The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning Elevate Your Life

“Protection from distraction is precisely how you need to work if you’re serious about dominating your field and winning at your craft.”

The process of changing our lives can be lengthy and arduous. Change does not happen instantaneously, and it requires a strong will and power to overcome any obstacles, doubts, and fears. Stepping outside our comfort zone is critical for achieving any worthy life goal. It will make you more disciplined and more focused on the real priorities in your life. Every life transformation is painstaking and unpleasant at the beginning, disorderly in the middle, and phenomenal at the end. 

Being unable to focus on a specific task will hinder your progress and reduce your chances of success in your professional and personal life. For that reason, getting up at 5 am will allow you to spend at least one hour on yourself, on your goals, and it will bring clarity about the entire timeline of your day. 

Professional athletes, top executives, celebrated musicians, and others who dominate their fields have mastered the ability to focus for prolonged time periods, thus optimizing their specific skill sets. Distractions are the enemies of progress. Only those who are capable of focusing their energy and attention on achieving a certain goal and developing a skill are impervious to distractions.

The habit of rising early can be difficult to adopt, but if you are determined, you will be able to install it. Take your time, be consistent and perseverant, and getting up at 5 am will become a part of you.

In order to produce great results in your professional life, you need to adopt life habits that the majority of people are unwilling to install. Rising early will give you the opportunity for self-reflection to become a forward-thinking individual, unburdened by the weight of mediocrity. 

Whenever it gets hard, just keep on going. Excuses do not yield great results - good habits do. In time, getting up with the sun will become automatic.

“It’s not just rising early that makes this regime so powerful. It’s what you do over the sixty minutes after you wake up that makes The 5 am Club so game-changing.”

The hour between 5 am and 6 am is known as your “Victory Hour.” It represents a great “window of opportunity” because the way you choose to spend the first 60 minutes after you wake up will determine the quality of your day, and ultimately your life.

The Victory Hour is not the time to read the news, or check emails and social media; it is the time for personal growth and self-reflection. Following the 20/20/20 formula every morning will help you optimize your personal and professional success.

The Victory Hour can be divided into three pockets of 20 minutes. Each pocket has a specific purpose and addresses a different aspect of your development. 

In the first 20 minutes after your wake up, you should move. Do exercises, sweat, and hydrate. The levels of dopamine and serotonin will rise, and your blood circulation will be improved. As a result, you will become more focused, more productive, and less stressed.

The second pocket is about reflection. You can write in your journal, meditate, make plans about the future, or even pray. By doing so, you will become more organized, more positive, and more determined. 

The last 20 minutes before 6 am should be dedicated to your growth. Read books, listen to audiobooks, study online, or keep perfecting a new skill. The more you invest in your personal development, the wealthier you will become. Moreover, you will be more confident, knowledgeable, and inspirational.

“I’ll restructure my pre-sleep routine so that I wake up at 5 am feeling better and full of energy.”

The quality and quantity of sleep we get every night can have an enormous impact on our productivity, behavior, health, and, most importantly, our longevity. Sleep is essential for survival. Unfortunately, the overuse of technology in every aspect of our lives and in almost every part of our day has significantly lowered the number of hours we sleep, as well as the quality of our sleep.

There are measures you can take to ensure that you feel well-rested when you wake up at 5 am. Give yourself time to decompress by turning your digital devices off a couple of hours before bedtime. Don’t eat dinner too late either, you need to give yourself enough time to digest all your food before you sleep.

Spend some quality time with your family and friends, reading books, taking a bath, or meditating. This will get you in a calm and relaxed mood, perfect for sleep.

When you go to bed, leave your phone out of the bedroom, and keep the room cool and dark so you can sleep undisturbed.

“The five primary assets that all superproducers defend are mental focus, physical energy, personal willpower, original talent and daily time.”

The Lifelong Genius model consists of 10 tactics that can be used by anyone who wants to boost their creativity, productivity, growth, energy, cognition, and success.

Tactic #1 involves maintaining full focus. We are often distracted by digital devices and outlets, which can be toxic due to a large amount of information and stimuli that lower our productivity. The remedy for these constant distractions is to limit the amount of time we spend reading the news, checking social media, or watching television. 

Tactic #2 means following the 90/90/1 rule, which mostly applies to doing top-notch work in the first 90 minutes of your workday for 90 days. In order to be super-productive, you need to set aside any digital devices that can distract you from your important work.

Tactic #3 incorporates the 60/10 method, which involves working intensely for 60 minutes, and recovering for 10 minutes. 

Tactic #4 is about accomplishing five small daily goals. You can dedicate the second pocket of your Victory Hour to listing five targets you want to hit during the day. This tactic will result in 150 small victories in a month’s time.

Tactic #5 emphasizes the importance of physical exercise on people’s overall health. Make time in your schedule to go for a walk after your workday. Being outside is beneficial for your mental health, as well. 

Tactic #6 can be implemented in order to reduce stress, which can be achieved by making appointments for deep tissue massage twice a week. 

Tactic #7 stems out of the fact that many people spend some time commuting to and from work. That time can be used productively by reading or listening to lectures, audiobooks, and podcasts. 

Tactic #8 involves delegation of tasks that other people can complete better than you or tasks that prevent you from focusing on what is important, or what you do best.

Tactic #9 is used to spend 30 minutes every Sunday to think about what you wish to accomplish in the following week. You can take notes in your journal in order to bring clarity to your thought process. 

Tactic #10 is dedicated to self-development. Learn something new every day to expand your horizons and explore new avenues for acquiring wealth, or skillsets.