This is it!  Final day of the challenge.  I spent the first hour just soaking it all in and enjoying the peace of the morning.  I took a walk around the office to experience it one more time.  So here are my final thoughts:
• Having the support of my wife was key.  If you don’t have a support network when doing a challenge, it makes it very difficult.
• The peacefulness of 4:30 is quite amazing.  No one is out, so it gives you a chance to just “be”; it is a great time to think and reflect; and yes, a great time to get stuff done.
• Even though I wanted to mix it up and change things, getting into a routine is very important.  My routine would be bedtime at 9:30 pm in order to get up at 4:30.  If I kept this routine (which was most of the time), I had no problem getting up. 
• Although my productivity sky rocketed in the morning, it would be hard to keep this pace.  I would typically hit a wall around 2:30 or 3:00.
• The world wakes up and stirs between 5:30 and 6:00. Don’t know why exactly. 
• I had some great workouts! 
• I need to continue to have small, attainable goals in my life in order to achieve the much bigger life goals that I have.  
• My goals need to be a struggle; I need to continue to push myself.   
• Getting up this early takes a lot of discipline!
I have been asked why I did this.  The primary was I did this for myself:
• I wanted to change/mix it up;
• I wanted a new goal that was going to be hard and take effort; that would make me suffer
• I wanted to change to change my routine
• I wanted challenge the way I viewed the world
• I wanted to experience suffering – working a twelve our day tiresome; if you do this you will suffer. 
So if you have been in anyway inspired, here is the challenge for you:  take on a challenge that will push you.  Change things up! It’s ok to suffer a little.  And then break down this challenge into small obtainable goals.  Perhaps getting up 30 minutes early to run; perhaps read a new book (start with one chapter at a time); or learn something new.  You can do it!
Carpe Diem and make it a great day!
Andy 

Good morning to you!  We just got back from D.C. and I feel like I have been playing catch up!  It was a great time with lots of family memories, but I happy to be back.  I did a lot of reflecting on the trip, and I can't stress enough how important it is to get away from it all and go on vacation.  It certainly allows your batteries to recharge and refocus.  Biggest thought of the day is to maintain a realistic pace.  Even though I have committed to waking up 21 work days in a row, I can't keep up this pace.  I am litterally working between 50-60 hours per week which is doable, but the time off has allowed me to reevaluate; work is certainly important and I love what I do, but there are other things in life. 

Speaking of which, I had to rearrange my schedule due to traveling and needing to rest the first day back.  So tomorrow will be my offical last day of waking up at 4:30.  I have many thoughts, lessons I have learned, and new challenges I have my eyes on and I will share them all with you bright and early.  Be great today and swing for the fences!

Good afternoon!  This blog is a little late in the day.  I had to take care of some personal stuff in the morning, and it seems like I have been chasing all day to day.  Just goes to show how even when you wake up early you can still fall behind if you don't have the right structure and discipline to your day. 
I am about to wrap up this challenge.  I will be leaving for Washington D.C. tomorrow and then back late Monday night, so I will be sleeping in to about 6:00 am for the next few days.  I will be sure to make it up - I will wrap up the challenge on Tuesday and final day Wednesday of next week.  Stay tuned for my final wrap up thoughts next week and I will be sure to post some photos of D.C.  It should be a great trip and I am looking forward to it!

Make it a great afternoon!

Andy

Good morning to you! 
The temperature is starting to drop significantly in Atlanta, and it is making me not want to get up!  I am going into the final stretch my 21 days of waking up at 4:30.  It has been fantastic but I am ready to get back to a more normal work schedule.  I will be sharing some final thoughts (final thoughts on waking up at 4:30 that is) at the end of this challenge.  By the way, I am going to miss Friday of this week and Monday of next due to having to take a trip to Washington D.C. with the family.  But don’t worry - I will make it up the next week. 
Here is what my schedule and plan has looked like and looks like today”
4:30 Wake  Up
5:00 – 5:30 At the office, taking the first 30 min to meditate and reflect
5:30 – 6:00 Cleaned out my email box (this was exhilarating!)
6:00 -7:00 Worked on submissions to different managers and vendor systems
7:00 -7:30 Quick breakfast
7:30 – 8:00 Spent time on work social media (most notably LinkedIn)
8:00 – 9:00 Plan the rest of my morning, connect with coworkers, clients, nurses
9:00 – 10:00 Work with payroll to get everyone paid, follow up clients and candidates
10:00 – 11:00 Market current candidates to different clients that I have and discover new clients
11:00-12:00 Pick up my son from GA Tech, 11:30 meeting and training. 

Have a goal to be great today and hit it out of the park!
Andy

Good morning to you!
Above is a picture of my son Kai.  The only reason I am posting it is that my wife Denisa wanted me to give him a haircut, and I picked a guard for the clippers that was too short.  I had to improvise and gave him a Mohawk.  Denisa wasn’t too thrilled but I think he looks pretty fly.
Here is a thought for you going into the weekend-
When I was a senior in high school, I was co-captain of the basketball team that won the state championship.  On the back of our practice jerseys, our coach (Coach Euler) printed these words underneath each other: Desire, Dedication, Discipline. 
These action words have had the biggest impact on my professional life so much I think they are the key to any success that I have ever had.  I think of these words as legs of my success tripod.  Standing on their own, they don’t work very well.  But when they are all together, my success rate grows exponentially.
Desire is the first leg.  Before taking on a challenge, I always ask myself, “Andy, how bad you really want this?”  And if I have doubts about my desire, I question if I want it bad enough.  But if I lose sleep over it, if it is constantly on my mind, if I am consumed by it, I know that the odds of my success are quite high.
Dedication is a trickier leg because dedication is hard.  What is dedication?  I think of dedication as my plan.  I try to see the challenge and then break it down to the smallest obtainable goals that I can do at that moment. 
Discipline is probably the hardest leg.  Discipline is the execution of the plan.  It is hard to stay on course and do the plan every single moment of every single day that I have allotted.  It takes a lot of will and a lot of great habits of doing something the right away over and over to get the necessary discipline. 
Hope that you have great day and weekend!  See you on Monday!
Andy

Good morning!  I hope that you are all doing well.
Still going strong, waking up at 4:30.  I am half way through this challenge and looking forward to the end of it.  Interestingly enough: I am used to getting up this early.  I wake up on my own usually before the alarm clock rings.  The trick is really to get to bed early; I try to be lights out at 9:30.
Over the weekend, Denisa and I wrote a list of our short term and long term goals.  We have done this off and on for the past 15 years (since we have been married) with varying degrees of success.  We have found our most success is when we make a list and then hold each other accountable with a biweekly/monthly meeting to check stuff off and reevaluate what is working and what is not.  We looked at the list we had during the summer, and to my surprise, most of the stuff was crossed off.  The power of lists and goals!  Speaking of which, I made it a goal a few months ago to process some paperwork and it is finally getting taken care of.  I spent this entire morning on it.  As I was doing it, I have been kicking myself on why I didn’t get it done earlier.  It would have been so much easier to take care of it right away!  
So here are my goals for the day –
7:00 – 8:00 Clean up my inbox and check my messages, update social medial
8:00 – 9:00 Meetings, take care of traveler issues with those that are currently with me
9:00 – 10:00 Meet with and review schedules of those that I am mentoring; New job posts
10:00 – 11:00 Job that need to be reposted, recruit for jobs that I find important
11:00 – 12:00 Loose ends, meeting at 11:30
12:00 Lunch
Make it a great day!
Andy

 

 

Good morning!
Just a quick update and weekly wrap up.  The pictures above is of Soliant’s annual 5k run.  I had a great time with co-workers and friends.  This is an event that I have come to look forward to every year.  The event was perfect.  We were blessed with sunshine and warm weather. 
I leave the office every Friday at noon to start my weekend.  I am looking forward to knocking out whatever list/responsibilities I have, and spend time with my wife Denisa and our five kids.  I am optimistic that Denisa will let me squeeze in a nap this afternoon.  I know that you are reading this babe!
Have a great weekend and see you bright and early on Monday!
Andy  

Good morning!  Pictured above is my wife passing me by on our jog that we went on yesterday. She told me to set the pace, but as we got closer to the end, she passed me up.  I will fill you in at the end of this blog.      

 

Thursday is a day when my wife goes to her office and so to help out, I prepare chili in the crock pot the night before.  Needless to say, I went to bed at 9:30 and didn’t get it done.  So at 4:30 this morning I was cooking chili.  Even though I got up so early, I felt rushed the entire morning.  Not a good way to start the day!  But it is my own fault; I didn’t stick with my new routine.  I should have prepared last night so I could enjoy the peace and the quite that I have become accustomed.  This reminds me of a conversation I had yesterday with a colleague.  He competes in triathlons.   For the record, I have the highest admiration for individuals that compete in any kind of endurance race.  The level of preparation and the mental strength needed to complete such a task is hard for me to comprehend.  This is a paraphrase of what he told me: “You start with a plan and then you do it every day.  When it comes time for the race, you are prepared.”   

 

Such a statement makes me look back on my success and failures.   I have noticed a common thread: preparation in the form of having the proper plan and then the discipline to following through with the plan equals a high rate of success for me.  When I have had no plan and no discipline to follow through with the plan, I have usually failed.  So for my goals I formulate a plan and then break it down to very small obtainable goals that I can accomplish every day.   

 

At the office I have the words “Great Today” on my wall.  At the top of my mind, I only want to think about the task or goal at hand, and then do it the very best that I possibly can.  Because the sum of being great today leads to an accomplishment of a goal that I once thought unreachable. 

 

Back to my wife.  Last year she wanted to run in her first competitive 5k.  Every morning, Monday through Friday, she would wake up at 5:30 and run.  She started out with a plan that would have her run for a short distance and then increased her distances every week, until she was running more than a 5k every day.  The day of the race, when it was time to perform, it was easier than her training for it.  The day of the race, she not only competed, but she came in first in her class.  And yes, she now kicks my tail when we go running.      

 

Make it a great day!

 

Andy

“Fatigue makes fools of us all. It robs you of your skills and your judgment, and it blinds you to creative solutions. It's the best-conditioned athlete, not the most talented, who generally wins when the going gets tough.” Harvey Mackay

Good morning to you all!  I had a great (and restful) weekend and now have hit the ground running with the second week of this challenge.  I have done it for a week and a  half, and I am now waking up automatically between 4:00  and 4:30 every morning.  No matter how much or how little of sleep I got from the previous night.  Funny how the body adjusts to a routine. 

As a father of five, my wife and I have try to teach our children the necessity of making good choices every single day; and how they will have to live with the consequences of their choices.  This has been very “real” for me the past week and a half.  If I make the choice to follow the routine I developed and get the necessary sleep, I am fine with my energy level and I have a productive day (this has been most of the time); however, if I make the choice to stay up and don’t get my necessary rest, I will tell ya I am hurting the next day.  I regret to say this has happened on more than one occasion. 
The photo is of our dog Rusty at 4:30 am.  He is not too happy in the morning.

Carpe diem!

Andy

Good morning to you!  How was your weekend?  Restful, I hope.
I put in a half day on Friday, so when I got home and took a two hour nap and it was AWESOME.  Other than that, I accomplished many little side projects around the house and spent a lot of time relaxing with the family.  Also I went to bed at around 9:30, so I feel great today.  Here is my plan for the day:
4:30 Wake Up
4:45 At the office (I got everything ready last night so I would just have to get dressed, brush my teeth and off I go). 
4:45-5:15 Reflect and plan for the day
5:15-6:00 Admin (clean up emails, messages from the weekend, etc), Blog
6:00-7:00 Job post
7:00-8:00 Post on Social Media
8:00-9:00 Morning meeting, breakfast, check in with coworkers and people that I mentor
9:00-10:00 Admin (I have several starts this week – reach out to them, check in with credentialing to see how they are coming along)
10:00-11:00 Market my new candidates and ones that are already out on assignment
11:00-11:30 Job posting if time allows
11:30-12:00 Recap the day/admin
That should take care of the morning. 
Andy

Good morning to you!  That is the view I get when I am leaving the house at at around 4:45 am.  So what is is like after a week?  Here are my initial thoughts:

• Don't ever hit the snooze button!  It is always easy to get up as soon as the alarm clock rings!
• Bulletproof Coffee is the bomb!
• I really, really enjoy the peacefulness of the morning.  It is a great time to reflect and just "be."  There are few distractions in the morning.  I tend to be on my terms as opposed to a schedule and demands that are put on me. 
• I am not rushed to get out of the house and when I get to the office, I am not overwhelmed.  A coworker of mine told me "I feel like I am swimming today!  There is just too much stuff to get done!"  I told him to get up at 4:30!
• I have more time to accomplish stuff.
• Even though I go to bed earlier, I tend to hit a wall at about 3:00.  So this is something I have to fight through.

That is it for today, I hope you all have a great weekend!
Andy

Good morning! 
I had a coworker of mine asked me what I did my first moments of my wake up/day.  What a great question and I appreciate the interest.  The first thing I do is make a big up of coffee, Ha!  I love coffee and often drink two to four cups per day.  For this challenge, I have been drinking bullet proof coffee.  I must say, I am now addicted!  I then formulate my plan in my car.  Also, I have been playing this as my morning anthem on my iPhone play list.  As I settle into my desk, I find it irresistible to knock out all of my emails in my inbox.  GREAT satisfaction.  If you had any idea how many emails I get every day, you would understand.  After I knock out my emails, I have been taking fifteen to twenty minutes to meditate and reflect.  I focus on my wife, my kids and also just try to enjoy the peace of the morning.

Today, Casey wanted to get up and workout at 6:00 am.  So I drove home and picked her up for the gym.  I am quite lucky, I only live two miles away from the office.  My teenager wants to hang out with me and I realize that this won’t always be the case.  She never says much in the morning but I don’t mind. I am just happy to be with her.  Per her request, we ran for about a mile, and then we worked the upper body with bench and dumbbells. At the end of the workout, we both came up with a challenge for the day.  We would each give the other a subject – it could be a person, place, thing or idea and the other person had to take fifteen minutes during the day to learn as much as possible about it.  I gave her Blaise Pascal.  She told I had to Google “I am Malala.”  Casey, I know that you are reading this so I expect some great conversation over dinner.
So this is my schedule of what I have accomplished and need to knock out:
4:30 Wake Up
5:00 Office – Clean up Outlook – return emails and delete old emails. 
5:30 – Meditate and reflect
6:00 Pick up Casey for workout
7:30 At the office – Blog, administration work, schedule the rest of my day
8:00 – 9:00 Morning meeting, meet with co-workers that I am currently mentoring
9:00 – 10:00 Market candidates to hospitals that are currently working for me
10:00-11:00 Job post, push up jobs to social media and engage on social media
11:00-11:30 Finish job posting and plan the rest of my afternoon
11:30 – 12:00 Research “I am Malala,” and prepare a full report for Casey.
I hope you all make it a great day and see you tomorrow morning! 
Andy