What can you do for 1 hour a day to fundamentally transform your life? Well, here’s the answer: Start the first hour of your day on the right note, and use it to develop positive habits that can generate rippling effects in all areas of your life. In this article, we’re going to compare 2 powerful rituals for your morning hours (from non-fiction books: the 5AM Club vs Miracle Morning) to help you do just that.
Comparing the 5AM Club vs Miracle Morning
The 20/20/20 Formula (from The 5AM Club)
The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma involves the key habit of waking up at 5am daily, starting your day on a right note, and adopting a range of positive habits (during and beyond your morning hours) to multiply your results. Read The 5 AM Club summary here.
Why 5am? When we’re awake, our prefrontal cortex is usually in a state of hyper-activity, analyzing and worrying about everything. When you wake up at 5am, the peace and quiet allows your prefrontal cortex to switch off temporarily so you enter a state of transient hypofrontality. In this state, your brain waves slow down from beta to alpha (or even theta). The peace and silence also trigger the release of hormones like dopamine and serotonin, all of which put your brain in the ideal condition to enter a Flow state.
The first hour from 5-6 am is your Victory Hour, which you should use to nurture your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
In a nutshell:
• Move (0500-0520): Start your day with intense few minutes of exercise that makes you sweat. This triggers a host of biochemical reactions in your brain and body to put you in an optimal cognitive state.
• Reflect (0520-0540): Use the next 20 minutes for quiet reflection, meditation, prayer, journaling or planning. This provides focus and “residual wisdom” to guide your day.
• Grow (0540-0600): Use the final 20 minutes to learn and grow. Consider how you can increase your capacity/impact and become more valuable to your industry and society. Use the time to read a personal development book, listen to podcasts, watch an educational video, or study the lives of successful people.
Click here for the free summary of The 5AM Club
The 6 Life S.A.V.E.R.S (from The Miracle Morning)
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod provides you with a simple, proven method to improve your life and achieve your dreams and goals. The concept is similar to the 5 AM club, i.e. to start your day right to create a host of positive rippling effects. Read The Miracle Morning summary here.
Just wake up 1 hour earlier than usual and devote that extra time to develop yourself, using 10 minutes for each component below.
• Silence: Start with 10 minutes of purposeful Silence to center yourself, using meditation, prayer, reflection, deep breathing and/or gratitude exercises. Consider using a daily meditation app to guide your practice and make it a consistent habit.
• Affirmations: Manage your self-talk or sub-conscious programming, which affects your state of mind, performance and results.
• Visualizations: Mentally rehearse your successes in your mind until you can create those results in the real world.
• Exercise: This boosts your energy levels, health and concentration.
• Reading: Learn from people who’ve already achieved what you aspire to achieve. Reading self-help books can provide valuable insights, strategies, and inspiration to guide you on your journey and lays the foundation for character development and long-term success.
• Scribing: Make it a habit to document your ideas, insights, achievements i.e gratitude lists, breakthroughs or opportunities, and to review them regularly.
Click here for the free summary of The Miracle Morning
Own your Morning, Own your Life!
All of us have a finite amount of energy and willpower, which get depleted as we go about our day. When you set aside even a bit of time, like the first hour of your day, to cultivate your inner life, it delivers profound benefits.
Becoming a morning person sometimes isn’t easy – but you can tie a habit to your morning to get you accustomed to the routine. For example, you can start with simple actions like drinking a glass of water at a specific time in the morning, or allocating minutes of meditation.
That said, neither approach is fixed–you’re free to tailor them to suit your needs and lifestyle. The key is to commit to the process, and make it a daily habit.
If you’re still unsure which approach works best for you, why not try both? We recommend taking 3 months to try each practice. After 6 months, stop to review what works or doesn’t work for you, and if any reaped character growth results. Then, mix and match or tweak the components, to make it truly your routine. Feel free to circle back and share your final morning ritual and the results you achieved in the comments below! :)
