“Everyone dreams of being a legend until it comes time to do the work that legends do.”
ROBIN SHARMA
In The 5 a.m. Club, Robin
Sharma tells a story of an elite
who rose to success by incorporating
an innovative morning
routine built around getting up at
5 a.m. and developing a formula
designed to enhance his mental
focus, build his physical fitness,
and encourage him to be his
best self daily.
Why Wake Up At 5 a.m.?
Many true leaders throughout
history, including novelist
John Grisham to composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and
Albert Einstein, have discovered
that the solitude that comes from
waking at 5 a.m. has a multiplying
effect of increased creativity,
doubled energy, and tripled productivity.
Robin Sharma explains that
when you’re up early and alone,
away from overstimulation and
noise, your attention is not fragmented
by technology, meetings,
and other factors that can
limit productivity.
Everyone has a limited mental
capacity or cognitive bandwidth.
Throughout the day, we give
our attention to more and more
tasks: work, emails, interaction
with others, and social media.
Our bandwidth gets used up,
which in turn yields limited concentration
by midday. By waking
up at 5 a.m., you have an opportunity
to focus on a singular
high-value activity without your
brain getting distracted. This focus
is further emphasized by the
concept of transient hypofrontality,
which means that at 5 a.m.,
you can reach a state of flow.
During the state of flow, the
prefrontal cortex of the brain,
which handles logical thought
processes, temporarily shuts
down. So the inclinations to
analyze, stress, and worry are
reduced. Flow is the elite mindset
that all top performers, from
violinists to scientists, possess
in their most beautiful moments.
You’ll find that if you get up at 5
a.m., you’ll be more focused and
productive for the whole day.
The discipline to wake up
early is just one characteristic
of top performers. Robin Sharma
shares a formula that can
be applied to your daily life, that
will encourage you to become a
leader of your own life. Look out
for our next post as we share
that formula with you.
Sharma explains that an individual
must understand the
four interior empires – mindset,
heartset, healthset, and soulset.
“Mindset is your psychology,
and you can have great psychology
and strong beliefs. But
if you have a toxic heart, you’re
going to sabotage yourself.
Heartset is your emotionality,
and so if you have a stone psychology,
when you’re full of sadness,
pain, anger, you haven’t
forgiven people, you’re not going
to be creative for not getting
world-class,” said Robin Sharma.
He added, “Healthset is understanding
that energy which is
even more valuable than intelligence.
Your healthset is about
your vitality, energy protection,
and living a long life so you can
serve and do great things. And
then soulset is connecting to
your higher nature and noble
virtues every morning while the
rest of the world is asleep.”
THE MINDSET
Having a mindset (the belief
that you are in charge of
your own ability, and can learn
and improve) is the key to success.
The mindset is not as
simple as it seems. Yes, you
can build a healthy mindset
through the books you read,
the people you meet, and the
words you speak. But, along
the journey, you can also feed
your mind negative information
from social media, the internet,
or even the negative people you include in your life, even if
it is intentional or unintentional.
So, we have to be careful
about where we live, where we
work, where we go and what
we read, as they all contribute
to shaping our mindset one
way or another.
THE HEALTHSET
A healthy person has lower
stress levels, which results
in a higher productivity level. If
you don’t have the opportunity
to go to a gym, at least take
10 minutes out of your morning
routine and do a quick workout
at home, and the key is to
SWEAT. According to the US
National Library of Medicine National
Institutes of Health, exercise
promotes the expression of
brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF). The BDNF protein
helps regulate synaptic plasticity,
which is essential for learning
and memory.
The BDNF protein is found
in regions of the brain that control
eating, drinking, and body
weight; the protein likely contributes
to the management of
these functions. Exercise can
also decrease the levels of
your body’s stress hormones,
such as adrenaline and cortisol.
It also stimulates the production
of endorphins, chemicals
in the brain that is the
body’s natural painkillers, and
mood elevators. Exercising
has many health benefits, and
your brain and body will thank
you for it.
THE HEARTSET
Our hearts and emotions
control us, and if we don’t work
on this very element, we may
end up affecting all the other
three elements. Working on
your heartset is vital to the overall
growth of your emotional intelligence.
According to Daniel
Goleman, an American psychologist
who helped to popularize
emotional intelligence, there are
five critical elements to it:
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills
Incorporating the habit
of writing in a journal allows
a person to maintain
self-awareness and self-regulation.
Speaking with someone
they trust encourages the
development of social skills
and empathy. There are many
methods to work on your emotional
intelligence, and that
is something we are going
to cover in the future as we
share our learnings from Daniel
Goleman.
THE SOUL-SET
Your ego is the perception
you have of yourself and your
social mask, whereas your
soul is who you sincerely are
deep down below all the labels
and titles. When you learn and
understand how to align more
with your soul each day, life
will seem to flow more freely,
as taking action is less of a
struggle. You will begin to feel
more elevated and achieve inner
peace.
Here are a few ways to get
more in touch with your inner
soul:
Implementing these four elements
will only set you up for
true success in all aspects of
your life

