I don't know the exact percentages but the general atmosphere seems to suggest that people don't want to wake up in the morning. They hit the snooze button. They hit it again. After a while, they open their eyes, take their smartphones, and check social media while still under the blanket. And they stay there until they absolutely must get up or else they'll be late for work they hate. Sounds about right? Or am I being a huge pessimist?
He may say it just to increase sales, but Hal Elrod suggests with his book 'The Miracle Morning' that you can make every morning feel like those Christmas mornings when you were little and knew that presents were waiting under the tree and you were so excited you just couldn't sleep and just jumped out of bed in the morning.
Well, let's face it, if you dislike your job, waking up in the morning may feel like a nightmare - and in that respect checking out what Elrod's suggesting might be worth the try. So I did. (I used to dislike my job. More about this later.)
So according to its front cover, the book promises "the 6 habits that will transform your life before 8am", and its back cover, the book hints to a "secret guaranteed to transform any area of your life faster than you ever thought possible". (I was interested to say the least.) Here are the so-called Life SAVERS, to be executed during the one hour you have for waking up one hour earlier than you used to:
S: Silence. Meditation, deep breaths, prayers, reflections. 10 minutes.
A: Affirmations. What do you want in life? Who do you aspire to be? Say it out loud. 10 minutes.
V: Visualization. Create mental pictures about the change you want to see in your life and what you will do to make it happen. 10 minutes.
E: Exercise. Get your heart rate up. 10 minutes.
R: Reading. Read a book that gives you insight into making the change you want to realize. 10 minutes.
S: Scribing. Write down ideas, insights, lessons learned, areas of personal growth. 10 minutes.
According to Elrod, you can customize the respective lengths of these elements as needed. The key point is that you do these the first thing in the morning, and preferably in this order. Doing the SAVERS hour will make you feel peaceful and unstoppable is such an extent that you cannot wait to get up in the morning. And what's better:
These activities are designed to make you concentrate on yourself, even for one hour a day, in a world that's emphasizing altruism and thinking of others before oneself.
I tried this for a while (about two months) and saw no life-changing result. That might be because I rarely did the SAVERS in the right order (since I like to run first and then do the others) and I often did them after arriving at work (which is definitely not the right time!), but the most important reason has to be this: I disliked my job. To the extent that no amount of affirmations and scribing could change my attitude about mornings.
I should try this again now that I've retired and taken up a job I actually enjoy and see meaning in. Maybe then I could present credible results.
If you've tried Elrod's SAVERS, let me know what you think!
RK
