🎯 Today’s Mission:
To successfully complete today’s mission:
- ✅ Don’t hit snooze, implement the five second rule and high five yourself.
- ✅ Write down in your Morning Routine Journal how it made you feel.
- ✅ [OPTIONAL] Share with us, in the Morning Routine Challenge Support Group.
- ✅ Complete the form at the bottom of the page when done.
💡 More Info:
❓ How to complete the mission
Your alarm goes off, a simply happy melody you selected to coax you out of bed, but the bed is warm and you’ve set your alarm earlier than usual. What’s the harm in ten more minutes of sleep?
Then we do it again, and maybe once more.
Those extra few minutes don’t do us any favours and drifting in and out of sleep like that has a negative affect on our physical health.
What happens when we hit snooze? Two things happen physically and mentally.
Firstly you need to understand how your sleep cycle works. We’ve summarised this for you from www.amerisleep.com.
When we first fall asleep we enter the light sleep stage, this is when your heart rate slows down and your body temperature drops. Followed by this is the deep sleep stage. This stage is important because it is when your body is regrowing tissue, building bone and muscle, it is also strengthening your immune system.
Next up is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. When you are in REM sleep your brain is very active and this is when we dream. Contrary to what you may assume, this sleep cycle is actually very restorative, getting enough REM sleep provides us with focus for the next days task. REM stage of sleep cycles through the night and this is the stage of sleep we interrupt when our alarm goes off.
When we hit snooze we interrupt our REM sleep and then fall right back into the cycle but when the alarm goes off again we are interrupted in the middle of the cycle instead of the end. As a result, you end up feeling foggy and disoriented. Not cool.
Plus mentally hitting the snooze button is not the best way to start the day – we don’t want to wake up and immediately start fighting an alarm only to concede defeat and get out of bed anyway.
Hopefully after Day 1’s exercise you have determined how much sleep you need so snoozing is just a habit you need to break. Here’s an alternative way to pump yourself up and get out of bed!
🚀 5-4-3-2-1 Go!
Introducing the 5 second rule. It’s so simple – when faced with the task you don’t want to do i.e wake up, all you have to do is count down from five to one and just do it.
Our brains are designed to put us through the least amount of stress so the more you think, the less likely you are to act. So, to break this pattern of the brain stopping our advance, we count 5–4–3–2–1, and when it’s 1, without a second thought, we get up and do whatever it takes.
Alarm goes off 5-4-3-2-1
Get out of bed and turn it off.
“The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it. The moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule. When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action.”
Mel Robbins
🙌🏽 High five yourself!
The final task we want you to do is to simply high five yourself in the mirror.
Yes, we know it may be a bit awkward at first but trust us – the impact of the high five is rooted in science.
This simple act rewires how you think about yourself. Your brain is creating new pathways and connections:
“High fiving yourself is a neurobic exercise: a routine activity (such as looking at yourself in the mirror) paired with something unexpected that involves your senses (like giving yourself a high five) elicits an emotion (like celebrating).”
This is what you need to do:
- Look at yourself in the mirror.
- Set an intention for the day. (Think about how you going to show up? What you want to make progress on? What matters to you for that day?) – This is an optional step.
- Smile.
- Raise your hand and high 5 your reflection in the mirror.
This action is going to erase the critic in you and all the messaging associated with the high 5 like “we got this”, “I believe in you”, “keep going”, “pick yourself up”, “come on now” are going to wash over you.
It may sound silly but do this for 5 days and see how you feel!
Watch a video of Mel Robbins talking about the habit below:
So today, don’t hit snooze, count yourself down to jump out of bed and then congratulate yourself with a high five for a job well done!
🤓 Reminder:
You don’t have to go to the gym to exercise one of the most important muscles of your body.
✅ Mission Accomplished?
Fill in the form below once you’re done to keep track of your progress.
You must be logged in to post a comment.