Transform your life before 8:00am! 

Miracle Morning

In 2020 I was introduced to a book with a bright yellow sun written by Hal Elrod called The Miracle Morning; The Six Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8:00am. A bit of a bold claim for any book - just 6 habits and a life transformation? And who is Hal Elrod, this modern day guru? What makes him and his claim so special?

Before I give my slant on the book however I thought it might be helpful to take a step back. Over the course of the last 25 years my life has taken a very different path than the one I thought I was destined to walk. You’ll know the script…leave school, get a job, climb the corporate ladder, develop your career, find your partner, build a home, have kids, work for 40 years and retire.

As it happened, my life took a sharp left turn when at the age of 40 I found myself newly divorced, 200 miles away from everyone I knew, in a new role with a new employer and little idea of how to change things. I often describe it as sliding down the longest snake in Snakes & Ladders back to square two to start over.

What actually happened next was that I found a fresh challenge at work, a new partner to share my life with who gradually helped me to change my outlook and my script. True, I enjoyed work enough to stay until I was ready to ‘retire’ but even during those last 15 years my life was changing outside of work. In time my partner became my wife and we gave birth to a new venture that eventually became ASANA Connected. 

So what has this to do with Miracle Morning? Well in early 2020 the world changed as the full impact of COVID on our lives took hold. Suddenly everyone was forced to stay in their own ‘bubble’, only coming together properly online and missing out on the shared experiences that were such a feature of our lives.

At the time I was writing and co-hosting a property training programme with a friend of mine. We had run the course in 2018 and 2019; now we needed to do things differently but still bring our delegate group together. It was at that moment that my wife suggested getting each of our trainees to adopt The Miracle Morning protocol for 30 days.

Hal Elrod had experienced the most remarkable transformation following a horrific accident and our own results were nothing short of amazing! Not only did our delegates enjoy a shared experience, each one also had a uniquely personal experience of transformation too. 

The 6 Habits - SAVERS

So what in this miraculous process of transformation? What should I do? In simple terms adopt the mnemonic SAVERS and then apply it.

Silence

Each morning rise one hour earlier, dress for light exercise and then sit in silence for 5 minutes. Focus on maintaining a steady breathing pattern and allow thoughts to come and go in this quiet space.

Affirmations

Write a set of personal affirmations and then each morning say them out loud, repeating them for the duration of the 5 minutes. Re-reading the same words over and over, day upon day, helps to embed them in your thoughts and actions.

Visualisation

Now sit again in silence for 5 minutes and visualise the life that you want to create for yourself and the world around you. Perhaps it’s about how you spend your time, maybe it’s about the people you love, where you live or how you live.

Exercise

Now it’s time to move; the choice is yours. You might choose to walk outside for 20 minutes or practice a short yoga session. Maybe you would rather undertake a more strenuous exercise but this is not about breaking out in a sweat; it’s about movement.

Reading

Now it’s time to nurture your mind. Your 20 minutes of reading should be an opportunity to learn about new ideas for personal development and growth; or about business and communication; or about inspirational people and their stories.

Scribing

The last step is scribing, or journaling for 5 minutes. Feel free to write about the last 24 hours or what you plan to do over the next day. Include your successes and your learnings but don’t forget to also include the other thoughts and ideas that come to you in your quiet space.

And that’s it! Try practising the Miracle Morning for the next 30 days and watch your own transformation begin. And to help you get started I’ve put a little more information together on our ASANA connected website - enjoy!

https://www.asana-connected.com/miraclemorning