10 Unexpected Benefits of Working out Daily at 5:30AM

Now that I’m one week into working with my personal trainer I’m seeing a number of unexpected benefits.

Here are 10 of them:

1. I’ve got more mental stamina at work - I can do focused work for much longer than I was able to prior to working out consistently.
2. I have much more energy to play with my daughter - I thought I was energetic and able to play well with her before. Now I can go for hours and hours, not 30 minutes.
3. I’m staying off social media more - Since the first thing I do in my day now is either make the bed, or spend 90 minutes not on my phone, focused on improving my body physically, that dopamine rush carries me through the rest of the day not needing to scroll social media.
4. My time feels “more free” - I felt constrained before, like I wasn’t able to get everything I wanted to get done, done. Now, I feel like I’ve gained literal hours in the day to do additional productive work.
5. My creative juices are overflowing - I’m able to visualize new and awesome ideas, and then articulate them in easy-to-understand ways.
6. My view of myself has completely shifted - Up until recently, I would listen to podcasts, read books and blog posts, etc. etc. all about what great people do in their day. Something that Sahil Bloom said recently was “When you wake up at 5AM to workout, and you make it a habit, you will just have no choice but to get ahead of others who aren’t doing it.” I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea. When I heard this it was one of those “Well yeah, obviously…” moments. But then I hit snooze on my phone alarm to sleep past 7:30 since my daughter was still asleep. I viewed myself in the same vein as guys like Sahil because I had built up a parasocial relationship with them. “I’m just as capable as them” was my thought. Now I’m taking action like them, and my life is meaningfully changing. I now see what it takes in order to get ahead. I’m in the process of becoming my best self, not just learning how others have done it. Same dopamine hit, different level of self-improvement.
7. I’m living life proactively now - My wife used to get on my case for “not seeing things that need to be put away.” The truth is, I chalked it up to good procrastination. I told myself, “Eh… she won’t get it. I’m a creative who focuses on the bigger picture. The dishes can get done later because I need to do creative work now.” That same compulsion to skip doing the dishes now is still with me, but the difference is now I feel unaccomplished and lazy if I don’t just do it right now. And I’m a better version of myself for it. Ironically, again, I’m finding that I have more time in my day, so these little tasks that take 30 seconds here, and 45 seconds there, that are now getting done immediately, and not right before bed, are giving me opportunities to do focused work for longer stretches. It feels great.
8. I have a different view of acceptance - I gave way too much credence to the voice in my head telling me “That’s okay, you can just let it go.” I focused far too much on what I can’t control, to the point that I stopped paying attention to what I can control. I will accept the things I cannot change, like the actions or feelings of other people, whether or not people respond to my cold emails, and more. But I will not accept what is fully in my hands, that I want to change. The year of acceptance has shifted into the year of action. I’m ready to make necessary changes in my life.
9. I have a compulsion to start other new habits - I’m rereading James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. The first time I read it passively. “Make the habits you want to build easy and rewarding, that makes sense,” I’d tell myself. And then do absolutely nothing about it. I’m now leaving my phone outside my room at night before I go to bed. The only devices I’ve got in there are my baby monitor and kindle. It feels liberating. After I wake up in the morning, I get up, brush my teeth, get a glass of water, workout, then make my cup of coffee. Coffee is my reward for working out. Another new habit I’m starting is writing. Writing is my reward to myself for doing outstanding cold outbound. James Clear’s habit stacking concept is changing my whole outlook on where and how I can make improvements.
10. I’m much more conscious of what food I put into my body - I’m no longer settling for oven pizza for dinner 2-3 nights a week. I’ve got a plan mapped out for every single day. I’m tracking my macros. I know I generally don’t eat enough carbs, I’m getting more protein than I ever have. I’m loving tracking this information. I just feel better.

It’s possible I’ll let up on these habits, this is the year of acceptance after all. If I give up, it’s fine. Life wasn’t so bad before…

Typing that out literally made me ill. Now that I feel this level of energy, I don’t ever want it to go away! Everything in life is just… feeling better. The mind and body are powerful objects. I’m going to continue to use mine wisely.