My Miracle Morning

Last night I went to the regular monthly meeting of a local networking group I am a member of.  At the beginning of the evening, one member talked about the Miracle Morning.  Now, I have heard of the book (by Hal Elrod) and indeed heard various business coaches talk about the benefits of a morning routine, but I wasn’t tempted to try it until this morning.

Why?  Well, the business coaches advocate getting up at 5am (never going to work for me) and spending at least an hour going through a morning ritual of meditation, affirmations, exercise (opening my eyes is exercise enough), journalling etc.  Sounds like a waste of a good hour I could be spending sleeping (or working or doing something fun) and all a bit hippyish for me…

But Anne talked about a half hour routine, taking 5 minutes for each of the 6 steps (getting more achievable) and then said that if this sounds like too much, just spending 1 minute on each step – ie 6 minutes in total would make a difference.  6 minutes!  Even I can manage getting up 6 minutes earlier (actually make that 10 because I need a bit of time to faff in between each step, set my timer, find a book, etc).  Especially if it has the effect on my day that Anne (and the expensive business coaches) claim.

What are the steps?

1. Silence (you have to physically get out of bed to do this – but I must admit my eyes stayed closed).  If, like me, you are not used to meditating Anne told us to just breathe and don’t worry about the fact that all the things you need to do today will go through your head.  Over time, your head will be able to clear for longer
2. Affirmations.  This is the bit where you read and speak those things that you are good at or want to be good/more confident at.  I was tempted to say I was good at sleeping but embraced the positive spirit of the exercise
3. Visualisation.  I enjoyed this one.  This is visualising your goals/what success looks like to you
4. Exercise.  1 minute – that’s all!  I actually spent a bit longer as I did some stretches I should do every day (but don’t) and then did a few jumping jacks to get the heart pumping.  Tomorrow I will remember to put on a sports bra first…
5. Reading.  Ideally a non fiction, self help type book.  Something that is going to spur you on.  I cannot remember a word of what I read, but did enjoy it at the time
6. Scribe.  This is writing down the things that you are grateful for.  This is not something I usually do (at any time of the day), but I can see how positive it is

Has it been beneficial?  Has it made me more productive?  Well, it’s not even 11am and I have written a blog post and a couple of sentences for social media to go with it.  That is probably a record for me.

Will I try it again?  Actually, yes (although with a plumber coming in at 7.30am tomorrow it will be more of a challenge).

And having had such a productive morning I think it is time for a nap.  After all, I have 10 minutes of sleep to catch up on…