While sitting at our coffee table eating dinner, my friend shared a theory he heard about why people stay up late. “Because so much of our waking life is out of our control that we try to extend the time we do have control over.”
In other words, we stay up late as an act of defiance. To rebel against the tyranny of a life we didn’t decide on. Staying up late is then, perhaps, a desperate way to exercise and claim agency over an area of our day where it is available to us.
But what if instead of staying up late to rebel, we woke up early?
Instead of staying up late to live the life we want, we could rise up earlier to live the life we want before living the life we have to live. Instead of trying to stretch the remaining hours of the day and fill them with desperate distractions, we could carve out the freshest of our daily total and dedicate it towards a deliberate direction.
Instead of watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine or The Office for the 3rd time in a row, we could finish the books we started and get to the ones that have been waiting for us on our reading lists. We could learn a new skill, figure out how to troubleshoot the technical issue on our website, or study the craftsmanships of artists we aspire to emulate.
We could defy in defense of our agency.
Or we can overthrow to exert it.
