The Miracle Morning is a book written by Hal Elron. Unlike the Stoic method of waking up, this system takes a more modern approach to living our best lives.
The Miracle Morning system focuses on purpose, advises on how to feel more well-rested and prioritises personal development as part of our morning routine.
Below is my summary of the Miracle Morning system.
Living your purpose
One of the saddest things in life is to get to the end and look back in regret, knowing that you could have been, done, and had so much more.
-Robin Sharma
The 95% Reality Check is the idea that most people will never reach their full potential. They will continue to do what they have always done, and thus continue to experience what they have already experienced in the past.
Most people will always be average and never lead their best lives. Being average means to settle for less than you want and are capable of.
There are many causes of mediocrity, but it usually comes down to one of the following:
Rear-view mirror syndrome
If we’ve only ever lived a certain type of life and accomplished certain things, we may live our lives thinking that’s all that’s in store for us. Rear-view mirror syndrome limits an individual’s future to their past experiences.
The truth is subtle changes can have a huge impact on the quality of our lives. That’s also one of the premises of Atomic Habits.
Once we know what we need in our lives to reach our dreams, we should plan these into our schedules somehow. And what better time to plan the things that will change our lives than first thing in the morning?
Before most people wake up, we probably have a completely distraction-free space. Why not use this time for life-changing personal development?
Lack of purpose
If you ask most people what their purpose is, they probably won’t be able to give you a clear answer. A strong purpose makes it easy to wake up in the morning. You know what you need to do, and you can’t wait to start.
Before I started this website, I wouldn’t wake up before I needed to for my 9-5 job. Now I can’t wait to wake up! My purpose is to share my favourite mindfulness and productivity ideas that hopefully help others.
Understanding the deeper meaning of why we wake up every morning will make it easier to get out of bed in the morning.
Isolating Incidents
Many people hit the snooze button because they thing they’re only impacting the current moment. They don’t take the wider Butterfly Effect into account. If you hit snooze, you won’t have time for personal development in the morning.
If you don’t have time for personal development, you’ll never experience the life you know you deserve. Instead you’ll wake up and jump straight into your work and other responsibilities, allowing other’s needs take precedence in your life.
You should get out of bed right when the alarm goes off started on your friction-free morning routine. You don’t want to waste your dreams away – one snooze at a time.
Lack of Accountability
Oftentimes we don’t feel accountable for our goals because we haven’t written them down or even told anyone about it. We can feel good we have them somewhere even if we never do anything about them.
A good method of improving accountability is to get an accountability partner. You can motivate each other and help stay on track. The more you talk about your goals with someone, the more likely you are to keep them front-of-mind and ultimately achieve them.
Get an accountability partner and make yourself accountable for your goals.
Mediocre Circle of Influence
Another cause of mediocrity can be your circle of influence. We need to talk about our goals to keep on track of them. But we also get diverted from our goals when we engage with negative personalities. Some people don’t believe our goals are possible, so they may put us down.
Surrounding yourself with positive people who are interested in self-improvement will make it easier to reach your goals.
Lack of Personal Development
Personal development contributes to success. If we don’t work on improving ourselves, why should we deserve a better life? Oftentimes the projects that truly matter to us can slip away just because other things get in the way.
Mornings are a great time to make sure we’re on the right track. We can fit in working on our goals and projects before anyone else has even woken up!
Lack of Urgency
The final reason people may end up in the unmotivated 95% is a lack of urgency. Today is just any other day. Why work hard now when we always have “someday” to work on our dreams? This kind of thinking results in procrastination. The truth is that life is shorter than we like to think.
Just because we’re born young, doesn’t mean we stay that way – in fact, quite the opposite. I’ve noticed that every year seems to pass by faster than the last, and I bet you feel it too. If that trend continues, life will be over before we know it. That’s why it’s important to know what we want and start working towards it right away.
Will you work towards reaching your goals – or just become another person in the average 95%?
Thoughts on Sleep
Before we dive into the SAVERS framework, an outline of the best morning practices, let’s dive into a few thoughts on sleep I got out of the Miracle Morning.
You snooze, you lose…
I bet you’ve heard the saying “You snooze, you lose…” at some point in your life. It’s probably more accurate than you might assume.
When you hit snooze, you’re subconsciously telling yourself that your plans don’t matter. You set that alarm last night, but hitting snooze tells your mind it’s ok to ignore what your past self thought was best for you – in favour of a few extra minutes of sleep! It sets a precedent of not following through with your goals.
In addition to the psychology of it, you will also wake up (eventually) more tired than if you just got up right away. That’s why hitting snooze is the worst thing you can do in the morning. If you snooze, you will lose.
Sleep Beliefs
Another idea from the book is the impact of our approach to sleep. Our beliefs can affect how well we (think we) sleep. For instance, if we think we need a lot of sleep, we will need a lot. If we instead tell ourselves we don’t need that much sleep, we won’t need so much.
This is a psychological trick that’s worth trying to see if it helps you save more time in the day. A word of advice: you have to truly believe you’ve gotten enough sleep. Otherwise, this sleep hack isn’t going to work out for you.
Make it feel like Christmas
One of the easiest ways to wake up in the morning is to have a routine you really look forward to. That’s why the ultimate goal of the Miracle Morning system is to make you feel like every morning is Christmas!
Here’s where the Miracle Morning system comes in.
Miracle Morning SAVERS
The Miracle Morning system aims to bring us purpose and stillness and save us from a life of unfulfilled potential.
This system comes down to 6 groups of activities, outlined in the acronym: SAVERS. We should make time for these every day anyway: Stillness, Affirmations, Visualisation, Exercise, Reading & Scribing. So why not fit them all into our morning?
While it may sound like a lot each morning, the whole point of Miracle Morning is to squeeze it into the hour before your day would normally start. Of course you can spend longer than an hour each morning, but you can also find ways to spend just one minute per activity. There’s really no excuse not to prioritise our self-improvement.
Stillness
If you’re into meditation, mornings are a great time to find stillness and focus on your breathing. If not, it can be helpful to just take a few minutes to collect your thoughts before starting the day. Starting each day with silence will give your mind time to wake itself up without disturbances.
Affirmations
Mornings are also a good time to run through our affirmations. If you don’t have affirmations already, these are like mantras that you tell yourself repeatedly. They should be written down and align with your ideal self.
For instance:
PURPOSE—My life’s purpose is to ADD VALUE to the lives of others, which starts with achieving everything I want in my own life and never settling for less than I can be, do, or have so that I can pay it forward and learn (through experience) how to help others to achieve everything they want.
This excerpt shows how your affirmations can be structured and is taken directly from Hal Elrod’s personal affirmations. The idea is to ingrain these ideas into our minds by reading them everyday.
If something truly matters to you, stick it in your affirmations list and read it daily. It will eventually become part of who you are!
Visualisation
Similar to affirmations, visualisation is all about realising your best self. Whether you have a vision board you can review each morning – or you just imagine it in your mind – visualisation is the best way to get where you need to be.
Clarifying what “success” looks like to you will make it easier to achieve. That’s why we should spend a few minutes each morning visualising our ideal life.
Exercise
Exercise is just a no-brainer. It’s important to take care of our bodies, as well as our minds. However, it’s just too easy for a day to pass without going for a jog or lifting those barbells. Like everything else on this list, mornings are the best time to squeeze in our daily exercise.
Exercise is also a great way to wake up in the morning, because it starts the day releasing endorphins into your body. No wonder it’s part of the SAVERS system.
On top of all that, it’s a great way to relieve stress.
Reading
Learning is another one of the most beneficial activities. That’s why Bill Gates recommends reading one hour every day. However, if we learn just one new thing per day, we’d learn 365 new things after a year.
That’s why reading is also part of the SAVERS system. If you don’t normally find time to read throughout a day, why not start with it? That way, you begin your day on a learning high.
Scribing
Scribing, or Writing in laymen’s terms, is another great activity for personal development. Journaling is one of the best tools for reflection. Especially if there’s a big new goal, desire or worry on your mind. Get it out of your own head and down on paper.
The Stoics made a regular practice of reflection with their morning and evening routines.
After all, Marcus Aurelius, the great philosopher king of ancient Rome woke up early every morning to reflect in his own personal journal. This journal has since been purchased millions of times as the book Meditations.
If you don’t normally have time to journal, why not add a regular 10-minute session to your morning routine?
And that’s it – that’s the Miracle Morning SAVERS system. And if you still need that extra nudge to wake up in the morning, here’s a 5 step snooze-proof strategy!
5-Step Snooze-Proof Wake-up Strategy
Follow these five steps and waking up in the morning shouldn’t be an issue for you ever again.
- Set your intentions right before you go to bed
- Move the alarm clock across the room
- Brush your teeth
- Drink a full glass of water
- Get dressed in your workout clothes
…and if this strategy isn’t enough, here are two additional tips:
- Set your TMM bedtime affirmations the night before
- Turn on the light (or use a timer) once your alarm goes off
The Miracle Morning System in a Nutshell
This system is a pretty straight-forward method for waking up earlier everyday. The goal is to make every morning feel like Christmas. And if Christmas isn’t good enough, we can always use the 5-step strategy to wake up without ever hitting the snooze button.
We make every morning feel like a personal holiday by structuring them around our personal development. The six activities in the SAVERS system are geared towards self-improvement. We make sure to have time for these activities by starting every morning with stillness, affirmations, visualisation, exercise, reading and scribing.
Master your mornings today with Mind & Practice and the Miracle Morning system.