4am Journey
It’s 5am and I’ve been awake for 1 hour.
For years, I’ve been trying to wake up early, and have failed, over and over again. I’ve been trying to do it with pure will power, and it would work for maybe a day, and then my brain would come up with some great excuse of why not to do it, but I started to read "Atomic Habits", and it’s given me the edge I’ve been looking for. A reward system! To be honest, when I think of reward systems, I think of dogs and children, but now that I think about it, there’s a reason why it works.
Not only am I tapping into my inner child again at 33 years old, but I’m relearning what seems to be my whole life. So, reward system. When I first attempted to wake up at 5am (baby steps) I set a really obnoxious alarm and put it at the end of my bed, so I would have to physically have to get up and turn it off (and I’ve done this before). But what would happen is I would just crawl like a zombie back into bed barely stunned, and wonder why I wasn't strong enough to force myself to wake up. So, this time I set up a reward system, sweet coffee.
That’s right, I put the filter in the pot, measured out the coffee grinds, had the water in the pot measured out, and all I had to do what pour the water into the coffee maker, and press go. There was a slight sense of accomplishment. I brought dairy-free creamer (which is delicious), and was pretty excited to drink this cup of coffee. And guess what, I’m up and I’m in a good mood! I just worked on some of my marketing course I purchased, and I will soon be headed to the gym. To be fair, I’d been waking up at 5am to go to the gym (sad and miserable), but I knew, if I really wanted to get in the things I wanted to do, I would have to wake up earlier. Instead of dread, self-pity, exhaustion, and all the things my brain was SCREAMING in the mornings was making me anxious and frustrated, I am now waking up in a good mood, and no, it's not just the coffee.
Now, do I support drinking coffee every morning? No, I really don’t like that it makes the teeth dark, and if you get used to drinking it, and miss a day, you get a coffee headache, but I needed a NOW solution, and it’s a sacrifice I was willing to make temporary. To get my brain the swing of things. I will replace my coffee routine with some high quality Tea in the future, but for now I’m setting a pattern. It may take 30 days or even 90 days to create this habit of waking up at 4am, but it’s something I’m willing to do. If that means drinking coffee in the mornings for 90 days, so I can do the things I love like writing, and working on my dreams, then coffee it is! I feel truly blessed to be here this morning sharing this message with you.
And I am so honored that you would go on this journey with me, where ever you are in life, and what ever time it is for you. God blessed me with tenacity, and 5 years later, after vowing to become a successful business owner, I am still on that journey. I have tried and failed many things, but that doesn’t stop me from pursuing what I am pursuing now, my dreams. I hope that, whatever your dreams are, you go out there and pursue them. In the next article, I will share my dream with you, and that is to help you, learn from my mistakes. Maybe all the books, all the videos, all the experience I had will help you move forward faster than I have, no matter what background you come from.
The truth is, you can have anything, but you can’t have everything, so choose wisely! Choose your dreams today, and follow your heart! If you loved this article please share, and till next time, remember that you too can
BEE THE CHANGE OVER TIME!