Waking up early is something that I’ve always struggled with personally. I’ve had good periods over the past few years where I was excited to wake up and work on my latest project.
I even noticed an impact in my morning routine after reading Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning. But there was another great thinker whose opinion I valued even more: Marcus Aurelius.
If you’ve already read some of my other posts, you may know that I started practicing Stoicism in 2020. For more than a year, I’ve focused on implementing Stoic practices in my day-to-day life to live a happier, more productive life full of achievement.
Reading Meditations has helped me value life and action more than the comforts of sleep. Marcus Aurelius wrote that waking up early is one of the most important aspects of being human.
Sure, he argued, it would be more comfortable to stay under the covers. But we are not here for live lives of luxury. We are here to test our capabilities and do what we believe is important.
This post boils down 9 lessons from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations on how to wake up early – like a Stoic.
1. Find your Ikigai
We are created for our duty. Ikigai is the idea that we seek purpose in everything we do. We should have a single reason for waking up each morning. Every morning this reason will energise us and motivate us to leave the comfort of our covers.
Your ikigai can be a long lost hobby or some new skill that you want to develop. It can also be taking care of and providing for your family. Equally, it can be anything else you’re excited about.
To help find your ikigai, ask yourself:
If i had more time, what are the things I could do?
You’ll know you’ve found your ikigai if it motivates you to wake up every morning.
2. Prepare yourself for mornings
All our efforts must be directed towards an end or we’ll act in vain. If it’s the wrong end, we will ultimately fail.
This lesson requires more than setting your alarm for the break of dawn.
It helps to have a clear routine for your evenings to wind down and for your mornings to wake up. This might include laying out your exercise clothes at the foot of your bed each evening, so that you can hit the gym once you wake up.
The idea is to set a clear routine for your evenings and mornings. You want to make everything ready for the morning and settle any unresolved issues before going to bed.
The last thing you want to do is feel carried away by the chaos of life before you’ve had time to ground yourself in the morning.
3. Avoid distractions after waking up
Concentrate every minute on doing what’s in front of you and free yourself from all other distractions.
Have a clear reason for waking up early: To make the most of this extra time, you should do things that you love and that you know you must.
Recognise when a distraction appears to bring chaos. You woke up early to work on your purpose, not be swept away with the chaos of life.
For a similar reason, Ryan Holiday recommends waking up before your children. You want to set the tempo for your own life and not let your kids decide when you have to wake up.
4. Wake up consistently
You must build your life action by action, for that is the only thing we can control. You can be content if each of your actions achieves its goal, fate permitting.
Consistency results in routine. Waking up consistently is an action that we can control that will ultimately improve the state of our lives.
To manage this feat, you’ll need to develop your self-discipline – one of the core Stoic virtues.
After all, our ability to keep going is what moulds us into a disciplined and strong person.
5. Practice voluntary hardship
We should discipline ourselves in small things, and progress from there to greater things.
For example, never hit the snooze button. This just makes it harder to wake up later.
Get out of your bedroom as soon as you can. This will make it harder to fall back asleep. You shouldn’t let getting back in bed be an option.
Once you manage the basics, you may try jumping into a cold shower. Cold showers increase blood circulation and make it really difficult to go back to sleep again.
Finding these simple tricks that make it easier to stay awake will ultimately help us achieve our goal of waking up (and staying up) earlier.
After all, life should not be easy. Challenges help us grow and develop. The Obstacle is the Way.
6. Find an accountability partner
Marcus Aurelius recommends socialising with men of good character so that you can model your life on theirs. Whether you choose someone living to help in real-time or someone from the past to serve as a hypothetical mentor, accountability partners make you accountable for your actions.
Accountability partners help you stay on track with your goals, especially when things get tough. Rather than just running it through your own head, your goal (such as waking up early) becomes more real when you talk it over with someone else of good character.
Having an accountability partner makes it easier to reach your goals.
7. Remind yourself of death
Since it is possible that you might depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
Memento mori was a concept in ancient Rome that focused on always remembering that you will die, for this is the one perennial truth. The Stoics believed a fulfilled life involved conquering death.
Keeping this idea in mind is meant to inspire, motivate and clarify. It helps us to keep perspective on what matters and not waste our time living lives of luxury.
Ask yourself:
If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?
8. Practice negative visualisation
When you wake up, tell yourself that the people you meet today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this when they can’t tell good from evil.
Ask yourself:
- What could go wrong?
- How can I handle it?
- How can I plan for it?
When you are prepared for the worst, you are in a better place to deal with disaster if and when it does arise.
Seeing the world for what it is is the most honest way to start your day. Focusing on the worst case scenario will help you develop cognitive distance and prepare you both mentally and emotionally for unexpected negative events in life.
9. Appreciate your life
To the gods, I am indebted for having good grandparents, teachers, associates and good friends – nearly everything good.
We must be honest and humble about how we learn to develop our values and ethics. And we should always display gratitude to those who help us to become ourselves.
Start by appreciating every good thing in life and recognising that there is nothing too small for you to be thankful for.
Sometimes we realise that even the things we did not want at first, helped us become who we are today. There is always good in the bad, and for this, we should also be grateful.
Everyday, identify 3 things we can be grateful for: family, pets or simply the fact that you’re alive. Keep a record in a gratitude journal. This can be easily done in your Bullet Journal.
Waking up early like a Stoic
Marcus Aurelius was the last great emperor of Rome. He managed to keep a level head and get a lot done during his 19 year reign, and part of that was due to his ability to consistently wake up early.
From his Meditations, we can tell that this did not always come naturally to him, but he knew that it was for his own best to make waking up early a priority. After all, this is when our best work gets done – when almost everyone else is still asleep. When there is tranquility to focus.
Waking up earlier is something we can all probably do a bit more of. First we have to realise its importance, then we just have to do it. We can use any method or mindset that helps us accomplish the goal.
The Stoics focused on both – Mind & Practice.