How many of us wake up at 4 in the morning? Workout for an hour, take a dip in chilled ice water, and then start the day. I bet not many of us do that. Let’s face it, we are too lazy too do that and not even that driven to take a chilling dip in cold water early in the morning. I, for one, don’t. When we see podcasts and YouTube videos of entrepreneurs and billionaires talking about their morning routines, more often than not, we can find a routine they follow to be charged for the day.

We all want to be successful and financially independent, and we look up to these successful people to follow them and try to follow their lifestyles in hopes that they can be our guiding stars to success. These people at the top worked hard in their initial years, but while reaching the top, they gave up countless sleepless nights to be the 1 percent. They worked through every obstacle and hurdle; I’m pretty sure they did not have time to do anything else. So back to the morning routine: while I’m for work-life balance and health, I am of the opinion that if you’re starting out as an entrepreneur and want to be a businessman, you have to work twice as hard as everyone else.

There might come a time in your life where you are just about to give up. Work through that. What happens is that we reach 71 percent, and when we do not see results, we lose focus, change our path, and shift to something else. But what we don’t see is that just beyond that line at 72 percent, you were bound to succeed. We don’t see that one percent mile, which would have made a difference. People who succeed don’t give up; they stay on a single course and see it through.

So these people tell you their morning routine as such and such, but you have to understand that to be successful, you don’t need a morning routine; you need to put in the work. According to Alex Hormozi, who is a billionaire, you should not waste the first two hours after you wake up in an elaborate morning routine; instead, work on your projects. That will give you an edge over the rest; you are already ahead in your things to do for the day. We fear hard work; make the initial years of your life as hard as possible and exhaust every possible route. It’s never luck that gives you success; it’s hard work.

Now that ability can also be built from scratch. We are all born with some innate personality traits—those that shape us as human beings. Habits, on the other hand, can be built over years. Now, habits form over a long period of time. Some habits, like nail biting, are bad habits, while praying every morning is a good habit. It completely depends on us and our conscious habits. That’s why it’s important that you expose yourself to good habits from a young age.

Human beings were programmed to survive; our ancestors were out in the fields hunting, making shelters, and doing everything possible to survive. What they focused on was immediate results: they hunted, ate the night, and stayed in caves to be protected from environmental situations. So they mainly focused on the present and the near future. But now we don’t live in those harsh situations; we have progressed so much that technology has made everything simpler and easier. The point is that we haven’t changed much in terms of our survival mindsets; we still seek immediate gratification for every action that we take.

So when we focus on immediate gratification, there are worse consequences in the future, which may seem invisible now, but they are piling up and will effect your future. For example, if you start writing articles for your own blog, after the first week you see no results, maybe a view, and like in two of them, you instantly feel demotivated and lose the drive to write. You say you will write every day, but ultimately you procrastinate, and before long you forget about it.  This happened to me. I was writing for my own blog, and after seeing no results, I stopped writing. Now, what if I tell you that statistics show that if you stay on a platform for at least a year, you’re bound to see results? I have read and seen videos of high-paying writers talking about their initial starting period. The lesson we can take away is to delay gratification; you will thank yourself later. Work hard till you cross over to 72 percent; it is that line beyond which you will find the result of your hard work.

Let me draw a picture for you: a person smokes because they feel stressed, and smoking gives them a hit of dopamine, which relaxes them instantly. So they develop a conditioning; whenever they are stressed, they just smoke, and then they are instantly gratified. This continues until they start associating that moment of relief with smoking and develop an addiction. Then it becomes a habit; they are smoking 5–6 cigarettes a day. So they associate their smoking with their stress, which in turn gives them relief or pleasure. It is the foundation of a habit, a lifelong habit, which ultimately can result in disastrous consequences.

On the other hand, every time another person is stressed, they go for a walk for 20 minutes. They feel refreshed after the walk. So they develop the habit of taking a walk whenever they feel stressed; in this way, they are developing healthy habits for the long run. So try picking up healthy habits, because these come in handy in the long run and help us develop a better quality of life. If you want to be a better version of yourself, develop habits that will benefit you in the long run. In the process, it will make you a better person, strong, resilient, and stoic in the face of adversity.

If I’m being truthful, I am trying to develop the habit of taking a walk every morning after I wake up. So far, I have to say I’m not doing very well. But I’m proud of myself that I’m trying to be healthy and aspiring to be a better version of myself than I was last year. With small steps every day, you can develop a healthy habit as well. Work hard every day for yourself. Right now, it might not seem as if your actions are resulting in anything, but after a few years, they will.

Check out my other article about life-lessons and how you can guide yourself to be the better version of yourself here