Most of the successful people I know don’t wake up early and workout.

I used to think the opposite. The motivational YouTube videos I watched told me that success required a 5 a.m. wake-up, a perfectly made bed, and workouts like a Navy SEAL. How you do one thing is how you do everything, they said. I bought in and lived it for over a decade.

But the more I got to know people doing meaningful, high-leverage work, the more obvious it became that many of them weren’t following those “rules.” They weren’t chasing perfect routines. They were focused on doing work that mattered, with clear and well-defined outcomes they cared about. Waking up early doesn’t help if you waste the rest of the day.

I still rise early and train, not because it’s magic, but because it makes me feel good. But I no longer confuse the ritual for the result. The morning routine is just a hammer, it’s only useful if I’m building something that matters.