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

by Robin Sharma

Pocket three of The 20/20/20 Formula is designed to help you ‘Grow’ daily. Remember The 2x3x Mindset: to double your income and impact, triple your investment in two primary areas, your personal mastery and your professional capability. So, 5:40 to 6:00 AM, the final segment of The Victory Hour, is when you deepen your base of knowledge, increase your acumen, improve your expertise and outlearn your competition.”

philosophy by Seneca, the Roman statesmen: “‘Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts select one to be thoroughly digested that day.’”

“During the final pocket, from 5:40 to 6 AM, of The 20/20/20 Formula, work on becoming more valuable, to your industry as well as to society. See, you don’t receive success and influence only because of what you want. You attract it into your life based on who you are—as a person and as a producer. Private desire without personal development is like dreaming of having a gorgeous garden but not planting any seeds. We magnetize ourselves to excellent rewards by raising the value of our selves. I made my fortune from this idea. As I improved, my capacity to improve the lives of more people improved through the elevated quality of my service. As I made myself more knowledgeable, I became more valuable to the fields in which I conducted my businesses, which lifted my income and my impact. Here’s a concept fairly foreign in today’s age: read a book. Study the lives of the greatest men and women of the past by consuming their autobiographies during the ‘Grow’ pocket. Learn about the latest advancements in psychology. Devour works on innovation and communication, productivity and leadership, prosperity and history. And watch documentaries on how the best do what they do—and grew into who they are. Listen to audiobooks on personal mastery, creativity and business-building. One of the traits all my billionaire friends and I have in common is we absolutely love to learn. We grow—and capitalize on—our gifts and talents relentlessly. We invest in expanding ourselves—and our pro games—c...

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on the other side of every tragedy lives a triumph. And beyond adversity exists a bridge into enduring victory, if one has the eyes to see it.

“The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.”

the hours most people waste epic performers exploit.

The lesson that the billionaire had presented as the three of them rode together centered on the vital importance of balancing elite personal performance with deep self-renewal for sustained masterful achievement. The titan explained the value of alternating time in the world pursuing success at the highest level with time in the wilderness recovering—a symmetry needed to ensure a strong harmony between winning at work and richness in life. And to guarantee that his students played the long game around their assets of genius, the billionaire also explained that massive productivity in society without an abundant heart, an authentic sense of joyfulness and enduring inner peace was no different from the game a hamster plays on a running wheel. It thinks it’s moving, yet it remains in a cage.

“exceedingly excellent creative production without calibrated human asset protection leads to a noticeable performance reduction.”

Becoming legendary in your industry is all about sustainability. And making sure you show up at world-class not just for a month or even for an entire year.

“Longevity really is a key to legendary,” he reinforced. “This,” he told his two appreciative students, “is one of the main keys to your rise to iconic. You really must learn how to balance working intensely and brilliantly with deep rest and recovery so you can remain fresh and strong over a long career. As you do this, you won’t blow out your gifts by hyperextending them, in the same way that some pro athletes blow out their knees—preventing them from ever playing again. The geniuses all know and apply this remarkably important principle.”

what makes the great men and women of the world exceptional, in part, is their implementation of a phenomenon known as “supercompensation.”

your five assets of genius surge when you actively push them past their usual limits and then allow for a period of regeneration.

“See, cats, the little-known key to terrific success over the long term lies in a simple word: oscillation. I mentioned it in São Paulo, but you’re both ready to go deeper.”

“Your growth happens when you’re resting,” replied the billionaire in a straightforward way. “Makes no logical sense, right?” the billionaire went on. “In fact, this productivity rule is one of the most central yet paradoxical truths The Spellbinder revealed to me as I was building my global empires. The mainstream thinking tells us that to get more done, we must put in more hours. To achieve more, we need to do more. But solid research now confirms that that kind of linear approach—‘work harder to produce better’—is seriously flawed. It isn’t sustainable. It just leads to burnout. Exhaustion. Loss of inspiration and the reduction of your private fire to lead the field—and enhance our world. That old-school way of operating also causes a visceral depletion of the very human resources which, if applied intelligently, will make you the master of your marketplace.”

The billionaire pointed to the part of the learning framework entitled The 5 Assets of Genius. “As you’ve now learned, every morning you wake up with a full battery of creative power. Each dawn you awaken to a full well of five private treasures that, if properly managed, will cause you to overcome the violence of your excuses and avoid the knife blade of your past limits so that the great hero encoded within your soul meets the light of day. And enable you to become all you’re meant to be. As a maker of spectacular work, as a leader without a title and as a human being dedicated to living in awe of life’s most gorgeous graces.”

“To cycle periods of passionate, monomaniacally focused and potent work at the highest grade with blocks of time set for refueling, relaxing, recovering and pure fun. It really is like your heartbeat, pulsing.”

THE LEGENDARY PERFORMANCE EQUATION: PRESSURE × REFUELING = GROWTH + ENDURANCE

Always remember this: The time you least feel like doing something is the best time to do it.

when you enlarge your willpower muscle in one important area, your self-discipline in every other area rises with you.

This day is priceless. All the money in the world will not bring it back again. And so, I seize it and I savor it and I honor it. This day, I fill my mind with big dreams so there is no space for petty doubts. I replace the psychology of can’t with the mentality of can. And I remember that my greatest growth lies at the jagged edges of my highest limits. This day, I’ll recall that until my mission becomes my obsession, my gifts will never become my glory. And until my hunger to serve transcends the insecurities of my self, I’ll miss the grand chance of these precious hours to be a vehicle for helpfulness. This day, I reload my devotion to avoid a counterfeit nobility, staying sincere, humble—with both feet on this sacred ground. Should naysayers and bad actors throw rocks at me, I reply with kindness and love in the face of their bad behavior—even if they don’t deserve it. Should critics make fun of me—as they always have since I was a kid—I’ll take the rocks they throw at me and make them into monuments of mastery. And should anyone call me strange, as they often do, I’ll smile with the blatant wisdom stuck deep in my heart that it’s only misfits, oddballs and eccentrics that change our world. Being different is really cool. And eccentricity is very hip.

Instinct knows so much more than intellect and intuition is smarter than reason,

“Live like a hero. That’s what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?”

Speaking about Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein once said, “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.”

In every life, especially the hardest ones, doorways of possibility and gateways into the miraculous swing open, revealing the reality that everything that each one of us experiences is part of some intelligent— and yes, often illogical—plan meant to draw us nearer to our greatest powers, most wonderful circumstances and highest good. Everything we go through as we travel through a life is, in truth, a fantastic orchestration designed to introduce us to our truest talents, connect us with our most sovereign selves and deepen our intimacy with the glorious hero that lives inside each of us. Yes, within every single one of us. And that does mean you.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu taught us, ‘suffering can either embitter us or ennoble us.’

“We all must break free from our private jails that incarcerate our glory and keep our nobility in bondage. Please remember that gifts and talents neglected become curses and sorrows.”

“Yes, no matter what struggles we face and what adversities we will endure. No matter what attacks, humiliation and violence are visited on us. We must persist. We must continue. We must stay strong. We must live our luminous nature. And magnify our sovereign selves. Even if it feels the whole world is against us. This is truly what makes us human beings. Even if it seems the light will never transcend the darkness, keep making your walk to freedom. Model what’s highest for the rest of us. Exemplify grace, for the majority of us. Demonstrate actual love, for all of us.