Why it's so hard to get out of bed early... And what to do about it...

For many of us, we get amazing dreams and ideas before we go to bed at night, but for some reason or another, by the time the alarm clock goes off, they have faded deep into a groggy backwater of our cloudy minds and we can think of nothing better than to stay in bed a few minutes longer.

Now as for me, I am the ultimate sleep-lover. If I could, I would be able to sleep 14-15 hours straight without any difficulty. However, after some time I came to the realization that while I was getting all that refreshing sleep, my waking hours were often lazy and lackluster. So I changed it up. These days I'm up and out of bed at 5.30am, and have built this up to become a daily habit.

Now, that's a wonderful plan, but it doesn't always work out as you would hope. For example, some mornings I find it really difficult to get out of bed. And rather than let it slide, I decided I needed to figure out what was making the difference. Then I started to notice the trend, what factors were making it easier or harder to get up.

And it was simple. Preparation (or lack of it).

At that hour of the morning you do not want to be making decisions. You don't want to be deciding what work you need to do. You don't want to be trying to remember what tasks need to be done first. You don't want to be deciding whether to go for a walk around the block or a run up the mountains. The mere thought of having to make these decisions is enough to keep you in bed in the morning. Your brain will find any excuse to keep you in the warm, cozy bed. Don't give it one.

Prepare the night before. If you have a bunch of emails to send, put them in a list, along with some notes for what you wanted to say. If you are going for exercise, have your running shoes and gym bag waiting by the door. If you had some great idea the previous night, have it written down, along with the first couple of steps you need to make. Prepare, prepare, prepare.

By having everything laid out like this you can hit the ground running. All you need to do is jump out of bed. Everything else is laid out there and ready for you. Try it out for yourself. Believe me, when you wake up and you know there is a plan of action for the day, your body and mind will be pumped up for the challenge.