We’ve all been there. Scrolling through Instagram at midnight, you stumble across a post from a ridiculously productive person who swears their 4:30 am wake-up call is the secret to success. You think, “Hey, maybe I could be one of those people!”
The Pact I Made with the Sunrise (and Immediately Broke)
It all started with a particularly inspiring podcast episode about maximizing your mornings. The host, a chipper woman who sounded suspiciously like a songbird, promised that waking up just one hour earlier could transform my life. I, fueled by a potent mix of optimism and caffeine (it was already 11 pm, after all), decided to become one with the sunrise. I set my alarm for 6:00 am, visualized myself jogging through a meadow bathed in golden light, and drifted off to sleep feeling like a champion.
Cut to the next morning, when my alarm blared its unholy siren song. Did I greet the day with open arms and a green smoothie? Reader, I did not. I hit the snooze button so many times I think I invented a new form of Morse code.
