The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life

by Robin Sharma

what makes the most successful achievers so great isn’t their inherent talent but their levels of commitment, discipline, resilience and perseverance. ‘Grit’ is her word to describe these traits.”

“Albert Einstein wrote ‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.’”

The hero does not become great during periods of comfort. The illustrious and noble souls of our world became strong, brave and moral whilst standing resolutely in the storms of adversity, difficulty and doubt. It is in the moment that you face your deepest weakness that you receive the chance to forge your greatest strengths. Real power, then, comes not from a life of ease but one of intense effort, devoted discipline and demanding action in the direction of what your supreme self knows to be right. To continue at a time when you ache to stop. To advance when you long to quit. To persist in the instant when you feel like giving up is to claim your membership among the great warriors and honorable characters who led humanity to a better place through their earned invincibility.

The 5 Scientific Truths Behind Excellent Habits Truth #1: World-class willpower isn’t an inborn strength, but a skill developed through relentless practice. Getting up at dawn is perfect selfcontrol training. Truth #2: Personal discipline is a muscle. The more you stretch it, the stronger it grows. Therefore, the samurais of self-regulation actively create conditions of hardship to build their natural power. Truth #3: Like other muscles, willpower weakens when tired. Recovery is, therefore, absolutely necessary for the expression of mastery. And to manage decision fatigue. Truth #4: Installing any great habit successfully follows a distinct four-part pattern for automation of the routine. Follow it explicitly for lasting results. Truth #5: Increasing self-control in one area of your life elevates self-control in all areas of your life. This is why joining The 5 AM Club is the game changing habit that will lift everything else that you do. The 3 Values of Heroic Habit-Makers Value #1: Victory demands consistency and persistency. Value #2: Following through on what is started determines the size of the personal respect that will be generated. Value #3: The way you practice in private is precisely the way you’ll perform once you’re in public. The 1 General Theory of Self-Discipline Spartans To regularly do that which is hard but important when it feels most uncomfortable is how warriors are born.

“I don’t wish for an easy life because there is no growth of my powers there. Give me a challenging life—one that brings out the finest in me. For this makes an iron will. And an unconquerable character.

“Dreams don’t come true while you’re sleeping.”

ambition without implementation is a ridiculous delusion.

“To remain loyal to your noble ideal not only during the weeks after you thought up the dream but over the long months and perhaps extended years in the parched desert of creative implementation while you endure rejection, exhaustion, the stones of jealous peers, the skepticism of your loved ones, being diverted by other attractive opportunities and finding your way through the isolated winters of self-doubt. This is what separates the also-rans from the icons. Anyone can be great for a minute. The sport of icons is sustaining genius-grade performance over a lifetime. And that takes unusual grit and patience uncommon in these superficial times.

“Top producers make it a habit to do the high-value activities that average ones don’t feel like doing—even when they, too, don’t feel like doing them,” the billionaire continued. “And by practicing the desired behavior over and over, their self-mastery and personal discipline grows. And the new routine becomes automated.”

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

woman’s magnetism comes from a place deeper than merely an attractive face. It was a charm born of struggle, an electricity emanating from hurt, an energy emitting through a formidable intellect and a prettiness formed by her robust resolve to step into a person of true power, wisdom and love.

“This is a fascinating, riveting, confusing and exciting period in the lifeline of the world. For those showing up as victims each morning, and every day, the future will be very hard, dangerous and frightening because they won’t know what hit them. And they’ll be absolutely unprotected to deal with the environmental, economic and societal upheaval that is coming. Yet for the dedicated minority who have habituated a battleproofed morning routine to defend their gifts, cultivated heroic personal restraint and developed a bulletproofed character through the rigorous training of their muscles of self-discipline, the times ahead will be phenomenally rich, harmonious and ultraproductive. Those who have armored themselves against the turbulence on its way by installing a world-class and carefully granulated morning ritual will actually be in a position to leverage all the messiness into humongous opportunity. And transform all the confusion into a supreme sense of clarity, genius and calmness that allows them to win.”

Neglect your power long enough and you’ll eventually believe you don’t have any.

The fact is that such people— good, well-intentioned, talent-filled people—have allowed the forces of their sovereign selves to become corrupted so often they’ve succumbed to a state of acute passivity. Yes, most people are passive instead of active builders of the ambitions within them. And then unconsciously they’ve manufactured a series of excuses about why they can’t show up as leaders in their work and capable creators of their lives because they’re so scared to leave the safety of their stuckedness and make the very improvements that would bring them to glory.”

“You don’t have the brain you want, you have the brain you’ve earned. Or to put it another way, you don’t have the brain you desire, you have the brain you deserve—based on how you’ve been operating it. Spend your days diverted by your devices, tethered to television and majoring in mindless pursuits and your brain will be weak and flabby through your mistreatment of it. Just like other muscles, it will atrophy. And this will result in weaker cognition, slower learning and lower processing power. Your competition will destroy you and your targets will elude you. On the other hand, when you use your brain intelligently by expanding its limits and running it like a titan, it will expand and increase its connectivity causing important gains in your productivity, performance and influence.

Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became “geniuses” (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

“The single best way to build your willpower is to voluntarily put yourself into conditions of discomfort. The Spellbinder calls these ‘Strengthening Scenarios.’ When I was much younger and my ability to command myself to do what I needed to do when I didn’t feel like doing it was much weaker, I’d give in to my lesser urges so easily. My self-discipline muscles were very flabby because I wasn’t exercising them. The Spellbinder knew I needed to become a lot stronger so I could install the 5 AM routine—in a way that stayed with me my whole career. So, he had me actively put myself into situations of hardship. And it worked like magic.”

The real key is to push your brain to develop new neural pathways and to force your willpower muscles to flex and stretch, intentionally working these natural resources up to their highest level. This is how anyone can become so strong, courageous and undefeatable that, no matter what obstacles they face and difficulties they experience, they continue on their quest to meet their glorious goals.

bravery—and the capacity to do the difficult things that are necessary for the fullest expression of your greatness—isn’t a divine blessing. Nope. Not at all. It’s a voluntary practice. Toughness— and a will of iron—takes devotion. So, I very much suggest you begin to suffocate your demons, slay your dragons and hug your monsters by doing more demanding things. This is one of the surest routes to masterful achievement and a private life you’ll be ever so proud of at the end.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

when it comes to fulfilling your gifts, talents, admirable ambitions and instinct to change the world in whatever way most resonates with you, never, ever be reasonable with yourself.”

these exceptionalists began as ordinary people. And through relentless practice and constant drilling to wire in excellent daily habits, their power to manage themselves against their cravings and temptations grew stronger until the culture perceived them as superhumans.”

The Spellbinder taught me: Legendary performers practice being spectacular for so long that they no longer remember how to behave in non-spectacular ways.”

jump straight out of bed before your reasoning mind—the prefrontal cortex—can give you a bunch of excuses about why you should go back to sleep. It’s in this very moment that, by getting out of bed, you build the early-rising neural circuit in your brain through the power of neuroplasticity.

“The way to annihilate the weakest impulses of your lower self and to free yourself of the cravings and temptations that are blocking your best is through ceaseless repetition of the new behavior you’re working hard to install. The word that comes to mind here is steadfast. Be steadfast in your commitment to remaining a lifelong member of The 5 AM Club. Be absolutely dedicated and excuseless in following through on this lifealtering self-promise. Each time you follow through, you’ll deepen the relationship with your sovereign self. Each time you rise at dawn, you’ll purify your character, fortify your willpower and magnify the fires of your soul. I guess what I’m trying to help you two wonderful people appreciate is that the real measure of your majesty is shown not in your outer moments before an audience, but in the soft and early light of lonely practice. You become undefeatable in the world by what you do when no one’s watching.”

“Well, just remember that willpower weakens once it gets tired. Scientists call the condition ‘ego depletion.’ See, you wake up each morning with a full battery of self-control. That’s why I want you to do the activities that are most important to the rise of your inner empires at the time when your capacity is strongest—at 5 AM. Here’s the thing: as you go through your day, going to meetings, checking messages and performing tasks, your ability to self-regulate decreases—and so does your capability to handle temptations and manage weak impulses. The fact that human discipline muscles get tired from all the decision fatigue explains why so many massively successful people end up doing something foolish that destroys their careers. They gave in to the urge that causes their downfall because all day long they were making important decisions. By the time it was evening, they had no willpower left in their battery to manage the craving.”

Persistency sits at the threshold of mastery.

‘for you to upgrade to greatness you must undergo an annihilation of your weakness.’

The Automaticity Point, because habits take around nine weeks to implement. Don’t stop getting up at 5 AM after a week. Don’t give up when it gets messy in the middle of the process. Stay relentless through the entire exercise through all its trials and challenges just like Shah Jahan did as he and his workers constructed the Taj Mahal, building it into one of the wonders of the world. Awesome takes patience. And genius takes time. Stay true in your dedication to carving out an hour for yourself as the sun rises and while the majority sleeps to develop your Four Interior Empires that will set you up to realize all the outer ones that your big hearts long to actualize. Do not neglect the call on you to deploy your fullest talents, magnify your spectacular strengths, multiply your happiness and discover a paradise of peace within you that no outer event can ever reduce. This, my friends, is how you become undefeatable, unbreakable and a true master of your domain. As well as a wonder of the world, in your own unique way.”

Leaders run less by the selfish addictions of the ego and more by the selfless dictates of our greater wisdom.”

#1. To make a habit last, never install it alone. #2. The teacher learns the most. #3. When you most feel like quitting is the time you must continue advancing.

“Any solid achievement must, of necessity, take years of humble apprenticeship and estrangement from most of society.”

“It’s time to stop being a fugitive from your highest self and accept membership into a new order of ability, bravery and understanding of the call on your lives to inspire humanity.”

Procrastination is an act of self-hatred, you know?” “Really?” asked the artist. “Absolutely. If you really loved yourself, you’d relinquish all your feelings of not being good enough to be great and renounce all slavery to your weakness. You’d stop focusing on your deficiencies and celebrate your amazing qualities. Just think about it: there’s no person on the planet today who has the unique stack of gifts that you have. Actually, in all of history, there’s never been even one person exactly like you. And there never will be. Yes, you’re that special. That’s an indisputable fact. So, embrace the full force of your lavish talent, luminous strengths and breathtaking powers. Let go of the destructive habit of breaking the commitments you make to yourself. Failing to keep self-promises is one of the reasons so many of us don’t love ourselves. Not following through on what we tell ourselves we’ll do so destroys our sense of personal worth and dissolves our self-esteem. Keep behaving like that and the unconscious part of you will begin to believe you’re not worth anything. And remember the psychological phenomenon known as The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy I walked you through earlier. We always perform in a way that is aligned with the way we see ourselves. And so, our thinking creates our results. And the less we value ourselves and our powers,” he went on, “the less power we have access to.”

“That’s just the way it all works. So, my suggestion is that you stop putting things off, flex those willpower muscles we talked about inside the Taj Mahal, and make the remainder of your life an exercise in audacity, a testimony to exceptional productivity and a rare expression of unstained beauty. Honor all you truly are by living your genius instead of loathing yourself, by denying your specialness.

‘Train harder. Live longer’ is a smart motto I built my empires by. You now know that one of the keys to legendary is longevity. Do not die. You can’t own your game and change the world if you’re pushing up daisies in a cemetery,”

Tranquility is the new luxury of our society.

“Reflecting on what’s most important to a life beautifully lived will leave you with what The Spellbinder calls ‘residual wisdom’ throughout the rest of the day.

every single one of the sensational edifices in The Eternal City is the product of the imagination of a human being, properly used.

‘you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’”

“Another tactic you can practice at this time is to write out what The Spellbinder calls a Pre-Performance Blueprint. This is simply a written statement of your ideal day ahead. Researchers confirm that pre-commitment strategies work beautifully to increase your focus and discipline to get things done. You’ll have a clear and calibrated script for your day ahead, so it unfolds the way you want it to.

“Clarity breeds mastery. Right?”

Oh, by the way, he formalized writing in a journal for at least a few of the minutes between 5:20 and 5:40 AM with the term ‘Daily Diaries.’ The key when you do this is just to write. Don’t think too much. Simply download your commitments for the hours ahead, record your precious ambitions and activate your gratitude by listing what’s good in your life right now. Please also use your journal as a place to process through any frustrations, disappointments and resentments in your heart so you let them go. It’s miraculous how you’ll release toxic emotions and low energy from your system when you write down your suppressed hurts, freeing up maximum creativity, premium vitality and unmatchable performance.”

Living in the past steals so much energy from most people, you know? This is a massive explanation for why most people are so unproductive.

And calm performers are the highest achievers. There’s nothing crackerjack about meditation, so get over any biases you might have around the skill and go ahead and lock it in. It’s simply one of the world’s best ways to strengthen your focus, preserve your natural power and insulate your inner peace. There’s a lot of wonderful science confirming the value of a regular meditation ritual, so, even if you want to dismiss the method, the data says it works—phenomenally—as a human optimization habit. Current research proves that regular meditation helps lower levels of cortisol, thus lowering your stress. It’s also a strong way to grow the relationship you have with yourself. You need to make more time for you. To scale your fluency and intimacy with your higher nature. To reconnect with your best part, that side of you that understands the impossible is mostly the untried and that knows of your hidden reservoirs of luminosity, audacity and love. That portion of you that still can see the greatness in others, even when they behave badly, and that models positivity in the world—even when such virtues are not replied to you. Yes, go into this twenty-moment sanctuary of silence and stillness each morning and remember all you truly are. Truth speaks in the solitude of the day’s earliest light. And then carry this breathtaking knowledge with you, through the remaining hours of the gift we call a day.”