With so many morning routine crazes and endless directions to take, it can seem like a hopeless search to finding an effective morning routine that works perfectly for you and your needs. The way you start your day is critical in regards to how the rest of your day will go. How you spend your first waking hours of a day can set a tone for the rest of the day to follow.
As the importance of a solid morning routine shows us an increasing amount of evidence of just how life-changing it can be, more people are curious to find one that works for them. We will be looking at one morning routine in particular; The 5 am Club.
What is the 5 am club?
Essentially, the 5 am club is an impactful book that has helped countless individuals all over the world improve themselves in various aspects of life. The author of this book, Robin Sharma, is a performance expert that came up with the 5 am club concept over 20 years ago. This concept is basically a revolutionary morning routine that has been shown to improve productivity, mental/physical health, work ethic, motivation, and so much more!
The idea is that you wake up before anyone else in your household and utilize the distraction-free time to get a head start on your day and focus on your wellbeing. Here is the routine in a nutshell:
Step 1– Get out of bed – perhaps the hardest part of the entire routine yet the most important step.
Step 2– Do 20 minutes of intensive exercise – this may seem like the worst thing you can imagine doing at this hour, but I promise you, it isn’t as bad as it sounds, especially once you get yourself moving.
Step 3– Complete 20 minutes of meditation and journaling – these moments of relaxation following your workout is like a reward where you can stop, breathe, and organize some of your thoughts on paper.
Step 4- End with 20 minutes of learning/reading/listening – Either put on an audiobook or read something that truly interests you.
TIP– try to make sure your choice is something that stimulates your brain so you can push through the last remaining bits of brain fog that may be left.
Here is the list of benefits I got from this routine:
- Increased energy
- Longer feeling days
- Managing stress better
- Finding more motivation
- Boost in focus
- Increased wellbeing
- No more brain fog
- Stabilized mood
- Better brain function
These are a few of the things I have noticed since doing this routine. When I first heard about this I thought it was way too difficult for me to do and only hardcore, dedicated business minds could accomplish this all before their working day started.
I have never in my life been a morning person until my girlfriends and I decided to give this a go, because why not, right? We said we would try it together for 2 weeks to see what happened… Now, it is the routine I swear by and I cannot see myself stopping anytime soon, especially if I continue to get the benefits!
Even if you are not a morning person, I can recommend giving this a try. If you feel like 5 am is unrealistic for you, then you can always start with a later time like 6 or 6:30. Like many things, it is worth trying! Who knows, maybe you will find yourself a member of the 5 am club in the near future.