Living The 5am Club for 7 days

Some key facts at the beginning. Robin Sharma: – Interested in neuroscience and more precisely bdnf (brain-derived neurotrofic factor). Bdnf lights up when the exercise 20min starts! “Writing gives you the precision of thought.” “The things that get scheduled are the things that get done.” “Vague goals lead to vague results.” “Is a gamechanger.”

The things NOT TO DO:

– Lose sleep. If you only get 3hrs of sleep just to wake up at 5am, then just don’t. You have to look at your evening rituals as well: going to bed earlier. Make sure that you get enough sleep — ~7-8 hrs/night

– Be too rigid. 20-20-20 could mean exercising 30min, and the reflection time 20min could be 10min. Customize.

•Habit protocol:

Taj Mahal: it took 20 yrs to complete, so willpower+consistency = automatic behaviour

— The four focuses:

1. Focus on key areas — capitalization; find where your gifts are and focus on them. Successful people tend to focus better than the average. Your gifts might not come naturally, so look for them!

2. Eliminating distractions — in social media world focusing doesn’t mean going to Facebook or Instagram etc. Move technology far from you or close them altogether.

3. Personal mastery — as soon as you face it the better: you’ll never be perfect, no matter how much you try. Sharma’s personal development is as follows:

– mindset: your self-talk

– heartset: your emotions

– healthset: physical fitness

– soulset: contemplation/meditation on who you are

4. Day stacking — making the following day even better than the day before. Couple of key words: consistency — planning

✔5am-lifestyle: 66 days to thoroughly sink in.

💫Things gathered from YouTube of other people’s 5am.s:

– A vision board under your journal, for reflection 20min.

– Sitting At The Table whilst a reflection time/studying and not slouching on a sofa.

– Changing (into workout clothes) while doing other morning chores, ready for the exercise part.

– Love to wake up while the sun is rising! (Side note: hah! You mean the moon?)

– Listening to an upbeat podcast while walking (before breakfast).

– Showered+makeup on ready at 7am, then the ‘last remaining hour’ before 8am is all about getting some work done. (Side note: you WANT to get things be over and done with, that is the magic of the victory hour!)

– Avoiding ANYTHING that other people do or expect you do in the am. It’s Your Time, let others do what they do.

– Skincare + slapping cold water on face + brushing teeth.

– Lemon water is the first thing before coffee. (Side note: those four are my routines as well.)

– “I was too excited to even journal in the morning and I journaled: ‘Can this be over already?! So I can go back to actually working on them..’ Writing every day out my goals meant I couldn’t wait to get to start doing them.”

– Knowing your WHY. Why are you waking up? Why is anyone waking up at 5am? What goals do you want to work towards? Know your why.

This “living like” is kind of personal as well. It’s a breakdown week in someone’s life, right.

Friday day 1💫

Here it goes. Oh no..! Already thinking beforehand that this is a bad idea, with no sleep deprivation. I usually wake up pretty early, but definitely my sleep rhythm has changed, so that I’ll go to bed at about 11pm or earlier (9-10pm), and fall to sleep at 11.30pm (or earlier). Thinking of an alarm waking me up at 5am is just..god NO.

Normally, I wake up somewhere around 8am. Sometimes I wake up when everyone else is still sleeping at 3-4am, but that requires extra (being extra quiet takes a lot of work!). I’ve also found that in the early hours of the morning there isn’t any schedule, as you’d expect.

💫Some beforehand troublesome issues: it’ll take about 15min to even wash-up in the morning (brush teeth etc.), so that would mean it’d be as late as 5.15am. Dear lord… Having coffee and breakfast means that meanwhile drinking and eating, I am watching something that’s on TV at that time (usually Top Gear). And if I wake up really early, before I breathe out it’s already 7am with not much accomplished. Or if I wake up let’s say at 8am then it’s soon 10am, and still nothing reasonable done. You get the point, right? I’m beginning to learn the importance of scheduling mornings.

Saturday day 2💫

1am, 1.30am, 4.58am. 4.58am. Stress: 110% and checking the clock the whole evening and the night. Finally 5am!!! And good morning to you! God damned. Should one get up and exercise at this time?!

At 5.18am, well, I just only washed up and I want nothing more than to make coffee. No!! But since 20-20-20 -method requires you to exercise in the morning for 20min, choosing to have a glass of juice before any breakfast. I try to do energetic yoga movements to start up blood circulation. The first 5min is tough. Tough! Like nooo, me want to sleep! But then..into 10min I begin to feel like ‘this is Awesome!’ and by 20min in my mind begins to shift.

✔One could get used to this and you begin to actually crave for it! Of course I have sleep deprivation (about 4+hrs) and the clock is 5.40am, so getting the blood circulated at that time is just…oh no! But, in the meanwhile I’m dreaming about proper outdoor walkings in fresh air for 20min before any morning coffee and breakfast. They’d taste way better, this I imagine. Before 6am some of the neighbours seem to be awake. Are they doing The 5am Club as well, or just fellow morning-owls?

💫I feel amazing for the whole morning!!! Coffee has never tasted better and never been so hungry before. Also inspiration seems to be 120%. I have evolved definitely to a morning person in the last few months. This’d be a perfect time for reflection 20min (inspiration). So this I’ll do while having coffee and eating. Coffee-caffein 100%: Pinterest! Instagram! Day’s to do -list: done! Catching up on inspirational tv-shows: done! Even more energy from that: check! More coffee: check! As if I would need any.. Getting so much more done than just on a normal morning. Exercise: done! Reflection: done! Studying for me is every day every hour kind of thing, so don’t think I need to focus on that so much. People just are starting to wake up. I’ve been awake for 4hrs by now. C’mon!

✔All this energy is going to bite me in the ass later, I know it. I start to f.n bake at 9am.

•Following 5am Club’s 20-20-20 -method is 20min+20min+20min (of one hour -5am to 6am) — Victory hour: movement, reflection and studying. Exercise puts you in a perfect cognitive state, reflection is journaling or a meditation etc. and studying; reading a book, listening to a podcast or studying, this puts your brain into a high gear.

1pm: I’m tired af. Baked from 9am to..well, until 1pm. At 1.45pm: I am sleepily reading the f.n book: The 5am Club and resting (see don’t nap..never ever! I’d have to be put to sleep by anesthesia.).

7.15pm: been inside the whole day, although having the insane amount of energy to go out for jogging in the morning. That’s long gone! I realise that it’s the first day, so I might be adjusting to new rhythm. It might be the most difficult day, that is what gets me through.

9.15pm: every.cell in my body wants to go to sleep. Lights away away, over and out. G’night!

Sunday day 3💫

✔Woke up at 9am. All I can think about is “what a failure!!” And as the alarm went off at 5am: “I just don’t want to be that tired than I was yesterday.” was all I thought about. So in that Zzz state of mind made a decision of sleeping more. The +8hrs (more like 10hrs at this point) sounded more appealing than 6hrs.

Morning thoughts: usually I’m so go-go-go 24/7 and falling head over heels into a new subject. So, a relaxing weekend is not my thing. It’s a Sunday and I’m making to do -list for today. This I know, that most people are sleeping in and having (Netflix and chill?) a proper day-off. The only thing separating Saturday and Sunday is that some of the stores are not open.

It might based on the profession in healthcare; it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Wednesday or a Sunday, and whether it is a holiday or just a regular working day. Everyone of you in healthcare is like: “Yeap!” I don’t know about normal office work for example. Of course being 35 yo now I’ve had jobs, all kind of jobs. An office in a court f.e. (one of my first jobs at 19, so I knew it then, and I know it now, that it’s a downhill from there on.) So… remembering those previous jobs, where the weekend was expected..Yeah it was as important af.

I know that if I didn’t eat right, my energy levels would be low. I can see that immediately if one meal (or the whole day) is out of place! It straight away affects my energy in that.. I don’t have any.

After compelling myself to slow down since it’s a Sunday, waking up ‘late’ (9am is late for me, no matter if it is a weekend!) now feels like a good idea when it’s an evening. The time is even 9.40pm, and I’ve been tired af for couple of hours now.. I know the next morning is an early morning again, yes I scheduled it beforehand. Went for an evening walk and on it (always great ideas are issued there when the energy is higher) I decided that the alarm will be set for 4.50am. Aaaand here we go!! It’s a Monday. This might’ve been not so good of an idea..we’ll see.

Monday day 4💫

Again stress levels high✔ Time to go to bed tired: 10pm. Time to go to sleep: 11.30pm. See I knew(!) that today’s wake-up at 9am was bad for trying to sleep this evening. Time: 2am. Time and the alarm went off finally: 4.50am! Time: 4.57am.

Seeking Sisterwives on, immediately! Excitement level: 110%. It hasn’t been on for ages, even missed this tv show…so 4.50am it is! It already started at 3am, but not planning on having a few hours of sleep because of the re-runs. Time: 5.09am. Still too excited as one should be at 5.09am, because of a returning tv show. Time: 5.22am it ended, now time for the daily tasks to begin!

Time: 6.14am. Today I did it! Went outside for “a walk” which turned into a jog. At 5.45am for 20min. It was partly snowy, so sneakers were a bad idea. Didn’t expect that! But, I have more energy than I thought. Though it might be just ‘the morning energy’ before the 1pm hits. But waking up before 5am (with sleep deprivation again ~4hrs) was ok. A person on a bicycle passed me, I expect going to work (at that time, right?). And I thought; she has No Idea what I’m doing, does she. She’s just minding her own business and having one of those days, when it’s just a Monday morning and having to go to work and just grind (I imagine with teeth crooked). Okay I might’ve been exaggerating, she might actually have a dream job, which she cannot wait to get back to.

Now, as I’ve been hungry since watching The Sisterwives, finally I’m going to go make coffee and breakfast.

Time: 8am. This morning feels different. Maybe because whether I’m used to the wake-ups or this Monday has a different flow to it: more relaxed although effective. Last evening’s try-out walk for 20min might’ve still affected.

Time: only 10am.. only. Jeez I’ve been awake for sooo looong!! As said earlier, I’m definitely resting more (aka not cooking or baking this morning); laying down and reading The 5am Club. Maybe I’m too scared of the other day’s insane tiredness, that I’m resting more, instead of napping!

Time: 11.40am. Rested for 1,5hrs. Feel again ready to tackle the world! Time: 3.30pm. Couldn’t even remember that went for a jog This Morning, just remembered it while re-reading the post. God almighty!

Thinking about what I read on 5am Club, and then wondering if I’m focusing on enough of stuff. Sure there’s md studies+tests, Gem, my son, planning for his future (kindergarten etc.), and I’m light years ahead, already planning into 10 yrs. Few businesses after Gem.. It’s the now, that is difficult at times being so future-oriented. But reading made me wonder like..am I focusing on The Right things? What else should I then focus on? Those thoughts are new, because I felt like I had it. Like I was doing a lot of people’s worth of tasks. What if that’s not enough, though?

Time: 8.50pm. Jeez I feel exhausted, and I’ve felt exhausted for couple hours now. Went for a nice and quiet walk, meanwhile yawning, at about 7.45pm. On the walk, every muscle hurt in the back. At close to 9pm, I just want to go to sleep. … Made it to 9.40pm and over and out.

Tuesday day 5💫

7.30am. Decided again to just ‘sleep in’ to get more hours under the belt. The alarm went off at 5am, but as I recall it, I just pushed it off. Kind of feel failed again, and kind of am like..it’s still only 7.30am Without alarm. I think once this 5am week ends, 6-7am will be my thing. Occasionally 5am or even earlier. Have to note that the 5am wakes are golden. It is more difficult to get the same ‘on top of the world’-feeling at 9am. Plus it’s exactly what Sharma speaks of: “The victory hour”. Even thinking about it, is just excitement!

Chose to work out some (to get my bdfn/20min done) before breakfast while watching a super funny+real TV show (Single Parents) that’s on in the am.

💫💫💫 App: Kiwake. – easy memory games + an alarm. Simple memory games before the alarm is off. Daily goals: (x 3) check off.

🥳 What I’ve learned: GEM 150% done. Of course ever since Gem got published, it has been a full on a lifestyle morelike. But the last week waking up at 5am, the energy of it has been just: 200%. So of course in that process Gem gets done!

1pm. Got some shocking news. Now when you imagine ‘shocking’, you can make that at least five times shocking. It takes a lot to count as “shocking” for me.. Right now, I don’t know how to do this week..know that I need it, though. And now wish I had the energy of waking up at 5am at least. The structure. The routine.

Basically, everything you have believed in over two years has been wrong. Just in the wrong. And on top of that, I’m getting sued for something that I didn’t do in the first place. It’s sooo familiar, like you wouldn’t believe.. I get that all of you Finnish people absolutely adore Finland, but compared to other countries, it is harsh and (too?) effective. Attacking by your, supposedly safe, country for years now. If it makes you wonder why is Jojo so international..Well you just answered to your own question. I’d need a new word for shocking. I guess I have been personally faced with sooo many setbacks that I’ve grown strong. (-er) and just resilient.

All I can think about (what I personally have known before), like the book said: anything that you have to deal with, is not more than you can handle. Now, for me..oh boy. It would take a lot! As proven again, it’s a lot! Too much for most..Now, you can be upset about that and grow, but one of the things that I’m not afraid anymore, is to be blunt in truth.

✔You’ve got no other way than to grow when faced with challenges.

💫I actually thrive from this!! It’s quite magical now, that the last sentences I highlighted were: “…you’re exactly where you need to be to receive the growth necessary…If you sense your life’s a mess right now, this is simply because your fears are just a little stronger than your faith. With practice, you can turn down the volume of the voice of your scared self. And increase the tone of your most triumphant side.” Now, I’ll perhaps put this too on the Gem Bookshelf -post. 💫Truthfully, I can’t stand people who are overly emotional and crying for every darn thing they’re faced with. I don’t know man..just remembering that it’ll blow off So Fast. Like the saying goes: if it doesn’t affect in 5 years then don’t dwell in it 5min longer. And it, whatever it is, makes you stronger.

3pm. But on-the-go life keeps on knocking in the midst of just wanting to press pause. Where as the rest of the world doesn’t, though. Press on pause.

4.30pm. Purpously watching TV, to get my mind off the day. It hasn’t been great so far. 10.30pm. Still awake and too pumped up for sleeping. I may suspect that it’s this morning’s (7.30am) fault. Tomorrow is a long ass day, will need to have energy throughout the day, so waking up at 5am is out of the question. Now I’m pondering whether it’s going to be 6am or 7am. Just to get maximum hours of sleep is the most important thing. 11.30pm. To bed, to read the book, if that way sleepiness comes. It does. The last time I watched the clock was at 1am.

Wednesday day 6💫

Alarm goes off at 7am. It’s raw! Dear lord, how long would I have slept otherwise? 7.15am. In the middle of a morning wash, my throat feels sore. Yeap, analysing some..it might’ve been the crying yesterday. I rarely cry anymore, but since the baddest of bad news I just wept for every once in a while for 2hrs.

7.40am. Listening to a slow music playlist and flowly moving for 10min. 8.30am. Am drinking coffee and having a breakfast while watching the absolutely glorious reality tv show: Darcey & Stacey. If I actually saw them I’d be fangirling so much!

9am. It’s absolutely no surprise, that I’ve got the most energy in the mornings, with or without the 5am wakeups. 💫10.15am. Watching Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown (the amazing Vishen Lakhiani) on YouTube. I figured focusing on other things than Sharma’s 5am.s, is in fact part of the reflection time in The 5am Club.

Widening out exercise, reflection and studying throughout the day is key! Note to self: it’s not just the victory hour 5-6am, or the golden hours from 5am to 8am, but THE WHOLE DAY. It matters a lot what you do after 8am. What you do at 3pm? If I recall new inventions in my head, that are quite finished, I haven’t made them in the morning. They’ve been made on mornings, middays, evenings and nights. It’s just on 5-6am, at where I crafted the ‘finished’ idea. That is the “why” for me, is to have more energy to work at them.

✔ Focusing on ONE task at the time. F.e if I watch YouTube, I only watch YouTube. Or if I’m on Twitter, I am only on Twitter. The list goes on and on.. Whenever though I watch YouTube whilst on Twitter and highlighting a book or studying, that just means my focus is spread out. Perhaps whatever takes the most of focus gets done, although slowly. Focus on one thing, that’s the thing if anything I’ve learned!

✔💫Things to learn: this might be an ongoing list! I watch other people’s mornings and I’m like..hmph. Well, THAT AND THAT isn’t done.

– Journaling after 5am. The reflection time is so much better for me thinking them out; goals, to do.s… I’m so much better visualising them!

– Journaling gratitudes. This might be the most one to learn!

So, I have one morning to go as living a week 5am-style, and definitely going to focus more on the things that are dragging on. I am a procastinator in the league of the worst kind! Right I am. A lot of you might be thinking that ‘but she’s so ✔’. Sure I have a lot of ideas, but the execution is for..later and preferably by someone else.

7pm. Just got home. Knowing that this was going to be a long ass day, am still just exhausted waking up at 7am, with going to sleep at 1am. Still tired af went for a walk, because I know that tomorrow is going to be the last day of The 5am Club. I don’t know, just wanted to get some fresh air before an evening of relaxation with heat and a home-spa. One of my negative features or strengths is pushing myself to a limit and beyond. Like the day before, muscles hurt. Last night I got 6 hours, so..is it going to be another 6 hours? Based on the absolute tiredness, I’d predict no. I made it, struggling to 10pm. Over and out.

Thursday day 7💫

1am. 1.15am. 1.30am. Still 1.30am. Finally 5am! I was relieved that it finally was 5am. Dark as hell outside. “Hello darkness my old friend!” Goddamn. 5am. All I can think about ‘this is the last morning..’ Jeez, went to the terrace. The moon was freaking visible!🌙It’s quite laughable that one advice is to exercise whilst sunrise. You mean pretend you never went to sleep but stayed up all night instead? Good morning! Good morning! Exciting day! Exciting day!

5.30am. After brushing teeth and a wash-up, I kind of failed..was going to go for a walk outside, but was just sooo cooold. Didn’t want to spend 5min of dressing up to go outside (yeah it’s not Spain, it’s kind of warm: +6°C). But hey, I thought, not the End of the world right? I can go for a walk After breakfast and warm coffee. So, decided to again flowly move and dance to great beat for about 15min.

Man, I forgot my “why”. Why is one waking up at 5am, other than to write about it. I’ve not been sleeping that much, so of course I’m like: f this s**t. I unplannedly (?) got even less than 6 hours. Thought I was getting more!

6.40am. Got my “why”! Today it’s Gem and particularly a one that comes after Gem, wayyy into the future ~10 years. No, not going to share, not my thing. But without planning ahead, there wouldn’t be Google for example. Finally went outside for a 10min walk, it’s still so cold and the moon is shining, so I’m here freezing, ready to journal.

💫It’s like Noah: a tantrum for going out and a tantrum for going back in = me today

5.57am. This morning I might nap, I know! But I feel So Tired, in where my night sleep was too little. Yesterday was so physically and mentally draining, that I would’ve needed a full night’s sleep..

🌙 I’ve posted especially on Ig stories of Some pics of this week, but people have no idea, do they, about what I’ve been though. That’s the life of a person: to be camouflaged, without having celebrity where again Some of life’s events are seen and shown. Or maybe I’ve just watched too much of reality tv!

2.51pm. I am tired, just absolutely on the verge of falling asleep, the whole day. Didn’t nap, as figured, in the morning. I’d thought I’d nap, but resting for 30min took any napping-blues away away!

5pm. Get more energy when I’m just eating and resting. So.. Writing this and the Bookshelf book: 5am Club. Joyful times!

I wondered this myself: what has been the very best morning 5am wakeup? Well..there’re good features on every one of them! Perhaps Monday day 4 in many things, in where I believed I got the hang of it: a surprising rerun of Sister Wives (at night it feels like), the first outdoor walk/jog before breakfast(!).. All in all, it’s been a good week; tiredness yes, feels you get when others are still sleeping and the insane(!) energy.

This has been a week of other stuff too, like hearing the worst news ever on a “day-off”, just resting and eating, when you just wanted to be totally pumped up and ready to take on the world. Well that didn’t happen, and Tuesday is by far the worst day of this week. It definitely affected me yesterday, but not a lot anymore today. In the midst of “other life-altering things” I can still do other tasks, without it affecting me in the background. Don’t know..it might affect Your life, but Not the other person’s.

7.30pm. Been resting and reading the book. I watched Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown’s Vishen Lakhiani -episode, and that was kind of a mistake. See, I now confuse all the time Lakhiani and Sharma. For a week now, I’ve been watching so many interviews of Sharma, studied his mindset, read The 5am Club and watched how other people do their mornings. Still, in my mind…I can see freaking Lakhiani. That’s why I like to focus on one person for a Bookshelf book and/or “Living like that” and that.

9.30pm. Still wide awake. Bling bling or bing bing! I don’t know. 10pm. Falling down like a tree..🌲

Well, this has been crazy and fantastic, crazily fantastic. Are continuing 5am.s.

Are you?

X Johanna