The first clock

Developing discipline is all about doing the little things right. Small wins can set the tone of your day, including the very first moment when your alarm clock goes off.

It’s tempting to hit your snooze button in the morning, especially when there’s nothing forcing you to wake up at that time. It’s a decisive moment that can determine the entire outcome of your day, so you might as well use as an opportunity to exercise your discipline. Jocko Willink, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL and author of Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win, explains:

Discipline starts every day when the first alarm clock goes off in the morning. I say ‘first alarm clock’ because I have three... That way, there is no excuse for not getting out of bed, especially with all that rests on that decisive moment... 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, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win — you pass the test. 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.