Close The Covers – The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

As we kick off the new year, you know we couldn’t help ourselves by adding in a bonus self-help book for our readers, in addition to reading Pride & Prejudice. Here’s my take on it:

The tagline for the 5AM club is “own your morning, elevate your life.” Similar to “Atomic Habits” by James Clear (that BTC read last year) referencing habit-stacking, rising early is “the one practice that changed – and elevated – every other practice.” Both books talk about how “small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time, yield staggering results.” This book dove into how to do this and why it’s so valuable when it comes to rising early.

First off, the book’s format is written as a storyline, different from your typical style for this genre. The reader follows two characters as they travel alongside their teacher of the 5AM club principles, who provides them with different models, systems and tools along the way. I personally found the book’s characters to be distracting and obnoxious; at no point did they grow on me (cue the dramatic scene where the entrepreneur and artist are held at gunpoint.) BUT, if you can get past the unique framework, there were some big takeaways that resonated with me. Topics included leadership, joy, personal mastery, gratitude, productivity, habit-building and an array of knowledge so vast I can’t cover it all here…every page had at least something I highlighted. This is a bookshelf-staple that a growth-minded individual wants to have on hand to read over and over, focusing on different aspects of your character and routine, gaining new insight each time. Here, we’ll just focus on mornings.

Writing this review would have no grounds for critique had I not implemented the 5AM practice into my own routine; therefore, I tried this every weekday for the month of January. Some days included the gym, other mornings were spent reading, journaling or even just enjoying my coffee watching the news before work. At first, it was a pep talk when my alarm went off about why I was doing this… struggling to get out of bed. Over time though, I found myself feeling more energized and productive in the mornings, this energy trickling into my whole day. I craved that time carved out just for myself, I made better choices throughout the day that contributed to the progress I’d already made that morning and freed up a good chunk of time after work in the later afternoons. There is literally no greater feeling to having exercised, done laundry and taken time for myself to relax, all by 8AM. Bottom line, I experienced how the practice worked and Robin Sharma wasn’t exaggerating when he said it would elevate my day-to-day life.

Overall, not everyone needs to join the “5AM club” in order to be productive in the morning. Schedules, work constraints, kids – everyone’s lives are different. However, I do think that everyone can benefit from having a “Victory Hour” each morning, at whatever time suits your schedule, carving out time for yourself to move, do, feel and BE. We’ll join ya there, sis.

Enough of me though, I want to hear from you! For our bonus book readers: what morning routines or habits did you establish after reading the book? Will you carry out this practice to the 66-day mark and beyond? What did you think of the format of the book?

Let Love Lead!