26th August, 2023
I target getting up at 5.30 every morning and have an alarm on my phone to wake me up.
The shrill sound of the wake-up alarm is the loudest noise of the day, But invariably, when the alarm rings, I hit the Snooze button, sometimes once, sometimes twice and I finally get up around 6.00 am.
Research shows that those thirty minutes are a complete waste.
You don’t really sleep in those three ten-minute intervals and neither do you put that time to productive use.
Similarly, life gives us many wake-up calls which we keep postponing.
The heart attack your friend has had is a wake-up call for us to start that jog, to get on to the treadmill, start Yoga, and to get back into fitness mode.
When you read about the increase in the divorce rate and how children who had everything going for them, go astray, you know it’s a wake-up call to pay more attention to your relationships & family.
And when you hear about the hot shot exec suddenly going into depression following a pink slip, you know it’s a wake-up call to get your priorities right and find balance in your life’s goals & upskill.
But what do we do when we hear these wake-up calls? Our typical response to all these signals is something like this: We talk about it animatedly with our friends, these make for excellent cocktail conversation, we then resolve we must do something about it immediately.
Soon becomes tomorrow, And, of course, tomorrow never comes.
Yet, despite the constant blaring of all these wake-up calls, why is it that most of us don’t really do anything about them?
Mainly for two reasons,
First, a false sense of invincibility, the ‘it-can’t-happen-to-me’ syndrome.
We always think it only happens to others, The heart attack, The bankruptcy, The pink slip, The broken marriage.
We don’t realize that ‘they’ too are people like us. Or were, at least.
The second reason is the ‘hit-the-snooze-button’ syndrome.
The temptation to put off action until a bit later and then a little later.
The exercise regimen you promised yourself doesn’t quite get started. The day your tests are on the borderline, you say you will start the next day which doesn’t happen. Then promise yourself you’ll do it after the Diwali binges or after the upcoming marriage in the family, then, after you come back from that business trip, then finally promise yourself from the first of January.
It invariably never, never happens.
The same thing is with upskilling, starting reading, initiating investments through a SIP, having that ‘talk’ with the children, spending quality time with family & friends, starting Golf etc etc.
The truth is, we’ve all got used to the wonderful snooze button on our alarm calls. To get up at 6.00 a.m., we set the alarm for 5.30 a.m.
We wake up, stretch our hands, reach the alarm & hit snooze 5.40 am, hit snooze again 5.50 am, Ditto 6.00 am & Finally wake up and curse ourselves & promise from tomorrow it shall be on the first ring.
All that the ‘Snooze button’ does is to give us a feeling that it can wait and our mind starts believing that everything can wait.
Our minds develop their own versions of the snooze button.
So what happens is that every time we hear a wake-up call, we reach out for the snooze button, which isn’t really there. But it’s taken permanent residence in our minds.
Do yourself a favour, Cut off the snooze button, from your cellphone, your alarm clock, your mind, your life.
Get up when the alarm rings – Don’t hit the snooze.
When you hear a wake-up call, wake up. Make it a habit.
You’ll find many benefits of this one change in your behaviour.
You will sleep well, You will create more time for yourself every morning & most importantly, when those critical wake-up calls come along in your life, you’ll take action.
You’ll wake up, before it’s too late.
Starting this weekend, When you hear a wake-up call, wake up, don’t hit the snooze button & stay blessed forever.