Regret and the Re-Branding of 5 AM

Dawn Patrol

"You can always make more money, but you cannot make more time"

20 years ago I was rich with time, I mean like Scrooge McDuck rich doing the back stroke in a pile of money. Today I find myself like a beggar on the side of the road (not the dirty hippie kind with an iphone and dreads, but rail car hobo style) with my hand out and sign saying, "time needed anything will help".  The loss of me-time is a natural progression that as unavoidable as a middle age plague. Life happens and the proverbial time battery is sucked dry by everyday demands leaving us feeling a bit empty at times. This formula creates the statements that all of us justifying the F word have uttered at one time or another.

"I used to love to do (fill in the blank)"

"I would love to do (fill in the blank) but I have no idea when I could  find the time to do it"

Each of us has dreams, hobbies, and ambitions that somehow-somewhere were lost along the path of work, family, and everything else along the way. These "things" that once defined who we are and frankly made us more interesting people seemed to get torched in the Viking funeral pyre of adulthood. Bummer right? Just so I am not misunderstood, I am not advocating that we should pawn our offspring on the black market, leave our employment, and relish in our own schmug international views and collection of REI dividend points. What I am saying is there is middle ground, and once you find it, it needs to be fought for like a WWI no-mans-land.

Any who-de-who, this leads me to me to my point. We should not look at our lives like the disappoint we feel after watching any Adam Sandler movie past Happy Gilmore, or accidentally listening to a Nickle Back song (If you have children I can only pray they where not in the room when any of these offenses occurred). Regret is a feeling that is self inflicted by our choosing, so I am choosing to avoid it like a long check out line at Costco. But there is not time you say? I have discovered a secret that may have been lost when Rome fell or may been buried with the last of the Pharaohs. This secret is called 5 AM, and yes I to thought this hour was purely fictitious. Something that may have been lost in translation, or hidden with the treasures of the Knights Templar. As a younger man I tried once to find it and it burned so bad, I conceded the fact that somethings are best left undiscovered and like Icarus if I flew to close I would melt my paraffin wings.

After allowing enough time to pass, I was given the gate key to the maze to find the Minotaur that was guarding all the things I once loved to do. The key to slay this monster and allow myself to find the secrets of the ancients was given to me in the form of riddled advise bestowed upon me at an age to young to truly appreciate it. Wait for it....... Hold.... Hold.... Here it is....

"You can do anything you want at 5 AM" 

So here is where the re-branding comes in; if you just wake up to wake up at 5 AM you may as well put a soldering iron in your eye, but if its done with the intent to do what you love then it sucks just a little less. The gratification felt by rediscovering my hobbies and not taking time away from my family has been life changing. Like Yoda's advice, "do or do not, there is no try." Complain, or Enjoy...... Each of us can decide, "do I sacrifice a bit to live a fuller life or do I let my soul slowly die in a 9-5 Groundhog Day type life?" So do it! You are used to sacrificing yourself for everyone else in your life, why not sacrifice a bit of sleep for yourself. Take the time, rediscover your passions, and let it ride...... Oh, and the answer is I am tired, but its worth it.