In this post: What is The Miracle Morning, the principles of The Miracle Morning, how The Miracle Morning can change your life for the better.
I’m a big believer in having a morning routine that helps me to start my day in a peaceful, organised and ultimately happy way. So when I picked up a copy of The Miracle Morning to read, I was surprised at just how thought-provoking I found it.
I first heard about The Miracle Morning through Ruth Soukup’s Do It Scared podcast. I’ve been a fan of Ruth’s for a while now, even more so after I heard that she is a depression survivor as well. (You can check out her incredible story here.)
So the other week when I heard the title of her latest podcast episode ‘Creating extraordinary results, choosing your mindset, and focusing on what you want with Hal Elrod’, I was particularly keen to listen. The idea of choosing your mindset has been a powerful factor in my recovery from severe depression and I’m always interested in learning more about the concept.
I won’t go into too much detail about the episode here (although I definitely recommend you have listen), but one of the main topics was how Hal created the concept of The Miracle Morning, what it involves and the process of writing a book on it.
In this post, I want to share with you my thoughts on the book and whether you should implement The Miracle Morning in your own life.
‘The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)’ by Hal Elrod
The main gist
Hal was at a low point in his life when he had a breakthrough moment: in order to improve his own life, he needed to undertake self-development to better himself internally before things would improve externally.
He realised that in order to get from where he was currently to where he wanted to be (he calls this the potential gap), he needed to become someone who had the knowledge to enable bridging that gap.
To do this, Hal researched what highly successful people attribute their triumph to and found common threads of what they included in their morning routines. There were six activities that tended to be on people’s list and rather than trying one activity at a time to see what would work for him, he combined all of these actions into what he calls his Miracle Morning.
So what activities are included in the Miracle Morning? Hal calls them his ‘Life S.A.V.E.R.S.’:
Silence
Focusing your thoughts and quieting your mind so you can face your day in a calm, centred way. Silence can be achieved through meditation, prayer, reflection, deep breathing or gratitude.
Affirmations
Using phrases to build yourself up, encourage yourself and reprogram your subscious thoughts (which are often rooted in our childhood experiences and not based on actual facts) by shifting your internal dialogue to yourself.
Visualisation
Imagine yourself succeeding in your endeavours, feeling on top of the world as you go through your day and even exactly how you will go about achieving your goals. Think of it as a rehearsal for your life in your mind.
‘… visualisation is the process of imagining exactly what you want to achieve or attain, and then mentally rehearsing what you’ll need to do to achieve or attain it.’
Exercise
In order to be your best self, you need to look after yourself. Exercise plays a vital role in this, helping you to not only be fitter, stronger and more flexible, but also more energetic throughout your day and happier in your mental wellbeing.
‘If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.’ Robin Sharma
‘Take care of your body so your body will take care of you.’ Hal Elrod
NOTE: Always work to your level of fitness, don’t push yourself too hard too fast, and seek the advice of a doctor if you have any concerns.
Reading
Grow your knowledge base by reading every single day, even if only for a few minutes. Learning is one of THE BEST ways to advance yourself and your life.
Hal recommends reading at least 10 pages of a book per day, but you can also learn through podcasts, videos, magazines or online articles, so if books aren’t working for you, there’s plenty of other things you can try.
Scribing
Scribing is just another word for journaling which is a
‘Whatever it is that you write, putting words on the page is a form of therapy that doesn’t cost a dime.’ Diana Raad
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Some of my favourite quotes from Hal
‘Even when life is difficult or challenging… the present is always an opportunity for us to learn, grow, and become better than we’ve ever been before.’
‘…you must first dedicate time each day to becoming the person you need to be, one who is qualified and capable of consistently attracting, creating, and sustaining the levels of success you want.’
‘Silence is one of the best ways to immediately reduce stress, while increasing your self-awareness and gaining the clarity that will allow you to maintain your focus on your goals, priorities, and what’s most important for your life, each and every day.’
‘Since you get to choose and create your affirmations, you can design them to help you establish the thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that you want and need to succeed.’
‘By getting your thoughts out of your head and putting them in writing, you gain valuable insights you’d otherwise never see.’
‘Everything is difficult before it’s easy. Every new experience is uncomfortable before it’s comfortable.’
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My takeaways from the book
This book definitely sparked some new ideas for me.
I strongly believe in improving your mindset to see things in a different, more positive way, but I hadn’t really thought about taking conscious action each morning to do this. My morning routine had been more about starting my day off the right way by doing things that make me healthy and happy, but Hal takes his morning routine a to another level.
We shouldn’t be waiting to take action on growing ourselves and improving our lives because it is within our control. Too often we wait for something external to happen in our lives, for a bad situation to change, or when we have more time or more energy.
But, it’s the good habits that will actually get us there – the exercising and eating better will give us more energy and the learning will help us to manage our time better. Don’t wait for the perfect moment because it doesn’t exist.
If we want to better ourselves and our lives, we need to take action towards our own self-development. Hal argues that we can have what we want in life if we commitment to taking action to grow ourselves.
I believe, as humans, we have a great ability to learn and make choices, but it does take bravery at times. Sometimes we have some big shackles to break free of, but I think with continued positivity we can find ways to either overcome these challenges or deal with them as best we can.
One of the most memorable part of the books for me was hearing about Hal’s first major battle in life when he was told he would probably never walk again after a serious car crash. Amazingly, he decides that if he is going to be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, then he is going to be the happiest person in a wheelchair that was ever seen.
I love this attitude and I have been reminding myself of Hal’s mindset in that moment when a situation is dragging my spirits down – I might not like the current situation, but I’m going to be as happy as I can possibly be in this very moment.
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My experience with the Miracle Morning
Since implementing the Miracle Morning, I am consistently more positive in my outlook during the day and feel that my general well being has
Even though I can feel the benefits when I do the activities in the Miracle Morning, it’s not always easy. I’ve struggled to stay consistent, mainly because I have trouble getting up early enough to include all the activities before the day gets taken over with other tasks.
Hal does give tips for getting up earlier and even for implementing quick versions of the Miracle Morning activities, so I think I just need to find a balance. I like to take my time with the activities, but I battle not to feel tired during the day if I’ve had less than 7 and a half hours of sleep.
There is no doubt in my mind that I will see improvements in my life by including the Miracle Morning activities in my day. It is definitely helping my with my self-development which fuels inspiration and motivation for me to be the best version of myself that I can.
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I hope this post inspires you to undertake your own self-development in your morning routine each day.
I highly recommend reading ‘The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)’ to get fully inspired by Hal’s story and his findings.
It is definitely worth taking action to improve ourselves and our lives. By consciously making the decision to learn and grow, we can enrich our lives to increase our happiness and fulfilment. I believe this journey is possible for each and every one of us.
Sure, we might have to overcome struggles and setbacks but we can do the best we can with where we are currently. Don’t view failures as the end of your journey, but instead view them as lessons and keep on moving with an open mind. You will get there, you will improve and it will be a part of your journey.
It is worth it because you are worthwhile and you are important. You can achieve so much when you are happy and you can grow into the person that you want to be, who lives their life to the fullest.
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I’d love to know: Have you read The Miracle Morning? What did you think? Have you read any other books that you found highly inspiring?
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