The 5am Club - Robin Sharma | Summarized Books

The 5 Am Club

The First Members Of The 5 Am Club

This book narrates the coming together of three individuals leading three distinct lives. One was an artist that is yet to unlock his true potential, the second was an entrepreneur that was on the verge of losing all she had worked for, and the third looked very much like a homeless man. The three met in an optimization seminar anchored by a well-known pseudo-guru, the spellbinder.

Halfway through the spellbinder’s powerful presentation, he collapsed, and what ensued afterward will take you down a path that will change your life, and that of the three main characters forever. In the midst of the raucous caused by the spellbinder’s collapse, these three individuals got talking. While at it, the entrepreneur and the artist could not help but notice the way the homeless guy carried himself — his words and charisma contradicted his looks.

He spoke of his vast wealth, how he became successful by following the principles of the spellbinder, which had helped him transcend the norm. He spoke of his knack for surrounding himself with people and things that value the importance of quality. He asserted that this decision had helped him preserve his peace and revamp his joy. By keeping only people that get him around, he has learned to express himself freely, without worrying about the stereotype that comes with.

Furthermore, the scrupulous looking man reiterated that he had found out that spending time with people that would drain you of your zeal to become exceptional is dangerous. As such, it is vital that you vibe with individuals with the same mindset, heart set, souls, and healthiest as our environments influence our output.

Furthermore, he explained how he had come to see that service to humanity is the sole motivation of all the people that had left an imprint on history. True wealth and fulfillment come when you have subjected your life’s work to uplifting other people. In addition, he condemned today’s social economy that thrives on the narratives that people need to grow up to become successful. Therefore. We often forget to appreciate the little things, and in contrast, we grow accustomed to the ordinary.

And so, seeing that he had the artist and entrepreneur interested in what he had to offer, he went on to invite them to his beach house where he would unlock some hidden truth about being successful. He told them of the 5 AM club, which he assured would help them optimize their mornings. After they had accepted the offer grudgingly, the unassuming man told them that his driver would pick them up the next morning and drop them at the airport.

With a pinch of faith, both the artist and entrepreneur arrived at the pickup spot, and before long, they were in a Rolls Royce chatting with the chauffeur that claimed that the haggard looking man they had met yesterday was, in fact, a billionaire. He drove them to the airport where a private jet was to take them to Mauritius.

The 5am Club And All Off Its Hidden Secrets

After making the journey to the island, they met the billionaire who reiterated some of the points he had mentioned the day before. He enunciated the importance of getting up at 5 AM and kickstarting tasks that would eventually fuel the day. He told them that he had discovered his ability to capitalize on this strategy had helped him live an above average life.

Starting your day in solitude that is best accessed in the morning will help you retain the sort of focus that would help you optimize your daily tasks. According to the billionaire in this book, generating high-quality output is one of the benefits of joining the 5 AM club.

While drawing on his own ascent from mediocrity to the exceptional, the billionaire went on to inform his guests of how he had learned to block all sources of distraction. He backed this argument up with findings by neuroscientists that our peak mental state is the point where our reasoning is heightened, which drives our perceptive capacity to an all-new level.

Combining this powerful state with a proven methodology, which the billionaire termed the 20/20/20 formula, would improve your prosperity, productivity, and performance. This concept is what helped the billionaire develop his cognitive sense and become a visionary thinker.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

The next morning, at exactly 5 AM, the three gathered at the beach, and the billionaire unveiled the first teaching, which centered on generating better awareness, choices, and decisions. After the revelation, the tycoon asserted that the most successful people have unlocked their capacity to dedicate their time to the tiniest of details. This characteristic is what separates this 5% from the 95% that do not invest theirs all into what they do.

To the tycoon, this 5% have subjected their mentality to granularity, and the other 95% are more inclined to focus on the superficial. As such, your output determines who you are. Individuals that have learned to value their unique personality would never give out outputs that do not speak of their strength or that are below average. And so, the top performers, producers, and professionals sweat to reach perfection, regardless of the time it takes.

On the other hand, average people choose to dedicate their time to their work just for the sake of financial reward or fame. This assertion is why an artist would rather copy financially successful styles to creating unique styles that would reinvigorate his artistry.

It is also why true mavericks and trailblazers have found it hard to fit into standard lifestyles to the detriment of their personal relationships. However, it is possible to adopt the granularity and rigor concept while identifying and avoiding the tropes that could break the way you communicate with the people around you.

History Makers And Their Hidden Truth

The next morning, the tycoon went on to explain how our awareness of the inevitability of death steers us into the realm of living in the now. We tend to forget about the distractions of technologies and social media platforms when we realize that we have so little time to do great feats. And so, we should hold life’s fragility as a constant reminder that we are not here forever. We must make meaning of our little time here, chase our dreams like brave souls, and forego trivial things.

It is here that the mogul revealed four hidden secrets of history makers. Firstly, history makers have Capitalization IQ, a concept coined by popular psychologist James Flynn. This concept defines the fine line between talent and hard work. We do not remember history makers by how much talent that had or have, instead, we remember them for how much of their potentials they were able to unlock.

You must learn to identify your talents, unlock them, and put in work to improve them. This simple fact negates that the “geniuses are born" narrative. Yet, people that had once come up short in their field, and had gone to do great things are living proof that hard work trumps raw talent.

Secondly, the mogul revealed that history makers have cultivated the art of freedom from distractions. As such, you have to choose to focus on only meaningful activities. Your ability to free yourself from dead weight would allow you to increase your productivity tremendously.

As the mogul stated in this book, organizations are losing money because their employees and executives are becoming less fixated on their duties. We tend to undermine ourselves when we have too many irrelevant things eating up our time. The only way to remain unperturbed by the many distractions in today’s world is to screen the things that require our attention

Navigating The Tides Of Life

However, the mogul pointed out that this requires a constant process and adopters have to go through each phase as there are no shortcuts. Your willpower, as it turns out, can adapt to whatever limitations you set up. More so, your brain will continue to grow throughout your lifetime, only if you challenge yourself to expand your horizon. It is vital to escape the comfort zone to unlock your true potential and to also build the fortitude to do the things that success entails.

We tend to give in to our weaknesses halfway through a polarizing journey of self-discovery. Remember that successful people are those that have learned to bend the world to their will and not the other way around. But first, they had to bend their emotions, body, soul, and spirit to the winning way. Without that, they would not accomplish half of what they have achieved.

This will-bending process entails that you reward yourself for reaching new milestones. Once you have identified the things you need to transform, the will that needs bending, and the activities that should drive your morning, then you should ceaselessly repeat the whole process

The 20/20/20 Formula, why the first 20 minutes of every morning should be devoted to a form of exercise

The morning after the empowering session they enjoyed in India, the mentor and his mentees relocated to Rome where he would finally give an expository speech on the 20/20/20 formula. At the beginning of this long-awaited session, the billionaire mentioned that getting up by 5 AM is not necessarily the answer. Rather, it is what you do in the first hour of your mornings that projects or rescinds your daily growth.

The basics of the 20/20/20 formula involve that you invest the first 20 minutes of your morning to a form of exercise. Then, the second twenty minutes should go into meditation and an in-depth reflection while you should ensure that you improve yourself by engaging in learning activities with the last 20 minutes.

To back up this routine, the tycoon explained that starting your day with activities that would make you sweat will help you reduce your cortisol, the hormone for fear. Once you have dialed down this hormone, you can take on the challenges the day might throw at you. In addition, exercising releases cell repairing BDNF — Brain-Derived Neuropathic Factor. These benefits and a lot more will help you get ahead when others are still in their beds.

The Essentialness of Sleep

This session explored the negatives of technologies that seem to deprive us of our sleep time. Furthermore, the spellbinder revealed that the way you spend the latter part of the day is as vital as the way you spend the early part. Staying up late at night makes it a tad difficult to wake by 5 AM to capitalize on the 20/20/20 formula. In turn, this will erode your productivity, performance, and health.

Just as sleep deprivation would shrink your performance and lifecycle, researchers have discovered that oversleeping too is detrimental to your wellbeing. And so, you must find a balance as the spellbinder asserted that seven hours of sleep is ideally the accepted sleeping duration. Once you get a good sleep and practice your optimization routines in the early morning, you should focus on the first hour and half of your working hours to specific tasks.

When doing this, fight the urge to entertain any form of distractions, and subsequently, find time to rest in between long stretches of work. It is vital to use this resting period to fuel yourself for the tasks ahead.

This practice, coupled with others that involve indulging in the benefits of massage, an evening workout session, and constant learning culture, had helped the billionaire maintain optimum productivity levels. You can change your daily routine to one that will sideline digital interruptions, and that will help you focus on the needful.

Capitalizing on the twin cycle of elite performance

Weeks into this exasperating encounter with life-changing values, the entrepreneur and the artist discovered that great people become who they are by sustaining elite performances throughout a year. The constant attainment of world-class outputs through their lifetime is the difference between legendary status and one-time performers.

Longevity, as the billionaire noted, comes only when you establish work-rest periods that will help you keep growing. In contrast, the “work until you burnout” narrative would only put you in the spotlight for a limited time after which exhaustion kicks in. Remember that the goal is not to optimize production in the short-term. Instead, you should focus on establishing yourself as a constant performer.

The tycoon highlighted that elite performers rely on a twin working cycle that alternates High Excellence Cycle (HEC) and Deep Refueling Cycle (DRC). Apparently, this twin cycle shuffles focused work-centric periods with a recovery period that involves resting and fun. It is imperative to take a break from intense periods which pushed your willpower to the limits, go on vacations, find fulfillment in little things, and live each second to the fullest.

By so doing, you will discover that when you return to work, you return with more vigor. This jolt of commitment and power is a result of the serenade effects of rest and maintaining a blissful existence.

Conclusion

The teachings of the billionaire, as well as that of the spellbinder, mildly reminds us of what it takes to become great in your industry. There are no shortcuts to success, and so you should giddy up, optimize your mornings, improve your daily output, and change the way you see your work and its impact in the world.

Try as much as possible to sleep by 10 PM so that you can start your day by 5 AM. This practice will help you take advantage of the solitude and tranquility of mornings to optimize your body, soul, and mind.