I Lost My 5AM Streak :(
3 days back, I woke up anxious, looked at my phone and it was already 6.30am. Initially, I got really angry, how did I screw this up? It would have been my 15th day, a milestone for this one month challenge. I felt like I’ve lost some credibility to my own habits and felt very disappointed with myself. It took me awhile to rationalize but I did. I told my accountability partner about it and he told me to reflect on it by doing a short writeup. “How you are feeling now, pen it all down. You will not be in the same situation again if you decide to learn from this one.” He reminded me of a quote:
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” — Nelson Mandela
As I wrote, I gain clarity.
Firstly, I slept very late that night and similarly for the past 3 nights before that. I was getting around 5 hours or less of sleep a night and that is not sustainable. I was so tired that I forgot to set the alarm that night :(
Wind Down To Rest
This is logical but a good self-reminder: to wake up at 5, you will have to sleep by 11pm to get at least 6 hours of sleep. And with how I’ve been planning my time, even though I do set to sleep at 11.30pm, my schedule did not include time to wind down, to ease into sleep. It’s literally an activity and right after, sleep. I forgot to account for social interactions either so when I start talking to my friends, I end up dragging it past 11.30pm and I end up sleeping around 12am.
- fix the number of hours of sleep and a specific time to get to bed
- Give yourself at least 30 minutes on the schedule to wind down before the stipulated sleep time.
Accountability Partnership
The most important thing I learnt was to keep my accountability partner updated on my situation. That night before I slept, I already knew I was near burnout and with very little hours of sleep, I was bound to oversleep. I forgot that having an accountability partner means to keep each other in check, preventing each other from making mistakes like accumulating sleep debt at the expense of productivity.
Sometimes on the journey towards your goals, you can find yourself focusing too much on the day to day tasks and being tempted to rest more. This is the reason why I chose to sleep less and why we choose to procrastinate.
We always need to adopt a long term perspective for every decision we make to ensure that it is the right one and having someone with you on this journey towards your goals can help you to refocus when you are bogged down by the day to day stress and temptations.
I have to emphasize on the importance of accountability partnerships, having a brother to go through hell with. It is always better done with someone checking your six, ensuring your safety and you doing the same for your partner. This way, we are less likely to screw up.
Rise By Five
My brother from the UK, Sam who runs the instagram account RiseByFive realized that there was a restart to my day count and checked in on me and got me to reflect too, making sure that I was ok. It is great to be in a community of like-minded, driven brothers and sisters who are all waking up early to achieve more with their time and to make the most out of their lives. :D
I just restarted my 5am routine and I’m on my third day. With the lessons I’ve learnt from my first hiccup, I will do better. Most importantly,
Why do we fall?
