If you want to read about my experience and my thoughts on the first week of the 5 AM Club 66 Days Challenge, please go here, if not here comes a short summary of my first 7 days.
Summary of the last week
My week starts on Friday. Overall, I am delighted with my waking up at 5 am plan, although, day 8 today, and I am still not there. I knew that from the beginning, so I tried not to put too much pressure on myself, because that would have demotivated me. However, I managed to go down from waking up at 9:30 am, to 5:35 am in 7 days. I also became more open to meditation. I registered myself to a seminar in entrepreneurship and business, which was long overdue. The focus in the seminar is so far a lot on personal growth, and I have already been recommended several books that I need to read to go deeper into knowing myself. I also had my first hour with a career couch. Part of myself discovery journey is to find out what I want out of a career and what I would like to do. I need to find the voice inside me that tells me what completes me, and not the other hundred exterior voices that have been talking to me throughout the years, and that now I mistake them with my own thoughts. The session ended up with her telling me that apparently I know very well what my values are, what my vision is, and what I want to do, but I lack the courage to do so. So, for the next few session we will be treating the fear of failure. This will be the core activity/task for the next 7 days.
Day 8
Today I woke up at 5:33 am. I did not open my eyes until 5:45 am though. I was very tired. Yesterday I went to bed at 9:30 pm, but I didn’t fall asleep until 10 pm. I do need my 8 hours of sleep. That is a must. I wished there was a way my body would get used with only 7 hours of sleep. I feel that there are so many things I like and want to do in a day, that I am wasting my time sleeping. Waking up so early has its benefits. One of them is the drive to do more, and more, and more.
Today I listened to the same meditation as yesterday. It is about the universal truths of greatness. Be the hero for this world. Forgiveness is a gift for yourself. Be the change you want to see in the world. Genius is not genetic, but a result of your daily habits. I love this last one. I have to repeat that to myself more often. Focus on healthy habits. Our own life and personality are shaped by our thoughts, thoughts will trigger actions, and repeated actions lead to habits.
My lesson for today is to focus on my thoughts and pay attention to my habits. In yesterdays seminar, I came to learn that we have around 60 000 thoughts per day, and 95% of those thoughts we had the previous day. It is true the saying “you are what you think”. It is overwhelming to learn that only 5% of our thoughts are new thoughts. So, what do I do with the rest of the 95%? As an exercise, I will take 10 minutes per day to work on my way of thinking. I will shape my own thoughts into positive ones, that will help me grow. Today I will make a list with 5 achievements that I am proud of, and analyze my own feelings when I acknowledge them.
Days 9 & 10
It was weekend, so in theory, I am supposed to take a break from the waking up at 5 am. So, on Saturday, I woke up “late”. It was 6.20 AM. I started the day with a meditation. For the move part, I painted the entire living room. That took me the entire day. No reflecting mode.
On Sunday, I woke up again at 6:20 AM. Started the day with jumping on my boyfriend’s trampoline. It arrived the day before. We got inspired by Tony Robbins, as we saw a documentary of him and how he prepares before going on a stage. He always says that we need to keep moving 🙂 I kind of skipped the reflecting part and went straight to reading (growing part). I was eager to start reading on the 5 AM Club book which has also arrived.
Here is what I took from the book today: results are not about genius, but more about your daily habits. I keep repeating that to myself. You should do that too. We are what we do. And we do what we think. As long as we are in charge of our thoughts, we can live any life we want. Our thoughts become actions. Our actions become results. Results give us more motivation and increase our self-confidence, which in turn, will have a positive impact on how we think, and then the cycle starts again.
If someone keeps track, I haven’t made the list of the 5 achievements that I am proud of, but I did however thought about them. I came up with 3 (hardly), and then couldn’t think of anything else. I do, however, take 1 minute per day to be my fan number one. Read my post here on that if you are interested on how to boost your self-confidence.
Day 11
It’s Monday. This week is my week with the kids, which means I am cannot rely on my boyfriend to wake me up. I went to bed quite late last night (it was 10:09PM when I turned off my phone). I set the alarm for 5:40 AM and woke up straight away. For my movement part today I cleaned the clutter from the kids bedrooms. I will pick them later today from school and kindergarten.
I wanted to listen to Robin Sharma’s meditation, but something is wrong with the app today, so instead I searched on YouTube a morning meditation with Tony Robbins. His style it is a bit different, but I like him. I am still new to this meditation thing, so I am not quite mastering it yet.
For my growing part, I will continue reading from the 5AM Club book, and listen to 2 courses of the business seminar I started last week.
Day 12
All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
Today is the first day I wake up at 5AM. That is a huge milestone for me. It’s a change for me, and definitely not an easy one. My brain was trying to find excuses to not wake up this morning when the alarm went off. Somehow, I managed to find a power within me who said not to listen to my brain. Maybe it was the heart speaking? Or was it the other way around? My heart wished for 1 extra hour or sleep, and my brain was the one that got me off the bed in the end?
I got 7 hours and 30 minutes of sleep. That means I will, again, take a power nap today around 12-13 ish, for 15-20 minutes. So, there goes a benefit for having the lockdown during this Corona time, otherwise, it would have been a bit difficult to explain my supervisor why I needed a power nap in the middle of the working day. Hopefully, by the time we are supposed to be back in the office, my body will get used with the new routine, and I will not feel so tired. I can’t wait to get to the last part of the change, the gorgeous one. I am still in the hard at first stage now.
I found myself being more energetic and positive the day before. I was smiling to everyone, and I felt good. It was 10 AM when I had to go for an important meeting, and just the thought that I was awake for almost 5 hours by that time, it increased my self-confidence by a lot. I had so much done by 10 AM. It’s 5 hours of being productive. That is insanely a huge amount of time.
My lesson from yesterday is that I need to put the things I don’t like to do in the first part of the day. I needed to make a phone call to the insurance company, and since it was not a priority on my to-do list (although it is a priority), I managed to go throughout the day without making that phone call. So, today I will start my morning with that. (Well, I still need to wait until 8 AM, so that is already 3 hours of me being active and productive,- but still counts).
Day 13
It was easier today to wake up at 5AM. Part of this is also the fact that I fell asleep before my kids last night, around 8:30 pm- ish. I noticed a better quality of my sleep whenever I go to bed that early.
I did make the phone call to the insurance company yesterday, and solved the problem. The “undesired” tasks were far down on my list, but I moved them up to be the first ones to start the day with, and it worked. Every Sunday, I make a long list with the things I need to get done the week ahead, and then every morning, in my reflection part of the morning, I make a small list with the things I need to get done that day. Yesterday I was so productive, that I did 90% of the undesired tasks for this week, so today I can take a break, and do only the things I enjoy.
My homework for this week is to answer the next question: “What is my superpower?” Robin S. talks constantly that we should be heroes of this world, which I totally agree, but then, I know heroes have superpowers, so what is mine? I’ll ask around, to see what and how my friends perceive me, maybe they could give me a hint.
Day 14
Day 3 of waking up at 5AM. That is amazing progress in my book. Every morning I try to find good reasons for not getting off the bed when the alarm goes off, but so far, I couldn’t find any. I am finally working against my lazy brain. I kept asking myself about my superpower for the last 3 days, but all I can think of is my ability of studying very hard, and spending lots of hours reading.
This was the last day of week 2. And this was the hardest week, because I had my kids with me, and my daughter woke me up during the night at least 3 or 4 times, so my sleep quality has not been quite at its best.
[…] week 2 […]