Imagine every morning is a Christmas morning? How wonderful life will be then?

That’s the idea behind Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning, one of the best books that I have read this year.
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He starts off by saying that many of us live a mediocre life, although we all have the potential to be successful.

According to him, The average American “wallows in $10,000 of debt, is overweight, doesn’t like their job, and is mildly depressed.”

Based on statistics from the Social Security Administration, Elrod argues that “95 percent of Americans aren’t living the life they wanted for themselves.”

The author himself actually died for six minutes following a car accident. After spending several days in a coma, he awoke to doctors telling him that he had permanent brain damage and might not be able to walk again.

Yet he was able to recover. Later on, he found himself in extreme debt and down in depression, but yet again he managed to turn his life around.

He attributes his success to his own miracle morning.

His solution to setting up yourself for success and living to your full potential is is to wake up early every morning and perform certain actions that will set you up for success

After all, famous successful people like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, and even Aristotle. have one thing in common: getting up early!

Elrod encourages us to use six steps every morning to start living the life of our dreams: He calls his technique S.A.V.E.RS:

Silence: This includes prayer, meditation, gratitude. He encourages silence for at least 5 minutes.

Affirmations. Program yourself to be confident and successful in everything you do.

Visualization. Imagine what you want to achieve. One example he cited is the actor Jim Carrey who wrote himself a check in 1978 in the amount of 10 million dollars and dated it for Thanksgiving 1995. In 1994 he was paid 10 million dollars for his starring role in Dumb and Dumber. He also encourages creating vision boards.

Exercise: He quotes Robin Sharma .” If you don’t make time for exercise, you have to make time for illness.” What a powerful thought, and true sentence.

Reading: To learn from the experts and model successful people who have already achieved what you want

Scribing. Writing enables us to document our insights.

He argues that all the S.A.V.E.R.S steps can be done in 60 minutes.

Now if you have trouble wake using early and staying awake, he was what he called his 5-step snooze proof.

1- Set up your intention before bed: Create a positive expectation for the next morning the night before. It’s Christmas Eve and you are waiting for your Christmas morning.

2- Move your alarm clock across the room

3- Brush your teeth

4- Drink a full glass of water

5- Get dressed in your workout clothes

So what did apply from his advice?

I have always been an early riser, but his book has helped me map out my morning in a more strategic and productive way. I now exercise and journal and say affirmations. I’m still working on making meditation a habit.

I’m still having a hard time waking up at 5:00 instead of 6:00 but it’s mainly because I go to bed at around 11:00 PM, not because I’m watching TV but it’s mostly because I’m trying to take care of the house chores after everyone is asleep.

I’m going to keep trying to adjust my night routine until I manage to go to bed at a decent time so that I can achieve my goal of waking at 6:00 am.

This book is short, inspirational, and would definitely improve your life.