Is Getting Up Early Really the Key to Success?

This is a question I ponder constantly.  Because I hate getting out of bed.

You all know I am a self-development whore.  I read all the books.  I listen to all the podcasts.  I follow all the gurus.

My mind is open to learning, to developing, to being better, to becoming the very best me that I can be.

And for the longest time, I believed that everything a self-development guru recommended, that I wasn’t already doing, was the reason I wasn’t yet where I wanted to be.

But let’s take a step back from that previous statement for a moment.  Read what I wrote one more time, think about what I’m saying and consider the consequences of my beliefs.

Is is humanly possible (or even a good idea) to try to do everything that everyone says you should do to be better? 

No.  The answer is no.

Let’s be fair.  All we really see from celebrities, motivational gurus, and other spectacular human beings is their awesomeness.  Yes – they tell us the stories of failure, show us pictures of the not so perfect part of their lives, and support the fact that they are just regular people like you and I.  And I believe them.

I believe them so much that I devour their ‘how to change your life to be the successful’ lists so I can be just like them.

But here’s where things broke down for me. 

Things have been busy (which is great news for a self-employed couple who enjoy eating out, travelling and spending money), and because of this busyness, I found myself stressed out about my ability to get enough time to focus on writing and posting my blog.

Which sucks, because when I stress about something, I wind up not enjoying myself and the process of creation as much as I do when I’m not stressed.  Writing is my outlet, my passion, my expression and my joy and I don’t ever want to feel stressed out about writing.

My stressing out was stressing me out, which was only making me more stressed.  You know what I’m saying.

So I did what I do.  I stalked my virtual mentors for ‘ways to make time to pursue your passion’.  As you can imagine, I found a lot of material.

While there were a lot of really good ideas, there was one recommendation that sent a stabbing pain through my heart. 

Need to find time?  Get up earlier and start your day at 5am. 

UGH!  NO!  Not that!  Seriously?  Nope.  Even weekends?  No f***ing way.

I love sleeping.  I’m very good at sleeping.  We have a mattress that screams ‘don’t leave me!’ every morning.  And, I would be remiss not to mention that sleep is the best thing you can do for your productivity.

Tactically, one might suggest that I just go to bed earlier so I am able to get up earlier.  And to that tactical suggestion I say phooey on you.  I already go to bed at 9pm!

My issue is not that I need to figure out how to get enough sleep if I get up earlier.  My issue is that I love to sleep, so the idea of getting up earlier makes me unhappy.  Sad.  Stressed.  Angry.  Pissed off. 

I just can’t reconcile dragging myself out of bed, in the pitch dark, with Rj all warm and cozy still sleeping and being unhappy, sad, stressed, angry and pissed with then sitting down to do what I love most – writing.

Obviously I would not be in a very good headspace.  And ultimately, you’d all wind up reading a series of angry blogs about sleep deprivation and I’d start to suck the happiness out of you.

Which is not my intention at all.  So we won’t go there.

When forming a new habit that will help you be more successful in your life, one must distinguish between the idea of what we think we can’t do, and what we just don’t want to do.  In my coaching and facilitating experience, usually what we perceive as not doable is really just not wantable.

I can’t make time for exercise.

I can’t eat healthy food.

I can’t go to bed earlier.

I can’t shut down my computer.

The reality is that yes, we can do these things, and with the right support, you can figure out how to make them happen.

But this is not my situation with getting up early.  I know I can get up early.  I know how to set an alarm clock.  I know that by getting up early I have just earned a few more hours in my day.  I know that getting up a few hours earlier is, in fact, very doable.

I just don’t want to.  And you know what?  I’m very OK with that.

So where does that leave me?  I need to find time to write more but I refuse to get up earlier to do it.  Motivation and philosophical stalemate.

I took to my calendar with my predicament.  And lo and behold, there was my answer.

If I looked at my day, from getting up at a reasonable hour to shutting down for cocktails, dinner and some brainless TV, I had plenty of time to do all the things I needed to get done.  All I needed to do was prioritize, say no, ask for help and use a little bit of something called self control.

PS, by the way, those strategies are also on the list of ‘how to be successful’ strategies as noted from my self-development gurus.

Applying these concepts to my calendar looked like this:

Prioritize – writing over doing busy work to-dos that don’t contribute to my moving forward

Say no – to that random call I have booked in the middle of a writing day

Ask for help – Rj is a great cook.  And, he loves The Dude Diet cookbooks!

Self Control – Social Media trolling disguised as Social Media networking

And just like that, do you know how many hours I just found in one week?  Enough to allow me to sit down at my desk, get a cup of tea, look forward to pontificating through the written word for a few hours, and get all of that done in the bright sunlight of daytime.

So no.  I don’t think I need to get up early to be successful.

There are many people in this world who believe differently and that’s OK.  You may have all of the jumping out of bed at 4:30am to start your day that you want.  In fact, I not only applaud your energy and devotion, but I envy your ability to add even more hours to your day.

For me, I will find other ways to peel my success onion.  And in that ability to be true to myself, and still get my shit done, I find my own self-development trophy.

The road of self-development has many side-streets.  It is perfectly acceptable to take a side street of your choice to make your ride more enjoyable…..as long as you continue moving in the direction of your desired destination.