My Morning Routine

My (miracle) morning routine has been a work in progress for nearing a decade now…

Years ago, early on in my personal growth journey, I came across a book that has not just impacted my life, but has ultimately changed it, and in massive ways. The book is titled: The Miracle Morning, and was written by Hal Elrod. Now, if I am being completely honest, this book was no literary masterpiece. However, it was exactly what I needed to read/hear at that specific time in my life.

The brief over and under of the book is this — after his near death experience and during a long road to recovery, Hal researched successful CEO’s & entrepreneurs to help connect some of the dots to their success. He discovered overlapping similarities that they practice that seemed to help aid their day in & day out, essentially leading them to their collective massive successes. Hal then re-organized the information he collected and created a process, a process he now refers to as SAVERS.

S A V E R S is an acronym that stands for Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, & Scribing. According to Hal, these extraordinary entrepreneurs all practiced some form of this SAVERS process. Not only did they practice similar routines, they did it all before their work days ever began, and more importantly, before their days got away from them.

You see, the belief is that if you can take a couple hours every morning, to set and align your intentions, pour into yourself the work required to excel and grow on a personal level — you can then conquer your day, your life, & ultimately your dreams. So my teacher Hal, challenged me to implement these strategies into my morning to see if my life would actually change.

It changed.

Over the years I have worked out the kinks to finesse my own morning routine, it is something that I continually re-vamp. When I feel the routine is getting stagnant I re-evaluate if my goals are still relevant, I reassess the affirmations, the imagery, and the layout. I even tend to change things out throughout the seasons. I absolutely love my morning me time. So here is a quick rundown of what my morning routine looks like.

I wake as the alarm goes off at 6:30, where I quickly pull myself together, gather my things, and sink into one of the corners of my sofa to settle in for a few minutes. First thing I do is fire up the laptop and pull up the slideshow that I created specifically for my morning routine. The slideshow, which is approximately 50 slides of affirmations & visualizations, while some slides have cues to carry me through the routine seamlessly. Below are just a handful of slide examples that are currently a part of my routine.

The first prompt is to journal — this is where I either brain dump, gratitude journal, or future focused goal journal. The second is to grab some water & take my pre/probiotic (on an empty stomach), it’s all about your gut health these days. Then I continue through a series of affirmations and visualizations. At the end I’m prompted to a simple meditation practice, but truthfully I am not as consistent as I’d like to be with this. AND — on a really good day, I would follow my meditation with a gentle 20-30 minute move & stretch session, usually from YouTube. And, while I don’t generally read a physical book that early in the morning, I will listen to an audible book or podcast wh getting ready for the day.

The most recent addition to my morning routine is just showing up. By showing up I mean get showered, get dressed (in real clothes not just my around-the-house lounging attire), fix my hair, and put on some makeup (usually minimal). I don’t have to be dressed for a cocktail party, but I do need to be dressed to feel confident enough to go to the store, to get coffee, to get lunch, for any unplanned errand, — or at the very least welcome an unexpected guest or doorbell delivery.

These action steps have taught me a lot about myself. My morning routine has taught me how to commit to myself & my calendar — how to plan for a bigger future — how to be grateful for every morning I wake up to — and to set stringent intentions to prioritize me, my dreams, and my day — before my day runs away from me.

I not only cherish my morning routine, I look forward to it, I honor it, and I guard it. I try not to miss too many mornings, too often, or too consecutively. Everytime I do let my morning routine slip, I end up grumpy, unsettled, unproductive, and nowhere near where I want to be. As opposed to when I am consistent, I show up more optimistic, settled, productive, and feeling as though I am moving in the direction of fulfilling the life I am intentionally co-creating.

This is my (miracle) morning routine.