On Wasted Days and Limiting Beliefs

In His Name, the Most High

Are you a morning person or an evening person? The proper answer is…does it matter? (I'm a morning person, just for reference).

I have previously used my tendency as an excuse for excusing away wasted days. My belief was that I needed to rise with the larks and be productive during the early hours of the morning if the rest of the day was to be a success. If I failed in those crucial hours, then I was pretty much guaranteed to lose the day. And it makes sense, kinda. Victory begets victory. And really, there are few things like a streak of "small wins" in the early morning to set a positive tone for the rest of the day.

Which is all very well when it works, and you're able to consistently get up early and have productive days. It is, however, also extremely defeatist should you _not_ manage to get up early and put together a streak of small wins. Such a mindset allows you to then not really try for the rest of the day, which, in some way, is lying to yourself, and denying your own potential for growth.

I came to this realisation through a most unusual way (for me). Over the past 3 months, my sleeping habits have been completely destroyed. There is literally no regularity in them (which doesn't bug me per se. I'm speaking from a purely observational point of view here). There are days when I sleep early wake up early. And there are nights when I stay up till fajr, and then sleep, and wake up later in the day (I never imagined I'd be among the latter class, but in the grand scheme of things its just another reminder that I really should never say never).

On the days that I would wake up late, I would struggle to get anything done. And after a few days - it hit me. I was subscribing to a limiting belief. We have all these beliefs in our head that we don't examine and try and figure out where they came from. When you do examine them, perhaps you can tell where it came from, or what planted it, or what thought process led it to be accepted by your brain. Or you can look at it and acknowledge that the idea is wrong, and should be replaced by other, better ones.

Observe the evolution:

- I'm a morning person.

- I'm a morning person, and having a few small wins early on in the day really helps me have productive days

- I'm a morning person, and having a few small wins early on in the day really helps me have productive days. However, I lose the rest of the day if I don't achieve this.

The first statement is explicit. However, implicit in that first statement are the two that follow, only we don't know that we unconsciously accept the (limiting) implications as well, and they affect us.

Compare:

- I'm a morning person.

- I'm a morning person, and having a few small wins early on in the day really helps me have productive days

- I'm a morning person, and having a few small wins early on in the day really helps me have productive days. However, should I fail to do such, I can still be reasonably productive for the rest of the day.

- I'm a morning person, and having a few small wins early on in the day really helps me have productive days. However, should I fail to do such, I can still be reasonably productive for the rest of the day, and maybe even surprise myself.

First statement is explicit. Second is implicit, like above. Third and fourth are explicit again, because I've thought it through and decided to plant it in my head. And really, why not? Every day is a blessing that needs to be acknowledged and appreciated, and hiding behind some silly morning/evening person excuse isn't really going to do me any good.

And there we go. The main point of what I was trying to say (my apologies for taking so long). Every second, every breath is yet another opportunity to do seize, to use, to make something with, for we never really know how long we are given. A wasted day here and there may not feel like much, but cumulatively, the cost is too great to ignore.

Go do something. You already know what you have to do. Go do it.

Now.

I.

PS: I am not saying we should work ourselves to the bone. Rest is important too. I will cover that later as well. iA.