 For many years, I've struggled with waking up early in the morning. I wished I could wake up by 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. but even 7 a.m. was usually a struggle for me. Everywhere I went, I read about the advantage of waking up early but whenever I tried to wake up with an alarm, I felt like a half-dead soul. So much that I would be too weak to even make use of the time I want to have. At some point, I gave up and concluded that waking up early isn't for everyone and even made a video about my ugly experience. However, one day I decided to read about how I could sleep early because for many years I've always been sleeping by 12 or 1 in the morning. After reading a few things about how I could be sleeping in the morning, I applied what I read and I started sleeping 2-3 hours earlier than before. Sleeping early for me means that I would have to sacrifice what I enjoyed at night or do them early in the evening. But since I've been willing to do that, the miracle happened. Without any force or alarm, I started waking up early in the morning. Then something occurred to me and that is, to get something, you will almost always have to give up something. For me to have my morning, I had to give up my night. As a young person, you have to understand this. To get something, you'll have to give up something. Most people in our world today don't understand this concept and that's because it's not taught in school. Over a decade ago, I read something that goes like, if you want to achieve what you've never achieved before, you have to become who you've never become before. That quote changed my life and I think it can change yours too. If you want to achieve what you've never achieved before, you have to become who you've never become before, try what you've never tried before, pursue what you've never pursued before and be the person you've never been before. 0 Before 100 A few months ago, I was discussing with one of my friends when I told him about what I think about life with this analogy. Close your mind and imagine that everyone in the world is at a 0.30. All the time, what most people do is to struggle to get to 0.100 from where they are. While what truly successful people do is to drop to 0.0 before aiming for 0.100 and what this means is that if you truly want to be greater than who you are today, you have to be lower first. Let me give you some practical examples. Let's say your dream is to be richer than you are today. Well, you might have to be poorer first. For example, you might have to discipline yourself to save money instead of spending it. You might have to discipline yourself to not buy a new phone when everyone is doing that. You might have to invest your money in things like books, even though they don't give you an instant return on your investment. All these activities will leave you with less money, so you'll be poorer and that's what it takes. I hope you understand my analogy, but if you don't, then just don't forget this. You won't get anything out of life until you're willing to give up something in return. You won't achieve great success until you're willing to make great sacrifices. You won't become rich and successful until you're willing to do what others won't do and be who they will not be. The secret pains. Everything I have been saying in this video is so simple that you'll expect everyone to understand it and so you might think that I shouldn't call it a secret. But unfortunately, most people don't understand this because it is not public knowledge and more so because making sacrifices is boring. And what makes it boring is not that it's painful but because it's done in secret. Think about this for example, if reading a book about money could be done in the public where everyone applauds you, won't you do it every day? If eating a healthy food is what everyone sees on your forehead as you walk around the city and eating junk is the same, won't you stop eating junk? If there's a way you can get all your friends to see that you're doing certain difficult things and you're sure they will applaud you, won't you be motivated to do it? The problem with discipline is that it's done in the secret. Nobody sees you and nobody praises you and because there is no instant gratification, most people are not motivated to do it. Malcolm Gladwell made the 10,000 hour rule popular and what his 10,000 hour rule says is that an average man who becomes great and successful in his field had sacrificed an average of 10,000 hours in practice and training. What this essentially means is that those great footballers, great writers, musicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, etc. you know have spent an average of 10,000 hours practicing their craft before the world knew about them. One thing about these long, boring and difficult 10,000 hours is that it's usually in the secret. In some scanty stage, in some solitude when no one is watching and that's why most people can't do it because there is nobody there to praise them or encourage them. If anything at all, what you'll get out of the world when you're trying to achieve success is discouragement which rather makes you weak instead of strong. How to be self-motivated? Again, one single thing I want to achieve with this video is to get young people to see that if you want to wake up early, you have to sleep early. If you want to gain the morning, you have to sacrifice the night. If you want to achieve anything in life, you have to give up something for it. Now to do all these, you'll need to be self-motivated because the world around you has nothing to give you in terms of encouragement, nothing. If the world has any package for you at all, it's discouragement. When I was started in the business world, almost everyone I knew either told it to my face that I can succeed or said it at my back or showed me with the non-verbal communication that I was stupid. Only a few people were the source of encouragement for me and those were my friends and that's why one of the things I recommend for anyone who wants to be self-motivated is to choose friends who are positive and dream big. If your friends are positive and ambitious, they will encourage you to make the required sacrifices. Another thing I recommend is books. You have to read books because there you'll find stories of ordinary people who have done some great things and those stories will encourage you to dare life too. The third thing I did a lot when I was struggling is to close my eyes and imagine what my future would look like. For example, I could close my eyes at night and imagine a future where I wouldn't ever have to worry about money and sometimes imagine myself among some of the most successful people in society. Since your brain doesn't know the difference between real and imagined experience, when you imagine a great future, your brain loves it. And when you wake up from such experience, your brain simply wants to get back there so it pushes you to try new kinds of stuff and endure difficulties. Here is the summary of this video. For me to have my morning, I had to sacrifice my night. If you want to be successful in life, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. If you want to achieve what you've never achieved, you have to become who you've never become.