The Miracle Morning (9 page)

We touched on this earlier, but let’s check in again. If you and I are measuring our levels of success in any area of our lives (health, finances, relationships, etc.) on a scale of one to ten—we both want “Level 10” success, agreed?  Okay, good.

 Now, the problem is that most of us aren’t investing time each day into developing ourselves into the “Level 10” people that we need to be that are capable of attracting, creating, living, and sustaining the levels of success that we
say
we want. As a result, we struggle to attain the levels of health, happiness, energy, love, personal and professional success that we truly desire.

During
The Miracle Morning
30-Day Life Transformation Challenge
(in Chapter 10) you’ll be given access to
The Miracle Morning
30-Day Life Transformation Challenge
“Fast-Start Kit” where you’ll be guided through the enlightening and surprisingly
fun
process of assessing your levels of success in each area. Then, after you’ve gained a heightened level of clarity and self-awareness, you’ll be able to clarify your “Level 10” vision for each area of your life, and then establish your “Next Level” goals for each area, so that you can immediately begin making significant progress towards your
Level 10
vision.

The most extraordinary life you can imagine is available to you no matter what’s happened in your past; just waiting for you to develop yourself into the person you need to be to be able to easily attract, create, and live that life.

The Miracle Morning
will enable you to become that
Level 10
person you need to be to easily and consistently, attract, create, and sustain
Level 10
success that you want in every—yes,
every
—area of your life.

Always remember that when we fail to make time for personal development, we are forced to make time for pain and struggle.
The Miracle Morning
will give you that time for extraordinary personal development.

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Lack of Urgency

Arguably the single most significant cause of mediocrity and unfulfilled potential, which prevents 95% of our society from creating and living the life they truly want, is that most people have no sense of urgency to improve themselves so they can improve their lives. Human nature is to live with a “someday” mindset and think
life will work itself out
. How’s that working out for everybody?

This someday mindset is perpetual, and it leads to a life of procrastination, unfulfilled potential and regret. You wake up one day and wonder what the heck happened; how did your life end up
like this
? How did
you
end up like this?

One of the saddest things in life is to live with regret, knowing that you could have, be, and do so much more.

Remember this truth: 
now
matters more than any other time in your life, because it’s what you are doing
today
that is determining who you’re becoming, and who you’re becoming will always determine the quality and direction of your life.

If you don’t make the commitment today to start becoming the person you need to be to create the extraordinary life you really want, what makes you think tomorrow—or next week, or next month, or next year—are going to be any different?  They won’t. And that’s why you must draw your line in the sand.

Step #3:  Draw Your Line In the Sand

You’ve acknowledged and embraced the reality that 95% of society is struggling—and that if we don’t commit to thinking and living differently than most people, we
will
end up struggling, like most people. You’ve identified the causes of mediocrity you absolutely need to remain aware of and avoid. The 3
^rd
step is to
draw your line in the sand.
Make a decision as to what
you
are going to start doing differently from this day forward.

Not tomorrow, not next week, or next month. You’ve got to make a decision
today
that you’re ready to make the necessary changes to guarantee that you will be able to create the life you really want. To take your personal and professional success to the level they’ve never been before, you have to be willing to commit at a level you’ve never been committed before. Are you ready to make that commitment?

Your entire life changes the day that you decide you will no longer accept mediocrity for yourself. When you realize that today is the most important day of your life. When you decide that now matters more than any other time because it is who you are becoming each day based on the decisions that you are making and the actions that you are taking that is determining who you are going to be for the rest of your life.

The possibility of mediocrity exists for everyone, because being mediocre simply means choosing—whether consciously or unconsciously—to be the same as you’ve always been. Mediocrity has nothing to do with how you compare to other people; it’s simply a result of
not
making the commitment to continuously learn, grow, and improve yourself. Whereas being extraordinary—which leads to extraordinary levels of success—is a result of choosing to learn, grow, and be just a little bit better each day than you’ve been in the past.

We’ve all experienced the pain of regret—as a result of thinking and talking ourselves into being, doing, and having less than we are capable of. Mediocre days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Months inevitably turn into years, and if we don’t change who we are now, our self-created fate will be a life of mediocrity and unfulfilled potential, accepting less from ourselves, and for our lives, than we truly want… and deserve.

The reality is that if we don’t change
now,
our life won’t change. If we don’t get better, our life won’t get better. And if we don’t consistently invest time into our self-improvement, our life will not improve. Yet, most of us wake up every day and stay the same.

I think you want more for your life. I know I do. If you’re being completely honest with yourself, you truly want to live an extraordinary life. That doesn’t necessarily mean being rich or famous. Everyone’s dream is different. What it does mean is living your definition of an extraordinary life. A life where you get to call the shots, and live life on your terms, with the freedom to do, be, and have
everything
you’ve ever wanted for your life. No excuses. No regrets. Just an incredible, meaningful, and exciting life! 

As stated so truthfully by bestselling author, Robin Sharma: 
“One of the saddest things in life is to get to the end and look back in regret, knowing that you could have been, done, and had so much more.”
While this is the self-imposed fate of the masses, it absolutely does not have to be yours. Today you can draw your line in the sand. You can decide that mediocrity is no longer acceptable for
you.
You can claim your greatness. You can choose to become the person you need to be to create the extraordinary life that you truly want. Your life can be filled with an abundance of energy, love, health, happiness, success, financial prosperity, and everything else that you’ve ever imagined having, doing, or being.
The Miracle Morning
can give you that life.

But first, an important question.

— 4 —

Why Did YOU Wake Up This Morning?

You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if
you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.
—GEORGE LORIMER

Your first ritual that you do during the day is the highest leveraged ritual, by far, because it has the effect of setting your mind, and setting the context, for the rest of your day.
—EBEN PAGAN

W
hy did you wake up this morning? That’s a question you’ve probably never been asked, but think about it for a second—why do you wake up most mornings?  Why leave the comfort of your warm, cozy bed?  Do you do it every day because you really
want
to?  Or is it because, for one reason or another, you
have
to?

If you’re like most people, you wake up to the incessant beeping of an alarm clock each morning and reluctantly drag yourself out of bed because you have to be somewhere, do something, answer to—or take care of—someone else. Given the choice (do you have a choice?) most people would continue sleeping.

So naturally, we rebel. We hit the snooze button and resist the inevitable act of waking up, unaware that our resistance is sending a message to the universe that we’d rather lie there in our beds—unconscious—than consciously and actively live and create the lives we
say
that we want. Most of us have resigned ourselves to a certain level of mediocrity and unfulfilled potential. We don’t like it. We don’t feel good about it. We know that there is absolutely another level of success, achievement and fulfillment that’s possible for us, but we feel stuck, and we don’t know what to do to get ourselves unstuck.

You Snooze, You Lose:  The Truth About Waking Up

The old saying, “You Snooze, You Lose” may have a deeper meaning than any of us realized. When you delay waking up until you
have
to—meaning you wait until the last possible moment to get out of bed and start your day—consider that what you’re actually doing is resisting your life. Every time you hit the snooze button, you’re in a state of resistance to your day, to your life, and to waking up and creating the life you say you want. Think about the kind of negative energy that surrounds you when you begin your day with resistance, when you respond to the sound of the alarm clock with internal dialogue along the lines of, “Oh no, it’s time already. I
have to
wake up. I don’t want to wake up.”  It’s as if you’re saying, “I don’t want to live my life, at least not to the fullest.”

Many people who suffer from depression report that the morning time is the most difficult. They wake up with dread. Sometimes it is because of a job they feel obligated to go to, or due to a relationship that is failing. Some people feel this way simply due to the nature of depression and its ability to weigh on a person’s mind, emotions, and heart without needing a specific reason. The tone of our morning has a powerful impact on the tone of the rest of our day. It becomes a cycle:  waking up with despair, spending the day continuing to feel that way, going to sleep feeling anxious or depressed, then repeat the cycle of melancholy the next day.

Not only are people missing out on the abundance of clarity, energy, motivation, and personal power that comes from waking up each day
on purpose
, but their resistance to this inevitable daily act is a defiant statement to the universe that they would rather lie in bed, unconscious, than to create and live the life they desire.

On the other hand, when you wake up each day with passion and purpose, you join the small percentage of high achievers who are living their dreams. Most importantly, you will be happy. By simply changing your approach to waking up in the morning, you will literally change everything. But don’t take my word for it—trust these famous early risers:  Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Aristotle, and far too many more to list here.

No one ever taught us that by learning how to consciously set our intention to wake up each morning with a genuine desire—even enthusiasm—to do so, we can change our entire lives.

If you’re just snoozing every day until the last possible moment you have to head off to work, show up for school, or take care of your family, and then coming home and zoning out in front of the television until you go to bed (this used to be my daily routine), I’ve got to ask you: 
When are you going to develop yourself into the person you need to be to create the levels of health, wealth, happiness, success, and freedom that you truly want and deserve? When are you going to actually live your life instead of numbly going through the motions looking for every possible distraction to escape reality? What if your reality—your life—could finally be something that you can’t wait to be conscious for?

There is no better day than today for us to give up who we’ve been for who we can become, and upgrade the life we’ve been living for the one we really want. There is no better book than the one you are holding in your hands to show you how to become the person you need to be who is capable of quickly attracting, creating and sustaining the life you have always wanted.

How Much Sleep Do We
Really
Need?

The first thing experts will tell you about how many hours of sleep we need is that there is no “magic number.” The amount of sleep that is ideal varies for every individual, and is influenced by factors such as age, genetics, overall health, how much exercise a person gets, and many others. While you may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life.

According to the
National Sleep Foundation
, some research has found that
long
sleep durations (nine hours or more) are also associated with increased morbidity (illness, accidents) and even mortality (death.) This research also found that variables such as depression were significantly associated with long sleep.