Wake Up

Everybody’s situation is different.

Everyone is trying to achieve different things.

All of us have goals that are specific to us and what we’re focused on.

That said, there’s one commonality between the people I know and study who are absolutely crushing it and the people who brag about having seen every episode of Ted Lasso three times.

They wake up early. They wake up before anyone else.

In that time, they run, they write, they respond to outstanding emails from the day before.

They wake up early and meditate and set the intention for the day.

They start their actual work with a clean slate. They’re not playing catch up all day because they’ve ensured that everything is buttoned-up before their work day begins.

You find me someone who is slow to respond to email, someone who is late on meeting deadlines, someone whose computer is never charged, who can’t find their keys, and tells you how they’re just so busy, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t wake up early enough.

One of my mentors has a trick that I invite you to try.

When Daylight Savings ends and we set the clocks back an hour (so 5am becomes 4am), he doesn’t take advantage of the extra hour of sleep on that one night. No. He wakes up at the same time he’s been getting up: 4:45am. But now, because 4:45am is actually 3:45am, he wakes up then. At 3:45am. And he keeps it up until we change the clocks again.

Think about that. Instead of doing what most of us do, which is enjoying that extra hour of sleep one time, he’s gets an extra hour of productivity every day for months.

Wake up earlier. Don’t hit snooze. Start your day on a high note. Watch your results compound.