Today marks 50 non-stop 5am workouts. I thought I would share some key learnings from the experience:
1. No excuses. There were a couple of workouts where I only got 2.5 hours of sleep, was hungover or even had the flu. More so, I had people tell me to skip a day, go later in the day or go on the weekend. It’s tough drawing a line of high expectations but as you can see, it’s worth it.
2. Make the tough choices. Working out at a time such as 5am puts you in a place where you have to decide what is important. Whether it is a late night networking event, concert, dinner, tv show/movie, social media etc., the 4:30am alarm clock does not change. You start asking yourself how much sleep you want to give up or how important is that late night activity. It’s tough but necessary to adapt for what you really want.
3. Be adaptable. A lot of people kept telling me that they aren’t a “morning person”. I understand that we have preferences in life but that statement is mostly just cheap. The statement I prefer is “I am an opportunity person”. For the most part, anyone working a 9-5 will have a greater chance at consistency in the morning than in the evening. It doesn’t matter what your preference is, you adapt for the goal.
4. Focus on the goal. You need a semi-deep reason to start but you need an incredibly deep reason to maintain. Mine is “Wakanda Forever” and even though people literally laugh at me for it, who’s actually in the gym? Deep enough stand up to scrutiny, deep enough to kick start your engine and deep enough to carry you over the finish line.
5. Always cross the finish line with urgency. The phrase “Never quit” is unrealistic because you will at some point. However what is realistic is to pick yourself up with urgency and continue. Crawl, kick, punch, bite, scream... whatever it takes to love yourself for finishing.
6. Love yourself. You are your biggest cheerleader. It’s nice to hear compliments and have gym buddies but people come and go. If you love yourself, you’ll never be alone.
Thank you for all the gym tips, stories of motivation and overall love. I hope that you achieve all the fitness goals your heart desires.
Much love, 5am flex club 🏃🏾♂️