I’m an early riser. Please wait a minute before rushing out the door. I promise I won’t be selling the perfect morning routine here.
Everyone’s been doing that for years now. Trying to look into the lives of very successful people. Finding out when they get up and what they do in that first hour or two, or the whole day even. As always, we’ve pushed things too far. It has gotten to a point where it’s ridiculous. Every wannabe coach is giving a step-by-step guide, a tightly incremented morning schedule. The guilt factor is huge. If you aren’t doing this, then what the fuck is wrong with you? This famous/loaded/successful entrepreneur does it and look at what he’s done in a single hour?! Don’t you want to accomplish anything with your life, you lazy failure, you?
As you know, it’s always very inspiring being bullied into creativity. There is, after all, scientific evidence behind all this. You can create an empire. You only need to follow the recipe.
Rise early and swallow four raw eggs while standing in the tree pose. Then, while meditating, head out for a 10K run. Drink your post-workout shake, or was it six ounces of tepid lemon water? I can’t remember. Anyway, head over to your study and scribe away ten pages in your journal.
Let’s put it out there: this is a massive waste of paper. And also a big load of porkies. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with all these activities, trying to bang out twenty things on your to-do list before the sun has even risen is a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one.
Mornings feel magical to me. It hasn’t always been that way, though. Like many, I used to hate getting up for school, and that shit lasted a while. For the longest time, my mind associated mornings with pain, stress, and brain fog. While the first two are thankfully long gone, the third one is still going strong.
The difference is, I have learnt to work around it. Better yet, I’ve learnt to embrace it and welcome it.
That’s where the secret lies. I love the quiet of the early mornings, when most people are still asleep, and the city is still peaceful. But that’s me. Truth is, it doesn’t matter at what time you get up. It could be 3pm, for all I care. You do you, boo. The only thing that matters is what you do with these first few moments of your day. This is the gold that no one is talking about. Please stop trying to be productive and knock off all these items from your list. This is not what it’s about.
Mornings, and by that I mean those first two hours of your day, should be slow and focused. This is not the time to rush from one thing to the next. You’ll have the rest of the day to do that. This time is for you. For your own well-being. Your mental health. Your projects. To fuel your creativity. This is not the time to look at your phone. Please leave that mess in another room.
When do you think I write these articles? I’ve been posting a thousand words weekly for the last few months. Sometimes up to 2K when the topic requires, other times shorter pieces when I just want to get my point across. Every single word you’ve read from me has been written in those moments. It’s usually between 7 and 8am for me. Before my girl is awake. Before I am fully awake even. Before coffee. Yes. Because that’s the whole point. I want to let my subconscious do the work. I don’t want to overthink all of this. I leave that part for the editing process. There will be plenty of time later to edit and get analytical. And wonder what I meant to say here and isn’t there a better way to phrase that? Because there usually is.
But for now, the whole point is to let my mind roam free. I pick an idea, a topic, a question, whichever, something that’s been on the back burner lately. I open up a blank document and start typing. Very rarely do I know what I want to say when I start. I almost never have my final point established. Or the map of where to go and which ideas to explore along the way. I’m not interested in doing it like that. I have, for years: first in school, then in college. This analytical thinking, very orderly way to channel your thoughts.
Order is good, don’t get me wrong. But for this particular exercise, I wanted to let my mind roam free. Free of distractions. Only me and the clicking of the keyboard. I never thought of it that way, but it’s a pretty soothing sound. Something happens when you’re in the zone, in the “flow state”, as they call it now. Typing away your thoughts without any kind of filtering. Trying to pin them onto the page as fast as possible, before they escape. You’ve got very little time, because they only pop to the surface of your consciousness for a second.
I remember an old Hunter S. Thompson interview where he talked about this. Typing your thoughts as fast as possible, to put it all down on the page. Removing the friction created by the physical object. He’d always get the newest, fastest typewriters. “If they make one that cost twelve millions dollars, I’ll write a bad check and get it for a while.”
That’s what I want to leave you with today. It’s not about at what time you get up. It’s not about meditating, exercising, drinking, fasting, praying… It’s your life, innit? You pick your battles. Pick one thing. That one thing that you want to focus on and cannot find the time for in your agenda. Pick that one thing and do it first thing in the morning. Get up, drink some water, take a leak. Then go and do the thing. Don’t make coffee. Don’t try to wake up. Get to it. The magic is there. Your brain is free of clutter and it will not last. All you have is now. So take the opportunity.
And if it doesn’t work tomorrow morning, that’s alright. It’s not linear. Don’t get angry. Be proud of yourself for trying, and go on with your day. Tomorrow will give you another shot.
But then again, what do I know…
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