Yesterday I woke up with a list of things I wanted to do over the weekend.

One of those things was painting my old toy box for baby B.  It’s a nice toybox- solid, unfinished wood.  My dad gave it to me when I was young with the intention of painting it.  Twenty-five years later, it is still not painted.

When baby B was born, I swore I’d have it painted for him before his first birthday.  My deadline is quickly approaching.

Still, come Saturday morning, I felt like I should tackle other things on the list first like doing the laundry or mopping the floors.

Then I thought, “If I don’t have time on a Saturday morning to work on the project that I want to do, when will I ever have time for it?”

So I spent the morning working on the toy box.  Mostly this involved taking things out to the shop for it and organizing my workspace a bit.

I did get work on the actual toy box started though.  I filled in some of the holes with wood filler and started the sanding on it.  The years have not exactly been kind to it and it needs some prep work before the fun part of painting it can start.

It felt amazing spending a bit of time working on this.  I’m actually really excited to see how it turns out.  I have a few other pieces of furniture in need of some refinishing too, so I think this is going to be my new hobby for a bit.  I love hands-on work.  It feels so grounding.

How do you spend your Saturday mornings?  Is there a time during the week that you set aside for the things that you want to do? 

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Baby is three months old!

To be precise, he’s three months, one week and one day old.  Every week is different with him.  He is changing and developing at such a rapid pace.  I’ve decided that I really like the stage he’s at right now.  He is awake and aware more.  He smiles.  He still likes to snuggle a lot.  He’s started sleeping for longer stretches.  If I leave him in a spot, he’s still in the same spot when I come back.

He’s a talker.  He will lie on his playmat and make happy noises for hours.  OK, hours is an exaggeration, but it feels like it sometimes.  I feel so blessed to have such a good-natured baby.

When I found out I was pregnant, I swore that this wouldn’t become a mommy blog.  Now that I have baby B, he seems to be the center of my universe.  All of the recent pictures are of him.  Most of this post is going to be about him.  I know that it won’t always be like that though.  I am slowly starting to work some of my other passions and responsibilities back into my life.

Making going places a routine

One thing that I’m proud of myself for is all of the things I have gone and done with baby.  S an I have taken him on two road trips, one of which involved camping.  I’ve made a huge effort to get out and do things.  Within a day or two of getting home from the hospital, I had him in the stroller for walks.  I’ve made it a habit to get out on a walk with him at least a few times a week.

We’ve been to mom and baby yoga a few times, to some mommy meetups, to the library, to Costco, to the gym, out to eat, on some hikes and probably some other places that aren’t coming to mind at the moment.  At first, it took more effort.  I’m glad I put that effort in though because it’s becoming easier and easier.

It has taken a little trial and error to figure out how to incorporate baby into my activities.  Mom and baby yoga ended up being a lot more baby than yoga.  I’ve found that’s not really for me.  I prefer dropping him off at the childcare at the gym for an hour and going to an adults-only yoga class.

Childcare

Speaking of childcare, it’s been a revolutionary thing in my life lately.  For the first couple of months, S and I didn’t leave baby B with anybody else.  I didn’t want to take him to the childcare at the gym because I didn’t want him to get sick.  It also took a while to get breastfeeding down well enough that I felt comfortable trying to leave him with a bottle.  I love my time with baby B, but the 24-hour nature of it was just exhausting.

In the last few weeks, he’s spent a couple of days with his aunt.  This month, I added him onto my gym membership so I can drop him off when I go workout.  For a small hourly fee, I can also drop him off there and leave the premises.  Even a few hours to myself make me feel so much better.  I get a chance to catch up on work calls, take a quick nap, or do whatever else.  S gets a break too.

I’d like to say that it breaks my heart to leave him.  Maybe this will sound bad, but it really doesn’t.  I’m just so excited to get time to take care of other stuff.  It helps that I really trust the people that I leave him with; I wouldn’t do it otherwise.  I figure it’s good for him to get a change of scenery for a few hours and to start meeting more new people and other kids.  I know it’s good for him to have a mom that gets a break sometimes.

I’m really looking forward to continuing to find a bit more balance between baby and the rest of my life.  I still want B to be my first priority.  I want to make the most of this time with him as a baby because I know it’s precious.  I also want to keep my sanity.

Sleep

Sleep with baby B has recently gotten much easier.  Now that he’s a big boy of three months, I no longer baby him quite so much.  The routine used to be walking him around, reading stories, nursing, snuggling, walking him around again, and nursing again until he finally fell asleep only to have him wake up when as soon as I lay him down and then handing him off to S who would repeat the whole thing minus the nursing.

Now, I put him in his cute footy-PJ’s, S and I read to him, he gets a bedtime snack, and then I lay him down and leave him.  Sometimes he’ll fuss for a few minutes, but it never takes long until he’s out.  I have to wonder if all our previous efforts to get him to sleep were really just keeping him awake.  I know that he may also have just matured enough to sleep better at this point.

The other super nice thing is that he now sleeps for 5-7 hours for the first stretch most nights instead of waking up every 1-3 hours like a newborn.  It feels heavenly.

Writing

I have been making an effort to get back to writing more.  With baby B going to bed by himself, I now have an hour or two in the evenings free.  This week, I’ve been taking advantage of that to spend some time writing.  It feels so nice. Hopefully I’ll have some more writing to share here over the next few weeks.

I’ve been reading Stephen King’s book ‘On Writing’.  I have seen it quoted in other places a few times, so when I came across it at the library I thought I’d give it a chance.  It has been a good read so far and has given me a little extra motivation to write more.  It’s been interesting to learn more about his writing process.

Lettuce Plants

My lettuce plants are still clinging on to dear life.  They are not, however, growing very much.  Perhaps I’ll try to get another picture of them for my next post… that is, if they’re still alive then.

The post N things of the week – #11 appeared first on Live Hoppy.

Some bloggers do 30 day challenges or 1-year challenges and write about the profound changes in their life due to whatever they did for that period of time.  What about the rest of us who decide to make a change and just don’t stick to it?  I wanted to take some time and analyze my progress and my energy habits, but also maybe provide some insight in general on creating habits and overcoming the difficulties to doing so.

Letting go of perfection

One thing that gets me is when I’m not perfect about doing something.  I feel discouraged with some of my energy habits because I haven’t done them EVERY day.  I have been tracking which ones I do (more on that in a minute) and my success rate for my new habits ranges from 35% for the worst one and 95% for the best.  I feel like these should all be 100s.

The pursuit of perfection has it’s advantages, but it’s not always helpful.  In fact, when focusing on it, it can be just the opposite.  That element of discouragement for not being perfect can make a person just give up.  A more useful way of looking at these things is to realize all of the times I have done these beneficial activities that I wouldn’t have done were I not trying to make them habits.

Expecting too much too soon

Developing new habits can be hard.  Even things that are simple to do can be tough to turn into real habits.  From my experience, things that I stick with tend to stick in the long run.  While I am transitioning into the new habit, I may not be perfect at it or may not do it every day.  Still, each time I do the activity, it strengthens those pathways in my brain and helps to develop it into a habit.  Really, it doesn’t matter if I miss a day or a few days of something.

In my current situation, a month long challenge is a good way to start developing habits that I want, but in the long run, a month isn’t going to change my life.  If these are things that are important to me and I stick to it, I’ll get better at doing them.

Time

Sometimes, it’s not that I don’t want to do my energy habits.  There are just times when the day flies by and some things don’t get done.  (Ironically, sometimes I’ve felt like I didn’t have the energy to do some of my habits for energy too!  For example, the other night, I had no energy for cooking a healthy dinner and ate pizza instead.)  This is really a matter of priorities.  I’m not sure what my approach to overcoming the lack of time thing needs to be in relation to my energy habits.  Maybe prioritizing which ones are the most important to me, perhaps even removing some from the list that I am trying to accomplish.  I may need to go back to letting go of perfection too.

Taking on too much

It’s easy to want to make a lot of changes at once.  There are two ways to take on too much: making too many goals and making goals that are too big.  I have mixed feelings about this because sometimes, making related changes all at one time can be pretty powerful.  Making a big change can be powerful too.  It can also be overwhelming.  Sometimes, it’s better to make small, lasting changes than to take on too much and give up because it’s hard.

One of the new habits I am working on is to get more sunlight.  I set the criteria at getting at least 5 minutes of sunlight 4 times per day.  I am cutting this back to 3 times a day because it makes it easier to accomplish while still keeping the spirit of the goal.  I’m also taking one of the habits off my list entirely.

Motivation

It’s easy to lose touch with our motivation for doing something.  You can read ways to motivate yourself for some ideas on re-motivating.  It’s also worth taking some time to re-examine your reasons for wanting to create a new habit if you’re running up against feeling unmotivated.  Ask yourself if this is REALLY something that you want to be doing.

Lack of results

Sometimes, we may feel like we’re not seeing results from the changes that we’re making.  It may be that we haven’t given it enough time.  It may also be that the changes and results have occurred so gradually that it’s hard to notice the difference.  Some results are easier to see like if one steps on the scale.  Others are harder to judge.  Do I have more energy than I did 3 weeks ago?  Honestly, I’m not entirely sure.  I’m not even sure if I can remember 3 weeks ago all that well.  I’m not sure how to tackle this difficulty really.  Maybe trying to do some sort of evaluation before and after.  Of course, it’s a little late to try that with my energy habits.  If anybody has ideas on this one, feel free to post them in the comments!

Tracking

One thing I do know is that by tracking the habits I am trying to develop, I am much more successful at getting them to stick.  I have a simple app on my phone that I use for this, but a spreadsheet, piece of paper or other method works fine too.  There are times when I do things simply so I can check them off as done on my app.  This helps to provide motivation.  I’ve been using this app for various habits off and on for over a year now, I think.  It’s helped me to realize that sticking with something long term is more important than if I miss a day or a few days.

Making things specific

My least successful habit so far is one I titled ‘Other energy task’.  The idea was to get myself to try new things and see how it went.  It was a good idea, but the problem is that it’s so vague, I just skip over it most days.  The truth is that this isn’t something that will ever be easy to develop into a habit and not something that would likely last past my July energy challenge.  So, I’m just deleting it.  I’d rather focus more on the habits that I’m likely to be successful with.  Specific habits with defined criteria are much easier to develop.

Setting a time for habits

Interestingly, I’ve only missed two days on my ‘cold shower’ goal.  (I haven’t been hardcore enough to just take cold showers, I start them out warm, but do turn the water to as cold as it goes for a minute or two before I get out.)  This isn’t the most fun or the easiest of the things that I want to turn into habits.  But it has a set time.  I know that I have to do it at the end of my shower or I’m not going to get naked and get back in the shower just to force myself to stand under cold water later in the day.  So I do it then because it’s my one chance and I want to be able to mark it off as done for the day.  Setting a specific time for a habit or linking it with another already established habit increases the chances of success.

Keep with it

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of sticking to it.  For me, this is the time when my ‘new’ habits aren’t so new anymore.  They don’t feel exciting now and my initial motivation has leached away.  Still, they’re not yet ingrained enough to be second nature so they still take work.  I know that if I stick with them, I’ll become more used to them and it will get easier.

Appreciating progress

Last but certainly not least, it’s important to appreciate progress.  Tracking helps with this, because it makes it easier to see what one has accomplished.  I may not have been perfect with my new habits, but I have done really well with them so far, especially considering how many I decided to tackle at once.  And I think I really do have just a bit more energy. 

The post Overcoming hurdles to developing new habits appeared first on Live Hoppy.

Inspiration

I think my inspiration for this has come from a few different places.  One was reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, which I have mentioned a few times recently.  (A quick, easy read, but though-provoking and enjoyable.)  She spends the first month of her one year project focusing on increasing her energy with the reasoning that doing that will make everything else easier.  That seems like good logic to me.  Also, I listened to an episode of Hal Elrod’s Achieve Your Goals podcast a while back about eating for energy.

My last source of inspiration is more internal.  Last year, I did a Whole 30 (a strict paleo style eating plan) and really felt better when eating super healthy.  It’s been kind of the guideline I aim for in my diet ever since, although I really don’t follow it closely at all.  Recently, I’ve been eating more and more junk and I feel like it’s impacted my energy.  Sometimes, I feel like I’m tired too much of the time.  So, I thought I would take a month and do as many of the habits that I could think of for increasing energy.

Brainstorming habits for energy

Step 1 was pretty simple, just listing out everything I could think of that is supposed to help.  Then I figured out measurable goals for each thing so I can keep track of whether or not I accomplish each one each day.

• Sleep- (Going to bed early and waking up early.  For me, I’ve been pretty good at waking up at 5 most mornings for the last several months, but my bedtimes aren’t consistent and I think I suffer some days because of that.  My goal is to be in bed by 9 and up at 5.)
• Eating healthy- (This is a pretty vague goal, but my definition is to have mostly paleo meals… lots of veggies and some meat, eggs or seafood.)
• Cold showers- (OK, these are hard and I might not even try for them if it weren’t summer time.  For my purposes, it counts if I take a warm shower and turn the water to cold for a few minutes at the end.)
• Get more sunshine- (I have two parts for accomplishing this: opening the blinds in my house and getting at least 5 minutes of sun outside 4 times a day.)
• Take vitamins -(No explanation needed.)
• Exercise- (I’ve already been pretty good about this one, so I’m not really worried about tracking it.  But it’s there as a reminder to me that if I’m dragging to go walk around or move a bit.)
• Drink more water- (At least 8 glasses a day.)
• Tidy up – (Clutter just feels so draining.  My goal for this one is at least 10 minutes of tidying a day.)
• Music – (Either listening to energizing music or playing drums.)
• Yoga- (At least 10 minutes a day.  I’ve noticed that often if I feel exhausted and do an hour of yoga, I feel way less tired afterward.)

Keeping track

Making goals doesn’t do much unless we monitor our progress.  I have an app on my phone for tracking habits that just lets me mark whether or not I accomplish them each day, so I put all of my habits into my app.  This lets me keep track of them and also, viewing the list throughout the day provides a reminder about the things I want to be doing.  Plus, just the act of being able to mark them as accomplished is a bit of extra motivation that can get me to actually do things.

The goal itself feels energizing to me.  I love setting goals and working on new things.  So we’ll see how it goes and I’ll post some updates along the way.

Related

This also led me to search Google for the best habits for more energy and a list of those can be found in the post Googling for energy.  Since some of the ideas involved eating or drinking certain things for energy, I also went shopping for energy.  Also see cultivating passion for energy and learning for energy.

The post Habits for energy appeared first on Live Hoppy.

What is The Miracle Morning?

The Miracle Morning refers both to the book by Hal Elrod and a morning routine that he suggests to start off the day in the best way possible.  Now, if you’re anything like me, you might hear the word ‘morning’ and think this isn’t for you.  It will be worth your time to keep reading.  I never thought of myself as a morning person, but The Miracle Morning changed that for me.   If you’re already a morning person, you will find some ideas here to make your morning even better.

The Miracle Morning suggests waking-up 30-60 minutes earlier than normal and spending that time working on personal development.  There are six specific activities recommended although other things could be added in.  I’ve been practicing The Miracle Morning for the last two months and it has really sparked many positive changes in my life.  More on that below, but first, some cute pictures of Hoppy who has also been doing The Miracle Morning.

Hoppy does The Miracle Morning

(Click on a thumbnail to see the larger version of the picture.)

Getting started

Resources

The Miracle Morning book is the best place to get started with this.  It provides tips on waking up earlier, has details about each recommended activity and reasons behind doing these things.  There are also motivational parts about why doing all of this matters as well as parts on modifying the program to fit individual needs or situations.  You can download two chapters of the book for free on Hal Elrod’s Website.

The Miracle Morning on Amazon (Note:I participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  I only link to the few products that I would recommend anyway.  I am very selective since I hate ads, thus the lack of any other form of ads on here.)

One thing that I found on his website that I really love is Hal’s Achieve Your Goals podcast.  I have listened to many of the episodes and they are amazing.  I think I love Hal’s podcast even more than I love his book!  Episode 25 is on the S.A.V.E.R.S components of the Miracle Morning and includes some great tips that aren’t in the book.  Also,  at  TMMbook.com  you can download a few things that are suggested in the book including a 30-day guide to getting started.

Tips On Waking Up Earlier

Probably one of the most important parts of The Miracle Morning for me were the tips on waking up earlier.  If it weren’t for these, I probably never would have gotten off the ground with this practice.

• Set your intentions before bed.  Imagine yourself waking up well-rested and excited for the day.  Don’t set yourself up to feel bad with thoughts like “I’m going to feel so tired tomorrow morning.  I only have 6 hours until my alarm goes off!”
• Place your alarm clock across the room.  This way, you have to get out of bed and can’t just hit snooze and fall back asleep.
• Brush your teeth.  The simple act of doing this helps to get you in motion.  Plus it’s simple enough you can do it while still half asleep.
• Drink a full glass of water.  This helps you to re-hydrate after not drinking anything for several hours while sleeping.
• Take a shower or get dressed.  This way, you’re ready for the day.  Dressing in workout clothes is recommended since exercise is part of the next part.

S.A.V.E.R.S.

S.A.V.E.R.S  is the acronym used for the six key activities that are recommended.  These include:

• Silence.  Spending time meditating, praying, reviewing things your grateful for or other similar activities.
• Affirmations.  Time spent practicing positive affirmations about how you want your life to be.
• Visualization.   Spending time picturing your day going smoothly, meeting your goals or similar things.
• Exercise.  Yep, we all know what this is.  Benefits of doing it in the morning include increased energy through-out the day.
• Reading.  Reading self-help books, motivational books, spiritual books or other books to help meet goals or further personal growth.
• Scribing (Writing).  Reflecting on accomplishments, listing things your grateful for, setting goals or writing down your thoughts.

My experience with The Miracle Morning

Here are some of my thoughts from along the way.

Day 1- Getting started

Recently, I started reading The Miracle Morning.  I thought I would give it a shot for 30 days.  I may modify things to fit my life a little after that, but I wanted to try it pretty much as outlined in the book to start with.  After all, I may find things that work that I never would have tried otherwise.  The whole point is to try something new rather than to keep doing things like I’ve always been.

When people post about these great new things that they are doing, I always wonder how long they are going to stick to them.  Is it really a permanent life-changing thing?  Or is it just a fad that they will soon abandon?  So, I want to commit to re-visiting this topic in a year and evaluate how it actually changed things for me.

I’m not a “morning person.”  I’ve never been a “morning person” or aspired to be one.  Until now.  I started reading “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod yesterday.  I’m only about half way through the book, but I was motivated enough to start the routine this morning.

Waking up has always been a struggle for me.  I hit the snooze button a few times.  I drag myself out of bed.  For that matter, I’m self-employed and it’s only been the last few months that I’ve started setting my alarm and trying to start the day at a decent hour.  It was part of my continual effort at being the person I want to be.  Even though I have been adjusting to getting out of bed by 7 rather than 8 or 9, I can’t say I liked it.

Last night, I followed one of the pieces of advice from “The Miracle Morning” and left my phone across the room so that when my alarm went off I would have to get up to turn it off rather than hitting the snooze button and just falling back asleep.  Initially, upon waking this morning when my alarm went of at 6 am, I thought, “This is crazy.  I just want to go back to bed and re-set my alarm for another hour of sleep.”  I’m proud to say that I pushed through.  I made my bed.  (Another habit I have  been diligent about for a few years now.  Habits are SO important to life.)  Then I brushed my teeth, which happens to be the next piece of advice from “The Miracle Morning” about waking up and was already the next thing I always do after making the bed anyway.  The next piece of advice was to drink a full glass of water, so I did that too.

Then I went through all six activities.  So, how was it?  It was actually pretty great.  After over-coming the initial desire to go back to sleep, it felt really good to be up early.  I feel excited and motivated for the day.

Day 2- Up at 5 am!

I set my alarm an hour earlier for this morning, so I was up at 5 am.  First off, I feel a small amount of disbelief at this.  I have never gotten up at 5 am unless I had some incredibly compelling reason.  Then again, I do have an incredibly compelling reason for doing this: to make the most of this amazing life I’m blessed enough to be living.  I keep thinking about Hal talking about how when you hit the snooze button, you’re basically telling the universe and yourself that you’d rather lie there unconscious than get up and live your life.

Things went well this morning.  I spent a little quiet time doing some gentle stretching.  Then I spent a little time reviewing the last few days, writing down what I want to do today in my planner, and making a gratitude list.  After that, I changed into my workout clothes, and did an exercise video from YouTube.  From there, I was on into the shower and went on to make breakfast and even washed the dishes immediately afterward.

After all that, I really did feel amazing and ready for a great day!

Day 3- Thoughts on exercise

One thing I am really liking is working out as part of this routine.  It does take just a little discipline to make myself start that part, but once I’m going, it feels good.

Working out is one of those things that I have attempted to put into my life time and time again.  Sometimes, I do OK for a couple weeks or so, and then somehow I always seem to quit.  Writing that, it feels like a strong word: quit.  It’s not like I ever consciously decided that I  going to stop working out.  One way or another though, it has never made it as a lasting change in my life.  The reality is that I did always quit.

I really want to find a place in my day where working out will really stick.  I’ve never really tried putting it first thing in the morning and maybe doing so will help.  My health really is important to me, so it makes sense to make it something that I actually work to maintain and improve first thing every day.

On a side note, I’ve been thinking about what things in my life that are my priorities in theory verses what I actually spend my time on.  My health is definitely one of those things that is ‘a priority’, but that I really don’t prioritize.  I’m going to change that!

Day 6- Seeing changes

The Miracle Morning book starts out with these testimonials about the amazing changes people experienced from the program: losing 25 pounds, having more energy, being more motivated, accomplishing more at work, etc.  The sorts of things that make you just want to stop reading because you’re sure the whole thing must just be another scam with false promises.  So, are these things true?

Well, I don’t have 25 pounds to lose and at day 6 I wouldn’t expect much progress on the little I would like to shed.  Plus, I donated my scale to the thrift store, so we’ll never know if I lose weight doing this.  I do feel good after working out each morning and I care a lot more about feeling good than about any number anyway.

I do have more energy.  I expected to be dragging a bit waking up so early and getting a little less sleep.  I’ve tried to move my bedtime a little earlier, but it still doesn’t compensate for waking up two hours earlier.  I really don’t feel tired, and in fact have been less likely to take a nap later during the day than before starting this.  Perhaps I was actually getting too much sleep before.  While we hear a lot about the detrimental effects not getting enough sleep, a quick Google search on ‘too much sleep’ brings up a ton of results on how maybe that’s not good either.  Or maybe I’m feeling better because of working out in the mornings.  Either way, I’m happy to feel more energetic and awake throughout the day.

I do feel more motivated as well.  It’s probably a combination of the time spent visualizing what an amazing day I’m going to have and how good it feels knowing I am waking up early and doing these things to start my day off in the most amazing way possible.

I have also been more productive at work.  I start working earlier since I’m up and going earlier and feel like I accomplish a lot even before lunch time!  The extra energy and motivation discussed above help a lot too.

For just being on day 6, I really am impressed at the results of doing this.  To be clear, it’s not like some miracle pill that will just make your problems go away.  It takes dedication and commitment.  The person that lost 25 pounds doing this didn’t just snap their fingers and wake up thinner.  They got out of bed earlier than normal every day and made exercise part of their routine.  Waking up at 5 am is a little challenging, although the first 3 minutes out of bed are the worst for me.  Pushing myself to start working out before the sun is up is a little hard too.  The increased energy, motivation and excitement about my life and goals provides more than enough fuel to make me really want to keep doing this.  I am working hard at making the most of this Miracle Morning challenge and I am loving the results that I am seeing!

Day 9- Settling in

I have to admit that the last couple of days, I haven’t had quite the same level of excitement for this as at the beginning.  This is a common occurrence with things that we start:  the first few days are grand and amazing and then the excitement wears off.  This is where commitment comes in.  Trying this out and seeing how it works for me is worth it to me so I’ll keep it up.

Something else can happen when we start to settle in to changes that we’ve made and that is that we start taking for granted the improvements.  We become used to things being better and forget how they were worse before.  This  can make us forget what motivated us to make the changes to start with.  This can result in losing our motivation a little bit even though things have improved.  It helps to look back and intentionally reflect on the improvements.

I accept all of this as part of the process of settling into this new routine.  If I think about it a little, I am still seeing benefits.  I have exercised every day for the last nine days and I haven’t had a streak like that in quite some time.  This helps me to feel accomplished and positive about myself.  Honestly, if the only thing that changed for me with all of this was to start exercising daily, that would be more than enough.

Hal mentions in The Miracle Morning that the activities he recommends aren’t like anything new that he came up with.  They are the six activities that are most recommended for personal development.  None of these activities was a new concept for me.  It’s just a matter of carving out time in my life to make these things a priority and do them.  Exercise was always something I intended to be doing.  Now, I am just actually doing it.

Day 10- Routine

Today something revolutionary happened: I woke up at 4:45 and not because my alarm went off.  It was actually 15 minutes before my scheduled alarm time.  I don’t know if this was a fluke or if it will happen again, but it was the first time this has ever happened.

I have really settled nicely into my Miracle Morning routine.  I’ve tweaked it a little to fit my preferences and with the goal of being all ready for the day once my morning is complete.  I haven’t taken out any of the suggested things, only added some that I find beneficial.  My routine looks like this (more or less depending on the day):

• 5:00- Wake up, make bed, turn on lights around the house, brush my teeth, drink a glass of water, make a cup of coffee.
• 5:20- Gentle stretching, meditation
• 5:35- Write down goals for the day in my planner, affirmations, visualizations, and a gratitude list
• 6:05- Change into workout clothes, workout
• 6:45- Step out on the back porch for a moment and just breath in some fresh air
• 6:50- Shower, and get dressed
• 7:25- Cook breakfast, eat breakfast while reading something that will benefit me
• 8:00- Brush teeth, wash dishes while listening to music or podcasts, make another cup of coffee
• 8:20- Spend time writing, editing photos, etc. for this site
• 9:15- Work

The couple of things I’ve added to what the book suggests are all habits that I think are really important for me.  Making the bed and washing the dishes are just simple things that keep my space more tidy and doing them daily is the only way to go.  It’s also important to me to take time to cook a real meal- normally some combination of eggs and tons of vegetables to start my day off right nutritionally.

Another important thing is to shower early in the day and try to dress with at least a little bit of effort. I work at home, so I could really just wear my pajamas all day if I wanted to.  It sounds like a nice thing, but at the end of the day if I’m still in my pajamas, it doesn’t matter how much I’ve gotten done, I feel like a loser. Starting the day showered and dressed sounds simple, but is so important.

Day 12- Variations

The last part was on setting a routine.  I think routines and habits are super important, but variety is equally important.

Let’s take exercise as an example.  Making a routine out of exercising every morning is a great thing.  But if you do the same workout video every single morning, you will likely soon grow bored and and lost interest in this exercise routine.  This is why it’s important to make sure and include variety in these things.

It is possible to include different options for all of the habits that make up The Miracle Morning.

Silence- Change up the type of meditation that you’re doing.  Try searching online for different types of trying  a meditation app.  Or if the weather is good, try moving this portion outside and enjoying some fresh air.

Affirmations- Part of the power of affirmations comes with repeating the same positive statements over and over.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t add to your list or change them as your goals change.

Visualization- You can try visualizing success in different areas of your life.  Or have fun with it and draw pictures of how you see the future- even if they’re just stick figures.  One day, I used Google Photos to make a little collage of nine different pictures that shows what is important to me in my life.

Exercise- There are tons of different options for this.  You might try looking for a YouTube video with a new routine or buying a workout DVD at the store.  Or go outside and go for a walk, run or bike ride.

Reading- This is an easy place to mix things up since you can always pick a new book to read.  I love to read books on all sorts of different topics from entrepreneurship, to relationship skills, to stress-reduction, to habits and motivation, etc.  You could even read a book on a new hobby you want to pick up or a new skill you want to learn.

Writing- This is another easy place to include variety.  Writing topics could include anything from what you’re grateful for to what your goals are to what happened yesterday.  I like to make a gratitude list, write my to-do list and schedule in my planner and then spend some time writing for this site or journaling.

Day 13- Push through

I woke up this morning and I didn’t feel like doing this whole Miracle Morning routine at all.  I felt tired and my head hurt a little and I just didn’t want to do all the stuff.  I told myself that I was committed to it and that I wasn’t going to slack.  There may be days that I don’t feel like doing this sort of thing, but it is precisely those days when it is the most important to do it.

Committing to a new habit or routine doesn’t mean that we do it just when we feel like it.  It means that we do it no matter what.  Being the sort of person that pushes through when things get difficult rather than quitting is what makes somebody successful.

I had to keep reminding myself of these things all the way through my routine this morning.  First, I just wanted to go back to bed.  Then I wanted to just work on my website rather than doing my workout.  Then I didn’t want to go and have a shower and after that, I most definitely did not feel like washing the dishes.

Now I get the rewards.  I feel better, I am ready for the day and I have a nice clean kitchen.  It’s important to find things that make us feel motivated and incorporate variety to keep ourselves interested.  Life shouldn’t be just pushing ourselves through and hating it all the time.  But there will be times when we don’t feel motivated.  Sometimes, the answer is just to push through and do the thing we don’t want to. 

Day 16- Recognizing progress

I am more than half way done with my 30 day trial of this.  It’s always important to recognize our progress on our way towards meeting our goals.  Really, waking up at 5 am for 16 days in a row is an amazing accomplishment for me!  I don’t think I’ve ever gotten up at 5 am two days in a row before in my whole life.

A couple of days recently, I have gone out on walks for the exercise portion.  It’s really enjoyable to be outside while the sun is rising, breathing the fresh air, watching the sky brighten and seeing the few other people that are out walking or jogging.  When I see other people out then, I feel a certain sense of camaraderie and think, “We are the people really living life!”  I bring my headphones along and listen to some good songs and that perks me up as well.

Two months in

I am now about two months in to practicing The Miracle Morning.  I did struggle some with adjusting my sleep schedule for the first few weeks, but now I am used to it.  I still don’t like it when the alarm first goes off in the morning, but once I get going, I am glad I am up.

I’ll even admit that I fell off of the routine for about a week in there.  Life was a little chaotic, but the excuse doesn’t really matter.  The important part is that I corrected my path and got right back at it.  Waking up early and doing my new morning routine really does get the day off to a positive start.  I find that I am more productive at work.  I feel more positive about my life and about myself.

I found that really doing a good workout for 30-60 minutes and focusing on crushing it makes a big difference for me.  I know that I am  unlikely to workout later in the day so making it a priority to do a solid workout in the morning has really been helping me.  After two months of doing this, I am in better shape.  I also feel more like I am living in alignment with my most important goals because my health is very important to me.  That said, I haven’t always actually made exercise a priority.  It feels really good to start the day off with a workout.

I have also been listening to Hal’s podcast A LOT.  His positive message and tips on achieving goals has really impacted my life.  I’ve always been fairly competent at achieving goals, but his tips take it to the next level.  One of the most important shifts in how I think has been regarding looking at the value I create for others.  For example, at my job I am really thinking more in terms of providing value for my customers rather than making money for me.  This is probably one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned from Hal.

I also started writing a book after listening to his podcast on why everybody should write a book.  It was kind of interesting because when I was listening to the podcast, I really wasn’t thinking about writing a book, but it must have sunk into my subconscious because a few days later I decided to really go for it.

The bottom line is that I like the results I am seeing enough that I plan to continue doing The Miracle Morning pretty much indefinitely.  I am really glad that I gave it a shot and that I pushed through when it was kind of tough.

Further Reading

It’s interesting because now that I have become more aware of this idea of waking up early, I am finding that I see where tons of successful people tout their early morning routines.  I’ve heard it said that success leaves clues and all we have to do to become successful is to identify successful people, look at what they do and then do the same things.

Here was a good article I found on StevePavlina.com  (a great website that I coincidentally found because it was mentioned in The Miracle Morning).  At the bottom of the article there are more links to some of his related posts on early rising.

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off

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