Wake Up, Sharon—But Not at 5 AM

Why Hustle Culture Sucks, but Making Time for Your Dreams Doesn’t

Make Time for Your Vision—Even in Small Doses

I saw this quote the other day: “If you can wake up at 7 AM to build someone else’s vision, you can wake up at 5 AM to build your own.” And let me tell you, my immediate reaction was, Listen, Sharon, you don’t know me, and you should shut the fuck up.

I mean, really. I’m a busy lady. I’ve got kids, a husband, a house to tend to, and bills to pay. Waking up at 5 AM? Hard pass. The only thing I’m waking up at 5 AM for is if my house is on fire or I somehow won a vacation to a private island. But the more I sat with it, the more I realized... they weren’t entirely wrong. (Ugh, I hate that.)

Now, I’m not about to push hustle culture because that’s toxic, and frankly, I like my sanity. I’m also not saying that sacrificing sleep is the answer—because if I don’t get my 8 hours, I turn into a fire-breathing dragon. But what I am saying is that if you want something—whether it’s a passion project, a side business, better health, financial stability, or just finally finishing that one book you’ve been reading for three years—you have to carve out time for it. (No, manifesting and hoping really hard doesn’t count.)

And no, it doesn’t have to be 5 AM. It could be 30 minutes after the kids go to bed, an hour on a Saturday morning, or even 10 minutes on your lunch break (because let’s be honest, scrolling social media is not a productive use of that time). Small, consistent effort over time builds results. No magic stork is going to drop your dreams off in the middle of the night, despite what those sketchy Instagram ads might imply.