“But I’m not a morning person!”, I repeated to myself in my head every single time I had to get up early. My entire life I’d been hitting snooze to try and get those 10 extra minutes of sleep. One day, I noticed something funny. When I had something that I really wanted to wake up for, I had no problem getting up and springing out of bed full of energy. Why is this? I thought a lot about this question for a long time, and then I found the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. One of the many things this book taught me is that my mind controls my body, and that if I reinforce the self-limiting belief that I’m just not a morning person to myself enough times, my mind will believe my words and program my body to operate in this capacity. Another struggle for me was to find time to read and learn on a daily basis. I already had the good habit of going to the gym, but my diet sucked, my energy sucked, my consistency with reading and learning was erratic, and my life had control over me rather than me having control over my life. The principles of The Miracle Morning have helped me begin to change that.
Waking up with a purpose
For me, not having anything to hold myself accountable to when I wake up is a trigger to hit snooze. Hitting snooze is actually detrimental to energy levels because it allows your body to enter into another sleep cycle that it won’t be able to complete leaving you groggy and fatigued for a large portion of the rest of the day. The Miracle Morning gives you actionable steps to make it impossible for you to hit snooze once you’re up. Move your alarm clock across the room so that you physically have to get up to turn it off. Then, drink a glass of water, wash your face, brush your teeth, and put on workout clothes. These quick and easy 5 steps have helped me with the act of getting up, but what should we be doing once we’re up? Everyone always says they don’t have the time to work on themselves by working out or reading or meditating or whatever it is, but by waking up at least an hour before you have to will allow you the time to work on yourself. This gives your routine purpose because everyday you will spend the beginning portion of it working on bettering yourself.
Life S.A.V.E.R.S
The book breaks down exactly what to do in the morning with the acronym “Life S.A.V.E.R.S.” This stands for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing (writing). These steps can be rearranged and ordered however you want them to be, and different amounts of time can be allotted to each. However, by following these steps, you’ll be able to improve yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually all before 8 AM!
My Miracle Mornings
My Miracle Mornings start with silence. Sometimes, I just sit and breathe deeply focusing on the inhalation and exhalation while blocking all other thoughts from penetrating my mind. This is extremely hard to do especially in today’s fast paced society, so a lot of the time I follow a guided meditation on YouTube to better help me focus. I always make sure that when I do this, I’m out of my bedroom so I’m not tempted to go back to sleep. This practice usually lasts 5-10 minutes.
Next for me is my affirmations. I keep a notebook that I use to write affirmations in that I continuously update based on what is most important that I’m trying to achieve in my life currently. I also add quotes to the beginning of my affirmations that I hear in podcasts, read in books, or ones that I just come up with myself. This is a great way for me to align my mind with my goals before I start the day so I can remain focused on what is important and not get side tracked. This usually lasts 5-10 minutes.
Third is visualization. For me, this goes hand-in-hand with affirmations because both help me align myself with my goals. For this practice, you can just simply close your eyes and picture yourself reaching whatever goal you’re currently striving for making sure you can feel what it’ll feel like before it happens. You can use a physical vision board to help you do this if you need, however I don’t have one yet even though I plan on making one. The top performers in the world practice visualization constantly. For example, when the game was on the line, Michael Jordan would visualize going out there and making the game winning shot. Although it didn’t happen every time, it gave him the confidence to continue to do it, making him the legend that he is today. Visualization takes around 5-10 minutes for me on average.
Reading is next on my agenda. I like to read at least 10 pages during this time, so I usually spend about 10-15 minutes doing this. I try to align my books with my current goals, so now with my biggest goal being to own 10 million dollars of real estate by year’s end, I need to expand my mindset to make that seemingly impossible task possible. With that being said, I’m currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and it is definitely aiding me to develop the mindset I’ll need to carry out such a goal. I recommend you do the same and pick a book that is in alignment with your current goals and priorities.
For the sake of the acronym, scribing (writing), is what I then do in my process. I like to write at this point because I’ve already woken up my brain and filled it with thoughts that align with my goals, as well as inserted new information from my reading that is fresh in my head. This allows me to be more reflective in my writing and jot down my thoughts with my active mind in full self-improvement mode. Right now, I’m using this 10 minute slot to work on my financial freedom ebook, but I also journal as well. Journaling allows me to put my thoughts on paper and make more sense of them so that I may be able to act on them. This is vitally important and also allows you to see the growth and change in your mindset over time.
Last but not least is exercise, and this usually takes 10-20 minutes for me. Exercise type varies for me every morning based on what is available to me wherever I am. Sometimes, I do interval sprints on the treadmill. Sometimes, I do guided workouts on YouTube. Sometimes, I just do jumping jacks and run in place. On the weekends being that it’s summer, I like to ride my bike for an additional hour instead of keeping it short. The point of this is to get your body moving regardless of what you do to achieve that outcome. Physical activity plays such an important role in your life and more people need to understand and embrace that fact.
Staying committed
Committing to a schedule like this will be exciting for the first day or two, but it will get extremely difficult for the following next two or so weeks. The key is to fight through that discomfort because that is how we grow as people and prevail. You’re only limited by your own beliefs. Everything is hard before it’s easy, this example being case and point. Once you form a habit, it can be hard to break, but the process of forming that habit is where you need to be disciplined. Remember that you only need discipline until there is habit formation and that by becoming a Miracle Morning practitioner, you’re effectively putting yourself ahead of 99% of everyone else on planet earth in terms of success. Read The Miracle Morning and find out for yourself how this lifestyle tweak and mindset shift will change your life!