I was recommended The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod following a conversation with Pete Mols, a business coach and networking expert. He told me how The Miracle Morning has been a transformative book for him, and knew that I enjoy reading.
I gave my local library catalogue a quick scan and discovered a copy was available in a library in a different part of the county. I requested to borrow it, and Oxfordshire Libraries arranged a transfer of the book for a small fee of £1.30 to my nearest library. Long live libraries!
The premise of The Miracle Morning, is Hal sharing his wisdom on how developing a robust morning routine has positively impacted pretty much every area of his life. In sharing his miracle mornings with others, he has developed a global community of TMMers, an app, documentary film and sold more than 2 million copies of his book.
Hal developed an acronym for his miracle mornings, which he calls S.A.V.E.R.S.
Silence (intentional silence stemming from meditation)
Affirmations
Vizualisation
Exercise
Reading
Scribing (journaling)
In the book, he expands on all of these practices and much more, to give a comprehensive overview into how you can turn your mornings into miracles and transform your day by practising S.A.V.E.R.S.
What did I learn from reading The Miracle Morning?
Well, it challenged me to be introspective and think about how I might be able to improve my mornings. It is always made clear that everyone is unique and will have different preferences when it comes to the S.A.V.E.R.S.. This includes which order you choose to practise them, and for what length of time.
While I wouldn’t say I am an early riser, I’m not not a morning person – my natural body clock would always have me up by 8am at the latest, but I would rarely be up before 7am.
That said, my boyfriend’s new job requires him to get up at 6am. When either of us stays over, I have been getting up with him in solidarity! While he’s out the door at 6.45am, I have often been using the time from 7am to catch up on emails, read Substack posts and do some work.
It’s been incredibly productive, working when most other people are still sleeping or only just getting up. It has made me wonder if this is something that I can develop into a more permanent practise. The idea of starting earlier and finishing earlier is particularly appealing in the summer. I’d like to be out enjoying the sunshine and gardening!
Reading about developing miracle evenings, in order to better facilitate a miracle morning was also interesting. Adjustments such as regulating caffeine and food intake, reducing screen time, planning your next day and reading before bed. (Yep, the things we all know we *should* be doing!)
It’s all in the mind…
However, I think for me personally, the biggest take away was actually about the mindset of the miracle morning. Hal makes an excellent case when he states, if you go to bed or wake up deciding you hate early mornings, are not going to enjoy it and not get anything out of it, then guess what? You’re probably not going to enjoy it or get anything out of it!
And that was the part that really resonated with me. You shouldn’t be trying to implement a new morning ritual, habit or lifestyle for the sake of it. You should be doing it because you really are committed to it, and for the right reasons. It’s about being intentional.