I am not capable of polite conversation before 8:00 am. Okay, that’s a joke, 10:00 am.
I’ve half-heartedly asked God on several occasions to make me a morning person, but still I prefer sunsets over sunrises.
Everything I read about being successful at achieving your dreams seems to have one common denominator—you need to take advantage of the morning.
I’ve ignored that small detail because I hate mornings. I’m different. I can be successful and sleep in. I’ll be a champion for night owls everywhere.
But here’s the thing—I’m not successful…yet.
Someone smart said something to the effect of doing the same things over and over again while expecting different results is stupid.
What I’m doing right now isn’t working.
As much as I hate to admit it, I believe I must change how I do my mornings because unless the internet is lying to me—which I’m sure it never does, that’s where I’m losing a lot of productive time.
Staying in bed warm under my covers is easier though. It’s where I imagine all the great things that will happen when I actually become a writer. Ironically, none of those dreams will come true if I don’t actually get out of bed and do something.
In one month, I’m celebrating the first anniversary of my 29th birthday. I don’t want to be the same person I was when I turned 29 the first time around. I want to be taking strides toward reaching my dreams.
But committing to waking up every day early to write scares me because I feel like I’m setting myself up for more failure which in the past leads to days or even weeks of procrastination.
Case in point: I started this post over 4 weeks ago when I was planning on making my goal to get up at 5:00 am every day in June to see if committing to that would change my creative output.
Every day my alarm has gone off at 5:00 am. Only once did I not hit the snooze button until 7:00ish. That day was a fluke because I had to be at work at 6:15 am.
I can force myself to get out of bed early for a job I don’t like that barely even pays the bills, but when it comes to my real passions, I just sleep in.
One day at a time, I’m letting the snooze button slowly kill my dreams.
So for the next 30 days (which happen to end on my 30th birthday), I’m forcing myself to roll out of bed at 5:00 am and be productive.
I’m also giving myself 5 get-out-of-jail free cards or I guess stay-in-bed-free cards because life happens, and I don’t want to give up just because one day I might slip up.
I’m tired of making excuses, but if you could see how much writing time I’ve scheduled in my planner this week, you’d understand how I tend to over commit, fail, and repeat.
This post is purely selfish because I need accountability, but I secretly want to encourage you to examine areas of your life that might be holding you back from reaching your goals as well. Here’s your nugget of inspiration–Do something about those hindrances and stop letting fear or doubt or warm blankets defeat you.
How? Yeah, I’m still working on that one.
Lots of wiser people than me have figured a bunch of helpful stuff out and put it into practice like Jon Acuff or Michael Hyatt or Jeff Goins. Fair warning–they’re some of the ones who will tell you mornings are important, so night owls, check them out at your own risk.
I hope to learn something over the next month though. Maybe I’ll realize I don’t hate mornings as much as I think I do or I’ll have concrete evidence that they actually are the worst.