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A minute of silence – a chance to listen to the wind and waves crash against the pebbles, and to watch across the Solent at the lights of a cruise ship in the distance – then we charge into the water, although some of the ‘between us (me) are more provisional. There are cries and gasps from the shock of the cold; grinning, smiling faces lit by a portable projector.
It is barely 6 am and it is still dark. It’s also the windiest and rainiest weather this group has ventured into, but 12 impressively hardy have arrived. On a good day, about 30 gather every Friday at 5.30am in Gosport, Hampshire, for a two mile walk along Stokes Bay, followed by a dip in the sea. ‘It changed my life’ , says a man, who has been coming since the start of the group last year. He says meeting strangers and the welcoming atmosphere made him talk about his mental health and seek help. Kerry started coming in October last year and says the weekly reunion has helped relieve the seasonal affective disorder she usually suffers from this time of year. “Before, I slept 10, 11 hours,” she says. “If you had told me last year that I would get up at this time every week to do this, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
The group – Win the Morning, Win the Day – was formed in August last year by Chris Reeves, a physical training instructor in the Royal Navy. He had struggled with the isolation and lack of structure during his days throughout the first lockdown, and knew others must feel the same. After hearing a podcast with mixed martial arts fighter Mark Scanlon, talking about the 5:30 a.m. circuit workouts and sea swims he was racing in Liverpool, Reeves decided to create his own. Scanlon used the phrase “win the morning, win the day,” which is what Reeves decided to call the group. It’s a mantra popularized by American entrepreneur and productivity guru Tim Ferriss, which has become popular in motivational circles. Ferriss has asked many high achievers about their morning routine, with the idea that if you make your morning a success (if you “win” it) it’s a good start to the rest of the day. Her own morning rituals include making her bed and keeping a journal; for the Gosport group, it’s more about walking, talking, undressing, going for a dip, then having a coffee and then chatting.
In the first week, just over a year ago, 60 people showed up to join Reeves. His group has since spawned others in Surrey, Kent, Preston, Cumbria, Manchester and Southsea, across the water in Portsmouth. There is one in Gibraltar, he says, and another in South Africa. Two people reached out to Reeves this week to discuss forming groups. It’s a bit like parkrun, the 5km race that takes place every weekend in parks around the world – a simple idea, organized by passionate volunteers.
Why does Reeves think Win the Morning, Win the Day is taking off? “It’s free, I don’t sell anything, and it’s a welcoming environment for anyone who wants to step out of their comfort zone,” he says. “I don’t like the sea, I don’t like cold water. But the reason I do this is because it puts me outside of my comfort zone. Challenging yourself, he believes, builds mental resilience, although the sea swimming element is not essential. The inhabitants of the landlocked areas have been in contact to create their own groups. It’s more about getting out of bed and meeting other people.
Win the Morning, Win the Day put people in touch at a time when many may have been missing touch with friends and family, and provided a space where the focus is on mental health and friendship. , not about fitness or tough challenges. Reeves clarifies that no one should go overboard if they don’t want to. “I have and suffer from poor mental health,” he says. “I know my triggers for it and I know how to take care of myself. Some days are OK, some days are bad, and that’s good.
Hearing about the Scanlon group on this podcast “just triggered something and I thought, ‘I could do it.’ During this three-kilometer walk, I had more in-depth conversations with people I had never met before than with friends in their 20s or 30s, ”he says. “People became friends, some people stopped drinking. Some people previously didn’t go out of the house, some people didn’t like groups. I am immensely proud, not of myself, but of everyone who made it what it is. I don’t force people to be friendly, kind, and positive. This is exactly what we attracted.
They are like: when it is clear that I have drastically undressed for the weather, a member, Paul, lends me raincoats. And out of necessity, when swimming outside in the dark, you have to be careful with each other.
Getting together early to exercise isn’t a new idea, but Win the Morning, Win the Day has a catchy name, a growing community (the Facebook group has over 3,000 members), and an easily replicable format. Michelle Tucker started her band in Surrey – they walk, then swim in the Thames – in October last year, after seeing Reeves in a BBC clip and contacting him. “I think it’s its simplicity – bringing people together, getting together early, starting the day right,” she says. “People are open and honest, and share really intimate things – they can have mental health issues, they can be isolated, and they just talk to each other. Or it’s just fun and a “really liberating thing to do” to go swimming in the dark at 6am. “You feel like a kid again because you are doing this fun activity. The inhibitions disappeared out the window.
There’s a clear sense of accomplishment – it’s good to know you’ve been doing something healthy (walking, socializing, and the evidence accumulates of the benefits of cold water immersion) before you go. Most people don’t get out of bed – and knowing that anything is going on for the rest of the day, at least that has been achieved. But the emphasis seems to be on mental and physical well-being, not necessarily on maximizing productivity and getting up early just to cram more into the day, which is what characterizes so much of the propaganda on the subject. early morning fitness.
There are many books and great online communities devoted to the morning rituals of CEOs, politicians, artists and other high achievers, with the implication that if only you could get up at 4 a.m., a success. Similar – or at least the ability to do a little more – would be at hand. But what if they get up early because they’re CEOs, rather than becoming CEOs because they got up early?
Leadership coach Fiona Buckland observes that some of the ‘externally successful people’ she works with have to get up early to deal with the amount of work that needs to be done and ‘the early start mantra is to make it a virtue of need. . They are incredibly ambitious and also come under immense pressure from investors and shareholders to deliver results, so stress can be a big motivator to find more hours in the day. They also, she says, “tend to be drawn to extremes and risk-taking, rather than moderation and self-care, and some of the extreme early-rising routines are more a symptom than a cause of them. drive”. While we are encouraged to view these punitive regimes as disciplined and impressive, “the hidden underside is the high level of burnout, alcoholism, depression, mental illness, relationship breakdown, insomnia, high blood pressure and heart disease, ”she said.
While Buckland is all about “optimizing your performance, let’s include a few more ideas so people have a wider range of options and practices, and can find out what works for them.” This may not include an early start. She advises finding out, by experimenting, when you are at your best to work on the projects that matter most. “For example, I know when my peak hours are for creative, fluid, and fluid thinking and I protect that. It’s not 5 am, especially in winter when it’s dark, ”she says.
We each have a chronotype – loosely defined as a lark (a morning person) or an owl (more alert during the late hours), although few of us are 100% either, and l The balance can change with age – and that would be “madness,” says Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, to tell a type of owl: “You should get up early and be productive then. This goes against their natural sleep-wake rhythms.
The best way to have a good day isn’t necessarily to jump in the sea – or wake up at 2:30 in the morning and then pray, exercise, play golf and have a ‘cool down’. cryogenic chamber ”as actor Mark Wahlberg does – but just to get a good night’s sleep, says Espie. “It is the primary fuel for alertness, focus, productivity, emotional function, mental health and so many physical things like immune function and cell regeneration. Make sure you get enough and good quality sleep, as even small losses of sleep create difficulties for the brain, as well as for concentration, productivity and emotions. Trying to go against your chronotype “will be more likely to be counterproductive. Yes [an owl type] force themselves to get up early, they may have trouble getting to bed earlier to sleep on the other end of the line. As a result, they will lack sleep, which will do more harm than good in terms of emotional health and productivity. “
So don’t feel bad if you’re not at 5:30 am to socialize and swim in the great outdoors – blame it on your chronotype. But I’m a lark, and – after being warmed by layers of dry clothes and a lot of smugness – I can see the allure. For the rest of the day, I feel the memory of the shiver of seawater on my skin, I’m in a good mood, and I feel like I’m “winning” at something, even intangible. Reeves says, “It’s not about affecting everyone, but this message that I get most of the time, which says, ‘I really needed this today.’ This is my job done.
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