The Miracle Morning

Hal Elrod

Our pathway to success should start early in the morning. A healthy morning routine will be what leads us to a happy life. But it is not only about waking up early in the morning. In The Morning Miracle, Hal Elrod suggests six activities around which we can create a morning routine that will ultimately change our lives.

By putting forward the example of Americans who lead mediocre lives, Elrod says that we humans are not living our lives up to our potential. Most people are either in debt, work a job they don’t like or are mildly depressed. At the end of their career, a majority of the people are still financially unstable. This shows that people are not living the life they want for themselves.

But despite the grim situation, Elrod says that it is possible to turn over a new life. He is a testament to this possibility, having come back from a coma into full health. Rather than being wistful about the past, he accepted his situation and worked to make his future better.

He points out that one of the primary reasons we are not living life to the fullest is because of the way we think. We tend to make decisions based on our past, which he calls the Rearview Mirror Syndrome (RMS). An RMS suffer will let their past experiences color their future choices. They will turn down new opportunities because it is something they haven’t experienced. Another problem he highlights is the habit of Isolating Incidents. This means that we look at incidents in our life as disconnected when in reality, the decisions we make today will affect the person we are trying to become. This mentality makes us more prone to making excuses and slacking off, which in turn stunts our path to success.

The snooze button is another blockage in our life. Every time we hit the snooze button we are putting off our life and our dreams. A solution to this is to change our thoughts about sleep itself. Rather than thinking we are going to have a bad day due to only a few hours of sleep, we should tell ourselves that we will feel good in the morning. This attitude will make us feel refreshed even with just four hours of sleep.

But it is not only about waking up early. It is also about having a healthy morning routine which will make us eager to tackle the morning. To achieve this level we should start by going to bed with a positive outlook on the next day. Next, we should place our alarm clock in a place where we will have to get up to turn it off. After getting up and turning off the alarm, we should straight away brush our teeth, so that we will feel refreshed. We should also take care to rehydrate first thing in the morning, as dehydration can cause tiredness.

All these steps will make us ready for the first activity in Elrod’s Miracle Morning routine. The first activity is to assign time for purposeful silence after waking up. One way to remain silent is through meditation; by concentrating on ourselves and controlling our breathing in a quiet, comfortable place. If not mediation, praying also works to maintain purposeful silence.

The second activity in Miracle Morning routine is altering our self-talk which subconsciously programs our brain. Rather than letting our thoughts focus on past experiences, we can turn them into positive affirmations. This can be done by making note of how we want our life to be, why we want it that way, and how committed we are to getting it. Reading this note every day will turn our thoughts into positive affirmations. Visualizing our ideal life and goals is another Miracle Morning activity which too will alter the way we think and give us a more positive outlook.

Then comes morning exercise, which is vital to keeping our bodies healthy. As most of us find ourselves tired at the end of the day, it is best to exercise in the morning. This not only ensures that we aren’t too busy to skip out on it, but also that we have more energy to use throughout the day.

Along with physical growth, we should also focus on our personal growth. Reading and writing are the last two Miracle Morning activities which will help us improve our thoughts. Reading books on personal development will let us take valuable lessons from people with experience. We should set a target for the number of pages we read every day and stick to it. Similarly, writing down our thoughts and feelings will give us clarity about what we have already achieved and what we have to focus more on.

These six activities can be tailored to suit our needs. One activity can be longer or shorter based on whether we think it will benefit us more or less. How long we spend on our routine or the place where we practice it is not as important as actually following through with it. We should make sure to spend even a little bit of our time on the Miracle Morning routine. Committing 30 days to follow through with it will turn the routine into a habit. Elrod also suggests getting a friend on board who will push us to stick to the routine.

According to Elrod, starting the day on a positive, healthy note will guarantee that the entire day will be pleasant. If we make this a habit our entire life is bound to become healthier and happier. We will no longer be leading mediocre lives and our path to success will be shorter.

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