Skip to main content

The 5am Club


"All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and so gorgeous at the end." Robin Sharma
Thanksgiving weekend 2019, I finally bought Robin Sharma's book The 5am Club. I had the book on my reading list for about a year. I had heard Robin Sharma on a YouTube video and had been inspired to recommit to getting up at 5am. Although, I am not a morning person by nature and in fact, I am more of a night owl, I have gone through two periods in my life where getting up at 5 am has made a significant and positive difference in my life and I just knew that buying and reading the book would help motivate me to get up at 5 am consistently, not sporadically as I have been doing for the past few years. 
In 2003 I gained over 40 pounds during my pregnancy. A year after my son was born I resolved to lose the weight I had gained. I had a 7 am to 3:30 pm schedule at the time, that meant I had to get up at 4:30 am every morning to work out before work. In less than a year I lost the weight and felt great, the change felt "gorgeous at the end" (as Robin Sharma's quote above states). Then life happened and getting up at the break of dawn didn't happen for another 10 years. 
At the end of 2013, after my husband and I had filed bankruptcy and had gone through a perfect storm, I learned Transcendental Meditation (TM). For almost 2 years after that, almost every day (weekends were the exclusion), I would wake up at 5 am to practice my "morning ritual". My morning ritual consisted of my first alarm going off at 4:30 am and then being up at 5 am to do my TM, do an hour of reading while sipping my morning latte which I so enjoyed and then doing an hour of exercise (usually a jog) all before having to get ready for being at work by 8 am. It was so difficult to consistently get up at 5 am in the beginning the road, the change was difficult. However, after just 6 months of consistently having my morning ritual, I loved it and felt so "in the flow" of life. Then, somewhere along the road (2016 or so) I backslid, no more waking at the break of dawn (consistently i.e. daily).
I have now been on a 3 year journey to try and get back into my morning ritual and I swore to myself that buying and reading The 5 am Club was going to be my motivating factor. Sadly, since Thanksgiving weekend, although I have had some 5 am risings they are definitely not every day and it is definitely not a habit yet, I am far from the "gorgeous end". This journey however has been a reminder of how much (I believe) our level of discipline, commitment and will power can be impacted by our ingrained beliefs and emotional imprinting. I am just saying that changing habits can be really, really hard for some of us. I am not making excuses and I am also OK if someone feels that I am. I am not giving up, I am determined to consistently (daily) have a morning ritual again. I am starting  to think though that the 6 am club might be a better fit for me 😅

As always, please visit my website to learn more about my upcoming events and workshops in Santa Barbara, CA

www.vidaconsultingservices.com
www.vida805.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Authentic Self

  "The core of authenticity is the courage to be imperfect, vulnerable and to set boundaries" Brene Brown Of course Brene Brown's quote is spot on and at mid-life and after many, many years of working on my own personal development and self-growth which started at around age 24, I can honestly say, I have lived authentically most of the time...At 50, I'm probably and finally at about 90% shooting for that last 10% in the next few years, what can I say it's hard in this culture with the expectation, particularly for women, to sacrifice so much of ourselves for others.  It has not been an easy journey, especially as a first generation Mexican-American female and daughter of immigrant parents. It has definitely been a process and fortunately certain life experiences early on, helped set the course for me, such as a love for the outdoors/adventure and sports at a young age, interest and knack for academics/learning (came easily) and a strong and courageous mother as a

Final Blog (For Now)

  "Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change"  Jim Rohn         If there is one thing I love, take pleasure in and absolutely need in my life, is  CHANGE! My life has had so many changes and taken so many detours and twists and turns especially in the past 9 years, that I have finally come to understand and genuinely accept that for me at least, there really is no final destination and it really is all about the journey. I say this even though I still have my very concrete goals, dreams and wishes (my bucket-list of 101 goals).                 Photo courtesy of Lisa Fotios Throughout my life and lately I seem to be wondering and reflecting more on why my life has always been so vastly different from those around me (namely my family and friends), why do I need and crave change so much, is it really a good thing? I don't know the answer quite yet but over the years, I have just told myself that I just happen to "march to the beat of my own dru

More Than We Can Handle

“We all have to deal with something. I know that to be true. They say God never gives us more than we can handle, but I say sometimes He assumes we’re stronger than we are. Life is a challenge.” Susan Mallery "God does not give us more than we can handle" Every time I see this written or said by anyone, anywhere, I cringe and silently say "Yeah right". My adopted son, two months shy of his 18 birthday took his life in May of 2018. His pain and inner turmoil was more than he could bear. Life had dealt him and his older siblings a bad hand. That is the honest truth and there is no sugar coating the cards he was dealt, he and his siblings spent 5 years in foster care never being truly loved and hugged by caring parents or adults. My son, Andrew was just 6 months old when he was removed from his birth parents. That was just the start. And like my son, there are countless others who attempt to end their pain through suicide, alcohol, drugs and all sorts of addictions as