The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod: notes

The Miracle Morning makes it clear thatin order to become successful, you have to dedicate time to personaldevelopment each day, and then gives you a 6-step morning routine to create andshape that time.

Hal’s story is fascinating. After being declared dead from a car crash for 6 minutes and being told he’d never walk again, he miraculously healed, and after even more ups and downs developed this morning routine. Don’t be surprised to not see the actual routine in my lessons, more on that later.

Here are my takeaways from The Miracle Morning:

Don’t isolate incidences in your life.
You can get a good night’s sleep, even if it’s just 4 hours.
Have a pre-morning routine to get out of bed faster.

Let’s take a closer look!

Lesson 1: Don’t isolate incidences.

Hal suggest you don’t look at the events in your life as separate, but all part of the bigger picture. For example you might say to yourself: It’s okay if I skip gym today, I had a long day at work, it’ll be just this once.

However, this not only affects this particular moment, this also changes who you become. If you tell yourself it’s okay to skip gym once, you’re more likely to do it again, because you already gave yourself permission last time and eventually become someone who skips gym – a slacker.

Exceptions quickly become the norm and before you know it you find yourself in a sea of bad habits.

So don’t skip your good habits, because how you do anything is how you do everything.

Lesson 2: You can get a good night’s sleep, even if you just sleep 4 hours.

Hal slept for varying amounts. 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, etc. He found that no matter whether he slept 4 hours or 9 hours, if he told himself it would be too little sleep the night before, he woke up tired, groggy and miserable.

On the other hand, when he told himself he’d feel good, refreshed and have a great day, he woke up in a great mood and energized, even with as little as 4 hours of sleep.

I’m living this right now. It works. Yesterday I went to bed at 9:20 pm, but my freaking upstairs neighbor had a party. I told myself I’d be fine and even if I only got 6 hours I’d feel good in the morning.

I finally fell asleep at 10 pm, only to be woken up by our door bell (yup, they rang) at 2 am in the morning. Then the party went on, and when they started “having fun” at 4 am in the morning, I got up.

I have a commitment to this blog, after all.

I’ll publish this article a little late, but I feel quite good. Last year I would tell myself the opposite and feel terrible with anything under 7 hours of sleep, just because I told myself I would.

The lesson: You can create your own reality. Your mind’s power over your body is real, so use it.

Lesson 3: Have a pre-morning routine to get out of bed faster.

This is what happens before you start your Miracle Morning, and even if you find a morning routine is not for you, this will help you.

It actually starts the night before with lesson 2. Also, place your alarm at the other end of your room, so you have to physically get up to turn it off.

Once you’re up, immediately do these 3 things (in whichever order you prefer):

Have a glass of water.

Brush your teeth.

Wash your face.

These 3 things alone will wake you up enough to get going and make sure you can start your Miracle Morning routine.

My personal take-aways

The advice from lesson 1 seems contrary to what Learned Optimism suggests at first. Optimism is about seeing negative events as isolated incidences – but only the ones you can’t control. What Hal talks about is not making excuses and making the right choices when you are in control, but doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up for failures.

Both the summary and the book are great, I suggest you read either one of them and then give the routine a try. You can always dive deeper and perfect it as you go along! Cheers to crafting your very own Miracle Morning!

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

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The Miracle Morning Summary

The Book in Three Sentences

“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life”.

Don’t choose the easy thing, choose the right thing.

Hitting the snooze button gives us permission to not follow through with the things we intend to do.

#5Big Ideas

“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life”.

“By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible”.

“Every day you and I wake up, we face the same universal challenge: to overcome mediocrity and live to our full potential”.

Where you are is a result of who you were, but where you go depends entirely on who you choose to be, from this moment on”.

“Every time you hit the snooze button, you’re in a state of resistance to your day, to your life, and to waking up and creating the life you say you want”.

The Miracle Morning Summary

“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life”.

“By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible”.

“Every day you and I wake up, we face the same universal challenge: to overcome mediocrity and live to our full potential”.

“Always remember that where you are is a result of who you were, but where you go depends entirely on who you choose to be, from this moment on”.

“We must realize that the real impact and consequence of each of our choices and actions—and even our thoughts—is monumental, because every single thought, choice, and action is determining who we are becoming, which will ultimately determine the quality of our lives. As T. Harv Eker said in his best-selling book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, ‘How you do anything is how you do everything’.”

“Every time you choose to do the easy thing, instead of the right thing, you are shaping your identity, becoming the type of person who does what’s easy, rather than what’s right”.

“When you do choose to do the right thing and follow through with your commitments—especially when you don’t feel like it—you are developing the extraordinary discipline (which most people never develop) necessary for creating extraordinary results in your life. As my good friend, Peter Voogd, often teaches his clients: ‘Discipline creates lifestyle’.”

“When the alarm clock goes off, and we hit the snooze button (the easy thing), most people mistakenly assume that this action is only affecting that moment. The reality is that this type of action is programming our subconscious mind with the instructions that it is okay for us to not follow through with the things we intended to do”.

“Always remember that who you’re becoming is far more important than what you’re doing, and yet it is what you’re doing that is determining who you’re becoming”.

“Virtually all highly successful people—from CEOs to professional athletes to the President of the United States—embrace a high degree of accountability”.

“Accountability is the act of being responsible to someone else for some action or result”.

“Here’s the problem: accountability was never something you and I asked for, but rather something that we endured as children, teens, and young adults. As it was forced upon us by adults, most of us unconsciously grew to resist and resent accountability altogether”.

“Our levels of success will rarely exceed our level of personal development, because success is something we attract by who we become”.

“Remember this truth: now matters more than any other time in your life, because it’s what you are doing today that is determining who you’re becoming, and who you’re becoming will always determine the quality and direction of your life”.

“Every time you hit the snooze button, you’re in a state of resistance to your day, to your life, and to waking up and creating the life you say you want”.

“It’s been said that nobody actually likes waking up early, but everyone loves the feeling of having woken up early.The first key to waking up is to remember [to set your intentions before bed]: Your first thought in the morning is usually the last thought you had before you went to bed”.

“If you keep your alarm clock next to your bed, then you are still in a partial sleep-state when the alarm goes off, and it makes it much more difficult to wake yourself up”.

“It’s crucial that you hydrate yourself first thing every morning. After 6-8 hours without water, you’ll naturally be mildly dehydrated, and dehydration causes fatigue”.