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PROGRAM D-7788

I’m focusing on some ideas for those who have the drive but lack the discipline. If you ask me, discipline is always a pain in the neck, so please don’t expect to like it. But remember what Solomon tells us in Proverbs about discipline: It is the way to life and understanding and honor. So, acquiring needed daily disciplines is a very smart and rewarding thing for you to do.

We were looking at the discipline of getting up early. Here are some practical tricks to play on yourself to help you get up early:

  1. Put the alarm clock or radio out of arm’s reach from your bed, so that you are forced to get up in order to turn it off.
  2. Buy an alarm clock with the loudest, most obnoxious alarm you can find.
  3. For every five minutes late you get up, impose punishment on yourself. For example,
  4. if you are five minutes late getting up, no jelly or jam on your toast
  5. if you are ten minutes late getting up, no toast
  6. if you are fifteen minutes late getting up, no cream or sugar in your coffee. If you don’t take cream or sugar, buy a brand of coffee you don’t like, and make yourself drink that coffee.
  7. Make yourself accountable to someone that you will see early in your day—your mate, a coworker, a friend. Give that person permission to ask you “What time did you get up today?” Then, give a very honest reply with NO EXCUSES!
  8. Start a chart or write on your daily calendar what time you get up each day.
  9. When you have reached your desired get-up-early goal and stuck to it for seven straight days, reward yourself. Suggested rewards:
  • One day off for good behavior!
  • A special food treat that you don’t normally allow yourself to have

Take it from a person who still struggles with this discipline, but who has practiced it long enough to realize the benefits. This is one of the best gifts you’ll ever give yourself. If you will stop using the “I’m not a morning person” excuse, and tell yourself, “I will learn to be a morning person,” you have some great things to look forward to. Who knows—you may come to cherish those early morning hours, that peaceful part of your day, before the chaos begins.

This much I can assure you—if you’ve never acquired this discipline of getting up as early as you need to, when you start to do it, you are going to be amazed at how much more you will accomplish in your day. You will love the fruit of this getting up early discipline.