Episode 248: How Waking Up Early Leads to Clarity and Success: The 3:53 Advantage

Announcer (00:03):

This is the Self Storage Podcast with the original Self storage expert, Scott Meyers.

Scott Meyers (00:13):

I find most people start their day reacting. They wake up, grab the phones, scroll through a pile of notifications, check the market, check the news, maybe check email, and before their feet even hit the floor, their mind is already under siege. And I used to live like that too for a while. A short while every day started with noise. I was working hard, but I wasn’t always working smart. Then one day, many, many years ago, I decided I was going to start leading my day instead of following it. And that began with something that at first glance sounds ridiculous, and people ask me about this all the time, but I started setting my alarm for 3:53 AM People laugh when I tell them that Why 3 53? Or they ask my wife, why not four o’clock or any other number? Well, because 3 53 isn’t round, it’s not convenient, it’s intentional.

(01:01):

And it reminds me that excellence rarely lives on the easy numbers, rounding up, rounding down. And so every day, not most days, not when it’s convenient, but literally every day I get up at 3:53 AM and some days I wake up even before that, by the time the world starts stirring, I have already had victory number one. And I like it that way. It’s like I’m cheating. So today I want to take you inside that routine. I want to share the why behind it, the science that supports it, and the spiritual clarity that drives it. Yeah, the spiritual clarity. I’ll also share a story, a real one about a leadership decision that almost went sideways until, well, am I quiet time with God after 3 53? He used my morning to just redirect this decision entirely because the truth is those early hours aren’t just quiet time there boardroom time with God, there were confusion turns into conviction, and conviction turns into clear actionable leadership.

(01:55):

So here’s what my mornings look like. The alarm goes off at 3 53. I sit up, I thank God for another day before my feet hit the floor and I swing my feet around and before I can talk myself out of it, I’m up. I walk into the kitchen, take my vitamins, which I had prepared the night before, make a fantastic cup of coffee. That would be a latte or a cappuccino, and something about that ritual. And just the smell of that first cup alone tells my brain, yeah, game on, let’s go. Then I’ll go outside and depending on, I do live in the Midwest. So right now it’s getting cold. So put on the appropriate attire and take a brief walk around the neighborhood just to get everything moving. It’s dark, it’s silent and it’s peaceful. No emails, no texts, nobody expecting anything from me, just the hum of the world asleep and that walk, it gets my body moving.

(02:46):

But more than that, it really, it just clears space for my spirit to wake up. And by 5:00 AM I’m at the gym. I try to get there. That’s why I wake up at 3 53. I try to get there minutes before because I feel like if I walk in the door and there’s people already in there, well, I am a competitive guy. I need to get there. By the time the door’s open, that hour and 20 minutes is sacred. Before that, however, I work out usually with a podcast in my ears, something educational, business focused or faith driven or all three. Sometimes it’s self storage and real estate. Other days it’s macroeconomics. Occasionally it’s Formula one because I love the mindset of precision and just anything and everything about Formula One. These guys and gals, they spend hundreds of millions just to get an extra 10th, and then driver strapped in with the intention of winning each and every time and know that they put their lives on that line to do so.

(03:39):

That’s why I love F1, and that’s what gets me going in the morning. I’m feeding my body and I’m feeding my mind. Then it’s time to shower, get ready, and I’m in the office by seven or seven 30, unless I got an err to run ahead of that, I pour a second cup of coffee and I’ll take a short walk again this time, the first time was to get things going. It was more of a gratitude walk. But this time it’s not to move my body, but to truly move my spirit, I spend the time with God. It’s in prayer. It’s looking through a Bible app, it’s listening to a sermon or some type of faith-based podcast. And then I ask God, what’s important today? What needs to be done and what can wait? And by 7 45, I’m grounded, I’m clear, I’m focused and I know what direction I’m heading.

(04:27):

So here’s the key. Here’s the key to all of this is that my calendar is blocked until 11:00 AM. It’s blocked off, no calls, no meetings, and those first few hours are for the deep work and the thinking because my job as a leader isn’t just to be busy, it’s to be clear. And I’ll state that again, for those of you that are leaders, it isn’t just to be busy because that doesn’t do anybody any good. It is to be clear that is what your job is as a leader. And I’ll tell you a story. Here’s an example of why that clarity matters. A few months back, I had a meeting scheduled for later in the day, and it was a difficult one. I made my mind that it was going to ask someone for their resignation performance had slipped, their alignment was off, and frustration had built up all around them.

(05:14):

And I felt justified. I had the bullet points, I had the evidence, and I had the authority, and I was just losing patience. But that night, as I went to bed, I still felt uneasy. Something in my spirit just wasn’t settled. So the next morning, 3 53, I went through my ural routine, coffee, walk, prayer, gym, sermon, quiet reflection. And during that prayer time, I laid it before God and I said, Lord, help me see this clearly. Help me separate frustration from the truth. And that’s all I need to do is seeking that situation and any situation is truth. And in that quiet, I felt a nudge in my perspective. And I realized that real issue wasn’t incompetence or rebellion as I thought in my frustration was deeper. It was a personality complex. It was a blind spot that this person had that kept them from seeing their role the way I needed them to.

(06:05):

Problem wasn’t malice, it was misalignment. So instead of going into that meeting ready to fire, I went in ready to listen instead. And I started by sharing my observations and then ask questions, the kind that get to the root. And as we talked, the walls came down, they admitted they were struggling and really always had that. They hadn’t seen the bigger picture, and they genuinely wanted to grow and change this piece that they had been struggling with for a while. And that conversation changed everything. Now, we didn’t sweep issues under the rug. We still had hard conversations, but we shifted from confrontation to collaboration and accountability, and we’re still walking that road together. And I’m grateful for their new level of awareness because that’s truly what it is at this point. And had I not paused and reflected that morning, well, I made a decision that costs a good person, their job and our organization, a valuable team member.

(06:57):

And that’s truly just one example of the power of the morning. It’s not just discipline, it’s discernment that only comes from the quiet. Many mornings I find that the tasks I thought were urgent yesterday, and I think you probably find this as well, the tasks I thought that were very urgent yesterday or today, they lose their urgency after reflection and after night’s sleep, some just fall off the list completely, which is crazy. And others rise in priority and a few shift in meaning altogether. And I see them through a new lens. That’s not procrastination, that’s perspective. Although there has been times when procrastination has led to perspective, and you need to lean into that as well because the world always tells us to act fast and God tells us to listen first. Now, let’s get practical because my faith, and this is where science, well, they collide and they agree here.

(07:45):

Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that people who wake early are significantly more proactive. They have better focus, higher job performance and are more likely to anticipate and solve problems before they escalate. Psychologist Roy Baumeister, author of Willpower says, our self-control is strongest in the morning and no weakens as the day wear. Zod boy, that’s me to a T. And that’s why the most important decision is the ones that shape your business or your family should happen early when your spiritual and mental batteries are full. Also, a University of Toronto study found that early risers consistently report higher levels of satisfaction and productivity. They start the day in alignment with their values instead of chasing someone else’s agenda. I find that to be true as well because gosh, the times when I either oversleep or if there’s a meeting that has to be scheduled early in the morning and my routine is thrown off, my level of satisfac goes down, and I feel my entire productivity scale just tips.

(08:41):

When my day is thrown off, my day is thrown off and it’s hard to get back to that place. So this is a real thing, and there’s neuroscience behind this as well. Our prefrontal cortex, the brain decision making center is most active and least distracted early in the morning. And that’s across the board. That’s not just individually. That means you literally think better before sunrise. So let’s put this into business language. If you’re a leader, whether of a team, a family, or a company or all the above, your job is to make quality decisions, would you agree? And quality decisions don’t come from chaos. They come from clarity. By waking early and protecting those hours, you’re operating in your highest cognitive and spiritual state. You’re not stealing time from sleep, you’re investing time and strategy. So let’s put some numbers to it. If you gain just two focused hours each morning, that’s 10 hours per week over a year, that’s more than 500 hours, 12 and a half full work weeks of high level thinking you’ve created simply by owning your mornings.

(09:41):

That’s the compound effective consistency. Those 3:53 AM wake ups are adding up to what I call the three fifty three advantage, my 3 53 advantage. I don’t share that too often except I have now. And here’s the bigger truth. God often speaks in whispers, not shouts. And if you feel your mornings with noise, you’ll miss the whisper that could change your day or your direction and speaking, which this is a verse that grounds me each and every day. I was asked this just recently, and in the morning, Lord, you hear my voice in the morning, I lay my request before you and wait expectantly, Psalm five, three. And this is from David, for those of you that are familiar with the Bible. And David did a lot of listening and David did some very great things. And so I lean into that and that’s what calms me. And I listen, that’s my routine.

(10:29):

In one line, I start by speaking to him, laying it all out, and then I wait expectantly. That waiting is where the wisdom lives and is given to me. Mornings are where faith and my focus intersect. And I like to think of my morning time as a leadership meeting with God. He is the CEO, and I’m just a steward. My job is to listen for direction before issuing directives. And there are also a few quotes that shape how I think about this discipline. And these are some of the things that I share when we’re at our Sourg Academy and also in our mastermind in mixed company. And doesn’t mean that I hide my faith, but I think to give perspective for those that are looking at things a little bit differently. Jocko Willink, if those of you are familiar with that, Jocko Willink, Maureen Rockstar, who is just all over it, written several books and podcasts.

(11:19):

He says that discipline equals freedom, period. And that’s true if you listen and follow Jocko at all, you recognize that it is freedom. Once you have discipline in place and you have processes that you follow, yeah, it equals freedom to live within that framework. Richard Waitley said, lose an hour in the morning and you’ll spend all day looking for it. And that’s true, as I just mentioned. When I get off by an hour in the morning, if there’s another meeting that creeps into that time between when I land at my desk at 11:00 AM I feel like I’m always looking for that hour. T Habecker. I think many of you’re familiar with him. He says, how you do anything is how you do everything. And so that points back to the discipline and the focus that you have and protecting. And then of course, gentlemen, I’ve taken many cues from with regards to the miracle Morning hell, El Rod.

(12:06):

If you win the morning, you win the day. And that just rings true. I believe that wholeheartedly. But I’m going to add my own version for this. If you win your morning, you don’t just win your day, you win your direction because that’s what these earliest hours are. They’re not just a checklist, they’re a runway. When I spend that time praying, reflecting, and planning, I’m not being passive. I’m doing the hardest work there is, and that is aligning my will with Gods and then guiding my steps and my direction around that. Sometimes the answers I get aren’t comfortable, and I may ask him again, and sometimes they call, when you have hard conversations to face truths, I’d rather delay. But I’ve learned that obedience in the morning creates peace in the evening. So when you consistently begin your day in his presence, you start noticing subtle changes.

(12:52):

Your speech slows down just enough to listen. Your decisions have more empathy and less ego. And I’ll repeat that one again. Your decisions have more empathy and less ego. And your business starts reflecting not just what you can do, but who you’re becoming. And that’s what happened in that story earlier, the shift from firing someone to come alongside them. That was the fruit of reflection, just not my reaction. And I believe the good Lord honors that process because it mirrors his own. He’s patient with us. He’s patient with me, man, is he patient with me? And he gives me a ton of grace. He gives us time, a lot of grace and perspective. So when we lead with that patient, we are modeling him that patience. We are modeling Him. Truth is mornings are not just a productivity hack, they’re spiritual stewardship. You’re stewarding your mind, your time, your health, and more importantly your leadership under his authority.

(13:47):

When people ask me why I do it, why 3 53? I tell them because it’s when I hear best, it truly is. It’s quiet. It’s when I can quiet the world long enough to let God speak. And I need that. I absolutely need that. What does this mean for you? Maybe 3 53 isn’t your number. No judgment here. That’s early. Maybe it’s four 30, maybe five, maybe just 10 minutes earlier than normal. How about we start there? The timing isn’t sacred. The surrender is so when you start to get up earlier, that’s just recognizing that surrender is where you’re going to hear it. So start small, but start. That’s my challenge. Create a block quiet before the world demands your attention. And then use it to move your body, feed your mind and align your heart. Because here’s the truth I’ve learned, the most important meanings of your life aren’t on your calendar.

(14:38):

They’re the ones you keep with yourself and with God before the sun comes up. And when you guard that time, you’re not just managing minutes, you’re mastering your momentum. You’re deciding every day to live by design instead of by default. So here’s a few takeaways. If I could be so bold. The Morning reflection challenge, I’m going to place out there for each and every one of you. And that is tomorrow morning. Set your alarm one hour earlier. Yep, one hour earlier. Don’t check your phone, don’t turn on the tv. Walk, meditate, pray, journal. Ask God or your maker who you believe in, what really matters today. Then act on what is revealed to you. Just one morning can change your trajectory. Number two, share your takeaway. If something from this episode spoke to you, maybe a line, a story or a verse, share it. Tell someone about your 3 53 moment.

(15:32):

All my contact information is in the show notes. So DM me because I’d love to hear how God’s using your mornings to bring clarity and courage. And then number three, join the conversation. In the coming episodes, I’ll be talking about other small hinges that swing big doors, the habits and rhythms that keep leaders centered and business thriving. So subscribe, leave a review, share this episode with a friend or a colleague who needs to reclaim their mornings as well. Every day you and I have a choice, friends to start with noise or to start with nourishment, to fill our mind with headlines or with his word. And my prayer for you is that you’ll find your version of 3 53, that space where faith, focus and follow through intersect. Because when you win your morning, you don’t just win your day, you win your direction. And when your direction is guided by God, there is no limit to where you can go. So until next time, get up, get quiet and get after it.

Announcer (16:23):

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