“Goggins It”: How To Build A Successful Routine As A Freelancer 

My average day isn’t very fun. 

I wake up at five and try to be at the desk no later than 5:30. From that time to around 10 or 11, it’s straight work. 

I might get up for a couple of cups of coffee, some pushups and pullups to move the body, and a bit of banter when my girlfriend wakes up — but that’s about it. 

After my five or six hours of work, I’ll take a break. Maybe I’ll grab something to eat or do my full workout. After that, it’s back to the desk until dinner time. I try to squeeze meditation in there somewhere, but that doesn’t always happen.

After dinner, I try and focus on more fun (but still productive projects). Working on this blog, for example, or writing the book I’ll probably talk myself out of finishing.

Did you know that research suggests the average American worker is only productive for around two hours and 53 minutes of an eight-hour work shift? 

That means that for a 40-hour work week, most people are only spending 15 hours being productive. 

If I drag my ass to this desk and work for only five hours straight in just three days, I can surpass what the average person accomplishes in an entire week.

I’m not the average American worker, and just by the fact that you’re reading this, I’m going to guess you aren’t either. 

For freelancers and entrepreneurs, the rules of work look a little different. 

As any experienced freelancer can tell you, if you’re only productive for three hours a day, you’re not going to be a freelancer much longer. 

I always find it odd that many people think freelancers are a step below full-time employees — that they’re lazy or “don’t have real jobs.” The people who say these people are obnoxiously ignorant. 

Freelancers work harder, longer, and faster than any salaried worker out there. They have no other choice. They traded in the security of a 9-to-5 for the unpredictability and excitement of charting their own course. 

Their income is directly tied to their effort and the time they devote to honing their skills. While a traditional employer is willing to pay people for a dozen coffee breaks, idle banter by the water fountain, and the occasional lap or two around the office, freelancers get no such privilege. 

As a result, most full-time freelancers work harder than the average employee. 

Make no mistake about it: freelancers are professionals — professional hustlers. 

Now, do you have to wake up at five in the morning and keep your eyes glued to the screen for five hours just to be successful? No, not really. But I think you can benefit greatly by doing things that make you uncomfortable. 

When it comes to productivity, my logic is quite simple. 

Like everyone else, I have hopes, dreams, and aspirations for a better future. I am 100% clear on what these things look like, and I have no intention of stopping until I achieve my goals. 

These goals are quite ambitious and probably seem impossible to the average person. I admit, not so long ago, they seemed impossible to me, too. 

But rather than convince myself they are impossible or that I don’t really want them in the first place, I have welcomed a high degree of discomfort into my life in order to achieve them. 

Why? Because I believe a bit of discomfort in the short term can lead to a much more comfortable life in the long term. I also believe that discomfort isn’t a bad thing and that we all owe it to ourselves to challenge and push ourselves beyond our limits. 

I wanted to share a bit of my philosophy to motivate others to embrace their ambitions and fully commit themselves to pursuing their goals.  

Bookend Your Days

As Darren Hardy — author and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine — puts it, it’s a good idea to ‘bookend’ your days. While you can’t always control how your day goes, you can (for the most part) control how it begins and ends. 

When I first read that in Hardy’s book, The Compound Effect, I thought it was a fantastic concept and immediately started implementing it into my daily routine. 

While the average workday starts at nine, the caffeine usually doesn’t kick in for another hour or two, so I’m mostly left in peace and quiet during that time.

Currently, my morning routine means writing or working on my website. My evening routine is a mix of reading (almost exclusively non-fiction these days) and making a list of all the stuff I have to do tomorrow. 

That’s how I bookend my days, but you can do it however you like, really. The point is to insert a bit of consistency into your routine that no one can take away from you. 

And in general, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Hardy’s book.

I’ve always felt self-help books face a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, it’s difficult to sell a self-help book without promising some sort of secret to unlocking the path to success.

At the same time, a self-help book won’t actually help unless you put in the work to actually apply its teachings. The Compound Effect is a good book that strikes a good balance between practicality and marketability.

“Goggins” Your Daily Routine 

The other reason I don’t sleep in is that I know most people can’t force themselves to get up that early, and I have no urge or intention to be like most people. 

I also seriously admire David Goggins. Ever since I heard his story, I’ve made it a point to push and challenge myself in all things I do. 

Mr. Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL, ultramarathon athlete, public speaker, and author. Back in 2013, he set the world record for most pull-ups in 24 hours: 4025. In 2023, he set a new personal best at 7801 pull-ups. 

And while I have no intention of trying to set a record for pull-ups, I very much admire Mr. Goggins’s mentality when he faces new challenges. 

The natural thought most people have when hearing a number like that is, “How is that possible?” For Goggins, the question is, “How can I do it?”

I believe it’s a fantastic way to approach all of life’s obstacles. 

I think that, as humans, our natural tendency is to hear things that make us uncomfortable and try to disprove them. Maybe we’ll tell ourselves that the person saying it is an outright liar or is greatly exaggerating the truth.

Or, maybe we’ll tell ourselves that this person is somehow different than us. That some special blend of genetics, upbringing, and natural talent created this person we could never be. 

This is the worst mentality you can have. 

When I heard Tim Jennings, one of the most popular and proficient bloggers on Medium, say that he writes 20,000 words a day, I didn’t try and convince myself he was lying; I tried to figure out how to do it. 

I tried to figure it out while simultaneously feeling that it would be almost impossible to write 20,000 words a day. 

Not impossible; almost impossible. There’s a difference. When you say something is impossible, you’re basically saying, “I give up”; You’re just doing it in a way that makes you feel better about it. 

Again, this is why I find David Goggins so inspirational. The man just doesn’t give up. Broken toes, broken knees, broken whatever, it doesn’t matter — he’s going to finish that race. 

And if you want to succeed on your entrepreneurial journey, this is the mental fortitude you will need. 

Remember, you already have this fortitude. If you didn’t, you would have never started down this path in the first place. You would have stayed with the security and safety of a 9-to-5. 

But you didn’t. You wanted something greater. You wanted to be your own boss, start your own business, or do something that could legitimately change the world. 

You can do all those things. In fact, under ideal conditions, anyone can do those things. But life doesn’t give you ideal conditions…

People like to say that life throws you curveballs, but that’s not true either. If you’re standing at the plate, you at least know that the pitcher is going to throw the ball at some point. 

Life isn’t the pitcher. Life is the irate fan who chucks a hotdog at the back of your head from behind home plate. Life is when you twist your ankle before the ball even leaves the pitcher’s glove. Life is dealing with a family tragedy the day before game 7 of the World Series. 

Life is all the shit you don’t see coming and aren’t prepared for. Unfortunately, those are the conditions you’re dealing with. 

So, for me, making myself comfortable with the discomfort is the easiest way to continue on my entrepreneurial journey. 

A day may come when I have no urge or need to wake up at five in the morning, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I’m steadfast in my commitment to powering through whatever this journey brings until I reach my destination. 

Love The Journey Or Find A Different Path 

Here’s another thing worth mentioning: If you find yourself fantasizing about the destination, but the journey feels like torture, you need to rethink your plan. 

Pivot. Try something different. Find the path that feels right to you. 

Pivoting doesn’t make you a quitter; quitting makes you a quitter. 

And look, this is going to happen. I started freelancing as a copywriter, but after a few months, it became apparent that the larger marketing landscape was what interested me most. 

And that doesn’t mean I don’t like writing, studying, and doing everything I can to master my copy chops. In fact, I think I like it way more than the average copywriter does. It’s just that I personally need something else to stimulate me. 

I need to build a website. Do some graphic design. Learn about different selling models and market principles. Study economics. Those are the things that interest me and keep me going. 

And for a while, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself. But rather than throw my hands in the air and keep going through the motions, I sat and stared at a wall until it started to make sense. (I say that more literally than you might think.) 

The point is that I put a great deal of time and effort into figuring these things out. But until I did, I was deep in the valley of despair. 

This is a common theme for lots of copywriters I’ve met on my journey. After writing words that make a ton of money for someone else, you’ll inevitably want to write words that make a ton of money for yourself. 

That means creating your own offer. Of course, creating your own offer comes with much more work and responsibility, so many copywriters talk themselves out of it. They convince themselves it’s impossible. 

But if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to shake the idea. As I see it, quitting would mean continuing down the path of “just” a copywriter. 

Of course, at the same time, pivoting means I’ll have to do something that will make me uncomfortable. I’ll need to learn new skills, put in more work, and challenge myself in ways I never have before. 

It might not always be fun, but it will be rewarding. And the fact that I’m already challenging myself on a daily basis makes it much less intimidating. 

So my advice is this: “Goggins it.” If you know where you’re headed but there are a bunch of roadblocks in the way, confront them head-on and get used to feeling uncomfortable. 

Create a daily routine that 99% of your peers don’t have the stomach for. And when the alarm clock goes off, and you desperately want to hit the snooze button, get up, taking solace in the fact that someone did hit that button somewhere out there. 

But not because you’re in competition with other people. Not at all. I’m not competing with David Goggins or writers like Tim Jennings. It’s not about that. 

It’s about knowing what I am capable of and pushing myself to my limits. It’s about doing what’s best for me so I can achieve my goals. 

Deep down, we all know what we’re capable of. The aversion to discomfort convinces us we can’t do it. 

The simple solution? Get comfortable being uncomfortable. 

Most people don’t need to go to the extreme lengths that people like David Goggins go to in order to achieve their goals. And that’s fine. 

But don’t criticize people who choose to take it to the extreme. 

When a successful public figure shares their seemingly impossible morning routine, don’t call them a liar. Just acknowledge you’re too lazy to do it yourself. 

Never make excuses for yourself or convince yourself that you’re different. 

Just do it.