The Keystone Habit that Changed my Life!

It’s not that I was nowhere near this particular behavior before and it was after that my life changed. No, But my life changed when that behavior became a conscious and consistent habit!

The habit I’m talking about is waking up at 5 AM. It’s not that I was very lazy and had always been late and all, I don’t want to dramatize anything here. I wasn’t lazy but I didn’t like waking up early either.

From my childhood itself, my father was the one who I looked upon, and discipline was the main, key element that he focused on. He himself is a master of various disciplinary habits. And I believe, it had worked well for him, hence he mended me in that direction as well. And I thank him for that. He always pushed me to wake up early. Initially, I was irritated in my school days when no amount of sleep was enough to satisfy.

It’s only when I realized the significance of waking up early, moreover, what you could do waking up early, that I made it a conscious choice to make it a habit! Have to thank Robin Sharma for that. And it’s after a few months to years of being consistent with that habit that I’m now reaping the benefits of it as the result of the compound effect.

By the way, yes I wake up at 5 AM every day 4:45 AM to be precise. Ok, I know you don’t care, so let me move on.

So you might say that you’ve tried waking up early and it didn’t work for you, mainly because you slept late at night and hence lacked sleep and hence scattering your focus and shattering your productivity.

Well, your sleep archetype may be different. And figuring out which archetype is yours is very important, game-changing! There are 3 types – Larks, owls, and hummingbirds. But I prefer you know only the first two, sorry I spoilt it: )
Or you can also see it as 4 chronotypes – Lion, Bear, wolf, and Dolphin. I won’t go deep into these as you can search and read about them anywhere.

Essentially, you have to be aware of the hours of your peak performance and low productive hours. By that, you’ll be able to design your days in such a way that, each day you win, at least personally. And once you know the chronotype of yours, the other thing you’ve to do is make time for ‘alone time’ or ‘You Time’. And in this time, you can do various things you love to do that are focused on improving yourself!

Setting aside this silent and alone time is very crucial for your personal growth, in every way! Even if you just sit still for 1hr, all alone and silent, that itself is powerful enough to transform.

But I know that is not possible for most people. Instead, I’ll give you an example by telling you my morning routine. I wake up at 4:45 AM, that 15mins was a conscious choice because I wanted the complete one and half hours of that serene time for my personal growth. After brushing my teeth and drinking water, at 5 AM I sit down and write in my journal everything that comes to my mind till 5:30, if I couldn’t write that long any day, I’ll meditate. And from 5:30 to 6:30 is my reading time. I read books, psychology and philosophy are my favorite genres. After that, 15 to 20 mins of yoga.

And this morning routine took a lot of time, years to adopt, after a lot of trial and error. But it all started with one keystone habit, and that is waking up early!

So, here’s the takeaway. If there’s one thing you should be aware of to get better, it’s your sleep chronotype. And if there’s one keystone habit that can transform you, it is waking up early or sleeping late, based on your chronotype, and giving yourself the treat of some ” You Time. Believe me, it can change your Life!

Thank you,
Yours Loving,
Sanath Kumar Naibhi