Book Summary: The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Table of Contents

The Book in Three Sentences

In this summary of The Miracle Morning, you’ll learn a step-by-step guide that teaches you a method to wake up energized, motivated, and focused. The book encourages you to start a series of healthy habits each morning that prepare you for success and a better life. The idea is that by changing the way you start your day, you can transform your life.

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The Miracle Morning Summary

Introduction: My Start Story, and Why Yours Is the One That Matters

It was December 1999 and Elrod was doing great: he was in college, he was working for a multimillionaire company, and he had a girlfriend, family, and friends. Unfortunately, he was involved in a car accident and was badly injured. For a moment, Elrod was clinically dead, but the paramedics saved his life. He was in a coma for six days and the doctors told him he might never walk again, but after seven weeks of rehabilitation, he was able to do it. Little by little, his life improved both personally and professionally, and even when there were some setbacks, he managed to push through them. Elrod eventually came up with a personal development routine called The Miracle Morning.

Chapter 1: It’s Time to Wake Up to Your FULL Potential

When we’re born, we’re told we can do anything. But somewhere along the way, we lose sight of that. To live your best life, you have to stop settling for less than you’re capable of. Never resign to a life of mediocrity, especially because everyone else is doing it. You can be successful in all areas of your life. This involves waking up early and following several small, simple steps.

The book follows three arguments:

Regardless of who you are, you are worthy and capable
To stop settling for less, dedicate time every day to become the person you want to be
How you wake up and your morning routine affects your success

The Miracle Morning works for everyone, even night owls. It’ll give you energy, motivation, time, productivity, and less stress.

Chapter 2: The Miracle Morning Original: Burn Our Of Desperation

Both inspiration and desperation can motivate you to change your life. But your successes and your failures can be transformative.

Develop yourself into the person you need to be to attract, create, and sustain success. Everyone wants success, but no one wants to do the work that it demands. In a sense, your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. The main challenge for personal development is finding the time. Mornings are the perfect time to do this because you have the energy, focus, and motivation. By making the first hour of the day focused and productive, you’re more likely to have a focused and productive day. If you want your life to be different, you have to be willing to do things differently.

The second challenge is choosing the tasks that will have the most significant impact. This is the activity that will improve your life the fastest. Some life-changing practices include meditation, affirmations, journaling, visualization, reading, and exercise.

Meditation: Silence can help you calm down and bring calm to the chaos
Reading: Implementing one idea from a book can be life-changing
Affirmations: This reminds you of your potential
Visualization: Look at a series of images, pause on each one, and be inspired by them
Journaling: By writing, you’ll feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders
Exercise: Exercise energizes you

The Miracle Morning can take as little as an hour. That’s ten minutes for each activity.

Chapter 3: The 95% Reality Check

To rise above mediocrity:

Step #1: Acknowledge the 95% Reality Check

95% of people will never achieve success, so you have to commit to thinking and living differently. Don’t be average or you’ll struggle for the rest of your life mentally, emotionally, relationally, and financially.

Step #2: Identify the Causes of Mediocrity

Why do 95% of people struggle in most areas of their life? To live an extraordinary life, you must design it and identify the main causes of mediocrity to avoid them. Those include:

Rearview Mirror Syndrome: This is reliving and recreating our past. Who we were isn’t the same as who we are now. Be clear on what you want. Think big and be positive.
Lack of Purpose: Most people don’t know what their purpose in life is. They merely survive, taking the path of least resistance and thinking short-term. To overcome mediocrity, live a life of purpose. This is the “why” that gets you to wake up every morning, the mission in life you want to accomplish. You don’t have to figure out your purpose, you can create it.
Isolating Incident: Each choice we make affects not only a particular moment but our life as a whole. Each action determines who we are and who we want to become. Don’t choose the easy thing, choose the right thing.
Lack of Accountability: Highly successful people embrace accountability. This is the act of being responsible, it’s what brings order to your life. An accountability system can be a coach, a mentor, or a family member. Whenever possible, set up an accountability partner.
Mediocre Circle of Influence: We become like the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Do your best to improve your circle of influence by seeking positive, happy, and successful people. Look for people who bring out the best in you and do the same for others.
Lack of Personal Development: Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. Everyone wants to be the best in each area of their lives (health, relationships, finance), but that requires a daily investment so that we can become the best. The Miracle Morning is a system developed to achieve that.
Lack of Urgency: The “someday” mindset prevents us from ever achieving anything.

Step #3: Draw Your Line in the Sand

Decide what you’re committing to doing differently today. Mediocrity is accepting to be the same and not changing anything. By making the commitment to learn, grow, and improve, you’re choosing not to be mediocre. Mediocrity isn’t a one-time event, it’s a series of mistakes that repeat over and over. Don’t accept mediocrity and allow yourself to be great.

Chapter 4: Why Did You Wake Up This Morning?

Most people have trouble getting out of bed because they’ve accepted mediocrity. By hitting the snooze button, you’re resisting your life and you surround yourself with negative energy before the day has even begun. Waking up on purpose gives you clarity, energy, motivation, and power.

Chapter 5: The 5-Step Snooze-Proof Wake Up Strategy (For the Snooze-aholics)

The Wake Up Motivational Level (or WUML) is the level of motivation you have to wake up. To increase that level, you do it one step at a time. The author suggests a five-step plan to do so.

Step #1: Set Your Intentions Before Bed. Try to make your last thought before sleeping a motivational one so that you wake up energized and enthusiastic.
Step #2: Move Your Alarm Clock Across the Room. Placing your alarm clock in another room or far from your bed makes you move in order to turn it off. Moving around is energizing.
Step #3: Brush Your Teeth. Brush your teeth and wash your face.
Step #4: Drink a Full Glass of Water. Hydrate as soon as you wake up.
Step #5: Get Dressed or Jump in the Shower. Both of these give you a “fresh” start so choose your favorite.

Chapter 6: The Life S.A.V.E.R.S. > Six Practices Guaranteed to Save You From a Life of Unfulfilled Potential

The potential gap is the distance between the person you are now and the person you want to be. It varies from person to person. It’s worth pointing out that our life situation is different than our life. Our life situation is external and includes circumstances, events, and people that surround us. Our life is internal and is who we are. These are attitudes and mindsets. Your life has four main components: the physical intellectual, emotional, and spiritual parts, or P.I.E.S. for short. The physical includes the body, health, and energy. The intellectual includes the mind, intelligence, and thoughts. The emotional includes emotions, feelings, and attitudes. The spiritual includes your spirits, soul, and higher power. The external world is a reflection of your inner world.

The Miracle Morning S.A.V.E.R.S. are six daily practices to develop the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual areas of your life.

S is for Silence: to start your days with calm and clarity, start your day with purposeful silence. This can help you pray, meditate, reflect, or practice gratitude. Silence reduces stress and improves self-awareness.

You can learn more about meditation by following this guide here https://ericsandroni.com/book-summary-the-headspace-guide-to-meditation-and-mindfulness-by-andy-puddicombe/.

A is for Affirmations: You become what you repeat to yourself, affirmations can help you become the person you want to be. You have to be conscious about the affirmations you use because they can work for you or against you. Whether you’re saying them out loud or not, you’re probably using affirmations already. You’ve been programmed to act, think, and behave a certain way, but luckily, you can reprogram yourself to get rid of bad habits, fears, and insecurities. By repeating certain ideas, your mind will eventually accept them. To create your own affirmations follow these steps:

Step 1: Determine the areas you want to improve
Step 2: Determine why you’re driven to change. Have a clear purpose.
Step 3: To have what you want, you first need to be who you need to be and you need to do what you need to do.
Step 4: Start small, be consistent, and be committed.
Step 5: Use inspirational quotes and philosophies.

Believe your affirmations. Update them as you grow. Be consistent when reading them on a daily basis.

V is for Visualization: Visualization is also called creative visualization or mental rehearsal. This is looking for positive results by creating mental pictures of potential outcomes. Visualization requires three steps:

Step 1: Sit tall in a comfortable place, breathe, close your eyes, and try not to think about anything.
Step 2: Visualize your goals, desires, and dreams. Allow yourself to see the details in your mental image.
Step 3: Visualize who you need to be and what you need to do.

Once you know what you want, focus on who you need to be to achieve it. See yourself performing habits and enjoying the process.

E is for Exercise: Exercising boosts your energy and improves health, self-confidence, and emotional well-being. Do it as early as possible so that you make sure it gets done.

R is for Reading: To acquire knowledge, ideas, and strategies, you have to read. By not reading, you’re depriving yourself of growing and being exposed to life-changing ideas from successful people.

S is for Scribing: Journal for five to ten minutes a day to document what’s going on inside your head. By using a journal on a daily basis, you’ll gain clarity, capture ideas, review lessons, and see the progress you’ve made. To start journaling:

Choose a format (digital or analog)
Get a journal
Decide what to write. Once you have a journal, you can talk about gratitude, dreams, food, plans, commitments, lessons, goals, and so on.

Chapter 7: The 6-Minute Miracle (For the Busy People)

The author suggests a six-minute daily plan.

Minute One: Meditate in complete silence
Minute Two: Repeat a series of affirmations
Minute Three: Look at your vision board and visualize
Minute Four: Write what you’re grateful for in your journal
Minute Five: Read a page or two of a self-help book
Minute Six: Move around for sixty seconds

Chapter 8: Customizing Your Miracle Morning to Fit Your Lifestyle and Achieve Your Highest Goals and Dreams

The Miracle Morning is flexible enough that each person can have a different routine. A lot about The Miracle Morning is customizable, including the activities, the wake-up time, the duration, and the order in which you do each task.

Wake up and start-up time: If your schedule doesn’t allow it, you can have The Miracle Morning at a different time.
When Why, and What to Eat (in the morning). When: Eat after the Miracle Morning. Why: Don’t base what you eat on your emotions. Focus on staying healthy and energized. What: Drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning. Brew tea or coffee. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

Here are other guidelines to consider:

Make sure The Miracle Morning you designed aligns with your goals and dreams.
To avoid procrastination start working on your least favorite task first.
Don’t take the weekends off when it comes to Te Miracle Morning.
Add variety to it: change your vision board, and update your affirmations.

Chapter 9: From Unbearable to Unstoppable: The Real Secret to Forming Habits that Will Transform Your Life (in 30 Days)

The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our habits. Habits are behaviors you repeat regularly and happen subconsciously to implement a new positive habit (or get rid of an old, negative one), you need thirty days that should be divided into three ten-day phases.

Phase One (Days 1-10): Unbearable. You’ll hate the new habit temporarily.
Phase Two (Days 11-20): Uncomfortable. At this stage, you’re mildly uncomfortable with the changes you’ve implemented.
Phase Three (Days 21-30): Unstoppable. This is where you go from trying to becoming. At this stage, the habit becomes part of your identity.

Chapter 10: The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge

The Miracle Morning 30-Day Challenge can change your life, wealth, health, relationships, and more. It’ll give you discipline, clarity, and personal development.

Conclusion

Let today be the day you give up who you’ve been for what you can become. You have the ability to change and become whoever you want to be. Don’t forget it.