Finally time to complete Part III of my Miracle Morning posts!
I hope you have received some value to this point from the first two posts! It’s now time to detail through my Miracle Morning! If you haven’t had a chance to read either of the first two posts, here they are!
Part I – How I Found The Miracle Morning
Part II – It Begins The Night Prior!
Now, time to get into the Miracle Morning! Your Miracle Morning should be tailored to what works best for you. I am going to detail what I have found to work well for me. This has evolved over the course of a year. I also recommend to keep things fresh and mix it up every once in a while.
Beginning of The Miracle Morning:
Before beginning my Miracle Morning, I wake up, drink a full glass of water followed by brushing my teeth. Here is a little trick to get your brain working early in the morning. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand. This helps kick in your motor functions early in the morning and gets your brain to think. A small tip I have learned 🙂 now we are ready.
Silence (5-10 minutes)
I start every morning with meditation. For this, I use an app called ‘Insight Timer’. There are many reasons I enjoy Insight Timer and there are also a lot of other apps that will do the same trick. I have found Insight Timer to work well as all the meditations are free. Insight Timer has meditations specific to jump starting your morning. Those are the ones I focus on. I try to keep to only listening to morning meditations that last 5-10 minutes. I will open the Insight Timer, prop up some pillows on the bed, begin the meditation, and try to quiet the mind. Quieting the mind has been the most challenging thing for me to do. My mind races throughout the entire day. I have found performing meditation in the morning has helped to focus my mind to begin each day. Not to painful to wake up and do nothing right? Okay, now for step two.
Affirmations (5-10 minutes)
What are affirmations you might wonder? I wondered the same thing before learning of the Miracle Morning. Everything that we say to ourselves out loud or in our thoughts can be an affirmation. There are many different types of affirmations. To make things simple for myself, I used the free affirmation sheet provided by Hal at http://www.tmmbook.com. Checkout his website and he will email you copies of exactly what I read.
Once you have the affirmation document, and read through it, this will make a little more sense. Affirmations have reinforced positive thoughts and actions for me. Now time for step three.
Visualization (5-10 minutes)
I won’t lie, this is one I still struggle with each morning. I don’t even remember what I did at the beginning of each morning when I started this practice. Now, I focus on thinking in three different aspects.
First Focus: Where do I want to be in 5 years with my personal relationships, finances, and mission?
Second Focus: What do I plan on doing the next month, 6 months, and year to help get to the 5 year vision?
Third Focus: What do I plan on doing today to help me get to the 5 year vision.
Now time for step four.
Reading (10-15 minutes)
The first logical thing most would ask is, “What should I read?” Facebook posts? IG? Twitter feed? NOOOO! The reading segment of my Miracle Morning consists of reading a book. The book will usually be focused around personal development or investing. These are what currently interest me, but I would recommend you to find what interests you. Step five…here we go.
Scribing (5-10 minutes)
Scribing, or journaling, is a very key practice to perform each morning. I use the ‘Five Minute Journal’ each morning and evening.
The ‘Five Minute Journal’ helps to focus my mindset for the beginning of the day. Each morning you will turn the journal to the next page and input the date at the top. The first thing you read in the journal is a thoughtful quote or a Challenge for the Week. Next, I write down three things I am grateful for that morning. This can be anything. The main focus of this is to get your mind thinking thoughts of gratefulness. I then write down three things that would make the day great. Again, the main focus of this being mindset. The last thing I write is one affirmation.
I recommend purchasing the ‘Five Minute Journal’ as it is a great guide. It also has a great end of night journal entry. If you have any questions about it, feel free to reach out. Now time for the last step of the process.
Exercise (5-10 minutes)
The last thing I end my Miracle Morning with is a little exercise. Hundreds of studies have proven the benefits of getting blood flowing to your brain. For that reason, I end my Miracle Morning with 5 minutes of exercise. I recently started doing something a little bit different. I will do push ups till I can’t do a another one (right now up to 50-55 in a row) and I will then jump up to do 60 jumping jacks. I have found this to help stress my body and get the heart rate up.
Not too bad right? Yes this is a lot to do each morning, but I recommend performing these tasks. I have found doing these to increase my productivity every day.
Ways To Supercharge Your Miracle Morning
Here are a few ways I have found to take it the extra step further if you want to challenge yourself even more:
- Finish your Miracle Morning by taking a cold shower. Yes, you read that right. A cold shower. Are you brave enough to try? Most aren’t. I have started doing this and it has been awesome.
- Outside of setting up my meditation though Insight Timer, cut the need to look at any electronic screen. Remove all technology if possible.
- Focus on quieting the mind. Don’t let your mind race through your Miracle Morning. This practice is designed to be a time of clarity. Stop focusing on what is to come of the day.
Key Takeaways:
- Start each morning by drinking a full glass of water and brushing your teeth with the opposite hand.
- Find what works best for you. The above detail is the order I perform my Miracle Morning. This is not the only way to do it. Change the order you do things if you feel like it would work better for you that way.
- Taking charge of the first hour of the day is one of the most critical pieces to setting yourself up for a successful day ahead.
