6 Morning Habits that Will Change Your Life – The Miracle Morning

by Marelisa

If you want to have a great day, start with a great morning.

Hal Elrod is the bestselling author of “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)”. In “The Miracle Morning”, Hal reveals the six morning habits that helped him to rebuild his life after he lost just about everything.

Here’s Hal explaining the importance of developing good morning habits:

“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. Focused, productive, successful mornings
generate focused, productive, successful days—which inevitably create a successful life—in
the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused,
unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of 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.”

I’ve started applying the six habits of the Miracle Morning in my life, and I’ve gotten fantastic results. Therefore, I wanted to share these habits with you. Below you’ll discover what the six habits of the Miracle Morning are, as well as ideas on how to start applying these habits in your own life.

Habit Stacking

Before I tell you what the six habits of the Miracle Morning are, it’s important to talk about habit stacking. Habit stacking is grouping together a set of short, easy to carry out habits. The habit stack is then treated as a single action.

Although the Miracle Morning consists of six different habits, you’re going to stack them together and treat them as a single action. That is, each habit is going to trigger the next one, so you do one after the other. Look at the following:

Waking up triggers the first habit.
Finishing the first habit triggers the second habit.
Finishing the second habit triggers the third habits, and so on, until you’re done with all six habits.

The Six Habits of the Miracle Morning – SAVERS

Elrod uses the acronym SAVERS to make it easier for people to remember the six morning habits—or daily practices–that make up the Miracle Morning. Here’s what each letter of the SAVERS acronym stands for:

S – Silence. Start your day with silence. This can mean taking a few deep breaths, meditating, repeating a mantra to yourself, and so on. The point of this habit is to start the day with calm clarity and a peaceful mind.

A – Affirmations. We all know the importance of positive self-talk. The second habit of the Miracle Morning will allow you to begin the day with encouraging words which will motivate you to go after your goals with a feeling of confidence and self-efficacy.

V – Visualizing. With this third habit of the Miracle Morning you’ll be taking a moment to see yourself in your mind’s eye going through your day, doing what needs to be done, and making things happen.

E – Exercise. The fourth habit of the Miracle Morning is to exercise to get your heart pumping and get oxygen flowing to your brain. It will wake up your body and prepare your brain to meet the challenges the day will undoubtedly bring.

R – Reading. We all know that input determines output. By adding the habit of reading to your morning you’ll be starting the day by filling your brain with inspirational words and/or knowledge that will help you to accomplish your daily to-dos.

S – Scribing. The habit of journaling will allow you to clarify your thoughts and feelings by putting them down on paper.

Ideas for SAVERS

How you apply each of the six habits in your life is entirely up to you. In this section I’m going to share with you some ideas for you to choose from.

Silence

Here are five ideas for the habit of silence:

Sit on the edge of your bed and give thanks for the day that’s about to begin.
If you’re religious, say a prayer.
Follow along with a meditation app, such as Headspace.
Try a conscious breathing exercises, or pranayama, such as alternate nostril breathing.
Slowly move your awareness through your body. As you focus on each body part—your eyes, ears, mouth, throat, and so on—be grateful for everything that body part does for you.

Affirmations

Here are four ideas for affirmations:

Say some Morning Gratitude Affirmations.
Say some Self- Compassion Affirmations.
Say some Control Your Thoughts Affirmations.
Say some Take Control of Your Life Affirmations.

Visualizing

Visualizing is simply picturing and feeling yourself achieving your goals, being the person you want to be, and having the experiences you want to go through. Here are four ideas for visualizing:

Sit down, close your eyes, and create a detailed mental picture of the things you want to come to pass, using all of your senses. See yourself taking action so that these things come to be in your life.
Create a vision board filled with images that represent the goals you want to achieve. Then, every morning, sit down and review your vision board.
Create a mind movie by collecting images that represent your goals and using them to create a video. Then, every morning, sit down and watch your video.
Look through your to-do list for the day and see yourself in your mind’s eye going through your day, being calm, productive, efficient, and full of joy.

Exercise

Here are five ideas for exercise:

Do a few rounds of Sun Salutations–a sequence of simple yoga poses that even a yoga neophite can do–to shake out morning stiffness.
Get yourself a good mini-trampoline and do some rebounding
Try the science-backed 7 Minute Routine.
Do some kettlebell swings.
Do a 5-minute plank routine.

Reading

Here are four ideas for reading:

Read a personal development book.
Read a daily meditation book, such as 365 Tao: Daily Meditations or The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living (I’m reading this one, and I love it).
Read from scripture.
Read inspirational quotes.

Scribing

Here are some ideas for scribing:

Answer a question such as: “What am I looking forward to today?” or “What good will I do today?” Some argue that you can have a happier life by asking yourself the following question each morning: “Is the world inherently good or bad?”
Think of a challenge you’re having and brainstorm ideas on how to overcome it.
Write about your most important task of the day and how you plan to tackle it.
Write down a list of things you’re grateful for.
Write one sentence about what you hope the day will bring.
Create a mind map for the day.
Write in your journal.

Length of Time for Each Habit

Ideally, you’ll be spending an hour on your Miracle Morning — about ten minutes for each habit.

However, Elrod recognizes that most people don’t have an hour in the morning that they can devote to these practices. If that’s the case, he says that you should start by doing each habit for just one minute. That way, the Miracle Morning will require just 6 minutes from start to finish.

Then, if you can, gradually begin waking up earlier and adding more time to each habit.

Conclusion

By adopting the six habits of the Miracle Morning you’ll be setting your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual dials to the “well-being” setting at the start of the day. How do you plan to adopt each of these habits? Live your best life by starting each day with the Miracle Morning.

You can download a PDF you can use to plan out your SAVERS below.