Work Comes Before Play!

When it comes to principles I want to instill in my children one of my top five has to be that you work before you play. Turn on the TV to watch your favorite player, actor, or musician and you will see them in all their glory. You hear about the billionaires and millionaires and see their lavish lifestyles, you want that. And you should! You want to be a professional athlete or own your own business. You want to be a high paying professional like a doctor or lawyer. Obviously, everyone wants to have nice things, but are you willing to put in the work? More importantly, when you will you put in the work? My answer is, BE FIRST!

Who doesn’t want to be able to buy nice things  or travel without remorse? No one wants to worry about how buying new shoes or going to a concert will impact school shopping for their kids or sports fees. Wondering if they can budget or make the money back in time.  What about time? No one wants to decide if they should  go out to the surprise dinner with friends or finish the project for work or school. Do I really have time? The goal is to live a life where money and time are not always an issue.

However, behind the glory we see advertised there is always a story. Before there was shine, there was a grind. I want my children to be able buy what they want and do what they want to do. If they develop good habits now of working first, the benefits they will reap will be greater and come sooner. Maybe they will be able to buy their first home at 23 instead of 32 like I did. Perhaps all of their college will be paid for instead of taking out student loans like I did. Maybe they will go on official college visits instead of the unofficial like me because they put in the work to show they deserve it.

I’m not sure what time you’re reading this but it’s 7:21am on a Saturday morning for me. That’s not that too early, but I’ve actually been up since about 3:30am. The kids are getting up now so I will have to take a break here soon. Typically, I like to get to some work done  before they wake up; at least set my agenda for the day. My recommendation is you try to do that as much as possible. Today  I’ve already been to the gym, prayed, gassed the car up, had my shakes, did my quiet time, and planned my day out. Invest in yourself or complete a task on your to do list before the rest of your house wakes in the morning, unless of course you are doing it together. The early bird gets the worm not only because he is the first one up but because he is uninterrupted.

Folks, life happens. My absolute favorite motivational speaker is Eric Thomas. Eric wakes up at 3:00am every day. I love ET! ET inspires and motivates me constantly. But I can’t do 3:00am, sorry ET but that ain’t for me. I can do 4:00am though. And every time I lock into that consistency of the 4:00am grind my quality of life is better. The reason is because I front load  my day with what is most important. When I focus on myself mentally, physically, and spiritually each day I am in a better state to take on the rest of the day. Being able to complete tasks without interruptions allows me to increase my effectiveness and efficiency.

To be honest, that is why I wake up so early. I am typically easily distracted and lie about how great I am at multitasking. In my opinion multitasking is myth. We can do a lot of things at once but we can’t do a lot of things great at once. Between 4:00am – 6:00am there aren’t many other people up so even when I hop on social media there is no one to talk to. It’s better to narrow your focus and pay attention to the details of each task individually. I produce higher quality content when I do so. Actually, it’s helped a great deal lately with my editing as I take things I learn on one project and incorporate it into the next one at the beginning. Doing so saves me a ton of time.

For my children, they have always had to read or do some type of school work before they play or go outside. Even during the summer, when they wake up in the mornings I buy books for them to work out of and they do that before playing any video games or playing with their friends. During the school year, when there is no homework then they read before going outside. Sometimes when they have friends over I’ll make their friends do it with them. They may or may not prefer staying at their friend’s house because of it lol.

However, my intentions are good and the message is received. You will work before you play! For me, as an adult the motto is “Work before work.” As adults we often want to change our be more successful but we all have jobs and work for other people. In order to reach your personal goals instead achieving the company goals you have to put your personal work first. Don’t get caught in the daily routines and surprises of life and never reach your full potential. If you schedule personal time while everyone else is available somebody is going to interrupt you. Get to it while they are sleeping and while you have the energy. Amazingly, the days I let myself sleep in until 6 or 7  it takes me longer to feel awake than at 4am.

By the way, although I completed most of this article Saturday morning. The day and the interruptions got the best of me. As a result, I didn’t get to complete it until today, Tuesday morning.  The kids are in bed and I just got back home from the gym. I have a few more things to do before I get to work today. Hope you get all your to do boxes checked off today. I believe you can! Until next time, B U!