“If you Win the Morning, you Win the Day”! a phrase coined by Tim Ferris. This phrase made me reflect on how I spend the first hour of my day and how I can improve it.
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In my quest to set up an ideal morning to win the day, I came across Hal Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)
Hal Elrod’s Transformation Story
What I found fascinating in the book besides the strategies to ‘transform your life before 8 am’ was Hal Elrod’s miraculous transformation after a devastating car accident. Hal was involved in a 3-car collision when he was 20 yrs old. One was a head-on collision and the other smashed into his driver-side door. The following is a narrative about the injuries he suffered at the point of impact.
The door collapsed into the left side of my body. The frame of the metal roof caved in on my head, slicing open my skull and nearly severing my left ear. The bones of my left eye socket were crushed, leaving my left eyeball dangerously unsupported. My left arm broke, severing the radial nerve in my forearm and shattering my elbow, while my fractured humerus bone pierced the skin behind my bicep…
Hal Elrod was clinically dead for six minutes, but the paramedics miraculously revived him. After awakening from a coma, his doctor told him he may never be able to walk again. However, his unrelenting spirit and determination to press forward affected his body in a manner where he started to heal. Fast forward to seven weeks of rehab, he learned to walk again. What ultimately helped him to full recovery? His positive mindset and practice of gratitude.
I stopped putting energy into wishing my life were any different-into wishing bad things didn’t happen to me-and instead focused 100% on making the best of what I had.
Such a powerful message! In the following years after his accident, he succeeded in many of his endeavors. As a sales manager, he had the highest earning sales; he finished writing a book (not this one – this book was a product of his next downfall even more painful to him than death itself!); and became a life/business Success Coach sharing the success he had after his car accident.
Clarity on the Run
However, an unfortunate turn of events happened with the financial fall-out of 2007. Hal revealed to a friend his devastating financial loss and how his life was in shambles! His friend’s simple question – ‘Are you exercising?’ led to the eureka moment from which the book Miracle Morning was born.
One morning, Hal decided to take his friend’s advice and laced up his ‘non-running’ shoes to go for a run. While listening to Jim Rohn, one phrase struck him. This quote was the driving force that dug himself out of a deep turmoil and became the concept of the book ‘The Miracle Morning’.
Morning Life S.A.V.E.R.S
Born out of his revelation from that run are the morning life SAVERS. Everyone can benefit from any one of these strategies as part of a morning routine. They helped Hal Elrod to focus on himself mentally and physically first thing in the morning leading to his eventual success.
S – Silence
Isn’t the morning the best time to spend in silence? I love the quietude and peace the morning brings! Silence is synonymous to meditation, prayer, breath. Get in touch with your spiritual being by sitting in silence.
My morning routine is mostly focused on silence. I would wake up, turn on the daily guided meditation from the Calm app, and focus on my breath for the next ten minutes. The beauty of a guided meditation is that it leads you back to the breath instead of being pulled away by your thoughts. During the day, I am reminded to harness the power of my breath when stressful situations arise.
A – Affirmation
Hal Elrod learned about affirmations from Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich. Our minds greatly influence our beliefs. If we plant a positive affirmation into our mind, we start to believe in it and eventually we become it.
You can use affirmations to start programming yourself to be confident and successful in everything you do, simply by repeatedly telling yourself who you want to be, what you want to accomplish and how you are doing to accomplish it. With enough repetition, your sub-conscious mind will begin to believe what you tell it, act upon it, and eventually manifest in your reality.
V – Visualization
Usually a week before a race, I visualize running specific parts of the course. How I would approach a hill. Or what my posture would look during the last few miles of the race. Even my finish line photo!
Visualizations are as powerful as affirmations with your beliefs being further enforced. However, this is something I haven’t made time to do in the morning.
E – Exercise
Any type of movement helps to improve your cognitive function with more glucose and oxygen to your brain. Exercise literally wakes up your brain! Movement also immediately enhances your energy and sets you up for a productive day.
I’ve been inconsistent with early morning exercise as I can’t fit it in as effectively as I would like to. Lately, mid-day running or strength train/yoga in the afternoon has worked best for my schedule.
R – Reading
Reading is the fast track to transforming any area of your life. It is one of the most immediate methods for acquiring the knowledge, ideas, and strategies to achieve Level 10 success in any area of your life.
Couldn’t agree more! I’ve been setting aside time in the morning to read the Bible and prayer. My church started a daily reading plan with the goal of reading the Bible in a year. With a focus on growing my faith, it’s important I spend time with God’s words.
S – Scribe
The last one is Scribing or Writing. This could take the form of journaling, jotting down ideas or even writing your first book! I’m big on journaling. In fact, I have a journal dating back to 1989 and have collected more than 20 journals. My favorite is the Five Minute Journal!
It’s Your Turn
Do you think it’s possible for you to do all of the Life S.A.V.E.R.S with the time you have in the morning? If not, Hal Elrod provided a way for you to get them all done in six minutes! One minute for each activity and they can be in any order you want.
Of course, you can design your morning any way you prefer to include one or all of these strategies. Continue to experiment with what works best for you. Mine has changed in the past few years as well as recently because of the pandemic. Currently my morning looks like this:
Between 6 – 6:30a – Wake up either with or without alarm – been relying on my natural instincts to awaken me
6:30 Meditation practice
6:45 Read/Reflect Bible, Prayer and Journaling
7:00 Coffee and Start the Day
As you can see, my focus has been on Silence, Reading, and Writing in the morning. By making time for myself first thing, I start on a positive note and able to handle whatever the day throws at me. I truly believe when YOU WIN THE MORNING, YOU WIN THE DAY.
What does your morning routine look like? Which one of the SAVERS do you think will make a big impact in your life?
This looks like such a great book! I am definitely NOT a morning person, but the days that I do wake up early and get my day started well before the kids wake up, are such great days! It really makes such a difference!
This is wonderful motivation.
Thanks Magen!
I would love a more intentional morning routine. I sometimes get ambitious but usually fail due to the siren song of extra sleep. Some days I would trade almost ANYTHING for extra sleep.
How do you stick to the commitment?
I think once I started to feel the benefits of having a morning routine, the more I wanted to stick with it. Getting enough sleep is important of course, so part of it is to make sure you are in bed early enough but also have great quality sleep.
Interesting book! I’ve never been a morning person but I’d like to start transforming into one, and this may be just the system I need. Exercise would be the easiest thing for me to add.
Yes! Even as short as 5 minutes of exercise first thing in the morning can do wonders for your body 🙂