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Five more minutes.

We whisper it to ourselves like a promise.

But let's be honest—it's not a promise.

It's a bedtime bribe.

A negotiation we have no intention of honoring.

Five minutes later, what do we say?

“Maybe just five more.”

Suddenly, it's an hour later.

We’re still tangled in bedsheets.

Delaying the inevitable.

We don’t want to face reality. Not yet.

The world can wait.

It's funny how our brain plays tricks on us.

We make plans. Then find creative ways to dodge them.

A simple task like waking up becomes a loophole game.

Just enough to fool ourselves.

We’re the prosecutor and the defense lawyer in our own courtroom.

The prosecutor wants discipline. Goals. Accountability.

But the defense lawyer?

He’s got a softer argument:

“Come on, it's cold outside that blanket. Just five more minutes…”

This debate isn’t about the extra five minutes.

It’s about control.

That moment of rebellion against it.

Against strict schedules. Deadlines. To-do lists.

It’s a quiet protest.

Our way of saying, for just a moment, we’re not dictated by alarms.

And it’s comforting, isn’t it?

To believe we’re still in charge.

That in a world of endless demands, we have the power to say, “Not yet.”

But the truth is different.

Time doesn’t bend to our will.

“Five more minutes” isn’t freedom.

It’s a delay tactic.

A way to postpone the discomfort of action.

Yet, this comfort can be our biggest enemy.

All great things—every breakthrough, every success—begin when comfort ends.

The moment we get out of bed.

Literally and metaphorically.

We all know it.

We’ve read the books. The quotes. The “Rise and Grind” slogans.

But knowing it and doing it?

Two different beasts.

The difference between those who achieve and those who dream?

It’s not intelligence or talent.

It’s that tiny moment where the prosecutor wins.

Where “five more minutes” is replaced by action.

Getting up.

Rolling out of comfort and into discomfort.

Finding that, just maybe, those five minutes weren’t worth the lie after all.

For a while now, I’ve found a way around this lie.

Part of my early rising routine involves a nudge from my Apple Watch.

No blaring alarms. No startling buzzers.

Just a gentle nudge on my wrist.

And trust me, it works.

Once that nudge hits, I get up immediately.

Before the defense lawyer has a chance to kick in.

Do I hate it? Absolutely.

Some mornings, it’s downright annoying.

It takes a couple of minutes to adjust. To shake off the fog.

But at least I’m standing.

Out of bed. Facing the day.

There’s more resistance to getting back into bed than staying up.

It works.

It’s simple.

It’s annoying.

But it gets me up—every day, without fail.

So tomorrow morning, when you hear that whisper—“five more minutes”—remember:

Comfort never made history.

Comfort never won the day.

The real power we seek isn’t in delaying decisions.

It’s in making them when it’s hardest.

Maybe it's time to get up.

For real, this time.