The Productive Freelancer has a Miracle Morning Routine (and Gets Up at 5 am Most Mornings) — Part 1
Last Summer, a woman in an online group I’m part of (whom I will forever be grateful to — thanks Kristina!!) turned me on to the book, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, and it ended up being the catalyst for one of the bigger shifts I’ve ever (intentionally) made in my life.
I could have written this post five or six months ago when I was basking in the honeymoon glow of having discovered something new and it was going along swimmingly and I felt over-the-top amazing about it.
A lot of The Miracle Morning reviews I’ve read feel like that’s about the point in time people have written them because they come across just that gushy.
But instead, I procrastinated.
And procrastinated and procrastinated (one of my many talents, actually — maybe I should call myself “The Procrastinating Productive Freelancer” instead).
I’m really glad I held off, though (occasionally, procrastinating has a happy outcome like that) because it’s easy to heap praise on something that is shiny and new and wonderful and you haven’t hit any bumps in the road with it.
It’s an entirely different take when you’re in the middle of it (whatever “it” may be at the moment) and have had bunches of ups and down but in general, it’s still actually working. When you’ve made a significant shift in habit and attitude (which is really what we’re aiming for in this game of self-betterment, isn’t it?)… that’s when it’s a good time to share the story.
Here’s the crux of The Miracle Morning
Basically, Hal looked around at all the habits that really successful people talk about when they talk about getting their day started right — things like meditation and journaling and exercise — and instead of trying to figure out which one habit was absolutely the best, he decided to just do them all.
On the surface, it sounds a little nuts, but he came up with this handy acronym for his routine — he calls it the SAVERS (as in “life savers” — which is a little on the nose), but it really does help to cement the habits for you — and it doesn’t feel nuts at all.
The SAVERS
(Let’s see if I can get this right without looking back at my book)…
S stands for stillness — quiet, meditation, prayer, contemplation, whatever helps you step outside the rush of everyday life, even just for a few moments, and ground yourself.
A stands for affirmations — establishing a foundation or intention for the day stretching out in front of you as well as for your long-term vision for yourself. Which leads you straight to…
V is for visualization — actually picturing in your mind and virtually experiencing the successes of your immediate day and overall goals as if they have already happened.
E is for exercise — of course, one of the tried and true habits for increased productivity.
R is for reading — this is my favorite one — reading something growth or development related. One of my favorite quotes from The Miracle Morning is by Jim Rohn:
“Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.”
In other words, make the time (don’t wait for the time) to focus on your self-development. Take in new ideas, give them a whirl, and see if they sprout for you.
Ahhhh.
And the final S is for scribing — actually journaling — writing your thoughts down, processing “out loud” on paper (as opposed to letting them swirl and spiral in your head).
I feel like I’ve been building up to doing something like a miracle morning for years and years now — I’ve been gradually trying some of these habits on, putting bits and pieces into place, albeit somewhat inconsistently and haphazardly but there nonetheless which is some of the reason I think this has worked so well for me.
The Miracle Morning brought it all together and tied it up in a neat little package with a bow on top.
This is what my SAVERS routine looks like today…
I really do get up at 5 am — 5:02 to be exact — every weekday, and while I don’t set my alarm on the weekends, I’m up fairly early most Saturdays and Sundays doing miracle morning, too, because I love the quiet in my house, and often that’s the only time to get it.
My acronym is RSSAVE (which isn’t as snappy as SAVERS, but whatever works, right?!)
R is for reading
I read for at least 10 minutes every morning which is usually enough to get me through about 1 chapter of whatever book I’m on. I actually set a timer — not to make sure I read for the full 10 minutes but so I don’t end up reading for like an hour.
When I first started the miracle morning, it was Summer, and my daughter didn’t have to wake up and get ready for school every morning, so I had the opportunity to luxuriate in the morning routine — and the reading and writing tended to be a big part of that. My miracle morning would stretch for 2 or sometimes 3 hours, and it was awesome.
Once school started, I realized I only really had about an hour to spend before my daughter was up and our day kicked into high gear, so I have to be judicious about how I use that time.
Thus the timer.
S is for scribing / journaling / morning pages
I usually do some form of journal writing right after I’m done reading, also spending about 10 minutes on it. Sometimes it’s inane rambling; sometimes it’s a gratitude list; sometimes it’s ponderings on a specific question — either of my own making or related to whatever I’m reading at the moment. Occasionally, it morphs into the start of a blog post.
Right after the reading, the writing part is my favorite part of my miracle morning and the one I’ve been able to complete most consistently. (All of this writing goes into my digital bullet journal in OneNote, but that’s an article for a different day.)
One of my favorite writing prompts that I do about once a week is to ask myself a few questions:
What am I celebrating?
What have I learned?
What do I want to try out?
The “What am I celebrating” one was always the first thing a favorite coach of mine would ask me at the beginning of every call (and despite working with her for several years, it still came as a surprise to me almost every week). It’s also a bit of a challenge for me — turns out I suck at celebrating.
But writing about what’s working helps to remind me that I’m doing good work and making good progress so that all of the things I don’t get done don’t overwhelm and depress me.
S is for Not-Very-Silent Meditation
I imagine meditation might be a little disconcerting for some people. Our society isn’t exactly conducive to quiet and stillness.
I’ve meditated off and on for ages and know that I enjoy it, but even for me, the thought of trying to go full-on transcendental meditation felt insurmountable.
So instead, I get my “silence” by listening to the Calm.com guided meditations.
I especially love having their scenes and music playing in background of my workday.
Last Fall, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for their annual subscription for $60/year so that I could listen to their plethora of 10-minute guided meditations which fit perfectly into a miracle morning routine. (They have a handful of free ones you can listen to without the subscription, but if you’re trying to do this every day, that gets old pretty quick.)
Calm works in your web browser (which is where I use it most often) as well as on your phone.
And they have a huge library of meditations for whatever you might be working on at the moment — managing stress or anxiety, being more present, better sleep (don’t do these during your miracle morning routine), breaking habits, etc. Plus, a new meditation is released every single day, so unless you choose to, you’re never listening to the same meditation twice. I can’t recommend Calm highly enough.
Affirmations and Visualizations (A and V)
These are the 2 steps that I’ve struggled with the most, and I’m still not sure I’ve got a grip on what they are and how to truly make them work for me.
But I do them anyhow as a matter of habit and routine so that one day, when I do stumble across something that really clicks for me in these areas, I’ve already got the space to make sure I’m executing on it every day.
I started out my affirmations with a list of 5 that Hal gives you as part of the 30 Day Life Transformation Challenge download. He adapted these from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.
They’re good in that they almost shock you into a new way of thinking. My favorite one has to do with doing “what is right rather than what is easy.”
I grew my affirmation list from those initial 5 to like 18. I would read through them every morning and try to really feel and absorb them, but I never fully connected with this method of affirmation.
If you’re curious, here are a few of them:
- I am deeply committed to unwavering focus, especially in my business. I am clear about what client and project I’m wanting to work on at any given time, and I work on only one thing at a time with laser-like focus on that project for a set period of time.
- I make time every week to spend on strategy — creating and implementing it — for my business. I have a Booming Business hour almost every morning where my focus is bettering my business somehow — marketing, writing, work on my website, learning, strategizing, etc.
- I am willing to stay committed to my goals and doing what’s “right” (as opposed to what’s easy) at a level that I have never been committed before.
My visualization step has been about reviewing a vision board I created in Pinterest with a bunch of inspirational quotes and things that help shore up my gumption and perseverance muscles and pictures of things that I’d like to work on — like a beautiful vegetable garden and comfortable living space in my backyard.
Again — this works OK. I really love the quotes mainly because they help remind me to be nice to myself and supportive rather than beating myself up.
Here are some of my favorites from my vision board:
But then I read a book a few months ago called Organize Tomorrow Today that talks about a Mental Workout where you write down an intention for the day, 3 things that went well yesterday and 3 things you want to go well today. This seemed to be along the lines of what Hal means with SAVERS, so that’s what I’m mostly doing for my affirmation and visualization steps these days.
Perhaps the Mental Workout feels a little bit more tangible to me.
I spend whatever remaining minutes I can squeeze out of my morning before things kick into gear and my daughter gets up and ready for school writing out my Mental Workout. And if I’m really on point during the day, I circle back around and review what I wrote at least once or twice throughout the day.
At any rate, if you’re reading this and have any grand insight or resources to share about how to more effectively use affirmations and visualization, I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
And E is for Exercise
My daughter has to catch the bus at 7 am which is both a blessing and a curse. She started middle school this past year, and I knew that early bus time was barreling down on us. I’ve been dreading it since she was in kindergarten.
But instead of bemoaning our early-morning fate, I’ve ended up embracing it, and I now use her bus time as my cue to get out the door and do my daily exercise.
I walk her to the bus stop and then just keep on walking which gets me a good 35–40 minutes at least 5 days a week.
So that’s my miracle morning. I continue to tweak and refine and incorporate new things. I think finding ways to keep it fresh is one of the keys to being successful with it long term.
What does your morning look like?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Definitely feel free to borrow some of my ideas, and I’d love to learn some of yours.
Next time, I’ll talk about what it’s actually like to wake up at 5:02 am (it’s not all sunshine and puppy dogs) and then share some real-world perspective on what works about The Miracle Morning and what doesn’t (also not all sunshine and puppy dogs). Stay tuned!
