
The Morning has Gold in it’s Mouth
As a software developer, I have high aspirations and ambitions to learn and improve my craft. To master the latest and greatest, and to use that knowledge to create beautiful software. As a husband, father, and home owner, I often find that my time is whittled away by an endless mountain of tasks. Picking up messes, cooking meals, changing diapers, yard work, home repair, etc. Not to mention spending quality time with my spouse and kiddos to build meaningful relationships. At the end of the day when all is “done”, my aspiration begs me to hit the books and pound on the keyboard. But my body is tired and my brain is fried. So what often happens is me landing on the couch to waste my precious life away watching some dumb show. I end up staying up late, sleeping in and waking up only to do it all over again.
This lifestyle of running the treadmill of monotony always has me wishing, and reaching to change things up and find a way to improve. The truth that I’ve come to learn is, nothing is going to change unless I make some deliberate plans and serious personal sacrifice.
Benjamin Franklin is quoted as having said “The morning has gold in it’s mouth.” He is also known for “Early bird get’s the worm” and “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” You may have heard all of these quotes before, but have you ever taken them to heart? Acted upon them?
I decided to give it a try. Although, I knew if I didn’t structure my time, I would probably waste it with whatever came along to make demands on it. So I did some brainstorming and came up with a list of things I felt were lacking in my life that I desperately wanted to fix. My list included exercise, career development, reading scripture, and meditation. Then I decided how much time I wanted to spend doing each and I formed a schedule.
5:00 — wake up/drink water
5:05 — scripture study and prayer
5:35 — stretch/running
6:20 — shower/dress
6:40 — career development
8:15 — meditation
8:30 — plan day/start work
This is just “my” morning schedule. Yours will obviously be a reflection of whatever you feel is most important in your life. I should also be clear that this is just my “current” schedule. It has undergone many iterations and improvements as I have implemented it. For instance, my first iteration had running as the first thing after waking up. I thought the activity would get me going so I wouldn’t feel sleepy for the rest. But I found that I would invariably need to poo half way through my run. If however I drink a lot of water as soon as I get up and shift my run to after my scripture study, I usually get my poo out of the way before I go run. :-)
This is obviously not easy. This is hardcore drag your butt out of bed sacrifice. After setting your schedule, the point at which you truly make the choice is in the evening when you choose to go to bed early enough. This may be hard for you if you normally spend your evenings “unwinding” to your favorite TV shows. Make the sacrifice and let those go. Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least. You also need to have a vision of who you want to be, so strong that when you wake up tired in the early morning hours, your aspiration reaches for it and drags you out of bed.
After you have started your day with this victory over self, the rest of the day tends to follow suit.
I submit to you that early morning self development is one of the most powerful habits you can gain on your path to success, whatever it may be.
