Complete and Utter Failure

Well I suck. My whole plan to use this blog to change a habit was a failure. For that I apologize to my readers.

The thing I have realized is that a change needs to be internalized and I quite frankly am just not that committed to getting up super early. While the concept is noble, the sacrifice of my nightlife is something that I am not willing to give up.

So... I plan to continue this quest, but to do it personally. I'll still use this blog, but I will only post things AFTER I have done them.

Read this post for my personal rule.

I did exactly what I didn't want to do!

And that was wussing out on both the experiment and the fucking blog. Talking the talk and not walking the walk is so classic with blogs. e.g. "I'm going to do XYZ" and thats the last you hear about it.

My bad. I apologize to my readers, who will likely stop reading if they think i am a chump.

So here's the deal - I like this concept a lot. Its a huge challenge. I have realized that getting up early is a whole-life commitment. Its hard to stay up til 1:00 AM, kick back some beers, and then get up at 5:30 and expect to be able to function. Since work has been very high-profile recently (I've been meeting daily on Capitol Hill talking about my job to senators, staffers, etc) it seems like a bad idea to start messing with my sleep patterns now. FUCK, now I'm making excuses. I suck.

So, I will restart. Here is my promise to my readers. For the next three days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - I will get up at 6:00 AM. No question.:) I will also blog about it every morning when I do get up. Right when I get up.

As a side note - I have been getting up significantly earlier in general because of this. Instead of 8ish, we are talking 7ish, which is a big deal. So this does have some serious benefits.

Week 2, Day 1 - Success

I got up at 5:30 today without going back to bed. Persistence my friends...

Primary goal - get up at 5:30 everyday, Monday-Friday.
Backup goal - get up at 5:30 3 out of 5 days (Mon-Fri)

While I would love to make the primary goal, and I will strive for it, I absolutely plan on making the secondary goal.

Day 5, Summary

OK so on Day 5 (Friday) I got up at 7:00. So much for last week. 5 attempts at getting up at 5:30, 0 successes. So, what does this mean? Well to me it means getting up early is something that is learned over time. Also, I don't view failure - and I failed here miserably - as a problem, but as an opportunity. Quitting is a problem, failure is not.

So, this means I'm going to repeat the whole process again. This upcoming week - I'm looking at a 5:30 awakening.

W

Day 4 - 6:00 Again

Well this is getting easier. Today I got up at 6:00. I had a big meeting to prepare for so I pretty much immediately got to work. I can't write about the meeting today, but lets just say it was once of the most important meetings of my life and that it went better than I could have expected. I'll blog on it at a later date.

So, how to I feel. Great. I feel this comes from a combination of the high from a very successful day and the energy of getting up early combined with the energy that comes from living healthy. Tonight it is going to be hard to sleep because I am just going to the gym now (8:00) but I am going to try and rock 5:30 manana.

Day 3 - Victory.. Kinda

OK so today same old. This time I got up at 5:30 and said hmmm... I don't feel as tired today. And then I laid back down for another half hour. Yes I'm a loser. But I'm getting there. Tomorrow should be doable.

I do feel good and I got a lot done this morning. I went to bed after 11:00 which translates to about 7 hours of sleep. I think I can deal with that.

Day 2 - Failure Again...

OK so today I again got up at 5:30, then changed my alarm to 6:30. Oy vay. This is harder than I thought. The thing is I get up all early and I am like - "OK, I'm still tired... I don't want to be a crabapple all day..." BUT TOMORROW WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR ONE REASON....

I am going to bed early. Its 9:30 and I'm already there. I am not sure if sleep deprivation is the way to go, maybe its just getting up earlier/going to bed earlier... Anyways, this is an experiment so I want to see before/after. But I do have a newfound respect for people that get up early.

I did seem to have a lot of energy all day today. This translated into a kick-ass workout this evening.