The metaphor I want to offer to you is the space shuttle metaphor. Did you know that it takes the space shuttle more energy in the 60 seconds after liftoff than the space shuttle will use in the entire circumference or orbit around the earth? Why would the space shuttle use more fuel in the first 60 seconds after a liftoff than in the entire circumference of the earth? Well, obviously it’s because the space shuttle must overcome escape velocity or get to escape velocity. It must overcome the gravitational forces of the earth until it reaches escape velocity and it just soars. And a habit is very much like that. It’s hard at first, messy in the middle, beautiful at the end. At the beginning of installing The 5AM Club method, at the beginning of rising before the sun, at the beginning of embracing morning mastery, it’s hard because like that space shuttle, you are having to overcome the gravitational forces of all your old habits. Maybe sleeping longer than usual, maybe staying up too late, maybe eating not ideal food before you go to sleep, maybe getting up and watching the news or checking your digital device or checking email. All those things that slow you down. So you’re overcoming those gravitational forces just like that space shuttle. So it’s harder at first, but once you reach escape velocity, you start to fly. It becomes so much easier. You develop momentum. And as I said, you go from hard at first, messy in the middle, to beautiful at the end, and it becomes easy. Remember, please everything that you now find easy, you once found hard. And remember that the ultimate human gift in many ways is the ability to install a new habit. People for thousands of years have not been early risers. They’ve made the commitment, they set up the conviction, they stayed with the process, they installed the habit to the point of automaticity, and now it’s easy.
