What We Learnt From The Five AM Club Book Review

Photo by Zwaddi on Unsplash

“To have the results the Top 5% of producers have, you must start doing what 95% of people are unwilling to do.”

The 5 AM Club

Pursuit of greatness

We are good at some things, better at others and great at a few things. This greatness comes from years of conscious or unconscious effort taken by us. For example: Someone is great at waking up early no matter how late they slept. Someone is great at managing their teams. Someone is great at blowing balloons. Everyone has some level of greatness in them, what differs is the intention and the impact. For you, the reader going through this blog, it’s safe to assume that you’re looking to bring focus on your intentions and maximising your impact. You want to better yourself so that you can affect real change in the world. You are in pursuit of greatness. You’ve come to the right place.

Enter The 5 AM Club

This book is an outline of how to achieve greatness supplemented with scientific studies and explained through a narrative. It follows the story of an entrepreneur and an artist attending a talk by Spellbinder, a life coach who helps people achieve greatness. During the talk, the entrepreneur and the artist come across a mystical figure in the audience. This mystical figure, though looking pretty homeless, enlightens them with his knowledge and words. The entrepreneur and the artist are so captivated by his words and moved by his perspective, they accept his offer to spend a week with them in his private island. Though it seemed stupid in the moment, they took a leap of faith.

“The place where your greatest discomfort lies is also the spot where your largest opportunity lives.”

The journey begins

Turns out the homeless-looking mystical figure, was actually an industry titan at the top of his field. He’s a billionaire who is passionate about life, growth, art and discipline. One of his beliefs is:

“Art feeds my soul. Great books battleproof my hope. Rich conversations magnify my creativity. Wonderful music uplifts my heart. Beautiful sights fortify my spirit.”

This billionaire takes the other two on a journey of personal discovery in his island. Starting at, as the name suggest, 5 AM.

Discipline and consistency

“Consistency really is a key ingredient of mastery. And regularity is a necessity if you’re amped to make history.”

The Titan explains the power of consistency. Showing up every single day, to take one step further, is the gateway to achieve greatness. Our habits dictate our actions and our actions create impact. So if we want to have higher impact we have to take an inventory of our habits. Once we know our habits, what makes us tick, what is dictates our reaction, we can take steps to remove undesired ones and develop desired ones.

“Elite producers and everyday heroes understand that what you do each day matters far more than what you do once in a while.”

Consistency is the key. But what should we be consistent with. According to the book, we should:

Seize the first hour of the day

“Every morning you wake up with a full battery of creative power.”

Those who intentionally plan the first hour of the day set themselves up for success. So what to plan for?

The 20-20-20 rule. To take action on the 3 most important aspects for growth - Physical wellbeing, mental well-being and learning.

The 20-20-20 rule dictates that upon waking up, at 5 AM, we should spend the first 20 minutes of the day waking our body up by physical exercise. Not just stretches, a workout difficult enough to elevate our heartbeat and make us sweat. A healthy mind follows a healthy body, so first thing we should do, is work on our physical health.
Right after that we should take the next 20 minutes to improve our mental well-being. This can be done through 20 minutes of journaling, meditation, affirmations and gratitude practice. Anything that pushes us to reach within our own minds and bring out whatever is in hiding in the back.
The last 20 minutes are to learn something new in the area of our interest or expertise. This last step is to ensure that every single day, we’re developing our skillset along with our bodies and minds. These 20 minutes will ensure that we maintain a lifelong position of a learner, a student. A position of learning and applying

We at Phrazee we also take a position of learning and applying. That’s why we’re developing an app for people who want to learn and apply. Consistently. Everyday.

Join phrazee

Experience the power of profound knowledge made simple. Start your journey with Phrazee.

The 5 AM Club is an amazing book which will at first motivate, you just by its words, to achieve greatness and second, a better output, give you principles and systems to build consistency and achieve greatness as a by product.

We give this book 5/5 stars

How would you rate this book?

TLDR? Check out phrazee.com to find quotes from The 5 AM Club and many more impactful books from various genres like self help, business, finance, leadership, relationships and many more.