I was watching a video about a guy questioning whether you MUST wake up early to be successful and it got me thinking… why do I wake up so early?
He was also questioning all of the advice you’ve probably heard a thousand times from a million different “motivational speakers” concerning success and happiness. These included:
- Do I need to meditate?
- Do I need to workout constantly?
- Do I need to watch my diet all of the time?
- Do I need to constantly self-reflect?
- Do I need to expose my feelings about every issue?
- Do I need to connect with everyone?
- Do I need to have a positive view of the world/future/etc?
When it comes to financial success (the word “success” is too broad and abstract to really analyze), there are plenty of miserable, unhealthy assholes… so why are we fed the same “do this and you’ll be more successful” lines all of the time?
I can’t answer that for most of the questions, but I can explain my thoughts behind the “wake-up early” directive. I personally wake up before 5am most days of the week (even if I don’t get up and work, I still wake up at that time almost every day now).
My 5am Wake-Up Routine
When I get up, I create a delicious smoothie containing dragon fruit, cbd, chia seeds, hemp protein, spirulina, and matcha… then I meditate for at least 20 minutes while chanting my personal mantra and wishing positivity and good feelings to the trees and animals of the earth (and beyond)… then I run 5 miles barefoot to my local national park where I dive naked into a cold natural spring (it’s about 50 degrees or below) at which point I intentionally hyperventilate for 30 seconds followed by more meditating in the cool shallows of a pond, followed by a 5 mile run back home. Then I work.
Does any of that sound realistic to you?
While I might do some of that (I’ll let you guess which), it’s only on days when I DON’T WORK. All this crap takes two things I don’t have on work-days… time and energy.
I only wake up early to work because I literally HAVE TO. It’s the only way I can work enough to make a dent in my project list. The early wake up time could be avoided if I didn’t have a wife and kids, but I do, and I want to spend time with them so I need to work while they’re sleeping.
The math is pretty simple if you think about it. If I wake up early 5 days a week and get an additional 3-4 hours of work accomplished, I just added 15-20 hours on to a 40 hour work week without impacting my “interaction” time at all.
WAKE UP EARLY = MORE TIME TO WORK
I think it’s that simple. My dad did it and my father-in-law still does it (these are two guys I consider very successful and admire)… and neither one is into reading “success tips” at all.
I think everything really boils down to energy and time. You only have so much of both and they’re easy to waste and/or mismanage. Sure, working out could energize your capacity for work, but it could also take away from your ability to stay awake and work (how much energy does it actually take to sit at a computer, anyways?).
