The Miracle Morning (16 page)

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Review Lessons
– It enables you to review all of the lessons you’ve learned.

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Acknowledge Your Progress
– It’s wonderful to go back and re-read your journal entries from a year ago and see how much progress you’ve made. It’s one of the most empowering, confidence-inspiring and enjoyable experiences. It can’t really be duplicated any other way.

Gap-Focus: Is It Hurting or Helping You?

In the opening pages of this chapter, we talked about using the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
to close your “Potential Gap.”  Human beings are conditioned to have what I call
Gap-focus
. We tend to focus on the gaps between where we are in life and where we want to be, between what we’ve accomplished and what we could have or want to accomplish, and the gap between who we are and our idealistic vision of the person we believe we should be.

The problem with this is that constant Gap-focus can be detrimental to our confidence and self-image, causing us to feel like we don’t have enough, haven’t accomplished enough, and that we’re simply not good enough, or at least, not as good as we should be.

High achievers are typically the worst at this, constantly overlooking or minimizing their accomplishments, beating themselves up over every mistake and imperfection, and never feeling like anything they do is quite good enough.

The irony is that gap-focus is a big part of the reason that high achievers
are
high achievers. Their insatiable desire to close the gap is what fuels their pursuit of excellence and constantly drives them to achieve. Gap-focus can be healthy and productive if it comes from a positive, proactive, “I’m committed to and excited about fulfilling my potential” perspective, without any feelings of lack. Unfortunately, it rarely does. The average person, even the average high achiever, tends to focus negatively on their gaps.

The
highest
achievers—those who are balanced and focused on achieving
Level 10
success in nearly every area of their lives—are exceedingly grateful for what they have, regularly acknowledge themselves for what they’ve accomplished, and are always at peace with where they are in their lives. It’s the dueling idea that
I am doing the best that I can in this moment, and at the same time, I can and will do better
. This balanced self-assessment prevents that feeling of lack—of not being, having, doing enough—while still allowing them to constantly strive to close their potential gap in each area.

Typically, when a day, week, month, or year ends, and we’re in Gap-focus mode, it’s almost impossible to maintain an accurate assessment of ourselves and our progress. For example, if you had 10 things on your to-do list for the day—even if you completed six of them—your Gap-focus causes you to feel you didn’t get everything done that you wanted to do.

The majority of people do dozens, even hundreds, of things
right
during the day, and a few things wrong. Guess which things people remember and replay in their minds over and over again?  Doesn’t it make more sense to focus on the 100 things you did right? It sure is more enjoyable.

What does this have to do with writing in a journal? Writing in a journal each day, with a
structured
, strategic process (more on that in a minute) allows you to direct your focus to what you did accomplish, what you’re grateful for, and what you’re committed to doing better tomorrow. Thus, you more deeply enjoy your journey each day, feel good about any forward progress you made, and use a heightened level of clarity to accelerate your results.

Effective Journaling

Here are 3 simple steps to get started with journaling, or improve your current journaling process.

1.
 
Choose a Format — Digital or Traditional.
You’ll want to decide up front if you want to go with a traditional, physical lined journal or go digital, such as an online journal, journaling software, or journaling app, such as
The Miracle Morning
app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android (which has the built-in
Miracle Morning Journal.
)  Having used both traditional and digital, there are advantages and disadvantages to both formats (which I’ll address in a minute), but it really comes down to your personal preference—do you prefer to write by hand, or would you rather type your daily journal entries. That should make it a relatively simple decision as to which format to use.

2.
 
Get a Journal.
When it comes to a
traditional
journal, while just about anything can work (you can even use a 99 cent spiral notebook), since you’re probably going to have it for the rest of your life there is something to be said about getting a nice, durable journal that you enjoy looking at. Get a journal that is not only lined, but also dated, with room to write for all 365 days of the year. I’ve found that having a pre-designated (dated) space to write keeps me accountable to follow through each day, since I can’t help but notice when I miss a day or two, because they’re blank. This usually motivates me to go back and mentally review those missed days and catch up my journal entries. It’s also nice to have dated journals for every year, so you can easily go back and review any time in your life, and experience those benefits I previously described in
My First Journal Re-view
.  One of my favorite lined, dated journals is
The Winners Journal
(
www.TheWinnersJournal.com
), which I used from 2007-2009, and was very pleased with the results. In fact, it’s what inspired me to design and create
The Miracle Morning
Journal
(which is available on
Amazon.com
). You can even download a free sample of
The Miracle Morning Journal
at the website listed after these three steps.

When it comes to a digital journal (which I used before I created the
TMM Journal
), there are also many choices available. I enjoyed using the
Day One
iPhone app last year, and the online journal at
www.penzu.com
is very popular. Again, it really comes down to your preference and which features you want. Just type “online journal” into Google or “journal” into the app store, and you’ll get a variety of choices. As I mentioned, I also had a dated, lined
Miracle Morning Journal
iPhone/iPad/Android app customized and created.

3.
 
Decide What To Write.
There are infinite aspects of your life that you can journal about, and countless types of journals. Gratitude journals, dream journals, food journals, workout journals, etc. You can write about your goals, dreams, plans, family, commitments, lessons learned, and anything else that you feel you need to focus on in your life. My journaling method ranges from being a very specific, structured process—
listing what I’m grateful for, acknowledging my accomplishments, clarifying what areas I want to improve on, and planning which specific actions I’m committed to taking to improve
—to being pretty traditional, just a dated entry with a synopsis of my day. I find both to be very valuable, and it’s nice to mix it up.

To get a free sample of
The Miracle Morning Journal
, go to
www.TMMbook.com
.

[TMM Bonus] Do You Want To Write a Book?

According to a survey done by USA today, 82% of Americans want to write a book, but the #1 obstacle preventing them?  You guessed it—they can’t find the
time
. If you have ever wanted to write a book, you can use the
Miracle Morning
to do just that. In fact, right now I am writing this at 6:03 a.m., during my
Miracle Morning
.

I believe that everyone has a book inside of them containing their own unique value to offer to the world. In fact, I’ve recently started coaching my private clients on how to start (or finish) their first (or next) book, and how to become a
bestselling
author. If you’d like help starting, completing, or marketing your book, feel free to send me an email with to [email protected], and include a brief description of what you’d like my help with.

I’m always excited to hear your story and what you are passionate to write—I mean,
scribe
—about.

Customizing The Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

In
Chapter 8:  Customizing The Miracle Morning To Fit Your Lifestyle
, you’ll learn how you can personalize and customize nearly every aspect of your
Miracle Morning
to fit your lifestyle. For now, I want to share a few ideas specifically towards customizing the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
based on your schedule and preferences. Your current morning routine might only allow you to fit in a 20 or 30-minute
Miracle Morning
, or you might choose to do a longer version on the weekends.

Here is an example of a fairly common, 60-minute
Miracle Morning
schedule, using the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

The sequence in which you do the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
can also be customized to your preferences. Some people prefer to do their
Exercise
first, as a way to increase their blood flow and wake themselves up. However, you might prefer to do
Exercise
as your last activity in the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
so you’re not sweaty during your
Miracle Morning
. Personally, I prefer to start with a period of peaceful, purposeful
Silence
—so that I can wake up slowly, clear my mind, and focus my energy and intentions. I save
Exercise
for my last activity, that way I can jump directly into the shower and proceed with the rest of my day. However, this is
your
Miracle Morning
—not mine—so feel free to experiment with different sequences and see which you like best.

Final Thoughts On The Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

Everything is difficult before it’s easy. Every new experience is uncomfortable before it’s comfortable. The more you practice the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
the more natural and normal each of them will feel. Remember that my first time meditating was almost my last, as my mind raced like a Ferrari and my thoughts bounced around uncontrollably like the silver sphere in a pinball machine. Now, I love meditation, and while I’m no
master
, I’d say I’m decent at it. Similarly, my first time doing yoga, I felt like a fish out of water. I wasn’t flexible, couldn’t do the poses correctly, and felt awkward and uncomfortable. Now, yoga is my favorite form of exercise, and I am so grateful that I stuck with it.

I invite you to begin practicing the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
now, so you can become familiar and comfortable with each of them, and get a jump-start before you begin
The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge
in Chapter 10. If your biggest concern is still
finding time
, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. In the next chapter, you’re going to learn how to do the entire Miracle Morning— receiving the full benefits from all six of the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
—in only 6 minutes a day.

— 7 —

The 6-Minute Miracle (For The Busy People)

On the one hand, we all want to be happy. On the other hand,
we all know the things that make us happy. But we don’t do those things. Why? Simple. We are too busy. Too busy doing what? Too busy trying to be happy.
—MATTHEW KELLY

I don’t have time to wake up early.
—UNKNOWN

O
h, you’re busy?  Weird. I thought it was just me.

Probably the most common question—or concern—I get about
The Miracle Morning
is regarding
how long it needs to be
. When I first had the breakthrough realization about how our levels of success (and fulfilling our potential) in every area of life are being limited by our insufficient (or non-existent) level of personal development, my biggest challenge was
finding time
to act on this realization.

As I’ve developed and shared
The Miracle Morning
over the years, I’ve been very aware of the need to make it scalable so that even the busiest among us can make time for our
Miracle Morning
. I developed
The 6-minute Miracle Morning
for those days when you’re extra busy and pressed for time, as well as for those of you who are so overwhelmed with your life situation right now that just thinking about adding
one more thing
stresses you out.