The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

[Rich]

With the caveat that I've not read this book but watched a useful summary here _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sqhxl7hHSE

Gives some ideas on starting the day as you mean to go on. Waking early is something I've never really done very well. Usually I press the snooze button for as long as I can get away with, wash, dress, eat, drink coffee then drag myself to work with a big arrow of resentment hovering over me. There are other videos on the morning routines of popular successful people. Naturally the cynic in me acknowledges that this measure of success is creating a life of self-interest where you can fly around in a big plane and be rude to people. But the lessons learned can be put good use.

A very compelling argument to wake up at 5am or about one hour before you usually get up, including weekends.

It advices you to do the following for approximately 10 minutes each of that hour:
Meditate
Affirmations
Visualise
Exercise
Read - something constructive
Write - a journal or something else

_http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/895035171?book_show_action=true

Putting some of these ideas together and starting off small . Idea being to getup earlier with a routine of: Silence/meditation, affirmations, 10 minute exercise routine (based on this one _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Li3oJNV6o), salt water with lemon, eating and maybe some reading and writing. One of the main drivers for this is to get me into the habit of exercising which I've neglected after changing jobs.

Part of the reason for posting this here is following a recommendation to tell others to hold oneself accountable. Another tip on habit changing is also useful.

Let’s face it: the hardest part about getting up an hour earlier is the first five minutes. That moment in which—tucked into your warm bed—you make the choice as to whether you start your day… or hit the snooze “just one more time”. Think about it though—you set your alarm at a certain time for a reason. Commit to that reason and make the effort. Get vertical. Hal provides “Five simple, snooze-proof steps” to getting your day started on the right foot:

1. Set Your Intentions Before Bed (mentally commit to getting up when you planned to)
2. Move your Alarm Clock Across the Room (enforcing at least a little movement first thing)
3. Brush Your Teeth (motion and sensation help wake you up)
4. Drink a Full Glass of Water (get your metabolism going)
5. Get Dressed or Jump In the Shower (moving you one step further from bed)
GEM #2
It Gets Easier… Promise

“The problem for most people is that they don’t realize that this seemingly unbearable first 10 days is only temporary. “

The Miracle Morning

While there’s a lot of debate around how long it takes to create a new habit, 30 days seems be safe by all research standards. What Hal reminds us is that there are actually three distinct phases to creating any new habit.

Phase One: Unbearable (Days 1-10)
This is when the new activity requires tremendous effort. You’re fighting existing habits—habits that have often been entrenched in “who you are” for years, sometimes decades. You’re fighting existing patterns and existing limiting beliefs. You need to keep pushing.

Phase Two: Uncomfortable (Days 11-20)
The habit starts to take hold, starts to get a little bit easier, but it’s still not natural. The biggest temptation at this level is to “reward yourself” by taking a break. Terrible idea. You’ve already made it through the hardest part (phase one), don’t backslide now. Why on earth would you want to go through that first phase again?

Phase Three: Unstoppable (Days 21-30)
Habit starts to feel natural. Your body and mind are adjusting to the new pattern – these last 10 days are important for entrenching that activity into “who you are”. Push through the final 10 days and the habit will cement itself in your life.

This was one of the biggest takeaways I gleaned from The Miracle Morning; an appreciation for the three distinct phases of habit change. It can be so daunting on day five to realize you still have 25 days to go. You’ve barely started. And yet, you’re actually already half way through the first phase. By reframing where we are on our growth journey, we can recommit our minds and bodies to pushing through. It’s not going to feel like this forever. In fact, it’s not even going to feel like this for the whole 30 days. Persevere.

_http://www.actionablebooks.com/en-ca/summaries/the-miracle-morning/

I hope challenging myself to do this during February will take my mind off some of the frustrations and worries in my life and give my machine the kick start it needs to get into gear. I'm aware of sticking to this fanatically would have drawbacks but can see some of the routine can be modified to provide some will to make some improvements.

 

[ashu]

Thank you for sharing Theseus - I know the feeling very well in hitting that snooze button over and over again. However, I find that getting up is much easier when its lighter / brighter outside compared to dragging myself out of bed on a cold, dark and gloomy winter morning. Atleast on the plus side its now getting lighter here in the UK, so amen to that.

Following the the Health and Wellbeing show - Biohacking 2016 (I think it was) a couple of books were mentioned: The Artists Way by Julia Cameron and Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself Dr Joe Dispenza. I am reading these at the moment and finding them quite interesting: The Artists Way is obviously more about nurturing your creative child whereas Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is more about changing neural pathways / programming that is so ingrained within us.

Using the exercises in The Artists Way I am waking up 30 minutes earlier to do the morning pages (where you write 3 pages of whatever comes to mind) and this you have to do for 12 weeks in addition to some other 'creative' tasks. Other than trying to keep my eyes open the first 5 minutes, I feel it quite helpful in just writing down a stream of my thoughts down onto paper. At the moment its seems quite easy to do as I don't have to do a great deal other than grab my notebook and pen. Hmm maybe I should add the 10 min workout ...

 

[Rich]

At the moment its seems quite easy to do as I don't have to do a great deal other than grab my notebook and pen. Hmm maybe I should add the 10 min workout ...

Thanks Ashu,

Glad to see the writing task is helpful for you and I think any little tricks to help us get on top of our immediate concerns are beneficial. It's great being able to try something new, see where it leads and see how it benefits other areas of our lives. For instance with with the exercise and little extra time I start cleaning dishes and tidying up a little too.

The exercise might not be for everyone but most benefit from getting more active. One would probably get similar energising results from a cold shower as many here have experimented and benefited from.

Just searching "cold shower" in the forum I saw this complementary recent topic: Stimulate your system and get the blood pumping in the morning with an old Time Strongman routine that starts with crumpling up a newspaper!

It is easy to overdo a new habit and lose interest. At this stage I'm taking it easy and just trying to make it routine by getting into the positions, stretching and moving. Good so far especially because this morning I did press snooze and it felt like a reward.