“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hello fellow night owls. It's past midnight here, 1:13 am to be exact. I'm going to write on an important topic today. And that topic is about making the most of the midnight moments we spend.
“The best ideas come to me at night, when everyone is asleep and the world feels still.”
— Unknown
Yes. the midnight is an ideal time to engage in intellectual activities. This is due to the fact that it's accompanied by tranquility and calm and therefore it's easy to achieve focus and concentration.
Most people struggle to keep fully awake during the midnight but for an owl to whom it comes easy, it's an opportunity to better your life. It an opportunity to lay out your goals, make plans how to achieve them. Acquire necessary knowledge, or learn a skill. Or engage in one form of self-improvement or the other.
"“The mind that is tired during the day often awakens in the night.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Since intellectual and mental activities are easier in the night, (though this doesn't apply to everyone) those who can stay awake in the night have an advantage over those who can't. During the day, our minds is often in a swirl, and distractions fly around. The distraction could be a friend calling on you, or an phone call coming in, or a matter needing your attention arising. These distractions can tamper with your focus while you're are engaged in intellectual or mental activities, hampering progress.
But in the night, you're alone. No distractions. The tranquility brings sharp focus to your mind. If you can stay awake at this time to work to better your life you have an advantage over those who can't.
“Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Since you have this advantage, make good use of your midnight time. Let it not be a time of endless social media scrolling. Or binge watching movies, or making unimportant phone calls for hours. I mean you can do these things in the night, but they shouldn't be the things you do most of the time you spend at night. Having fun at midnight is not a crime, but fixing your life should be the number one priority.
Use the midnight to read informational books, books that will give you ideas that will change your life. Use the midnight to learn skills that will elevate you financially. Like web design, software engineering, video editing, copywriting, etc.
That's when the above quote will manifest in your life. Your friends will see that sudden, positive change in your life and be surprised. They will wonder how it happened. But you'll know it's a result of your hard work at night, while they themselves were enjoying a good night's sleep or doing frivolous things in the night.
"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it." — Seneca
You won't live forever. Just a couple of decades or a century at most (I pray you live to 100, but that's not guaranteed). If you keep wasting the precious time you get at night as a night owl, soon you'll be past your prime. Surely you don't want your 50th birthday to sneak up on you and you haven't achieved any serious goal in your life?
Your life is like an hour glass clock. People don't pay much attention to it until it's contents are almost emptied. But don't be like that, don't wait till the end of your life to be awakened to the rude reality that you wasted it and you won't be getting another life.
“Without work, all life goes rotten; but when work is combined with fun, it becomes art.”
— Unknown
In this post I don't condemn having some fun at midnight, like movie-watching or social media scrolling, etc, but I'm just saying they should never take the place of the more important things. Sure enough I do those things at night. After all, all work and no play make Jack dull. But remember to keep it balanced. Your future self will thank you for that.
"I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance—sometimes working into the night alone." — Steve Jobs
Let the midnight be a time or both fun and purposefulness. Be purposeful about changing your life and spend your midnight time doing that. Then throw in some fun, you're a human being after all. I leave you with this:
Spending midnight time on frivolous things is like eating junk food, you'll enjoy it, but in the end it leaves your health battered. While doing the important things at night is like eating healthy food. It might feel like torture now but in the long run it leaves you with good health and a good life.
That means you may enjoy those frivolous activities at night now but at the end of your life you will be left with a failed life and lots of regrets.
Or you can use your midnight wisely now and die with satisfaction and contentment the day you die, because you lived your life well.
All Images are mine.
Thanks for reading.
