This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Have you heard of the Miracle Morning routine but wonder how to make it work for your life? Are you ready to give it a try?
Many people practice the Miracle Morning routine, and everyone’s Miracle Morning is different. Author Hal Elrod outlines steps for you to get started with your Miracle Morning and provides examples of how it can be customized to fit your life right now. He also offers ways that you can keep the Miracle Morning routine fresh as your life changes over time.
Read more to discover how to make the Miracle Morning routine your own.
What Is the Miracle Morning Routine?
The Miracle Morning method gives you regular time each day for personal development. It requires getting up thirty to sixty minutes earlier each day to devote time to six self-development practices proven to help people change their lives. (People with extremely limited time may have a Miracle Morning routine that’s as short as six minutes long.)
These practices—Life S.A.V.E.R.S.—are silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing (writing in a journal). Each will be detailed in an upcoming chapter. They’ll help you develop the mindset and habits to succeed.
The Miracle Morning process is something you’ll look forward to doing and it will quickly and seamlessly become part of your life. There are a host of benefits:
- You’ll wake up feeling energized, with a strategy to take your life to the next level.
- You’ll feel less stressed.
- You’ll have clarity and focus, enabling you to solve problems and overcome beliefs that have held you back.
- You can get in shape, improve your health, and lose weight if you want to.
- You’ll be more productive and focused on your priorities
- You’ll worry less and be more grateful.
- You’ll increase your income and attract wealth.
- You’ll choose and start living your life’s purpose.
- You’ll stop settling for less and live out your vision for an extraordinary life.
The Miracle Morning is compatible with everyone’s work schedule and lifestyle. Whether you’re a “morning person” or not, or whether you’ve had trouble waking up in the past, you’ll learn to wake up earlier, excited to start your day. Most people who implement it on weekdays no longer want to sleep in on weekends because they feel better and get more done when they keep doing the Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
You’ll find that your Miracle Morning experience will become key to unlocking your potential.
4 Steps to Begin the Miracle Morning Routine
Here are four steps for starting your Miracle Morning:
1) Download the Thirty-Day Life Transformation Challenge Kit here, which includes exercises, affirmations, checklists, and a tracking sheet.
2) Plan your first miracle morning for tomorrow. Decide where you’ll do the routine.
3) In preparation, read page one of the kit and do the exercises. This should take no more than an hour. This includes:
- Answering “clarity” questions, such as what you want to change and what’s holding you back
- Completing a “life assessment”
- Defining your vision for success in each area of your life
- Spelling out the habits you will need to establish for success in each area
4) Get an accountability partner, but start the Miracle Morning routine tomorrow whether you find a partner immediately or not.
Customize the Miracle Morning Routine
You can customize the Life S.A.V.E.R.S. practices to fit your work schedule and lifestyle. Many people devote thirty to sixty minutes, but you can do a shorter routine on weekdays and a longer one on weekends. You may need to vary the time, for instance if you’re traveling.
Here’s an example of how to complete a Miracle Morning in an hour:
- Silence: Five minutes
- Affirmation: Five minutes
- Visualization: Five minutes
- Exercise: Twenty minutes
- Reading: Twenty minutes
- Scribing: Five minutes
However, you can complete the steps in as little as six minutes by spending a minute on each activity. For instance:
- Minute 1: Sit in purposeful silence and breathe deeply.
- Minute 2: Read your affirmations out loud.
- Minute 3: Visualize accomplishing your goals for the day and how it will feel.
- Minute 4: Write down something you’re grateful for, something your proud of, and your goal for the day.
- Minute 5: Read a page or two from a self-help book, looking for an idea you can use immediately.
- Minute 6: Move your body for sixty seconds by running in place, or doing jumping jacks, pushups or sit-ups.
You can also change the sequence of the practices—for instance, some people like to start with exercise to get their blood flowing and help them wake up, while others prefer to exercise at the end and then shower.
If there’s a Life S.A.V.E.R.S. practice that’s challenging for you, you might want to start with that one first. Getting the hardest thing out of the way first generates momentum and confidence that will make the rest of the routine and your day more productive.
Your start time is customizable as well, for instance if you work an evening or night shift. Just plan to wake up thirty to sixty minutes earlier than you normally would.
Keeping the Miracle Morning Routine Fresh
Once you become comfortable with the six personal development practices, look for ways to vary them to keep things fresh.
For instance, you might change your exercise routine every few months. You can search for different meditations online or download different meditation apps. You can change your vision board and continue to update your affirmations. Adjust the practices to what’s going on in your life—for instance, if you’ll be giving a speech, use your Miracle Morning time to focus your thoughts and rehearse.
It’s your responsibility to keep the Miracle Morning routine fun and valuable for you.
Regardless of your past, you can change your future by doing something different in the present. Your results will depend on who you choose to be from now on.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Hal Elrod's "The Miracle Morning" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full The Miracle Morning summary :
- How getting up early and following a simple, daily routine can empower anyone to transform any area of their life
- How Elrod's "Life S.A.V.E.R.S." routine can help you feel energized and motivated
- Why hitting the snooze button is comparable to resisting your life
