Two days ago, I listened to a BiggerPockets podcast about the "Miracle Morning". I had heard a little bit about the concept of waking up early and practicing certain rituals, but didn't really think too much about it. I'm a HUGE night owl. I'd probably sleep at 2-3 AM if I didn't have a schedule in place. And in college I used to sleep at 4 AM and wake up at noon (I was terrible). After listening to the podcast, however, I'm starting to see some value in attempting the Miracle Morning challenge. I've noticed that lately, every morning I wake up in a bit of fear and dread, for some reason. I also wake up irritated by the fact that I need to get to the office by a certain time. They mention that you shouldn't start your day with these negative emotions cause it pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the day.

However, if you wake up with intention, feeling excited about the opportunity to live a new day, there should be increased productivity and positive vibes occurring throughout the day. It's easy to go through each day without feeling appreciative of life itself and trudging through life's moments. Starting your day early with good practices will make you grateful, focused, and calm. In turn, this will will put you at your peak emotionally, mentally, and physically and allow you room to figure out how to get to your desired stage in life.

Hal Elrod created his morning ritual by essentially combining the 6 most commonly talked about morning practices from successful people. Then he also advocates waking up at least an hour earlier than you normally need to, to have this period of mental rewiring and clarity by practicing all 6 of these rituals.

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod - Waking Up Earlier, Practicing Morning Rituals

SAVERS

The podcast interview with Hal Elrod talked about the 6 different things to do in the morning, abbreviated with the acronym "SAVERS".

Credits to this LifeHacker article for this image

S means Silence. During the silence part, you can practice meditation or breathing exercises. You quiet your mind so you can start the day a little more calmly. Meditation has stress relieving effects, lowering your cortisol levels so you can think more clearly. I'm still really bad at meditating, so this is some sort of muscle I'll have to build. It's just too easy for me to constantly think and feel - I'm always a little too in my head. So I'll have to especially work on getting better at watching my thoughts and emotions go by without judgment.

A means Affirmations. Elrod mentions that many people do this part all wrong because they say the wrong affirmations. They try to make fluffy, false claims like "I am a billionaire" and it just doesn't work cause it feels like you're lying to yourself. Instead, he challenges you to figure out 1. What do you want. 2. Why do you want it? 3. What are the obstacles that have held you back in the past or could hold you back on the journey - and what are you going to commit to doing in spite of this, in order to achieve your goals?

Basically you write down your answers to these questions, and every day you read these affirmations out loud in front of a mirror. Supposedly when you're reading these, you're committing to your goals, understanding the reasoning behind them, figuring out what could stop you, and realizing how you'll overcome the challenges. As Elrod put it, "you’re programming your conscious, your subconscious and your behaviors to be in alignment with your vision for what you want for your life." He also advocates specificity when it comes to measuring your milestones (something I really encourage as well) in order to make sure you're on track with what you want to achieve.

V means Visualization. So I think there are two parts with visualization. The first part is envisioning yourself achieving your dreams and goals. It's easy to feel like your dreams/goals are too big and that you can never achieve them. But when you envision it, you'll start to actually see what that looks like, rather than have your dreams suppressed by fear.

The 2nd part is envisioning what you're going to achieve today. For runners it might be running a marathon. For me, it might be envisioning myself studying marketing and real estate investment, making music, or creating a course.

E means Exercise. With exercise, you'll release endorphins and serotonin so you think clearer and have more energy. That's why you do it in the morning, so you can enjoy the benefits the rest of the day.

R means Reading. When it comes to reading, Hal Elrod pretty much recommends reading self help books in the morning. So when you're having difficulty with one thing, like productivity, you can read some books to help you in that specific area.

S means Scribing. Scribing just means writing. One format you can use is writing down: 1. What are three things that you’re grateful for, and 2. What are three things you need to do to make today great.

Basically the main reason why I decided to try it out

The biggest reason why I decided try out SAVERS was that Elrod mentioned he got on an interview with Pat Flynn, who wanted convincing to implement these practices. Since Pat Flynn is financially free, wakes up without an alarm clock, and is kind of a night owl, there seemed to be no real reason for him to want to apply the SAVERS method and wake up earlier. But now Pat raves about it and says he's 10xed his productivity. I even saw a few of his Instagram stories showing him waking up at 4:30 AM to get his workouts in. I love Pat Flynn, and knowing his circumstances, knowing that there's no reason for him to try these practices, I knew these morning rituals must make an impact.

Applying these morning rituals

After listening to the podcast, I decided to try and implement the practices. I'm only on day two of the Miracle Morning rituals, but I'm already seeing a few benefits so far. They're not extremely obvious yet, to be honest, but I do feel a bit of energy just waking up knowing I have a bit of down time every morning. I initially began my SAVERS routine exactly in the order that the acronyms call for. But now I'm going to experiment with switching a few around because meditating first is not the best for me. I love that you can do these practices in whatever order you wish, and in whatever timeframe you wish.

Also just to note, I am only getting up one hour earlier than I normally would (and I normally wake up pretty late), so it's not that big of a feat right now. The author wakes up at 3:30 AM every day, which is insane.

I think I will try to work my way up to 6 AM mornings. I figure that since I am planning to learn how to day trade, I will need to get to that point anyway so I can do some trading before I get to work. I also figure that for the "journaling" portion, I could blog a little bit in the mornings. That way my mornings will be quite productive.

I believe it will take a few weeks of practicing to really see benefits. So hopefully I'm going to get this going for 30 days and see how I feel! This whole practice also forces me to sleep earlier which is great. I hope I don't fall off the wagon, especially since I'm going to LA to visit friends and attend a wedding next weekend. I'm sure there will be some late nights during that trip.

Because I'm dedicating myself to this practice, I decided to buy the Miracle Morning book today. I will let you know how I feel about it upon reading.

Anyway wish me luck! Let me know what you think in the comments below.