10 Questions You Must Ask Yourself in 2015

It's that time of year where we swear to ourselves that we'll finally hit the gym, reduce our carb intake and spend more time with the family. Unfortunately, our deeply engrained habits often supersede our good intentions, and we fall back into the same old habits eventually. In fact, according to studies, a whopping eight percent of people end up achieving their New Year's resolutions.



This year, instead of making lofty resolutions, perhaps instead we should take a pause to look within -- to evaluate what is and isn't working in creating a fulfilled life. In this moment of reflection, we can increase our personal consciousness by asking some of these key questions.



1. What type of human do you want to be?

We devote a lot of time creating strategies for our careers and businesses, but often put little thought in determining the type of human we want to be. What are the values that define you? How do you make people feel? Did you make a deposit of energy or a withdrawal? Because at the end, that is all that really matters. That's the only thing people will ever remember about you - how you made them feel.



2. Will you keep your heart and mind open?

Life can be tough. When you endure loss, face rejection and disappointments on a regular basis, it can be challenging to not let the hardships wear you down. Do not let this world harden you. Remember, the more walls you build around your vulnerability and authenticity, the further away you distance yourself from joy.



3. Is the decision you about to make going to feed your ego, or enrich your soul?Use this question as a filter for future decisions. Our egos have an insatiable appetite -- the more you feed it, the more you need it. When we transact with our ego, we deplete our light, and are often left feeling empty, unfulfilled or insecure.



4. Will you accept mediocrity or strive for greatness?

It takes courage to go after what you want, to give your heart fully, to live passionately and dust yourself off after each set back. But I would rather fall a thousand times in my attempt to achieve greatness than to walk unscathed on the road of mediocrity. Nothing great in life has been the result of minimal effort and mediocre company. Raise your bar.



5. Will you take a risk?

Indecisiveness is an apathetic habit of our culture. We live in a world of infinite options and consequently a prevailing anxiety of "fear of missing out." Thus, its tempting to approach life with one foot in, to revel in maybes, constantly hold out for better options, and procrastinate decision making until the last minute. But there is maturity and courage that comes from making a commitment. Commitment takes discipline. Commitment requires integrity for follow through. Commitment takes risk, and with that, the potential for reward.



6. Will you avoid pain, and at what cost?

Life is too short and too full of potential to waste days on average experiences and meaningless interactions. Connect. Give. Go ahead, get your hopes up. Disappointments have trained us to default to a state of cynicism as a way to control our emotions. So we talk ourselves out of being excited about something or someone in an attempt to avoid feeling hurt. But isn't that what makes life beautiful? To feel? It is the entire spectrum of human emotion -- the good, the bad, and the ugly, that colors the chapters of your life with an interesting storyline. If you dull your ability to feel the bad, you dull your ability to feel the good. You become numb. Apathy, to me, is hell.



7. Will you allow anxiety to rule you?

Why let the bad experiences from the past ruin it for the good experiences ahead? I'd rather live life through a lens that sees the world as one that is beautiful and kind, instead of being in a state of constant defense, layered with armor to protect me from what may, or may not happen, Stop waiting for the other shoe to drop -- it is the root cause of much unnecessary anxiety. The stress and negative energy you are creating does nothing for your situation or the world around you. If things fail or fall apart, deal with it then. Give yourself the credit you deserve that in the case of an emergency, you will have the ability, tenacity and strength to deal with the situation at hand - at that moment. So for now, give yourself permission to enjoy the present.



8. Is your story serving you?

Something we all have in common is that each and every one of us will have some version of an imperfect childhood. Even those fortunate to have doting and loving parents will still grow up with an issue, insecurity or habit that stemmed from their upbringing. The degree or type of issues faced in adulthood is not what separates a person who is happy and one who is not. Rather, it's the internal narrative that we believe in that does. We are a sum of the stories we choose to believe, and if that story is negative, rooted in insecurity and a place of lack, then that is what we will take out of every experience and person we encounter. We may not be able to change the events of our history, but we can choose to change the story we've attached to those events. Ask yourself, what narrative is running your life? Is the story you believe in serving you? When you change the narrative, you change the outcome.



9. Will you be a force of beauty?

Be beautiful. Be a person who acts with grace and integrity even when your emotions are challenged. Make everything you touch beautiful -- do this by putting your heart fully in how you do life -- your relationships, your work, your hobbies. Approach life from a place of abundance versus a place of scarcity.



10. Love or fear?

When in doubt, choose love. Love wins. Love always wins.



Amy Chan is a relationship and lifestyle columnist. To read more of her articles, visit www.JustMyType.ca or follow her on http://ift.tt/1m1sUNt



from Healthy Living Blog on The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1A1PzzM

Deceptively Simple Resolutions that Actually Work

Goals are glorified, focus is overemphasized, and simplicity is underappreciated. We are obsessed with getting things done and making things happen--as evidenced by our preoccupation with New Year's resolutions, which more than four out of 10 Americans have vowed to keep this year. Weight loss and exercise top the list (no surprise there).



No wonder many of us (myself included) groan at the idea of making a New Year's resolution. The typical resolution focuses on improving one specific aspect of life--adding another to-do onto an already endless list, calling for more focus, effort, and energy. The idea of doing one more thing--even when it's for our own good--becomes a real drag. Our world gets smaller and tighter, even though we're trying to make it bigger and more spacious.



The Narrow Focus Scowl

You can see the effort of a narrow focus, get-it-done mindset everywhere. I saw it just the other morning as I was drinking coffee at my local country store. Looking out the window at a mother and kids in the parking lot, I could tell by her intense scowl of concentration that Mom had too much to do and too little time.



Her young children were helping with the early-morning delivery, carrying baked goods from the car into the store. I saw the daughter pause to draw a picture on the car door, swiping her finger through the accumulated grime of the New England winter. The boy, carrying a big basket of bread, took a detour to jump into the fresh snow, a huge grin on his face, before following in Mom's eyes-straight-ahead-walk-with-a-purpose stride. As I watched, I wondered how often I do that exact same thing--miss the fun and beauty around me because I'm single-mindedly focused on what I have to get done.



How often do we, as adults, lose a bigger perspective because duty calls?



Nose to the Grindstone

There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with a focused concentration on a narrow object of attention. This laser focus cuts out the background noise and keeps your nose to the grindstone and your eyes on the prize so you can get the job done. In fact, this goal-oriented concentration is admired in our culture of accomplishment. But the price of staying with that narrow focus, hour by hour and day after day, is missing out on the broader context. You can't see the forest for the trees. Adding a resolution that demands more focused attention might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's what makes a resolution feel like a heavy weight to be shouldered instead of a light Frisbee to toss playfully.



An Open Focus

The opposite of a narrow focus is an open awareness, a diffuse way of taking in the whole instead of concentrating exclusively on the parts. Through neurofeedback, this wider attention has been shown to have a positive impact on brainwave synchrony. This ability means that you can feel less constricted by simply changing the quality of attention. When you practice this type of awareness, you become skilled at creating more space in your mind by oscillating between narrow and broad attention as the situation requires.



One way to build this capacity is through open meditation. The most familiar type of meditation is focused concentration--on the breath, a mantra or saying, or your thoughts as they arise. Open meditation, in contrast, simply means being receptive to your experience as it is. I call this practice Radically Receptive Meditation.



Radically Receptive Resolutions

With a focused meditation, there's often tension between the meditation instructions and how the mind naturally behaves in the moment. Radically Receptive Meditation, in contrast, embraces the mind as it is.



There's always a tension between how life is and how you want it to be--that's where those New Year's resolutions come in, and that's why they fail. When you pick a goal or an intention for the year, your current habits and ways of living push back. Embedded structures get in the way of the new stuff you're trying to make room for.



Just like you can be with the mind as it is in Radically Receptive Meditation, you can be with life as it is with radically receptive resolutions. To work with a radically receptive resolution, stop focusing on the parts and become aware of the whole. Instead of carving out time for a new addition to your life, think about what you already do as part of your regular routine. What are the rhythms, shape, and pattern of your typical day?



Small is the New Big

Nobody likes to think small when it comes to New Year's resolutions. The tendency is to want to make big changes. What good is it to lose two pounds when you really need to lose 30? It feels useless to just walk up the stairs when you really need to take the recommended 10,000 steps per day. Small seems insignificant. Why bother?



Turns out that small changes over time make a big difference. In fact, Dr. BJ Fogg of Stanford University suggests that lasting change begins with really, really small changes in behavior. Want to exercise more? Start with two push-ups. Just two. Yes, think that small.



The trick, according to Fogg, is to link something you already do consistently with a new, little change. That's why looking at the rhythm of your whole day is helpful. By viewing the whole, you can observe your rituals and habits, and find the places where it makes the most sense to stealthily sneak in a nugget of new behavior.



For example: Want to write more? After you get in the car at the end of the workday, write one sentence in your notebook before you start your commute home.



Want to eat more mindfully? After the first bite of dinner, put down your fork and chew your food until you swallow.



Want to be more organized? Tidy one area in your living room after starting the dishwasher.



Want to be more financially responsible? After coming home from shopping, empty your coins into a piggybank.



Give Simplicity a Chance

Rome wasn't built in a day. Goals don't have to big, hairy, and audacious. Focus doesn't need to be exclusionary. As the wise Winnie-the-Pooh says, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."



Rather than enforcing a resolution that makes you scowl, take tiny actions with a smile and a wide-open mind, and watch the changes stick.



from Healthy Living Blog on The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1Dc2YUl

Messages in a Bottle: Listening to an Old Answering Machine

A few years ago when my parents moved from their five-bedroom suburban home at the edge of Silicon Valley to their retirement condo nearby, my siblings and I went through three decades' worth of junk to throw away. To my surprise I found, among many other things long forgotten, an answering machine in a box that held memorabelias from my college years at UC Berkeley.



I tinkered with it, and after few false starts, it worked. So I listened.



Muffled voices of long ago came echoing through.



"...seafood with me," said an old friend's voice. His is among many other voices- some half-erased, some taped over- that I have heard for years.









"Hi! I need to see your biochem midterm. This is [some inaudible name]," announces a young woman's high-pitched voice, slighty touched with a European accent. I could not for the life of me recall who she was. "Thanks," she says.



"Come home," ordered my mother in Vietnamese, right after that unknown young woman. "Your uncle has passed away." My mother's voice was deep and sad.



An array of voices then - a groan, giggles, wrong numbers, even a dirty joke - moments from my college years came spilling out from across the gap of time, thanks to the scratched up tape.



What does this answering machine about my past, I wonder, and about my generation?



That my college life, and for that matter the large part of my youth, could be summarized on a cassette tape seems now fitting, living here in technologically sophisticated, constantly changing America. My father used a fountain pen about his experiences as a soldier during the Vietnam War. My mother recalled going to school as child in the late 30s being pulled in the family rickshaw in Thai Binh, Vietnam. She studied by lamplight. My older brother, as a foreign student from Vietnam, kept old letters from from home to remind himself of who he was. I used to send postcards when I traveled as an American journalist until emails took over.



I bought my first apple computer at 20 when it was available at Cal for a steep discount, and because I was disenchanted with biochmestry, started writing, and I haven't stopped. In my box of college things, there are dozens of floppy disks whose contents contain amateurish writing of a broken hearted young man, but that, as they say, is another story.



The answering machine was a novelty when I went to college in the mid 80's but has now become a relic, an oral journal of sort, going on history's shelf next to old postcards and the handwritten letters.



"...seafood with me,"



"come home."



"I need to see your biochem midterm."



It is disjointed and, at places, incoherent, yet at the same time, deeply personal.



Listening to it, I searched my memories -- I tried to probe into that young immigrant's life. What kind of person was he, really? How did he feel? That is to say, who was I?



Here then is what it is:



"..seafood with me" an invitation from a high school friend who lived in San Francisco. We would sometimes go out to dinner when he had time off from his family business. I remember going to meet him through the October rain. I ended up losing my beautiful lacquered-handle umbrella on the way back to Berkeley. But his is a reassuring voice. After all these years it is still full of promise, of good intention. We have, however, since lost touch.



Still, "...seafood with me," means one delightful dinner. We ended up in a North Beach Italian restaurant eating crab and clams and planning future trips to Thailand and Europe.



Sometime after that dinner - a week, a few days? - I was home with my parents for my uncle's funeral. I played the dutiful Vietnamese son playing tribute to a very close family member in time of sorrow.







In my mind's eye, I see my father sitting on a pew looking awkward, trying his best to conceal his tears, saying goodbye to his last brother. I hear my aunt-in-law and cousins crying somewhere behind me.



Faded memories returned, incidents that might otherwise have been lost forever became once more vivid. Another message sounded: a friend down the street. She might be pregnant, she whispered into the tape. Her boyfriend did not know. She didn't want him to know. "Call me," she said, her voice urgent.



As it turned out, she was not pregnant -- a false alarm. But didn't I spend the whole night talking with her? Didn't I panic, as if I were the male responsible? Then I sang some stupid song to make her laugh.







I listened, too, to the voice of my first love, giggly and excited about the weekend drive to Napa. And I felt intensely nostalgic, and a tenderness toward our lost youth.



They all came back: ordinary moments captured from my college life that are now full of mystery. And, slowly, in these voices, I began to recognize myself, a young man whose optimisc outlooks and sense of humor, I'm happy to report, have more or less, despite the pitfalls and travails, survived into middle age in tact.



**





Some years ago I visited my own alma mater just when the libraries were in the middle of throwing out reference card catalogues along with their cabinets, and some kids were throwing the cards up in the air to see them flutter down like autumn leaves. It was a poetic marker of sort for me, a moment when information stored in physical space found passage into the electronic ether, rendering things like library reference cards and answering machines obsolete.



But i keep the cassette tape in my writing desk's drawer anyway, and I'll listen to it from time to time.



"Hi, Andy's not available right now, but you know he'll get back you. So leave him a message after the beep..."



After all these years...







Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media and author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," and "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres." His latest book is "Birds of Paradise Lost," a short story collection, was published in 2013 and won a Pen/Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2014.



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How To Read More

Just in case you're short of resolutions to make this year, let me add one more to the chorus. Vow to read more in 2015! As a person who reads a couple hundred books a year and probably needs to read a few more (It's my job! Poor me!), I'm often asked by friends and acquaintances what to read - and how to find the time to read it. Here, then, are some of my rules for the read:

• If you're out of school, stop doing homework. (If you're in school, ignore me.) By that I mean stop reading what you "should" read, or what somebody you think is "smart" said is "good." Read what attracts you. Check out blurbs on the back of the books or on the Internet detail pages; let yourself be swayed by a great cover or a fun interview you came upon with the author. Be omnivoracious.


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• Don't "define" yourself as someone who "only reads fiction" or "hates sci fi." (A corollary to the above) I used to tell people I "hated short stories" and then I fell in love with Jhumpa Lahiri's The Interpreter of Maladies and my whole self-definition had to change. In other words, don't box yourself in.


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• Let yourself STOP reading. This may sound counterintuitive, but wasting precious reading time on stuff you don't really like, that you're reading because you think you're "supposed to," (see above) has potential to turn you off reading altogether. Better to read 50 pages of something you decide you don't like - and then give the time to something else that you may love - than to slog through.


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• If you're really determined to get into a book that doesn't seem to grab you at first, skip to someplace in the middle. (Do not do what a friend of mine does and jump to the end, though. Especially if the book in question is a mystery.) While I do think it's the author's job to grab you in the first page or scene, some books don't get going until a few dozen pages in. If you like pages 50-75 enough, you'll probably be compelled to go back and find out how the author got there.


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• Ignore reviews that tell you a book is like another book, especially if you haven't read the "other" book. I generally try to avoid making these comparisons in reviews that I write, partly because I think it's off-putting to readers who haven't read as much as I have (I mean, it is my job to read a lot!) I also think it's the book equivalent of playing a song over and over until it gets stuck in a listener's head. If you tell people what to compare something to, they'll be harder pressed to come to the book with a fresh perspective, and maybe compare it to something even the reviewer never heard of.


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• Figure out what movie you want to see, and then read the book first. Reprising that song-stuck-in-the-head philosophy...the whole point of reading, in my opinion, is to be able to put your own pictures to the story and the characters. Isn't it more fun to then go see the movie and see if the director saw the characters and story the same way you did? It's like a private, and secret kind of book club between you and Hollywood. The only exception. Read Unbroken. Either before or after you see the movie, I don't care. Just read it.

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Bishop Heather Cook, Sobriety, and the Question of Who Should be Clergy

A few people have asked me, as a clergy person openly in longterm recovery, what my thoughts are on whether Bishop Heather Cook, the Episcopal bishop in Maryland who struck and killed a motorist and who had a history of driving under the influence, should have been serving as a bishop. Here are my thoughts.



First of all, the person we should first be remembering, and whose family we should be lifting up in prayer, is Thomas Palermo, the man who was struck and killed by Bishop Cook, and then left to die in the roadway. Mr. Palermo and his family, including his children, should be our first concern as the church.



But to turn to Bishop Cook, and the discussion of clergy and alcoholism, this is what I can say. In the aftermath of Bishop Cook's actions, I have seen a number of posts on social media debating whether or not a person with substance abuse issues should have been elevated to bishop. In my mind, most have lacked nuance. Several things need to be taken into account.



First, there are many clergy persons in recovery from addictions. Second, there are many more who should be in recovery. Third, I don't know to which group Bishop Cook belonged.



That said, her 2010 DUI charges were particularly disturbing. Many of us in recovery never drove drunk, but the facts of her prior case seem to indicate that substance abuse was indeed a problem. My hope is that when she was charged she saw the need to get sober. My other hope is that the Episcopal Church supported her in that endeavor.



But as far as her consecration as bishop, a very short period of time had elapsed between her DUI incident and her elevation. If she was sober, she was still in "early sobriety" and taking on a position like this, with higher stress and demands on time, would have likely been discouraged. And, if she relapsed, as now seems likely, it was on her to step back and say "I need to focus on getting healthy." But Bishop Cook alone is not at fault. Church communities are often too quick to push those who have had major falls back into the spotlight. They are not doing the one who is recovering any favors by pushing a false rhetoric of "forgiveness" or "grace". Sometimes grace means saying "you need to work on yourself for a while".



With Bishop Cook too many questions are unanswered, and too little time had elapsed since her "rock bottom" of a few years ago. Something went wrong, and she found an even lower "rock bottom", and this time a man is dead, not because she was in recovery but because of her own bad decisions. Add to that the fact that this was a hit and run, and Bishop Cook took no responsibility for her actions until she was chased down, and it is clear that her behavior is exactly the opposite of what we are taught in recovery, regardless of whether or not she was drinking when she hit Mr. Palermo.



The question for me is not "should a person in sustained, active recovery be elevated to a position of leadership" but instead "should Heather Cook been elevated"? Because what we don't need in the discussion of Heather Cook's actions is a knee-jerk response that people in recovery shouldn't be in leadership positions anyway. That will only add more reasons for people to hide when they are struggling. And I know plenty of clergy who are struggling, and who fear the reaction of the church and their parishioners should they seek help. In the end, if they do not get sober, they will cause far greater harm than if they continue to carry on as functional alcoholics.



In the recovery community we have a saying: "you're as sick as your secrets". I believe that's true. And I believe that the church is sick when it makes people who need treatment hide out of fear for their professional lives. This is what happens when we don't encourage honest discussions around alcohol and addiction within clergy circles. We need to be able to talk about it, and to encourage recovery.



In the end this will not just benefit clergy, but the entire church as well. As I have written elsewhere, our inability to talk about our imperfections as clergy has only been a detriment to the church. We have somehow communicated the idea that Christians must be people of perfection, and not people of grace.



That's too bad, because when the day is done, I think that people with long-term sustained sobriety actually are assets to the ministry. Staying sober requires a sort of spiritual journey and honesty that can only help clergy. I would not hesitate to elevate a person with sustained recovery to a position of leadership.



And in the end, a story of recovery is a story of grace, and a story of the healing power of God's love for us all. This is the story the church should be telling, because it is a Gospel story. I long for the days when our clergy's stories of recovery are celebrated, and our stories of tragedy and destruction are avoided. This is possible. But it's going to take a huge cultural change in the way we talk about recovery and addiction in the church.



The good news is that, like Jesus said, the truth can set us free.



from Healthy Living Blog on The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1HktblX

The Top 10 Workout Songs of 2014

Flickr: dalioPhoto




With few exceptions, workout songs can be distinguished by two main attributes: popularity and speed. If a song has cracked the Top 40 chart and has a tempo above 125 beats per minute (BPM), there's a good chance you'll hear it in the gym.



In this look back at 2014, you'll find lots of songs that meet the criteria above -- along with a few outliers. Starting with the big winners, Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" was the most popular workout song of the year. (Not coincidentally, it's also the fastest song in the bunch below.) Calvin Harris is notable for being the only artist to make the top 10 twice. Plus, Maroon 5 and Nico & Vinz both had songs so catchy that folks didn't mind their slower tempos.



Rounding out the list, there are remixes of rock tracks from OneRepublic and American Authors, a song from Meghan Trainor that proved even more popular in the gym than her breakthrough hit "All About that Bass," and a soaring, club track that pits Cash Cash & Bebe Rexha against dance titans The Chainsmokers.



On the whole, the list makes for an easy way to reflect on the year that's passed, get acquainted with any songs you might have missed, and prep the perfect mix to kick off your first workout of 2015.



Here's the full list, according to a poll on Run Hundred -- the web's most popular workout music blog.

• Cash Cash & Bebe Rexha - "Take Me Home (Chainsmokers Remix Radio Edit)" - 129 BPM


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• OneRepublic - "Love Runs Out (Grabbitz Remix)" - 124 BPM


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• Ariana Grande & Zedd - "Break Free" - 130 BPM


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• Maroon 5 - "Maps" - 120 BPM


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• Calvin Harris - "Summer" - 128 BPM


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• American Authors - "Best Day of My Life (Gazzo Remix)" - 125 BPM


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• Calvin Harris & John Newman - "Blame" - 128 BPM


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• Nico & Vinz - "Am I Wrong" - 121 BPM


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• Meghan Trainor - "Lips Are Movin" - 138 BPM


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• Taylor Swift - "Shake It Off" - 160 BPM

Check out this month's top 10 workout songs on Run Hundred: www.RunHundred.com .



For more by Chris Lawhorn, click here.



For more from HuffPost Workouts, click here.



from Healthy Living Blog on The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/14eY7Gx

How to Become a Morning Person

You've probably heard it since you were little: "The early bird catches the worm."



"Good for the worm," you might think. "I'm hitting snooze."



Most of us would love to be morning people. We've heard about the benefits of waking up early time and time again. But it's easier said than done, and good intentions alone don't go very far. You need actionable, can-do strategies to make lasting change.



Here are some battle-tested tips you can use to go from annoyed to animated every morning:



Have your first activity of the day be something you love. It's a lot easier to get out of bed when you have something to look forward to. Create a great playlist, save a podcast you want to listen to for your morning walk, or schedule an exercise class with a friend.



Plan out the "hard" things the night before. If you drink a morning smoothie, have everything pre-cut and ready to go in a Ziploc bag. If you want to exercise in the morning, have your workout clothes ready -- or even sleep in them. When you prepare in advance, getting up doesn't feel like as much work.



Go to bed earlier. This isn't new, but consider the time you spend watching TV or surfing the Web. If you can cut that out in service to making lifestyle changes that make you feel a lot better, your quality of life may exponentially increase. It's worth testing, right?



Set an alarm clock at night. Have an alarm clock that reminds you when it's an hour away from bedtime. Start shutting your electronics down and doing any other nighttime rituals you need to do.



Put your alarm clock across the room. Hitting "snooze" over and over in the morning isn't giving you any quality sleep, so you may as well just get up when your alarm goes off. Once you get out of your comfortable bed to shut it off, it's a lot more likely that you'll stay up.



Commit to waking up early for 21 days. Commit to waking up, even through the discomfort, an hour earlier every day for 21 days. Whenever you don't feel like doing it, remind yourself that it's only for 21 days.



Some say it takes 21 days to create a habit, while others say that's a myth. Either way, committing for only 21 days is a great way to "trick" yourself. When you see how good you feel, you'll likely want to keep doing it.



Become accountable with a friend who also wants to wake up earlier. Set a time for both of you to wake up. Text each other to show you've done it. Accountability is a very powerful motivator.



Get perspective. The amazing Hal Elrod said in an interview, "When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, it's life's first gift to you. But it's also life's first challenge or test. You say you want an extraordinary life, but the message we send to the universe is 'Well, no, no, no. I don't want it as bad as I want to lay here unconscious for another nine or ten minutes.' Then the alarm goes off again, and it's like, 'Yeah... I could wake up and become a better version of myself but I'm too lazy. I just want to lay, I don't have the discipline.'"



Remind yourself of this when you'd rather lay in bed -- it's powerful.



Visualize yourself waking up early the next morning. Feel how it feels, what you see, and how you move throughout your day. Many people swear by this method.



Remind yourself what the benefits will be. When your alarm goes off and you'd rather keep sleeping, remind yourself that you're about to get some "me" time, that you're going to be becoming healthier, or that you'll be enjoying some endorphins if you plan on exercising first. You can also feel proud of yourself for committing to something and sticking with it.



Create a reward. If you're motivated by pleasure, tell yourself that if you wake up earlier for "x" days in a row, you'll reward yourself with something that you love. Maybe you buy yourself a present, take a day off, or do something else that will motivate you.



Create a consequence. If you're motivated by pain, figure out what happens if you don't wake up earlier. Maybe you'll just be angry with yourself, maybe you'll feel like a failure, or keep having a life you're not proud of. You might also have to give money to a friend or do something embarrassing. You'll know what motivates you the most.



Take deep breaths before you go to bed. If you're going to bed with stress and anxiety on your mind, it'll be a lot tougher to fall asleep and/or have high quality sleep. Take several deep breaths before you go to bed to help calm down your nervous system.



If all else fails, start slowly. If you've tried other things and you just can't wake up 30-60 minutes earlier, try doing it gradually. Set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than you normally get up for a few days, then 30 minutes, then 45, and then 60. It might make it easier if your sleep routine isn't that different.



Your changes never need to feel too drastic, but making small commitments can add up to some major long-term results.



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