Waking Up Early to Write Might Not Be for You

Ramit Sethi, the financial guru from I Will Teach You to Be Rich, is one of those writers I have been following for a long time.

I first learned about him from the chapter he wrote for Tim Ferriss' book "The 4-Hour Workweek" in 2009. I bought my first course from him in 2012 and have continued to buy programs from him.

He has been one of those helpful coaches in my life. His background and way of thinking about finance and the world resonate with me.

Just last week, he was making fun of all productivity gurus who argue that you need to have a morning routine.

I am not a productivity guru; I'm a storytelling dude. But I do believe people need a morning routine.

Besides being a storytelling dude, I am a corporate salesperson, a husband, a father of two girls and a furry baby, and many of the many things we all are and are expected to be.

Life gets busy.

A morning routine allows me to conquer the day.

It allows me to carve a time that is only mine. In the early hours of the morning, it is only me sitting on my couch, the light of the screen and the sound of my keyboard.

There is also something Ramit doesn't address and it happens to all gurus who found their success early in life and that is that they spend their working hours on something they absolutely love. Sometimes they don't have kids or the chaotic inconsistent schedule and obligations that come with having them.

Maybe you are like me; you discover your passion later in life, or it is not even a passion but a hobby you want to spend time doing. And you have to do all that in the context of work, family, and friends.

Creating a consistent routine allows you to spend every single day doing something you love doing.

It is almost a religious practice.

My sanctuary is mobile, but it is always in front of my computer. I power my laptop, and then I get down to praying, which for me is drafting ideas for my essays.

I don't know how sacrilegious this all sounds to you. Still, the truth is that creating a morning routine where I wake up early, have a little fun, read for my edification, ground my monkey mind, and then move on to write, is my way of staying sane even as I navigate my way through the normal ups and downs of life, society on fire, raising two toddlers, and many many more things that we all have to do.

We often complain that we don't have time.

That is probably true.

The demands we have put on us by others and ourselves are sometimes unreasonable.

But if you were to go to bed a little earlier, so you are not binge-watching or binge-scrolling, then you could wake up early to create. That fills our soul: the energy of creating something out of nothing.

Yes, you might not consume as much of what others create as you would like. But you will get to create, and nothing feels better than that.

In the end, Ramit concludes that people must take steps to create their Ideal Life.

Sometimes, that ideal life does not include a morning routine for many people and they need to be honest about it. There is no point creating habits you know you don't want to have.

For me, it does.

I love waking up early to have two hours to myself. If you believe you would like to have a morning routine, but don't know how to create one, join me tomorrow. 

If you have always wanted to carve out time for a writing practice, then join me next week on my webinar, "Wake Up & Write."

I'll be going live on Zoom on Thursday, May 8th, at 9 AM Pacific Time.

For an hour plus, I am going to cover how to develop a routine that will help you wake up early and get down to writing.

The price of the course is $27 and it includes access to the webinar, lifetime access to it once it goes up on my site "The Story Frame," a template to fill in the activities of your choosing that will fill your morning routine and a template and guide to write engaging stories consistently.

If you decide not to join, let me tell you something that will help you on your way to developing a routine on your own. Nobody wakes up to do something they don't find fun. Nobody wakes up to read stuffy books and obscure ideas.

The easiest way to wake up early is to wake up to do something fun. And not fun like, "I just find it so pleasurable to save the world and manatees."

But fun like, "I just can't stop watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta."

This webinar shows you how to have fun in the morning and bulletproof your routine by using principles of behavioral psychology to layer a rewarding morning writing practice.

To secure your spot, Venmo me at https://venmo.com/u/garbiras