One of the questions people who want to start rising early in the morning usually ask is whether doing that is hard or not.

This question can linger, for a long time, in the minds of those who:

• Have been used to working late in the night and waking up between 8 am and noon
• Don’t like the idea of cutting their sleep short, to rise up and do something when others are asleep
• Are afraid whether or not they’ll do this consistently
• Want to give this a try, but don’t want to fail at it miserably. Perhaps finding, and reading or listening to stories of people who did, and still do it, who didn’t consider themselves early risers before, can give them the sense that they too can do this successfully.

Why do some people think it is hard?

1. Consider how good sleep is

Oh, the pleasure we derive from sleep! Sleep itself can be so damn good to make the thought of waking up to your alarm and immediately jumping out of bed laughable.

I mean, who would want to come out from between their sheets when they haven’t had what they consider enough of sleep?

It can be said that some people just love sleep way too much to even give the idea of rising early a second thought.

2. People around them may wonder why they have to rise early each morning

Wow, this one makes it easier for some people to think that they now have a good reason to sleep for a few extra hours when instead they could take it as a challenge to finally create the change that eventually turns them into early risers.

Family, friends and colleagues may see no reason why you should do this. And normally when they say that to you, you are likely to take this as a soothing reason (excuse) why you should listen to their great advice more than a challenge to get started immediately – waking 10 or so minutes earlier than you planned.

If you don’t have a strong reason or motivation to doing this, you are likely to stay between the sheets a few extra hours simply because you, knowingly or unknowingly, made it easy for the people close to you to convince you somehow that spending those few extra hours with your eyes closed is best the thing to do.

3. There’s always that voice that tells them you don’t have to do it

‘You can still be fine. You will be fine.’ It usually says. Many people listen to it. The ‘fine’ part is enough to convince them to sleep some more.

Again your motivations play a big role here. If your reasons are strong enough and you firmly believe that they are worth waking up for early, then this voice shouldn’t stop you.

You don’t have to get out of bed early, that’s true. But you also don’t have to stay in there longer than necessary.

So it doesn’t have to be about the voice.

It has to be about you, who you want to be and having as much sleep as necessary given the unique circumstances or situation you find yourself in.

4. They think it’s better to work before going to bed than going to bed first and rising to work

Some are night owls – and prefer staying awake and working late in the night. Some are early risers – and prefer going to bed early (or late) and rising up early to get more done by the time everyone else wakes up in the morning.

People are different. For that reason alone, you will find them divided between these two camps. Some can cross over from one camp to the other. But a majority find doing this extremely difficult. The hassle just isn’t worth it for them.

There are advantages and disadvantages that come with both. So, when choosing which camp you want to be a part of, you have to look more at whether making a switch will lead to more good things happening in your life more than you focus on the night owls vs early risers battles both camps love to have.

5. They hate the adjustments this new change come with

There can be a lot of adjustments especially if you have not been a morning person in the past.

It can take a lot of time to get used to going to bed early and waking up early if you have been used to staying awake late and waking up late in the day.

Some just hate the adjustments that come with making this transition, and stop there, doing the same things they’ve always been doing.

Some see this as a challenge and decide to make things happen, waking up half an hour or one hour earlier than they are used to.

Some stop there. Some keep going…two hours, two and a half, three, three and a half…

So they begin to set their alarms to go off at 7.00 am, then 6.30 am, 6.00 am, 5.30 am and before you know it, they find rising up as early as 4.00 am or 4.30 am easier to do than rising up at 5 am used to be a few weeks ago.

6. They’ve tried it before but find it hard staying consistent

Motivations play a big role here as well. Some quit rising early because they can’t stay consistent, while others take their inconsistency as a challenge, and devote themselves to keep on trying…seeing each morning as a new opportunity to get better at staying consistent.

Even if they don’t wake up at the same time every morning, they don’t let that become a reason for staying in bed longer than necessary henceforth.

Is it hard?

Depends on who you ask.

All I can tell you is that there are a few things you must have to be able to rise early. The good thing is you don’t have to look for them because you already have them.

When you have pretty strong reasons why you want to be up early more often, putting in the effort to actualize this goal shouldn’t be an issue.

I am not saying that it is easy, neither am I saying that it is hard.

There will be days when you wake up and picture the warmth of your bed in your head. Some days you’ll wake up and only manage to stay for an hour before you run back to bed.

Then there will be those days when you’ll gladly set off your alarm to go off at 5 am, jump to bed only to hear something that sounds just like your alarm and wonder, ‘It can’t be. 5 am already? No.’ then go into snooze mode, hitting it again and again, till sunrise.

It can be tough like that. Sometimes, it can also be funny, especially when you remember all the fights your alarm has to endure and how hard it can be to convince yourself to get out of bed.

Again, it is about trying till this thing becomes ingrained.

The more you do it, the more you’ll get motivated to keep doing it…even if the results you get aren’t that impressive yet.

What are your thoughts (experiences) on this?

Read the main article on how to be an early riser here on Niabusiness.com.