
Early Mornings
In 2015 I had a side job as a waiter at hotel. Well, technically I was a waiter, but in truth I was a helping hand wherever the manager needed one. Cooking, washing dishes, house keeping, serving, I did a bit of everything. Just a quick note on the side: If you ever want to experience true camaraderie, get a job as a short order cook. These people, as tough as their skin and voice may be from time to time, have a heart of pure gold. I haven´t seen this kind of tough love in any other job I did afterwards.
A frequent task I had was to do the early shift for the breakfast service at the hotel´s restaurant. This would involve serving food, cleaning tables, re-arranging them and bringing coffee to the guests, always with a smile. So, nothing too complicated in and of itself. However, don´t confuse that with easy. Try to do that for 400 guests at the same time, you´ll be on the run all the time like a gazelle.
For the breakfast shift, I had to be at the hotel at 6 in the morning. This involved me getting up at 5 am, something, I as an 11th grade student certainly was not used to, and was dreading to try out. I spent nearly every day of the summer holidays of that year getting up at 5am to be ready for work. Wake up, dress up, buckle up, and go. And I loved it. I loved it so much, that as I´m writing this the clock has just hit 6am and I´ve been awake for two hours. It´s not because I was unable to regain a “normal” sleeping schedule, but because I found waking up at this time fulfilling, that I have decided to incorporate it into my daily life. “What´s the point of that?” you might ask. Good question. Let me try and break it down to you.
Laughter Wins

One of the most influential and memorable thinkers of our new age is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. He is widely known to be THE philosopher of the enlightenment era and an advocate for reason as a source of morality. His famous Critique of Pure Reason would herald the start of the age of modern philosophy and beyond that, make him an immortal figure among the philosophers of our new age. With the course of history, there had been two streams of thoughts for philosophers up until this point: Rationalism and empiricism. Though these two may seem similar, they were torn apart by different points of views. Kant however, attempted, and most likely succeeded to merge the gap between the two streams. Why was that so important? Because roughly for the first time, a philosopher argued that our minds structure our experiences. He argued that our minds are no blank slate, but instead shape the experiences we make so that they have essential common features among every individual. A good example is our somewhat over all humans distributed notion of space and time. We managed to shape a consensus over these two values and therefore succeed in incorporating them into all our lives. Now, I by all means lack the capability or the knowledge to fully explain this genius, however what we can learn from him in reference to the title is the following:

Similar to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Gaius Julius Caesar, Augustus, Napoléon Bonaparte and Marcus Tullius Cicero, he knew and cherished the power of early mornings. He knew of the importance of having a set schedule for the early hours of the day. Every morning, Kant would wake up at 4am, drink one cup of tea, smoke a pipe and then went on to work on his studies until at 8am he would give lectures. He himself was of a rather melancholic nature, and he decided to combat that by implementing rules into his every-day life. He was, for that matter also a strong advocate of dining etiquette and conversational variety. One should change the topic of a conversation every ten minutes so he or she won´t get frustrated with it too much. And much of it all should be covered by humor and laughter. And I´m telling you, as long as there is laughter, there is a potential for good. I had a ton of early morning shifts which I am still referring to be the best working days of my young life simply because no matter how early or stressful these days were, as imbuing was a smile from a colleague or a guest at 6 in the morning.
Early morning possess a beauty and fascination of their own. But what makes them so special? Why did some of the greatest historical personalities value them so highly?
Control
Pre-dawn. 4am. It´s the time when not only the people but the whole world is still sleeping. Every time I look out of the window this early, it feels like time is standing still. There is no car driving on the road, no one walking their dog, no bird is singing. In the distance, you can hear a light breeze rushing through the branches like a marten chasing a squirrel. Total silence, and total peace, that is why I wake up so early. Besides the beautiful nature and its looks so early here in Finland, I crave the peace and silence of the early hours because there is no disturbance, no notifications, no E-mails and nobody calling you. It´s just you and your head. You and your thoughts.
When voluntarily getting up at 4am for the first times, I figured that I needed something to do with the extra time I was getting. Otherwise I would just sit and be bored and eventually go back to sleep. So what I did and what I can recommend every one of you to try to combat the boredom, is to create a morning routine for yourself, a set plan on how you´ll go by your early hours. And for me, a key part of having a successful morning was exercising, more precisely a mix between running and body weight-workouts. You want to fill your brain with fresh air and energy. Let the world know you´re up and running, ready to attack. And even if it´s just doing a few push-ups in front of your house, as long as you do something, it is okay. With time, as you get used to it, you will also figure out what is the best routine in that area for you, which brings me to the next very important part of it. Be outside, be in nature, even if it is just for a few minutes to catch a breath, but step outside of your home and recognize, breathe and embrace the silence, the darkness and the peace, even if just for a moment.
Pre-dawn is a time no one can take from you. It´s a time available to all of us. It possesses unlimited potential which is waiting for us to make use of it. Of course, the first nights and early mornings will be a nightmare. Crawling out of bed so early is just something we are not used to anymore. But once you get in the motion of becoming an early riser with all this time available to you, you won´t want to miss it.
Distractions

I wanna conclude with the following question. I know this all may sound very strange and crazy to you. “Why would you get up so early? You´ll have to go to sleep sooner, so you´re gonna have the same amount of hours. Why not stay up longer and be able to sleep in a little?”
Because during the evening, and night hours for that matter, the distractions to pass on the things you know you are supposed to do, are a lot more numerous. You could go to that party, go to meet a friend, watch Netflix or just sit in front of your phone chatting with your buddies on WhatsApp.
All of these things sound a lot more enticing than going for a run or write that essay which you have been procrastinating for the past two weeks. I know they do. There are much better things to do than that during night time.
But in the early morning, nobody will answer in the group chat, there is no party and while watching Netflix you´ll just fall back to sleep. I have noticed for myself that in the morning, I have a sense of obligation towards myself to pursue something meaningful, which makes it a lot easier to do the things I know I am supposed to do, like writing this article for example.
There is no one keeping me from it. It´s just the age-old fight of You vs. You. Nobody´s stopping you from trying it. Try it out. Just one day. Wake up at 4am and go for a run. And see how you feel. Make a schedule, execute on it and go.
And at the end of that day, you´ll be able to look into the mirror and say:”Good.”
