I like to think I’ve been successful in my life. And in looking back, I think the greatest periods of success that I have enjoyed – whether working for others or working for myself – is when I was true to myself in terms of sleep. Let me explain:
There were three jobs in my life that I really thrived at (and these were the jobs I left on good terms, too). The three jobs were retail manager/buyer (twice), and computer tech support. I loved those jobs, did excellent work, and was loved in return. Every other job I had I either got fired, or quit in a huff. And I didn’t like any of those lesser jobs either.
I’ve also owned three businesses in my life – a direct mail advertising business in the 90’s (failed), a computer consulting business in the 90’s (failed), and what I do now (success – going on a decade of success, in fact.) And not only did I fail at the first two, I really didn’t enjoy them all that much either.
Now, here’s the funny thing: I’ve noticed a direct correlation in all of my successes. It’s sleep. Or, more precisely, the ability to work late and sleep in.
No two ways around it – I’m an evening/night guy. I am at my best in the afternoon/evening. The retail jobs I had, since I was the boss, I worked the afternoon-close shift. Tech support was 4-midnight.
My first two businesses were straight “in-person” B2B, meaning I had to rise early. I failed. But my current business is at home, through the Internet – I work late and sleep in.
I noticed in my last two years of business, I changed a little – I wasn’t enjoying it quite as much. Wanna know why? Because I was making an effort to “get up earlier”. Why, I don’t know – maybe I felt it was more “business-like” to be up at 8am. No coincidence that I started having trouble sleeping two years ago.
It took me until right now (well, yesterday, really) to make this connection. Because two weeks ago, I started going to bed when I felt like it (2-3am usually) and sleeping until I naturally woke up (9-10am). In other words, I stopped fighting my body – ever since I was a kid, I was like this. I’m just naturally a Night Owl. And I can’t be successful or truly happy unless I remain true to that. I realize that now.
It’s only been two weeks, but I’m ecstatic about this – I feel one million times better. And I have zero trouble sleeping (and need no help), because I don’t give a @#$% what time I wake up.
To me, this is one of the keys to success – be true to yourself. I realize it’s not always 100% practical (moms everywhere will disagree with me, and even I sometimes have to schedule something early), but going against your nature is going to be more of a hindrance than a help.
I have similar sleep patterns to you and I work better at night as well.
Here’s a mixed blessing to working well at night:
I’ll be in bed, getting ready to sleep and have a TERRIFIC idea about the novel I’m writing (or righting when editing).
Since I can’t turn on the light, to write on a pad, and wake up my honey… I have to walk over to the computer, and type away. Sometimes I’m astounded at how good of an idea I had when I read it in the morning.
So yeah, grumpy at having to get up out of bed but at the same time… getting great ideas is awesome.
This has really got me to thinking about bunch of possibilities. Thanks for that.