UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 29, 2024

OPINION|Waking up early will change your life

Starting a day with the right morning routine will not only boost your confidence, but also increase your productivity and set a positive mood for the day. Misha Mosiichuk | Sun News Daily

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If your news years resolutions haven’t made it past the first month and a half of the year, I have the solution for you.

In summer of 2021 I knew I needed to change something to help me feel better. I set goals to better myself in nutrition and exercise. I knew waking up early was the last thing I wanted to do, but I also knew it was necessary to have the time to successfully accomplish my goals. I had set goals like this in the past and they would last a few days or weeks before I would slip up. That summer I was determined to not slip up and prove to myself that I was capable of sticking to it.

Since implementing an early morning routine I have had a tremendous increase in my confidence, mood and time management. It has been less than a year of my early morning routine and I have by no means been perfectly consistent. I started with focusing on using my mornings for exercise and preparing nutritious meals. Now I am expanding my goals by adding morning journaling and reading. When I falter on the routine and I work to get back to it, I quickly remember why I prefer early mornings.

I was inspired to implement journaling and reading because I read Hal Elrod’s, “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Guaranteed to Transform Your Life Before 8 a.m.” Elrod created an acronym for the ideal miracle morning called “S. A. V. E. R. S.” Silence, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading and scribing.

The book taught me how the most successful people start their mornings. Before implementing my own routine in the morning I felt as if my life was out of my control. It felt as though school, work and other necessary parts of my life left no time for me to grow in my own personal aspects. I learned to take control of my life meant taking responsibility for every aspect that I could and cutting out most, if not all, of my past excuses.

Elrod said, “By taking advantage of the undeniable relationship between success and rising early, you will find that how you spend the first hour of your day becomes the key to unlocking your full potential.”

I know firsthand that you are capable of more than you think. To be able to tap into that potential give yourself the time by waking up a few hours earlier.

There are still times when the alarm goes off and I wish I could sleep for a few more hours. It is crucial that I turn on my bedside lamp and sit up in those moments.

I used to think that waking up before the sun was unnatural and ruined my day before it even started. In an article on how to wake up early, it said, when the morning starts dark the best way to wake up your body is to expose yourself to light so your body stops producing melatonin.

The sunrises I have watched were a plus at first. Now I make sure to notice the sacred feeling of the light coming in as it signals the start of a new day. The mornings have become my favorite part of the day because they are so peaceful.

Locke Hughes, an NBC News writer, tried the “S. A. V. E. R. S.” morning routine for one month.

Hughes said: “As soon as I woke up, I would tell myself I was excited and grateful for a new day. And sure enough, I began to feel far less groggy and way more awake in the mornings.”

I have also used the tip of telling myself that I am grateful and excited for the new day. I tell myself at night and right after turning off my morning alarm. I was surprised to find that it worked. Stay consistent and maintain a visualization of who you want to become as you work to implement a new morning routine.