Going To Bed An Hour Earlier Will Increase Your Confidence And Improve Your Results

If you want to increase your confidence which will then increase your results then you’ll want to go to bed one hour earlier.

There is tons of talk about how having an incredible morning routine will change your life.  People will attribute their massive success to the fact they wake up incredibly early and then workout, have a green smoothie, meditate and then land four investors for their startup all before breakfast.

Doesn’t the idea of waking up an hour earlier than you currently do make you feel even more tired?

Today I’ll tell you why that’s the case and what you can do about it.

A Great Morning Routine Starts With a Great Night’s Sleep

The best way to have a great day is to not sabotage your efforts at night.

There is this thing called willpower that we have to deal with.

Have you ever noticed that when you get up in the morning you are all excited and find it easy to make good decisions only to get derailed at night?

This is due to a concept called “decision fatigue”.

Each and every day you make decisions.  What to have for breakfast is a decision.  Looking at your phone is a decision. Driving to school or work is a decision.

And while some of these decisions seem incredibly small the truth is they all suck a little bit of energy away from you.  It’s like starting your car with a full gas tank and by the end of the day, it’s empty.

Depending on how your day went, you’re probably tired.  Your energy has been exhausted. And depending on your attitude you probably just want to veg on the couch and binge watch something.

And eat something.

Or drink something.

Instead of making decisions anymore you just want to rest and ultimately your body looks to consume anything to replenish and you’re probably not reaching for a glass of water and your favourite smoothie.

You’re not wanting to work out or stretch or do any of the other things you’ve promised yourself you would do to reach your goals.

Instead of consuming high-quality inputs we tend to sabotage ourselves by watching crappy TV or content off of our Phone and eating foods that hijack our taste buds and sabotage our rest and recovery.

The Confidence Sucking Sabotage Loop

Ultimately, we beat ourselves up because we’ve made bad choices and those choices have now:

1. Undermined our self-confidence
2. Affected our sleep
3. We now wake up tired and groggy or even hungover
4. Our mornings are now affected because we have less energy
5. Our day is affected because our energy runs out earlier in the day giving us even more time to make poor decisions

But…

If we get to bed sooner we are less prone to:

1. Watch mindless content on the TV or on our other devices
2. Eat crappy food and drinks
3. Get more sleep which allows us to get up earlier

Cut Off The Last Hour Of Your Day By Going To Bed

When you go to bed one hour earlier you aren’t really missing much.

You are basically cutting off the part of the day that typically sabotages the goals you’ve set for yourself.  Think of losing weight as an example. You know that you are more prone to eat junk food late at night or pour yourself a drink that is high in calories.

You don’t need that.

And you aren’t very creative just before bed so writing the next best-selling novel is probably not happening then either.

So go to bed.

If you go to bed 1 hour earlier you are going to get an extra hour of sleep that you most likely need.  That increased energy will give you increased confidence going into your day.

You will wake up knowing that you didn’t do anything late last night that sabotaged yourself going into today.  

Your body will be more recovered.  Your brain will have an additional deep-sleep cycle to rest and restore.

And your mindset going into today will be one of increased self-confidence because you made great decisions yesterday and we know that confidence builds off your past recent successes.

Working Towards Your Future Self Starts By Not Sabotaging Your Future Self

It takes confidence to work towards that future vision of yourself.  The one that is bigger, faster, stronger, leaner, more productive, has more wealth, is better looking and has a million Instagram followers.

It takes confidence to make the decision that you’re going to eat better and write more and work more and love more and be a better parent.

By going to bed earlier you cut out that time that is most likely to sabotage your future self and gives you the energy to make the decisions that will help you reach those goals you’ve set for yourself

By pruning off the unproductive and self-sabotaging time at the end of the day you are priming yourself for the real growth you want and expect out of your life starting in the morning.

Make Tomorrow Morning Friction-Less

The best way to get to sleep and have a great day tomorrow is to take some time to strategize what tomorrow is going to look like.  Your mind is more strategic at night and less creative so take this time to plan for the morning.

Take out your journal and write down 1-3 things that you are going to do.  Maybe it’s workout, or do some yoga, or write that book you’ve wanted to write.  Whatever it is, write it down so you don’t have to decide what you’re going to do in the morning.

Have a big glass of water. This will hydrate you because you probably didn’t drink enough water today anyway, and the full belly before bed will keep you from going to the kitchen and eating something that sabotages your body.

Now go to sleep.

Going to bed early may feel a bit strange at first.  You may feel like you’re not being responsible but over time you will look forward to it.

The increased energy you get from going to bed earlier will give you more energy to make better decisions.

Better decisions will lead to better choices and increased confidence to make even bolder decisions and bolder choices.

This cascade of energy, confidence and increased productivity will get you to your future self faster.