 When I was 20 years old, for a period of about six months, I woke up at 5 a.m. every single day. In this video, I'll tell you why I quit. First, let's start at the beginning. So I had been making videos consistently for about a year when I heard this advice. In order to consistently produce insightful content, you need to be consuming thought-provoking content consistently. Simply put, you can only create if you consume. If you want output, you need input. The quality of what you are consuming is obviously important, which led me straight to the bookshelf, a place that hasn't always been kind to me. I'm dyslexic and I can make a video about that if you want to hear it. But all that means in a practical way is that the letters on the page and I often did not see eye to eye. But it was different now. I needed to find a way to set apart a good amount of time towards reading. Coincidentally, this was the time where numerous videos were coming out online about people raving about their 5 a.m. wake-up routines. Let me tell you, a week of forcing myself to put my phone away and wake up at 5 a.m. has had tremendous benefits. I can't say whether I'm really a night owl or an early bird. What would you call somebody who just likes to sleep? But sacrifices had to be made in the pursuit of something better. I started waking up at 5 a.m. every day. Well, most days. Initially, the first few hours I felt like I was in a dream state. But as time went on, I got more and more accustomed to waking up that early. I would wander over to my reading chair and begin to unpack the author's mind. As time went on, I made my way through my bookshelf and my dad would often suggest books for me to read. It was a really great time. And I made my way through numerous author's collections. That was the good part. But it wasn't all paperbacks and parentheses. Throughout the day, I would find myself becoming very tired. And then as the evening came on, I would just become so exhausted. But I often stayed up till 10 or 11 at night. But in the back of my mind, I had that looming threat of the 5 a.m. wake up call. See, the discipline of actually waking up at 5 a.m. every day or most days was really good. And it actually grew me in a lot of ways. But I was longing for the flexibility that I once had. But there was fear there. I didn't want to take a step backwards. That's like the unforgivable sin. You're always supposed to be moving forward, developing yourself, progressing. This would be a total setback. You need to do more work, not less. You need to wake up earlier, not later. You need to achieve better things, and that can only happen if you have self-discipline and you do the hard things. Those were the voices that I was consumed with as I was processing making this change. You know, discipline is good, but I think at that point my productivity was becoming a major idol in my life. It was getting in the way of my relationships. It was like the slave master whose expectations could never be met. This led me to taking a look not only at my 5 a.m. wake-up time, but also other areas of my life where I was turning productivity into an idol. It was a tough process, but it was super, super necessary. What I found out was that I was neglecting spiritual disciplines in favor of just reading and things that I thought would progress me forward. But I wasn't reading my Bible. I wasn't praying. I wasn't really putting effort into the friends and community that I had because I had this idea that I had to be so focused on productivity and what that looked like. I don't want to give you the wrong idea. I really do value that time in my life where I read all those books. I'm still seeing the fruit of that to this day, but that doesn't mean that there weren't distorted motivations and values in the midst of it. For instance, during that time I would read for two hours like a non-fiction book that I was interested in, but at the same time it would be hard pressed for me to open my Bible for more than 15 minutes a day. Now that's hard for me to admit, but it just goes to show that my allegiance was often towards hustle culture and my idea of self-development and productivity rather than God and what He values most. I hope I don't need to tell you that productivity isn't a bad thing. Of course not. It is great. It's important to steward our time wisely and I'm motivated to do that. We're entering this tension of wanting to do well and be excellent in what we are achieving and progress forward, but at the same time we need to not let that become an idol and distract our eyes from Christ and what He values most. Yes, He values us pushing forward and progressing and developing and all that is great, but at the end of the day if we're neglecting scripture reading, prayer, community, relationships, then we're off base. We've turned our productivity into an idol. So I came to the conclusion that my waking up at 5 am was actually fueling this idolatry rather than a love for learning and serving God. So I stopped. Taking a step back from me was the right decision. It helped me orient my perspectives and my motivations on what they really should be. Nowadays I wake up at 6 30 am, which for some people is still pretty early, but these days my heart is in a way better place.