#MondayMotivation #The5amClub by Robin Sharma #MondayBlogs #PersonalGrowth

Over the past months I’ve been reading a great number of motivatioal and inspiring books on the topic of personal growth. I’ve also been listening to podcasts and watching videos on YouTube. This interest has sprung from a combination of factors as I’ve recently reached a few significant milestones in my life; I retired and turned sixty and I have five grandchildren between the ages of three months and nine years. I am concerned with aging, health, and emotional wellbeing, as well as my children and grandchildren’s future challenges. I have more time to reflect and more things to reflect on, so I’ve found these books, podcasts and videos very helpful, especially in these uncertain and volatile times in which nothing can be taken for granted. I’ll be sharing my thoughts with you on Mondays.

This Monday I’m feauring a book called The 5am Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life, another useful book about taking control of your mornings from the moment we wake up and making the rest of that as good as it can be.

The first thing I have to say is that I read the book some months ago with no intention of getting up at 5am, beacuse I’m fortunate enough to be retired and my own boss, so I own my whole day.

I do help with my grandchildren regularly, but I don’t have the responsibility of looking look after a family. Also, I’m retired from my previous salaried employment, as a teacher and professor, and although I’m a writer, which means I write for several hours every day, I don’t have a strict timetable, and I love reading late at night, so 5am doesn’t work for me, at the moment.

You may wonder why I read this book and if I found it helpful. Well, I read it because I wanted to reaffirm and improve my morning routine, which we all have, even if we don’ call it that or verbalise it specifically. This book has helped me do just that; Understand the value of having a morning routine and making sure the three key aspects Robin Sharma talks about, activating mind, body and soul, are consciously inbedded, in some way, throughout my morning.

By the way, I’ll be telling you all about my morning routine, next week!

Leadership and elite performance expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club concept over twenty years ago, based on a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health, and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity.

Robin Sharma explains, by means of ample examples and through a dialogue between  a tycoon and his menor, how the habit of early-rising has helped so many successful people accomplish epic results while upgrading their happiness, helpfulness and feelings of aliveness.

He proposes a formula to wake up early feeling inspired, full of energy and focused. One of the key concepts  is that getting up while everyone is sleeping gives us precious time to think, express our creativity and begin the day peacefully instead of running around in a mad rush to keep up with life’s demands and transform our lives.

 

The most practical and well-known part of the book, is his 20/20/20 rule. He suggests we reserve the first 60 minutes of our day for personal preparation.

The first 20 minutes should be spent doing intense exercise, because sweating releases BDNF, a brain chemical that grows neural connections. Working out also releases dopamine (the neurotransmitter of motivation) and serotonin, which makes you feel happy.

The second 20 minutes should be spent reflecting on our long term annual plans and goals. This can be done by journaling, meditation, etc. Because this will deepen our focus throughout the day.

The final 20 minutes of our mornings should be spent learning something, reading, or listening to a podcast, basically feeding our minds.

Robin Sharma has plenty of material on his blog where you can learn more about his proposals.

He also has a great YouTube channel where you can listen to him tell you all about how to make the most of your morning, improve your well-being and be successful in whatever you do.

I like the idea of tending to you body, soul and mind, every day, at the start of the day, before you begin your ‘real’ daily demands of life and work, and I think it’s great for busy people. I can see how this routine could help a certain type of young, very active and ambitious person.

However, I’m in a different stage of my life, and although I make sure I’m actively and consciously tending to my mind, body and soul every single day, I don’t think I have to do it at 5am, or in that order, or even all at once.

Do you think waking up at 5am would work for you?

Here’s the link if you’d like to read my other posts on #PersonalGrowth