Recently, I’ve been watching videos of successful people and TED (great alternative for content to consume in the evening). Most relevant today is a video I watched about the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. What I might think of Amazon ethically is irrelevant to the fact the company is a success. Jeff wakes up every day at five A.M. and spends his mornings with his family, relaxing, reading and having breakfast. His first meeting isn’t until 10 A.M. His start to his day is when he has the greatest level of energy, which is why he spends it with family: the people who deserve him most. When he starts his work day at ten, he books his most critical meetings, ones that require the most thought.
My takeaway was that waking up earlier helps your mind relax before starting work for the day. As I have started to do this, I have noticed that generally the way I start a day, generally influences the mood and atmosphere I am in for the rest of the day notwithstanding any exciting influence throughout the day. I find this to be a universal truth, first impressions are critical when meeting people, starting a relationship with an employer or your life experience. Think of how people’s childhoods affect their adult life. There are people who fight to break patterns, but the upbringing of an individual is a good statistical indicator for their level of success in things like material wealth, happiness, and fitness. The other indicator being habit (nature versus nurture). And by adopting patterns the people attribute their success to, it is more likely to find success. So I will be adopting this routine as an experiment, which so far has been fruitful.
I will be waking up earlier each day, shooting for 5:30. I’ll segment my mornings with working out, reading, writing here or reaching out to the people closest to me.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” - Ben Franklin