The 5 am club morning routine is described in Robin Sharma's book; The 5 am club; Own your morning. Elevate your life. The Canadian leadership coach and guru developed this ritual 20 years ago and the book has sold 15 million times.
Mornings are rushed for most people - there is so much to do with so little time. Get up, decide what to eat for breakfast, what to put on, pack, and so on. No wonder so many people dread that. All these decisions and activities create a lot of stress that ultimately takes away the willpower and creates a rushed mood for the day.
However, it's best to save that energy for more important decisions during the day, such as eating healthy or exercising.
Systems, schedules, plans, and routines are all great ways to eliminate unnecessary decision-making and automate good habits. Like a weekly breakfast plan, deciding what to wear the night before, getting workout clothes ready for a morning run. And so on.
So why would you get up early in the first place? And what do you spend all this time on?
Advantages of joining the 5 am club
Most of us have trouble getting out of bed early. It can be very difficult to break out of your routine and get used to waking up at a different time. Some of the most successful people wake up early, like Tim Cook, Apple's CEO who starts his day at 3:45 AM, The Rock is at the gym at 4:00 AM every morning, and Richard Branson starts his daily healthy routine at 5:45 AM. If the big ones are part of the 5am club why isn't you? Some of the enormous benefits of the 5 am club routine;
- Helps you stay healthy - lets snoozer often skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day!
- It increases your productivity - there are fewer distractions early in the morning
- Helps you improve mental health by taking the stress out of a rushed morning (or day)
- Gives you more time to exercise - no more excuses for being too busy
- Improves the quality of your sleep by giving you a more consistent routine
Listed below are the 5 best morning rituals that are part of the 5 am club routine;
Warm up and exercise
According to the 5 am club supporters, the best way to stay consistent with training is to do it first thing in the morning. There is always a high chance that something will surface during the day. Meetings can overrun, traffic jams, dinners with friends. More often than not, evening workouts are skipped or interrupted as a result.
Exercising in the morning completely removes any excuse for not being active or healthy. Arguments like 'I have no energy after work' or 'I don't have time' just don't work anymore.
In addition, our physical energy peaks in the morning when we are rested. Morning training therefore offers the greatest training benefit. It doesn't have to be a difficult session. Even 10-15 minutes spent daily mobilizing the muscles and joints or doing yoga work wonders for overall well-being.
Meditation
The second part of the 5 am club is meditation. Meditation is a very powerful exercise that learns to control the mind and thoughts. It teaches you to focus on what you want to focus on, fight distractions and negative thoughts, and resist bad habits.
Practicing it in the morning will get you off to a good start and the skill will improve much faster as you learn to control an already calmer mind. Starting slowly is very important in this case.
Keeping a diary and planning
Often times, motivation and inspiration to do something comes from identifying smaller and easier actions. The 5 am club pretends that keeping a diary and daily schedule helps break down complex tasks, thoughts and feelings into smaller actionable items - record and analyze them.
Both activities are great for bringing about change in life, but require "empty space" - time when you have no obligations and nothing to do. Morning is the best time for both. You have all the time in the world to think about the idea that came to your mind, act on the inspiration or just plan your day.
When the idea comes up all day, there is usually not enough time to think about it and develop it, let alone act on it. Instead, people tend to postpone the "creative process" or delay it until a day when they "have more time for it." By then the inspiration is gone.
Self development
Finally, the 5 am club routine indicates that the morning is also the time to invest in yourself. Read a book or choose a course and study. You can learn a new language every day for 30 minutes.
I always thought to maximize my time by staying up late and doing everything at night. I thought in the worst case scenario I still have a full night ahead of me. The pattern I generally followed was to procrastinate for weeks and then rush through the night and work when my brain is tired. When I started doing a little bit every morning, I found that it gives discipline, order and, most importantly, momentum. I just get more done.
Early in the morning it is time to discover yourself and what inspires you. There is no longer any excuse for not having enough time - it is about what priority you give to yourself.
Many people think they should go to a tropical location to be inspired and to recharge.
The advantage of the 5 am club is that you can do the above rituals every day and pick up where you left off, while not escaping to a tropical location as often as you would like.
Are you convinced and will you also become part of the 5 am club?
Sources include; Business Insider (link)
