Waking up at 5 am is not early for a lot of people, but it is very early for someone who used to love sleeping in as long as possible. On a given day I typically would not have clients before 10. Business was "ok." I wanted my business to grow, and I had ideas on how to do that, but I procrastinated on implementing my plans. And then one day, all of a sudden my security blanket was ripped from under me. In just just 8 weeks my business is doing better than it ever has. I am also working harder than I have ever worked (and enjoying it). I wake up at 5 am everyday, even if I don't see my first client until 6pm. When out in public I talk to strangers about their marriage. I write every day now. I do a lot of things that would normally be out of my comfort zone when it comes to marketing. What happened? An Emergency happened.
Michael Hyatt says that successful people do not sleep late but instead they wake up EARLY in the morning. Mr. Hyatt is successful himself and he says that a key ingredient to success is starting your day early. If you are like me, you may say, "But I'm not a morning person and I don't want to wake up at 4am...my brain does not even turn on that early." But what if you were awakened at 4 am by a fire alarm and a house full of smoke, what would you do? I can tell you what you will NOT do...you will not stay in bed because your brain isn't ready to turn on. On the contrary, you would be up and running like a nose bleed. Why? Because it is an Emergency.
When there is no Emergency...when there is no pressure, you will live life casually and sabotage your own success. You will procrastinate, make excuses and simply not give your all because there is no Emergency pushing you past your comfort zone.
When there's an Emergency there is not a lot of time for debate and contemplation. It's a time to focus and take action. Focus is important because without it your actions will be chaotic. Emergency creates urgency. You may already know that your situation is critical. There is a difference between Critical and Urgent. Critical means it is very important and must be done at some point, but urgent means do it now.
The urgency of the Emergency will force you to Emerge from mediocrity. The problem is that you may not be able to wait until life creates an Emergency for you because it may never do that. You have to have an Emergency mindset. Maybe your marriage is not thriving because you see it as critical but not urgent. Maybe that is why you haven't went back to school, started your business, drawn closer to God, been consistent in your quest for healthy living...maybe you don't have an Emergency mindset. I encourage you to develop an Emergency mindset.
Why is it important for you to get this? Because Life doesn't stop and as soon as you take your foot off of the gas you immediately fall behind. Immediately! If you live life casually, life will casually pass you by. How sad to be alive and never live. Les Brown says what if on your death bed you see gathered around you all of your hopes and dreams...everything you never pushed hard enough to accomplish, and they look at you and say 'You didn't pursue us with passion, and now we have to die with you and people will never know who we were. God gave us to you and you did nothing with us.' Don't let your dreams die with you. Live a life of passion and exceptional service and your dreams will live long after you are gone. That's called Legacy. But the only way to do that is to have an Emergency mindset.
