Monday, May 13, 2024
Toni Morrison began her prolific writing career while she was working full-time, freshly divorced, and while struggling to raise two young children. She states “Writing before dawn began as a necessity – and eventually I realized that I was clearer-headed, more confident and generally more intelligent in the morning.”
If you think you’re not a morning person, you’re not alone. Marcus Aurelius writes: “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
Thoreau writes: “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
Hemingway writes, “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that.”
There’s a reason why CEO’s get up at 4a.m. and get in the gym and why coaches get to the office before dawn. There’s a reason why people have praised the glory of the wee morning hours. There’s a reason why God said, “Let there be light,” before the light came into being.
By the dawn’s early light, you are at your best, even if you think you’re not a morning person. I’m encouraging you to take advantage of the early morning hours. Greatness is born in the dawn’s early light. Nobody has done much of anything lounging in bed and feeling guilty for it.