The Success Trap
Do you need to be a morning person or early bird to have a successful business?
We have all heard it. A common theme among business books are the following:
-You need to be up at 6am or earlier!
-You have to plan out your day!
-You need to stay hydrated (well, this is actually solid advice)!
-You need to blah blah blah!
Listen, Linda. I am walking, talking proof that everything listed above is BOLOGNA. Seriously. In my six years as an entrepreneur I do not follow most of those. The truth is – I am a night owl to my core. I have tried everything to become a morning person. It hasn’t happened.
Do you want to know what is going to help you be a successful entrepreneur?
Knowing YOURSELF. Once I started letting go of all the BS that business books drilled into you about what it takes to be successful, I soared. Literally no one will be able to tell you what your path to success looks like. There are so many ways to get there and no two journeys are the same. Figure out who you are and harness THAT.
I simply cannot function between 5am-9am. No matter how early I go to bed. Knowing I am a night owl I started to pay attention to when I was most energized and productive. Most days that seemed to be between 7pm to 11pm. My kiddo has a strict 8pm bedtime so as soon as I put her down I go right to work. I get more done between 8pm and 11pm than I do (usually) all day. For me, during the work day I am constantly interrupted. Meetings, emails, you name it. When I sit down after the rest of the world goes to sleep I crank out what I need to. I find that between being interrupted less because of the late hour and having more focus I am able to be more productive and the quality of my work is better. Now for morning people that would be the exact opposite (and that’s okay!), when they wake up early they are more energized and focused to do all the things before the rest of the world wakes up and interrupts their day. Figure out where you are on the spectrum, get to know yourself…and work with it. So if you are like me and can’t peel yourself out of bed until 10am don’t worry – there is hope for you after all 😉
Going along with the previous point, it is not necessary to have your day completely planned out. I find that having a general idea of what needs to be done and prioritizing is a good place to start. From what I have seen with other entrepreneurs is that once their perfectly planned day doesn’t go according to plan they say fuck it and let the rest of their day crumble. As a business owner no two days look alike. One good indicator of a successful and skilled entrepreneur is the ability to “pivot”. What happens if a project you are working on takes a lot longer than you think it does? Or your kiddo needs to be picked up from school because they are sick? Or an employee has a family emergency? You have to be able to jump in where you are needed. Flexibility is key.
Go forth and emerge, my friends.