It’s amazing what can happen in a moment of silence, a moment of solitude, a moment of reflection. To revel in the sheer awe of our ability to be conscious beings with a sense of self-awareness unparalleled on this planet, sentience.

Yet, over the duration of our lives, we are taught to occupy our cognitive capacities with external items. This is done at an increasingly exponential rate as our lives progress, making us divisive individuals and as such increasingly isolated from our ability to forge our own awareness.

Authority is a necessary part of human society. But for some people, authority goes beyond the reasonable role of maintaining order, and becomes a controlling and eroding force, hampering personal development.

One of the most common problems new writers struggle with when they start to write is finding their own voice.

In this post, I'll share a "hack" that I've been using to help find my voice, overcome writer's block, and be more pro-active with my writing.

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus changed the world by demonstrating that the Earth revolves around the sun. Until then, most people in Europe believed the opposite was true, and this shaped how they viewed and perceived the Universe. Copernicus's discovery didn't change the nature of the Universe itself in any way, he only changed how we viewed it—but this change has had a marked effect on science, religion, and philosophy, the perceptions of mankind, ever since.

I recently listened to Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, on Bulletproof Radio Podcast discuss his book and some of the habits of these highly successful people. One of them struck a chord with me: an overwhelmingly high percentage of the wealthy people he researched woke up hours before they went to work. The more I researched the habits of people I admire, the more I realized how common this is. Not only is waking up early common, the activities they perform also have an uncanny overlap.