I Dream of Opportunity
Last night I dreamed I was a high school football quarterback. I was the starter, but I wasn't sharp. I ran for a touchdown early in the game, but I felt slow and I barely cleared the two yards necessary to cross the plane.
While my team played defense, I didn't stand with my team. Instead I left the sideline, meandered around, stared at my phone and started chatting with people in the stands. At one point I wandered into the tunnel and found a box odd-looking footballs. These kept my attention for a minute. This one's jumbo. This one's flat like a saddle.
After enough poking around, I realized "Woah! I need to get back in the game!" I ran out onto the field, but the game was going withiout me. The teams had moved on while I wandered. I sprinted across the field, trying to make it to my team on the far sideline. But I was running extremely slowly. My feet were heavy and plodding. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pull myself across to the other side any faster. I hated how slowly I ran. I despised myself for not moving faster.
Then suddenly, about 2/3 of the way through my slow-motion trek, my heart sank. I was running toward the wrong sideline. All this pain and struggle trying to drag my sorry, slow self across the field, and all that time I was running toward the team in black. My team, in burgundy, was behind me the whole time. My painful slog was moving me further and further away from where I wanted to be.
I woke up from this dream feeling out-of-shape and upset with myself for running the wrong way. Something was off. Why hadn't I been on the sidelines with my teammates? What was I doing messing around with my phone and poking around the stands? Why did I run to the wrong side? Why had I squandered such a priceless opportunity? The game had moved on while I messed around. My chance to play quarterback might never come again.
My lesson? Playing starting quarterback represents opportunity: the opportunity I have in front of myself right now, to build Write of Passage. To create Liftoff. Leading a team, building a company. I scored a touchdown early in my dream, yes, but it wasn't my best effort. I didn't run fast. In fact, I barely crossed the goal line. I wasn't living up to my full potential.
My time spent messing around in the tunnels and scrolling my phone in the stands are the daily distractions that drip away life: Twitter, YouTube, even goddamn LinkedIn. Running slow-as-molasses represents my inability to sit down and focus when it counts. It represents my tendency to stay up late, feel tired, and get distracted. Running toward the wrong sideline is me chasing the wrong goals, while the right thing was behind me the whole time.
I woke up from this dream galvanized to install non-negotiables in my life that build character, get me in shape, and eliminate distractions:
Phone and my computer out of my apartment by 9:30pm
30 minutes of cardio every day, for character
Drink 1,000 mL of water every day when I wake up
Clean my apartment every Sunday
No food delivery, ever (bad for the soul)
No YouTube
Trying to work at night is like dead money. Like burning cash, once you've spent it, it's dead time. Working at night doesn't help your future self. Replying to Slacks or checking emails after dinner doesn't contribute to any greater system that serves my future self.
Sleeping at 9:30pm (screens off and away) allows me to become my future self. I wake up the next morning ready to attack my day. I get quality sleep which helps me focus all day. I'm way more likely to exercise and eat healthy if I've slept well. The system reinforces itself. Serves itself. Builds character.
High performance is a checklist. What's my 9:30pm checklist? See above.
One simple decision, leaving my computer at work, produced my earliest wake-up of the year. That led to a productive morning where I wrote nearly 1,000 words. That's not a coincidence. You are your choices, so choose well. Choose to wind down at 9:30pm and wake up early. It just might change your life.