If you’re not rich, but would like to be someday, you might spend some time reading what the wealthy do.  What actions do they take that make them more successful?  What skills do they have that you don’t?  How is their mindset different from yours?

Answer these questions, and you can begin to emulate those who are successful and rich, and maybe start to be wealthier yourself.

Will This One Habit Make The Difference?

Business Insider recently shared the stories of many successful people, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, who routinely get up during the wee hours of the night–often around 4:30 a.m.  These individuals use the very early morning to exercise and get a jump start on their day.

The business world starts early, and if you’re awake well before that time, you can get started and jump into the fray immediately.

People who sleep late and stay up late often miss most of the action.  Because there are so many successful people getting up early, if you get up late, you miss the chance to interact with them for several hours in the day, if not more.

However, that’s not the only reason why early morning risers tend to be more successful.  Laura Vanderkam, author of, What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, states, “We tend to wake up with a fresh supply of willpower.  That discipline will get exhausted over the course of the day as we deal with annoying colleagues, traffic and bickering children, but in the morning, we can tackle the world.”

Early mornings offer us the chance to get things done before the rest of the day wears us down.  This is the same philosophy that encourages people to get up early in the morning to exercise, before they get too tired or lose their desire.

How Can You Become An Early Morning Riser?

While many successful people who are early risers claim they don’t need much sleep, that isn’t true for the majority of us.  If you’re in the habit of going to bed after midnight and waking up around 8 or 9 a.m., changing that routine will take some time.  Don’t suddenly start waking up at 4:30 a.m. and expect to be productive.

The best way to change your routine is to start getting up 5 to 10 minutes earlier each day until you’re getting up at the time you’d like.

Then, don’t become an early morning riser just to become one.  Have a list of things that you want to accomplish in the morning before everyone else wakes up.  Choose tasks that you feel are important to complete during the day but that often get pushed to the backburner when you get busy with the rest of your day.

If you find that your brain is foggy in the morning, take the time to first do something to wake up.  That might be drinking a strong cup of coffee, exercising, or taking a nice warm shower.  Do whatever you need, and then hit the ground running.

Eat The Frog First

There’s a saying about eating a frog first thing in the morning.  The idea is to get done the thing that you don’t want to do but have to do.  Because you do it immediately, you don’t waste time and energy procrastinating.

Another bonus of waking up early and getting some work done is that there are usually very few people awake to disturb you.  Think how much more productive you would be without the constant interruptions that you experience during the day.

Perhaps that’s why so many earlier risers are successful–they eat their frog first and don’t procrastinate.

What do you think?  Is rising early one of the important secrets to success?