Navy Seal Commander explains why wake up at 4am

[Music] [Applause] wake up so it's 4:40 two in the morning this is usually my day begins this is what my day looks like this is what everyday looks like up between 4:00 and 5:00 always up between 4:00 and 5:00 cup of coffee then I sit down at my computer this is my favorite part see it's these early morning hours that are the absolute most productive for me no phone calls no texts messages nothing's happening on social media everyone else is asleep it's just total focus that gives me between 5 & 7 a.m. to get some work done 2 full hours before Francine's up when she's up we make breakfast [Music] she leaves for school at 7:30 by 8 o'clock I'm out the door on my run my run always happens for me running this alone time is top priorities back from the run before 10:00 shower shave get out door I need to work the commute to work it's fast a 5-minute ride or so I didn't know what I was going til you said turn try to always be in the office by 10:00 and then it works until I was sad yeah busy work email work phone calls work sitting my office eating in my office pass to the outside were having one 3 6 8 or meeting work meetings work meeting with this guy were talking to her was getting it done work leave the office before 6 6 o'clock headed home 6 to 10 6 to 10 is family time and it's non-negotiable babies asleep before 10 I know she should be asleep sooner were terrible parents baby's asleep at 10 I go to the gym from 10:00 to 11:00 11 o'clock I pass out Levi what time what time do you wake up no I am Number 1 just on a practical side if you wake up early in the morning like at 4:30 in the morning you're gonna have some free time to yourself to make things happen to take care of things that are important to you let's say you're the most ultra motivated guy in the world when that alarm clock goes off there's at least 50% of the time where you just met that soft little pillow is just caressing your head and you want to stay there and it takes discipline to go nope I'm gonna get up out of this bed I'm gonna do what I'm supposed to do and that discipline that you have at that moment you win that fight that's a big victory and then that that that pattern will carry out throughout the day because once you're up well now and I'm up I might as well go work out because I'm already up and I I feel good that I got up out of bed and I won that battle let me go win another battle I'm gonna go get it done and then when you show up at the office and there's someone that's got a big box of doughnuts that they're given away for free by the way so they're just sitting it's almost like an insult not to take them but when you've already gotten up early you had the discipline there you already worked out you have the discipline there and now you see the box of doughnuts you're like no I'm not gonna eat the doughnuts no no doughnuts you're not gonna do it and that discipline carries on throughout the day so now you take that and you you expand that out over a week in a month and you end up with more discipline and it starts with that simple act of getting up and getting out of bed in the morning discipline starts every day when the first alarm clock goes off in the morning I say first alarm clock because I have three the moment the alarm goes off is the first test it sets the tone for the rest of the day the test is not a complex one when the alarm goes off if you get up out of bed Ruy there in comfort and fall back to sleep if you have the discipline to get out of bed you win if you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed you fail though it seems small that weakness translates to more significant decisions but if you exercise discipline that too translates to more substantial elements of your life okay Jacqueline let me try to butcher your bio a little bit you you were a Navy SEAL commander Lieutenant Commander in the Navy SEALs you did how many tours in Iraq I did two tours in Iraq and then you actually you actually you were a Navy SEAL instructor so then you took your learnings from the battlefield and you taught future generations of seals what you learned yeah and a lot of times when people think about SEAL instructor they think of what you see on TV or SEAL team we're here to get you out that's not actually the instructing that I did the instructing that I did was four seals that had already been through that basic training and maybe they'd made multiple deployments overseas but a seal platoon has to prepare and work together and get to know each other and learn how to function together as a team and in order to to in order to get there they go through pretty arduous training actually extremely arduous training and that was the training that I ran sometimes even if you're the most highly motivated person in the world that grind starts to beat you down a little bit and that's when you have to stop looking at the short-term thing because that's not that's not getting you to get it done and you got to look okay what is the long-term goal that I'm looking at what am I really trying to get done in the long term and you say oh you know what I'm actually waking up today early so I can be ahead of the curve so I can sell more of these widgets or whatever so I can buy a house and you know what today matters today matters this decision that I'm making right now is that first step it's me taking one stroke swimming in the right direction heading towards the shore and if I don't take this I'm not making any progress okay Chacko one piece of advice for someone who's thinking about whether it's waking up earlier just having more discipline in their day one piece okay discipline equals freedom that that's the best to keep you surprised so listen here have you written a book called that I did I did write a book it's right here yeah the discipline it was freedom we all want freedom right we all want to have freedom we want we want to have financial freedom we want to have more free time we don't have physical freedom that's what we want everyone wants freedom of course but if you want to have freedom in your life the way to get to freedom is is through discipline it's that's how you get there so if you want to be if you want to be financially free you have to have financial discipline you have to save your money you have to work hard to earn more money you have to not buy by stupid things that you don't actually need right you need to save that money and invest it properly if all that takes discipline and if you have that kind of discipline you'll end up with more freedom if you want to be if you wanna have more free time everybody wants more free time but if you want more free time how are you gonna get it you have to have more discipline time management less fortnight more work when you get done doing something that's a complete waste of time how do you feel at the end of it all right terrible yeah you feel happy while you're doing it oh this is kind of fun this is this is stimulating my brain a little bit and then you get done with it and you realize that you could have done something productive and you don't feel good about just this play this guy why buckets of cold oatmeal every day I don't care about it just it's just healthy and I feel good all day oh yeah that's that's a great example cuz everybody knows that when you're eating that cheeseburger I mean come on good but how but literally how bad do you feel 30 38 minutes when you've got done eating a cheeseburger and fries you're you're you're suffering if you are at work I yeah what about the people that blame circumstance for not being able to take ownership and build that discipline so they're just constantly like pointing outside themselves how do they like acknowledge that but no I have the opportunity right now yeah but that's that's the fundamental core of of where this is a problem is when people look around and they blame they but if they're in business they blame the market or they blame their competitors or if their personal life they being with their family they blame their parents they blame everyone else and they never look at themselves and say you know what maybe it's not this is my fault but what can I do about it [Music] I'm at a station I'm never gonna find attract surprises you stand so the question I get asked most often about my schedule is where do you find where do I find the hours like how am I not exhausted all the time from waking up so uh see your hours of the day that time time is fungible meaning you can take hours from one part of your day and move it to another part of the day so I made a decision to take two worthless hours those the hours between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. those are like Netflix and chill hours I took those hours totally unproductive hours I moved them to 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. so what used to be totally wasted hours are now totally useful hours so now I go to bed at 11:00 but I get up at 5:00 and instead of having two hours of nonsense I have two hours of a hyper productivity first thing in the morning [Music] Jaakko has a fantastic podcast and a whole bunch of books including this new one everything is linked below go check them out this is great right uh well I guess so you said the modesty this one this is the book that I've read it's fantastic it's so good okay and the kids books those kids books thanks for coming by Jacko thanks for having me man appreciate it you

Channel: CaseyNeistat

Views: 6,752,650

Rating: 4.7754216 out of 5

Keywords: navy seal, wake up, early, morning, tired, jocko willink, extreme ownership, book, soldier, iraq, joe rogan

Id: C-Cvl3_CH2A

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 15 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/yooston]

lol i would look like this if i only got 5.5 hrs of sleep every night. casey is just wired differently or his nap game is strong. i do agree though nothing makes me feel better than waking up early and getting a workout in before most people are awake.

[u/TheKZA]

Don't disregard sleep as wasted time. It is possible to get 7 or 8 hours sleep and still wake up early and be productive. Sometimes the discipline comes from going to bed on time and making sure you're looking after your sleep schedule.

[u/its_a_simulation]

As people have said, you need the 7-9 hours of sleep unless you're 1 in 10000 who can manage with less.

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Casey is the perfect case of a American work philosophy of "Live to work" instead of the more European "Work to live". You choose what you like better.

[u/wmage]

This is terrible advice from 2 people who are genetically predisposed to wake up early and function on 4 hours of sleep.

- Some people perform better in the morning, some in the middle of the night. Think of all the 3am coders. Wake up at a time when you feel is best for you.

- If you're doing anything worthwhile with your day, you wanna be perfectly rested. Maybe Casey can go on 4 hours of sleep, most of us need between 7-8. Depriving yourself of sleep in order to "have discipline" is the worst thing you can do to your body, and it will undermine any effort you exert throughout the day.

- "Replace Netflix & Chill with productive time" is dumb advice. There's a time for work, there's a time for rest. There's no shame in relaxing with a movie. Spending some time with a shallow activity like that will make you perform better when it's time to focus.

I like the spirit of the video, but guys, balancing labor & leisure is the best thing you can do in the long run.

[u/geistmeister111]

is it just me or does this entire video seem like one big plug for jocko and his books?

also, the thing these two don't seem to understand is that humans aren't machines and their way of life is batshit insane. hey if you want to live a regimented life as if you are a robot, then go for it, but count me out. that type of success is not fun or fulfilling in the least bit and it is very bad for mental health.

[u/childprettyplease]

I love Casey but the fact that he considers working from 10 to 6 to be an example of a strong work ethic is hilarious. He is in NYC, that is about as light of a work day as it gets up here. His mind would be blown if he talked to any first year investment banking analyst about the hours they put in. Or that he gets to bank four hours of family time a day because he has a flexible schedule and has the luxury of working five minutes from home. He should talk to the numerous people who commute 2.5 hours into the city to support their families about his “non negotiable” four hours a day with his family. I love his work but his disconnect from reality is a little obnoxious here.

[u/phavela]

Na, i’d rather sleep>school>sleep. Who the fucks functions on 4-5 hrs sleep EVERY day????

[u/mycrustyname]

Man, he's really out of ideas. This Navy Seal wake up at 4am thing has been around forever and rehashed a million times.

[u/God-is-an-American]

I served on a Navy (USN) guided missile destroyer. There were long stretches where we worked 6 x 6, basically 6 hours on 6 hours off, continuously. No weekends, no days off, no time to recover. That's not to brag believe me, I'm just saying the elite Navy SEALs aren't the only military folks used to working in a constant state of sleep deprivation.