What I Discovered Waking Up at 3:10 Every Morning
I worked a job that I absolutely hated and it forced me to enter into what I call “The New World”. It came about from a weird mix of hope from reading a book called “The Miracle Morning” and my hate. Little did I know that there was no real turning back from this story.
Like most people I woke up every day at about 6:30 AM, and began the crazy rush to get out of the door and head to work. Before I walked out of the door I would always say to my wife, “Welp, I am off to slavery” and though I was kind of joking, deep down I felt that more and more every day!
After months of this, for the first time in my life I hated waking up. I decided it was time to make a change. I could not quit the job just yet because I had not saved up enough money. I needed more time to be able to walk away, but I also needed more time in the day. Anyone with half of a brain though knows that you can’t create more time as we all have the same 24 hours.
The only way to get stuff done and to develop myself was to wake up earlier. That 6:30 AM life was not getting it done for me. I started proudly waking up at 5 in the morning.
5 AM Is Not Early Enough
I needed more time awake before work because an hour of self-development and playing with ideas was not getting the job done.
All I could think about was getting up at 4 AM, but I had never done anything like that before. I wanted something different badly. Before you know it I was waking up at 4 AM in the morning. Before I could even adjust to this change, I started reading “The Miracle Morning” where the author talked about developing a morning routine. My previous track and field coach was a huge believer in the benefits of meditation, so I had heard some of this before, but the book has what really convinced me to make a change.
The issue was that I needed to do this hour long routine, but I was already waking up at 4 in the morning, and I needed that time to work on other projects.
I wanted it bad… so I set my alarm for 3:10 AM
Everyone always asks me why 3:10 AM and the truth is that 3:00 is just too close to 2 AM, and that is basically like the day before in my eyes. My routine would be about 50 minutes each morning so by the time I got to work; it would be around four which was when I was waking up before.
The Feeling When That Alarm Went OFF
I’ll never forget that first day when the Alarm went off, and all I could say in my head was “WTF is going on right now…” I was so disoriented and my eyes and head were burning so bad.
Then I remembered the task I had set myself too. I remembered why I was doing it and all of that weak cry baby stuff went away.
I remembered that bullshit job I was working every day.
I remembered all the times in sports when I would hear people talk about success but not be willing to do the work required for it.
I remembered and I’ll tell you what… I shot out of bed that morning!
I realized something that was very true. The key to getting up early in the morning was winning the self-talk battle I had in my head. It was that same voice that killed dreams earlier in my life because it would tell me why I can’t or why I shouldn’t. If I won that battle, if I remembered the pain, and did everything I could to get my warm feet on the cold floor, I would be alright!
Anyone can be a morning person if you just learn to get your feet on the floor.
Welcome to “The New World”
You don’t know the world that I live in because the chances are that you don’t wake up at 3 in the morning. I will tell you about it, though. It’s Paradise!
It’s quiet
It’s focused
It’s full of ideas
It is not distracting
Social media doesn’t matter
Cell phones don’t matter
Other people don’t matter
My wife is out of the way (Sorry Emily you know I love you)
The Guilt of The Old World
The old world gets jealous as hell when you leave it. It’s like it knows that you figured out how to game the system. You figured out how to beat life, and it wants you back.
My world got turned upside down because once I discovered the new world, it became an intense struggle to stay there because the old world missed me.
Sleeping in
The snooze button
Doing what I feel like instead of what I needed to do
Staying in that warm, cozy bed
Overall mental weakness
You fall back into that because you feel like you’re supposed to. You feel like that’s what everyone wants you to do. People are concerned about your health. They always ask me what time to I go to bed. The old world swallows you up.
It is not that simple, though! Once you discover 3:10 you always will miss it if you leave. If I wake up at 3, then I'm crazy. I wake up at 6, and I feel guilty. I feel like I cheat on my new world when I sleep in. I feel like I betray how good it is to me.
How could I find paradise in this chaotic world and just walk away from it? What did it ever do to me to deserve that? Your stuck between waking up early and feeling like crap for 10 minutes but living the rest of the day on fire.. or staying in bed until 5 and feeling better for 2 hours but living he rest of the day ashamed. This became my life!
No One Forgets 3:10
3:10 became so powerful in my life that I changed all of my social media handles. This world was not a joke to me. My social handles had been @ CoverGround for years. Those handles meant the world to me.
I went to the Olympics with that handle
I wrote a book with that handle
I got married with that handle.
I had to let it go though. 3:10 was who I was, and no one ever forgets it.
Anytime someone hears what time I wake up; they remember. They talk about it; they tell others about it and as a marketer, I saw how powerful that was. People always check up on me with it too, and that just further spreads the message of 3:10.
I Am Not You
I learned this the hard way butt conformity does not work for me because I simply am not you. I don’t do things that always make sense to others. Frankly… I am not you!
3:10 is the best part of my whole day! If you don’t think so, I understand because you are not me either. There is someone out there who will try this, though, and they will finally get to visit Paradise.
Two Days in One
When you wake up at 3:10, you feel as if you live two days in one day. Between 3:10 and whenever I make breakfast, I am more productive than I am for the rest of the day.
I will state this again. I can get more meaningful work done in those two hours than the rest of the day. That is the power of paradise. We live in the world fighting for our attention. At 3:10 nothing wants my time because everyone is sane and sleeping.
Confidence is in Action
I listen to people and what they have to say to me but when someone is talking to me just to doubt me and my abilities. I can shut my ears off and here is why. When you wake up at 3:10 in the morning on a daily basis and even your wife thinks you’re crazy you know you can accomplish anything.
I have some big goals, and I know that one day they will be mine. It’s not because I think I was gifted with some amazing talents because I was not.
Regarding track and field I was never that genetic freak that had coaches in awe, I had to work hard every day and do the little things.
Regarding my ability to write? Please, I worked at this year after year. I read comments that almost put me in tears of people ripping on my grammar and writing skills that I struggled with all through school. But you know what, I still wrote a book!
Regarding intelligence, the school system told me I didn’t have it because I could remember and regurgitate facts. I was NOT awesome with English, math, or science. Therefore, I was not deemed intelligent.
3:10 brought to my attention my ability to do the what it takes to get to where I want to go. When you can wake up ridiculously, early confidence becomes who you are, and it’s because you know you will do what 99% of people can’t do.
What My Mornings Look Like:
Alarm goes off
Read the Bible
Pray and Meditate
Write
Do some math problems
Learn something new
Finish the MOST Important task on my to do list
When I finish with the things listed above, I am ready for whatever the day is going to throw at me.
