What did I gain from failing admission to the 5am club?

After reading the 5am club, I decided to bid for an admission into this exclusive club by waking up at 5 every morning for the month of March 2020. The result? I failed miserably.

On average, I woke up at 6:30, which is still at least half an hour earlier than my usual wake up time. There were other benefits from just trying to gain admission into this elusive club:

• I started meditating almost every day
• I started playing basketball every other day
• I started sleeping early on most weekdays (before midnight)
• I was reading more than usual (14 books in the month of March)
• I was watching less TV (I realized this was the main culprit that I couldn’t get up early. I did fail on weekends.)

So although it looks like I’ve failed the plan to wake up at 5am every day, I gained all these other habits which should put me in good stead for other things to come. I’m glad I experimented with waking up at 5 every day. Revisiting the actions for waking up earlier:

1. Exercise for 20 minutes
2. Meditate and reflect for 20 minutes
3. Learn and grow for 20 minutes

I already do 1 and 3 without waking up earlier. Maybe waking up earlier is to spend more time on 2. I really enjoy spending just 10 minutes meditating in the morning. It does make a difference to my decision making faculties throughout the day i.e. keeping it cool. I’ve increased it to 15 minutes now and hope to reach an hour a day, maybe split 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening.

If you have read this far and forgot everything I said above, just remember to try meditation. The one that I’ve learnt is Vipassana. I hear Transcendental Meditation is quite popular too.