A (3:50)

Yeah.

B (3:51)

Fifth question, powerful one. What do I need to hear at the end? You literally connect with your mortality every morning. Fast forward to the last hour of your last day. Connect with what you want your loved ones to say. Write a paragraph on it. It helps you live to the point.

A (4:08)

Yeah. What's so powerful about writing these things down? Do you think.

B (4:16)

It refocuses your mindset in a world where a lot of us are busy being busy chasing mountains that might not be the right mountains. So it gives you focus. Secondly, intentions are creative. That's all I can say. Like when you write your intentions, I want to be more loving. I want to execute on my ideas. I want to build this business. I want to change these lives. Writing is prayer on paper. And prayers are heard.

A (4:47)

Yeah.

B (4:48)

And maybe if you don't believe in God. I believe prayers are heard by your subconscious mind.

A (4:55)

Yeah.

B (4:55)

So I think that's the second thing. I think the third thing is you're doing some emotional healing with the third question. You're letting go. What do you do with a therapist? You let go. That's the whole idea of talk therapy. Or in part. Well, journaling that. Third question, what will I let go of? That is processing. You're metabolizing the resentment and the anger. You're not holding it out, holding it in. Excuse me. You're in 60 seconds. Metabolizing and letting go. To heal a wound, feel the wound. And then the final question. You're doing something that so few of us do. You're connecting to your mortality.

A (5:36)

Yeah. No, I love it. And I totally agree that writing these things down is deceptively powerful. I mean, people hear this stuff. They hear me talking about it, they hear you talking about it. They'll hear it on Instagram Reels, on YouTube videos. But a lot of people hear it and don't take the next step and take action. You know, I don't answer those five. I have my own three which are quite similar, but, you know, first one is what do you deeply appreciate about your life? Second one is what is the most important thing you have to do today? Again, just brings focus with all the noise, with all the business, it just helps direct my attention as to what is the most important thing. And the third question I ask myself is what quality do you want to showcase to the world today?

B (6:27)

Love it.

A (6:28)

Again, very similar in themes to the five that you ask yourself. Right? But I guess if you're having that one hour victory hour, as you call it every morning, you are doing daily self improvement. You are doing a level of personal growth in that victory hour. You're also massively helping your wellness. You know, you're working out in that victory hour. You are journaling, which we know can improve our mood, lower anxiety, lower depression, improve decision making, you know, increase the chance of us sticking to those healthy behaviors that we want to stick to.

B (7:04)

When you get up at 5am you experience a form of wealth money can't buy. Society doesn't say, he meditates and she journals. And this person reads the wisdom literature. This person goes for walks every day at the end of the day and reflect on how they're living. This person's been in a sweat lodge. This person is doing emotional healing. Wow, they're really rich. You don't hear that, but what a currency to release your limitations and insecurities and your fears and your faults and take back your true power that you were born into. To build greater awareness of how strong you are, your gifts, where you want to go in your lifetime to make yourself more heroic, wise, loving. That one hour is, is wealth.

A (7:59)

Yeah. I mean, there's so much to say there because I'm a huge fan of getting up early in morning routines as well. Right. So I think that time to yourself each morning, the silence, the solitude, you get to know yourself better. You get to know when you're overworking or something is off in your life that needs addressing.

B (8:20)

I see it exactly as you see it. We will never rise any higher than we are. Our outer life reflects our inner growth, our primary relationship with ourself, our mindset. Four interior empires. Mindset, hearts and health, set and soulset. Call those your character, your inner life, your intimacy with who you truly are. The more you can connect with your gifts and your talents, your true values, your native powers, who you were before the world taught you to disbelieve in yourself and become like everyone else you see on the selfie reels. The more you can spend time getting to know that person and building that person, the more every other relationship will be transformed. As you become stronger, more loving, more intimate with your gifts. The way you deal with your family is different. The way you deal with your friends is different. As you take time while the rest of the world is asleep and you inspire yourself, you can inspire your teammates. Rest of the world is asleep. You're up at 5am you're thinking about how you want to live your day. What a radical concept. Thinking about how you want your day to unfold. Well, you'll be kinder to people in the streets. And if you stumble, you'll get back up. Isn't that a form of wealth? Our society should be celebrating from the mountaintops. And what would the world look like? Mother Teresa said it well. She said if everyone could only sweep their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.

A (9:54)

Yeah, that's brilliant, isn't it? Absolutely brilliant. You call it the Victory hour. There's a lot of busy mothers who listen to this podcast and sometimes I'll see comments online about morning routines from a variety of different people. But sometimes people will say, I'm too busy or you don't understand my life. I've got lots of stuff going on. I'm a mother. I've got to look after the kids, get them ready for school. I don't have time for a one hour morning routine. I know what I think about that question. I'm very interested as to your thoughts because I'm guessing you must have had some pushback against the 5am Club. And I'm interested as to, first of all, how you would answer that question. But B, you know, what is some of the pushback that you've received and how do you counteract it?

B (10:50)

Sure, I think it's a very fair point. What I hear is some people saying, I'm a new parent and it's very hard. I also get, I do shift work. It's so sincere. Like they want to join the 5am Club. They just say, I'm a shift worker, how do I do it? So the first thing I'd say is, I'm not interested in saying you need to do this if you want to experience the wonders of the 5am Club, test it and do it for a month and see if it's for you. But I would say stay open to it because if you're not and someone Says, let's go get Vietnamese food. And usually you eat Italian food. You might miss your new favorite food. And if you don't test it out, and I'm not talking for a week, test it out for a month until you reach that point of automaticity and fluency. With the new habit of getting up before the sun, you. You might miss something that changes your life. Last night at the book signing, I had so many people coming up to me saying, the 5am Club changed my life. There's one gentleman in particular, and he moved me. He said I was a drug addict. I read the 5am club. I've launched my own business. He said, I made 100,000 profit last year. So try it. If it's not for you, hey, we can still be friends, be a night owl, no sweat. Then, yes, I totally hear the parent issue, but I just must report truth. There's a lot of parents who say, I do the 5am Club. They just work around it. And maybe it's three times a week, not seven days a week. Maybe one parent, if it's two people, maybe one parent takes care of the child on three days a week. So I hear the resistance, but I also, out of love and respect, must say, if you repeat your excuses long enough, you're actually gonna hypnotize yourself, think they are true. And we don't just do it with the 5am Club. We say, well, I hear you that this is a great time to launch a business, but here's why I can't. And they actually believe they can't. But people are launching a business every day. And other people say, well, I hear you, Rangan, that I can find true love or work on my wellness, but I'm too busy right now. What are we so busy with? Often you look at some of these people making the excuses and they're on their phones half the day. Let's go to the research. On an average day, the average human is using their phone 4.37 hours a day. That's three months a year. Playing, looking at influencers and people dancing to hip hop songs with their families at the dinner table. That's three months a year. Did you know that 75% of human beings check their phone within the first 10 minutes of waking up? Not meditating, not visualizing, not praying, not doing journal prompts. They're on their phone.

A (13:48)

So what's the negative of that? Every action has a consequence. So if someone says to you, robin, you've helped so many elite performers around the world live healthier and Happier and more productive lives. What's the problem with me within 10 minutes of waking up, looking at my phone? Or what is the consequence of that? What do you say to them?

B (14:13)

Attention residue. So there's been research that says we wake up with a full well of focus, and every time we focus on the phone or focus on a TV show or whatever, we take some of the fresh attention we woke up with and we leave it on the phone. So I think then we wonder why we have no focus and presence for our family, for the special moments in our day, for our work, and we can't focus on getting the things done. Second thing, I would say a problem checking your phone first thing in the morning is what do so many of us do? We check the news, we check our email, we check our notifications, and then we get pulled in and it's an hour later. And in a lot of cases, we lost an hour of our lives. We'll never get back by watching things that were superficial and often destructive. So I think that's. I don't like the word problem, but I think that's the problem checking your phone first thing in the morning. If you want a great day, why would you start it like that?

A (15:21)

Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, these things are so addictive that unless you keep it out of your room, it's very, very hard not to look at it. The other thing for me, first of all, I love that term attention residue. I think it's such a gorgeous term that really says so much. It's really evocative. The other way I look at the problems or the potential problems with looking at phones and emails and doesn't matter what you're looking at on it first thing in the morning, is that so much of what we think, so many of our behaviors, our feelings, our thoughts are downstream of the content we consume. So if you wake up and let's say you don't have long, let's say someone goes, you know, one hour, no chance. Okay. What I say to them, what I've said to patients for many years, is, can you do five minutes? Can you do 10 minutes? Because even five or 10 minutes of intentionality first thing in the morning I have seen, can make a big difference. Now, I'm a fan of victory hours. Right. I do live my life in a way where I create that space in the morning for me. But I appreciate not everyone either feels that they can yet, or maybe they want to start small. But it is a magic. The magical minutes, the first few minutes after you wake up the first 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes. If you can stop putting in nonsense comments on Instagram and negative news. Is it a surprise to you that you're reactive with your partner and your kids and your colleagues an hour later when you're with them? You know, should that really be a surprise to anyone? If you spent time investing in yourself and you're allowing your own thoughts to come up and you journal and you work out, you move your body, whatever that may look like for you, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to kind of understand that you are going to show up as a better human being in every aspect of your life that day.

B (17:23)

Again, we're singing from the same songbook. And I would say be selfish. To anyone who pushed back, I'd say be selfish. And what I mean by that is once you do it and do it for, let's say three weeks, four weeks, we could go to the research of University College London, 66 days to install a new skill. And anyone who says, oh well, I can't get up at 5am or I can't journal or I can't work out or I can't read every night, I would say you have a gift. Every human being has a gift. And the gift of the human brain is the gift of neuroplasticity. We all are geniuses on in this world. We have neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt to new conditions. Conditions. So we all were meant to grow. So why would I say be selfish? I would say by taking the time for a strong morning routine, it's so good for you. It will make you so much more inspired. That's good for you versus building someone else's dreams by reading something great. It's good for you. You'll build wisdom. You'll understand how to do life even better by doing what I call MVP in my methodology, meditation, visualization and prayer. You'll live longer, you'll have more energies, you'll extend your telomeres or prevent them from shortening, which as you know, is one of the key markers of true aging. So be selfish. Second thing, I would say so if we settle for negative information first thing in the morning because you've mentioned morning routine, well then let's not be surprised if our habit actually a non morning routine is a routine. And if it's watching news and checking your feeds and et cetera, then please don't be surprised if your day is more negative. You don't have as much energy, you've lots of sparkle in your eye. Your creativity's low, you're not productive. And when you join the 5am Club, it creates this. And I'm not selling anyone on it. Don't do it. If you don't want to do it right, that's absolutely fine with me. I'm just here to serve. But it creates an upward spiral of success because you've had a great morning now you're better in the day. But it also builds discipline because you did the workout. So you eat better at lunch, you feel better in the afternoon because you feel better in the afternoon, you're more joyful with your family. And rather than watching three hours of mindless entertainment, you have the energy and the focus and the enthusiasm to read something great. And so you sleep well and you wake up the next morning and it just and your days are your life in miniature. So as you live each day, so you craft a life.

A (20:09)

Yeah, love that. Hope you enjoyed that bite sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest. If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my bite Sized Friday email. It's called the Friday five and each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good. To get you ready for the weekend, you can sign up for it free of charge@drchatterjee.com Friday 5. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.