I was never a morning person. My whole life I had to drag myself out of bed. My mom spent twelve years shouting at me to get up so I didn’t miss the school bus.
I never made it to the first lectures at university.
I was never first at the office at Deloitte.
But one day everything changed. I started getting up at 5am. No alarm needed. Just jumping out of bed and raring to go.
Some of it was using the standard tricks for waking up early, but mostly it was the following:
- Getting married
Once married I didn’t have an incentive to go out drinking every night. That meant going to bed earlier and waking up without a hangover.
- Starting my own business
The moment I started working for myself, I found getting out of bed to be easy. Waking up early for someone else never motivated me.
Make no mistake, there are times when I can’t get out of bed simply because of fear of having to face the day ahead, but for the most part I’ve loved every day of my 13-year career as an entrepreneur.
Its easy to wake up when you love what you do.
- Having children
Kids will recalibrate your expectations for how much sleep you need. I used to be a nine-hour sleep guy, firmly believing I couldn’t operate on less.
And then I had kids. When your 2-year-old wakes you up at 430am you can either try go back to sleep, or you can roll out of bed, open your laptop and start grafting.
Seven years later I must admit the human being needs no more than six hours of sleep a night, and those six hours can be interrupted.
Waking up early gives you an edge in life. Fewer hangovers means more brainpower. The hours from 5am to 7am are quiet and your brain is fresh.
Not only are you uninterrupted, but your creativity is at peak levels.
Entrepreneurs are in a constant battle to survive and thrive. Waking up early is the easiest tool to wield in this battle.
You can either stick to your mantra of “I’m not a morning person”, or you can follow the advice of Benjamin Franklin:
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”