The 5 am club

who you’ll become
by advancing through
the fire of your fears and the heat of your trials along the process to mastery.
You get to know who you are, you see your abilities more clearly, your
confidence soars, you need the stroking of the crowd a lot less and you begin
to live your authentic life versus a plastic one manufactured by a world that
doesn’t want you to be free.”
The billionaire sipped from his water bottle before continuing to explain
the importance of breaking free from the death grip of device distraction and
digital diversions.

---

“And that’s where being a member of The 5 
AM
Club can also work its
magic for you,” he told his audience of two. “One of the ways the great men
and women of the world avoided complexity was by incorporating tranquility
and serenity into the front part of their days. This beautiful discipline gave
them absolutely essential time away from overstimulation to savor life itself,
replenish their creative reservoirs, develop their supreme selves, count their
blessings and ground the virtues that they would then live out their days
under. Many of the people who fueled the progress of our civilization shared
the habit of rising before daybreak.”
“Could you name a few of those people?” quizzed the entrepreneur.
“John Grisham, the famous novelist, for one,” replied the billionaire.
“Other celebrated early risers include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Georgia
O’Keeffe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway, who said that early in
the morning ‘there is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you
come to your work and warm as you write.’”
“Beethoven rose at dawn,” said the artist.
“The great ones all spent a lot of time alone,” offered the billionaire.
“Solitude—the kind that you can access before the sun comes up—is a force
multiplier around your power, expertise and connection to being human. 
And
your escalation requires your isolation.
See, you can be in the world all day
long chatting endlessly on your phone about one thousand senseless things or
you can change the world by exploiting your talent, refining your skills and
being a light of upliftment that raises us all. But you can’t do both. Princeton
psychologist Eldar Shafir has used the term ‘cognitive bandwidth’ to explain
the point that we have a limited amount of mental capacity when we rise each
morning. And as we give our attention to numerous influences—ranging from
the news, messages and online platforms to our families, our work, our fitness
and our spiritual lives—we leave bits of our focus on each activity we pursue.
Massively important insight to consider. No wonder most of us have trouble
concentrating on important tasks by noon. We’ve spent our bandwidth. Sophie
Leroy, a business professor at the University of Minnesota, calls the
concentration we deposit on distraction and other stimuli ‘attention residue.’
She’s found that people are far less productive when they are constantly
interrupting themselves by shifting from one task to another throughout the
day because they leave valuable pieces of their attention on too many
different pursuits. The solution is exactly what I’m suggesting: work on one
high-value activity at a time instead of relentlessly multitasking—and do so in
a quiet environment. Albert Einstein made the point exquisitely when he
wrote, ‘Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and
soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person.’

---

This really is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the virtuosos and
history-makers. They don’t diffuse their cognitive bandwidth. They don’t
dilute their creative gifts chasing every shiny diversion and every attractive
opportunity that comes their way. No, instead they exercise the fierce
discipline required to do only a few things—but at an absolutely world-class
level. It’s like I said before: the great ones understand that it’s far smarter to
create one piece of art—a genuine masterpiece—that endures for generations
rather than thousands of projects that express no genius. And please also
remember: 
the hours that The 95% waste The Top 5% treasure
. 5 
AM
is the
time of least distraction, highest human glory and greatest peace. So leverage
The Victory Hour well. You’ll make quantum leaps in your productivity as
well as in your personal mastery. I don’t want to get too much further into the
neuroscience I’ve shared this morning, and I have an amazing surprise
planned. But there is one more concept that I’d love to share with you two.
It’s called ‘transient hypofrontality.’”
“Transient what a whatta?” queried the artist as he laughed.
The billionaire walked over to a towering palm tree with a thick trunk
revealing its vast age. A sun-bleached wooden table with a wide circular top
sat under it. A model had been meticulously carved into the wood. You would
have been most impressed—and fascinated—if you saw it.
The magnate cleared his throat and chugged some of the lemon tea. After
a few seconds, he began to gargle. Yes, gargle. Then he carried on his
discourse. “When you’re up early and all alone, away from the
overstimulation and noise, your attention isn’t being fragmented by
technology, meetings and other forces that can limit maximum productivity,”
mused the billionaire. “And so the prefrontal cortex, that part of your brain
responsible for rational thinking—as well as constant worrying—actually
shuts off for a short time. Lovely information, right? That’s the ‘transient’ part
of transient hypofrontality. It happens only temporarily. Your nonstop
analyzing, ruminating and stressful overthinking stops. You pause from trying
to figure everything out and being so concerned about things that will
probably never happen. Your brain waves actually shift from their usual beta
to alpha, and sometimes even down into theta state. The solitude, silence and
stillness of daybreak also triggers the production of neurotransmitters like
dopamine, the inspirational fuel that serves superproducers so well, and
serotonin, the beautiful pleasure drug of the brain. Automatically and
naturally, you enter what I described earlier as ‘The Flow State.’
Mr. Riley waved his left hand over the diagram on the table. It looked like
this:

---

“The Flow State is the peak mindset that all exceptionalists like top
violinists, iconic athletes, elite chefs, brilliant scientists, empire-building
entrepreneurs and legendary leaders inhabit when they produce their finest
product,” the industrialist added enthusiastically.
“When you give yourself the gift of some morning peace away from your
busyness, the hardwired capacity of 
every
human brain to access the realm of
pure genius becomes activated. The excellent news for you two cats is that
with the right moves, you can habituate this state of awesome performance so
it shows up with absolute predictability.”

---

“Transient hypofrontality. A very helpful model,” declared the
entrepreneur as she gingerly placed her phone into her shorts.
“The entire world would transform if people knew this information,”
pronounced the artist.
“They should be teaching all this to kids in schools,” the entrepreneur
suggested.
“So true,” agreed the billionaire. “But, again, I need to give all the credit
for this philosophy I’m sharing with you—and the transformational
methodology that I’ll soon walk you through so you 
implement
all this potent
information—to The Spellbinder. He’s been my greatest teacher. And with
zero doubt, the finest human being I know. Ingenuity without integrity isn’t so
impressive to me. Unusual accomplishment free of uncommon compassion is
senseless. And, yes, if every person on the planet was educated in this
material and then they had the commitment to apply it, the entire world would
be advanced. Because each of us would own and then live our latent power to
realize extraordinary results. And rise into completely glorious people.”