My miracle morning

I decided a while ago that I wanted to get up earlier in the morning. I was consistently late to work, and I often ran out of time to walk the dog. I tried various trackers in my bullet journal, but still couldn’t find that ‘kick’ to get out of bed and be enthusiastic to start the day. I saw someone’s post about a Level 10 Life and immediately downloaded an e-book version of The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits that will Transform Your Life before 8am by Hal Elrod. I read half the book in one sitting and was inspired to start straight away and set to work. I sat down and created my ideal morning routine, incorporating Hal’s recommended steps (see Image 1).

The key is to incorporate his six steps: Silence, affirmations, visualisation, exercise, reading and scribing (writing) ie. S.A.V.E.R.S. He gives recommended times for each, with his total time adding up to one hour. I added a bit more time to start with, but I’ll adjust my schedule as I go. I’m trying this in April 2021, and as I’m busy on the 10th away on holidays for a while, I’ll just be testing it from 7-15 and the 27-30, which I suppose is long enough to see how I feel about it and whether it makes a difference.

Day One – I did it! Even though I didn’t get to bed on time, I got up at 6:30am. The alarm was out of reach so I had to get out of bed, and I stayed up! The bit I most enjoyed was the first 10 minutes of SILENCE. I sat on the lounge with a blanket over my lap and listened to the birds, watched my dog sleep, and looked out at the lake. I ended up switching around the exercise to the end as it flowed better to finish everything at my desk and then exercise the dog and then have a shower and get ready for work. I felt great for having got a few things done, and I got to work early!

Day Two – I got up at 6:30am but I didn’t watch my time and spent too long on each activity, not leaving myself enough time to get ready for work. I was having too much fun and got inspired to add some extra AFFIRMATIONS! Tomorrow I’m going to try walking first and doing the silence while I’m sitting at the beach or somewhere nice, because walking after 7:30am means there’s a lot more traffic and it’s not quite as enjoyable.

Day Three – I mixed it up again, by taking my dog for a walk first and doing 10 minutes silence and visualisation while sitting on a local headland and watching the ocean. I liked walking first because it meant I could enjoy the sunrise, it was cooler and there weren’t so many people around. It was harder to get a cohesive ‘miracle morning’ experience though because when I came home it felt strange to sit down again and do my reading etc, then get up again to get ready for work. Maybe I need to take my affirmations journal, writing journal and reading out on my walk and just do the whole thing outdoors!

Day Four – I had a break from the early start and allowed myself to sleep in and read on the 10th, so day four was the 11th April. I didn’t get up at 6:30am but I still got up before 7am and had a good start to the day. Morcheeba was a good soundtrack to visualise and read to. Visualisation is probably my weak spot at the moment – more work to do there. Motivated for the day now and jumping straight into doing the tax return that has been on my to-do list for ages!

Day Five – Up on time (after five minutes)! I’m taking longer to do the steps than I’m meant to, but on days where I don’t have a set start time ie. work, I’m not sure whether that’s a problem. The main thing I’m concerned about is not sticking to a schedule I’ve set for myself and not dealing with procrastination in all its forms. Visualisation was better today because I’d written what I wanted to achieve today first and then visualised myself doing each thing. I went to sleep before 11pm last night, which is the first time in ages when I’ve been at home and I think I’m starting to feel more comfortable about my new routine. I woke up happy, which is a big change.

Day Six – It’s the 13th April and I didn’t do my miracle morning today but I’m not upset about it. I stayed up very late last night working on my two-years overdue tax return, so I allowed myself to sleep in and got up at 7:30am, which is still early compared to what I was doing before. I’m determined not to beat myself up about one later morning, especially when I had a very good reason. I’ve nearly finished the tax return that has been hanging over my head for years!

Day Seven – I got up on the dot at 6:30am, with extra incentive because my husband had to catch a plane and needed pushing out of bed. I’m really enjoying my new morning routine but I’m aware that I’m letting it slip a little by allowing myself more time for each activity on my program. It’s important I stick to 1 hour 20 minutes like I planned because otherwise I’m late to work. Hal Elrod talked about starting at 5am and then after a short time, switching to 4am because he was enjoying his mornings so much. I’m not sure I want to get up earlier because I do really like getting more than seven hours sleep, so I need to make my schedule work.

Day Eight – I didn’t get up until 7:30am and didn’t do my miracle morning. Sad. BUT. I look at it this way. I learnt a very good lesson that going to bed late (which I did last night) absolutely affects my willingness to get up in the morning and this cements my determination to create an evening routine that I can stick to. The other positive, is that my new ‘late’ is so much better than my old ‘late’. I used to aim to get up at 7:30am and wouldn’t get up until 8:30am, so it’s a win that I’m now only sleeping in until 7:30am! It’s very important to focus on the positives 🙂

I’m off on holidays now for ten days, so I’m going to switch off and be driven by the needs of the day. See you when I get back!

Day Nine – I mixed up resetting my clock and the alarm didn’t go off, but I still woke up before 7am and got up straight away so I’m still achieving more than I would have in the past! I did all of my routine except the exercise as my dog was still at the kennel (to be collected today). I’m all good for exercise after having spent the majority of my holiday exercising. I’m exhausted! I’m excited about the evening routine I prepared while I was on holidays. The aim is to get to bed on time, so I’m better able to get up early.

Day Ten – Up on time and feeling fabulous. I’ve been reading 14 Steps to Happiness, which says that gratitude journalling is one of the most effective things you can do to battle depression, so today I added it into my affirmations journal. I’m starting slowly by just setting myself the target of one thing a day I’m grateful for, so I don’t sit there for ages worrying about the fact I can’t think of anything. I’m still struggling with visualisation, especially on work days, so I think I need to do a bit more reading on this subject. Later on in the day, I was talking to a work colleague about how to deal with trying to implement change at work against opposition. She gave me two excellent pieces of advice: concentrate on the wins however small they are, and focus on the challenges that bring the biggest reward rather than trying to succeed on every front.

Day Eleven – My alarm clock is working against me! But I woke up at 6:45 anyway so my body is already developing a new rhythm. I had something else I really wanted to complete this morning, so I didn’t do my usual routine. I still did the exercise and I’m still happy because I had an early and productive morning.

Day Twelve – The last day of my test run. And I didn’t get up early!!! Never mind. I was still up before 7:30am and had a very productive day 🙂

Heading into May I’ve started a new journal and added a new Miracle Morning spread that sits alongside my Enhanced Evening spread, complete with font changes and definitely only 80% perfect. With the two routines working in tandem I’m feeling wonderful! Give them a try (with your own adaptation). Good luck!