The Morning Habits of Successful People

So, successful people apparently have habits that the majority of the population just do not have. But what it is specifically about the morning habits of successful people that is so critical? I’m glad you asked! A couple of years ago a book was recommended to me by one of my team-mates (when I was in network marketing). It definitely rang a bell, in fact, I’m sure a speaker at a seminar had hailed it as the reason he was on the stage and not in the audience…

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

If you know me, you will know that I have been a personal development junkie ever since winning the book ‘Mach II with Your Hair on Fire’ by Richard Bliss Brooke in a conference raffle (a wonderful book, btw, check out my review here) so this was my very next ‘must have’ purchase – with a tag line of ‘the 6 habits that will transform your life before 8am’ how could I resist!

I was both excited and nervous about getting started with TMM in equal measure – I have never been one of those people who leap out of bed in the morning – I love the feeling of extreme comfort lying in a warm bed first thing, but I had decided that whatever the book said, I was going to at least try.

The idea for the book came about when the author had lost everything and was in a state of deep depression following the 2008 crash and had been persuaded by his friend to go for a run (he hated running). He was listening to an audio by Jim Rohn as he ran and he was reminded of a familiar quote which said ‘Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become’.

Now, what’s interesting is that he had heard this many times before, but in that moment it awakened him to the fact that while he wanted level 10 success, his personal development was only at a 2 or 3. So, the decision was made to implement practices that would lead to level 10 success but when exactly was this going to happen?

Why the morning?

Hal considered evenings after work but that was the only time he and his fiance got to spend together, then he thought about late when she had gone to bed, but he knew he wouldn’t be in any sort of mental state to focus which left only one other option but could he do it? He already got up at 6am – was it really possible to get up and get started at 5am? Hal’s description of his first morning being up with his teeth brushed and face washed by 5.05am is truly heart-warming and it was the first step in a massive turn-around in his fortunes.

What practices to adopt?

After contemplating the most impactful daily practices, Hal came up with The Life S.A.V.E.R.S.: Six practices guaranteed to save you from a life of unfulfilled potential which are:

Silence

This can be in the form of prayer, meditation, deep breathing or simply reflecting on what you are grateful for. For me (as well as praying), I love to meditate. If you haven’t done it before, it takes time to get to grips with it. The hardest thing is not battling with your thoughts, but rather observing them and bringing your focus back to your breathing. I found this really hard at first (I had this incessant dialogue with myself) but the reward is phenomenal when you end up at a place of stillness and just being.

Affirmations

We believe much more what comes out of our own mouths than anyone else s, so it should be no surprise that affirmations work. In fact, they are instrumental in changing our self-limiting beliefs, many of which have been affirmations we have been telling ourselves to our detriment for many, many years! Just think for a moment – what have your been telling yourself? That you will never get that job you applied for or you will never succeed in your own business etc?

I was in the ‘I don’t believe affirmations work’ camp, until I learned through TMM that to make them effective, you have to tap into your emotions when reading them – something I had failed to do, plus you must be consistent and read them daily.

Visualization

This is a critical part of the piece if you want to change your life for the better. Many of us have a very clear picture of where we have been but not where we want to go! As you can imagine, this puts the brakes on any desire you have to move forward in your life.

One of the recommendations that Hal makes in this book that was completely new to me was that you should ‘visualize who you need to be and what you need to do’ to achieve your goal. Before reading this book, I could perfectly visualize myself in a beautiful home in Lanzarote, cycling along the sea front, eating tapas and swimming in the ocean with my lovely hubby but it had not occurred to me for one moment to see who I would need to become and what I would need to do to get there!

 

Exercise

This element of The Miracle Morning was absolutely instrumental in changing my body. There wasn’t too much wrong with it, but being a certain age, it was all heading south and starting to look a bit saggy. Check out my previous Blog post ‘The Law of Attraction and Weight Loss’ for details. The key was that my exercise routine was daily and it just became a habit. I loved the results too which made me want to do it more. Feeling strong in your body also makes you feel strong emotionally – I was much less likely to have a wobble about things out of my control. That has been a huge win for me.

Reading

How many times have you wanted to get into the habit of reading 10+ pages a day (as so often recommended by anyone and everyone in the Personal Development world) but failed to stick to it? I was very firmly in this camp. Worse still, I would buy a book and start reading it, then spot a new one and start reading it, then spot a new one…and on and on it went – I didn’t finish anything! I found it much easier to complete a book as it was a daily practice so I didn’t have a few days off and get distracted by the next book that I thought would change my world.

Scribing

Which is basically writing / journaling but it have to be Scribing to make sense of ‘Life SAVERS’! This was a brand new practice for me and I love now to go back over my journals and see what was inspiring me at that time. You can make notes on how you feel following the morning practices (although you don’t have to do them in any order – you might do this one first), write down what you are grateful for and any insights gained.

 

Putting it all together

There is lots of room for flexibility here. My original plan was to 10 minutes in each area but it just didn’t work our that way – you can divide your hour up in whatever way suits you best. (In fact Hal even has an example of how to do TMM in 6 minutes if you are short of time!)

I can go on for 2 hours or more some days if I don’t have anything else pressing in the morning! In fact, I recently decided to give it a miss so I could focus on my blog first thing as it is when I am most alert, however, old habits die hard and I simply can’t give it up! (I am working on getting it down to one hour max though.)

Who should do this?

Given the difference TMM makes to people’s lives, I am going to stick my neck out and say that everyone should do this. It makes you set an intention for your day, gives you peace and clarity about where you are going in life, improves your mental and physical health and makes you a better person to be around. Maybe you’ll be like me and won’t be able to give it up if you wanted to!

Are you already part of The Miracle Morning community? If so, please leave a message below sharing how it has impacted your life.

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