The Morning Ritual That Changed EVERYTHING for ME

In the beginning of 2016 I decided that as part of my goals I really wanted to increase my focus on my real estate business & also spend more time focusing on my goals & success. One of the steps that I took was that I started to listen to podcasts while driving in the car, which is how I learned about the Bigger Pockets community. The podcasts were helpful for me and also helped to re-kindle my burning desire to succeed in real estate. After about 2 months, I was really starting to get the ball rolling & I was gaining a lot of additional knowledge, but I still felt like something was missing.

On February 9th, I listened to the Bigger Pockets podcast number 157 (link below) and everything changed. The episode was titled “A Simple Morning Ritual That Will Help You Dominate Every Area Of Your Life with Hal Elrod.” The skeptical side of my thought “yeah right, everything is going to change” while the night owl in me was thinking “so, wait a second, this guy wants me to wake up earlier every day & do a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t do now.” But I dedicated myself that I would give it a try. So I made the commitment that I would listen to the podcast again the next day, but this time I would take notes to make sure that I didn’t miss anything & that I fully understood what I was committing to and then the following day (February 11) I would try to do what Hal Elrod refers to as “The Miracle Morning. (TMM)” I committed to give it 30 days & see what effect it had on my life.

What is The Miracle Morning?

So the idea of The Miracle Morning is that you will basically wake up 1 hour sooner than you normally do & create a ritual or routine to start your day. Many of the most successful people have some sort of morning ritual & Hal’s concept was to take each of those routines & combine full hour focus. He refers to them as SAVERS, which is a neat acronym to help you remember the process. As I mentioned a little earlier, I have never been much of a morning person. At the time when I began this journey I would generally set my alarm for 7:00am & get out of bed at some time between 7:15-7:30. I knew that in order to take on this task I needed to commit to the fact that I was going to be waking up at 6:00 every day, because as I’m sure you can imagine I didn’t have an extra hour to spare after waking up at 7:30am.

What are the SAVERS?

The routine is fairly simple to understand. Each of the letters in the word SAVERS is an acronym for one of the steps that you will take. Since there are 6 of them & you are spending an hour on it, you would generally hope to do each for about 10 minutes.

The first S is for Silence, this is generally a time for meditation or prayer (whatever works better for you). It’s a great time to relax and just focus your energy. Imagine that, wake up a little groggy and the first thing you’re going to do is close your eye for 10 more minutes. That doesn’t sound too difficult.

The A is for Affirmations. Prepare some affirmations for yourself & say them our loud. Decide what things are important to you & focus on those things. Do you want to be a professional basketball player? Maybe you can say something like “I am a professional quality basketball player.” You should focus on all of your goals during this segment (personal, profession, family, travel, etc…)

The V is for Visualization. Visualize yourself doing what it is that you dream of doing. Either close your eyes & actually see yourself doing the work that you want to do, or create a vision board and spend a few moments looking at the images.

The E is for Exercise. Take 5-10 minutes to exercise. The goal here is to get your blood flowing a bit to start your day off.

The R is for Reading. Spend about 10 minutes reading a book that relates to your goals. If you read a chapter every day, you’ll wind up reading about 12-15 books per year.

And the final S is for Scribing, which translates to journaling. Take a few moments to write down things that are important to you. Write your plans or your goals, how you are going to achieve them.

My Approach

So now that I’ve explained to you the WHAT, let me tell you what I do & give some tips for each.

• -SILENCE – I have an app on my phone called OMVANA. The app is basically like an App Store for Meditation Apps. You can go into OMVANA and choose which apps you would like to have on your phone, they vary from time & topic to guided meditation or just music. When I first started this Meditation was the part that I was the most skeptical of. I had never taken the time to Meditate & I had no clue what to do. When I opened my eyes after my 1st meditation, I could not believe how refreshed I felt. It’s a great thing that I’m so glad that I added to my day
• -AFFIRMATIONS – I’ve created some personal affirmations that I read every day. They focus on some of my personal goals & things that I want out of my life. Before I read those, I always read the affirmations that Hal Elrod suggest on his web page, they’re so inspiriting & helpful. The first sentence in his affirmations is this: “I am just as worthy, deserving, and capable of achieving extraordinary levels of success and all of my goals as any other person on earth.” Just think about that sentence. That’s the first thing that I tell myself EVERY day. Can you think of a better foot to start your day off on?
• -VISUALIZATION – I have created a vision board. I cut out clippings from different magazines and newspapers of things that resonate with me & help me to focus on my goals. In the beginning, all of my clippings were related to my real estate business. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, I have added some more personal things that relate to my family, personal life, vacations, etc…
• -EXERCISE – When I first started doing the Miracle Morning, I would do basic exercises. I did a few stretches, some jumping jacks, leg lifts, just basic things to wake myself up & get moving. Now I use an app called HomeWorkout. It has a variety of FREE workouts that focus on different areas. Each one is about 5 minutes.
• -READING – One adjustment that I’ve made is that I actually Journal before I read. I like to read last because I often find that I have a bit of extra time when I’m done, so I prefer to put that time into reading. I prefer to read Real Estate Investing Books, Professional Success Books & Self-Help Books. I like to actually hold a book in my hand, so I buy books regularly. But there are great ways to get many e-books. It’s often easier to find a discount or even free e-book than it is to find a free hardback book. I feel like I learn something every day & try to implement whatever I learned that morning into my day.
• -SCRIBING (Journaling) – There are some really good journaling apps if you want to do everything on your electronic device, but I’ve found that actually writing things down helps me to feel more accountable. The best advice I can give for what to write is to write down 3 things that you are grateful for & 3 things that you will do to make today great. Writing down the things that you will do to make today great is a really good way to set goals for the day & since you wrote it, you’ll feel a sense of accountability to yourself. Write down things that you’re grateful for & it will help you to think of the positive things in your life. No matter where you are in your life, there are positive things happening.

The Impact TMM has had on me

I always thought that it would take 30 days to form a new habit, but in Gary Keller’s book “The One Thing” he references a study that says that it could take people up to 66 days to form a new habit. I’m not sure which one I am, but I know that I celebrated both of those goals. Today was the 153rd that I woke up early and did my TMM routine. I do it every day. I do it on the weekends, I do it on vacation, I do it wherever I am… It is a HABIT. I have committed to myself that this is something that I want to do every day. There have been a few days where I didn’t do it & I can honestly say that I don’t feel as good on those days. I feel a little more sluggish & I feel like I accomplish less. This routine helps me to start my day off with 6 wins by the time “Old Me” would have heard the alarm clock.

When I first started doing this I wanted to find out where I would find the time to do this. It didn’t take long before I realized how much time I waste in the evening watching late night tv. So, I decided to make a change. Rather than staying up watching mindless late night tv, I go to bed an hour earlier & then wake up an hour earlier it works for me. This past week I changed my alarm for 5:30am, it's been a bit of an adjustment but I'm really enjoying my mornings.

The impact on my real estate career has already been so positive. I spend much more time focusing on my goals & taking steps to achieve them. I’ve grown my network tremendously & am also starting to see “off-market” deals come to be to analyze.

Personally, I feel much more focused & positive throughout my days and I have a lot more energy than I ever did. I physically feel better because the early morning exercise has also made me feel like I want to add other exercise into my day. Aside from my 5-10 minutes in the morning, I now also run 2 times per week & go for a bike ride at least once per week.

In the time since I began my TMM routine I have read 8 Books (currently on my 9th book). The learning & growth has been amazing. The books I have read so far in 2016 are:

• The EMyth Revisited – Michael Gerber
• The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod
• The One Thing – Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing (EBook) – Brandon Turner
• The Millionaire Real Estate Investor – Gary Keller
• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People – Steven Covey
• Getting The Money – Susan Lassiter-Lyons
• The 10X Rule – Grant Cardon
• Awaken The Giant Within – Tony Robbins (currently reading this book)

About 2 weeks after I started TMM, my wife decided to join in. She’s just as dedicated to it as I am, if not more. We’ve told family & friends about it & are hearing positive feedback from them. It’s nice to help people learn how to focus & improve their life.

I’m grateful that I found TMM & I hope that you try it also. Give it a try. Do the 30 day challenge & let me know how it was. Also, please let me know any tips that you have. I’m always looking for way to improve my TMM.

BONUS

Helpful Links:

The podcast where Josh & Brandon interview Hal Elrod:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/01/14/bp-podcast-157-simple-morning-ritual-help-dominate-every-area-life-with-hal-elrod/

The Miracle Morning Community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MyTMMCommunity/

The Miracle Morning Support Group onFacebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/910164242393824/