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What Is the 5 Am Club? Adding 1 Hour of Structure to Your Day May Increase Wellbeing

There are so many crazy morning routines circulating the internet these days. It can seem like an uphill battle to find an effective routine that keeps you motivated and compliments your lifestyle. The way you choose to start each day will dictate how the rest of your day will go! Spending the first hours of your day in the right mindstate will set a positive tone for the following day.

With all the hypes of different morning routines, there is one that sticks out in particular and has been getting a lot of attention; the 5 am club.

In this article, we will be looking at what the 5 am club is, the routine it entails, the benefits, and my own personal swing on the phenomenon.

Let’s talk routine!

What is the 5 am club?

Essentially, the 5 am club was originally a book written by Robin Sharma, a performance expert that actually came up with the concept over 20 years ago! This book has helped countless individuals all over the world improve their lives in various aspects. The book goes over the ins and outs of a revolutionary morning routine that has been shown to improve productivity, work ethic, motivation, mental/physical health, general wellbeing and so much more! The whole routine begins at, you guessed it, 5 am!

Even hearing ‘5 am’ will immediately make most people go ‘nope!’. Trust me when I say this is completely understandable. Why would anyone want to willingly wake up at 5 am and do a morning routine? To be fair, the routine itself is not that bad or physically/mentally demanding.

In my opinion, getting out of my comfy bed at 5 am is the worst part! However, if you can get past that bit, then you will realise it isn’t that bad. It definitely helps if you have someone to do it with or else it can be far too easy to press your snooze button ‘just one more time’.

The 5 am club routine in a nutshel

Step 1 – Get out of bed!

getting out of bed

This is definitely the most challenging part of the entire routine but it is by far the most important part.

Step 2 – Do 20 minutes of intensive exercise

intense exercise

I know I said this wasn’t that intense of a routine, yet here I am telling you to do intensive exercise… but, please, bear with me! As soon as you get moving it really isn’t as bad.

Plus, it is only 20 minutes of your entire day and you are getting it out of the way first thing! If you are not used to exercising, then feel free to go a bit easier on yourself and start with 20 minutes of non-intensive exercise for the first few weeks until your body adapts to this kind of movement.

Step 3 – Complete 20 minutes of journaling and/or meditation

meditation

These moments of relaxation following your workout is the perfect reward. After getting a quick workout in, it will feel great to stop, breathe and organize some of your thoughts on paper.

TIP: When I am on step three, I always skip the meditation part as it sends me back into a sleepy mind state. I leave my daily meditation for my night-time routine and just go with journaling during this time. Do whatever helps your brain wake up! Remember, this is all about getting yourself set up for the day. Don’t think that what works for others will always work for you as well. We all require very different things in the morning!

Step 4 – Learning/reading/listening

reading books

Now it is time to wrap up your morning routine by taking some time to sit down and really get your brain going in the most effective way possible; learning. This does not have to be intensive. This can be reading a book you’ve had next to your couch for months but never have time to pick up. It can also look like listening to a podcast or an audiobook on a topic you are curious to learn more about.

Essentially, as long as you are listening to something and not watching something, you are doing great! With social media addiction rates being at an all-time high, it can be way too easy to let our days go by where we consume primarily ‘mindless’ content from our phones and don’t learn about things we are genuinely curious about. This is a great opportunity to learn something new every day.

By the end of step 4, your brain should be going strong, setting you up for the day! It is super difficult to get into this routine if you are not used to getting up early, but I promise you it does get easy with time and a positive perspective.

Some words of encouragement

If you simply do not want to do this routine, then simply do not do it! I cannot stress this enough. I feel that a lot of the time people fail at this kind of thing because they set themselves up for failure by forcing themselves to do something that they absolutely do not want to do. This routine only works if you are ready to try it with a positive mind!

I also think that a lot of the time people set unrealistic goals on themselves which leads to quitting because of the pressure they put on themselves. If you aren’t sure if it will work for you, then set a realistic goal. Instead of telling yourself ‘I am going to do the 5 am club routine from now on’, try telling yourself ‘I am going to try the 5 am club routine for 2 weeks to see if it works for me’. Discipline yourself for two weeks and see what happens! This is exactly what I did and I found that I actually loved it. I changed the routine around a bit to make time for what was most important to me while still keeping the base of the routine and I’ve been doing it ever since!

Lots of my friends who do this routine also take a similar approach and it has worked for all of us! Just give it a go without loads of pressure, make slight adjustments where needed, and go easy on yourself while still keeping a healthy amount of discipline present. A little but a discipline will go a long way! Especially to those who are not used to self-discipline.

5 am club benefits

Here is a short list of benefits that me and my friends have found from joining the 5 am club:

  • Better stress management
  • Increased energy
  • Days feel longer
  • Mood stabilizes
  • Boosted brain function
  • No more brain fog
  • Enhances focus
  • Better sleep
  • Increased wellbeing
  • More motivation
  • Heightened concentration

Closing thoughts:

Having a solid routine that is tailored to your needs and desires has been shown over and over and over again to improve your quality of life. Humans are creatures of habit, which leads me to believe that having a proper routine (whether that be at night or in the morning) will increase your wellbeing and benefit your life in many ways.

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