. Seek out information that enriches your understanding of leadership and innovation. Gather information in the self-help realm to strengthen your internal empires. Watch videos or documentaries about icons and their journey to stardom.
Final Words
The secret to waking up feeling motivated and energized is to make each morning feel like Christmas morning felt as a kid. You can create that experience by cultivating a sense of higher purpose for your life (that’s the key!), priming yourself for success, and creating a routine that gets you pumped up and ready to go.
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