Change Your Habits: Change Your Life

Book summary of “Change your habits, change your life” ( part 2) “Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it’s a small price to pay for living a dream.” Peter MC Williams

Get comfortable with change and chaos!

Be willing to be uncomfortable; Be comfortable being uncomfortable

The way to success goes through change and chaos. For personal growth, you have to be in a constant state of feeling slightly uncomfortable. Get into the habit of doing things that others don’t want to do.

You have to choose to do what needs to be done regardless of the inconvenience!

That means: to forgive instead of holding a grudge, to go the extra mile instead of saying it can’t be done; to take 100% of the responsibility for your behavior instead of blaming others. Most of us think that to change our lives we have to make huge changes, and then we get overwhelmed by the hugeness of the task and end up not doing anything, and get stuck with our old habits.

The answer is baby steps!

Start changing small things which don’t require a big effort and those small changes will eventually lead to bigger changes. Start changing your way to get to work, the restaurant you’re having lunch at, or meet new people.
Action Steps:
1) Do something that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable every day.
2) What will you change tomorrow? Your daily routine? Exercise? Eat healthier?

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life“-part 2

Focus on what you want, not on what you lack!

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Aristotle Onassis
The number one reason why people are not getting what they want is that they don’t even know what they want. The number two reason is that while they are telling themselves what they want, they are concentrating on what they don’t want, and what you are concentrating on…Expands!

Remember to focus on what you want from now on!

Where is your focus? On the positive or the negative? On the past or the present? Do you focus on problems or solutions? This is crucial! Here is where the law of attraction goes wrong for most people and they give up! You will attract more of what you focus on! Your energy will flow in the direction of your focus and your focus determines your overall perception of the world.

Focus on opportunities and you will see more opportunities!

Focus on success and success will come to you.
Use the following questions to change your focus: How can I improve this situation?
What can I be thankful for? is great in my life right now? could I be happy about right now if I wanted to?
Is this still important in ten years?
What is great about this challenge? How can I use this to learn from it? What can I do to make things better?

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

Watch your words

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” George Orwell, 1984
“The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.”
Tony Robbins Watch your words! Don’t underestimate them! They are very powerful! The words that we use to describe our experiences become our experiences! You probably encountered a situation or two in your life, when spoken words did a lot of damage. And this is true not only in talking to others but also in talking to yourself.

Yes, this little voice in your head – the one that just asked: “Voice, what voice?”

You are what you tell yourself the whole day! Your inner dialogue is like the repeated suggestion of a hypnotist. Are you complaining a lot? What story are you telling yourself? If you say that you are bad, weak, and powerless then that’s what your world will look like! On the other hand, if you say you are healthy, feeling great, and unstoppable you will also reflect that. Your inner dialogue has a huge impact on your self-esteem. Don’t think of a pink elephant! See I bet you just imagined a pink elephant. The good thing is that you can really change your life by changing your language, positively talking to yourself, and starting to ask yourself different questions. Why wait? Start asking yourself different questions now!

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

New Habits, New Life!

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle, It takes about 21 days to implement a new habit. About 2500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle said that you change your life by changing your habits. The coaching process is, in its essence a process of changing the client’s habits over time by introducing new ways of doing things and substituting old behaviors.

The most important step in the process of changing your habits is to become aware of them!

Did you hear the saying that If you keep doing what you are doing you will keep getting the results you are getting? Einstein himself defined the purest form of insanity as “doing the same things over and over, expecting a different result”. Is this you? Don’t worry and go on reading! If you want different results in your life then you have to start doing things differently.

You can change this and it’s relatively easy if you put in some work and discipline.

Develop habits that steer you towards your goals. If you do that-success in your life is guaranteed.

Action Step: What 10 habits are you going to introduce?
It’s not necessary to introduce BIG changes. The habits my clients introduce are

Exercise 3 times a week.
Focus on the positive.
Work on your goals.
Walk by the beach or in the woods.
Spend more time with your family.
Eat more vegetables.
Meet with friends.
Read 30 minutes a day.
Spend 15 minutes on “alone time” a day, etc.

It helps to have a visual display! And don’t forget to reward yourself for your successes! Start RIGHT NOW by making a list of 10 daily habits you will introduce into your life from today.

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

Know yourself

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle
The first step before changing your life is becoming aware of where you are and what’s missing.

Please take some time to answer the following questions.

What are your dreams in life?
At the end of your life, what do you think you would most regret not having done for yourself?
If time and money were not factors, what would you like to do, be, or have?
What motivates you in life?
limits you in life?
What have been your biggest wins in the last 12 months?
Have been your biggest frustrations in the last 12 months?
What do you do to please others? do you do to please yourself? do you pretend not to know?
Has been the best work that you have done in your life until today?
Whence exactly do you know that this was your best work?

How do you see the work you do today in comparison to what you did 5 years ago?

What’s the relationship between the work you do now and the work you did then?
Part of your work do you enjoy the most?
What activity or thing do you usually postpone?
Part of your work do you enjoy the least?
What are you really proud of?
How would you describe yourself?
What aspects of your behavior do you think you should improve?

At this moment in time, how would you describe your commitment level to making your life a success?

And at the moment in time, how would you describe your general state of well-being, energy, and self-care?
By this moment in time, how would you describe how much fun or pleasure you are experiencing in your life?
If you could put one fear behind you once and for all, what would it be?
In what area of your life do you most want to have a true breakthrough?
Evaluate yourself on a scale from 1-10 (10 = highest) in the following areas:
Social…
Work…
Family…
Interpersonal

Know your Top 4 values!

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” John F. Kennedy
Let’s talk about values. Not morally or ethically, but looking at what fuels you and what motivates you. Being clear about and knowing your values is one of the most important steps to getting to know yourself better.

By knowing your values, you will be able to attract more of what you want in your life.

If there is a big difference between the life you are living and your values, this might create suffering and tension. Once you find out what your values are, you will be able to understand yourself and your actions a lot better. When your goals are aligned with your values you will notice that you achieve them much quicker and hit a lot less resistance.

Also, answer the following questions:

What is very important in your life? gives purpose to your life? are you usually doing when you experience that feeling of inner peace? What are you doing that is so much fun that you usually lose track of time? Think of some people that you admire. Why do you admire them? What kind of qualities do you admire in them? What activities do you enjoy the most? kind of moments brings you joy and fulfillment? can’t you put up with it?

Visualization:

Take some time. Close your eyes and relax.
Imagine that it is your 75th birthday. You’re strolling around in your house. All your friends and family are present. What would you like the most important person in your life, your best friend, and a family member say to you? Write it down.
1) The most important person in your life says…
2) Your best friend says…
3) Your (family member) says…

Know your strengths

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses his skills to accomplish his goals.”
Larry Bird
You don’t have to be good at everything. Focus on your strengths. Remember that what you focus on tends to expand. What are you good at? Time to find out – isn’t it?

So let’s get started: List your TOP FIVE Personal Qualities and Professional Strengths below:

(What are your unique strengths? are you most proud of? do you do best?)

List your Most Significant Personal and Professional Accomplishments: (What are you most pleased about and proud of having accomplished?)
List your Personal and Professional Assets: (Who do you know? What do you know? gifts do you have? makes you unique and powerful?)
Once you know your strengths it’s time to strengthen them. Practice them and concentrate on them – the ones you have and the ones you want

Action Step:
If you are up for it, send an email to 5 friends and/or colleagues and ask them what they consider your greatest strengths! This can be quite inspiring and a true self-confidence booster!
https://optimalhealth.in/success-tips/

Honor your past achievements

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate”
Oprah Winfrey
This is a very important chapter. It’s one of my favorite exercises to boost my clients-self-confidence (and my own). Its purpose is to empower you and make you aware of what you have already achieved in your life! We are always so centered on the things that don’t work so well or what we haven’t achieved that we forget what we have already achieved.

I’m sure that you have fantastic achievements in your life and in this chapter you will become aware of those past successes and use them as rocket fuel to achieve your goals and future successes!

So the big question is: What great things have you achieved in your life so far?

You put yourself through college, traveled the world, have a great career, have lots of great friends. Maybe you lived abroad for a while all on your own. Or maybe you have overcome a tough childhood and major personal setbacks. Maybe you raised fantastic children. Whatever challenges you’ve overcome or successes you have achieved—now is the time to look back and celebrate them.

Remember the focus?

In this case, it means that the more you remember and acknowledge your past successes, the more confident you’ll become. And because you are concentrating on successes you will see more opportunities for success! Make your list!

Remind yourself of your past successes!

Pat yourself on the shoulder and say to yourself “Well done!” The important thing is the experience of success! Get into the same state that you were in, see the success once again in your mind, feel again how it felt then!
Action Step:
1) Write down a list of the biggest successes you’ve achieved in your life!
2) Read them out loud and allow yourself to feel fantastic for what you have accomplished!

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

Write down your goals and achieve them!

“People with clear, written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them can ever imagine.” Brian Tracy
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napoleon Hill
The huge majority of us don’t have even the slightest idea of where to start to make our dreams come true. Most people overestimate what they can do in a month and underestimate what they can do in a year. If you go one step at a time and remain flexible, then over time you can achieve things that you couldn’t even imagine before. And the funny thing is: It’s not even about reaching the end goals; it’s about the person you become in the process.

The journey is more important than the destination and also in goal setting!

So why write down your goals? Because they will drive you to take action! Having clearly defined goals in your life is crucial to your way towards success and happiness. They are like a GPS leading the way. But to be led, first of all, you have to know where you want to go!

This is so important that entire books are written on the subject of goal setting!

I will make it as short as possible.
The first step to achieving your dream goals is to put them in writing. I was very skeptical about this until I started writing down my goals and then I wish I had started two decades ago. I became so much more productive and focused that I could hardly believe it. As I said before, for many years I didn’t care about goal setting. To be honest, I think it made me feel uncomfortable because committing to goals and writing them down suddenly meant that I could measure what I had achieved and what I did not achieve, and I didn’t have the courage to do that.

It’s important to write down your goals for various reasons:

1) When you write them down, you declare to your mind, that out of the 50000 to 60000 thoughts you have a day, THIS ONE written down is the most important.
2) You start concentrating and focusing on the activities that bring you closer to your goal. You also start making better decisions, while you are
focused on where you want to go, always keeping in mind whether what you are doing at this moment is really the best use of your time.
3) Having a look at your written goals every day forces you to act and helps you to prioritize your actions for the day by asking yourself questions such as “At this moment, is doing what I’m doing bringing me closer to my goals?”

Before starting the change process, you have to be clear about your goals.

Then break them down into small achievable action steps and make a list of all the steps that you will take to get there.

Calculate how long it will take you. Don’t forget to set a deadline for each action step and goal.

Don’t worry if you don’t reach the goal by the exact date you set; it’s just a way of focusing on the goal and creating a sense of urgency. One of my favorite quotes from my coaching training is “If you put a date on a dream it becomes a goal.” So it’s GO time for you now: In the following exercise, I want you to write down what you want your life to look like in 10 years. When you write it down, I want you to write down what you want, not what you think is possible.

So GO BIG!

There are no limits to your imagination.

The answers you write here are the direction in which your life is headed. Create a clear vision of your goals in your mind. See yourself as already having achieved the goal: How does it feel? does it look? How does it sound? does it smell?

The goals have to be yours, specific, stated positively, and you have to commit to them.

Another important point: When pursuing your goals, reward yourself for the effort put in, and not just for the results. Self-punishment is not allowed! Keep in mind that you are much further than you were a week or a month ago.

Other useful tips that enhance your goal setting journey:

Put a little card with your goals written on it in your wallet and reconnect 4-5 times daily.
It’s very beneficial to have a to-do list. Put your action steps on it, as well as the time it takes to do the task as and put the deadlines for each task.
Balance your goals (physical, economic, social, professional, family, spiritual).

Exercise:

1) What do you want your life to look like in 10 years? There are no limits! Go big!
2) do you have to have achieved in 5 years to get closer to your goal in 10 years?
3) What do you have to have achieved in 1 year to get closer to your goal in 5 years?
4) do you have to have achieved in 3 months to get closer to your 1- year-goal?
5) What are the things that can you do NOW to reach your 3-month goal?
Action Step:
Write down at least three things and TAKE ACTION!

Next!

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.
Sylvester Stallone Another one of the biggest fears that we have is the fear of rejection!

We don’t ask the girl for dance because we fear rejection, we don’t send the CV because we fear rejection, we don’t even ask for the upgrade to business class or the best table in the restaurant because we fear rejection! To reach your goals in life, you will have to learn how to handle rejection. It’s a part of life and to overcome it you have to become aware that same as failure – it’s only a concept in your mind!

The most successful people are not much different from you. They are just better at handling rejection!

Now that’s something, isn’t it? On your way to your goals, you will probably have to face rejection many times. Just don’t give up. And above all don’t take rejection personally! Think about it. If you ask someone out and he or she doesn’t want to go out with you, actually nothing has changed. He or she was not going out with you before and she is not going out with you now. Your situation is the same. Rejection is not the problem; it’s the inner dialogue you start after being rejected that is the problem: “I knew I can’t do it.

I know I’m not good enough.

Father was right. I will never achieve anything in life”. The important thing is to go on! The most successful salesmen’s goal is to hear 100 “No’s” a day because they know that if they hear 100 “No’s”, there will also be some “Yes’s”. It’s a numbers game! The most successful “Don Juans” of my friends are the ones who dealt with the “No’s” the best. They knew that if they talk to 25 girls a night, eventually there will be someone who will have a drink with them.

Others gave up after hearing two or three “No’s”.

Just be prepared to get rejected many times on your way to success.

The secret is to not give up! When somebody tells you “No, thanks,” you think “NEXT”.

Did you know that Sylvester Stallone’s script for the movie “Rocky” was rejected over 70 times? Jack Can field’s and Mark Victor Hansen’s “Chicken Soup for the Soul” was rejected 130 times and that Canfield was actually laughed at when he said that he wanted to sell 1 million books. His editor told him he‘d be lucky to sell 20,000. Well, the first book “Chicken Soup for the Soul” sold 8 million copies, the whole series about 500 million! Even J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” was rejected 12 times!
Answer the following questions: What are you taking away from this chapter? How will you deal with rejection from now on?

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Avoid energy robbers

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin
“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” Aristotle
Your energy is crucial for boosting you towards your goals and happiness. Some things in your life drain your energy and then some things add energy.

Don’t underestimate the importance of energy and keep it up!

In my coaching processes, we put a lot of emphasis on activities that bring energy and cut loose things that drain the energy out of my clients’ lives. When you operate on low energy you don’t feel good, you are not happy, you send out low vibes, and chances are that you will attract what you are sending!

Stop doing or exposing yourself to things that drain your energy like unhealthy eating habits, alcohol, drugs, caffeine, sugar, tobacco, lack of exercise, negativity, sarcasm, unfocused goals, the news, and tabloid newspapers among others. All these things drain your energy. And beware of the “energy vampires” among-st your colleagues, friends, and even family.

Why would you spend time with people that only drain you? Become very selfish on how you manage your energy:

Eliminate all distractions.
Finish your unfinished business.
Work on your toleration.
Say goodbye to all energy-robbing people and relationships.
Questions:
What are the energy robbers in your life? and What will you do about it?

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Manage your time

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter F. Drucker
Do you work lots of overtime and still don’t have time for everything you need to do? Are you one of those people that would love to have 28 hours in a day? Well, unfortunately, you also have only 24 hours like everybody else on this planet. Oh and I’m sorry, I forgot: There is no such thing as time management! You can’t manage time.

What you can do is use your time wisely and manage your priorities.

Everyone who comes to me and most of my friends says “I don’t have time to….” The fastest way to gain time is to watch one hour less of TV every day. That’s 365 hours a year, which equals 28 hours a month! What would you do with seven extra hours a week? Another trick to gain more time is getting up earlier.

Set priorities and choose what activities to invest your time in.

Set clear rules about when you are available and when you are not available and don’t let other people steal your time. The funny thing is, the more you value your time, the more you will have of it because people will also value your time. If you allow people to interrupt you all the time, you’re essentially showing them that your time is not very valuable in which case you will not be able to work effectively, no matter how many hours you work.

Recent studies have found out that each 5-minute interruption at work costs you 12 minutes because your brain needs 7 minutes to refocus!

How many interruptions do you have per day? 10? 12? Imagine how much time you can gain back when you decrease the number of interruptions. Every 3-minute interruption costs you 10 minutes. Let’s say you get interrupted 12 times in one working day: 2 hours gone! In a month that’s like having an extra week! Don’t let employees, friends, or clients interrupt you.

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Set those clear rules NOW.

Another big-time robber is social media and e-mail. Setting fixed times for your social media activity and checking emails is another means to gain a lot of time.
I started gaining a lot of time at work when I learned to say “NO”. My personal number one time-saving technique is taking 30 to 60 minutes on Sundays to plan my week. I put my personal and professional goals for every week in my excel sheet. And don’t forget to schedule some free time, relaxation time, like power naps, reading, meditation, etc., and some buffer time for emergencies too. I also take 15 minutes every day to plan my next day. In this way, I give my subconscious mind a chance to work on it already while I sleep.

This works! When I start the next day I don’t have to think much: I just go to work. Some more time-saving tips:

Make a to-do list with the date and the time the task takes.

Limit your phone calls to 5 minutes per call.
Be aware of the result you want for each call that you make.
Work against time and you’ll get your work done faster (set an alarm clock and work against it).
Write 5 things you want for the next day each evening and list them in order of priority.
Create blocks of time (90 minutes blocks).
Track your time. Take a look at how you are currently using your time by tracking your daily activities.

Do the unpleasant things first. Stop being busy and go for results. Be careful with the following time robbers:

Lack of information for completing a task.
You do everything yourself (Is delegating an option?).
You get distracted easily (Focus and set boundaries!).
Your phone calls are too long (Put a 5 minutes limit).
You spend a lot of time searching for files (Get organized!)

Keep doing things the same way and don’t realize that there could be a more efficient way of doing it.

You think you have to be reachable all the time and everywhere (Really?).
So what are you going to do next? Will you insist on the excuse that you have no time or will you start making time with one little thing at a time and experience the change for yourself? What are you going to do? Remember it’s all about decisions and habits!
Action Step:
Write down 5 things you will start doing NOW!

Start to get organized!

“Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A.A.Milne
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” Anonymous
Are you too busy to get organized? You are surrounded by mountains of paper and have post-its all over your table. And you feel you are really busy but you just can’t breathe and you just can’t handle your work even if you do extra time? THEN READ CLOSELY NOW, because I’m especially talking to YOU!
It’s not that you are too busy to get organized, it’s because you are not organized that you are so busy! And to make it worse: Being busy doesn’t mean that you are effective! Just because you have the messiest table in the office, doesn’t mean you are the one who works hardest.

There are studies that today’s executives spend between 30% and 50% of their time searching for paperwork!

Can you believe that?
So, my overwhelmed worker, go on reading and TRY OUT these little tips, as they can change your life!

I have been there and I turned it around using the little tips below:

Spend the first 15 minutes of your working day prioritizing what to do.

You spend one hour a week organizing and filing papers.
And also spend 15 minutes a day throwing away papers and clearing away your desk
Spend the last 15 minutes of your working day to go through your tasks for tomorrow. What’s important? What’s urgent?
Use your e-mail inbox as a to-do list. Tasks solved get archived and tasks unsolved stay in the inbox.
If there are any e-mails and tasks that you can do in less than 5 minutes, always do them right away! ALWAYS!
Don’t accept any new tasks until you are in control.
Do the job right the first time so that it doesn’t come back to haunt you and cost you more time later.
And Do you remember that typical colleague who always completed his work fast, but not thoroughly, and then during every step of the process you had to go back to him for more information?

Instead of doing it well one time with all of the correct documentation which takes 15 minutes, he rushed it in 5 minutes, and later you had to go back to him three more times thus losing another 30 minutes. So instead of 15 minutes he actually took 35 minutes to complete the task.

Do it right the first time!

Like everything else in this book, saying “That won’t work for me” doesn’t count as an excuse!

Try it for at least two weeks and if it still doesn’t work for you write me an email and complain to me!
Action Step:
Which of the tips will you try first?

Say “NO” to them and “YES” to yourself

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Bill Cosby
Here is another one of these small exercises that improved my life a lot: When I stopped wanting to please others and started being myself, a lot of it came with the word “No”. Every time you say “No” when you mean “No”, you are actually saying “Yes” to yourself! Before learning to say “No”, I often went out with my friends although I didn’t want to or went to events I didn’t enjoy.

The result was I was there physically but mentally I was in another place and honestly I was not the best company.

When I decided that a “Yes” is a “Yes” and a “No” is a “No”, I felt much better. I went out less with my friends and telling them “NO” was hard at the beginning, but the result was that when I was with my friends I was fully there. In my work life, the impact was even bigger. When I started working in Spain I wanted to be a good colleague and said yes to every favor I was asked for. Guess what happened? I ended up being totally overwhelmed at work because I was asked for a lot of favors usually work nobody else wanted to do. It took me a while to put my foot down, but finally, I said “Enough!”. From then on my first answer to all questions for favors was “NO! Sorry. Can’t do it. Very busy at the moment!”

By starting to say “No” often, I improved my work life a lot and actually freed up a lot of time.

But make sure you say “NO” without feeling guilty! You can explain to the person in question that it’s not anything personal against them, but for your own well-being. I could still do my colleagues a favor, but only if I had enough time and decided to. Suddenly I was in the driver’s seat. If I was up for it I would mention to the colleague in question that I’m only doing a favor and in no case do I want to end up doing the job. Selfish? Yes! But keep in mind who the most important person in your life is. That’s right!

YOU are the most important person in your life! You have to be well!

Only if you are well yourself, can you be well towards others, and from this level, you can contribute to others, but first be well yourself. You can always buy some time and say “maybe” at first until you come to a decision. Life gets a lot easier if you start saying “No”!
Ask yourself the following questions: Whose life are you living? Are you living your own life or trying to please and fulfill the expectations of others?
Who and what are you going to say NO to starting NOW?
Action Step:
Make a list of things that you will stop doing!

Review of “Change Your Habits: Change Your Life”-part 2

Get up early! Sleepless!

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”
Aristotle The first benefit of getting up an hour earlier is that you gain around 365 hours per year. 365! Who said, “I don’t have time!”? When clients come to me telling me that they don’t have time, the first thing I ask them is how many hours of TV are they watching. This usually provides them with the time they
need. To those who stopped watching TV and still don’t have enough time I ask them to get up one hour earlier.

There is a very special energy in the morning hours before sunrise.

Ever since I started getting up around 5.30 or 6 o’clock, my life changed completely. I’m much more calm and relaxed and don’t start the day already running around stressed. I usually go running half an hour before the sun rises so that on my way back I see the sun rising “out of” the Mediterranean Sea. This is absolutely mind-boggling and already puts me in a state of absolute happiness. And for those of you who don’t live next to the sea: A sunrise “out of” fields, forests, or even a big city is just as exciting. Just go watch it and let me know!

Starting your day like this is very beneficial for your happiness and peace of mind.

Another great advantage of getting up earlier is that it reinforces self-discipline and you’ll gain self-respect. Many successful leaders were and still are members of the early birds club, for example, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Barrack Obama, and many more.
It’s scientifically proven that 6 hours should be enough sleep per night paired with 30 to 60 minutes of a power nap in the afternoon.

Your freshness depends on the quality of your sleep, not on the quantity.

You have to try and figure out for yourself how many hours of sleep you need to feel refreshed. But you should definitively give it a try. It will improve your quality of life a lot.

Don’t forget that getting up early is a new habit, so give it some time and don’t give up after the first week if you still feel tired after getting up earlier. The habit needs at least 3 to 4 weeks to kick in. If you absolutely can’t get up one hour earlier, try half an hour. And don’t forget that your attitude, thoughts, and beliefs about getting up an hour earlier play a big role, too.