The Miracle Morning (17 page)

I think we can all agree that investing a minimum of six minutes into becoming the person we need to be to create the levels of success and happiness we truly want in our lives is not only reasonable, it’s an absolute must, even when we’re pressed for time. I think you will be pleasantly surprised in the next few minutes as you read and realize how
powerful
(and life-changing) these six minutes can be!

Imagine if the first six minutes of every morning began like this…

Minute One…

Envision yourself waking up peacefully in the morning, with a big yawn, a stretch, and a smile on your face. Instead of rushing carelessly into your hectic day—stressed and overwhelmed—you spend the first minute sitting quietly, in purposeful
Silence
. You sit, very calm, very peaceful, and breathe deeply, slowly. Maybe you say a prayer of gratitude to appreciate the moment, or pray for guidance on your journey. Maybe you decide to try your first minute of meditation. As you sit in silence, you’re totally present in the now, in the moment. You calm your mind, relax your body, and allow all of your stress to melt away. You develop a deeper sense of peace, purpose, and direction…

Minute Two…

You pull out your daily
Affirmations
—the ones that remind you of your unlimited potential and your most important priorities—and you read them out loud from top to bottom. As you focus on what’s most important to you, your level of internal motivation increases. Reading over the reminders of how capable you
really
are gives you a feeling of confidence. Looking over what you’re committed to, what your purpose is, and what your goals are re-energizes you to take the actions necessary to
live
the life you truly want, deserve, and now
know
is possible for you… 

Minute Three…

You close your eyes, or you look at your vision board, and you visualize. Your
Visualization
could include what it will look and feel like when you reach your goals. You visualize the day going perfectly, see yourself enjoying your work, smiling and laughing with your family or your significant other, and easily accomplishing all that you intend to accomplish for that day. You see what it will look like, you feel what it will feel like, and you experience the joy of what you will create…

Minute Four…

You take one minute to write down some of the things that you’re grateful for, what you’re proud of, and the results you’re committed to creating for that day. In doing so, you create for yourself an empowered, inspired, and confident state of mind…

Minute Five…

Then, you grab your self-help book and invest one miraculous minute reading a page or two. You learn a new idea, something you can incorporate into your day which will improve your results at work or in your relationships. You discover something new that you can use to think and feel better—to
live
better…

Minute Six…

Finally, you stand up and spend the last minute moving your body for 60 seconds. Maybe you run in place, maybe you do a minute of jumping-jacks. Maybe you do push-ups or sit-ups. The point is that you’re getting your heart rate up, generating energy and increasing your ability to be alert and focused.

How would you feel if that’s how you utilized the first 6-minutes of each day? How would the quality of your day—your life—improve?

I don’t suggest you limit your
Miracle Morning
to only six minutes every day, but as I said, on those days when you’re pressed for time,
The 6-minute Miracle Morning
provides a powerful strategy for accelerating your personal development.

— 8 —

Customizing Your Miracle Morning To Fit Your Lifestyle and Achieve Your Highest Goals & Dreams

“
The Miracle Morning
is amazing. It has provided new levels of clarity, focus, and energy to my life. What’s great is that it can be a different routine for each person, depending on your goals and schedule. For me, as a business owner and mother of a one year old, it has been a time to reflect, pray, focus on my goals and dreams, exercise, and de-stress. It also gives me valuable time to be thankful for the people, events, and blessings in my life. We all have the same 168 hours in a week; so start using
The Miracle Morning
and you’ll find miracles in your life that you never knew existed!”

—Katie Heaney, owner, Hedgehog Group (Saint Louis, MO)

U
p until this point, we’ve primarily been focused on the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
model to accelerate your personal development during your
Miracle Morning
. However,
The Miracle Morning
is 100% customizable. Everything from your wake-up time to the total duration of your
Miracle Morning
to which activities you do, as well as the duration and order of each activity—there is no limit to how your
Miracle Morning
can be personalized to fit your lifestyle and help you achieve your most significant goals, faster than ever before.

Here I’ll cover all of the above, as well as when (and what) to eat in the morning, how to align
The Miracle Morning
with your major goals and dreams, what to do on the weekends, a tip on overcoming procrastination, and much more.

Wake Up and Start Time

This may sound completely counter intuitive, but stick with me. You don’t actually have to do
The Miracle Morning
in the
morning
.

Huh? 

Of course there are undeniable advantages to early rising and getting a proactive start to your day. However, for some, their unique schedule and lifestyle simply may not allow it. Obviously, someone who works the graveyard shift, or even late-nights, is going to have a different wake up time than someone who is in bed by 9:00 p.m. every evening. Considering that different people have different schedules, the essence of
The Miracle Morning
remains that you simply wake up
earlier
than you normally would (typically by 30-60 minutes), so that you can dedicate time every day to improving yourself, so you can transform your life.

When, Why, and What To Eat (In the Morning)

Up until this point, you may have been wondering
when the heck do I get to eat during my Miracle Morning?!
 I’ll cover that here. Besides
when
you eat during your
Miracle Morning
,
what
you choose to eat is even more critical, and
why
you choose to eat what you eat may be most important of all.

When To Eat
– Keep in mind that digesting food is one of the most energy-draining processes the body goes through each day. The bigger the meal, the more food you give your body to digest, the more drained you will feel. With that in mind, I recommend eating
after
your
Miracle Morning
. This ensures that, for optimum alertness and focus during the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
, your blood will be flowing to your brain rather than to your stomach to digest your food.

If you feel like you must eat something first thing in the morning, make sure that it’s a small, light, easily digestible meal, such as fresh fruit or a smoothie (more on that in a minute).

Why To Eat
– Let’s take a moment to discuss
why
you eat the foods that you do. When you’re shopping at the grocery store, or selecting food from a menu at a restaurant, what criteria do you use to determine which foods you are going to put into your body?  Are your choices based purely on taste? Texture? Convenience? Are they based on health? Energy?  Dietary restrictions? 

Most people eat the foods they do based mainly on the
taste
, and at a deeper level, based on our emotional attachment to the foods we like the taste of. If you were to ask someone, “
Why did you eat that ice cream?  Why did you drink that soda?”
  Or,
“Why did you bring that fried chicken home from the grocery store?”
You would most likely hear responses like,
“Mmm, because I love ice cream!  I like drinking soda. I was in the mood for fried chicken.”
  All answers based on the emotional enjoyment derived primarily from the way these foods taste. In this case, this person is not likely to explain their food choices with how much value these foods will add to their health, or how much sustained energy they’ll get.

My point is this:  If we want to have more energy (which we all do) and if we want our lives to be healthy and disease-free (which we all do) then it’s crucial that we reexamine why we eat the foods that we do, and—this is important—
start valuing the health benefits and energy consequences of the foods we eat as much as or more than the taste
. In no way am I saying that we should eat foods that don’t taste good in exchange for the health and energy benefits. I’m saying that we can have both. I’m saying that if we want to live every day with an abundance of energy so we can perform at our best and live a long, healthy life, we must choose to eat more foods that are good for our health and give us sustained energy, as well as tasting great.

What To Eat
– Before we talk about what to eat, let’s take a second to talk about what to
drink
. Remember that Step #4 of the
5-Step Snooze-Proof Wake Up Strategy
is to drink a full glass of water—first thing in the morning—so you can rehydrate and reenergize after a full night of sleep. Next, I typically start my
Miracle Morning
by brewing a cup of high quality tea (my favorite is anything from
www.TeaGarden.com
). I actually set my alarm 15 minutes earlier each day, to give myself time to make my tea without intruding on my
Miracle Morning
time. If you’re a coffee drinker, feel free to brew your favorite cup of coffee.

As for what to eat, it has been proven that a diet rich in
living foods
, such as fresh fruits and vegetables will greatly increase your energy levels, improve your mental focus and emotional well being, keep you healthy, and protect you from disease. So, I created
The Miracle Morning
Super-food Smoothie that incorporates everything your body needs in one tall, frosty glass!  I’m talking about complete protein (
all
of the essential amino acids), age defying antioxidants, Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids (to boost immunity, cardiovascular health, and brain power), plus a rich spectrum of vitamins and minerals… and that’s just for starters. I haven’t even mentioned all the
super-foods
, such as the stimulating, mood-lifting phytonutrients in Cacao (the tropical bean from which chocolate is made), the long-lasting energy of Maca (the Andean adaptogen revered for its hormone-balancing effects), and the immune-boosting nutrients and appetite-suppressing properties of Chia seeds.

The Miracle Morning
Super-food Smoothie not only provides you with sustained energy, it also tastes great. You might even find that it enhances your ability to create miracles in your everyday life. You can get the recipe free at 
www.TMMbook.com
.

Remember the old saying
you are what you eat?
Take care of your body so your body will take care of you. You will feel vibrant energy and enhanced clarity immediately!

Aligning
The Miracle Morning
With Your Goals & Dreams

Most
Miracle Morning
practitioners and high achievers use
The Miracle Morning
to enhance their focus on their immediate goals and their most significant dreams. This is especially true for those they’ve been putting off, or haven’t been making time for—such as starting a business or writing a book. The
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
are ideal for improving your ability to stay focused on your goals and accelerating the rate at which you make progress towards your dreams.

For example, when you create your
affirmations,
make sure that they are in alignment with your goals and dreams, and that they clarify what you will need to think, believe, and do to achieve them, so they reinforce your unwavering commitment to follow through. Reading them daily will keep you focused on your highest priorities and the steps you need to take to achieve them.

When you are doing your morning
Visualization
, visualize yourself effortlessly enjoying the process of achieving your goals (like I did while writing this book) and keep a clear picture of what it will look like once achieved. Remember to involve all of your senses—see, feel, taste, touch and even smell every detail of your vision and your ideal outcomes. The more vivid your vision is, the more effective it will be in increasing your desire and motivation to take the necessary steps towards your goals each day.

Overcoming Procrastination:  Do the Worst, First

One of the most effective strategies for overcoming habitual procrastination and maximizing your productivity is to start working on your most important—or
least enjoyable
—tasks, first thing in the morning.

In his bestselling book
Eat That Frog
, the legendary productivity expert Brian Tracy shows how getting things done in the morning leads to mental rewards that can take us to great heights in our lives. It is the idea that doing the hard task first (“frog eating”) and getting it out of the way creates momentum and makes the rest of the day more productive.

The purpose of
The Miracle Morning
is more about waking up
with purpose
—combining the benefits of early rising and personal development—and isn’t so much concerned with which activities you do, as long as the activities you choose are proactive and help you improve your inner world (yourself) and your outer world (your life).