Don't (just) wake up for a job

On those cold winter mornings, it is infinitely easier to hit snooze and roll over. Those early hours hold a power over the day which can set you miles apart from the crowd. Don't just wake up when you need to. Decide to wake up for yourself.

If you’re working a job and find yourself getting sucked into a rut of “hate job”, “life is bad”, this is one for you.

It was when, out of frustration with management, I left a contractual engagement and took an unintentional break from anything that looked like a job, that I had this realisation. It was an assignment I knew I could not hang around for long at and although I was ‘thinking about’ setting up a side hustle – I probably spent more time thinking about my next car or other consumer minded activity. It was a challenge to get up on time in the mornings and motivate myself to get to the office by 9am – even on a good day. Once there, there rest of my day would follow with a numb getting by reacting-to tasks given to me kind of attitude. Little did I realise this was also triggering worthiness issues and the flight or fight response in me.

Towards the end of that engagement, I had this niggling feeling that was shifting something deeper inside of me and not for the better. I was becoming a consumer and waking up to serve a purpose which did not fulfil me in any way. This permeated through to everything else I did and a sense of how I felt about that job was seeping into how I felt about everything. In a word – apathetic.

Fast forward a few months and I took on something I hadn’t done since academic life. I started waking up early. 5 am early … to read, to work out, blog. I started to make waking up about a discipline and something far greater than what the day might hold. Waking up, beating the sun up, having those few hours before I switch my WIFI back on is the quiet time I use to solidify my resolve. Waking up 5am, especially when your waking thoughts are “have I had enough sleep yet”, for me, set in motion my first victory of the day and to start the day on a victory is not the magic pill to make everything possible that day, but starts to create a shift along the lines of “okay, that wasn’t so bad. So, what else isn’t so bad?” I’ve noticed that this subtle shift can snowball into taking action on things I previously would not have and a new level of grounding.

I used to use this when studying for exams in high school and university and soon left it behind after graduating. Who needs that early morning business? That lure of professional life, dating, being out late with your friends or work colleagues lends itself to waking up late or later to recover the morning after. In many ways it is natural (a social norm) to follow this path. But then I read books by Hal Elrod, Jocko Willink, Mel Robins and heard Dwayne Johnson speak who all seem to preach their benefits early mornings. It got me thinking and hey, if I could do this aged sixteen for months at a time, why can’t I do this now? I used to wake up and study from 4am through to 7pm. Little did I realise the grounding it gave me. The focus, determination, desire to calmly fulfil the mission and go the course.

Starting my day early means I am disciplined about the night before.

Starting my day early means I am waking up for me. Because even if I am working a job, I honour that acknowledge that I need to do something for me before I do anything for anyone else. It means that whatever happens during the day, I started strong and can lay down at night knowing I’ve learnt or moved forward in some area of my life and will do the same again tomorrow.

There might be days where a late night is unavoidable.

If that can become the exception, then you too might own your day before others have even started theirs.