The Six Morning Habits of High Performers

Six practices to get back on track

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- [Narrator] This is an audio course. No need to watch, just listen. Welcome to the latest
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podcasts and made them even easier to listen to. Each episode is split into sections, use
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for new ways to help you learn and we'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks for
listening. - [Hal] I had always wanted to be a professional keynote speaker, Pete,
because I had been speaking at all these, y'know, these conferences for my
company. That's what I did and I launched that into a speaking career. And then fast-
forward and kind of bringing it to what led into morning rituals, in 2008, when the US
economy crashed, I crashed with it. I lost over half of my coaching clients, I was a coach
at the time, half my income in 2008, couldn't pay my mortgage, I lost my house. I
canceled my gym membership, my body fat percentage tripled in six months. It was just
this real six month downward spiral. And a sequence of events led me to go on a
run and listen to an audio from Jim Rome. This is the quote that he said on that run, and
this quote changed my life faster than I ever thought possible and it really is the catalyst
for the Miracle Morning. And he said "Your level of success "will seldom exceed your
level of personal development, "because success is something you attract "by the
person you become." And in that moment, I went "I'm not dedicating time every day to
my personal development, therefore, I'm not becoming the person that I need to be to
create the success that I want in my life." And I had this epiphany that I got to go figure
out what the world's most successful people do for their personal
development, Googled, y'know, best personal development practices of millionaires,
billionaires, CEOs, Olympians, you name it, and I had a list of six different practices. And
they were all timeless, they had all been practiced for centuries, right? And I, I almost
went "Well, none of these are new." And I think we're really conditioned in our society to
look for the new, right? I want the new app, the new movie, the new season on Netflix,
right? We just want new, new, new, new, we're all new. - [Pete] And you got to update
the app like every month. - [Hal] Yeah, exactly, and so I almost dismissed these. The
epiphany, I finally went "Wait a minute, "this is what successful people do, I don't do
these." And then the real epiphany was, which one of these am I going to do, and then I
went "Wait, what if I did all of these?" Even though I wasn't a morning person, I
thought, "Y'know what, if I want my life to improve, I got to improve. "I got to wake up
an hour earlier "and I got to do one of these six practices." I woke up the next day, I did
them, I sucked at all of them. But one hour into it, my very first day, my very first hour of
what is now called the Miracle Morning, it didn't have a name back then, I felt
incredible, I felt confident for the first time in six months. I felt energized, I felt
motivated, I felt like I had clarity. And I really, the realization is, if I start every day like
this, where I become a better version of the person I was that went to bed the night
before, and I do this consistently, day after day after day after day, it is only a matter of
time before I become the person that I need to be, that can create the success that I
want, any level that I want, in any and every area of my life. And I thought it would be six
to 12 months, it was less than two months that I more than doubled my income, I went
from being in the worst shape of my life, physically, to committing to run a 52-mile
ultramarathon, I had never run more than a mile before, and my depression went away
within a couple of days.
Practice silence for greater clarity
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- [Hal] The first S in SAVERS stands for silence, and if you think about it, most of us, we
don't have a lot of time in silence, it's usually, it's kind of chaos from the time we get up,
and then we're in the car, listening to podcasts, or the radio, you know, music,
something like that. And then we're at work with people, and on phone calls, there's
usually not a lot of time for kind of peaceful, purposeful silence, yet when we quiet our
mind, that's when our best ideas come, right. When we tap into our inner wisdom, we
tap into the wisdom of, do you want to get woo-oo for a second, right, the universe, or
higher intelligence, whatever you want to call it, god. But meditation, the way it's been
taught, people often, they're taught to clear your mind. And most people, they can't do
that, right, or it's very challenging and it takes somebody like years to get to where they
can actually do that. Well, for me, I want results. I will use my meditation as a way to set
the mindset for the day. So I'll look at my schedule, and I'll go okay, what do I need to
accomplish today. And, you know, depends on what's on the agenda, like I just finished
writing a new book, and when I was working on that book, every day, every morning,
you know I meditate before I'd write, and I would go man, I need ideas. I need some
content for today. And so I would set my intention for the meditation, so my intention
would often be, you know, okay, what am I working on, what chapter am I working on
today, all right, I need ideas for this chapter. And I would just set that as an
intention, and then I would meditate, and I would always have my notes app on my
phone, in front of me with my timer going for, you know, 10 minutes usually is what I
meditate for. And I don't think there was a single day where I wasn't flooded six
ideas, where I would pause the meditation timer, I'd open up the note tab, and I'd would
write an idea, then I would go back to meditate, and then I would just sit there and I
wasn't trying to think. When you force thought, you don't usually get your best
thought. It's in those moments, and that's why when we're in the shower, not even
thinking about something, we have our best ideas. When we're falling asleep, not even
thinking about something, we have our best ideas. Well, this is a way to engineer that
space where you're tapping into your genius, every single morning, so that you bring
those ideas and that clarity into your day. That's one way to meditate. Another way to
do it is, sometimes I might have a speech for that day, and I'd go, I need to feel
confident. I am speaking, and I will literally just affirm things while I am in my
meditation, and I'll just affirm things like, what did I do today. I chose three statements,
the point is, use meditation, not to remove thought, you can, and sometimes I'll
meditate in that way, where I just try to get a state of being, really loving and
peaceful. But ultimately, I typically will have a specific result that I want to generate
internally, either mentally or emotionally, and I will set that intention going into
meditation, and I will use the meditation actively to do that. So I will think something
over and over and over and over, while I deeply feel it in a way that will serve me for the
rest of the day.
Stay relaxed but attentive in your silence
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- [Interviewee] When it comes to silence, if you're at all overwhelmed by meditation, or
anything like that, set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes, and be in silence for 10
minutes. That's it. The only way you can fail is if you judge yourself, for any part of your
experience. If you go, Oh, I shouldn't be having these thoughts. Oh, I shouldn't be
thinking. Oh, I shouldn't be feeling this way. Oh, I shouldn't have thought of that
way. That's the only way you can fail at silence is to, to judge your experience. -
[Interviewer] Mhmm - [Interviewee] If you just sit there in silence, you cannot help, but
get value. It lowers your cortisol levels. When you sit in silence, it's scientifically
proven, there are over 1400 scientific studies, that prove the benefits of
meditation. Now, granted, if you are intentionally thinking stressful thoughts, I don't
know that that would achieve that objective, right? And that's where judging yourself is
a stressful thought. So, but yeah, if you sit in silence, you will lower your stress, You'll
gain clarity, new insights will come into your mind, and you'll get better with
practice. Your first day in silence is your worst day in silence, right? - [Interviewer]
Mhmm - [Interviewee] And every day that you do it, you'll stumble upon new levels of
consciousness, new ways of feeling, thinking, being, you know, that once you grab
them, you can then get there quicker, easier, stay there longer. And the benefits of
spending time in silence, will simply be amplified and deepened over time. -
[Interviewer] Yeah, that's great. So then with the silence, like what makes it silence, is just
that you're not actively reading something, listening to something, tapping away on
your phone, or in motion. So you are seated and you maybe have your eyes closed, and
you're just sort of letting your own internal self, be the focus. - [Interviewee] Yeah,
exactly. I like to sit up straight. There's a wrong way to meditate beyond judging
yourself. It is your posture, right? When you sit slouched over, laying down, your breath
slows, you're not, you want to find the balance between relaxation, and alertness,
attentiveness. So sitting up straight, sitting tall, breathing deeply, like being really alert
and aware, but very calm and relaxed. That's the ideal state for that silence. And like you
said, yeah, it just means that there's no stimuli. There's no stimuli where you're not
focused on something. That's why closing your eyes is good. Now there are ways of
meditating where, you're going to have your eyes open. And sometimes I will open my
eyes. Like I said, I'll look at the pictures of my family, or I'll look at a beautiful picture of a
sunset, sunrise. That puts me in a really nice state. - [Interviewer] Yeah, everything that
you said is correct. - [Interviewee] By the way, setting a timer is the other piece I was
going to mention. Is that, so you don't have to think, am I, how long am I doing? Am I
doing it long enough? (laughs) Don't be checking the clock, just have your timer
set, and that way, you know, hey, I'm free for 10 minutes to not think about anything, or
think about it just whatever. I'm free for 10 minutes, just to sit here in silence, and I'm
not going to lose track of time, because that timer's going to go off, when it's time for
me to get up and do my, affirmations or whatever's next in your miracle morning.
Make truthful affirmations
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- [Interviewer] Let's talk about the affirmations next in "The Miracle Mornings," so what
do you mean by that and what do you not mean by that? - [Interviewee] First let me just
say, I believe they've been taught incorrectly by, or ineffectively, I should say, by self-
help gurus if you will, for, I don't know, decades. I don't know how long, but let me
define what an affirmation is and then I'll talk about why they've been taught wrong and
what I find is the most effective way to do them. An affirmation is simply a written
statement that directs your focus towards something of value. The way affirmations
have been taught, there are two problems with the way they've been taught for
decades, I don't know, centuries. I don't know how long. Number one is a form of
affirmation that's essentially lying to yourself, trying to trick yourself into believing
something that is not true or is not yet true. So for example, let's say you want to be a
millionaire. Well, lot of self-help ex-pioneers have taught just, put the words I am in
front of whatever you want to be, and say that to yourself until you believe it. So you
say, "I am a millionaire". "I am a millionaire". "I am a millionaire", but we all know the
truth. We know our truth, and if we're not a millionaire and we want to be a
millionaire, when we say, "I'm a millionaire", our subconscious or even our conscious
mind is going to go, "No, you're not. You're lying." And then you're fighting with reality,
which is never ideal. The truth will always prevail. Number one problem with
affirmations, the way they've been taught, is lying to yourself is not optimal. The second
problem with affirmations, the way they've been taught, is that self-help pioneers have
taught you to use flowery, passive language. So, we'll stick on the topic of finances. You
may have heard this affirmation, it's very popular, or some variation of this. "I am a
money magnet. Money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance." Right? A lot of
people say that affirmation, and they really like it, and I believe they like it because it
makes them feel good in the moment. They go, "Man, I checked my bank balance this
morning and it was negative, so I need some affirmations to make me feel better. I'm a
money magnet. Oh, that feels good. Money is flowing to me effortlessly. All my financial
problems will be taken care of by the universe or whatever. It's like, no, that's not how
money works, right? - [Interviewer] Yeah. - [Interviewee] It's not effortless. That's very
rare, you go buy a lotto ticket, that's not going to happen, most likely. The way that
money's created is by you adding value to the world or to the marketplace, and then
you're compensated for that value.
Craft your affirmations as commitments
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- [Hal] I'll give you an example of how to use affirmations in a way that is not based in
lying to yourself or in this passive language that makes you feel into in the moment, but
takes your responsibility away from creating the results that you want. There's four steps
to create affirmations that produce results. Number one is affirm what you're committed
to. So don't say I'm a millionaire, or not even I want to be a millionaire, say I'm
committed to becoming a millionaire. It's very different when you affirm something
you're committed to versus something that you think you are or want to be that you
know you're not, right? The second thing is why is that deeply meaningful to you? So
after you affirm what you're committed to, reinforce, remind yourself, why is that deeply
meaningful to you? If you want to become a millionaire, why? Is it because you want to
provide financial freedom for your family? Because you want to buy fancy cars,
right? Depending on how meaningful it really is, right? That's going to determine how
much leverage you have over yourself to actually do the things necessary to get you
there. And that's number three is affirm what specifically you're committed to doing that
will ensure your success, right? So what are the activities you're committed to that will
ensure your success? So I'm committed to increasing my income to $100,000 a year and
saving 50%, or whatever, right? Get very specific on the activities that you're going to
do. When I was in sales, I would affirm how many phone calls I was committed to
making every day, because I knew if I made that number of phone calls, my success was
inevitable, I couldn't fail. The average would've worked themselves out if I made my
phone calls every day. And then the fourth part of the affirmation formula is, when
specifically are you committed to implementing those activities? So, when are you're
going to make your phone calls? When are you going to run every day to lose that
weight? When are you going to take your (mumbles) out on a date or tell them you love
them or right... What are the activities and when are you going to do them? So those
four steps, what are you committed to? Why is it deeply meaningful to you? What
activities are you committed to doing that will ensure your success? And then when
specifically are you committed to doing those activities? Those are the four steps to
create what I call miracle morning affirmations. And miracle morning affirmations are
practical and they're results oriented, and they reinforce the commitments that you
need to stick to to ensure that you achieve the results that you want to achieve in your
life.
Use visualization to motivate yourself
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- [Instructor] Visualization, here's what I'll say. Two things on it. Number one is the
world's best athletes almost all of them use visualization including UFC fighters,
right. And there's a reason for that. It's they visualize themself performing optimally and
achieving their goals so that they go there mentally and emotionally before they ever
step on the court or before they ever open the book or before they ever, right. They've
already gone there in their mind so when it's realtime, when it's game time, when it's
practice them it's that much easier to go there. And the other thing I'll say on
visualization is don't just visualize the end result. Visualize, in fact more
important, visualize the activity. See yourself getting on the phone to make those
calls. See yourself opening your computer to write those words that's going to make
that into a book. See yourself going to the gym or lacing up your running shoes and
heading out your front door. Especially if you don't feel like it or you don't like doing
those things. See yourself doing it with a smile on your face in a way that's
appealing. When I was training for my ultra marathon I hated running. So every morning
I visualized myself enjoying running. And because I did in the morning in my living
room, when it was time to run I actually had already created this anticipation that I
would want to do it and then I actually felt that when it was time to go for a run. And
that's the power in visualization. - [Guest] Oh that's great. Now when you say visualize
yourself, I'm thinking almost like dreams. You know, sometimes they're first-
person, sometimes they're third-person. Like, do you visualize like you're seeing
yourself from a third-person vantage point putting on the shoes? - [Instructor] You can
do both but I usually do third-person. Right, I see myself from the outside, right. So I see
myself like I'm watching a movie of myself, right. Part of that movie will involve me
looking in the mirror usually, right, that's part of it almost always. - [Guest] The dramatic
montage music. - [Instructor] Yeah exactly, exactly. And yeah, and feel free to play the
music, right. I mean like literally play that music on your phone while you're doing the
visualization. A lot of people do that.
Boost your energy with morning exercise
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- [Dan] The E is for exercise and here's what I'll say is that if you like to, well, if you don't
exercise at all this applies to you. If you exercise, if you already go, dude, I go to the gym
after work or on my lunch break or I like to run in the evenings, it's my, right. This still
applies to you and here's why. I'm not telling you that you need to switch your gym
time to the morning. What I'm telling you is that the benefits of exercising in the
morning even for 60 seconds, okay. If you're sitting on the couch going oh, I know I
should, you know, I don't have any energy. I'm so tired. Stand up and do 60 seconds of
jumping jacks. I promise you at the end of the 60 seconds you'll be breathing hard, your
blood will be flowing throughout your lymph system, you know, your brain, right, the
oxygen. Your cells will be oxygenated. You'll feel 10 times more awake than you
did before you did those 60 seconds of jumping jacks. So I in the morning usually do
stretching followed by a seven-minute workout. And that's an app on the phone. It's
also on YouTube. It's totally free. I highly recommend it. It's a full body workout in seven
minutes and it's fast-paced so you get cardio as well as strength training as well as
stretching and flexibility. So that's what I recommend in the morning. - [Guest] Dan,
what's the video or the app called. - [Dan] Seven Minute Workout. Number seven,
minute workout. - [Guest] It's just called Seven Minute Workout. Okay, that's easy.
Read a few pages each day
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- The R is for reading, and I don't need to say much on this, is that we're all, every single
one of us, is one book away, you know, whatever topic we want to improve in our
life, we're one book away from learning everything that we need to learn to improve
that area of our life. Want to be happy? There's a book on that, in fact, there's
hundreds. Want to have an amazing marriage? There's a book on that, in fact, there's
hundreds. Do you want to be a millionaire or be wealthy and financially free? There's
hundreds of books on that, right? In fact, I just made a documentary called The Miracle
Morning, it reveals the morning rituals of some of the worlds most successful
people, and in that is world class entrepreneur Joe Polish, and he said that, he goes,
"When I meet someone "and I say what's the best book you've read "in the last year?,
and they go well I don't read, "I haven't read a book." He said, "It blows my mind that in
places "where people have access to books "and they know how to read, "and therefore
they have access "to everything they need to know "to transform anything in their
life "to be at the most extraordinary level it could be," He said, "It blows my mind that
people aren't reading "every single day. Why aren't you reading every day? It could be
five or ten minutes a day. Doesn't have to be a long time. Think about it. If you read 10
pages a day, that's 300 pages a month, right? No, no, no, no, let's say five pages a
day, that's 150 pages a month, right? That's one self help book a month. 12 a
year. You're a different person. You're separating yourself from 95% of our society, and
you're joining the top 5% that reads those books because you're learning everything
you need to to transform any area of your life.
Clarify your priorities by journaling
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- The final S is the word Scribing, and that's a pretentious word for writing. But I needed
an S for the final part of the SABERS to round out the acronym. This... your goal setting
is involved in scribing, that's under that umbrella. Journaling would be my scribing, and I
use an app called Five Minute Journal, they also make a hard cover version if you prefer
to write by hand. You can also just write freehand on a piece of paper. The Five Minute
Journal, I like it because it's scientifically researched, and it's very simple, and takes five
minutes, and it's simply pre prompted statements or questions. There's just a few, so in
the morning it's three things I'm grateful for, and the three most important things that I
need to do today to make today a great day. Granted, it's worded, that exact words, but
that's paraphrasing. How do I, of all my things on my to do list, what are the three that
will make the biggest difference in my life, my business, et cetera. And so, every
morning, I start by focusing on three things I'm grateful for, which remind me that my
life's already amazing. Doesn't matter what's going on outside of me, if I focus on
internally what I have to be grateful for, everything is, there's always things to feel
amazing about. There's always things to complain about. What we focus on becomes
our reality. So I start with gratitude, and then I looked at my to do list, I look at my
goals, I'm like okay, of the infinite things I could work on today, and out of the 20 things
that are on my goal and to do list, what are the three that will make the biggest impact
for me right now, and move me forward toward my most important goals? And you
think about it, you know, most people, we don't take the time to just get that level of
clarity. It only takes a couple of minutes, but it's a game changer. 'Cause here's the
problem, most of us are busy. Every day we're busy. And being busy tricks our brain to
think we're being productive, but productive isn't busy. Productive is busy doing the
things that move us toward our biggest goals, our greatest dreams, the life that we truly
want to live, and the impact we truly want to make. And, that simple act of scribing
every morning, forcing your brain to clarify it in writing, what are those top three
priorities, that is, for me, that's been a game changer, and it's allowed me to make
massive progress on these goals that once were just fantasies, that I never even
thought or really believed I could accomplish.
Appreciate your current place in the journey
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- [Instructor] We all usually have this monkey on our back with urgency, like, "May, I
want to be "where that guy is, or where she is." Man I have all these goals and dreams I
want to be there now. And it creates this feeling of like scarcity where we're not where
we want to be. And what I've found not only in my own life but studying other people is
that any time you find yourself wishing or wanting that you were further along than you
are just realize that when you finally get to the point that you've been working so hard
for so long you almost never wish it wouldn't happened any sooner. Instead you look
back and you see the timing and the journey were perfect. All the adversity, all the
challenges, it all played a part in you becoming the person that you needed to be to get
where you want to go. So if you can take that hindsight and bring it into your life
now, use that to be at peace no matter where you are right now, no matter what's going
on, no matter difficult or whatever is going on. Be at peace with where you are every
day along that journey while you simultaneously maintain a healthy sense of urgency to
take action every day to get where you want to go, but don't get there out of a feeling
of stress and anxiety and I'm not where I want to be. Just embrace where you are. If
you're alive, you're perfect, right. No matter what's going on around you all that matters
is what's going on inside you. So be at peace with where you are and take steps every
day to get where you want to go.