Here’s the reality: Either you master your mornings or you will live a life of constant struggle and chaos in every area of life. Rising early and at the same time every day is one of the most important keystone habits you can establish for your life. 

The great business guru Jim Rohn said:

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn

Rising early enables you to establish and maintain a second vital Keystone Habit, a life-enhancing Morning Routine.

Why is this important?

The reality is that unless you get your key life practices done in the morning, the chances of you doing them later in any given day decreases substantially.

Therefore, unless you get your important life enhancing tasks done in the morning, you won’t be able to do them with enough consistency to make them effective. And, if they are not effective, you are just wasting your time.

Take fitness and weight loss. Most people want to be fit. Most people would love to “look good naked.” However, being fit and maintaining a consistent weight takes regular exercise.

The key advantage to morning exercise — the thing that should seal the deal for you — is that studies show is that people who have a morning exercise routine are much more likely to stick with it and make it a habit.

Morning exercise solves the biggest problem people say they have for failing to exercise regularly — lack of time. And, if you don’t exercise consistently, it can actually do more harm than good. However, if you establish the HABIT of morning exercise, you will not fail to get in your daily exercise.

Conversely, the later in the day it gets, the more likely it is for life “stuff” to get in the way: A meeting runs late, there is a traffic jam, the kids suddenly need a ride somewhere, your spouse wants you to pick up something at the store. We miss a day, telling ourselves, “I’ll make up for it tomorrow,” but tomorrow the same pattern repeats until you finally realize that your real habit is NOT exercising.

Here’s another advantage: exercising in the morning may well create MORE time.  The famous vlogger Casey Neistat believes that time spent exercising can make up for an equal amount of time sleeping. That’s not scientific, of course. Neistat’s experience may be different than yours. Neistat’s suggestion is that if you get up an hour early to exercise, that exercise will help you to function as well or better than if you had gotten an extra hour sleep. Many other people who regularly exercise in the morning report the same experience. 

Further, getting up early is for more than just exercising. It is an important time to plan out the day ahead, to read some inspirational material, to pray or meditate, to connect with your partner (if they join you in early rising, too). And, to drink coffee.

The bottom line is that we don’t get up early just to brag about how early we can get up. It only makes sense to get up early if there is a reason for it and the #1 Reason to get up early is to establish a positive, life-enhancing morning routine for your Key Life Practices and make it a habit.