The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma

As I wrote above, lessons from The 5 AM Club are interspersed through the book and told in the form of the story of an uninspired artist and a deflated entrepreneur who meet a billionaire at an event.

The billionaire doesn’t seem very impressive at first (he literally dresses like a homeless person) but over the course of the book turns out to be an incredible successful businessman.

And not just a that but also a caring, empathetic and wise soul looking to guide others (this time the artist and the entrepreneur) on the journey to greatness.

The author talks about how a fixed mindset is prevalent in too many people living today.

Far too many believe genius is born and not made.

If one believes in such a way it tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy because “Human beings are hardwired to act in alignment with our self-identity, always. You’ll never rise higher than your personal story“.

Part of the problem is the culture of limitation and fear that we’ve indoctrinated into in early childhood.

Well meaning people such as our parents and teachers, in coaching us about staying within limits and avoiding risk, harm us over the long term by seeding limiting beliefs. Every human has a primal desire to create, and we ignore the creator within us at our own peril.

Gifts unused become regrets lifelong. Like Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”.

Our world today, focused on incessant consumption, far beyond necessary, is insidiously making us miserable.

Social media and modern news is designed to keep us hooked to a cycle of fear (or desire, which is fear by another name).

And so too are our capitalistic structures that promote marketing that shows people with perfect lives and thus make us feel lacking. This results in things like yearly upgrade cycles and wardrobe makeovers.

There is a neuroscience component to all of this that the author touches on – calling the amygdala and limbic system our “Ancient Brain” and the prefrontal cortex our “Mastery Brain”. The modern world keeps our Ancient Brain, with its strong negativity bias to keep us safe, on high alert and us chronically stressed. The Ancient Brain evolved before the Mastery Brain and thus has a leg up in how it is affects us. It takes effort and a consciously cultivated environment to operate from our Mastery Brain, something the modern world denies us.

The world hijacks our focus for its ends (“Broken Focus Syndrome”) and over time as we become hostage to the latest fear cycle we learn how to be victims (“Learned Victimhood”). We let go our agency, start to believe that greatness is not for us, that the world is full of conspirators and we start to coast in life.

The first limitation

The first limitation always, ALWAYS begins in our mind.

No matter what the subject and no matter how looming the challenges, as long as a person refuses to believe that there exist any impenetrable walls between them and their goal they will not be truly defeated.

The author highlights how lasting defeat first begins in the mind and then manifests in reality.

He speaks of how the world of today has created such individuals who “practice [limiting beliefs] daily until they believe it’s reality“.

Learned Cynicism

The author talks about how all motivational talk about chasing your purpose seems impractical – it’s because we have been indoctrinated into a culture of cynicism and weakness from an early age. “Adults are deteriorated children …” – when we were children we saw the world with wonder and were fearless in our endeavours, but slowly society chipped away our unique shape so that we may fit better into the “machine”.

The “practical” adult of today thinks that s/he is capable of nothing extraordinary, complains without intent to remedy, half-asses work considering it a zero sum game and is suspicious of people trying to do good work.

The author calls such adults “drama mamas” and strongly advises us against becoming one.

You and you

Once your relationship with yourself improves, your life improves as a result. The author points out that far too many people living today don’t think much of themselves, they live in a state of perpetual under-confidence.

They secretly hate and fear their true selves, becoming miserable in the process because they know they’re not doing justice to the creator in them in the finite time they have. And so they hide their creative spirit from themselves and the world behind doctored selfies and facades of confidence. They confuse self-worth with net-worth. They do not take a shot at opportunities thinking that only the superbly talented or rich can have a claim to their dreams. They operate from a fixed mindset and remain in the venus fly trap of their egos.

The antidote to the traps of the modern world starts by getting up at 5 AM, because this is a time when you can think and reflect before the world shows up banging at your door.

Also, what we do in the initial hours of our day has outsized impact on the rest of it, it sort of sets the tone for the rest of our day. Hence, it makes sense for us to do only those things that give us a strong start in the morning.

The 5 AM Club is a set of principles and practices for our morning routine that we should automate – “Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.“.

Rising at 5 AM must be cultivated as a habit, habits are born of identity, and identity is better changed gradually – Sharma speaks to this and one may ease themselves into a new identity.

Setting alarms for 5 AM when one is used to getting up at 8 may not be doable for all, instead a gradual change would be better. Once you are consistently getting up at 5 then the next one (or two) hour(s) can be used to build yourself, and your life into something better. Obviously, getting up at 5 AM is not the point, it’s what you do between that and the time you start engaging with the world. Say, you need to start engaging with the world at 7 AM, then it gives you two hours of uninterrupted focus.

If you consistently engage in practices that elevate you – mind, body, spirit – during those early hours then superior results are guaranteed. Routinising the right habits is the name of the game.

Getting up at 5 AM is what the author calls a “keystone habit”, that is, a foundational habit that has a disproportionately positive impact on many other areas of your life.

It’s like the first domino in a row – by changing this one habit, it sets off a chain reaction that leads to the development of other good habits and positive outcomes.  

The term was popularised by Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit.

The author calls the time between 5 AM and 6 AM the “Victory Hour”. During the Victory Hour the world is still quiet and the daily demands of our lives, whether they be work commitments or family work, have not yet emerged. The overstimulation and noise are still a few hours away.

The solitude gives us time to think and reflect on where we’re steering our ship. Calling it “Transient Hypofrontality”, the author posits that this time of quietude silences the part of our brain responsible for rumination and constant worrying so the wiser and more creative part of yourself can take the wheel.

Your brain waves shift from beta to alpha and sometimes even theta state. And dopamine and serotonin get released, while cortisol decreases (esp. if you follow the 20/20/20 protocol, coming up later). All this means you are likely to enter the state known as “Flow”.

As I wrote above, rising at five is about making it a habit, making it automatic to the point that you forget there is any time other than 5 AM to be getting out of bed. And just like any other habit it will need to follow the habit loop if it’s to embed itself.

A cue (an alarm clock in this case) will trigger a desire (for a reward), which leads to a behaviour (leaping out of bed), which leads to a reward (for instance, your morning coffee, you decide how you’ll reward yourself).

The cue leading to the reward reinforces the connection between the two for future occurrences, making it more likely that you will repeat the behaviour when the cue presents itself. Repetition is key to automaticity.

If you find yourself snoozing your alarm and drifting back to sleep then it either means your reward for getting up early is not good enough or your willpower is not strong enough.

Like I said, you need to define what your reward will be for getting up early until the habit become automatic – it could be the powerful feeling that comes from owning your morning or bragging rights over your friends or a piece of dark chocolate. You can choose more than one reward.

The important thing is that the prospect of reward must motivate you enough to leap out of bed. Leaping out of bed is also important because the pull to go back to sleep is strong and you need to rapidly create distance between you and your bed.

Part of getting up at 5 AM is definitely about willpower, or grit as some may call it. Willpower is like a muscle, and the way to build it is to voluntarily put yourself into situations of discomfort. The author calls these “Strengthening Scenarios”. Learn to love pain, be comfortable being uncomfortable. Though you can learn how to do this from all kinds of humans such as Buddhists, army personnel, elite athletes and so on, it is as simple as foregoing pleasure you’ve grown used to. For instance, you could sleep one night every fortnight without any fans or air conditioning in peak summer season, or sleep without a blanket in peak winters. You could fast for 36 hours or more. You could sleep on the floor. “Each time you vote for your superior self you starve your weaker side—and feed your inherent power.“

Neuroplasticity helps here: our brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. “Neurons that fire together, wire together” (Hebbian theory) means that when two neurons are repeatedly activated at the same time, the connection between them strengthens. This makes it easier for them to activate together in the future. This is how learning occurs, and it’s also how habits are formed.

When you repeatedly perform a new action (e.g., waking up at 5 AM, meditating, going to the gym), you’re consistently activating a specific set of neurons. With each repetition, the connections between those neurons become stronger.

Eventually, this strengthened neural pathway becomes the “default,” making the action feel more automatic and requiring less conscious effort.

To get to this “Automacity Point” of getting up at 5 AM, Sharma lays out a “Habit Installation Protocol” which basically states that it will take you roughly 66 days to get to the Automacity Point and into a habit of getting up in time for the Victory Hour.

In those 66 days you will go through three stages, each 22 days long:

1. Deconstruction (days 1 – 22): Your old identity (and hence habits) start to die, they put up a fight and you question whether getting up at 5 AM is all that great after all.
2. Installation (days 23 – 44): The old identity is gone and the new one is not there yet. Your brain is changing at a neuronal level. You are still not sure why you’re getting up at five and the pull of the bed is strongest. Here, persist.
3. Integration (days 45 – 66 and beyond): The new identity finally starts to get established. You regularly get up at 5 AM not because of the alarm clock but because now that is who you are: someone who rises early and takes charge of the day.

Also, while the climax of the battle to get up at 5 AM happens in the morning, the fight actually starts in the evening before. If you are going to sleep late, or going to sleep stressed (mentally or physically) then you will not be able to get up at 5 AM consistently enough for it to become a habit. Therefore, protect your sleep and sleeping ritual.

The author calls this “The Pre-Sleep Ritual of Iconic Producers” and it outlines the specific steps you should take to ensure that you are going to bed in time to ensure you rise in time the next morning. It includes steps like disconnecting from technology, when your last meal should be, and more – please visit Robin Sharma’s website or buy the book to learn more.

To learn more about sleep and how to do it you may also consider reading books like Dr. Matthew Walker’s bestseller “Why We Sleep” and Sleep Smarter.

Finally, a few other tips about ensuring a consistent 5 AM wake up time:

• Have a group of friends or family members with whom you’re installing the new habit together. Since we’re social creatures highly sensitive to our place in society, if we are doing something with others our reputation gets involved making it easier to follower through.
• Teaching others about the virtues of getting up early will make you likely to practice what you preach.
• Keep your workout clothes by the door and other similar cues that remind you of the actions you need to take after waking up.
• The moment you wake up, rapidly create distance between you and your bed. Placing your alarm clock on the far side of the room helps.

If all you’re going to do after waking up at 5 is checking your phone, then you might as well go back to bed. The Victory Hour is not a time of passive consumption but active creation.

During this time, take high leverage actions. High leverage actions are those that produce significantly more results in the future than the time and effort invested in them now.

This aligns with the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule), which suggests that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. High leverage actions are those within that crucial 20%.

Examples of High Leverage Actions:

• Planning and Prioritisation
• Deep Work, Creative Work
• Learning and Skill Development
• Exercise and mindfulness

Contrast with Low Leverage Activities:

• Checking social media, messages or email
• Catching up on the “news”
• Getting caught up in administrative trivia

Specifically, the author wants us to follow the “20/20/20 Formula” wherein you break down the Victory Hour into three pockets of twenty minutes each:

1. Move – 20 minutes: Engage in exercise that makes you sweat. This releases dopamine, serotonin, control cortisol, catalyses BDNF. Remember to hydrate well.
2. Reflect – 20 minutes: Think about how you want show up in the day ahead, what you want to achieve and how you want to feel. You can create what the author calls a “Pre-Performance Blueprint” which is a written statement of your ideal day ahead, take about ten minutes to do this but don’t exceed that limit to ensure only the most important things get in. You can also use this time to get your first thoughts of the day into a journal (“Daily Diaries”). Use the remaining time to meditate.

3. Grow – 20 minutes: Activate yor growth mindset here, know that growth and change are not only possible but natural. Spend this pocket learning about something that will make you better at your craft. Podcasts, audiobook, paper books, research papers, mental models and so on.

Your Victory Hour need not strictly be 60 minutes long, Sharma encourages us to customise it according to our needs and life stage.

I personally engage in focused work for two hours (5 AM to 7 AM) before engaging with the world at large.

The author also talks about what the rest of the day should look like after you are done with your Victory Hour leading up to the night time routine for a successful Victory Hour tomorrow.

For a complete breakdown of the “20/20/20 Formula as well as “The Amazing Day Deconstruction” – please visit Robin Sharma’s website or buy the book.

Consistently following this protocol will give you what Sharma calls a “GCA” a “Gargantuan Competitive Advantage” – The progress that you can make in a single hour is only so much but over time it compounds. The author remarks, “small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done consistently over time, yield staggering results” – very much echoing what James Clear is talking about in “Atomic Habits”.

This idea requires patience and a long-term perspective. Do the work, hold the vision and trust the process.

Peppered through much of the book are frameworks and concepts that Sharma posits are helpful in building an extraordinary life such as “All pro athletes have peak performance coaches, and so do all extraordinary businesspeople“. These do not directly fit in the 20/20/20 Formula they are important scaffolding nevertheless.

twin cycles of elite performance

Top performance deliberately oscillate between period of intense work and periods of rest. What Ravikant has called “working like a lion”.

1. HEC – High Excellence Cycle: Here you work intensely tuning out all distractions for a period of time you can sustain to deliver quality work.
2. DRC – Deep Refuelling Cycle: Here you rest and recharge with activities like mindfulness, nature walks, sleep, “zero device days” etc.

Presented below is merely a snapshot of the concepts. Again I would encourage you to please visit Robin Sharma’s website or buy the book.

2x3x mindset

If you want to double your income and impact from where it is today, then you must triple your investment in your professional capability (skills) and personal mastery (self control).

Five Golden Rules

1. Protect your attention. Do not let it be distracted.
2. Exit the fixed mindset, you can transform through consistent effort.
3. Consistency leads to automaticity.
4. An extraordinary life needs extraordinary commitment.
5. Persist when you feel like quitting.

5-3-1 Creed of the Willpower Warrior

1. 5 truths
   • Growth mindset is real
   • Willpower is a muscle
   • Recovery is critical
   • Habits follow a loop
   • Self-control in one area of life elevates it in all others
2. 3 values
   • Consistency and persistence
   • Finish what you started so that you respect yourself
   • Practice
3. 1 theory
   • Persisting when you want to quit is to become a warrior.

Desire for Detail

Elite performers love to go deep and really understand the nuances of their work and craft. This desire for detail is what separates the top 5% from the other 95%, and you’ll be able to do this over the long term only if you truly love your craft. Going granular leads to better awareness, which leads to better choices, which then deliver better results.

Obsession over quality

Elite performers always demand on superior quality of work (from themselves and others) and that only comes from going granular as mentioned previously. They consider every work they do carries their personal name and reputation, hence do not leave things half-baked.

Learn the importance of being around only the highest quality.

This is not merely about the external, that is, owning items of quality make. But also internal – thoughts you think, effort you put in, actions you perform and work you create should be first rate for the level at which you are.

It is also about choosing those people to hang out with who elevate you – like how Peterson said we should be with people who want the best for us. And choosing to consume high quality foods whether they be for the body or the mind. Life is far too precious to waste away on mediocrity.

Four Focuses of History Makers

1. Capitalisation IQ: Basically about having a growth mindset and intelligently exploring the talents that have been bestowed upon you. Leaving the victim mindset and excuses about how your life cannot be great because you’ve been dealt a poor hand.
2. Freedom from distraction: Protecting your time, knowing how the world is motivated to encroach upon your time and paralyse your higher creative self by chronically activating your primal brain in a fight, flight or freeze response.
3. Personal mastery practice: Using the 20/20/20 Formula to protect and enhance your Mindset (psychological health), Heartset (emotional health), Healthset (physical health) and Soulset (spiritual health).
4. Day stacking: Constructing your day so that one productive part leads to either another productive part or a recovery part without space for meaningless distractions.

The 10 Tactics of lifelong genius

1. Tight Bubble of Total Focus
2. 90/90/1 Rule
3. 60/10 Method
4. Daily 5
5. 2nd Wind Workout
6. 2 Massage Protocol
7. Traffic University
8. Dream Team Technique
9. Weekly Design System
10. 60 Minute Student

5 Assets of Genius

1. Mental Focus
2. Physical Energy
3. Personal Willpower
4. Original Talent
5. Daily Time

7 Virtues of work changers

1. Bravery
2. Humility
3. Integrity
4. Forgiveness
5. Understanding
6. Sincerity
7. Politeness

11 billionaire maxims

1. First, improve your relationship with yourself (what Peterson would call “Get your own house in order”).
2. Collect rare experiences, not things.
3. Choose courage (reminds me of Holiday’s “Courage Is Calling” book).
4. Your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds are powerful – Do not ignore their power to create your reality.
5. Avoid those who drain your energy.
6. Keep an abundance mindset.
7. Health is true wealth.
8. Always reach for the next level.
9. Make people feel better about themselves.
10. Heaven is not a place but a state of mind.
11. Postponing doing the right thing is postponing your peace.

The author introduces this concept, suggesting that exceptional talent or drive often comes with a corresponding shadow side.

Sharma acknowledges that many highly accomplished individuals have experienced difficulties in their personal lives, suggesting that achieving exceptional success may sometimes involve sacrifices in other areas.

He points out that many creative geniuses and high performers were “out of balance,” exhibiting traits like perfectionism, maverick behaviour, and fanaticism.

Sharma argues that the very qualities that fuel greatness in one area can create challenges in others. He provides examples of these qualities:

• Vision: Seeing what others miss can lead to feeling misunderstood.
• Standards: Relentless discipline can be perceived as rigidity.
• Solitude: The need for extended periods of focused work can make it difficult to maintain close relationships.
• Determination: Unwavering pursuit of goals can be seen as being “difficult” or “unbalanced.”
• Inner Focus: Listening to one’s heart despite criticism can lead to being perceived as “different.”

The author’s key point is not that people should suppress their gifts because of the potential downsides. Instead, he argues for “awareness” and “management” so that you are able to limit the downsides of obsession over quality and pursuit of growth.