The 5 am Club: Own your morning Elevate your life
Robin Sharma
2018
Jaico
pp. 336
Reading this book has reminded me of my susceptibility to suggestion. The book has been popping up in the suggested books list for the longest of time. I have been avoiding it for months, may be years. And then came the audible subscription as part of the Amazon sale. And voila, without batting an eyelid, I was listening to this book. I thought, a book this popular can’t be that bad that I can’t listen to it while doing the dishes.
Well the book isn’t bad per se. It is stretched. Probably the same thing could have been said in a few pages. There are too many quotes from too many famous people. And while even after years of struggle and failure, I still haven’t been able to get up at 5 am regularly, this book fails to motivate me to even try their suggestions. Simple things like leaving technology out of the door are possible only for people who are not on anyone’s emergency contact list. Waking up at 5 translates into sleeping at 10, if not at 9, which is not without its impact on family and social life. If the whole family was sleeping at 10 and waking up at 5, I doubt if the club would serve its purpose as basically they are saying that you have to start your day with an hour to yourself, before everyone else wakes up. This does not require 5 am, it requires the understanding that the first one hour after waking up, everyone at home does whatever they want to do without getting in the way of each other.
In addition, there are suggestions for mindfulness, healthy life, focus and productivity. All of these are fine in themselves, but my dislike for the book stems from two fundamental reasons. One, the presumption that everyone is looking for material success and efficiency. Spiritual growth seems to be happening automatically. If you are, then you may like the book. My second objection is something that I have already voiced. The book is far too long to be good. It could have been over in the first fifty pages. It is a highly inefficient way of talking about efficiency.
I left the book unfinished. The last two chapters lie there, waiting to be read/ heard. But I just decided it wasn’t worth the time being given to it.