waking up early unf*cks your life

You wake up tired, scrolling your phone before your feet hit the ground, already behind on the day.

Society sells you late nights and snooze buttons, but it’s a trap—one that's silently destroying your potential.

Waking up early isn’t just about starting your day; it’s about taking your life back from a system designed to keep you distracted and mediocre.

How many times have you told yourself you wanted to get up early, get a head start on your day, and be more productive?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably told yourself this time and time again.

For years, I tried to make waking up early a consistent habit.

I’d manage it for a few days, maybe even a week or two.

Then I’d sleep in one morning and fall back into my old routine—rushing to work, feeling hurried and distracted for the rest of the day.

Every time I slipped up, I’d miss the peace and joy of the early morning and regret not taking advantage of it.

I could feel the difference in my day when I woke up early versus when I didn’t.

The contrast was undeniable.

What finally solidified the habit for me was realizing the deeper power behind waking up early.

It’s one of those habits that seems small but fundamentally alters how the rest of your day unfolds.

Think about it: if something as simple as waking up earlier can make your day more productive and mindful, then consistently doing it can change your life.

Life Is in the Small Moments

When you zoom out and think about it, what is life, really?

Is life just the big milestones—your 21st birthday, your wedding, your first child being born, a big job promotion, or launching a business?

While those moments are important and can change your trajectory, they’re not what life ultimately is.

Life is a collection of singular days and moments, strung together over time.

A mistake I’ve made—and I see others make—is constantly searching for one huge, life-altering decision.

They think the answer lies in starting the perfect business, finding the right relationship, or moving to a new city.

I’m not saying these decisions aren’t important. They are. But they make up only a tiny fraction of your life.

When you live solely for those big moments, you miss out on the real substance of life: today.

Today is your life—the here and the now.

Stop focusing so much on what’s going to improve your life next year or five years from now.

Stop worrying about whether the grand destination you’re chasing will ever come to fruition.

The present moment is all you truly have.

Why Waking Up Early Matters

What makes waking up early so powerful?

At first, I couldn’t quite pinpoint it.

It’s one of those subtle changes you make in your life where you immediately notice the benefits, but the reasons behind it aren’t obvious.

Over time, I realized the answer was simple: waking up early is an act of gratitude.

It’s a way of telling yourself—and telling God—that you’re excited to start the day.

Think back to Christmas morning as a kid. Remember the excitement you felt the night before?

My brother and I would go to bed as early as possible, just so we could wake up faster.

We’d pop out of bed, bright and early, hours before anyone else in the house.

Why? Because we were excited to experience the day.

Now, imagine feeling that same excitement every morning.

Of course, not every day will be like Christmas morning.

You won’t have presents under a tree waiting to be unwrapped.

But what if the gift you were unwrapping was the greatest gift of all: another day?

If you saw life as the gift it truly is, how would you treat the day ahead?

I bet you wouldn’t sleep in.

Waking up early is about treating life as the precious gift it is.

Gratitude as Empowerment

I know some of you may feel like life doesn’t always feel like a gift.

You might be stuck in a job that doesn’t fulfill you, dealing with financial stress, or struggling with your health.

I’m not here to minimize those challenges.

Life can be hard.

But one of the most powerful things you can do is train your mind to operate in a state of gratitude.

Gratitude is empowering.

"The more gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when good things come to us, the more good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will come. The reason for this is simply that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the blessings come." Wallace Wattles, The Science Of Getting Rich.

When you’re grateful, you operate on a higher level of consciousness.

You see opportunities differently, approach relationships with love, and handle adversity with resilience.

But gratitude isn’t something you can summon on command—not at first. It requires action.

Words and affirmations are powerful, but the most impactful way to show gratitude is through your actions.

The Sacred Hour Method

To help you kickstart your mornings, I’ve developed a 3-step mental framework I call The Sacred Hour Method.

These steps will help you wake up with ease, excitement, and gratitude.

1. Anchor Your Awakening

You need a reason to get up in the morning—a purpose behind waking early.

This doesn’t have to be a grand life purpose. It just needs to be a meaningful reason to rise.

For me, it was creative writing. I love writing and creating ideas, but after work, I often felt mentally drained.

Waking up early gave me the time and energy to create.

It gave me the mental space to do the things I want to do without disruption or the chaos that inevitably comes with the day.

Without a real purpose, the pull of sleep will always outweigh the pull of life.

Before you go to bed, remind yourself of your reason for waking up early.

Make it a priority in your mind and anchor your awakening to it.

2. Create a Morning Ritual

Most people deeply underappreciate the value of waking up.

They take it for granted—and it shows in their lives.

A morning ritual is a set of intentional actions performed with meaning.

It could be prayer, meditation, affirmations, or even a walk outside.

The purpose is to ground yourself in the present moment and remind yourself of the gift of life.

When you start your day with a ritual, you approach the rest of your day with greater awareness, intention, and gratitude.

Your ritual doesn’t have to be complicated.

It just needs to be something that connects you to the moment and aligns your mind, body, and spirit in gratitude.

3. See Each Morning as a Rebirth

This step is about reframing your subconscious mind every morning.

Treat each morning as a fresh start—a chance to reinvent yourself, make new choices, and grow into the person you’re meant to be.

The cause of much of our suffering is the baggage we carry from the past.

We get trapped in negative patterns, stuck in pain, and disconnected from the present.

Eckhart Tolle, in his book, The Power Of Now, calls this the pain-body—an accumulation of past emotional pain and trauma that keeps us locked in unconscious patterns.

The pain-body thrives on routine, feeding on repetitive thoughts and actions.

Waking up early, with intention and deep presence, disrupts this cycle.

"The pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in."

It gives you a chance to start fresh, to break free from the past, and to live intentionally.

By viewing each morning as a rebirth, you move out of unconscious patterns and step into purposeful living.

Gratitude anchors you in the present, where the pain-body cannot survive.

Gratitude Connects You with Power

Once I understood the transformative power of gratitude, I knew I could no longer make excuses for sleeping in.

Waking up early became my way of showing God—and myself—that I was grateful for another day.

To live an empowered life is to live with gratitude, fully conscious and alive.

It’s the one thing that changes everything.

I hope this helps.

Cade Rector