Transcription
Hi, it's Robin Sharma, and I wanted to show up here on Instagram Live and just offer you some insights on to how I see what's happening in the world right now and what you can do to pivot and to protect yourself and to protect your family and to protect your hope and to protect your mastery so that you can navigate these difficult times and stay strong.
I want to say, first of all, thank you for following me on Instagram. And we're gonna go, I promised I would go for one hour. What I'd like to do is, the first part of our time together, I'm going to talk about philosophy and the philosophy of how you can show leadership versus victimhood amid these times of great volatility and great turbulence. So we're gonna talk about philosophy. And if you say, "Well, Robin, philosophy doesn't apply to me. Philosophy is just information or ideas," then after I share philosophy of how to navigate difficult times, stay strong, I'm going to get into what I call tacticology, or tactics that you can use starting today to fireproof your mindset, to protect your heartset, to strengthen your healthset, and to fortify your soulset – the four interior empires that I talk about in The 5 AM Club.
So the first thing I would say in terms of philosophy is this: difficult times are when heroes are made. So we all know what's going on on our little blue planet today. Yesterday, the stock market went down, the largest drop in history on the Dow Jones. And we know about the virus, and we know how many people are in panic mode, and we know what's going on in terms of business contractions. And so the first thing I would say is, just remember that you get to see what you're made of, not in the sunshine, but when things fall apart. And if you are fighting right now, that you're worried, or you're fighting right now, you're activated, or you're feeling afraid, or you're feeling disappointed, or you're feeling sad, pay attention to those feelings. Our society tells us, "Don't feel those feelings." What I'm suggesting to you is, difficult times offer an opportunity for incredible growth.
So the first thing I want to say, really, if you're taking notes, is protect your hope. Protect your home. And if you are a positional leader here on this Instagram Live, your job and my job is to deliver hope to the people who are following us. And even if you don't have a position, you know that you can lead without a title. And what leaders do is, in difficult times, they protect their positivity, they protect their hope, they protect their ambition, they protect their mastery, they protect their primal genius. And I'm going to give you attack tips. If you're just joining us from around the world right now, I'm going to get into philosophy, but I will get into tactics that you can apply today. So protect your hope. Because I think, as a human being, if you lose your hope, if you lose your hope for your future, if you lose your hope for your goals, if you lose your hope for what you want to do in the world, if you lose your hope for the passions that you love, if you lose your hope and your energy, you're going to lose everything.
And there is a phenomenon I want you to think about called emotional contagion. It's a scientific phenomenon that I teach to my top clients. And by the way, I've been preparing my clients for this for years because you could see that you could see a lot of this coming. Emotional contagion simply speaks to the scientific phenomenon that human emotions are contagious. There's a wonderful book by Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University, and what he has found is this: you adopt the emotions of not only your friends, but the friends of your friends, and the friends of their friends. I call it the three layers deep theory in my work. And that simply means that you really want to be paying attention to the people you're surrounding yourself with right now. If you are around fearful people, people who are panicking, through the phenomenon of emotional contagion, you will pick up their mindsets, but also their heartsets. You will adopt the emotions. Scientists' research has been done. Couples who are depressed over time, if one of the partners is depressed, the other couple, the other member becomes depressed. Emotions are contagious. So if you want to protect your hope, avoid herd mentality and herd emotionality.
What more can I say on that first philosophical principle? Protect your hope. Protect your positivity. I'm going to give you tactics on how to do that in about 20 minutes. But for now, just remember that. Remember that this too shall pass. Remember that life, and the economy, and humanity is always cyclical. For those who have been unprepared, for those who have not built themselves up, for those who have not believed in personal mastery training, for those who are not fortifying their mindset, working on their heartset, protecting their healthset, and escalating their soulset, there's a lack of a strong foundation on how to deal with when external things fall apart. For those of us who have been on this path of self-leadership and maximizing our humanity so we can serve the world, but also protect ourselves, we're ready for this time.
Second philosophical idea I would offer to you is: negativity is bravery training. Negative times allow you to build your bravery. Personally, I've gone through some very difficult times in my life, and did I like going through them? Absolutely not. But a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. And it's the most difficult times that make the greatest heroes. What made Nelson Mandela was his Robben Island moments, well, actually 18 years on Robben Island. What made Mother Teresa was her challenges. What made Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks, or any great woman or man is not what they did in the times of goodness. It was how they used and leveraged hard times to make them braver, more empathetic, more loving, more of service, wiser. So hard times don't feel good. But if you have a mentality of, "How can I use what I'm experiencing as grist for the mill, as fuel to help me grow in my mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset?" then you're gonna come out of this, and this will end, born anew.
In The 5 AM Club, I say one must experience a destruction or a crucifixion before your best self can experience a resurrection. What does that mean? It means that sometimes when we feel like things are falling apart, old beliefs, old emotional architectures, old habits are being torn down so something even better can show up. So heroes are made in hard times. And I'm going to ask you, with great love and respect, right now, are you contracting and playing ostrich, putting your head in the sand? Or are you fundamentally asking yourself this game-changing question: "How can I use what's happening in the world right now to grow? How can I use what's happening externally to remember my fundamental nature?" And I will give you tactics in about 15 minutes. But ask yourself, "What's the opportunity here? What's the opportunity here?" If you're an entrepreneur, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of industry titans follow me. I would say, if you're running a business, if you're leading a team, if you're in the marketplace, ask yourself, "What is the opportunity here?" If you're not in business, still ask yourself, "What's the opportunity here for my growth, for my advancement, for my service to the world?"
And that brings up a really important point, which is: it is victims blame, leaders take personal responsibility. There's an acronym that I teach in my work called APR: Absolute Personal Responsibility. Victims make excuses, victims blame, victims are frightened, victims contract. What I'm suggesting to you is, let go. Make a conscious choice today to let go of any form of victim-itis, excuse-itis, and being a victim in this turbulent time. And ask yourself, "How can I lead without a title?" And that involves releasing blame. And what I'm trying to suggest here is, difficult times activate your weakest self. And just stay with me here, please. If you're feeling afraid today, it's because you had fear in your system. This is why heartset is not everything. Remember those four interior empires in The 5 AM Club? So many people say, "Mindset is everything." Well, your mindset can be positive, but if you're feeling afraid, that's not an intellectual exercise. Fear is an emotion. Guilt is an emotion. Sadness is an emotion. Disappointment is an emotion. That's heartset.
And so if you are feeling, let's say, afraid right now, or insecure, which is low-grade fear, rather than being asleep and blaming it on the economy around the world, or on the whatever it is, ask yourself this: "What's going on within me? What has the current situation in the world activated within my system?" In other words, what old wound has been touched by the current situation in the world? And if you're new to my work, just bear with me. But what I'm trying to suggest to you is, everything that brings up your fear is an opportunity for growth and healing. And so if you're afraid right now, ask yourself, "What mindset beliefs have been activated? What heartset wounds have been activated?" And start using the current scenario to make yourself stronger, healthier, braver, wiser.
Let me go even deeper on this point. If you're afraid right now, or you're feeling insecure, it's because you have some beliefs that are causing you to feel insecure. You might believe this won't end. You might believe this is the end of the world, which it is not. You might believe, at some level, you don't have the power to navigate what's going on. Take your power back. Don't give your power to external conditions, because that's what victims do. And one of the biggest things that victims do is they believe they have no power because they're not exercising their power. But just because you might not think you have any power right now doesn't mean you don't have any power. So think about your mindset, think about what beliefs are being activated right now. Because as you start to pay attention to your weaker beliefs, you can step outside of your beliefs and start saying, "Oh, I need to install, practice, rehearse, journal about some new beliefs." Victim beliefs, some poor victim mindset beliefs: "I'm powerless over what's going on. I'm in trouble. This will never end. My future is going to be a mess. I'm going to lose everything," etc., etc.
Start in The 5 AM Club. Do you remember the three-step success formula? With better awareness of those beliefs, you can make better choices, better choices, better results. But it's not just mindset. Remember that word that I've introduced in my work: heartset. So don't only do mindset work right now. Use heart. Start doing heartset work. Ask yourself, "Oh, wow, what is the global economic collapse making me feel?" It's not weak to feel that. To paraphrase Carl Jung, he said, "What we do not feel is repressed within our subconscious and comes back to haunt us in toxic ways." That's why heartset is so important. If you're swallowing your fear, if you're swallowing your insecurities, if you're swallowing your guilt, if you're swallowing your shame – all these things that most people don't talk about – I want to talk about it because if you're swallowing those things, they will create what I call a field of hurt. And that toxic energy is repressed in the subconscious, and it's within most people on the planet. And this is the fundamental reason why most people are not positive, because that energy affects your mindset. This is the reason why most people don't have the energy, health, productivity, creativity that they want. They have repressed all of these toxic feelings that we pick up as we go through life, and especially right now, being activated by what's going on in the world, and we project everything out on the world versus taking personal responsibility over ourselves.
What I'm suggesting is, difficult times allow you to pay attention to what's going on within your mindset and your heartset, and start doing the work that I've been evangelizing for 24 years so you become a hero. You become a hero of your own life. You feel stronger.
Fourth philosophical point: Be opportunity-focused versus fear-centric. Opportunity-focused versus fear-centric. With my highest-level clients, the billionaires that I mentor, the CEOs that I mentor, the famed entrepreneurs that I mentor, the elite athletes that I mentor, I am working with them to help them install a default way of being so that they constantly ask themselves this question. I call it the WTOH question: "What's the opportunity here?" If you're an entrepreneur, everyone is frightened right now. Ask yourself, "What's the opportunity here to be more inventive? To create more value for your marketplace? To work on your mastery so your skills increase?" Everyone's pulling back right now. If you're in business, this is an amazing time to contribute more value to your customers, to contribute more magic to your marketplace. Everyone is contracting. This is what you should be learning. This is when you, it's the best time to grow. If you're not in business, still ask yourself, "What's the opportunity here?"
That's an image from the Financial Times on this past Saturday, and it's an image of a young boy who is a refugee. He has no home, no roof over his head. When he wants to use the toilet, he has to line up for one hour. If he wants food, he has to wait in line for two hours. So one of the opportunities for us is, no matter what our lives are looking like today, asking ourselves, "What can we be thankful for?" What can? If you have family who loves you, hold your loved ones even tighter. If you have work, celebrate the dignity of labor. Even if you're a street sweeper. And you know, I don't mean "even if you're a street sweeper" like there's something diminishing about even a street sweeper, because a street sweeper's job is no less than my job. I really believe in the dignity of all labor. No one on the planet is any better than another human being. Yes, I mentor billionaires and NBA superstars and corporate titans, and I've done that for almost 25 years. No one is better just because they might have a higher position or more money. Every human being on the planet has equal dignity, equal honor, equal nobility. So be opportunity-focused. If you're in business, be an opportunity-focused person, and don't buy into this collective mentality of fear and contraction and victimhood. Be a believer, not a follower. If you lead a team, bring them hope, bring them energy, show them the mountaintop. That's what leaders do. Martin Luther King Jr. faced hate, faced abuse, faced jail, faced racism, but he said, "I have a dream. I've seen the mountaintop." And one day, all creeds, regardless of the color of their skin, will walk hand in hand. Gandhi became Gandhi not when times were easy when he was a lawyer in South Africa. Gandhi became Gandhi when the world needed Gandhi.
So it's easy for you and I to give away our power and give away our responsibility by saying, "Oh, it's because of the economy. It's because of the health issues on the planet," which are very real. But you still have the power to express mastery. You still have the power to stand for love. You still have the power to represent excellence. You still have the power to nourish your mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset. You still have the power to get up at 5 AM and do that one-hour victory hour that I teach in the book, so you strengthen yourself for the day ahead.
Fifth and final philosophical insight I'll offer to you, and then I'll get into daily tactics: Keep perspective. Keep perspective. You know, my friend who has since passed on, his name is Richard Carlson. He wrote a book, many of you have probably read, called *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff*. And I met Richard in the late 1990s when we were speaking together on a platform, and I was just starting out in the field of personal mastery and leadership, and he was very famous because of *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff*. And I remember when I met him, and before we had to do the VIP greet, and we became great friends. And Richard Carlson is still, you know, one of the wonderful friends and finest human beings I've ever been blessed to meet. He passed away in the mid-2000s, very sadly. Why am I bringing up Richard's name? Because he wrote a book, like I imagined, called *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff*. And one of the ideas I remember when I read *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff* was he said, "Keep perspective." And I've never forgotten that. You know, keep perspective. That's why I often, in the mornings, sometimes I read. And if you've been following me for 24 years, you know how much I love the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. And Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor. Emperor. And by the way, to my brothers and sisters in my beloved Italy, we are with you. And you know, this too shall pass.
So one of the reasons I read the meditations of Marcus Aurelius is because it offers me perspective. Richard, in *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff*, talked about perspective. And I suggest to you, in these turbulent, volatile times, do not lose perspective. Do not forget the shortness of life. Do not forget that no matter how long you live, before you know it, relatively speaking, we will all be dust. Don't lose your perspective. If you have your health, if you have water to drink, if you have family to love, if you have work that allows you to connect with your gifts and to serve your customers, maintain your perspective. Maintain your perspective that this will all end. In terms of the economic turmoil right now, of course, it's going to end. It always does. If you study history, there are always very turbulent times, and then there are good times as well. So don't lose your perspective.
Okay, let me get into. And I will. I'm half an hour, roughly half an hour into this Instagram Live. I promised you I would go one full hour. If you're just joining me from around the world, I've talked a lot about heroism. I've talked about the importance of personal responsibility. Mother Teresa said, "If the whole world would only sweep their doorsteps, the whole world would be clean." This is a time where you get to show your heroism. This is a time where you get to show your power. This is a time where you get to represent love. This is a time where you get to see your weaknesses, your insecurities, your fears, and work on yourself. This is why morning routine, the 5 AM Club, this is why it's so important. If you have consistently been spending the victory hour that I talk about in the book and running the 20-20-20 formula that I teach in the book, if you've been doing this for even a year, even six months, you're fundamentally behaving differently right now because you've built your mind, heartset, healthset, and soulset. And this is why anyone who doesn't believe in the power of personal mastery is really missing out on something. Because the way you are in the world is a reflection of the way you are with yourself. You want to build a better external life? Build a better internal life. And it's not just mindset, because mindset is only your psychology. As human beings, we are more than our beliefs. We're more than our psychology. We feel. We have mindsets. What I call heartset, healthset, which is our health, and soulset, which is our spiritual side, which is our higher nature, our wisest selves.
Let me get into the tactics. And then what I'm going to do is leave some time to answer your questions, or maybe we could even do some video calls one-on-one, which Instagram allows us to do, and which I'd love to do. All right, by the way, I'm curious, was that first half hour helpful? I want to just see, was it helpful? Just by, let me know your comments. Was the first half hour helpful? Yeah, I see. And where are you from? So people are saying, "Please save this live." Of course, I will. Thumbs up. Yes. Mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset, the four. What I call the four interior empires. Let me just. I have a video call coming in. Let me see if I can take one right now. I see Luis Cardinal. "If I print your big fan, and I don't know what to say." Let me take a screenshot. "Or the makeup, please go ahead, sloppy, and take a screenshot." "Very, you know, and you know, my favorite, you're my favorite. After, and sorry for my bad English, I'm from Bulgaria. And I like your books. I like your, I like you. I don't know what to say. I read your book, and my favorite book is *Who Will Cry When You Die*. This is my favorite book. I have two of your books, and I like them. First, I bought and read *The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari*, and after that, *Who Will Cry When You Die*. And this book started changing my life. I watched the little things. I loved them. For example, I'm walking in the forest. I was the same. In the morning, I get up early. I invest the time in myself. And I don't know what to say. You're great. Now I'm reading this book for finance co-education, Ridge, that you know. But I will buy all your books. You're great."
So, well, slightly, first of all, I've been to Bulgaria. I was in Sofia. Okay? And I had a wonderful time in Sofia. So to you and all my Bulgarian readers, I say thank you very much. And I want to say thank you for your kind words, and I'm happy to see you so full of energy, excuse me, in positivity, when so many people, even to see or smile, when so many people are frightened or negative or discouraged. And I think it's because you're doing the work to build yourself up. And you know, all these things like I'm going to talk about some of the tactics. So for everyone watching, I'm going to get into. You have ten tactics in a moment. Yeah, so that you stay strongly. You talked about some of the nature walks, reading, hydrating, getting up. Yeah. These things make you stronger and allow you to get through difficult times feeling much more confident. So I want to say thank you for the kind words and thanks for making the time to be here with me on Instagram Live.
Ouais, thanks, lobby. Thanks. Ten tactics right now. Well, number one is your morning routine. If you're going to do one thing after this Instagram Live, make the commitment to develop a strong morning routine. Because most people get up and they check the news. I'm not saying the news is bad. I'm saying do not be addicted to the news right now. Yes, we want to know what's going on in the world, but don't be addicted to the news. What you do in the first 60 minutes of your day, I'll repeat that again because this is really important: what you do in the first 60 minutes of your day profoundly affects how the rest of your day unfolds. If you were to do one thing as a result of this time with me here, commit right now to at least 20 minutes of morning exercise. At least the first thing you do, start running for 20 minutes, or push-ups for 20 minutes, or swimming for 20, a nature walk for 20 minutes, even just doing wind sprints up and down your street, or jumping jacks in your bedroom. 20 minutes as soon as you get up will release BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which will repair brain cells damaged by stress. It'll promote neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells. 20 minutes of sweaty exercise first thing in the morning will release dopamine, the inspirational neurotransmitter. You'll feel better. It'll release norepinephrine. It'll release serotonin, the pleasure chemical. It'll release oxytocin. Game-changing move. 20 minutes of sweaty exercise as soon as you get up. The things that would bother you in the day will no longer bother you as much. So the first tactic: dial in more than ever your morning routine. I'm encouraging you, morning exercise for 20 minutes. If you don't meditate, meditate. Meditate. I meditate almost every day. That will calm you down. It'll create a pharmacy of mastery within your system. It'll reduce inflammation and stress that leads to dis-ease. It'll make you feel more peaceful. Also, reading. Reading. I this morning, I read the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. People are asking about my new book. I'm working on. Here's my new book, and I just finished the first draft. I probably have 20 more drafts of my new book, but it'll be about how do you show heroism in difficult times? How do you make your life world-class when it's hard and when it's easy? But I still have 20 more drafts. Everyone's asking me, "When will the new book be?" Oh, not for a while. So for now, dial in your morning routine. At least 20 minutes of exercise. Meditate. If you're new to meditation, there are lots of great apps. You know, I like the podcast Meditation Oasis. Meditation Oasis. And I also subscribe to Calm. Calm is a great meditation. I don't get anything from offering these to you. I'm just trying to be a service to you. And then morning reading. Morning reading. Read about great heroes. Read about Da Vinci. Read about Disney. Read about Nelson Mandela. Reading allows you into the mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset of the world's strongest people. Why wouldn't you read? And then obviously, I would be remiss and I would not be serving you well if I didn't talk about before the other nine tactics I'm going to offer to you, but I must share The 5 AM Club. And if I don't mention that, then I'm doing you a disservice. Because if you want to battle-proof yourself as we go through this messy time, and I need to be truthful as always, it's going to get worse. It will get better, but it's going to get worse. And so what can you do? Join the 5 AM Club. And in The 5 AM Club, look, I walk you through the 20-20-20 formula, which is the morning routine. I've talked to many of the world's most successful people who have gone through difficult times, those who find opportunity and to serve more and to show their heroism. And if you're interested, you can find your answers in The 5 AM Club.
Second tactic: a wise and selective use of the news. And remembering that your ecosystem, in other words, your environment, shapes your behavior.
Third: Avoid toxic people. Right now, avoid toxic people. Well, not right now, I would say avoid toxic people all the time because your friends determine your future. Now, when I say everyone toxic people, I mean avoid the victims. Avoid people who are panicking. Avoid people who are negative. Avoid people who are playing victim. And I see this so often. People say, "But what if that person is my husband or my wife or my mother or my uncle?" Well, maybe you don't spend as much time with them. Maybe you talk to them on the phone versus having dinner with them every night. If it's, if it's your husband or your wife, you've got to figure that out. Or maybe you just have a conversation because you know, speak your truth even when your voice hurts. And say to your partner, in a non-blaming way, and this is again an opportunity, you get to learn how to communicate like a pro. And say to your partner, "The way you're talking and the way you're behaving is adding to my stress. Can we find a solution to this situation?" If your partner is watching the news all the time, maybe have a conversation and say, "Could we please watch the news once a day?" And on this third tactic about avoiding toxic people, I would encourage you to ask yourself when you are following people on social media. Here's what I try to do. When I follow this influencer, how do they make me feel? And trust your gut. In The 5 AM Club, I have a model which has been transformational to the readers. They've told me this one model has been profound, and it's called Joy as a GPS. And very high level, I'll simply say, trust your joy because your joy is your why itself telling you where to go. So the social influencers who make you feel bad or inferior, I don't know if that's a good idea to follow them. And the people in your circles that are making you feel scared or bad, so selectively hang out with them or don't hang out with them.
Fourth tactic: If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business leader, spend more time with your team right now and overcommunicate. I could spend another hour, two hours, talking about leadership in turbulent times. I will simply say right now, your job as a leader is to maintain and protect people's hope. Your job as a leader is to build more leaders. Your job as a leader is to protect the confidence of your people. Your job as a leader of your team is to stay inspired. And you cannot inspire people, even your family, if you are uninspired. And so, you know, fortify and insulate your inspiration by reading, by going to art galleries, by going out into nature. I mentioned perspective. Nature more often right now. It reminds you of the larger picture.
Fifth tactic: Music. I build playlists. I worked on the new book for 11 days in isolation recently in Tribeca, and I built a series of playlists to inspire my writing. There's a lot of country music. And in the days, I built my tight bubble of total focus that I talked about in The 5 AM Club, and I just went like six, seven, eight hours fasting and listening to this music. And so music isn't. Build playlists to keep you inspired and positive and strong during these volatile times. Music is amazing to keep you at your cognitive, and emotional, physical, and spiritual best. Related to that fifth tactic is even more family meals. And not with your phone. As a matter of fact, one of the tactics should be disconnect from your phone for at least five hours every day. It's going to, it's going to bring your energy down. It's going to cause you into, you know, getting frightened for no. I'm not saying there's nothing. There are not real issues. I want to be very clear. I'm saying you do not want to get over scared. You do not want to get into mass panic or mass hysteria.
Tactic number six: Talked about it for 24 years. Journaling. Journaling allows you to process through fear, insecurity, shame, disappointment, all of those heartset feelings in a very safe place, rather than taking your fear out on the streets or to your organization. If you're scared, write about it. Few things are as powerful as doing heartset work in a journal. I do my mindset work in a journal where I look at my, I detect my beliefs. I look because when you look at your beliefs, then you are no longer a victim to your beliefs. You are the witness of your beliefs. Your power by looking at your beliefs. It's the people who are asleep to their mindset, heartset, healthset, and soulset that are terrified right now. If you're on a conscious path, if you, and I want to celebrate you for it, you wouldn't be right here right now if you weren't following me on Instagram. And maybe you've read my books, maybe you've watched my podcast mastery sessions. Great job. You're working on yourself. Takes a brave person. So, some journal. And I've done a, I've done a YouTube video. If you want to go deeper on just search my name on YouTube and journaling, and there's a whole video on it.
Tactic number seven: When people in business, because a lot of business people and entrepreneurs follow me, so I want to speak a little bit about that. But remember, the marketplace rewards your magic, not your mediocrity. So this is a time when everyone else is pulling back, maybe pushing out Minimum Viable Product to the world because everyone's worried about expenses, cost, etc. This is the time, as an entrepreneur, business leader, to put push mastery into the world. It's the right thing to do. Your marketplace will reward your presentation of mastery. And great, great rewards always come to people who operate at the highest level by putting out Sistine Chapel ceiling level product.
Tactic number eight for you is: This is a great time to work on your skills. It's a great time to grow in your professional as well as your personal mastery. It's a great time to listen to audiobooks. It's a great time to listen to podcasts. It's a great time to do online courses. It's a great time to invest in books. It's a great time to buy a journal. It's a great time to find a mentor. This morning, I spent 40 minutes talking to one of my mentors. So you want one of the winning moves of the most successful people on the planet is they all have mentors.
Number nine: Hydration, nutrition, and recovery. Hydration, nutrition, and recovery. Drink more water right now. It'll increase metabolic function. It'll allow you to release toxins. Lots of extra water. I want to be very tactical. Secondly, look at your nutrition right now. The what you eat determines how you feel. Your brain, as well as your brain function. You want to optimize your cognition, your emotionality, your physicality, and your spirituality. I'm a big fan of fasting. I've talked about it a lot in some of my work. I just, it works really well for me. I supplement. I'm big on vitamin C, and I have a full range of supplements that I use to keep me at my best. I have a sleep stack because people say, "Oh, Robin, you know, you've written The 5 AM Club, I guess you're all about sleep deprivation." Well, that's not what the book is about at all. There's a whole chapter in The 5 AM Club about the essentiality of sleep. And so right now, perhaps more than ever, you want to find your sleep stack. Maybe it's essential oils. Maybe it's supplements. You want to meditate before you go to sleep. Maybe it's a hot bath. I love taking hot baths before I go to sleep with Epsom salt in it. These, I hope I'm not getting too tactical here, these are things that I teach to my clients that I wanted to teach to you in this one-hour Instagram Live to help you and help you protect your mastery and your productivity and your creativity and your energy and your happiness. So tactic number nine: lots of hydration, supplementation, eat clean food, don't go for the processed food, and rest and recovery. So important. Even one of my secret weapons is napping. And in The 5 AM Club, I say rest is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Please remember that.
Tactic number ten: Well, one of the most important tactics I want to share with you, which is self-love. And they're saying, "Robin, you talked about personal mastery and elite performance and exponential creativity, and you talk about leadership and heroism. Why are you talking about self-love?" Because you can't love someone in the world any more than you love yourself. And I've seen over the past week, two weeks, great acts of kindness, but I've also seen people thinking only about themselves. And may I humbly suggest that we are all brothers and sisters on a small planet in a massive galaxy. And more than ever before, this is a time where we need to remember we're all part of one family, and we need to be more polite to each other, less selfish. I believe we need to be merchants of love. We need to be thinking about everyone around us. Your family needs you more than ever before. Your team needs you more than ever before. Your customers need you more than ever before. I don't know if you're in Italy watching. I don't know if you're in Hong Kong watching. I don't know if you're in China watching. I don't know if you're in Latin America. I don't know if you're in Northern Europe. I don't know if you're in Africa or India or the Middle East, or wherever you are on the planet. But you know, I'm blessed to serve you because for me, it's all about service and being helpful. And I know you know this, but may I gently remind you that you can't give more love to the world right now than the love you feel for yourself. And that's why self-care is the doorway into greater self-love. And a lot of us, we don't care for ourselves. We don't drink the water, or we don't get the rest, or we don't make time for ourselves. But you can't love more, you can't give more love to the world than you have reclaimed and owned within yourself. And that's why I wanted to end this one-hour Instagram Live with, practice self-love.
And you know what? I have to say this. I mean, you don't have to be okay. In my work, I'm going to talk even more, even in my leadership work, even in the new book. Everyone thinks it's so common, "Well, we have to be okay." You know, we feel we have to put on a strong face. We have to know all the answers. Well, the human condition is sometimes we're okay, and sometimes we're not okay. And if you're scared right now, that's okay. It just means you're human. If you're sad right now for what's going on, you're more than okay. Who wouldn't be sad? I think if you're not sad right now for what's happening on the planet, there's a lot of heartset work that's in front of you, which is a great opportunity. I just, I just, I see it's so easily shown, you know, the highlight reels of our lives. And you know, I just want you to know, it's okay not to be okay. I sure don't have all the answers. I'm, it's not like I, and that every day is flawless for me. I am a human being. I'm on my path. I'm a work in progress. And so I try my best to share what I know about creativity, productivity, personal mastery, leadership, and heroism with you. So it's okay not to be okay. So okay to be vulnerable.
I don't know what more I can do for you here. It's 55 minutes into this Instagram Live. If you've just joined us, we talked about philosophy. I went through five philosophical insights. Let me do a recap: Protect your hope. Number two, heroes are made in hard times, not easy times. So what's going on right now in the world is bravery training. If you want to use what's going on to open you up, to get stronger, wiser, more loving, more relatable, more authentic, more creative, more productive. Three, I suggested and encouraged you to leverage the volatility for your own growth and service to humanity. Four, philosophically, I said, opportunity-focused versus fear-centric. Keep on asking yourself, "What's the opportunity here? Where, how can I use this to grow?" Five, perspective. I mentioned a chapter from my friend Richard Carlson's book, *Don't Sweat the Small Stuff*. Keep perspective. I talked about the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, which often get, keep reminds me of the short discipline and what the great leaders do. That's why I read. That's why I talk so much about Nelson Mandela. There's hardship in the world. It's at Nelson Mandela was in a prison cell for 27 years. This refugee child has no roof over his head.
Then I talked about 10 tactical points because philosophy without tacticology is an empty victory. Information and philosophy is important, and so are tactics. One without the other, it's like chocolate without the peanut butter. It's like, you get my point. Tactics: Number one, specific tactics, dialing your morning routine. Battle-proof your set, your mindset. Remember, it's not just mindset, the four interior empires that I teach in The 5 AM Club: mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset. 5 AM to 6 AM, while the world is asleep, you're doing that deep work to recalibrate your beliefs towards positivity and to remove scarcity. 5 to 6 AM, the rest of the world is sleeping, you're doing the heartset work to release insecurity, fear, shame, guilt, and you're building forgiveness, gratitude, awe, wonder, love, joy. 5 AM to 6 AM, the world is asleep, you're doing that healthset work, running on a treadmill, doing yoga, drinking water, taking your supplements, stretching. 5 to 6 AM, the world is asleep, you're running your victory hour and working on your soulset. Before the interior empire, praying, meditating, contemplating, "Who must I be in the day ahead for me to show everyday heroism?" Visualizing it, meditating, praying, reading the deep books, not the trivial books, not the lightweight books, the real books about the great women and men. How will they handle the adversity? Their books will rub off on your thinking, your feeling, your behavior.
Second tactic I shared after morning routine: Wise use of the news. Third, avoid toxic people. Fourth, the leader's job is to show your people a mountaintop and protect your people. Fifth tactic: nature, music, build playlists, have music around you and lift your spirits. Sixth tactic: If you're not journaling, go get a journal. And if you make an excuse, you'll be a master of excuses because if you, you become more of what you practice. And if you practice excuses, you'll become Mozart-level at excuses. If you practice being a victim, you're going to be federal-level at being a victim. If you practice dishonesty or little lies, you're going to be world-class at lies. If you practice postponing and procrastination, you're going to be the best in the world at procrastinating. So keep a journal.
Seventh: If you're in business, ask yourself, "How can I release more magic, more value to the marketplace?" Here's a great question: If you're in business, "What pain are my customers feeling right now that I can serve?" Eighth: Great time to grow professionally, investing your acumen, your wisdom, your skills. This is when you really want to learn. Everyone around you, you want to be so good, you want to be so good at what you do that you're indispensable to your organization. Ninth: Hydration, nutrition, recovery. Tenth: Self-love.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that was helpful. And I want to wish you all the best.