The 25th Hour Between 11 & 7
- The meeting had to be postponed…
- The break you intended to spend with your colleagues happened to be a lot shorter than expected…
- That free evening got erased by a 1min call from your boss…
- That planned dinner with your spouse got canceled just like your flight back home…
- …
Seems familiar? It is to me!
Here is a strange but certain truth…
The only time that you are really in control of, is the time between 11pm and 7am.
Why:
Everybody else might be asleep and assumes you to be as well.
Therefore, this is the only chance you can catch up with whatever is important to you personally.
- You want to run or work out more - run late at night or before sunrise!
- You want to work on yourself (reading, writing, listening to an audio book, etc.) - don’t count on the lunch break!
- You want to build a side business or study - if you are anything like me business #1 will certainly prevent you from doing so.
- You want to meditate, plan, structure, organize - avoid the trouble of the day.
In a nutshell:
If you want to go the personal extra mile - become a night shifter or early bird!
Not convinced yet?
Maybe you need a few role models…
A former colleague of mine has the following daily routine:
getting up at 5 am, going on a 15- to 17-kilometer run. Coming back, waking up his daughter, bringing her to school, heading to the office, executing a demanding 80 hour plus job, heading home, family time, bed, … alarm clock.
He is a proud father, the fittest guy on the floor and among the highest paid ones…
A mentor of mine has 4 daughters between 3 and 13 years old… and about a hundred people working for him: he made his Ph.D. while working full time and handling his family. How? Coming home from work, spending time with wife and daughters, being back at the desk (home office) after they all went to bed (around 11.30 pm) for some mails and presentations, switching subject about an hour later and working on his Ph. D. until exactly 4 am. Then going to bed and being back in the office at around 10.30 am. Though for sure, yet possible.
Or ask this guy: Dwayne The Rock Johnson - 4.am, some coffee then cardio, followed by his first meal of the day, then hitting the weights (clangin’ and bangin’ in Rock-speak) before heading for shootings, meetings and press conferences - no matter where he is on the globe… Reference example: https://www.instagram.com/p/BRtx17iFvfJ/?taken-by=therock
All of them could reorganize their routines, trying to fit in all relevant parts into the day using a much more relaxed schedule - but they don’t. For a reason.
They seem to know that the day gets longer as soon as you shift things into that 11 - 7 window.
Join them and try to get YOUR time in - somewhere in between dusk and dawn.
May your alarm ring loud and clear,
may your nights be bright,
and your mornings as productive as early!
Your m
Stroke by Stroke
I am struggling at the moment - I am struggling with a personal challenge frightening due to its sheer size and importance. It means a great chance and a huge test to me…
But today I listed to Roz Savage TED Talk as she explained why and how she rowed over oceans. A perfectly normal looking woman that successfully rowed all the way across over three oceans - ALL BY HERSELF!
She and her story reminded me of what …
- we humans are capable of.
- other people are accomplishing and how big their challenges are.
- it really means to leave your own comfort zone.
- endurance and perseverance truly mean.
WHO am I to whine when others fight entire oceans in a nutshell with nothing but their will!?
And - a bit more philosophical: doesn’t the sport of ocean rowing have a lot in common with life in general?
- Nothing moves if you don’t put yourself behind it.
- You have to accept the conditions and circumstances (wind, sea, weather, waves, …) and all you can do is staying on course and working hard.
- As you are going backward you don’t know exactly what lies ahead of you. You have to plan in advance, decide and trust your decision.
- It is not a few hard strokes that move the boat over distance - the sum of thousands of strokes, countless course corrections, and the constant inner dialogue do.
- Out there in the middle of the big blue, the scenery never changes. You might be rowing hard for days without out knowing if you move at all or if you get closer to your goal… but if you set a good course, believe and persist you eventually get there.
Your m - going #strokebystroke
(Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook)
What this means - my 2 cents:
- It is NO straight path.
At some points, it might be necessary to take a step down, change the approach or switch sides to come closer to your the top. - Stretching, pulling and pushing yourself upwards, making weird moves, getting tired, asking for help or advice and always being afraid of falling hard - all of that is normal and naturally belongs to what we call CAREER.
- Hang in there, give it all you got and find your own way. You’ll be automatically ahead - as most of your competitors/colleagues believe it to be not only a ladder but a staircase!
Best of luck for your climb!
Your m
Have a “jawsome” Monday!
m
One “Day”
One day I’ll find out why… my time is the night.
I’ll find out
… why 2 am still feels like evening while 2 pm seems to be morning to me…
… why I am awake in the middle of the night but tired whenever the alarm rings.
… why 2 hours of sleep seemed perfectly fine before I went to bed - and then reveals to be close to torture the next day…
… why the tv program is horrible at my prime time.
… why I cannot perceive that most of those hours won during my all-nighters are nothing but borrowed time´as I need to catch up with sleep now.
… why a few hours in the dark are more productive than double the amount during opening hours.
One day - or more likely one night I’ll find out…
Until I find an answer to all this - I simply stick to my nature and keep grinding in the dark.
Your m - to all the other owls out there.
no doubt: work/hustle/grind/… is THE foundation of success. But realistically you cannot grind grind grind and nothing but grind.
Unless you are robot you are going to need a few hours of sleep and breaks to eat and some pauses to think in order to come up with new solutions… You need time - for example to react to things coming your way - and so do all your employees, customers and partners…
It is fairly simple:
Work is key, but as with music, it is the breaks and pauses that that turn all the busyness into business.
Your m - using those pauses to fill this blog
the beginning is knowledge & experience
- or, briefly: WORK.”
Henry Ford, yes THE Ford…
… the oldest news on the planet… I know.
But still TRUE. And the foundation of every form of success.
Are you willing to invest, ready to pay your dues, gain experience, make mistakes, grind, hustle, work your butt of…?
The equation:
sweat, long hours, short nights, missed picnics, frustration, misery, pain and disappointment - for the chance of something worth all that.
Keep working.
The More - The More
How much a certain project means to you can be easily measured:
By the number of midnights, sunrises and Sunday afternoons you invested.
How?
If you still can count of them you are
- not really into it.
- not following through.
- not all in.
Period.
My personal take on this.
Your m
Both of my parents. Way too hard. For way too long.
NO option.
mIf You Cannot Start: Sprint
An idea I caught up reading an article about procrastination:
We all know this and it happens to me all the time: you find yourself facing a big task or long-term project. Something that will take “forever” to complete. And you cannot manage to start. You postpone it over and over - or in other words: you procrastinate on it.
But there is a great way to attack especially those tasks you know you cannot complete in one session or even right away:
Make a deal with yourself to sprint for only 10 or 15 mins before putting the stuff aside - no matter how far you’ve come.
You’ll notice right away that it becomes a lot easier to kick things off. And whatever you will accomplish within that time span is a lot more than what you would have had if you had just shied away again.
You made it out of the stance and passed the first couple of meters!
Making that deal and sprinting somewhere is how you make a small step towards your end goal.
I love the idea - and by the way: this is how a lot of my posts on this blog are being created.
Your m
Not what you say you will.”
the voice in your head
Let’s face it: you are NOT measured by your promises, resolutions, ideas or intentions - and you’ll NEVER be.
Only actions, results and made decisions last.
- Take a look at your resume - what do you see?
- Ask a close friend what your personal brand is all about.
- Listen closely to your boss during your next review.
- Check your bank account and ask yourself why it says what it does.
- Think about your greatest success and your most painful defeat.
- …
All actions, no talk.
I do not want to express that you are nothing but numbers, facts, and figures. But if you like it or not it is a matter of fact:
What you DO ist the only thing that will ever matter.
Therefore: ACTION.
Travel, work, fight, take over, leave, ask, step and speak up… don’t just think and talk about it. Do something.
Your m
Not exclusively of course - but definitely a part of the story.
m
If you read this blog once in a while you already know a bit about how I see work.
I deeply believe that work is more than a just a way to earn money - although making money is relevant to me.
I believe that if you invest, work hard, contribute, deliver, sacrifice, hustle, … you WILL be rewarded in one way or the other at some point.
But it is your turn first, that is how this thing works.
Your m