Starting the Day Right with “Miracle Morning”: 6 Morning Routine Habits Successful People Swear By

I posted my first silent vlog on my YouTube channel earlier this week. I shared about how I usually start my day as an online freelancer, and I mentioned the “Miracle Morning” method or SAVERS routine.  I figured I’d share more details about the routine here on this blog.

What is The Miracle Morning?

I’ve read about The Miracle Morning sometime last year. I was in a self-reflection phase and was reading some personality development and productivity books, articles, and videos when I stumbled upon Hal Elrod’s best-selling book called “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life… (Before 8AM)”.  It’s a morning routine called SAVERS, with S-A-V-E-R-S being an acronym for:

• S – Silence
• A – Affirmations
• V – Visualization
• E – Exercise
• R – Reading
• S – Scribing (which is just a fancy word for “writing”)

The premise of the book is that by taking time to work on personal development first thing each day, we will naturally become more focused and geared up for the tasks of the day. Let’s take a quick look at the six aspects of the SAVERS routine.

S – Silence

It may seem counterintuitive that to be more productive, you need to wake up earlier than usual and the first thing to do is just sit in silence for a few minutes. But studies have shown that silence helps stimulate brain growth, reduce stress (cortisol) level, allow you to sleep better, reduce heart disease, increase your awareness and provide more opportunity to solve problems [src].  With these benefits in mind, keeping the sacredness of silence should be on top of everyone’s self-care list, especially during this stressful time of pandemic.

There are many ways to embrace silence. Some ideas: meditation, prayer, reflection, deep breathing, gratitude.

My take:  For my ‘silence’ practice, I change it often, depending on what I feel like doing. Most days, it’s just sitting in silence, quieting my own thoughts through deep breathing and silent prayer. Sometimes, I use the Insight Timer app to help with meditation. There are days when I opt to just listen to calming music in stillness. Most of the time, when I cannot quiet my thoughts, I embrace my mind’s wandering and do free-range writing. I read about Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, which I found helpful for me. Morning Pages is the practice of writing three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing. I found that it helps me acknowledge my thoughts and feelings, allowing me to process them as needed rather than sweeping these under the rug until they resurface later on.

A – Affirmations

Hal Elrod defines an affirmation as a statement that directs your focus towards something of value. He offers a twist on traditional advice, saying that to create affirmations that produce results, you need to affirm what you’re committed to instead of affirming who you are or what you want to be. This is similar to James Clear’s advice to focus on building systems instead of setting goals (Book: Atomic Habits).

According to Elrod, results-oriented affirmations should include:

1. WHAT you really want
2. WHY you want it
3. WHO are you committed to being (to create it)
4. WHAT are you committed to doing (to achieve it)

There is a template on the Miracle Morning website to help you get started.

My take: I wrote out my affirmations on my bullet journal. I have a spread on “Current Me” and “Future Me” — how I see myself now vs who I want to be in the future. Then, I have personalized the Level 10 Success Affirmations by Hal Elrod on my journal as well. I read these every morning, along with my written life purpose and my vision for 2020.

V- Visualization

Elrod says you need to prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally for whatever the day has in store for you. You need to visualize what you really want — major goals, deepest desires, etc.  You need to be as vivid as possible. Visualize what success means to you and what it feels like, and visualize who you need to be and what you need to do to succeed. It’s also important to start seeing yourself enjoying the process.

My Take:  The written life purpose, vision, and affirmations help me visualize more clearly. When I read it, I can easily picture my affirmation coming true — becoming that “future me” I want to be. As I get reminded to see the bigger picture every morning, it is easier to visualize what my “ideal day” is like.

E – Exercise

According to Hal Elrod, exercise in the morning gives you an energy boost to help you wake up more quickly. It doesn’t need to be an hour long though. Even a seven-minute workout every morning can do wonders to your energy level and motivation to face the day ahead.

My take:  To be honest, this is the most challenging one to add in my routine. I tried it for a few days, and I become totally unproductive because I become either too tired or too relaxed to do anything else. I get too tired with cardio exercises and get too relaxed and sleepy after yoga. Ha! If you have any recommendations to help me commit to morning exercises, please send them my way. 😁

R – Reading

The most successful people in the world are known to be voracious readers.  Warren Buffett reads between 600 to 1000 pages per day. Bill Gates reads 1 per week. Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day. Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read a book every 2 weeks. 

When starting a reading habit, Elrod recommends to begin with the end in mind. Ask yourself why are you reading that book. Whether you strive to be a more productive worker, get healthier, or have happier relationships, there’s a book out there for you to learn what you need to improve that area of your life. Commit to read, even just five pages a day.

My take:  I used to be ‘addicted’ to books when I was younger. Unfortunately, as the years pass, I found myself easily distracted that it became a challenge to stay focused as I read. As I started 2020, I committed to rekindle my love for reading, and I even added a reading log to my bullet journal (because once it’s written on the journal, it will come true… riiiiight?). So far, for this year, I have finished 8 books. It’s much less than I originally planned, but that’s 8 books more than last year’s pile of ‘started but never finished’ books. Not bad. I also started to learn and practice speed reading, so here’s to hoping the reading log actually gets filled.

S – Scribing

Scribing is just a fancy word for “writing” or “journaling,” but a “W” or “J” would have ruined the SAVERS acronym. Really, scribing is just putting whatever is on your mind to paper (or screen if you prefer going digital).

My Take:  I went the traditional route for this one — pen-on-paper. As to what I write every morning, I usually start by listing 3 things I am grateful for, 1 thing that I am proud of, and something I can improve on. It is always a good idea to start the day with gratitude and devotion, and a gratitude journal is a great way to do this. There is a Presently app available on the Play Store for a simple, no-frills gratitude journal if you prefer the digital route. I also write something that I am proud of just so I also acknowledge myself for my accomplishments and embrace my small wins. Especially for days when I start doubting myself, I re-read these things that I am proud of and somehow it’s enough for me to power through the day.

Key Takeaways:

In theory, the concepts behind the routine are tried and found to be effective. I have done a few of these things, and I am convinced that these practices will enhance one’s life by improving productivity and overall well-being. However, in reality, integrating six new habits into your morning can eventually feel like a chore.

At the start of the year, I used to have a habit tracker in my journal, which I didn’t find effective for me because I felt pressured to tick off all those tiny boxes. I relaxed a bit when I read somewhere that doing 3 of these things is enough to see positive changes in life. Since then, I became a little more forgiving to myself and stopped using the habit tracker and just focus on things that I actually need for the day. If I need a little more time in stillness, I honor my need and just embrace the silence for a few minutes more. If I don’t feel like doing the Morning Pages (three pages of stream of consciousness writing), I would do a brain dump instead. There are days when I complete the SAVERS routine with no problem, but I don’t beat myself up for days that I don’t. After all, the goal is to see progress and not to achieve perfection right away.

Moving forward, I still intend to continue to incorporate much of the Miracle Morning into my life. Some mornings, when I have enough time or perhaps when I need a reboot, I’ll complete the routine. But for now, I can commit to doing the four practices that I find most effective for me:  silence, affirmations, visualization, and writing, as I continue to find ways to form the habit of exercise and reading without the added stress and pressure.