There’s something about exercising at night that flexes your muscles so much harder. You get a better pump. You burn more calories. You lift 5,000 more pounds. You feel more accomplished… you know why?

Because you did it at the END of the day. You did it when you had your ass kicked all day. You sat in a car. You drove to work. You had your mental bandwidth stolen and occupied by people that didn’t deserve it. You haven’t been asleep since 6am and now that you’re home you need to play with your kids, your dog Zeus needs to go out for a walk, and the pipes are leaking.

That’s now taken care of. Guess what else you got done? Your exercise.

Maybe you did it in between these fun activities or maybe afterwards. Maybe before and after.

But you did it. It got done when you were exhaaaaaaausted and all you wanted to do was shut your brain and body off while staring at a box of sound and color for an hour or 2. Is that too much to ask?

When you want your body to feel right? I guess so. What I’ve learned and what I’m trying to express to you, the reader, is that to do anything taxing when you’re exhausted at the end of the day is at least 5x more difficult. It’s one thing to workout at 8am when you’re juiced with energy as compared to 8pm. It’s easier to eat healthy in the beginning of the day because nothing has really stressed you out… and let’s be honest, we all start with the best intentions. Can we end the day the same way? It’s easier to WRITE at the beginning of the day because your brain is fresh and words aren’t as hard. Plus… that morning coffee just hits so different. If you wait an hour or more, the effects of caffeine are just far less subtle when you let your body wake up without ingesting a substance that manufactures the feeling. Plus it’s a free poop!

What’s also common between these things is that the work will suffer. You’re tired. You’re going to phone in at least a portion of it. I know, I’m doing it right now.

Things get in the way the later you get into the day. If you wake up and get cracking right away, no one is calling. Email isn’t blowing up. You’re not in traffic. You still have plenty of time to get everything else done. It’s quite the feeling knowing that today still has the possibility to be that lucky day. At 9:23 at night, we’ve kind of waved goodbye to that ship. It was a great day, but at no point did we win the lottery. But we’re lucky enough to made it through the day. That could be the little lottery we won. If we get through life and we find that we’ve won nothing but the little lottery tickets every day, that’ll add up.

To what, you ask?

I have no idea. I’m one of those guys trying to build my “nighttime muscle.” Getting shit done at night, when you’ve gotten everything else done. Congratulations on your mini-lotto ticket. I’m sure as we get better at doing it at night, our work will improve. The little lotto-ticket will add to tomorrow’s, t he day afters’ and even yesterdays.

Keep adding your little wins together. Keep getting shit done, even at night, when you’re exhausted and want to dick around. Then when you’re full of energy and get a chance to do it early, you’ll succeed even harder. HAHDAAAAAH! I’m tired. Goodnight.

/LittleWins