Does the early bird always, “get the worm”?
For the last six months, I have been on a quest…a quest to change my disposition of being a night-owl.
Despite my aspirations of becoming a “morning person,” my natural tendency has been to stay up late. I seem to get the best work done late at night. When I started my first Web/SEO firm, it was nothing to stay up until 2a.m. working on projects. My daily schedule most often consisted of selling during normal business hours and executing the projects after dinner time until the wee hours of the morning. Then, I’d awake about 7:30a.m. the next day and start all over!
Driven by the old adage that, “the early bird gets the worm,” I have always wanted to start my day earlier. However, it’s difficult to roll out of bed at 5a.m. or 6a.m. when you just went to bed a few hours earlier. As I have gotten older, the problem has compounded. My body seems to require more and more sleep! The result was a long-time goal that was becoming even harder to achieve.
Six months ago, I made the decision. I wanted to become a morning person and ALSO get 8 hours of sleep each night. Soooo, I began to force myself to bed every night at 11:00p.m. I figured I would awake the next morning at 7:00a.m. and I would be well on my way to making the desired change. Wow…this step one has been rough.
Do you know how difficult it is to go to bed 2-3 hours earlier than normal?
Because my body is trained to function on a certain schedule, this new sleep pattern has really changed things for me. In the past, I never woke up in the middle of the night…why would I…my body was starved for the Zzzz’s! Now, it is common that I awake at 5a.m. for a restroom break or no other good reason and getting back to sleep is quite a challenge. Patterns have gone out the window and every night is a gamble…
Interestingly, I have been thinking about what is motivating me to make the change throughout this project. “The early bird gets the worm.” You know, I think I disagree!
That thought implies that the, “later bird” misses the opportunity…or loses out all together! Wait…I was the later bird for many years…and I don’t believe I lost out.
As a result, I redeveloped that adage to better apply to those of us night owls who work really hard to accomplish our goals each day/week/year. So, here it is…
“The bird who fights to the death gets the worm!”
Isn’t it all about effort and effectiveness?
Could the later bird indeed give more effort and be more effective???
YES!!!
As a small town guy, (grew up in Donovan, IL population 350 people), I spent a lot of time on farms and around workaholics. We were raised with traditional values… work hard and earn your way through life. Sure, there were some early mornings! But, it was more about work ethic than the hours you spent applying that work ethic.
I guess the moral of the story for me is that everyone has a different daily schedule. Regardless of that schedule, if you give a lot of effort and be really effective, you’ll earn plenty of “worms”. Find what schedule works for you and go at it with a reckless abandon!
Keep in mind that I say all of this while still working on one day becoming that “morning person”. I’m most curious to see if it can be done…making the change. Plus, there’s something about sipping coffee from the sunroom of my house while the sun is coming up that I’d love to get in the habit of seeing! I’d love to make breakfast for my growing family each morning, too…that would be incredibly rewarding!
Have a great Tuesday and remember to give a lot of effort today… (oh yeah, and be effective too!)
– Erik Barnlund
