What goals was I trying to accomplish by getting up early?

Take a look at this laundry list of areas that I needed to change in my life…

• I was unhappy in my marriage.
• Drank too much beer.
• Financially stressed. (no savings (not including retirement accounts) to speak of, so I needed to come up with a plan to improve my finances).
• I needed to find stocks to invest in.
• No creative outlet, I felt the need to write.
• Wasn’t running and exercising consistently.
• Needed time for myself to read.
• Find a way to give back, to help others.
• Needed to figure out what direction I wanted my life to take.
• Improve my mindset.

Too be sure…that’s a lot of crap, wouldn’t you agree? Though these look to be changes spread across different areas, there is a unifying theme here…

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

I needed to improve so many areas of my life.

My decision was that I would do one, single thing each day and that list was going to be my line of dominoes…they would start falling.

And getting up early was going to be how I would do it.

How has getting up early helped me with those goals?

Let’s take that same list above and look at each one…

I was unhappy in my marriage

Over the years, my wife and I had grown apart. Let’s face it…it can be difficult and stressful raising kids.

I have 3 boys.

We focused entirely on our boys, make sure we spent time with them, taking them to sporting events, birthday parties, hiking, fishing, vacations at the beach, homework, etc…

We made the mistake of not also taking the time to focus on each other. Also, I had changed as a person. I developed different interests…different goals in life. I needed to figure out what to do. I spent that time early in the morning thinking, working out what to do. I came to the realization that unfortunately we should very likely get a divorce.

The kids were old enough now to withstand and hold-up to the inevitable emotional roller coaster that comes with divorce. I didn’t have a plan, a timeline, or how to do it…but I knew that eventually it would have to happen – in a year, three years, five years. Taking the quiet time in the morning, before being pulled in a million directions to sort this all out was super helpful. It brought clarity.

I drank too much beer

You can’t exactly get up at 4:30 AM every morning after drinking 3-4 beers the night before, right?

If you do, you sure won’t feel 100% getting up early, that is for sure.

I had decided that I needed to cut back on my beer drinking. Since my One Thing was to wake up super early, I knew the night before that I couldn’t exactly have the same amount of beer as before. Remember, my only goal was to wake up at 4:30…that’s it! Such a simple, single change practically self-enforced my reduction in alcohol consumption. It was a side effect of getting up early.

Do I still have beer? Sure, every now and again I will have a few beers, but I can go weeks with nothing…it doesn’t cross my mind.

I never full realized how having even a few beers every night was pulling me down. I was no longer tired at the end of the day. My mind was clear, sharp. My mood improved. I’ve become way more productive.

What a beautiful thing!

I was financially stressed

Though I diligently followed the middle class path…

Getting ever higher salaries as my career progressed, setting aside money into the 401k retirement plan, saving for my children’s college costs through 529 plans…I actually had no savings.

Zero.

We were living month-to-month. Some funds were set aside for vacations, some for Christmas presents, but that’s it. If a car needed to be fixed and it cost more than $500…it was going on the credit card. The credit card with the ever-present balance that sometimes grew alarmingly high. We had been living like this for 20 years and there didn’t seem to be a solution.

There just wasn’t enough money left over to save…or was there?

Some mornings, I actually sometimes sat there, on the couch – just thinking about what to do. I finally came up with a solution to save and invest money by reducing expenses in a few areas.

And it actually worked!

I took the time to figure out a game plan, actually followed through and implemented it. Getting up early, before the day pulls you in a million directions helps to build focus, give and you time to figure things out.

I needed to find stocks to invest in

So I had figured out how to free up some money to save and invest.

Great.

Now I needed to decide where and how to put it to work.

I came up with a two step plan in those early morning hours.

• I would initially save by having money withdrawn from my paycheck and placed into my company’s employee stock purchase plan. Every quarter (4 times a year, at the end of each quarter) the accumulated money would purchase company stock at a 10% discount to the market price. Right off the bat, I was up 10% on my money (if the stock didn’t go down)! Not only that, over the next two years, the stock was up over 100%.
• At some point, my plan was to sell that stock and invest in smaller company stocks. This is where I fully developed my investment method that I describe to in my 6 part series. It took some time to come up with the blend of technical/fundamental and a few extra details to get it where it is today…all figured out while my family and the world was sleeping. I’d say it’s paid off!

I had no creative outlet, I felt the need to write

My mom was an English teacher. I’ve always been decent at writing. I’ve been told I’m good at breaking down and explaining complex concepts so that they are more easily understood.

I decided that I would come up with a blog…but what would it be about?

I had no answer.

I kept coming back to it some mornings, thinking about what I could write about. Over the months and years, my One Thing – getting up early had certainly started to improve my life, exercising more, eating better, reducing my alcohol consumption, meditating, reading self-improvement books. Perhaps I could write about that?

But then it hit me…look at what I’ve done, improving my finances!

I could write about what I’ve done to save and invest. So there you have it… MyFinancialSelfImprovement.

I found that I can write better in the mornings anyway…and that is where I have the time since I made the commitment to get up early. I work on this blog in the mornings…not every morning, but 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there.

I decided to be very open and talk about anything, including painful areas (like my divorce). I hope it helps others…

I wasn’t running and exercising consistently

I’ve been running for about 10 years. Still, I wasn’t running on a consistent basis. I decided to come up with a set of days where I would run and for how long.

• Tuesday morning – 4 miles
• Thursday morning – 4 miles
• Saturday morning- At least 10 miles (sometimes I’ve pushed this to 20+miles)
• Sunday morning – At least 10 miles

That might seem like a lot…but believe it or not, there are some people who average 50 miles a week or even 100 miles a week…consistently.

Some mornings, I have to put on a headlamp and run in the dark, before the sun rises. I’ve come to enjoy running in the dark. It’s been one of the most amazing experiences. Even on those mornings when I do run…I still get up early enough to fit in many of the other “One Things” that I’m describing in this post.

I felt like I needed time for myself to read.

I love reading. Always have – non-fiction. During the early morning hours, I’ve been reading a ton of books, mostly focused on self-improvement, investing, meditation, philosophy, trading, auto-biographies, classics.

This has truly helped change my life. I’ve become a better person as a result.

For example: I’m reading books by the Stoics (Marcus Aurelius , Epictetus, Seneca). The Stoic philosophy is not pie in the sky fluff. It is essentially a self-help philosophy that changes how you look at life and life-events

A core principle is to focusing on whether what happens in life is something that you can control or not. If you can’t control it (maybe it’s raining, someone cut you off in traffic, you got laid off from your job), there is no need to get upset.

Why add the negative emotions on top of an already “bad” event? That only makes things worse.

Take action only on the things you can control.

Getting up early and reading can change your life, no matter what you are reading. If it’s fiction and you simply love getting lost in a great book…go for it!

I needed time to think about what direction I wanted my life to take

Getting up early has helped me put everything in perspective.

When you simply wake up at the last minute, rush through your morning, rush through the day, rush through making dinner…you have no time for yourself, no time to think about where you are going. Sure, you might be getting a lot done, but have you given thought about whether you should even be doing many of these things?

I felt like I had lived much of my life climbing a ladder that was laid against a wall, reaching near the top and finding that I put the ladder on the wrong wall.

I’ve taken the time to outline the direction I want my life to take going forward. What is important to me. What my goals should be.

I have a plan now.

I’m only just getting started.

• Yes, my non-retirement savings account has grown…I’m reaching my goals there.
• Yes, I have moved on with getting a divorce…I’m reaching my goals there.
• Yes, I am now running 40-50 miles a week…I’m reaching my goals there.
• etc, etc…

I’m just getting started – I have big(ger) plans…I’ll share more going forward.

I needed to improve my mindset

There is no user manual that came with our brain…the most complicated and amazing piece of engineering ever.

In school, nobody teaches us how to use our brain Yet learning how to think is probably the most important thing we should learn how to do!

“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist”

Mark Twain

Changing your mindset will change your life.

There are a ton of mornings where I get up, make my coffee (that is priority one) and then head over to the couch and open a book. I’ve spent a ton of time reading. Reading books has helped improve my mindset…helped me to learn how to use my brain.

Physically, I’ve changed. I run a good bit every week. I’ve added muscle, lost fat,by lifting weights. I’ve kicked my alcohol habit that was slowing me down, tiring me out.

I’ve improved my finances.

But I also needed to change the way I thought. Often, I find myself worrying about the future. Regretting the past.

I needed to stay present – mindfulness, it’s called. Appreciating the very moment we are in right now

I needed to view the glass as half-full.

Many of these books are the Stoic classics, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, The Discourses by Epictetus…all from thousands of years ago. Still relevant and useful (and used) today. Because while the world around us has changed, our minds have not.

Many of these books are focused on Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which advocates immediate change, using physical and mental triggers to change your thought patterns for the better.

These books are marked up and dog-eared to hell. I come back to them again and again and you know what? It’s starting to sink in. If I drop a bowl and it shatters on the floor…I don’t get upset. When an email comes through to me at work that is a “problem”, I don’t flip out like I used to. It’s an amazing feeling…I’m not perfect and still find myself getting lost in emotions like I used to, but I catch myself.

What is your “One Thing”?

Have you started to think about what your One Thing could be?

It doesn’t have to be “Get up early” like me…it can be anything!

It might not come to you right away.

As a matter of fact, if you don’t know what your One Thing should be, perhaps you should make your One Thing a bit of time set aside each day to figure out what it should be! Perhaps it will be 15 minutes a day at a certain time.

Make some notes, figure that sh*t out.

Once you figure out your “One Thing”, you will become unstoppable! Doing the same thing each day, progressing towards a single goal, you will notice that the dominoes start falling, one after the other. It builds up momentum. It gets easier and easier. The rewards will start coming your way.

Sure there are setbacks. Twists and turns. You will have bad days, bad weeks. But if you keep coming back to your One Thing every day, change will happen. It has to.

Just make sure your One Thing is getting you pointed in the right direction to accomplish your goals and take action.

Just follow through.

I’m amazed now when I look back to where I was a little over 3 years ago. I’ve changed, my finances have changed, my life is changing…and I’m only getting started!

Glenn