I am not a morning person — not by nature, anyway.
However, it has been my experience that morning people have a lot of advantages in this world. They get off to a better start when they wake up. They’re first in line at Starbucks. They get the freshest flowers and melons at the supermarket. And, more importantly to the story I’m telling today, they have an advantage when registering for classes in college.
As an undergrad, I realized that much of what made it hard for me to get the classes I wanted each quarter was my unwillingness to greet the day until long after the sun had come up. Therefore, in an effort to make my academic life a little easier, I decided that I had to become a morning person.
Now, I know what people say about biorhythms and natural internal clocks. I don’t know if it’s possible to truly, organically change your relationship with mornings. However, it has been 35 years or so since I set out to reset my body clock and I still wake up early and easily every morning, so for the sake of argument, let’s say it more or less worked.
I know that a lot of you are coming off a couple of hard years for the real estate industry, and you’re probably making some big goal-setting resolutions for 2025. I thought it might be helpful to share my secret for achieving one of the biggest, most impactful goals of my life (aside from quitting smoking, which was just Cold Turkey — the only way).
How Pride and Prejudice made me a morning person
You may remember the 1995 iteration of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s most famous novel. It was a BBC production that was shown on PBS in the United States, and it was a phenomenon. Great cast, gratuitous wet t-shirt contest starring Mr. Darcy, super-faithful to the book.
Since I was an English major in the 90s, it was of the utmost importance that I consume this masterpiece asap, yet I had not had time to do so. I saw that it was going to be shown in segments each morning at 6 a.m. on my local PBS station in Atlanta, and that’s how I hatched my plan.
I enlisted the help of my mother, an inveterate Morning Person. She could sleep two or three hours (terrible insomnia) and still wake up singing with the birds and making a full breakfast the next morning. She could tell herself when she went to bed at night what time to wake up and wake up at that time on the dot the next morning. I didn’t know what an alarm clock was until I went off to college because we never had one. Like, she was a real, true Morning Person.
Each morning, our plan went, I would drag myself out of bed, with her help if necessary, and sit upright in our most uncomfortable chair in the living room to watch Pride and Prejudice. She would make coffee and keep it coming so that I would stay awake. I would do this every day without exception for two weeks, and on the weekends when Pride and Prejudice wasn’t showing, I would substitute with another show or movie that sparked joy.
I put this into operation and found, to my surprise and delight, that it actually worked. To reinforce it and keep it going, I consistently incorporated the practice of getting up early even on my days off, not staying in bed late for “catch-up sleep,” which never actually works anyway. Subsequently, I made sure to register for the earliest morning classes so that I’d always have a reason to get up early each day.
Here’s the formula that worked for me
Okay, so here’s the breakdown of what worked in my morning person experiment. I think it will work for you, too. Maybe you’re trying to start an exercise routine, cook at home rather than ordering Uber Eats each night, or committing to content creation for your business. Put these steps to work:
1. Have a Big Why in mind
My main Big Why was that I was tired of struggling to find limited spots in overcrowded college classes while the early morning classes sat half-empty. You might be trying to improve your health or the health of your business. Try to narrow in on one big, meaningful advantage that would come from a change in behavior.
2. Employ a short-term reward
My short-term reward was that of seeing the miniseries that everyone was talking about at the time. When I say short-term, I mean short-term. It should be something that validates you every time you do what you’re supposed to in achieving your goals.
Say you’re trying to eat healthier or work out — both pretty common New Year’s resolutions. Save your favorite show or podcast for those mealtimes or workout times and don’t allow yourself to experience them any other time. Buy a super-indulgent shampoo or body wash and only allow yourself to use it if you’ve worked out as scheduled. Whatever the reward, tie it exclusively to the achievement of your goal.
3. Enlist an accountability partner
Find someone who won’t let you slip up and who will actively encourage you. Those early morning coffees my mother made were my only lifeline some mornings, but your accountability partner doesn’t have to be in the same household. If your best friend lives far away, you can still Facetime her from the gym each day during your workout, or she can still like all of your social media posts.
4. Brook no exceptions
I think this is key. We often give ourselves cheat days before we’ve even instituted a habit. While you might eventually give yourself a break from your resolutions, it shouldn’t come during that first month or so. Seven days a week is the rule, at least until your new habit is an entrenched part of your routine.
5. Up the ante
Once you’ve established your new habit, tweak it just a little and ramp it up so that it really becomes engrained. Working out? Schedule some sessions with a trainer. Eating healthier? Take a cooking class for some new ideas. Adding new marketing initiatives in your business? Sign on to a new platform or implement a new strategy.
I hope 2025 brings you all the success you’re looking for and that these tips, based on my own personal experience, are helpful. Reach out and let me know what’s working for you and how you’re achieving your goals, whether big or small.
Comentários