The Miracle Morning (11 page)

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Set a timer for your bedroom lights:
 
One of our
Miracle Morning
community members sets his bedroom lights on a timer (you can buy an “appliance timer” online or at your local hardware store.) As his alarm goes off, the lights come on in the room. What a great idea. It’s a lot easier to fall back asleep when it’s dark, so having the lights come on tells your mind and body that it’s time to wake up. Regardless of whether or not you use a timer, be sure to turn your light on first thing when your alarm goes off.

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Set a timer for your bedroom heater:
  Another fan of
The Miracle Morning
said that in the winter, she kept a bedroom heater on an appliance timer set to go off 15 minutes before she woke up. She kept it cold at night, but warm for waking up so that she wouldn’t be tempted to crawl back under her covers to avoid the cold. She said this made a huge difference!

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MyWakeUPCall
^TM
(Motivational Alarm Clock Messages): 
While doing research for this book, I came across an extraordinary woman with a really cool idea—Robin Palmer, President and Co-founder of
My Successables, Inc
. and the creator of
MyWakeUPCall
^TM
Motivational Alarm Clock
^TM
Messages. These are unique, pre-recorded motivational messages designed to wake people up positively each day. Every morning, you start your day with patented, five-minute, motivating messages from famous authors, like Jack Canfield and Marci Schimoff. You can download a few free sample messages for at www.mywakeupcalls.net.

Feel free to add to or customize your
Snooze-Proof Wake Up Strategy
, and if you have any tips you’re open to sharing, I’d love to hear them. Please feel free to contact me directly through my blog at www.MiracleMorningBlog.com, or at
www.MyTMMCommunity.com
.

It’s all about having an effective, pre-determined, step-by-step strategy to increase your
Wake Up Motivation Level
in the morning. Don’t wait to try this! Start
tonight
by reading the
Miracle Morning Bedtime Affirmation
, moving your alarm clock across the room, setting a glass of water on your nightstand, and committing to the other two steps for the morning.

— 6 —

The Life S.A.V.E.R.S. >Six Practices Guaranteed To Save You
From a Life of Unfulfilled Potential

Success is something you attract by the person you become.
—JIM ROHN

An extraordinary life is all about daily, continuous
improvements in the areas that matter most.
—ROBIN SHARMA

S
tressed. Overwhelmed. Frustrated. Unfulfilled. Blah.

These are a few unpleasant words that provide a rather unfortunate, but fairly accurate description of how the average person feels about his or her life, far too often.

You and I are undoubtedly living in one of the most prosperous, advanced times in human history, with more opportunities and resources available to us than ever before. Yet most of us aren’t tapping into the unlimited potential that is within every single one of us. I’m not okay with that. Are you?

The Potential Gap

Have you ever felt like the life you want to live and the person you know you can be are just beyond your grasp?  Do you ever feel like you’re chasing your potential—you know it’s there, you can see it—but you can never quite catch it?  When you see people who are excelling in an area that you’re not, does it seem like they’ve got it all figured out—like they must know something that you don’t know, because if you knew
it
, then you’d be excelling in that area too?

Most of us live our lives on the wrong side of a huge gap in our potential, a gap which separates who we are from who we can become. We are often frustrated with ourselves, our lack of consistent motivation, effort and results in one or more areas of life. We spend too much time
thinking
about the actions we should be taking to create the results that we want, but then we don’t take those actions. We all know what we need to do; we just don’t consistently do what we know. Can you relate?

This
potential gap
varies in size from person to person. You may feel like you’re very near your current potential and that a few tweaks could make all the difference. Or you might feel the opposite—like your potential is so far away from who you’ve been that you don’t even know where to start. Whatever the case is for you, know that it is absolutely possible and attainable for you to live your life on the right side of your potential gap and become the person you are capable of becoming.

Whether you are currently sitting on the wrong side of the grand canyon of your potential, wondering how you’re going to get to the other side, or you’ve been working your way across the canyon but are stuck at a plateau and haven’t been able to close that gap and get to the next level—this chapter will introduce you to six tools that will enable you to go from where you are—accepting less from yourself than what you know is possible— to developing yourself into the person you
know
you can become.

Your Life Is Not What You Think It Is

Most of us are so busy trying to manage, maintain, or even just survive our life “situation” that we don’t make the time to focus on what’s most important—our
life
. What’s the difference? Our life situation is the set of
external
circumstances, events, people, and places that surround us. It’s not who we are. We are more than our life situation.

Your
life
is who you are at the deepest level. Your life is made up of the
internal
components, attitudes, and mindsets that can give you the power to alter, enhance, or change your life situation at any given moment.

Your
life
is made up of the
Physical
,
Intellectual
,
Emotional
, and
Spiritual
parts that make up every human being—or
P.I.E.S.
for short. The
Physical
includes things like your body, health, and energy. The
Intellectual
incorporates your mind, intelligence, and thoughts. The
Emotional
takes into account your emotions, feelings, and attitudes. The
Spiritual
includes intangibles such as your spirit, soul, and the unseen higher power that oversees all.

Your
life
is where your ability to create new feelings, perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes in your “inner” world lies, so that you can create or alter the circumstances, relationships, results, and anything else in the “external” realm of your life situation. As many sages have taught us: 
our outer world is a reflection of our inner world.
In other words, by focusing time and effort each day on developing your
P.I.E.S.
, and constantly becoming a better version of yourself, your life situation will inevitably—almost automatically—improve.

I can assure you that through my own transformative journey—from the depths of mediocrity, justifying my excuses and living most areas of my life somewhere in between mediocre and average, to achieving goals that at one time seemed impossible for me—your commitment to daily personal development will be as instrumental for your transformation as it was for mine.

Time To Save The Life You Deserve To Live

For too many people, the extraordinary, fulfilling abundant life that they really want—our
Level 10
life—eludes them because they’re so overwhelmed and overrun with their day-to-day life situation. Their life situation is eating up all of their time so that their life, and what matters most, isn’t getting attended to.

In order to save your
Level 10
life from being neglected and limited by the demands of your life situation—which ultimately leads to a life of regret, unfulfilled potential, and even mediocrity—you must prioritize and dedicate time each day to your personal development. Enter
The Miracle Morning Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
—a set of six simple,
life
-enhancing,
life
-changing daily practices, each of which develops one or more of the
physical
,
intellectual
,
emotional
, and
spiritual
aspects of your life, so that you can become who you need to be to create the life you want.

Remember, when you change your inner world—your
life
—then your outer world—your
life situation
—will improve in parallel.

The First “S” of S.A.V.E.R.S.

Nope, it’s not “sleep.”  Sorry. While I know many people would love it if they could sleep their way to success, unless you have been cryogenically frozen and are awaiting a large inheritance at the time of being thawed out—life just doesn’t work that way.

Here are six powerful, proven personal development practices known as the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
that you’ll use to gain access to the powerful forces—already within you—that will enable you to alter, change, or transform any area of your life. Let’s look at each of the six personal development tools that make up the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
and how each will help you become the person you need to be to easily attract, create, and live the most extraordinary life you have ever imagined.

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

S is for Silence

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path
in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive
resolves itself into crystal clearness.
—MAHATMA GANDHI

You can learn more in an hour of silence
than you can in a year from books.
—MATTHEW KELLY

S
ilence is the first practice of the
Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
and may be one of the most significant areas for improvement for our noisy, fast-paced and over-stimulated lifestyles. I’m referring to the life-transforming power of
purposeful
Silence
. “Purposeful” simply means that you are engaging in a period of Silence with a highly beneficial purpose in mind—not just for the heck of it. As Matthew Kelly so eloquently states in his bestselling book
The Rhythm of Life
, “You can learn more in an hour of silence than you can in a year from books.”  That’s a powerful statement from a very wise man.

If you want to immediately reduce your stress levels, to begin each day with the kind of calm, clarity, and peace of mind that will allow you to stay focused on what’s most important in your life, and even dance on the edge of enlightenment—do the opposite of what
most people
do—start every morning with a period of purposeful Silence.

The life-enhancing benefits of Silence have been well documented throughout the ages. From the power of prayer, to the magic of meditation, some of the greatest minds in history have used purposeful Silence to transcend their limitations and create extraordinary results.

How Do Your Mornings Usually Begin? 

Do you invest time in centering yourself and creating an optimum state of mind to lead you through the rest of the day?  Or do you usually wait to wake up until you’ve got something to do? Do the words
calm
,
peaceful
, or
rejuvenating
describe your average morning?  If they do, congratulations! You’re already a step ahead of the rest of us.

For most of us, words like
rushed
,
hectic
,
stressful
or even
chaotic
might best describe our typical morning. For others,
slow
,
lazy
, and
lethargic
might be a more accurate description of how the morning begins. Which of these scenarios best describes your average morning?

Mornings, for most of us, are typically pretty hectic and rushed. We’re usually running around trying to get ready for the day, and our minds are often plagued with internal chatter about
what we have to do, where we have to go, who we have to see, what we forgot to do, the fact that we’re running late, a recent argument with our significant other or family member
.

For others, we have trouble just getting going on most mornings. We feel sluggish, lazy, and unproductive. So, for the great majority of us, the mornings are either stressful and rushed, or slow and unproductive. Neither of these represents the optimum way to start your day.

Silence is one of the best ways to immediately reduce stress, while increasing your self-awareness and gaining the clarity that will allow you to maintain your focus on your goals, priorities, and what’s most important for your life, each and every day.

Here are some of my favorite activities to choose from and practice during my period of Silence, in no particular order, followed by a simple meditation to get you started: 

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Meditation

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Prayer

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Reflection

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Deep Breathing