The 5AM Club
THE 5 AM CLUB: OWN YOUR MORNING. ELEVATE YOUR LIFE
Author: Robin Sharma
My Rating: 6.5/10
Length: 336 Pages
DESCRIPTION
For more than four decades, Robin Sharma has crossed the globe helping people lead lives that inspire the world. Now, in The 5 AM Club, he shares his original insights and the battle-tested tools he has developed by working with the most successful people on the planet. Based on the key insight that winning starts at the beginning of the day, Sharma shows how you can reduce stress, improve focus, unleash uncommon creativity, achieve exponential productivity and restore balance.
Just one hour a day can change your life.
The Book In 3 Sentences
At its core, it’s about how to win our mornings and make the most of our time and days by waking up at 5 am every day: it is a fictional story of 3 people — the billionaire Stone Riley who teaches ‘the entrepreneur’ and ‘the artist’ the benefits of rising early every morning.
Installing a new habit basically comprises of three stages. The first stage is Destruction, the second stage is Installation and the third stage is Integration. The entire process takes approximately 66 days - this is based on the research studies conducted at University College London.
The morning mastery routine is called the 20/20/20 framework for the first hour of your day. The framework is three sets of twenty minutes for the following: Move, Reflect & Grow
My Thoughts & Who Should Read It?
Writing that is often so bad that I laughed out loud; fiction is NOT Robin Sharma's gift and hard to understand how his editor would allow this to be published in its current form. Forced dialogue, shallow characters, overall clumsy storytelling.
BUT, if you can get past the bad storyline - there are some lovely, powerful ideas here. Timeless advice and useful guidance and tips on achievement, habit development, life in general, and a variety of personal growth/development ideas.
This would have been a GREAT and really useful 20 page eBook guide if stripped of the shallow, repetitive, awkward storytelling.
If you’re someone who is looking to ease your way into personal development, I’d say this would be a good starting place to begin with, a fiction-based self-help book that is simple to understand.
Also, if you’re someone who has been waiting for a change and needs to be fired up - Robin has ALOT of practical frameworks you can start that next day and does a great job at motivating the reader.
How The Book Changed Me
This book is what triggered my whole personal development journey. It holds a special place in my life as the catalyst to why I started working on myself.
I was someone who used to sleep in till 12/1 pm on the weekends and roll out of bed 2min before my first meeting at work during the weekdays.
At the end of the book, Robin gives you free access to his 66-day 5 AM challenge app which is the first time I’ve seen a personal development book propel its insight into actionable advice.
And if you follow me on social media, you know that I actually completed the challenge! I woke up for 66-days at 5 am, and it’s now the cornerstone of my personal transformation story. Read more about my story here.
This book quite literally changed my life.
But, even after all that, I do recommend this book cautiously (personally rating it a 6.5/10) since the book is 85% fluff and with very awkward storytelling at times, but if you can get past that I do think the other 15% of information is absolute pure gold.
My Top 3 Quotes
“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.”― Robin S. Sharma
“A bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul.” ― Robin S. Sharma
“Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.” ― Robin S. Sharma
Best Big Ideas
Please Note: The following is a collection of highlights taken straight from the book and online resources. Most of them are direct quotes. Some are paraphrases. Very few are my own words.
MANY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE A DAILY HABIT OF RISING EARLY
Those who achieve fame and success aren’t simply born with talent and drive. To be great, you’ve got to put in the work.
There have been many over the years that have committed to rising early every morning. The early wake-up sets a positive and productive tone for the day ahead.
HABIT INSTALLATION PROTOCOL
Installing a new habit basically comprises three stages. The first stage is Destruction, the second stage is Installation and the third stage is Integration. A powerful point that we can learn from this framework is that all change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.
The entire process takes approximately 66 days. This is based on the research studies conducted at University College London.
The first stage of creating any new habit Destruction is much like overcoming inertia. In order to change our previous patterns and rewire our brain, we need to put a lot of energy into the beginning.
The second stage is Installation that can also be referred to as the “messy middle”. Previously established foundations are further torn down so that the new better ones can be set up. It’s very likely to feel stressed out, overwhelmed, confused, and frustrated during this stage.
The third and final stage is Integration when it all comes together. As you enter this stage, you’re more skilled and in better touch with your Higher Self. This is success time. All the hard work, sacrifice, and suffering along with your grit and courage come together as the new habit that you’ve been working on integrates at a mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual level.
At around the sixty-six-day mark, it locks as an automatic routine, and that’s the Automaticity Point - it becomes your new reality from now on.
MASTERY MORNING ROUTINE
In the book, Robin shares the 20/20/20 framework mastery morning routine template for the first hour of your day. The framework is three sets of twenty minutes for the following.
Physical exercise: This can be a gym session, some yoga, or even a short run.
Reflection: Fill in a journal, or meditate.
Learning: Read a book, listen to a podcast or read a newspaper
You can tweak the morning routine to suit you. For example, you may want a longer workout.
The routine should be done every day for 66 days, which is, on average, the time it takes to make a behavior a habit.
THE ART OF DAY-STACKING
Small, daily seemingly insignificant optimizations when done consistently over time lead to stunning results. World-class isn’t about revolution but evolution. These micro-wins, done daily, over time stack up.
Your days are your life in miniature and as you handcraft your day, so you create your life. Therefore, great mornings lead to great days, great days turn into great months, and great months become incredible years.
So don’t focus on BIG transformations - focus on tiny, daily triumphs and transformations.
And those, when done every day will create momentum that over time will stack into a tsunami of mastery.
THE FOUR INTERIOR EMPIRES
To be a genius and successful in the long run, we need to take care of these four interior empires:
Mindset: Relates to the psychological aspect of our being, our thinking, our optimism.
Heartset: Relates to our emotional intelligence. How good are we at managing our own emotions?
Healthset: Relates to our physical fitness.
Soulset: Relates to spirituality or if you are not religious - self-confidence and belief in ourselves.
By taking care of these four empires, on a personal level, we can all achieve truly phenomenal things and obtain life goals we have held forever. Forget to work on any 1 of them and you’ll suffer later in life.
THE ESSENTIALNESS OF SLEEP
Deep sleep is incredibly important for enhanced creativity, peak productivity, and exceptional performance. If we don’t sleep well, we won’t be able to properly execute The 20/20/20 Formula. What makes an impeccable performance is a delicate balance between the mastery of our morning routine and the optimization of our evening ritual.
There’s a wave of sleep deprivation sweeping across the globe, also referred to as ‘a ferocious global sleep recession’ in the book. The advancement of the Internet, social media, and video-streaming platforms and the increased absorption with our devices are the main contributors to this.
When we don’t get to bed on time and get enough hours of sleep, it makes it incredibly difficult to wake up early. Along with that, it diminishes our work performance, productivity, health, and happiness.
Studies are now confirming that in order to ensure optimum levels of creativity, productivity, vitality, and longevity, we need five complete ninety-minute sleep cycles, which is seven and a half hours of sleep each night. It’s best to design our own pre-sleep ritual that can help us prepare for bedtime and sleep consistently for the long-term. (If you’re interested, you can check out Robin’s Pre-Sleep Ritual of Iconic Producers Deconstruction framework mentioned in the book.)
If you’re interested in learning more about sleep, read my book notes on one of my favorite books ever — Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD.
HOW TO BE TRULY BE GREAT
The best thing about self-improvement is that it is never finished, you have to continue to step outside your comfort zone, even after your life is changing for the better.
If you continually push yourself past what is comfortable, regardless of what you’ve already accomplished, you’ll continue to grow.
This dissatisfaction and need for more are exactly what pushes great people forward. Anyone who has the motivation to succeed can do the same.
