It is only appropriate for me to celebrate my one year mark since reading The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma with a review. So here’s a review again after one year, with aims to delve deeper into the effects of deliberate habit creation as prescribed by The 5AM Club. You can read my previous review on The 5AM Club here, which I wrote 120 days after I began practicing The 5AM Club teachings.
With that purpose in mind, I went through Robin Sharma’s book again to take some notes. Much to my surprise, I have only been practicing about 15% of his teaching! It was so funny because I thought my life had changed so much since following through with this small 15%. Imagine if I had followed 50% or 75% or 100% of his teaching for the past year?
Being in The 5AM Club is Hard.
As I wrote in my 120-days review here, the first 66 days were very hard. I had just given birth to my fourth child at the end of March 2019 and began the ‘deconstruction’ process of my weak habits at the end of May 2019. As I reread Robin Sharma’s magnum opus, I realised that he had outlined the expectations as accurately as possible in his book.
He mentioned mantras such as:
1. All change is hard in the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
2. When you feel like surrendering, continue. For most people, it’s about the path of least resistance. But the Top 5% knows that the greatest discomfort is where the greatest opportunity lies.
Though I Wake Up at 5AM, I’m Still Far from My Definition of Success.
As mentioned earlier, I had only been practicing only a small bit (15%) of Robin Sharma’s teaching consciously. However, the biggest bonus I received from the small investment I made is the strength of my willpower. And this alone had allowed me to make so many improvements in my life.
I won’t list out the accomplishments of the past year to prove the above statement. But I will articulate how Robin Sharma’s teaching has shifted my internal patterns, conflicts, and negativity-biased norms that had held me back from presenting my best self.
Waking Up at 5AM Eliminates Self-sabotage.
Robin Sharma’s 20/20/20 framework is about how you spend each 20-minutes pocket of the first hour of your day. Firstly is to perform sweat induced exercise. Secondly, to contemplate by journaling or praying or meditating. And thirdly, to learn something by reading or listening.
As 5AM is considered a golden hour where you get to experience solitude, stillness, and silence by ‘being’ with yourself, you can expect your amount of self-love to rise. Do note that I don’t get to experience such solitude every day as I have two girls under the age of three whose sleeping patterns are unpredictable. Despite the interruptions, I still managed to reap the benefits. Because I made sure the interruptions don’t stop me from trying again the next day.
The 20/20/20 Formula Breeds State of ‘Flow’
The sequence of practice recommended by Robin Sharma in his 20/20/20 Formula sets the path to the state of ‘flow’. The state of ‘flow’ is defined as being in ‘the zone’, or simply in a state of energised focus. As craftsmen or creatives, being in the state of ‘flow’ allows your full potential to show up.
At the mention of ‘potential’, I would like to remind you that it exists in everyone. A potent energy that we have adjusted and kept dormant in order to blend in with the crowd. The state of ‘flow’ allows our potential to be actualised and realised. And little did we know, the unexpressed potential is the mother of all pains that we harbour and manifests itself as ‘self-sabotage’.
We Are Exactly Where We Need to Be for Our Growth
What I love about Robin Sharma’s way of teaching is how he is authentic about how we can face our past. That said, I’m not too crazy about his way of interlacing his teaching with fables, though. Anyhow, his approach to conquering past hurts is part of his Personal Mastery Practice.
Personal Mastery Practice has four quadrants, which are Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset. According to Robin Sharma, in order to master ourselves, we need to master these four quadrants. In forgiving others (Heartset), we strengthen our capacity to love. This form of growth rides on our contemplation on the shortness of life.
Keeping the shortness of life at the forefront of our focus allows us to love and care deeply, live courageously, give graciously, and at best, to live greatly.
If you would like to learn more about Robin Sharma’s 5AM Club, you may watch my impromptu video about The 20/20/20 Formula on Instagram or Facebook. Or, you can leave a question on the Comment section below so I can get back to you. Better yet, you could simply reply to me via email if you subscribe to The Baini Mustafa Weekly Email. As this is where I share most of my thoughts, ideas, and stuff that I don’t share anywhere else, you might want to subscribe here.
Until then stay safe, eat well, and believe me when I say that everyone is born with an innate ingenuity. And nobody has the same set of talents as you do. So, soar!
