The Unbelievable Impact of Waking Up Early

📍 Location: Jungle Mountains, Costa Rica.

📖 Reading Time: ~8 minutes.

🏴 Vibecheck: This is the penultimate piece I will publish under Serious Play. End of Jan I’m evolving my writing/work/digital presence into something new. Announcement on that early next week. The writing will stay the same, but my ‘digital home’ on the internet is evolving. Nothing you need to do, just giving you a heads up. Today, I want to share the most important lifestyle change I’ve made in the last 3 years. See you next week! 🐲 EB.

I was never a morning person, ever…

Not once in my 32 years of life did I naturally wake up early, or entertain the idea of it.

Up until 2 years ago, my average wake time was 10-11am. Kind of embarrassing to admit that. It’s not like I was a night owl either. I would just sleep for 9-10 hours every night.

There was a period of deep depression in my late teens/early twenties where sleeping early and rising late began. But after a while, it was just what I did. My life wasn’t a mess, so I didn’t worry about it.

I’ve worked remotely for over a decade now. And trust me, it never changed. I was remote for 7+ years before Covid lockdowns thrust everyone into that work/life mode.

But ~2 years ago, I got a command…

Deep in the peak of 2 tabs of LSD, staring down the majestic mural we had done in our house in Buenos Aires, I was summoned. That’s all I can call it.

It was clear as day: you will rise with the sun.

It had wild archetypal solar masculinity energy behind it. King energy. Period. Non-negotiable.

Okay then! When something that clear and strong comes into my field, I listen. It’s always served me well.

The adventure that followed to shift my natural wake cycle ~5 hours earlier changed everything in my life.

That’s what I want to share. Any major change in life requires a shift in everything else. You can’t change anything in isolation, nothing exists in isolation.

It wasn’t easy, at all.

This is not some sunshine story of setting an intention and everything magically sorts itself out. It was a struggle. It took 2 separate 100-day initiations with my ritual of waking with the sun to finally cement this practice.

Let that sink in. I did a 100-day (3.5 MONTH) daily ritual of a sunrise movement practice, successfully doing it for ~92 days total, and it still didn’t have the staying power I needed.

But what had to happen, to finally make this happen, is powerful. The ripple effect of finally doing this changed so much in my life.

It has been the ‘keystone habit’ in my life. One thing that changed everything. A solid foundation for a better life.

Here’s the rough overview:

• Beginning: Set the firm intention to wake up with the sun (~5.30am) at the time.
• Obstacle 1: “…but I don’t go to bed early enough to wake up at 5.30 naturally.”
  Okay—shift bedtime goal to ~9.30pm.
• Obstacle 2: “…but I have too much energy at 9.30pm to fall asleep.”
  Okay—start to exercise daily to drain energy.
• Obstacle 3: “…but I work too much and don’t have time to add 1-2 hours for exercise, gym, shower, travel.”
  This was an excuse. But okay — build the HERO100 and the WARRIOR100 to enforce a daily workout schedule. Had a ferocious reckoning with my addiction to work and chronic busyness at this point. Minor existential breakdown. Started learning how to set boundaries with work.
• Obstacle 4: “…but I can’t just do heavy weights or hard training every day without burning out, it’s not sustainable.”
  Okay—deepened my yoga practice, started shaolin chi gong, and took morning walks to balance it out.
• Obstacle 5: “…but I’m groggy during the day and it’s affecting my work/happiness.”
  Okay—taught/forced myself to nap early afternoon.
• Obstacle 6: “…I’m tired but still wired when trying to sleep.”
  Okay, sorted out screen time habits, blue light exposure, and regulated caffeine intake only to the morning hours.
• Obstacle 7: “…I’m still dependent on a phone to wake me up.”
  Okay—shifted my entire work/life schedule (& happened to move to Costa Rica at this time, where the sun sets at 5.30 every day, and rises at 5.30 every morning) to align with circadian rhythms, sunset, and naturally be tired when it’s time to sleep.

From trying to implement just one ritual—rising naturally with the sun—this is what had to happen, and what came out of it:

• Fixed sleep schedule, normalized bedtime.
• Established daily physical exercise/movement practice.
• Hard reckoning with my work/life balance and did some important internal work.
• Built and ran 3 incredible 100-day initiations: 2x HERO100, 1x WARRIOR100 to cement the ritual and establish the practice.
• Invited in more natural movement practices with yoga, walking, and chi gong.
• Slowly but significantly improving my relationship with tech, screen time, and stimulants.
• Better focus on circadian rhythm, natural health, and light diet.
• BONUS VICTORY: With new energy and quiet, uninterrupted mornings, I get most of my major work done by 10-11 am and have the rest of the day to do what I please. I’m writing this at 7:30am, I’ve been up since 5:15, and already published another piece at Blood & Ink, done yoga, started my day, walked around.

In some ways, waking up early is overhyped.

It’s like ice baths. If you think ice baths are going to magically turn you into Elon Musk, you’ve lost the plot. I’ve had many days of waking up early and simply wasting time for a lot longer. It’s not a magic bullet.

In other ways, it’s the most important undertaking and integration work I’ve ever done in my life.

It changed everything. My health is better, I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, my work/life balance is way better, I have far more free time in my day and feel less rushed while arguably getting more done, I have beautiful mornings to myself, and get more work done before 8am than most people do all day.

This ‘positive domino effect’ applies to many other domains.

Integrating a daily exercise routine would have similar considerations, forcing you to sort out your work, sleep, diet, commitment, and discipline along the way. Same with doing your most important work task each day, taking up a new hobby, finding a partner for a relationship, you name it.

This is why ‘simple’ behaviour change is so challenging. You’re not just changing, removing, or adding one thing. You’re tweaking every little variable that goes into it.

But if your aim is true and your follow-through is consistent, beautiful things will come.

Worth considering.

Thank you, I love you.
EB. ☀️