Own your morning; elevate your life
The power of your 5am and building a solid morning routine
Hello Friends,
January 20th was the last time you heard from me. I was preparing for the next week’s letter when I got a lot more tasks to attend to. It was hectic but fun at the same time. How have you been and how have you been keeping up? A lot has happened since our last contact o; from training to my birthday anniversary to another training to a workshop and this day. Mhen!I never expererit. Anyhow, let’s move to business, is it a business? Anything, let’s meuve.
After the stress of the day plus the heavy Third Mainland Bridge that links Adekunle, Ade got home and would not even get convinced by the friendly match in his stomach, he just wants his eyelid shut. In his mind, there can’t be any alarm that will wake him the next morning even though he knows how dangerous that could be. He would be up tomorrow at the crow of the cock and rush to work. The issue here is, where is the time for Personal Development and Sanity?
5 am Club is one of my favourite books. I have recommended it to a few friends and they could not resist the richness of thoughts and message therein. Robin Sharma wrote the book to help people build a morning routine, and make time for the self-improvement you need to find success. The Morning is the time with the least distraction and greatest peace.
You wake up to your alarm, press snooze, and roll back over for an extra few minutes of sleep. The alarm rings again, and you press snooze again, until you got up with guilt, groggy still, to shuffle off and quickly get ready so you’re not late for work. Sound familiar? This is what your average person does; wake up and let the day take over. But do you want to be average? I will answer for you, NO.
Robin Sharma said, “If you want to be like the top 5%, you need to stop acting like the 95%.”
Growing up, an elder in our community would always ring a word to our ears, “Eni toba sun o ni sun” meaning “He who sleeps won’t progress”. I think the whole idea is to reduce the time we sleep, this is where we will have issues with doctors, hell-oh-hell. According to the author, common people don’t wake up early, they wake reluctantly.
There is a way to start your day with purpose and energy, a pattern that will help you accomplish more and increase your mental and physical health. It all starts with waking up at 5 am. I know many wakes before this time, it’s all the same but for most people, waking up at 5 am without having to be somewhere sounds absurd, set awon sleepers. But if you want to be great, this is where to start.
Robin Sharma uses a fictitious story about a billionaire mentor teaching a struggling artist and an entrepreneur about the importance of waking up early to show how revolutionary it is for success. He makes a convincing case that will persuade even the most sleep-loving people (mo fi oruko bo oremi ******** lashiri/ like a friend I’d love to keep his/her secret) that to be truly excellent, we need to start our days intentionally.
3 lessons are dearer to me in this book, they are:
Lesson 1: That you be successful, you should give your brain an advantage by waking up at 5 am or earlier
The billionaire tells the artist and entrepreneur that he has the key to their success. When they arrive to meet him early the next morning, his first lesson is that waking up at 5 am will give your brain the advantage to succeed throughout the day. The energy you need for the day gets activated when you wake up early.
Our brain reaction is different in the early hours of the day. The brain’s prefrontal cortex, the part of you that makes you worry or disturbed with things over and over, is temporarily shut down in the peaceful early hours. The tranquillity at this time also has been shown to increase dopamine and serotonin, helping you feel energized and at peace. There’s no other way to start one's day!
Lesson 2: Find balance in all four “interior empires” to find self-mastery.
Here’s another valuable lesson about success: don’t just focus on mindset. While thinking optimistic thoughts will help you, there are three other “interior empires” when trying to find balance.
Next to your Mindset, you also have your Healthset, Heartset, and Soulset.
Healthset refers to our physical health. One of the best ways to get ahead in life is to live longer. If you want to be in charge of your empire, you need to live long enough to do this! Committing to exercise will help you get much more out of life. It will also help you live longer. It will help you have energy, lose some stress, and be happier.
Heartset is your emotional well-being. To cultivate a healthy emotional life, we need to express ourselves and have healthy emotional attachments. This is vital to our success.
Lastly, Soulset is our spirituality. Whatever you believe, make time in the morning to connect with your spirituality and yourself. Remember all of the things that make you who you are, and why you are doing what you do, dedicate time for worship.
Apply all these in the peaceful time we make at 5 am, and you will be well on your way to a balanced, successful life.
Lesson 3: Use the 20/20/20 formula to set your day up for success.
By now you may be wondering if it’s so important to wake up at 5 a.m. What should I do when I’m up so early? It’s entirely possible to wake up this early and waste the extra time by using it to watch the news or scroll through social media.
The billionaire, however, lays out the perfect plan: the 20/20/20 rule, which says you should 20 minutes on three highly valuable activities each.
The first 20 minutes of that first hour should consist of exercise. Help your body wake up, and make your body sweat. Sweating decreases cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress and fear. Sweat also releases BDNF, the brain-repairing neurotropic factor, which speeds up the creation of new neural pathways and repairs brain cells. If you want to think quicker, make sure you get sweaty!
The next 20-minute block should consist of reflection and meditation. The peace you find this early will make way for more inspiration than you thought possible. Make time to write these in your journal. Take the time to focus on what you want out of the day before you get distracted. And don’t forget meditation, which has been shown to reduce cortisol which will reduce your stress.
Finally, make time to learn. Instead of wasting time on useless entertainment, spend time reading and learning. Learn from the successful people of the world. What all the ultra-rich have in common is a love of learning. Read books, watch YouTube learning discussions, and just engage your brain to learn something.
An effective morning routine sets you ahead and grants you a well-defined day.
Ade had just read all these in my Newsletter, he was petrified and became resolute, “the span of work is longer than that of man, if I die, work will continue, I should build a better morning routine.” He said to himself.
Thank you for reading this far. There's only one thing left, that you make a decision to not only wake up at 5 am but also maximize the first hour of your day.
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See you next week, stay alive!
So intriguing. Many thanks for always being generous with your knowledge Sir.
It's really a nice Write up. Keep the pen rolling Sir