Own your morning, elevate your life, is the main message in the heroic book titled The 5 A.M. Club by Robin Sharma. Other great books by the same brilliant author include — The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, The Greatness Guide, Who Will Cry When You Die?, Mega Living, The Leader Who Had No Title, The Mastery Manual, The Little Black Book for Stunning Success, The Saint The Surfer and The CEO, the Everyday Hero Manifesto. When you read one title, you will gain a gargantuan appetite to read more of these best-selling books.
Robin Sharma is widely recognised as one of North America’s most electrifying speakers. He is a bright star in the field of leadership and self-improvement. His books are replete with wit and wisdom. The 5 A.M. Club is one of those books you should read, if in case you yearn to be both active and productive in the morning hours. You cannot read this tantalising treatise and still struggle with waking up early in the morning. It will equip you with weapons to overcome the battle of the bed. You will win the war of sleeping for long with no apparent reason.
Ideally, the way you run your first hour to the highest degree, is essential for personal management and mastery. It can entice peak performance. You should make it a usual ritual and routine. Rise up early so that you achieve a lot before noon. Great achievers of the world, wake up before the sun because it is the special part of the day. On the other hand, lackadaisical ones compete with the dead in sleeping. Yet, Proverbs 10:16 warns us, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands and poverty will attack you like an armed man; scarcity will assail you like a bandit.”
Successful people wake up quite early, so that they envision their ideal performance for the day ahead. Their morning routine or ritual, help them to build creative, innovative and productive empires. Empire-makers and history-creators wake up early to prepare themselves for thrills and hills ahead. Most of the people who left indelible footprints on the sands of time, used to wake up early. Beethoven used to wake up at dawn to compose music. So, the quality of your morning practice, influences the daily performance. We win wars in the early light of intense training. Warriors win wars before they walk into battlefields. Triumphs belong to those who take time to prepare properly.
Your creativity, productivity, prosperity, performance, and usefulness to the world, as well as the quality of your private life — will not rise because you wake up at 5 A.M.
Then, it is what you do over the 60 minutes after you wake up that makes the 5 A.M. Club a game-changer. The first one hour after waking up from deep sleep is — The Victory Hour. This one hour can be of great help to you if in case you employ — The 20/20/20 Formula. This entails dividing the 60 minutes into three parts — each taking 20 minutes. The first 20 minutes — Move. The second 20 minutes — Reflect. The third 20 minutes — Grow. It is perfect pattern ― Move-Reflect-Grow. You can change and alter the pattern to fit your desired outcome.
In move, you create time for intense exercise. Engage in an activity that will make you sweat profusely. Breathe deeply to boost your body metabolism. This will help you remain focused and productive. Somewhat, it will raise your energy levels. It will also help you to manage worry, anxiety, tension and stress. It is one of the secrets to long life. It will revolutionise the quality of your days. In the reflection time, meditate, contemplate, pray, plan, and make entries into your journal. This will help you develop an attitude of gratitude. It will raise your skill of self-awareness. It will replenish your pot of wit and wisdom. Your serenity will soar high. You will also attract happiness and bliss. You will entice greater positivity, decreased reactivity, higher creativity and peak performance.
The last part will help you grow and glow. Review your goals, read a heroic book, listen to a phenomenal speech or sermon. Watch an educational video. Study. In turn, your courage, language and knowledge will deepen. Your acumen will escalate. Your confidence will accelerate, as you hone useful skills to manage change. Your income will also become handsome and awesome. There will be domain dominance, and personal growth. It is the best way to stay inspired. Johann Gottfried Von Herder sagely said, “Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.” Using the front-end of your day expertly is such a key determinant of business eminence and personal significance. You must crave for a moment of deep peace, quietude and solitude, before the complexity starts arriving. Contemplate how you are living — and on who you hope to become.
Be thoughtful and intentional on the values you want to be loyal to over the hours ahead of you. Think about how you will behave. Consider what needs to happen, in order for you to have a great day. Construct a legendary life. Reflect on what is most important. Yes, what can constitute a life well lived. Think quietly about the weighty value of purely producing work that represents mastery. Remember your commitment to treating people with utmost respect. Reflection is a source of transformation. Why? Because once you know better, you will be brighter. Many famous geniuses had a habit of sitting in solitude for hours with nothing more than a pad of paper and a pen. Therein, they captured insights that would start flashing across the screens of their imaginations. They valued imagination. No wonder, Albert Einstein put it aptly, “Knowledge will take you from point A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere.” Developing an impressive imagination is a highly important portal into a celebrated fortune. Use the reflection pocket to invent, visualise and dream.
Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do.” Therefore, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails: Explore. Discover. Dream. Dare. Do. All great artists dream about a future few believe is possible. The morning routine should also capture daily diaries. Just write. Do not think too much. Simply download your commitments for the hours ahead. Record your precious ambitions. Activate your attitude of gratitude by listing what is good in your life right now.
Use your journal as a place to process your frustrations, disappointments and resentments in your heart. Do not write only the positive elements of your current life, but also those aspects of your experience that are causing discomfort and pain. The quickest way to escape from the trap of hard emotions is to wield the wisdom to confront them. Feel them and heal them. Name them, and let them go. Put a written voice to the dark energy of life’s burdens to dissolve them. Those who are stuck on toxic emotions fail to bring out their best versions. Focus on the quality not quantity of sleep. Deep sleep enhances creativity, vitality, productivity and longevity. One of the primary ways to invite early death is to fail to have enough hours of quality sleep. Research has proved that it is not only sleep deprivation that kills, but also over-sleep. Nine or more hours, also can shorten life. Then, when you do not have enough hours of deep sleep, you will not be able to wake up early.
The reviewer is an avid reader, author, trainer and peripatetic public speaker.
By Victor Ochieng’
vochieng.90@gmail.com.
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