Book Review - The Miracle Morning

I really enjoyed the process of improving my morning routine when I came up with my Golden Time idea a few weeks ago (http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/golden-time). So on choosing what book to digest next I thought I would see if I could build on that further. So this week I have been listening to "The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod

Actually I chose not to go for the original version of the audiobook but instead chose the version aimed at entrepreneurs. I made this choice because it seemed like it had all of the content of the original book but also had extra insights that might be relevant to self employed individuals and also as it was released a few years after the original the authors will have had time to review the content and tweak it if needs be.

Much of the content in The Miracle Morning will feel familiar to anyone that has read many of my other book reviews from this year. A lot of the science mentioned is very similar to that in HTHAGD by Caroline Webb, the section on positive affirmations is a very good summary of the main ideas behind 4DX, and many of the other ideas are a cross between the content presented in "The Productivity Ninja" and "Start With Why". So in summary "The Miracle Morning" incorporates many points from many of my favourite books so not surprisingly I have quite enjoyed listening to this book.

The main aim of the book seems to be to help the reader to get their day off to a great start, thereby allowing them to do more with the rest of their day, be more successful, improve their health and their relationships with those important to them.
It does this by teaching the reader about the tasks that make up the life S.A.V.E.R.S. Which are:
Silence (or meditation)
Affirmations (positive thinking about your goals)
Visualisation (of what you want to achieve and how)
Exercise
Reading
Scribing (writing)

I wanted to give this all a try but I will be honest that I haven't introduced all of these into my morning routine as yet. This book has however made me look at my morning routine in a different way and I have made quite a few changes. For the past few days I have been trying the following routine:
1) Wake at 5.30am (the same time as normal), I drink a large glass of water to rehydrate and then I jump straight in the shower as I find this really helps to wake me up and then my motivation level is good, making it easier to carry on with my miracle morning routine rather than slip back into my old ways. I get dressed, put some frozen croissants in the oven and head outside into the garden to:
2) Do a full Tai Chi routine which takes about 12 minutes.
3) After that I sit on the garden lounger for 12 minutes of quiet time for a simple version of meditation. I am quite new to meditation having only tried a couple of demo sessions before with free apps. At the moment I am just taking the time to clear my mind by focussing on my breathing.
4) By that time my croissants are ready so I eat them while also reading a few pages of my current physical book (Homo Deus).
5) Next comes my writing time. So I use this time to write book reviews like this one, look through my good ideas section in Google Keep and expand on some of the ideas there.
6) That takes me to about 6.30am which is when I take a hot drink to my wife in bed and chat with her for a few minutes before heading out the door to work and on my commute I listen to an audiobook or failing that a podcast.
If you exclude the time for showering and dressing etc that means I am probably dedicating about 45 minutes to this routine.

Now this routine isnt massively different to my old one, but it is more standardised and focussed. Previously I did some Tai Chi most mornings but not every morning and rarely did I allow mself enough time to do a full routine. By doing it first and setting a countdown timer on my phone it is making it harder for me to skip it. Equally I often used to find a few minutes some mornings for a bit of reading or writing, but the miracle morning routine is just trying to help cement it into every morning. This all takes planning and motivation. I can only have time to do this in the mornings because I am regimented the night before making sure the dishwasher is done, my lunch is sorted etc.

You may read this and say to yourself "I dont have 45 minutes spare to do that every morning". That's understandable, most people will think that initially. It is possible that the only way you can incorporate this into your day would be to wake up earlier but if you really sat down and thought about your routine as well as your goals you could easily find some time for at least some of these benefits. This routine I believe will make me healthier, happier, more peaceful and better able to deal with whatever stresses the day may throw at me. So I will be attempting to continue with it going forwards.

Apart from explaining how to incorporate the savers into your morning this book also discusses improving your sleep habits, diet and energy levels. It then goes on to give advice to budding entrepreneurs about how to push themselves to the next level. Personally I found this last section a bit stilted and incongruous with the rest of the book. It felt like it had just been tagged on to allow the authors to put out another version of the book aimed at a different audience and if I'm honest very little of the advice in the "entrepreneur" section felt as good as similar advice given in many of the other books I have reviewed this year. If I was you I would stick to the original version of "The Miracle Morning".
If you would like to find out more about how this book could help you please look here for the physical book:
http://amzn.to/2sKTQIb

and here for the audiobook:
http://amzn.to/2sL1aU0