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The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
[Music]
hello and welcome to the moonshots
podcast it's episode
172. i'm your co-host mike parsons and
as always i'm joined by the early riser
himself mr martian freeland good morning
mark good morning mike but good news to
you and the moonshots family and our
listeners i'm not gonna be sitting here
yawning throughout the entire episode i
feel as though i'm fully enlivened and
ready for this brand new series how are
you feeling well i'm pretty fired up as
well new series uh also we are coming to
an author that i don't know for how long
mark we've been saying
we have to do a show on him and his epic
book
and we have finally arrived at that
moment mark
what are we going to dive into
what is
calling us in the dawn of the morning
rising us up in the dawn of a brand new
habit series is robert sharma and his
book the 5 am club and mike you're right
we've referenced robert chalmer on the
moon shots weekly show on our master
series and he's an individual that we
keep on
circling around he keeps on helping us
wake up with our morning cups of coffee
but we've never actually dug into him
until today so i'm very very excited to
dig into that revolutionary book i mean
it's fair to say we've touched upon him
a couple of times because he's got
really interesting formulas
practices as well as points of view for
us to learn from so i'm pretty excited
to dig into robert sharma actually yeah
and i think what we can expect today on
show 172 of the moonshots podcast
is a complete
quite an integrated system for
you know cooking up the best version of
yourself it is the recipe it is the
ingredients
uh to improve yourself to transform
yourself and this will be particularly
good for anyone who
has a big mission a big project on the
go and if you want to kind of build a
series of habits
to build an approach on how you want to
bring to life your vision
this show is for you so it's about
getting on top of how you think feel and
act
and i think importantly how you can come
out of the blocks really strong like a
good start
ah
is so good for your day and something
that's rung true for me all my life is
win the morning win the day
and if you think that's an interesting
idea then this show is for you what do
you think mark i i couldn't agree more
and i think as we dig into today's show
we're gonna hear from robert sharma
we're gonna hear practicalities you're
probably gonna hear listeners from
myself and mike reflecting on hour
mornings because you're totally right
mike i agree with you if you start the
day right man you've got a whole day of
excitement innovation and good thinking
ahead of you and that's really what the
5am club is all about it's revealing
some formulas some practices to feel
inspired in the morning to get up and go
to feel focused and to be ready to be
that best version of yourself
now
for those of you who are not early
risers you may be listening to mike and
i
are thinking to yourself these guys are
crazy about this
get up in the morning you probably if
you're a regular listen to listener to
the show you've probably heard us talk
about cold showers
journaling stretching meditation breath
work
well if you are not sold yet mark i
think we have the perfect place to start
don't you that's right so listeners and
mike we're going to dig into show 172
with robert sharms the 5am club by
hearing from robin sharma as well as
marie forleo who is a great entrepreneur
and philanthropist and she's got a great
show out there as well and we're going
to hear from them really discussing
those essential practices within the
book the 5am club and what robin sharma
is going to paint for us straight away
is the value of rising before the sun
let's talk about the 5 a.m club
specifically i love the subtitle which
is own your morning elevate your life so
is this a practice for you that you had
not only experienced for yourself and
the transformative nature of it but
clearly you've taught it to other people
were you like goodness if people could
just get this one thing you know
obviously there's so much more in the
book than just the 5 a.m club idea which
i wanted to dive into but there's
something i mean that's the title of
your book so was this practice itself so
transformative or like this is what the
next book has to be about absolutely i
have two children colby and bianca and
if there was one morning rich if there
was one habit or if there was one piece
of advice not that they listened to my
advice but if there's one piece of
advice i'd ask them to listen to it's
rise before the sun there is a reason
many of the great women and men of the
world the great history makers the great
poets the great philosophers the great
movement makers rose before the sun
there is a magic in the air at 5 a.m and
that's why the 5am club is so
transformational because it's the time
of greatest quietude and i believe
tranquility is the new luxury on our
planet it is the time of intimate
creativity because you've just been
rested your brain is fresh there's
there's latest
there's there's very recent cutting edge
science coming out now when you sleep
your brain actually has a mechanism to
wash itself when you wake up in the
morning your willpower is strongest when
you wake up in the morning you've got a
full well of mental focus and we know
that focus in our world is even more
valuable than intelligence and i could
go on and on on the benefits i mean you
get up at 5am you've got the world to
yourself there's no crowds you can think
you can plan you can care for yourself
in a world where so many people are so
depleted and so the five it the 5 am
club really is a game changer and then
it's not just get up at 5 00 am and you
know scratch your stomach or stare up at
the ceiling or look at your phone or
look at especially i believe you can
play with your phone or change the world
you don't get to do both yeah
you can
play with your phone
or change the world that you can't do
both
how perfect is that so true and what
he's really speaking to their mark is
we should cherish the mornings now more
than ever because that quietness that
stillness
particularly when it is nice and early
is a sanctuary against all of the
information
and metaphorical noise that surrounds us
it's something we speak about a lot on
the show but
i personally can attest mark that the
one of the greatest ways for me to start
the morning
is when i'm in my study early in the
morning and i have the window open and i
just hear the birds awaken
and just the the gentle awakening of a
morning it's so peaceful it is such a
it's like an elixir against everything
that comes racing around in my inbox
um it truly is there is just like a
sanctuary in the morning isn't it yeah i
i do find that this is something we
discuss a bit on the show i mean we've
recently mike we heard from mark manson
and the subtle art of not giving up
and he references this over
indulgence almost in uh media and
distractions that get in the way of our
life obviously i'm thinking cal newport
with digital detox and even uh jordan
peterson an antidote to chaos you know
we learned a lot about these different
uh pieces of advice or references to the
world being so busy now that we
almost wake up and immediately a lot of
us we check our phones i can't remember
the statistic now i'll have a look in a
minute of individuals who wake up and
the first thing they do is look at their
phone and if you think about what your
phone is designed to do it's got you on
social media it freaks you out with the
media or emails all these things
don't necessarily allow you to wake up
in the best mood does it it instantly
raises your anxiety and stress well yeah
and the way i think about
if i'm making the case for early rising
i mean i think you know it is your
capacity of self-will discipline
to you know if you if you can get
yourself out of bed
at a really productive time
that's already a win and you know we saw
how popular that uh william mcraven's
you know uh make your bed uh mantra has
become for our listeners and how they
really
could see that that
you know making your bed and getting
your ass out of bed early in the morning
these are great wins they set you up for
success
but i think the biggest story here and
this is i think very powerful moonshots
thinking
is that
you
are taking ownership
control
of your morning and the morning doesn't
take control of you
you get yourself out of bed when you
want to
and you don't fall victim to just
jumping on your phone because then
you're looking at everybody else's
priorities
not yours like for me mark the act of
thinking about the day before i check my
email is such a powerful way of me
dictating the terms of the day to the
world rather than me looking at all my
emails and then thinking huh what am i
gonna do today
i'm gonna set the agenda not my inbox i
think this is all tied to this idea of
the 5am club get up have the peaceness
the peacefulness the stillness the
calmness
to say what do i want today to be
to start living that day before all of
those interruptions come along i think
this is pretty powerful stuff mark yeah
and and it is totally in line as you say
with william h mcraven no matter what
happens in the day whether you're up to
your neck in mud
singing shanties with your with your
your colleagues or uh those in the
forces with you or
whether it's just a really really nice
day ahead whatever it is
if you take ownership of that moment
when you first get up you know that the
rest of the day
you're on to a bit of a flow because
you've got at least one piece that's
gone right for you one thing that's
that's ended up going in the right
direction momentum right momentum
exactly
well mark i tell you who else has got
momentum and that's our members boy
those members keep coming on strong and
fast and mark as you know
our members who sign up on moonshots.io
uh
they are
we are so grateful for them and their
contribution but it would only be
appropriate
to do a bit of a roll call let's shout
out to all our patreon members that's
right for our momentous moonshots
members ah there you go mike some
alliteration some alliteration we are
calling out our favorite moon shotters
who give a luna-powered dose of good
karma and support to us in the moonshots
family we have bob niles john terry
bridy niall and marjolin ken dietmar tom
and mark marjan connor rodrigo and
yasmine spaceman daniela lisa and sid
maria paul berg kalman and annette
welcome moonshot members
we are so grateful to each and every one
of you and the contribution that you
make it's roughly about a co one cup of
coffee a month
uh that helps us pay all of those bills
hosting
subscription services transcription
services
software all the things that it takes
for us to put this show together for you
our listeners and we really do hope it
gives you inspiration it gives you a
nudge towards being the best version of
yourself and more than anything you just
really enjoy learning out loud together
here on the moonshots podcast and with
that it is really time to get into
making ourselves just that one percent
better and today with robert sharma and
his book the 5am club we're now going to
get into his first method
uh that he's uh discussing with marie
forleo he's going to talk about how
you can start your day correctly with a
model that he calls 2020
method the 5m club method is based on
the 20 20 20 formula i'm happy to get
into it but that is yeah tell us what it
is that's the revolutionizer and and it
started from my experience with working
with many billionaires i i've coached
many of the most successful financiers
and
titans of industry for for over two
decades
and one of the things i would run them
through is the way you begin your day
sets up the way you live your day and so
the 20 20 20 formula that the book is
based upon is pretty simple i i go into
great detail in the book but
essentially it's from five to five
twenty the first pocket is move
and i'm a fanatic about neuroscience and
why do you get up and move because
you're going to release serotonin which
is going to make you feel better you're
going to release dopamine which is the
pleasure and inspirational
neurotransmitter you're going to release
norepinephrine which will boost your
focus you'll promote neurogenesis marie
you can actually grow new brain cells
you increase your metabolic rate so the
way you beg the way you feel when you
first wake up is not the way you're
going to feel at 5 20. second pocket of
the 20 20 20 formula 20 minutes from 5
20 to 5 40. that's on reflection so a
lot of us are busy but what's the point
of being busy if you're doing the wrong
things
the the billionaires the great creatives
the people of great impact the people
who live beautiful lives are very
intentional they're very deliberate
they're very conscious so for 20 minutes
you write in a journal
you can visualize you can pray you can
meditate you can simply
contemplate how you're going to live
your day what you want to stand for
during the day for example and then the
final pocket of the 20 20 20 formula is
all about grow and that's where you you
just read from a biography or a business
book or a philosophy book and so that's
20 minutes of growing because i think
we're most alive when we are growing yes
and um i believe the leader who learns
the most wins
the leader who learns the most wins i
think is a good summation of those three
parts mike because fundamentally with
the movement with the reflection with
the growth
elements and sections there he breaks
down in pretty prescriptive formula i
suppose and we can dig into that in a
minute i guess for me the thing that i'm
really taking away from that formula and
that model is this idea of setting the
intention setting the intention taking
ownership of that behavior so that you
as an individual or me as an individual
can go out follow those steps and try to
be closer to that best version of myself
by setting up my day correctly
yeah so
he's given us a basic three-part model
here move reflect and grow
let's let's do a little uh a little shot
here of our favorite stuff
in each of those buckets okay so it's
early in the morning and you hear
he's saying like
let's get moving and
tell me about what would be your go-to
for movement in the morning
i
am a big walker i really really like
walking now i know that where robin
robert sharma is going is maybe more
intense than that
but there's nothing nicer than us
particularly on the east coast of
australia then getting that fresh air
that bit of sunshine just before it gets
quite a bit too hot sometimes i'm an
englishman mike as you know and getting
out in that fresh air getting your your
muscles moving your blood pumping
obviously at 5am the sunshine might not
be up but it's gonna be fresh yeah and
it's bringing awareness to each of those
limbs to your skin to your eyes your
ears your mouth
and i think there's something quite
mindful in that
there is absolutely i mean it's sensory
that's where i think that the
mindfulness really kicks in
fresh air you feel the the the cold
fresh crispness of the of the morning on
your skin
i i really love um
you know my mornings if if i have to say
like what's the perfect movement i would
say even if it's just a 30 minute run
um just a good run
to get sweaty
and then i'll usually you know the way i
i'll take up like a glass of water in
the morning or run
and then i'll usually do like some
electrolytes when i get back to to
replace that
that out without doubt is is a great way
to set the morning i think another
really good way to start the morning if
running is not your cup of tea or
you don't have gym equipment
i think uh high intensity interval
training and body weight workouts so
to me the go-to would be push-up sit up
lunge and squat
those four things you can do in your
hotel room
if you want to expand on that again i'm
thinking without the gym and we want to
kind of get robin sharma going here
another one of my favorites is
resistance bands so
made famous
i think in part by tom brady and his
tb-12 program resistance bands are
really good very little equipment you
get a lot of good resistance kind of a
similar but better to than a weights
workout
that's a great way to move and you know
market the funny thing is you only need
20 or 30 minutes you don't need a ton do
you well there is a lot of science
actually going into this now isn't there
particularly maybe on the back of tom
brady
and this idea of focus 20 minutes if
you've got a really good efficient 20
minutes or so it's actually more
effective and better at being a
building your fitness and b building
muscle
than let's say 40 minutes where you're
only doing maybe 30 40 50 capacity yeah
it's actually better to do really high
intensity work in quite short periods
doesn't it and i think it's really
important um what i've learned is that
you don't have to go to a gym and have a
gym membership yeah you can do so much
for yourself with a good walk a good run
some body weight workout none of which
requires a membership which means you
can do it when you want on your terms
um and
fit it into your day and that you're not
trying to like you know get yourself
down to the gym or whatever so that's a
good one so we've got that one done
now reflection oh boy did he just kind
of collide with some of our favorite
keywords here journaling meditating
planning prank
contemplating i mean to me this is
something we've celebrated so much it's
very cool to see
um
an author celebrating not only what we
did in the health series um with with
movement but reflection i mean i just
think about matthew mcconaughey in green
lights
there is your case for journaling the
power of his story
for his ability to resist all these
cheesy rom-com rolls and what about that
story mark where mcconaughey reflected
on
how he got the script and then they
offered him eight million to do the the
role then nine million and it got all
the way if i remember it correctly did
it get up to like 15 million and i think
actually it might have gone to 18. 18.
so it went from 8 to 18 and every time
he was saying no thank you no thank you
and eventually they just gave up
uh and after that winter of about two
years or however many years it was for
him he finally came back in to the the
world
and they had a lot of respect for him
because he'd been
diligent and focused with his with his
desire and what gave him that strength
reflection
and how did he reflect journaling yeah
boy here we go here we go robert sharma
would be proud right yeah absolutely
what i really like about robin sharma
already within this formula of 20 20 20
and we've only covered the first two
there with movement and reflect
is this connection between
a physical workout and a mental one and
i remember when i was going through the
years of studying and even more recently
when i've tried to learn new skills
pairing an element of
growth or reflection on yourself paired
with something physical
is a really good part a really good
partner isn't it
wake up your body
wake up your mind
by either exercise and reflection i
think you're intrinsically paired and i
really like what robin's doing here
which i don't think we've really come
into he's almost colliding our series on
health
along with our series on stoicism with
ron holliday
oh that's an interesting set of
connections yeah yeah yeah i like it so
so when you want to grow mark
to follow robert sharma's advice here he
says move reflect and grow all between
five and six
what do you do to grow
i think the easiest
uh time of learning is right now so and
what i mean by that is we have a
plethora of
uh information at our fingertips so
spoiled so sport we've got youtube
obviously you've got podcasts uh such as
there's this great one that i've heard
of mike the moonshot podcast
[Laughter]
and they're all orientated around
helping us
learn and make the most of our time be
efficient and take ownership of what we
almost consume from an intellectual
perspective and for me that's that's
probably where i go to most because i'll
be perhaps combining it a little bit
with the movement space so i might be
moving doing some exercise
and also hearing an audio book
or a podcast maybe at the same time and
i think
maybe we're we're jumping a little bit
ahead here but i think the 20 20 20
formula that robin sharma's got
you can reflect on it and you can just
make it work for you can't you you can
combine them somewhat if you need to in
order to make the most of your time
there how are you are you seeing them as
really sharp 20 20 20 breaks or would
you tend to allow them to overlap i look
i mean see this is where i'm perhaps a
little bit
uh different
and i think you know what i would
encourage all of our listeners and
yourself to do is just find the right
mix of these 20 20 20
pieces
so i mean i love the idea of
move reflect and and grow i i think you
can like i mean robert gives like a
template from between five to six three
parts
give it a go try see if it works for you
i know for me
that
um
[Music]
because of how i think
i'm better off
um
you know doing my morning rituals which
would be to wake cold shower
stretch
breathe meditate journal then go for a
run
and then when i return from that then i
really sink my teeth into into the work
and that first two hours will be
pretty intense deep work um
so
it doesn't really work for me so what
he's suggesting is to to do some
some growth work at the end there but if
i review my goals read books consume an
audio book or do some study
the problem is i start up like a freight
train mark yeah
and i 20 minutes is just not enough yeah
some interesting things that i will do
some more snackable things like he's
suggesting is i use a tool called read
wise
and what that does is that takes all of
the highlights that i make
in my kindle and in my instapaper
account so effectively when i'm reading
something and i think oh that's a really
good point when i make that highlight it
all gets synced to read-wise
and what read-wise does is helps you
organize
and remember your highlights
and it sets you a daily habit of going
through five highlights
and categorizing and
practicing them and what i mean by that
is
once you've highlighted something you're
like that was a really good point what
it has the capacity to do is to bring
you back to it maybe a week maybe a
month later and remind you of it and you
you put it in a category and you can you
know filter it out or keep it
it's totally up to you
but what they're trying to do is by
bringing it back in a daily review habit
is to cement
the highlight that you made
in an article or in a book
and that would be a great uh little
exercise if you wanted to spend 20
minutes every morning check out read
wise
and just sync up your your different
bookmarking and and book accounts
and it just brings you back to your
highlights and i've become thoroughly
addicted to that and that's something
you can easily do
in uh five or ten minutes every morning
it's it's wonderful what a great great
tip i haven't heard of read wise i do
highlight in my kindle as well as i use
insta paper but there's until now had
never been something that consolidates
it and i think mike thank you for
sharing that we'll put a link in our in
our show notes as well i think what
you're really talking about there with
the daily
reminders
is is read wise trying to build that
habit isn't it
and really fundamentally what robin
sharma was saying in the 5am club and
remember we're starting a brand new
series on habits today in show number
is building those habits in order to
make practices and behaviors and ways of
thinking cemented in your in your daily
process so the next clip mic that we've
actually got again is from robin sharma
himself
helping us understand the three
different phases of building habits and
fundamentally how to install habits that
last the ritual plasticity what does
ritual plasticity mean well just like
there's neuroplasticity
your habits your routines and your
rituals are plastic
ritual plasticity
here's a model that will explain
hopefully
habit installation
first of all every
habit goes through three phases number
one destruction
[Music]
of course it's going to be hard at first
you're destroying your neural pathway of
the old habit
the and the emotional architecture of
that old habit
every routine or ritual or habit goes
through number one destruction
approximately 20 days
66 days to install look at this from the
starting point to anything you've
learned today you want to install as a
habit
from zero to 66 days at 66 days you will
reach what researchers call automaticity
it'll be easy you'll get up at 5am
automatically you'll journal go the
extra mile
practice your craft automatically
but you have to stay with it for 66 days
first 20 days approximately is phase
number one destruction
phase number two confusion
after you've destroyed it it's like a
renovation
there's a mess
now you're confused
it's normal if you're confused
if you're confused you're still thinking
for yourself if you're confused it means
you're growing society says what's wrong
with you you're confused all the time
i'm suggesting to you you're confused
all the time because every single day
you're disrupting who you used to be
yesterday
and of course society doesn't understand
you
to have the results very few have you've
got to live and behave like very few do
after confusion stage number three the
final 20 days approximately
integration
integration
of the new habit
destruction of course it's going to be
hard for 20 days
confusion phase two messy in the middle
you're gonna feel like giving up this
won't make sense it's new to you
finally integration you get to
automaticity it becomes a part of your
new belief your new way of being it
becomes easy here's the fascinating
thing you only use willpower until you
get to automaticity this is the secret
of the great athletes
they are spending all this energy on
willpower just to install the routine
once the routine becomes automatic the
exciting thing is they free up their
willpower for their next routine to be
installed mark this is getting into the
serious
the uh the deep uh science
of building
like a habit
as james clear would say that becomes a
lifestyle
um
i think there's so many ways to go with
this
but i think the one thing for sure is
if you want to set a new habit i think
that first couple of months
is become so important i think the word
that comes to my mind is you need to be
vigilant
you need to uphold it with the greatest
attention possible don't you yeah i
think that's exactly where robin sharma
is going mike when he's referring to
willpower you know these athletes who
spend the first couple of months using
willpower to build that routine and then
it enters that integration stage that
automaticity point that then it becomes
almost fun to continue going out and
doing
and i think that's a that's a really
nice way of thinking about any formation
of a habit
it's going to be tricky to uh destroy
your current behavior it's then going to
be tricky and almost confusing when
you're trying to install a new one but
after that
you kind of you've reached the top of
that hill and then it becomes that
little bit easier as you go into the
future into months three four and so on
yeah and he talks about that all change
is hard at the first
as he said messy in the middle but
gorgeous at the end
let's let's go to the to the pointy end
of this and and where it's really hard
um and talk about like how we how we
actually get started on
on a habit and you know i have this
really um
fanatical thing
that i do mark where if i want to set a
new habit i make it a daily reminder
in my to-do application my to-do app of
choice is called todoist which is
it's just the most gorgeous design it
just works for me in the way i work i
know there's plenty of to-do lists out
there but if anyone is struggling with
uh habit creation and wants to find a
tool that is multi-platform
and just helps you get jobs done uh
todoist is the app of choice that i
would recommend
but for example if i want to take a new
vitamin supplement
such as q10
which is one of my my favorite ones
i said it as a daily reminder
and i
i will
leave it there
for
months
close to a year sometimes
before i think it is so
cemented as a lifestyle as a ritual that
i know i'm going to take that vitamin
supplement in in the morning
and you know i actually still to this
very day
if i look at my daily tasks that's
residing in todoist i have things like
journaling because it's so important to
me mark
that journaling is a daily task
seven days a week for me working out
daily tasks
uh what else have i got here sleeping
well
because it's so important to me it's
actually on my checklist mask because
because mike if i sleep well
i can get up at five i can make my bed
i'm on the way
uh breath work
um work from a standing desk
to
for my own personal physical health
i'm doing calls sometimes standing up
and that's how i i get in my minimum 30
minutes of
standing work a day
um how do you go about like what's your
hat to to get
that at the hard bit when the when
you're first introducing the change what
do you do to get your habits cemented so
i think i have to start by
really coming to terms with the desire
to change so let's say it's uh let's
choose something that i've done recently
um
well i suppose journaling as well you
know journaling is is a pretty universal
example i'll have to come to terms or
appreciate the the sort of need or the
goal that i have with trying to break an
old habit so in this case breaking an
odd habit would be not journaling going
to bed and playing on your phone or
going to bed and just reading a book
rather than taking some time to reflect
on it and for me mike oh i'll write my
journal actually in the evenings
as opposed to the mornings
that's as we say listeners just figuring
out whatever works for you whatever
habit is best in in your day
so for me mike i will also have
quite regimented tasks within todoist
i'm looking at mine i've got exercise 60
minutes sorry robin i won't just do 20
minutes i might do 60.
i've got right so that could be journal
that could be otherwise
as well as um cool
friends family and so on keep up to date
with with
individuals
and then i'll also utilize my calendar
to almost time block my day
for smaller aspects as well so if it's a
habit like journaling i might put it
into my todoist if it's a habit where
i've got to hold myself accountable to
complete
something maybe every day i'll put a
reminder also in google calendar
so that i'm kind of getting
hit or reminded from two different
avenues two different aspects yes and
again same as you the act of repetition
seeing it all the time
eventually builds that association where
after maybe a few months maybe it's six
maybe it's 12 i can turn it off because
now it's just a behavior
that i can't
uh start a good day without doing yeah
and i think the real test of knowing
when you've got to that third stage that
uh sharma talks about
is when you look forward to doing it it
comes so naturally like my run today
like it was like my whole very being
last night was get your ass to bed see
you can run before the show
and um
that's just because
the run
feels so good makes me happy
and and provides many of the benefits
that robin sharma talks about
the the one thing
here
is
that is most useful
is that robin sharma talks about how
uncomfortable it gets at the beginning
and i think if you
you reflect on
hey i'm gonna have to get comfortable
with being uncomfortable which is
something we got from the joe rogan show
i think if you can almost be excited
about the adoption of something new and
that it kind of feels all goofy and
weird right
rather than like oh gosh
rather than being resistant or negative
just choose to perceive it as novel as
new as lighting up new neurons in your
mind getting you excited and activated
for something new
rather than
being
like a virginary
it's all feeling a bit awkward and hard
just enjoy
that destructive process of
breaking in new patterns into into your
very being i think this is
this is key right because i think what
happens is we all feel
either uncomfortable or maybe even
embarrassed when we try to start
something new but turn i say turn that
on its head celebrate it love it be
goofy be uncomfortable that's okay
and i think
what you see is robin sharma is is kind
of making a case for why you should do
that isn't he yeah i mean let's use
going for a run
maybe doing 5k a day or less in fact
let's say you're training towards a half
marathon and this is a an example mike
that i think you've said on on moonshots
before
which is if you've got a target let's
say it's 5k 10k just give it a go don't
beat yourself up if you can't get to
that total within the first day within
the first week i think it really speaks
and i think robin sharma's speaking to
it again
just give yourself the time the space as
well as the patience
to get to that goal
because if you don't you you're just
going to throw it throw it out the
window you're going to think oh you know
what running oh it hurt my knee
i couldn't even get up that hill
running's not for me i'll throw away my
running shoes
whereas actually
what i find personally with running is
after the first two three or four
suddenly running becomes a little bit
easier doesn't it because you're just
used to that strain that stress that
your body's going through and suddenly
you're then starting to get that what
they call the runner's high
and you can start to enjoy it and i
think that kind of speaks to
that
installation protocol that robin sharma
is discussing there yes which is once
you get through that kind of
uncomfortable stage and i guess it's
like anything in life once you get
through the uncomfortable stage you can
start enjoying the journey before you
get to that destination of actually
going out and doing that half marathon
because you're actually enjoying the
process of creating a new experience
exactly a new ritual a new lifestyle and
i tell you what's also very good to
create as a habit is is opening up your
apple podcast app or spotify and give a
rating or a review to your favorite
podcast mark what do you think about
that idea yeah i believe that uh the
best way of doing it is exactly as you
just subscribed if you're listening to
your favorite podcast let's do an
example listeners moonshot podcast
you're listening to us coming down your
your headphones today just pop along
into your apple podcast app and leave us
a rating or even a review because that's
really the way for listeners around the
world to hear about the moonshot podcast
it'll help us with the algorithm
and be shown whenever people are
searching for let's say robin sharma the
5am club and that's really how we get
the moonshots message and the learning
out loud message to the masses isn't it
mike
well i think you know we want as many
people as possible to be the best
version of themselves and
if you as you're listening right now
just open up the app go in
whether it's spotify or apple podcast
give us
a star a thumbs up it doesn't really
matter which app you use
your ratings your reviews you spreading
the good word about us this is how we
grow and this is how we can help as many
people as possible be the best version
of themselves and that's why we do this
uh and we know uh that you are a
critical part of the equation we know
that your
sharing your advocacy will help us on
this mission so
get in there just open up the app give
us a star a rating review
uh tell uh the world how you feel about
being part of the moonshots podcast
and as we do that our gift back to you
is to delve into
four focuses that robin sharma
has identified as really being
sort of at the essence of mastering
yourself so once again
let's get into the work of robin sharma
this time we're going to have a listen
to youtube channel upgraded mentality
breaking down his four focuses
successful people tend to focus better
than the average people
not only that they tend to focus on key
areas
these four focus areas are as follows
the first
capitalization focus
we each have certain gifts that we are
born with that will come naturally to us
if we allow them to
this doesn't happen automatically though
we must search for them and cultivate
these talents before they can really
help us succeed
focus 2 eliminating distractions
in the world of social media it is
easier than ever to be distracted
unless you carefully set your smartphone
it can buzz with notifications almost
constantly throughout the day
eliminating distractions and being able
to focus on only a few important tasks
is the second focus of the successful
focus 3 personal mastery
hate to break it to you but you will
never be perfect you will always be a
work in progress
sharma recommends focusing on what he
calls the four interior empires
the first mindset is your self-talk
two your heart set is your emotions
three health set is your physical
fitness
and four your soul set contemplation and
meditation on who you are
the fourth focus day stacking
this focus is where the victory hour
shows up
focus on creating great days and making
each day better than the last one habits
and consistency will lead you to success
not bursts of short-lived motivation
i think that's a good little takeaway at
the very end mike isn't it if you can
build habits you'll get long-term
success
new behaviors new ways of thinking but
if you
only do them in a maybe a short-term
burst or maybe you read up you learn for
a period of time but you don't install
it as a habit it's just as they say a
flash in the pan rather than a brand new
behavior that you can really cultivate
as a as a lifelong skill
it's it's almost like um as you were
talking there
i was thinking about like the sports
analogy like
a great sports team
would train
regularly
methodically ritualistically to be as
good as they can be in the gym on the
court you name it
so why wouldn't we just do the same
why for ourselves right like why don't
we see ourselves as a sports team that
needs a game plan a practice we need to
recruit in the off season like
i could keep going but but but for me it
is like you got to go to training
and you remember when we did the michael
jordan show in the end
his training attitude was what set him
apart he trained harder than everyone
else he turned up to training before
everyone else he stayed at the end
and so by the time he got out on a court
in a real game he's like this is easier
than my training i work harder in my
training than i do in the court i mean
putting in this continuous
habits
lifestyle of improvement of the search
for mastery
of
growing
this is at the heart of what robin
sharma is talking about
and what i think is really interesting
here
is he's like basically saying us in
these four
key things is
capitalization right focusing on the
right things
getting rid of all of distractions
master yourself and then stack the day
for success
there's so much in that and i can see it
takes years
and i still continue to work on what a
great day looks like i like i've been
working on this for so long and i'm
genuinely excited to work on this until
the day i die
but this is as you said and as as a
theme for this show it's not a flash in
the pan you either do it or you don't
it's how you live or how you don't
yeah i totally totally agree and you're
quite right the all these elements
you know we might hear about
these different habits behaviors being
touched upon in different shows you know
i mentioned cal newport digital
minimalism earlier and that's very much
in line with robin's suggestions on not
only how you wake up but also what you
focus on
you remove yourself from social media
and so on but you're right that personal
mastery piece is something that we're
all working on day in day out it's every
single moonshotter that we encounter
whether it's keeping your mind
active from a growth mindset perspective
whether it's having gratitude utilizing
exercise or nutrition and sleep to be
the best version of yourself all the way
through to reduction of your ego and
stoicism ryan holiday i feel as though
these elements that all ladder up to
robin sharma's core lesson within the
5am club is totally in line with what i
think you and i try and do on the
moonshot show mike
absolutely and i think
where we get to is this moment
do you make
the very
deliberate
meaningful choice
to work on yourself
not just to work in the day
and i think one of the patterns of
success that we have seen so strongly
is that the people who thrive
and the people that succeed
are those who are continuously working
on themselves challenging themselves to
be better
like relentless search of
growth
rather than saying hey i've made it
or hey i don't need to learn anything
new
but they are of such a growth mindset
that they are
not just stumbling in a sort of like a
comatose day
but they're continually
working on themselves building habits
for a day
for a life and i think that is the
biggest choice
that i made when i was 20 years of age
unknowingly i said i want to be better i
don't want to be
lazy
i don't want a half-assed approach to
life i want to be all in
i had none of the answers that have been
revealed in the moonshots podcast
but i think that's the choice that we
all need to make do we want to confront
the things that we suck at that we're
bad at do we want to confront our
weaknesses explore our strengths
and build a path to mastery build a path
where we actually
explore our potential
nurture our potential and i think whilst
robin sharma is giving us a great recipe
i think what comes
through the reading of this book
is a really important choice are you
going to work on yourself
what do you think as you go through this
all these great learnings that we have
from the 5am club
what do you think is the takeout beyond
that of getting up at 5am in the morning
well yeah exactly i i think you've
you've nailed it the
yes he is robin sharma's putting it in
the lens of waking up at 5am which
arguably is is a great idea you get an
extra hour of time
from a practicality perspective really
what i think we're learning from the
book the 5am club is actually taking
ownership of how you utilize your time
so even if 5am becomes let's say 6am or
maybe 5am comes 4am
it can work both ways i think what's
standing out to me within robin sharma's
work
is really focusing on beginning your day
correctly but that doesn't necessarily
end
with your first cup of coffee or your
breakfast it can be something that you
work on and cultivate throughout the
entire day and really what it's
laddering up towards is developing new
habits whether that habit is waking up
early or whether that habit is just
doing something changing something in
your day to be that little bit more
efficient or a little bit more focused
or even motivated
and i think that's really how i see this
show fitting within my the habit series
that we've just begun it's really
cultivating
belief in yourself giving yourself
confidence to either a try new things
maybe that new thing is uh going on a
diet or exercising or starting your own
business and i think what we've found
throughout all of the moonshots so far
is
you have to work pretty darn hard
and
that that working hard does not
necessarily end when you wake up at 5am
it doesn't end when you reach the 6am
mark and you've done 20 minutes of
movement reflection and growth you can't
just then say hey i'm done i'll sit back
down again i think i think what it's
really what where robin sharma is kind
of speaking to me
and it's the extension of that habit
insulation protocol as well as the four
focuses that we just heard about which
is it's got to be a daily almost hourly
process that we will go through in order
to try and achieve our best version of
ourself so the fact is we're not all
we're never necessarily maybe be perfect
but we can all work towards being that
little bit more efficient day by day and
through compound interest
you're always going to end in a week's
time better than you were a week ago yes
and if you've made this choice
when you're confronted with
the blockers the bumps in the road
you will know that that's a great sign
you know it's like when you're working
out and you're like oh this is really
hard
well chances are you're actually doing a
lot of good for yourself because you're
pushing yourself
through those barriers and david goggins
would be proud of you and i'll tell you
what david goggins will be proud of is
this idea from robin sharma as he's
talking to marie forlow for the last
time on this show
and talking about how new habits
are hard all right robin this sounds
good waking up at 5am but what about the
fact that i have you know tiny babies
and a dog that just threw up and all of
these kind of um concerns or or
constraints that i don't think i can do
this what do you say to people when
they're like that just sounds too hard
well you know the the pathway to world
class is hard i think suffering's got a
bad rap i think difficulty you look at
any you know great athlete for example
they understand that
challenge difficulty grit persistence
wiring in new habits morning rituals
evening routines are the price of
admission for world class and so let's
go to the research again university
college london says it takes 66 days of
practice to wire in a new habit
in other words
the gift of genius is not genius the
gift of genius is actually
neuroplasticity
in other words we have a brain that can
grow it's sort of plastic it's malleable
the good news is that's not just for
kanye and beyonce and federer and oprah
and
phil knight every one of us has that
capability in our brain to build genius
so what i'm suggesting is anyone who
wants to get up early so they get an
extra hour and they can do the things
that we're talking about practice it for
66 days until you will reach what
researchers call a state of automaticity
where it actually gets easier to get up
at 5 00 am than not to get up at 5 00 am
and so in the book one of the brain
tattoos is all change is hard at first
and it's messy in the middle and it's
gorgeous at the end and everything marie
that we once found difficult one that we
now find easy we once found difficult we
do have the ability to wire in new
habits and joining the 5am club is is
simply
the best habit anyone can wire in to
lead to an upward spiral of success for
greater productivity better health more
peace of mind more happiness and living
a much more high impact life
i think mike that feels as though a
perfect synopsis or wrap-up for a lot of
the lessons that we've
been discussing today particularly and
the thing i really want to come back to
is the fact that genius
and this idea of genius this idea of
being a moon shot or even
can be achievable to all of us but the
truth is it does take some damn hard
work we can all do it if you're willing
to put in the practice
sure and here's here's the news i think
most people don't put in the work
i think that's really what it comes down
to isn't it
you know most people don't get up at
five most people don't make their bed so
maybe this is a good way to motivate you
if you simply start doing these things
you're the exception not the rule
exactly exactly i mean something as
uh
to be honest unpleasant to begin with as
cold showers
i mean i've i've particularly started
redoing it i gave myself a little bit of
a break mike i'll be honest
hang on our listeners have just like
fallen off their chairs yeah yeah i
thought this was the cost of being a
moonshot host that you had to do the
cold shower well exactly so so here's my
here's my pitch list
i took a break
and
when i came back to it it was almost
like i was i was kind of learning it
again
if that makes sense so it was such a
habit that then when you give yourself a
little bit of a break much like working
out and exercising i suppose
it degrades your resilience to it
degrades quite quickly but what i will
say is when you come back to it after
even just a short break
your tolerance is still a lot higher
so there was a residual
um
comfort i suppose that came with the
gold chassis and it wasn't as
frightening the first time as perhaps it
was a year ago when we did the wim hof
show
so i think my my point really there is
with that little bit of practice it does
become that little bit easier to put up
with things like cold showers or waking
up early or going for that extra long
run i think it's just exposure i don't
know mike i think we need to report you
to moonshots uh hr department i think
this is this is scandalous breaking news
here on
the moonshots podcast no you're
absolutely right and and also something
that's really good that that uh
sharma points out is you know it's hard
it's uncomfortable um you know and he
talks about suffering has a bad rap i
love that point um
because we've seen you know joe rogan
and many others talk about get get
comfortable with uncomfort uh jakob
willing problem yeah
you know um this is where you want to be
because as soon as you you've you're
prepared for that you've made a
deliberate decision to work on yourself
you can go places once you know it's
going to be hard stop expecting it to be
easy stop expecting uh to be an
overnight success because it just
doesn't happen like that does it no
absolutely no there's no
overnight success i don't think and
anybody who claims that you can get into
riches or happiness within six steps is
probably um
saying something that's not quite true
mike i think like anything in life
it just takes time and to be honest as
we've learned on the moonshot show the
journey is often even more enjoyable
than the destination of course you put
yourself into that growth mindset change
your perception and rather than trying
to sprint towards the finish line
instead enjoy
growing that resilience that grit that
uh that determination because
fundamentally it's actually quite fun
true true well said build a ritual build
a habit build a lifestyle to be the best
version of yourself
well mark thank you to you for sharing
this journey into the 5am club and thank
you to you our listeners uh it has been
fantastic to have you on show 172
with robin sharmas the 5am club and it
all began with his notion with his idea
rise before the sun and in doing that
leap into your 20 20 20 model to start
your day correctly and don't forget
that building habits
has three phases and it all starts with
that messy ugly destruction but once
you've broken through that you can work
on the big four
capitalization freedom from distractions
personal mastery and day stacking do
those things
and you'll be on a great journey but he
also told us you'll be on a hard journey
but that's okay do these things
wake at 5 a.m win the morning win the
day and you will truly be on the way to
being the best version of yourself and
that's what we're all about here on the
moonshots podcast that's a wrap