Key Takeaways from The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

You know how they say, “Winter is Coming”…

Well, with winter fast approaching us and whitewalkers waiting to put us back in our bed dreaming how it would be like if Daenerys Targaryen would have actually won the throne. Haha! Jokes apart, I don’t know about you, but it is sure getting utterly challenging for me to wake up at 5 AM in the morning. So, I thought its best to share with you some key insights from the book Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod that have helped to develop a strong morning regime. Although, it’s not so obvious secret that is guaranteed to transform one’s life. Majority of people who are successful are generally the early birds who probably achieve more before we brew our first coffee. This book not only explains the importance of developing a strong morning ritual but also offers six important frameworks that can be leveraged to establish a life one always aspires to have. In this post, I have encapsulated my learnings from the books that may help you to develop your morning ritual. It also contains techniques that can be leveraged to unlock one’s creativity.

Key Takeaway 1: RMS or Rearview Mirror Syndrome

Rear-view mirror syndrome cripples us from reaching our complete potential. You must have heard, it’s all in our minds. Many times, we take decisions that are fundamentally based on our past incidences, and while performing this, we might suffer from what is known as rearview syndrome. It’s easy to benchmark thereby limiting our choices/decisions on past experiences. This can hamper us to take on new opportunities. Another reason that prevents us from fulfilling our true potential is our habit of isolated incidents. This implies our habit of treating events in our life as if they are completely disconnected from everything else. For instance, perhaps I can think that it’s fine to skip reading today since I can always do it tomorrow. However, this decision might affect the very moment in time the person I would be becoming. Author T. Harv Eker, emphasizes the relevance of habit when he states, “How you do anything is how you do everything”. Hence, if we look at the events only in isolation then it is easier to be lenient on oneself, encouraging us to repeat the errors in our routine thereby turning exceptions into norms. The problem with this habit is that it will cripple us to attain our goals and stun our growth. The key message from this section is if we want to develop life on our terms then we need to change the way we think about it. Dwelling on past experiences and instances will only limit our potential to learn new things.

Key Takeaway 2: Wake up with a purpose

Do you hit the snooze button this morning? Yeah, guilty as charged I did it too. This is one of the major problems that hinder us to develop a strong sense of purpose. Our action of hitting that snooze button allows us to believe that we don’t want to rise or take charge of the new day ahead. The author says, if we wake up every morning with a purpose in mind then we will be crafting a much more productive day that will offer happiness and fulfillment. Take a look around and who are the people you get inspiration from Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc. What do all these successes have in common – Do they get up early? If you find yourself sluggish in the morning, then consider changing the way you take to sleep. Have you ever woken up completely drained on special days like a wedding day or your child’s birthday or even when you join a new organization? Probably not. If it’s special days like these, you would be all excited to begin the day even if you had slept only for a few hours. This is due to the beliefs we hold about our day having a crucial role in how we feel when we wake up in the morning.

Key Insight 3: Morning Routine

I know you must be thinking, how do we come out of slumber and begin the day that can help us to fulfill our potential? One thing that all of us can do is to raise our motivational level to wake up early. Quantify your motivational level on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means you would rather roll back into bed and 10 means you are eager to rise to take charge of the day. By leveraging a few fundamental techniques, you can raise your motivation quotient and spark up your morning routine.

1. Before you head to bed, you need to affirm to yourself that you will rise the next morning feeling refreshed. Thinking about what you can cover if you wake up early can help you to feel waking up is less of a chore.

2. Put your alarm clock on the other side of the bed. This will also imply when your alarm rings your husband or significant partner would also wake up…haha! Jokes apart, this step will literally pull you out of the bed to switch it off.

3. Once you are out of bed to switch off your alarm, don’t go back in rather immediately go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. This has helped me every time, that feeling of freshness once you brush is very effective to break your slumber.

4. After this, go to the kitchen and engage yourself with some work.

With these four simple steps, you will wake up feeling brighter and prepared to cover three cities to reach your office all excited. You can customize your morning to fit your own specific needs. I found this book is very effective because my team also works in the Asia-Pacific region and comes into action really early in the morning. Besides, the answer to a fulfilling day lies in the morning ritual. Before you go to sleep today, think about what you could look forward to the next morning. Are you meeting with a friend or maybe simply looking forward to it the next morning? Essentially, finding a reason to be excited about the next day will make it easier to get up in the morning.

Cheers

BibliophileParul (This picture was taken early in the morning before I leave from home for my office)