7-June-2020
Many of you are learners of success and probably have looked into the habits of successful people like CEOs, billionaires and multi-millionaires. No doubt you’ll have come across articles written on people who wake up early (like 4/4:30 am) and then achieved greatness. Whilst it obviously worked for those people, there are other considerations to consider.
You see, yes there are plenty of top successful people who are early birds – the early risers. Conversely, there are also plenty of others who are night owls and are equally as successful. In another words, successful people are made up of folks who either woke up early or woke up late. That said, there appears to be more early birds than night owls in the list, i.e. it’s not 50/50 split. So, it is really hard to make meaningful inference from the statistics as there might be more early birds than night owls in the general population anyway and so the ratio of successful people simply follows that trend, who knows.
Anyway, if you are of the belief that to be successful, you need to wake up early, then you have missed the point a little. You see, it’s not about the time you wake up, it is about how committed you are. Most successful people who got to where they are because they are committed. It means they either commit themselves to wake up early to get stuff done or work well into the night. It’s about saying, I want to be successful and I’m going to commit to the idea and put in the effort, day or night & day after day, year after year, until the goal is reached. Now ask yourself, are you as committed? Have you put in the effort?
Now there is some science and rationale to suggest that waking up early is beneficial. As your mind is fresh in the morning and there are less distractions at 4 am. So yes, you can get a lot done early in the morning, which in itself is a plus and it frees you the rest of the day to do other things. That said, if you are equally as focused, you can do whatever you need to do at any other hours of the day and probably get the same results.
The point is, the people who wake up early has the mental discipline and this act is merely a display of their determination, their commitment. After all, to wake up early continuously, when it’s cold and dark, takes a fair dose of will power. Additionally, it probably means you had to sleep earlier than normal too, like giving up night time TV or other so call relaxing activities like drinking alcohol and partying into the wee hours. That again, is another sign of discipline and commitment, which if we are truthful is something most of us lacks.
Sure, most of us live busy lives and when we get to the end of the day, we want to relax and wind down. Often, we over indulge and keep going with our nightly pleasures, like watching another episode of streaming, which in turns make us sleep even later than required and therefore waking up late or waking up tired. Yes, we would have to cut short our sleep to be able to get to work on time but otherwise we showed no other commitment. In short, we’ve sabotaged ourselves by being tired, which makes our day less productive. With energy level near zero by the end of the day, we feel lethargic and so had to sit down some more and unwind. It’s a vicious cycle and no wonder we never actually get anything done.
The point of all this is, if you want to be the next billionaire, you need to start with commitment and follow through. That means at least setting up yourself right and give up on being comfortable and lazy. The question you have to ask yourself is, do you want your goal enough and sadly for most, including Yours Truly, as demonstrated by the lack of actions, is not really. Sad to point out the obvious – sitting on the couch watching TV isn’t going make you the next billionaire, even if you did wish very very hard.
Now that you have understood your point of failure, you can now move forward because you also have the cure – that is to commit and do. The success of your goals is ultimately up to you and you need to be honest with yourself to say yay or nay. Going to sleep early and waking up early is just a lifestyle hack which allows you to do stuff, to move forward in life. The core of the argument is not about the tools but about your mindset, about how truly committed you are and that’s the determination you need to show to start succeeding.
For more info on commitment see this great article published by Ladders. https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/want-success-then-take-extreme-ownership-of-this-1-thing
Struggle Perpetual 