Day 17 of My 5AM Club Morning Routine Journey

I’m well into the 5AM club book journey now, so why isn’t it any easier for me to wake up on time? Yesterday I woke up at 5 fine and was filled with energy, but today I climbed out of bed like a sloth at 7:30AM. The tiredness and sluggishness is not something that has no origins though. I’m conscious of where it comes from (lack of sleep) yet I insist on repeating the pattern. I’m starting to think I might be a masochist.

7:30AM Get moving sloth-man: I didn’t quite have the energy that I had yesterday but I still did 200 push ups and 100 sit ups in one sitting. Meaning 4 sets of 50 push ups and 3 sets of 33 sit ups.

So it’s a very visible step up in strength and endurance for me. The beauty of keeping these online journals of this 5 AM club journey is that I can see changes more clearly. I’m more conscious of what was, what it is, and what will be. You’re not as observant when exercising without keeping a record. Change is small and passes by unnoticed if you’re not looking carefully.

7:50AM Write to make it right: I’m really enjoying my daily diary. It’s definitely a habit that is staying with me. The 5AM wake up time is still on rocky ground but the daily diary is locked in and not going anywhere.

It’s just 10 or 15 minutes of writing whatever comes out. If nothing comes out for a couple of minutes I’ll write my affirmations. The point is that I’m writing, I’m letting go, and anything that needs to come out, comes.

A crude yet very accurate analogy of the daily diary is that it’s like doing a number two to get your day started.

I also took about five minutes to work on a plan for the day ahead. If I don’t plan my day I have a tendency to wander.

8:10AM Learn something new: The book I’m reading is still “What doesn’t Kill us” by Scott Carney. He’s talking more about some of the abilities that we have pushed to the side over time. Things like our sense of direction or our psychic abilities.

I believe we’re all connected psychically and things like telepathy and reading surface thoughts of others are natural abilities that have been conditioned out of us. Our lifestyle, media, education, and thinking keep these abilities suppressed. Just my opinion of course. I’m not saying that the Scott Carney book says this, these are my thoughts on the situation.

17th Day of the 5AM Club book Morning Routine

Admittedly I wanted to see more progress by this point. I thought it would have been easier and I thought I would have been further along the path to creating the person that I’m working towards becoming.

But having said that, I have come a long way in a very short period of time. Just 17 days in and I’m waking up so much earlier, even if I don’t make the 5AM time I still get up quite early compared to what I’m used to.

I’m exercising religiously and recording my progress each day. This has improved my strength, endurance, and confidence as a person. I can see the physical changes in the mirror each day. Sure I’m still overweight and my stomach and hips look like they’ve been transplanted from a hippopotamus but I’m improving. I can see muscles growing and flab disappearing by the day.

My diet has improved radically. I’m eating more salads, fruits and vegetables than ever before. I’m eating fewer sweets and junk food too. I’m not saying that I haven’t had low days and splurged on a chocolate or had some dessert. But I have dramatically decreased my intake of bad foods. I’ve even cut out all sugar and milk in my coffee. I have one black coffee per day. I’m not ready to quit coffee yet but I can see a day where I replace that one black coffee with a healthier green tea.

And I have been more focused with my business. I’m working on things that will allow me to work from home again. It’s still early days so I’m not making enough money online yet but I’m heading in that direction again, and with the belief that I can do it.

I’m working on all areas of my life at once and I’m constantly looking for small changes, tiny improvements and knowledge that will push me forward in the direction that I believe will make my life on this planet infinitely better.

So even if I stopped doing this 5AM Club morning routine challenge today I would have to say it has been both rewarding and successful. Even though I have failed to wake up at 5AM more times than I had hoped I would, I have improved. Which in my eyes makes it worthwhile.

Exercise: 250 push ups, 100 sit ups and 70+ minutes walking. Make sure to do weights tomorrow!
Diet: Ate well throughout the day, but had a late dinner which included a small amount of bread and a can of pepsi. Argh! I instantly regretted it after I ate it.

How Could I Improve?

Stick to the “to do list” and do the 5 most important jobs during the first half of the day. Leave the second half of the day to jobs that are still important but they’re not absolutely essential to your feeling good or not.

And of course, no late dinners. I should have a cut off time for eating. Maybe 8PM or possibly even 7PM as I need to be getting to bed earlier too.

Conclusion for Day 17 of the 5AM Challenge

It’s all going well. I’m failing and succeeding and failing and succeeding, but I’m moving forward and I’m improving so I am succeeding and Life is Amazing! I love life.

See my previous days of success and failure on this transformative path called the 5AM Club here.

Let me know what your morning routine is like in the comments below. Or do you even have a morning routine?