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Moivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Ryun
A while back, I was looking at creating my morning routine. I was watching a YouTube video, and this guy just seemed to get a zillion things done every morning. I tried to think about what was most important for me to accomplish before the kids woke up or before leaving for work, but no matter how I planned it, it seemed like I would be lucky to even get a workout in.
Enter in The Miracle Morning
[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”0979019710″ cloaking=”default” height=”500″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nM5ylZrvL.jpg” tag=”passiveinco05-20″ width=”324″]
I go through spurts of listening to podcasts, probably because I can only handle so much life changing information at one time. It seems every time I get back into listening, it doesn’t take long to find that next bit of life changing information, that I should be implementing with all the other life changing information I’ve learned before.
I’m scrolling through my list of podcasts, looking for something to listen to, on an hour car drive. The title [easyazon_link asin=”0979019710″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”passiveinco05-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]The Miracle Morning[/easyazon_link] of course caught my eye. I can barely get up in the morning, lately, who the heck doesn’t want to have a “Miracle Morning”.
To sum it up for you, the author was trying to improve the quality of his life. He started researching what others said, helped contribute to their success. He found six practices listed over and over again and you’ve heard them all.
- Meditation
- Affirmations
- Visualization
- Journaling
- Reading
- Exercise
Not being able to decide which one would give him the most bang for his buck, he decided to do all six every morning.
That sounds awesome right, but who the heck has time in the morning for all that. Guess how long it takes him? 1 hour. Yup, 1 hour.

My first Miracle Morning looked like this:
5 minutes – Meditation
5 minutes – Affirmations
5 minutes – Visualization
5 minutes – Journaling
20 minutes – Reading
20 minutes – Exercising
It was a little hard to get going. I thought I was going to fall asleep during the meditation, but by the time I got to reading, I was wide awake feeling awesome. After I was finished, I was already thinking how I can’t wait to wake up and do this again tomorrow.
When I first listened to Hal talk about his routine, I thought, “Really, 5 minutes of meditation, what will that do?” But I can’t remember the last time a really sat down and meditated, 5 minutes was plenty for my wandering mind.
The more you have everything you are going to do in the morning, planned out the night before, the easier and faster you can transition through each practice. But don’t let the whole planning, stop you from just getting up and getting started.
Not sure how to meditate? Maybe the first morning, you spend the first minutes watching a YouTube video on how doing meditation.
Not sure about what affirmations resonate with you right now? Maybe you spend your first morning searching Pinterest for some moving photo affirmations. Or download my favorite affirmations audio program on iTunes that walks you through 20 affirmations. Affirmations That Work – William Simpson
For visualization, you could populate a vision board app. Or make your own physical vision board. Or just close your eyes and imagine life as you wish it to be.
Journaling. I am 100% sold on using the 5 Minute Journal and the 5 Min Journal – Intelligent Change Inc. App.
Reading, simple whatever floats your boat, or in my case pretty much the first book I found in my house, because I didn’t plan what I was going to read the night before.
Since the exercise time is short, you want to make sure whatever you pick, that it’s going to be intense. I like the 30 Real Time BodyRock Challenge workouts, just stop the workout when your time is up. I find that if I planned to only do a specific time of a workout, I don’t feel guilty stopping it half way through. Or try the new Summer Body Transformer Challenge, so far these workouts are only 15 minutes long, and I’m sore from this weeks workouts.
The hour doesn’t have to be broken up like my example above. I believe Hal said he originally did 10 minutes of each practice. If he gets really pressed for time he says once a week he often ends, up doing 1 minute of each practice.
Four Days In
Now on my fourth day doing this, I’ve added a few things to [easyazon_link asin=”0979019710″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”passiveinco05-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]The Miracle Morning[/easyazon_link] routine, extending it to be a total of 2 hours during the week and two and half hours on the weekend.
I realize to be, sane I need to do the laundry and house cleaning before the kids get up. During the week my routine looks like this:
Laundry – 10 min
Cleaning house – 10 songs (roughly 20 minutes)
Organizing / decluttering / Fung Shui-ing my environment – 20 min
Meditation – 10 min
Affirmations – 5 min
Visualization – 5 min
Journaling – 5 min
Reading – 20 min
Exercising – 20 min
My weekend routine is the same, except for exercise is extended to 50 minutes as I have more time and I like to do a hike/run that would be hard to fit into the weekday.
I’m really looking forward to waking up in the morning. It does mean going to be earlier, but my evenings were never this productive. And having all this under my belt before the kids get up, before I really start the day, makes every day, a day I’m moving forward in personal development, self growth and physical development.
If you’re looking to improve your mornings, create a morning routine, make a change in your life. Check out Hal’s book [easyazon_link asin=”0979019710″ locale=”US”w_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”passiveinco05-20″ add_to_ca default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)[/easyazon_link]. You can also visit his website for access to two free chapters of his book, an audio program and a video.
Remember your morning can include anything you want and be as short or as long as you want or have time for. Remember, even 1 minute of everything is better than nothing. Visit Hal’s Blog for an article on the 6 minute miracle morning.
Update: 5th Morning
I can’t continue to say enough, how much I’m loving the versatility of this morning routine. This morning I woke up with a cold, even though I had had 6 1/2 hours sleep, I thought it would probably be best to rest a little more. I slept for an extra hour. Got up, and was still able to get my entire routine done.
I just shortened somethings. I only did 10 minutes of decluttering, an 11 minute Butt workout, instead of 20 minutes. I shortened my reading down to 10 minutes instead of 20, visualization, affirmations and meditation were 3 minutes each, etc.
But guess what at the end of my morning routine, even while being sick, I felt totally awesome. I still made great progress. Even if I went back to bed for the rest of the day, my house had been cleaned, I got my laundry done, my exercise in and more. I realized that my phone was full of photos so I used part of the decluttering time to take photos off my phone. We canceled our cable provider, so I need to return our receivers, that’s deculttering too. As I get stuck for ideas, I’m going to start doing the 31 Days 2 Get Organized Challenge.
A system that works even when you are sick, is one that you’re gonna keep. It really is so flexible to fit anyone’s goals and time frame.
Give it a try, I’m positive if you’re committed to your self development and improving the quality of life, you are going to love it. Remember, you can’t get different results in life, doing what you’ve always done. You need to change something.
Still have questions, need some more motivation? Check out this Free Webcast every Monday at 9:00amEST.. The Miracle Morning Monday Awakening. You can also listen to past webcasts, which is awesome because, like I said your morning routine can be so flexible and should be every changing to what you and your life needs at the time, hearing about what others are doing with their morning routine, you may find gems of information that make a huge impact with what you can accomplish.
Creating A Morning Routine Resources
The Miracle Morning ~ 30 Day Life Transformation Challenge
Miracle Morning Free Resources and Downloads
- The Miracle Morning Affirmations
- Bedtime Affirmations
- Hal’s Energy Smoothie Recipe
- Sample of the Miracle Morning Journal
- and more
Philosophers Notes ~ Miracle Morning PDF
Tim Ferriss ~ What My Morning Journal Looks Like

Casey, what a great article on how you do your MM. I love it myself and it has really changed my life. Also, thanks for sharing the 5-minute journal. I found that to be so helpful! I can’t wait to read more! Thanks again!
Hey Casey! Given you’re a fan of morning rituals, you may find this podcast episode interesting… 🙂
https://soundcloud.com/jayson-gaignard/14-the-unfair-advantage-leveraging-the-power-of-habits-and-rituals
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Going to start my morning routine, your detailed journal, and your additions really helped, thanks!
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WOW! I’m amazed that you started doing 2 hours only after 4-5 days. I’m on Day 2, and I love the clarity I have from doing the Miracle Morning. I am actually documenting my Miracle Mornings on my YouTube channel. I see that you have posted a couple of videos at the bottom of this post. Would love for you to check out my journey videos, and hopefully we can inspire others through them!
I have really been considering getting this book. it sounds amazing. the question i have though, is what about actually eating breakfast, having a shower, getting dressed etc. cos i struggle enough with that as it is. is this something you do before that, or after or does he talk at all about it?
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wow… very high quality info, thanks for sharing! May all your dreams come true <3