Yesterday I finished the Miracle Morning 30 day challenge. Miracle Morning is a book by Hal Elrod. It’s not a long book, but worth the read. His goal is to give the reader a pattern of actions to take each morning, that can range from as little as 6 minutes to one hour or more. The goal is to start each day on the right foot mentally and physically and help you to be better focused, more productive and in better health. At the end of the book he drops the 30 day challenge. I took that challenge.Not to spoil things (it is worth reading the book), there are six practices based on the acronym SAVERS, which is also the order that Hal recommends doing the six actions. I changed it up a little, but that’s okay. The six practices are:

• Silence
• Affirmation
• Visualization
• Exercise
• Reading
• Scribing (Writing)

These practices can be done in as little as one minute each (6 minutes total), or up to 10 minutes each, which is what I believe he recommends for an hour. I do about an hour, but I’m sure that each part is not an equal 10 minutes. Some of these practices had always seemed hokey or voodoo to me, and I laughed them off. As I’ve been learning about the habits of successful people, it seems that many of these SAVERS practices are what separate them from the rest of the populace. Some of these practices are considered part of the spiritual disciplines, and I have attempted them before with varying degrees of success. Like most things in life, consistent practice creates a habit, and practices that are difficult at first become easier over time. So, this is what I do.For ‘Silence’, I use the Headspace app to meditate. I use the 5 minute setting. Kara introduced me to this app a long time ago, and does her meditation at night before bed. Many nights I heard “Welcome to Day 9…” as I drifted off to sleep. I like the idea of doing this in the morning to center myself and prepare for the day. I’m definitely keeping this up.‘Affirmation’ was one of the most suspect for me. I use Hal’s sample, available for free on his website miraclemorning.com. I’m not very creative and at the point of attempting it, was not interested in spending much time to look for something else. Hal’s works for me so far. I’ll probably find something else in time.‘Visualization’ has been the most difficult for me to do. When I have something specific that I’m going to do, like a presentation, where I’m in control, is when my visualization works the best. When things are not fully in my control is when I have a harder time visualizing. Overall, I like the program, so will keep working at it. After all, it’s only been one month!‘Reading’ is what I do next. (I exercise last because that’s how I want to do it). I’ll read a chapter in a book or a couple of posts from my favorite blogs. This one is easy for me. It’s more difficult to stop reading because when I usually read, it’s for longer than 10 minutes at a time.‘Scribing’ is what I do next. Way back when, this was a practice that I enjoyed a lot. I maintained a prayer journal for many years, but for some reason I quit. From Hal (and others’) perspective, it doesn’t matter what you write as long as you do it. Some days I give a recounting of what happened the day before. Some days I look forward to what is ahead. Some days are reflection. Some days are completely different, for example, some of this post was written in my scribing time.I have noticed a positive difference since doing the Miracle Morning and will continue. I recommend reading the book. Hal has a pretty incredible story to tell, and give the Miracle Morning a shot. Doing something for 30 days won’t hurt anyone. You never know, it might make a difference.

Cheers!