AND EARLY TO RISE
Morning guru and author advises getting a jump on life, Pat St. Germain writes.
The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. Robin Sharma Harper-Collins Canada
Another year, another round of resolutions. If you tried and failed in 2018 to get more exercise, earn more money and spend more quality time with loved ones, Toronto-based motivational speaker and writer Robin Sharma has a plan to help you succeed in 2019.
It starts with joining the 5 a.m. club — rising at the crack of dawn and taking full advantage of a distraction-free “victory hour.”
“Most people get up later and then they’re chasing the day. People who get up at 5 a.m. take control of their day,” Sharma says. “There are a lot of people who are going, ‘I wish I had more time for myself.’ Well, that’s when you take the time for yourself; to read, to meditate, to write in a journal, to paint, to exercise, to go for a nature walk.
“You do that first thing in the morning and your psychological state, your emotional state, your physical state, your spiritual state — it is changed. Even if you have a difficult day, you navigate it far more elegantly.”
Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari) explains how early to bed and early to rise can make us happy, healthy and wise in his latest book, The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. Written as a fable, it follows a female entrepreneur and a male artist on a globe-trotting voyage of self-discovery, led by a fabulously wealthy guru. It’s quite the adventure — romance, assassins and a foiled kidnapping come into play — but along the way, their teacher doles out lessons that transform their lives.
Sharma’s own transformation began almost 30 years ago, when he was a busy, young litigation lawyer.
“I wasn’t fulfilled, and so that was the beginning of my exploration of what makes a creative, productive and fulfilling life,” he says. “As I studied the great women and men of the world, whether they were the great artists or the great business titans, many of them had one thing in common — they got up at 5 a.m.”
Just as important is what you do once you’re up. Sharma has adopted a 20/20/20 routine — 20 minutes each of exercise, reflection and growth (planning and setting goals for the day and reading or listening to an educational podcast).
“It seems like a contradiction … it would seem like you’ll be more tired, and yet if you actually practise this morning ritual with consistency, you’ll realize you are far more creative, far more productive, have far more energy and are doing what’s needed to increase your longevity,” he says.
“I find you can get more done from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. than you can getting up later over a 12-hour stretch.”
That doesn’t mean leading a life of rigid regimentation. Sharma says rest is a necessity, not a luxury. And while his clients have included sports stars, billionaires and corporate giants such as Microsoft and Nike, he says the book is not just for driven titans of industry.
“This myth of working harder to get more done is one of the big lies that the culture is telling us,” he says. “One of the reasons I wrote the book is to show people that there is a time for exercise, preparation, personal growth and reconnecting with yourself.”
Too many of us waste that time checking email and social media feeds that are designed to be addictive. Sharma just says no to using digital devices first thing in the morning, and he bans all technology from the bedroom, even using an old-school, non-digital alarm clock.
“Life is too short to be spending your best creative hours playing with your smartphone,” he says. “True happiness comes from realizing your creative and productive potential and then using it to be more helpful to those around you, and getting up at 5 a.m. fundamentally changes your inner power, so it will help you do that.”
Sharma says New Year’s resolutions fail because we don’t give them enough time to succeed.
“Rising at 5 a.m. and running the 20/20/20 formula for 66 days will transform any human life. It’s not that you can’t do this. Any human being can do this if they give it the 66-day minimum,” he says.
“So many people want creative, productive, joyful, peaceful lives, and they’re not installing the routines that would deliver those results.”