Years I hosted a “Get Up Early Challenge” on Instagram, and it went really well for so many of us…until it didn’t. The problem was that the habit didn’t stick, it was too much too soon. But, I did learn something really important, and that was that by getting up earlier and investing in myself, I had more to happily to give to my family and my responsibilities.
Shortly after this challenge I was introduced to The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod, and it gave me the motivation AND information that I needed to develop a morning routine that worked for me. In our conversation he’s giving a behind-the-scenes look at what led him to discovering the miracle morning, we’ll talk about the importance of having a morning routine that’s less about productivity and more about producing YOU, and–more importantly–the doable ways you can design and build up your own miracle morning.
About a few other things…
Do you struggle to create habits that stick? It’s not your fault. The truth is simple: you’ve been trying to form habits using methods designed for perfect robots–not real women living real lives. It’s time to change that. If I could help you gain confidence in creating habits AND guide you to uncover the ONE supportive habit to deeply care for yourself, could you commit 21 days to learning this method? The Sticky Habit Method is a 21-day course that revolutionizes the habit-formation process. It’s real habits for real women.
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TRANSCRIPT
Monica Packer: Hal. Welcome to about progress.
Hal: It is such a pleasure to be with you today, and thank you for inviting me. I really appreciate it
Monica Packer: I am gonna try not to fan girl the whole time. I’m just trying to calm myself down. Hal’s a real person. Hal my pal.
Hal: And my wife and my daughter will tell you, I’m not just a real person. I’m a dork. Like whenever my wife’s or my daughter out and they like, somebody meets me like, hello, it’s there. My, my daughter just rolls her eyes. She’s like, if you only knew, he is not as cool as you think he is. Yeah. Anyway, so. Yeah.
Monica Packer: Well, that’s what that makes me so happy. So many women will think like Miracle Morning and think, well, that’s not possible for me.
I’ve got kids, or I’ve got a job I’ve gotta be at early. I’ve got all these obstacles in the way and we want to make this. Both attainable for them and and doable, but also still that miracle piece of it. But let’s go back a little bit and tell us how you discovered the miracle of having your own solid morning routine.
Hal: Yeah, it was unexpected and it was organic. You could say. I, I didn’t plan on writing a book, none of that. And it was back in 2008. Um, I was a coach. I had built a, a, a relatively successful, um, like Personal coaching, I would, doing life coaching, a lot of business and sales coaching. And, um, in 2007, 2008, when the economy started to crash, our last, you know, great recession,
uh, I, I was kind of just delusional.
Like I, I’m such an optimist. I always say there’s a fine line between optimism and delusion and I, I cross it often. Um, but you know, my friends and colleagues like, oh, are you worried about the recession that’s coming? And I was, you know, I don’t, I, I don’t worry about the recession. I don’t watch the news.
I don’t pay attention. I don’t worry myself with that. I create my own economy and that kind of thing.
Uh, and there’s, there’s some truth to that, but there’s also a, you know, uh, a fallacy and, because I wasn’t paying attention and all of a sudden I lost over, I mean, it was really in a matter of months, I lost over half of my coaching clients because they were affected by the economy. And therefore I lost over half of my income and I could not pay the mortgage and I couldn’t pay my bills. And I started living on credit cards and I got depressed and I canceled the gym membership and it was really mentally, emotionally, uh, especially financially.
which was the catalyst for the mental and emotional decline.
But I was really at one of the major rock bottoms in my life and A friend of mine, I finally confessed how, how low I had gotten, and I’d kind of kept it a secret ’cause I was a success coach. So I felt like Just a fraud. And like, you know, like, how am I gonna eat coaching clients when I can’t even succeed myself? You know? And, um, this friend, I, I finally confessed how bad it had gotten and I said, man, I need help. I don’t know what to do. Like, I’m, we’re about to move back in with my dad. Thankfully he’s gonna give us a place to live, but my house is being foreclosed on. I’m, I’m drowning in debt. And he said, you should have listened to this Jim Rohn audio. And I go, That’s it. You’re gonna just send me to listen to an audio. And, uh, he said, I’m telling you, listen to this. Apply this, call me back. And so I, Jim Rohn said this quote that really became the catalyst for the Miracle Morning. Jim Rohn said, your level of success, and this is in every area of life, so your health, your as a parent, right?
Your level of success in every area will seldom exceed your level of personal development. And in that moment I quantified it. I went, okay, wait a minute. On a scale of one to 10, I want level 10 success in every area of my life. I think that’s human nature. I, and then I asked myself, what’s my level of personal development like on a day-to-day basis?
How focused and dedicated am I to my personal development? And at that time in my life, the answer was like, I’m a two, like maybe a three or a four on a good day. I realize that, I believe that’s the disconnect for the majority of society is that every human being, there’s this innate drive and desire to experience level 10 success and fulfillment in every area of life. Yet most people are struggling in one, if not multiple areas of life. And I believe the disconnect is that very few people have a daily, disciplined, proven personal development ritual that is very strategic and intentional for them to become the level 10 version of themselves. That’s it that enables us to create the level 10 life that we want. And so I ran home and I go, okay, I was on a run at this time and I said, I’ve gotta go research. What are the world’s most successful people do across all walks of life for their personal development rituals? I wanna study what the world’s most successful people do, and then I wanna figure out the most effective personal development ritual. And I ran home and I Googled, you know, world’s most successful people and what do they do for personal development and just different phrases I could think of. And I ended up with a list of six practices. It was meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and journaling, or what I call scribing.
And I thought. I can’t do all of these. Which one’s the best, which one’s the most effective? And I, I keep, you know, going through these articles I’m reading and, and none, none stood above the rest. It just depend on who you asked. And I almost threw in the towel because I was overwhelmed and I thought, well, I can’t do all of these, so I don’t know which one’s the best.
Like, ah, it’s just hopeless. And then I had an epiphany. I went, wait a minute, what if I woke up 30 to 60 minutes earlier tomorrow, even though I wasn’t a morning person, like not even close, but I thought if I want my life to be different, I gotta be willing to do something different first. So what if I woke up 30 to 60 minutes earlier tomorrow and I did all six practices, not just one or two, but I literally did the six most timeless, proven personal development practices in the history of humanity that the world’s most successful people had sworn by for centuries. I thought that would be the ultimate personal development ritual. And that night I Googled, how do you meditate? Because I, like, I didn’t, I really wasn’t proficient in any of these. How do you do affirmations? How do you visualize? Right? And the next morning I wake up and for the first time in six months where I’d been depressed for six months, I was excited.
I, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Like this could be the one thing that changes everything. And I went through all six practices. I was pretty subpar at all or most of them, but even after that hour, I felt like this is it. If I do this every day and start the day with this much energy and clarity, and motivation and, and learning something that I can apply to my life, my business, it’s only a matter of time before I turned my life around and I was thinking, Monica, like maybe one year, 1% better every day. The compound effect, eventually I’ll get there. It happened so fast in less than two months. In a declining economy, the great recession. I more than doubled my income. Um, I went from being in the worst shape of my life physically to committing to run a 52 mile ultra marathon because I hated running, and I thought that would be the ultimate way to become the level 10 version of myself would be to commit to something that was so far outside of what I believed I could do. And then just commit and figure out how to do it. And my depression didn’t take two months to go away. That started fading after day one because when you feel hopeless and overwhelmed, that’s depressing. As soon as you have hope and clarity, I. That is inspiring. That is empowering. And that very first day when I realized if I do this every day, it’s only a matter of time. And I’ll, I’ll, I’ll wrap a bow on the story where I met my wife in the hallway. I can picture the moment she was coming outta the bedroom and I had just signed on two coaching clients that day and I ran to find her and she was coming outta the bedroom. And I said, sweetheart, this morning routine is like a miracle. And she goes, it’s your miracle Morning. And I go, I like that. I love Miracle Morning.
So start writing that every day in my schedule. Then I taught it to all my coaching clients, and Long story short, most of them resisted. I’m not a morning person I said neither was I. you know, Here’s some, tips. here’s how you beat the snooze button.
Here’s what I did. and 13 outta 14 clients came to the next call and said, oh my gosh, it’s transforming my life. And that’s when I went, okay, if the Miracle Morning changed my life, and I wasn’t a morning person, it changed 13 outta 14 of my coaching clients’ lives, and this is in the middle of the worst recession of my lifetime. Like when we should all be struggling, like the majority of society. I thought I have a responsibility to share this Miracle Morning message with the world.
And then I started writing the book and, you know, it took three years and I self-published it. Now it’s, you know, 2 million copies and 37 languages and things I never, ever, ever imagined. But it is now become my life’s work.
Monica Packer: So, I have read your book that’s now gone on to become an international bestseller, and, and your story is why What you have to share has such an impact on me. Even down to you saying it took three years to write that book.
I think it’s so easy to just gloss over how long it might take for someone to get to where they are. And that even includes your miracle mourning. I’m mean for you It was a little bit more, I wouldn’t say instantaneous. It clearly took work, and I’m sure you had your ups and downs, but maybe you can level with people who are already thinking, this isn’t for me.
Maybe
not even because they’re not morning people technically, but more because they’re like, I don’t have that amount of time.
Like I don’t even have an hour. What would you say to them in terms of, is this even possible?
Hal: So there’s a few answers to this question. And the first, let’s handle the, I’m not a morning person and I’ve never been a morning person and I don’t wanna become a morning person. I was asked in an interview a couple years ago, they said, actually it was probably five years ago now, they said, hal, what percentage of these, you know, miracle Morning practitioners around the world, which you know, is around a million to you know, or more, what percentage of them were already mourning people when they read the book? So this was easy transition for them. It was like, oh, okay, instead of checking the email in the morning, I’ll do the six miracle morning practices. Uh, and then they said, and what percentage had never been a morning person? So this was like a, a major shift in their identity and overcoming like a, maybe a lifelong limiting belief. I didn’t know the answer. So ever since then, we survey the Miracle Morning community consistently. You know, it’s hundreds of thousands of people that we have communication with and it is roughly, on average, it’s 72% of Miracle Morning practitioners, uh, who swear by the practice said that they had never in their life been a morning person until they read the book. And I really wrote it with that intention. Every page, every word. I was like, how am I gonna get somebody from, I’m not a morning person to this is a part of my life now.
And that was like, I was every word, It was like, how do I hold people’s hand, To, to get that, get to that place. So that’s the first thing. So if you’re not a morning person, join the club. Neither was I, neither most miracle morning practitioners. Second thing, I don’t have enough time.
The, we we all go to bed at a certain time. We wake up at a certain time, right? And for the majority of us, we could go to Bed 15 minutes earlier To wake up 15 minutes earlier. And for most of us, you know, and I don’t wanna, I don’t want to assume, ’cause everyone has different schedules. I mean, I, a lot of times email people email me, go, I have a newborn, right?
How do I do the Miracle Morning? Or I work the night shift, how do I do the Miracle Morning? Right? And there’s always, there’s solutions. It’s very customizable. But going to bed 15 minutes earlier, most of us, it’s that last 15 minutes of the night, or 30 minutes or an hour, whatever someone is doing before bed, it’s usually You know, we’re staying up late at night and that’s not the most productive use of our time. ’cause at the end of the day, you’re mentally fatigued. You’re physically fatigued, right? You’re usually not at your best. And so the idea of trading in a little bit of time in the evening for time in the morning, that can literally transform your life.
And I think it’s important to say why, why, the Miracle Morning?
It’s because how you start your day sets the tone, the context, and the direction for the rest of your day. If you are like most of us, and like I used to be, and most of us are where you set your alarm for the last possible second I can get outta bed and not have things fall apart. I often joke that I call that a mediocre morning, but, but we’re starting the day, not proactively, but reactively. Versus waking up, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes earlier. You know, the average person does a 30 minute miracle morning, uh, and then that’s about 50%.
Another 30% do an hour long miracle morning, and the next 20% is anywhere in between or less. But, um, but to start your day in a peak physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state enables you to show up at your best for those you love. For those you lead and first and foremost for yourself. And so the idea of trading in a little time in the evening for that highly productive time in the morning, it’s worth giving it a shot.
I’m holding the updated and expanded edition of The Miracle Morning, the new book that’s coming out
and
Monica Packer: So exciting.
Hal: I’m so excited. This is so common. This is from this woman, three years practicing the Miracle Mourning, uh, Jane Bavarova. She says, the miracle mourning has changed my life completely. I hated mornings and the word hated is in all capital letters. It was the worst part of the day. Yeah, it was the worst part of the day for me.
Then my sister told me about this book, and I knew it was my chance to change everything. So I completed the 30 day Challenge, and here I am, happy in the mornings, super efficient, positive, and satisfied with nearly all aspects of my life, and I feel like that’s a very common, you know, email or review on Amazon for the book, right?
I was not a morning person. I hated mornings, and now it’s the best part of my day. And I always say that if another human being has overcome or accomplished something, I think one of the most important beliefs that we can uphold is, oh, I can do it too. That’s evidence of what’s possible for me.
If another human can do something that is evidence of what’s possible for all of us.
Monica Packer: I think especially when you know, you do have permission to customize what your Miracle Morning can look like.
You know, a lot of times us, as we’re recovering perfectionist, we often think like, just tell me how to do something and I’ll do it. Like, give me the prescription, but the prescription, doesn’t line up with our reality.
And so it’s almost like we’ve twisted it around. We’ve started with a prescribed ideal instead of our own ideal one that’s customized to our lives. So with that in mind, I would love for you to just give some suggestions on how listeners can come up with their own Miracle Morning and what kind of elements you would suggest that entails if it’s right for them, and not even if it’s right.
I mean, ’cause sometimes it’s like, take a leap here and try this one, but let’s start with the whole customizable piece.
Hal: So, um, so to give a little bit of a framework for everyone to follow along and make this easier to grasp in your mind as you’re listening. Um, the six practices that Make Up the Miracle Morning are now organized into an acronym that is the, the Lifesavers, the acronym is Savers,
S-A-V-E-R-S. Um, and a quick context, I was writing the book one day, and again, I can picture this moment as well. My, my wife is my muse. I’m, I’m very clear on that. She gives me all the like, ideas or where she’s the spark.
Um, but she, uh, I was writing the book and I was frustrated and I just was walking out of the bedroom to go to the kitchen and get the drink of water. And she sees me and she goes, what’s wrong? You look, you know, you look frazzled. And I said, there’s, I have these six practices. But I didn’t invent any of them. None of them are, I mean, they’re not new. These have been around for thousands of years. I’m like, and I, I need some way to like connect them. So there’s some sort of cohesion. Robert Kiyosaki has the Cashflow Quadrant, and Stephen Covey’s got the seven habits. I’m like,
I don’t, I don’t know how to get these, you know, tied together. She goes, why don’t you get at the sous and see if you can find synonyms for any of the words, and then organize them into an acronym. And so meditation became silence.
Monica Packer: Mm-Hmm.
Hal: Affirmations remain the same. V for visualization, E for exercise, R for reading. So that all stayed the same. And then journaling became scribing, which is a fancy word for writing. Right? So those are the six practice of the miracle Morning. So you S-A-V-E-R-S.
So
Monica Packer: So
Hal: in terms of
to, to answer your question, how to customize this. Um, I usually recommend when somebody starts their miracle morning, just wake up 10 minutes earlier and do one of the savers. That way it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It doesn’t feel like it’s all or nothing, and you’re gonna get a taste of, oh wow, that feels really good to start my day with purpose and intention and a little personal development. Um, and many people listening probably already do this, so you might just take it to the next level where you’re like, you’re adding, you do two. But for, for many people, they just do the R in savers, which is for reading, right?
So, I mean, pretty easy. You wake up 10 minutes earlier, right? Rub your eyes, go into the other room so you don’t fall back asleep on the bed.
And then, and then you start reading, and then when, you know, in a few days you’ll get to the chapter On affirmations and, and now you’re starting to up a little bit of habit.
All right, I’m getting up 10 minutes earlier than I have to be up. I’m, I’m, I’m doing some personal development. I’m reading, right? Then you get the chapter on affirmations and you fold that into your next Miracle Morning. So the next day you do reading and affirmations, right? You could either do five minutes each or you can make it a little longer. Um, and now you’re, wow, this is empowering. Um, and then the next day, you know, you get to the chapter on visualization and you add that in. And so you build your Miracle Morning gradually over time. Now, there’s a chapter in the Miracle Morning book called. The six minute Miracle Morning, and This is not like some gimmicky thing it was literally something where, um, I was, one morning I had to, I, I had like 15 minutes before I had to leave and I liked doing a one hour miracle morning. I was all in. And um, and so this was probably a few months into my Miracle Morning, and I have the same all or nothing mentality. Most of us do, right? It’s human nature. You’re like, eh, I can’t do the full hour, so I’m just not gonna do it. And then I just had this like voice in my head. It was like, well, why?
Why make it all or nothing? Why don’t you just go do a 10 minute miracle Morning? And so then I was like, well, I’ll do like roughly six minutes. I’ll just do one minute, for each of the savers. And I set my timer on my so I set everything out. I took four minutes. Basically of those 10 minutes, setting everything out, had my affirmation set out. I had my book set out, and I set the timer for 60 seconds.
And I just prayed and I meditated, and I would just quiet and I just calmed my nervous system and just felt peaceful for a minute. And the time went off and I, I snoozed and did it again. And I pulled out my affirmations and I read my affirmations that the way I teach affirmations in the book, by the way it’s worth mentioning, are very different than the way that most of us have learned them. Most of us have learned like either lie to yourself, if you wanna be wealthy, just tell
yourself you’re wealthy. I am wealthy,
right? But if, if that’s not true for you, then you’re creating an internal conflict and that can be counterproductive.
The other way we’re taught affirmations is um, like use this passive flowery language that makes you feel better in the moment, but doesn’t actually do anything. So there’s a very popular affirmation. I am a money magnet. Money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance, right? Like that might make you feel better, but you’re just deluding yourself into thinking that everything’s magically gonna solve itself independent of your effort. So the way I take to affirmations in the book are step one, affirm what you’re committed to. Number. Step two, affirm why it’s a must for you. And step three, affirm which specific actions you’ll take and when. So now your affirmations are rooted in truth. They are practical, they are actionable, and they are literally designed to direct your thoughts and your behavior to be in alignment with what you need to do to achieve what you want in your life. So back to the six minute Miracle Morning. Sorry, I’m going fast, but but you go to your affirmations for one minute and then I did my visualization for a minute. I did 60 seconds of jumping jacks. I read a page outta the book I was reading, I learned something new. I wrote down, I journaled what I was grateful for. Six minutes go by and I’m like,
Wow,
that’s amazing how much I just got done in those six minutes and how good I feel. It’s almost like it was one 10th of the time that I was used to, but I got like 80% of the benefit, give or take.
Monica Packer: amazing.
Hal: And I thought there aren’t too many things that you could do 10% of the timeframe. that right and get 80% of the benefit. But I felt calm and clear and so on and so forth. And so, um, but yeah, your Miracle Morning, there’s an entire chapter in the book called Customizing the Miracle Morning to Fit Your Lifestyle. And that’s where I give real life examples of, you know?
mothers with newborns of nurses that work the night shift of, right, like all these different people, all different lifestyles and how you can customize the savers, you know, to work for you.
Monica Packer: Thank you for being willing to go there, especially because, you know, a lot of times the prescriptions are exciting and they’re easy to talk about because you know what the effect is of those and clearly do millions of people who
have benefited from your work.
Um, but I love . Knowing that there’s hope, if I can only start with one and if I can only start five or 10 minutes, um, earlier than I, than I typically do. And I wanna speak to one more
obstacle that a lot of my listeners face, and I’ll just share this personally, this quick anecdote. I’ve been, I actually have, well, I guess he’s not a newborn anymore.
I have five kids, but I’ve got an eight month old, and it was five years after our last child. So this has been . A huge adjustment for
me and I’ve been gradually working back to waking up earlier and I was so proud of myself. ’cause I woke up at five 30 today,
but then he was up at six 30 before, you know, I’d only gotten partway through my workout and it started to make breakfast for the kids and I was like, dang it.
You know? It kind of feels like, not like all is lost,
but there’s just this frustration that is pretty unique when you kind of can’t predict the interruptions you’re gonna have. So any tips you have for ? Our listeners in particular who deal with more unpredictable schedules or interruptions that they can’t necessarily say like, go live somewhere else.
Um,
Hal: Yeah.
And I can, I can relate to the frustration when my kids wake up earlier than I was expecting. I’m like, no, I’m not done with my miracle morning.
Hey, you wanna join me sweetie? It’s like anything in life. When we focus on that, which is out of our control, we feel out of control.
Monica Packer: mm-hmm.
Hal: And that doesn’t serve us. And so I think it’s, you know, one of the, one of the philosophies I live by is accept life before it happens. Meaning lots of challenges are ahead of us. That’s just life. Life includes struggle, life includes adversity. When I was 20 years old, I was hit head on by a drunk driver at 70 miles an hour, and I was found dead at the scene. I, my heart stopped for six minutes. I broke 11 bones. Uh, and I came out of a coma six days later to be told I would never walk again. And that was actually when I decided this, I realized, okay, I can’t change that.
I was in a car accident, and if the doctor’s right, I’m in a wheelchair the rest of my life, I can’t change that. But I can choose to be at peace. I
can choose how I feel inside. I can choose. And specifically it was I’m choosing to be the happiest, most grateful that I have ever been while I endure the most difficult time in my life. Now I realize that’s an extreme example. But six years ago I was diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive form of cancer. And again, this is another extreme example, but I’m tying this all together. And I was given a 20 to 30% chance of living. Now, it was much harder for me to deal with in the car accident because now I had a 7-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son to consider. But the day that I was diagnosed, I, I, I, I had already accepted it. It, it was, it’s this philosophy of I just practiced accepting life before it happened. So no matter what happened in my life, I’ve decided I only have two choices. I can either resist reality and wish it were different and cause myself emotional pain,
right?
Or I can accept reality exactly as it is, and it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, but I’m at peace with it, which to me is far more powerful because peace is more a state of mind than an emotion. You can be happy one minute, and then you get bad news, and now you’re, you’re distraught, you’re upset, you’re angry. But when you just live your life in a state of acceptance, where you accept life as it is, you accept life before it happens, then you are in a, it’s a state of peace with Whatever happens or doesn’t happen. Um, and so
again, those are
extreme examples, but that’s just
a, it’s a, and that should be part of your affirmations, right?
Like, I accept life before it happens. No matter what
happens.
I’m choosing to be at peace with it. ’cause what’s a better choice than that? Right? Being upset, angry, distraught. No. And so for me, when, um, when I get interrupted, it’s just a matter of I’m at peace with it. I’m going to flow with it. And logistically, I think one of the most, when you have young kids that wake up early, the miracle morning is arguably even more important. I’ve had that, that that’s kind of the answer. Where, when, when, uh, you know, a, a parent of a newborn, uh, says, how do I do the Miracle Morning? You know, I barely get enough sleep as it is. I’m up all night, you know, I’m in right. Um, the answer and not from me, the answer from other mothers who, or fathers, but usually mothers who went through having a newborn and do the miracle mourning is they say, do your savers, While you have the newborn and the sleep is completely sporadic and, and, and unpredictable. Do your savers while, your child is napping. While your baby is napping. And you know, that might mean you only do, you know, you do s silence and affirmations during the first nap, and then you join the nap yourself, right? But it’s like you just do the best that you can with what you have. And so it goes back to give up being perfect. For being authentic, right? Authentic with this is where I’m at in My life.
and I can enjoy it, or I can be frustrated by it. That is my choice and I might as well enjoy, you know, the interruption, right?
Embrace, oh, you came in when I didn’t think you were going to.
Amazing how blessed I am to have you as my child. Let’s, you know, let’s make the best of this.
Monica Packer: I am so appreciative of you modeling the flexibility that can happen in just a typical day to day, but also the bigger life things. I mean, you kept saying those are extreme examples, but they’re also real and they’re what you went through. And even if it’s different for someone else, maybe a season of heavy depression or another health need or something happening financially in their families, those are going to come too,
those more extreme times.
And so just being able to wanna accept what life can hand to you, but the flexibility, even . Those bigger moments and day to day to me matter so much. And I would add one thing that has helped me too is all of your savers, I love them each. Um, I have never been able to fully do them all before my family wakes up and that’s okay, but
I still have them a part of my life.
And sometimes you can combine ’em. Like exercise for me is both my silence, my meditative time, and my affirmation time. And if I know I can at least have 10 minutes of moving my body. And that with that mindset, it helps everything else, even if that’s all I can do.
So thank you for that. You know, Hal, we’re gonna wrap up our time here ’cause you are such a champ to make time for this podcast, but I want to make sure we know, a little bit more about the most updated and expanded version of The Miracle Morning and how it’s coming about.
And I just wanted to know how has this little book that could surprised you?
Hal: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s, I mean, I’m just, I’m smiling when you ask that. ’cause I never in imagined, I shouldn’t say, I never imagined, I did think, okay, wait a minute. This changes the lives of every person I share it with. So, I mean, this could change the world. This could, I mean, in fact, the,
the mission of the Miracle Morning, uh, is to elevate the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time. And, um, that, that sounds like a very grandiose mission, but that came later. It wasn’t the original mission. It came later after paying attention that what happens is when we do a miracle mourning, we elevate our own consciousness. And the way I define that is we become more aware and intentional about how our thoughts, our words, and our actions impact ourselves and everyone around us. And being more aware and intentional of that is, is elevating our consciousness. We’re becoming more conscious, more intentional, more aware. And so, um, Yeah.
So I, uh. I, you know, I, I never, I, I, I don’t think I ever would’ve bet on like, oh yeah, this is gonna reach millions of people, right? Like, I was more the insecure author, like, who’s gonna read this?
And how am I gonna convince ’em to wake up early? You know? Um, so it really is special. And the last thing I’ll share on that is, um, in 2016, I wrote The Miracle Morning, 10 Year Vision. The book had been out for four years at that point. And I wrote the 10 year vision. And, uh, it was just me dreaming. I think I was at a event and that was like the assignment, right? And I thought, and I, one of the things I wrote down is within 10 years, Every school in America begins, every student begins their day and every teacher with the miracle morning in the classroom. And as a result, bullying is being eradicated and detention numbers are being minimized. So I, I wrote, I, I wrote these bullet points of what that would look like. Um, and then I kind of put it away, and this is, I guess speaking of manifesting, but Somebody on my team a couple years ago, uh, met a principal who had rolled the Miracle Morning out at her school, and she went from being one of the worst in, in their district for detention to one of the best in a matter of months, and she had then shared it with schools in her district.
Long story short, now the Miracle Morning is practiced by thousands of students. Across the country and more, and more and more every day. So that’s been one of the most beautiful, exciting, turn of events. But, um, but yeah, and then also like when I go overseas and I meet people in Korea or New York or, uh, France, and they’re saying how this Miracle Morning changed their life and it’s not even in like their native tongue.
And I’m just, it’s just, it’s all kind of surreal, but. I’m just committed to keep, uh, keep sharing it with as many people as I can. So I’m so grateful, Monica, that you gave me this opportunity to share it with your audience and I hope that, I hope you all that read the book, uh, miracle Morning book.com and join the community and, and, and may it bless your life.
Monica Packer: Oh, thank you, Hal. And I would just say, you know, I, I said earlier, part of why I connect so much to your work is because of the realness behind it, but also just how it’s not about you. Even
if you share your own personal anecdotes, it’s, it’s not. Out you. And that’s actually pretty rare out there, um, especially in the personal development field, which is, which is weird.
You would think people would make it all about the people they’re trying to help, but it tends to be the other way around, and that’s not you. So I am so appreciative of your work. We’ll make sure we link to all things how, including your, your podcast, your book, anywhere else on social media that you are.
We always end with one final question and it’s what is one small way listeners can take action on what they learned today?
Hal: Hmm. I love that. It is set your alarm clock 10 to 15 minutes earlier. And if you wanna be ambitious and do like 30 minutes or an hour or something like that, you can, um, but start small, uh, and commit to wake up tomorrow. And, and let me give you an important tip. Keep your alarm clock as far away from you as possible.
So it’s one of the biggest, this is one of the most effective strategies in the Miracle Morning book. I’ve been told that by . Really successful people that are like, if it wasn’t for moving the alarm clock across the room, I’d still be reaching over to my bedside table and snoozing without even realizing it ’cause I’m half asleep. Um, when
you have to get
Monica Packer: the phone. Right? So charge your phone
Hal: Exactly. Charge your phone. So, so, um, for me it was, I keep it on the bathroom sink and then that way
with a glass of water. So I get up, I turn the phone off. It’s, it’s, think about that. It is infinitely easier to stay Awake,
when you’re already upright
and out of bed and
you’ve walked
across the room than it is If your arm is
reaching
over
and that’s your decision point. And so first
thing in the morning,
walk across the room, get outta bed,
hydrate. Drink
a glass of water. Because we’re dehydrated overnight by default, because we’re not drinking water for 6, 7, 8 hours plus we’re perspiring and, uh, expelling breath and so on and so forth. So, yeah, so Set your alarm clock
10 minutes
earlier
move it across
the room.
and then do one of the savers, silence, prayer, meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and
scribing.
Monica Packer: Brilliant. Well, Hal, this is definitely gonna go down in the books as a personal honor. Thank you
for making the time.
Hal: thank you, Monica. It’s been an honor and thank you to everybody that listened.
Monica Packer: Okay, I’ll stop the recording now.
