The Miracle Morning
By Hal Elrod
The miracle Morning SUMMARY
In writing summaries my aim is to highlight the dominant themes of the book. I utilize paraphrasing and interpretation to convey these themes in my own words. Along the way, I include direct quotes from the author, along with thoughts of my own, that are intended to support or expand on what the author has presented in the book.
A central theme of The Miracle Morning is that your level of personal responsibility for your life is tied directly to the level of power you have to create or change anything in your life.
“It is important to understand that responsibility is not the same as blame. While blame determines who is at fault for something, responsibility determines who is committed to improving things.”
You are the hero of your own story, of your own journey. The past is prologue to your story, it has already been written, however the actual “writing” of your story is always in the present moment. What you do with the “now” determines where your story leads.
You are only limited by the degree to which you invest in yourself and your self-improvement. By investing in your self-improvement, you can become the person you need to be. The person that is capable of taking the steps to create the life you want.
The author encourages us to examine our lives and look for any areas that are falling below our standards. These areas include: work, family, relationships, health, finances, freedom, etc. If you want to achieve “level 10 success” in these or any other domain of life it is possible and the path there is through self-improvement.
One of the biggest barriers to taking the path of self-improvement is the commitment to dedicating time to it. How many self-improvement books have you read and thought, “that’s a great idea, I’ll start practicing that,” but then find that you barely give it any time for practice? I’ll raise my hand because I’ve been there when it comes to poor follow through or excuses that derail the actions needed to invest in myself.
The solution to finding time for self-improvement is in the title, yup, in the morning.
Hal Elrod states that the book builds three imperative arguments:
“You are just as worthy, deserving, and capable of creating extraordinary health, wealth, happiness, love, and success in your life, as any other person on earth.”
“You must 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.”
“Your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life… Changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life faster than you ever thought possible.”
Each of us as individuals has the ability to create the person we want to be and then become that person. However, we can’t do it if we don’t make the time to put the time and attention into self-improvement. The quality of the time and attention that we give to ourselves determines the quality of our life.
If you hate getting up early in the morning, it can be worth asking yourself, “what do I hate worse, getting up early or my current life situation?”
“Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.” - Jim Rohn
Giving time and attention to personal development in the morning eliminates the problem of “finding time” for it. Also, putting it in the morning minimizes excuses like “not having enough time,” or “I’ll do it later.” Attending to personal development in the morning guarantees that we will have the time to attend to it.
Hal includes a quote from a Steve Pavlina blog post. “It has been said that the first hour is the rudder of the day. If I’m lazy or haphazard in my actions during the first hour after I wake up, I tend to have a fairly lazy and unfocused day. But if I strive to make that first hour optimally productive, the rest of the day tends to follow suit.” www.stevepavlina.com
Hal Elrod lays out six personal development practices to implement in our morning routine:
Silence: Specifically, purposeful silence where we engage in practicing any of the following; meditation, prayer, reflection, breathing, or gratitude. This daily practice allows us to access the parts of self that are calm, clear, and aware.
Reading: Reading is one of the fastest ways to grow our intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom. It allows us access to great thinkers and ideas that have modeled success. Reading grows and strengthens our ability to examine and influence our own thinking and beliefs. This in turn grows our cognitive map and allows us to discover places that, if not for the reading, we would never know existed or were possible.
Affirmations: The empowerment of the beliefs and thoughts that support us in our goals and desired ways of existing in the world as a person. This is about taking responsibility and making choices about the thoughts that we strengthen through repetition. We are constantly repeating thoughts and beliefs that have been with us for years, sometimes decades. Affirmation is a process that goes on within all of us. For example, in reading this, you might think, “affirmations don’t work, they’re dumb.” Surprise! Your mind just generated an affirmation and strengthened your unwillingness to engage in affirmations. Affirmations are everywhere. We do it automatically, often with thoughts and beliefs that do not serve us well and often with thoughts and beliefs that originated in childhood. So why not choose your own beliefs and thoughts and see what happens? Here is an opportunity to practice daily affirmations that are chosen and designed by you. Designed to support moving your life in the direction of your dreams.
Visualization: Spend time envisioning what matters to you. What matters to you now and in the future. Visualize in detail what you want to achieve or attain. Visualizing creates a mental rehearsal space for seeing what you will need to do - to see the actions that you will need to take and to see yourself engaging in those actions - in order to achieve or attain what is important to you. Just like affirmations, visualization is a process that goes on within all of us. Most of us don’t take the time to see how many of our visualizations are limiting and often end in disaster. We replay visions from the past or imaginings of the future that widen the rehearsal space for the worst possible outcomes. This is an opportunity to visualize what matters to you and see yourself pursuing it, fully. To see yourself living in alignment with the person you know you need to be in order to achieve your potential.
Journaling: Writing in a journal has benefits that parallel the benefits of therapy. It is a space for us to see what we are thinking, feeling, and sensing. A place for us to ask to be seen by ourselves and a place to see ourselves. A place to engage in self expression, self examination, self assessment, gratitude, commitments, learnings, ideas, and progress.
Exercise: The benefits of exercise are well known. Just as journaling parallels the benefits of therapy, exercise parallels the benefits of pharmacological and physical therapy.
Later in the book Hal provides an acronym for these six self-development practices: S.A.V.E.R.S. This stands for Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing. Hal admits that he couldn’t find a way to fit “W for writing” into the acronym so he turned to the thesaurus and there it was - “scribing.”
Below is an example taken directly from the book of a 60 minute Miracle Morning schedule using S.A.V.E.R.S.:
Silence (5 minutes)
Affirmations (5 minutes)
Visualization (5 minutes)
Exercise (20 minutes)
Reading (20 minutes)
Scribing (5 minutes)
Total Time: 60 minutes
The example above is customizable of course. This includes which order you do the S.A.V.E.R.S. as well as how much time you dedicate to each. It also includes how much time in total you are able or willing to commit to. For example, you could do each of these for 1 minute for a 6 minute Miracle Morning or you could do each of these for 10 minutes or each of them for 5 minutes. The most important thing is the doing, not doing perfectly.
Getting up in the morning can be hard. Hal lays out a 5-step wake up strategy. He calls it increasing your “Wake-Up-Motivation-Level (WUML).” The WUML is on a scale from 1-10. As you do each of these steps below your WUML moves up incrementally, from a 0 to a 1 or 2, from a 2 to a 3 or 4, etc.
Set your intentions before bed. “…take responsibility for creating genuine excitement for the next morning, every night before bed.”
Move your alarm clock away from arms reach so you have to get out of bed.
Brush your teeth or mouthwash.
Drink a full glass of water.
Get dressed in your workout clothes.
Hal writes about the importance of acknowledging the 95% reality check. This is the idea that 95% of people will settle for less than what they are capable of doing and achieving. In order to not be part of the 95% it is critical to commit to thinking and doing differently than most people. Living differently can feel uncomfortable and strange, however it is the only way to change things. If you want things to be different, you’ve got to do differently.
Below is Hal’s list of things that keep us stuck in doing and achieving less than we are capable of:
“Rearview Mirror Syndrome” (RMS). Who we have been in the past is not who we are now or who we can become. When we are staring into the rearview mirror we miss what is in front of us. We drive the car forward based on what is behind us, not on the actual road ahead. The way to overcome RMS is to recognize and take responsibility for this unhelpful perspective and utilize affirmations and mindfulness to refocus and reprogram.
“Lack of Purpose.” If you don’t have your “why” or your purpose in mind, you will avoid facing short-term discomfort and pain and end up with more suffering and discomfort in the long term. Being committed to a life of purpose helps us accept and work through short-term pain and discomfort in service of what truly matters to us. A purpose can be large or small. It can be working to bring more equanimity to others or it can be as simple as sharing small acts of kindness towards others. It can also change. You get to create and live your purpose, everyday, on purpose.
“Isolating Incidents.” We are always choosing and doing, doing and choosing. Each of these choices and actions comes with consequences or outcomes. It is critical to be aware that each and every choice and action builds on one another. Part of building self-confidence and discipline is to follow through on commitments even when you don’t feel like it. This includes the little choices, like snoozing the alarm clock. This sends the message that it is okay to do the easy things instead of the right or effective thing. It subtly undermines our determination and sense of being in alignment with our values and the person we want to be. Incidents of doing the opposite of what you intended to do don’t stay isolated. They add up and eventually form a chain of behaviors that fundamentally changes the way you identify and relate to yourself and your ability to direct your life.
“Lack of Accountability.” The antidote to lacking accountability is simple. Connect with someone with whom you can get support, encouragement, and share your growth. Ideally they are looking for the same kind of accountability and you can support each other.
“Mediocre Circle of Influence.” Instead of spending time with people who live their days in excuses, laziness, and destructiveness, seek out people who will encourage and challenge you to live in alignment with the kind of person you want to be. This can mean seeking out people that are already doing and living in the ways that you want to be. This will require the courage to engage in socialization and seek out relationships that are supportive and encouraging.
“Lack of Personal Development.” This is the heart of this book. If we fail to make time for personal development we end up struggling with the pain of knowing that our full potential has not been nurtured, cultivated, and cared for. Personal development allows us to be seen and cared for by ourselves. It is a path available to us, even when no other paths seem available in life. We can always take immediate responsibility for the how, when, and why of personal development.
“Lack of Urgency.” There are seven days in a week and “someday” is not one of them. Now is the only moment that matters. Now is where all of our choices and actions happen. Now is the moment to commit to living differently, to living a life of learning, growth, and fulfilled potential. The “someday” path is often paved with avoidance, regret, and resentment.
“When you wake up each day with passion and purpose, you join the small percentage of high achievers who are living their dreams.”
How to build the Miracle Morning habit:
Hal breaks down habit building into three 10-day phases.
Phase One is the most difficult (days 1-10). In the initial days of starting a new habit it might feel thrilling. “Yes! I’m changing for the better. I’m doing it!” However, it is not uncommon for the thrill to fade and we are left with the discomfort and difficulty of forming this new habit. We might even start to hate it. Hal stresses that this painful part of Phase One is where most people give up and tell themselves that it’s too hard or not worth it. We quit and the new habit is dropped before it ever really had a chance to become a habit.
How do we get through and overcome Phase One? We overcome it with the knowledge that the pain is temporary. Lean into your “why” and stay connected to the values that underpin the actions that you are taking. Your purpose and your values are long lasting, the pain is temporary and it gets better in Phase Two.
Phase Two is less painful (days 11-20) than the first phase, however it is still likely to be uncomfortable. However, you’re starting to reap some of the reward for committing to a new habit. Of course, the habit is still in a vulnerable position because it hasn’t been around long enough to feel essential and automatic. We get through Phase Two by staying committed. If we got through Phase One, we can definitely see this through to Phase Three. We are invested.
Phase Three is the “home stretch” (days 21-30). This is where the positive feedback loop starts. The habit becomes internalized. It is less something to achieve and has become something that is part of you. You begin to experience pleasure and pride in creating and living a habit that is in line with the person you want to be. Hal puts it thus:
“Phase Three is where the transformation occurs, as your new habit becomes part of your identity. It transcends the space between something you’re trying and who you’re becoming. You start to see yourself as someone who lives the habit.”
The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge
Hal extends an invitation to commit to The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge. If that is something you would be interested in, see below for links shared directly from the book.