I wake up between 4am and 5am at least 97% of the year, whether I have work that day or not.
And I don’t wake up to an alarm blaring an obnoxious sound like there’s some emergency weather alert.
My body just wakes up naturally at that time.
I do have an alarm set for 6:20am in case of freak sleep accidents, but it also happens to signal the time I need to get to the garage gym on workout days so it has a double use.
Anyway, this natural early wake up confused me for a while but…
I finally figured out why I get up early.
It’s not so I can wake up and hustle and grind.
It’s not so I can claim my spot in the “5am club” or something like that.
It’s simply because that first couple hours of the day where I can drink black coffee and write is my place of peace, and my body won’t let me miss it.
The rest of the day is go time:
- 10+ hour work days.
- Taking care of my wife.
- Taking care of my kids.
- Taking care of my dogs.
- Taking care of my cats.
The emails, messages, and notifications start flowing in.
Neighbors start their days and turn their vehicles on, school busses do their stops, and once a week the garbage truck picks up trash bins and chucks them into the street after smh.
That early morning time is before the whole world wakes up.
And the only sound I might hear these days is one of our 3 cats chomping on some food.
My subconscious must find this time of day so valuable to me that I wake up automatically.
Of course, I use that time to send my daily email, schedule posts, build my audience, and make offers so there is some financial and vision-building motivation there too…
But that’s definitely not the main reason.
This entire write-up might not have any direct “biz value” but if there’s any message I could draw from it, is this:
The world is busier and noisier than ever, so do what you can to take a bit of time for yourself every day.
It’s not selfish to serve yourself first, because if you’re in a better place mentally you can serve others better.
Everyone wins this way.
Talk soon,
-Gabe