The Wellness Scoop - Morning Routines

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

Can a morning routine change your life? Is making a big transformation really as simple as bringing together passion, belief and effort? Can we actually all set our alarms a little bit earlier every day? Today we’re talking to international bestselling author of Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod, about whether implementing just six things over the course of an hour, every single morning, every single day of the year, can really help us live our lives to the fullest. Hal Elrod - Miracle Morning - https://www.miraclemorning.com/ Will Smith on Ellen Degeneres - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoldJNDLZHc Hal Elrod & Michael J Maher - The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miracle-Morning-Real-Estate-Agents/dp/194258900X See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hi, and welcome to the Delicious Yellow podcast with me, Ella Mills today. My co-host, Matthew Mills, is very busy working on some new product development for something that's coming mid-January um it's savory and snacking it's very exciting so watch this space and the other thing that I'm really really really excited to tell you

is that this week um we're going to be announcing our book cover what our new book is all about and we're going to be doing a really big book tour podcast tour it's deliciously Ella live we're going to be coming to eight different places around the UK and Ireland I'm going to be doing a really big book tour, podcast tour. It's Delicious Yellow Live. We're going to be coming to eight different places around the UK and Ireland. I'm going to be having some of your favorite guests from the podcast. And it's going to be absolutely incredible. The first details for tickets for the tour and the unveiling of our book are going to be in our newsletter this Thursday. So please make sure you're signed up. If you're not signed up, just go to www.deliciousyellow.com and scroll to the bottom of the page. So we'll get onto our episode today, but I'm just buzzing

with excitement. It's been the biggest project and I've been kind of frantically trying to get it finished in amongst raising sky. So your support on it really does mean the world. And thinking about that and finding a little bit of inspiration. This morning, we are going to be talking about whether a morning routine can change your life. Is making a big transformation really as simple as just bringing together passion, belief and effort? And can we actually all set our alarms a little bit earlier every single day, which at the moment when it's cold and dark feels a little bit more challenging, but that is what today's guest is going to help us with. He has sold over a million copies of his book Miracle Morning. And he really does believe that implementing just six things over the course of an hour every single morning, every single day of the year, can truly help us live our lives to the fullest.

So I'm very excited to get into this and welcome Hal. So can we get started by understanding a bit more, how does the morning routine work? What are these magic six steps? Yeah, so the Miracle Morning was first and foremost, not a book idea. It was my own personal attempt at transforming my life in 2007 when the US economy crashed, kind of crashed with it. And what happened was I was Googling, what do the world's most successful people do for their personal development? Like, what are the best practices? And I was looking for the best practice. That was my kind of my objective is,

I'm gonna find the most effective thing I could do first thing in the morning. And after about an hour online of searching, I had a list of six practices, right? Meditation, which became silence in the SAVERS acronym. So meditation or silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling, which became scribing anyway so the savers uh those six practices i'm going well which is the best one and it depended on who you asked

and so just so i understand that's when you were researching all these phenomenally successful people for myself it was the these six practices that was kind of the common thread that all these successful people kept using in the but they weren doing more than, they were not, it was one of them usually. So Will Smith, for example, in an interview on Ellen DeGeneres show, he said that affirmations are what allowed him to become successful. That he had written statements when he was, I think, 15 years old

about kind of who he, the life he wanted and who he needed to be to create that life. And he just lived in alignment with those affirmations. And that's what got him where he's at. So he swore by affirmations. They found an article called fortune 500 CEOs who swear by meditation. And I go, well, wait a minute. I thought meditation was like a woo woo kind of, but these are fortune 500 CEOs that are crediting their success to meditation. You know, and then I found visualization, like the world's greatest athletes swear by visualization, right? So all these

practices I'm going, well, but okay, well, I only have time for one. Like, which one am I going to do? And the epiphany came when I went, wait a minute, what if I did all six of these? What if I woke up tomorrow morning and I did all six of these of the most timeless proven personal development practices? That'd be the ultimate morning routine. And I woke up the next morning. I didn't know how to do that. I like, I was terrible at meditating. I didn't know how to do any of these really, but I fumbled my way through all six of them and I felt incredible. So at that time in my life, I was at a rock bottom. That's why I went on this search. And that morning I did these six practices and I felt internally like I hadn't felt in a long time. I thought, man, I I'm inspired. If I start every day like this, it's only a matter of time. And I was thinking it would take six to

12 months. Two months later, I had more than doubled my income. I went from being in the worst shape of my life to committing to run an ultra marathon, which is 52 miles or 112 kilometers. And I wasn't a runner, but that was, I was like, that would allow me to really challenge myself. And I wasn't depressed after a few days of doing this. And I went to my wife and I said, sweetie, this feels like a miracle, this morning routine, how it's changed my life. And she goes, it's like your miracle morning. And I go, yeah, I love that. And I started writing my schedules, my miracle morning, but it wasn't a book. Again, it wasn't a book idea, but I then taught it to my coaching clients and almost every single one of them had the same

response. All of them, except for one, I think it was 14 out of 15 clients, um, came back to the next coaching call and said, how I did it. And it is changing my life. And that's when the light bulb went off and I went, wait a minute, if this changed my life and it changed their life, these six practices could change anyone's life. Like none of us were mourning people that are doing this. And so I just have to share it with the world. And, you know, it took me three years and wrote the book. And now it's been, you know, I never imagined this, it's translated into 37 languages and sold 2 million copies. And I'm just beyond grateful that it is really changing people's lives. And I've done it almost every day for 12 years. That's incredible. And because I have so many

questions, but just to break down the six steps for people listening. So number one, silence or meditation. Is there any particular meditation that you practice? Does it matter? Is it something that it's literally just kind of focusing on your breath or no sense of grounding and presence? Yeah, the beauty of, I would say this is true for all six of the practices. It's kind of, you know, a minute to learn a lifetime to master kind of thing. I don't know if meditation is a minute to learn, but the point is there are infinite ways to meditate, right? You can do, in fact, and that's actually why I love when I was writing the book, it was originally meditation, not silence and scribing was originally journaling. But my wife had this idea of, you know, why don't you make it into an acronym so people could

remember it? And I go, oh, that's a great idea. So meditation became silence. And I love that because the word silence is not nearly as specific as meditation, but somebody might want to just pray. They might be religious and they want to pray for their silence. Okay. Some might want to just do that deep breathing, right? Where they're not really, they don't call it meditating. They're just like, no, I just like to sit in silence and just quiet my mind. And so I always encourage people to start with guided meditations because that way, if you don't know how to meditate, usually your first few meditations are frustration, right? Like you're like, you know, I'm doing it wrong. I keep having thoughts.

I can't, right? So I always say, start with, go to Google or YouTube and type in guided meditation. And there are countless available. So yeah, so with silence, I always, I joke in the book, I say, look, it doesn't get any easier than the miracle morning starts with doing nothing. You don't say anything. You don't say anything.

You don't do anything. You just sit there in silence. You go set a time. And it's actually powerful to set a timer for five or 10 minutes and just sit in silence and just do whatever you want. Breathe, meditate, pray, nothing. You know, it really is.

It's just, it's a way to calm your nervous system. It's proven to lower your cortisol levels, which lowers your stress. And that leaves room for typically in moments of silence is when we have our best ideas. We get inspired and we figure out, oh, I got it. Like it just, it comes in those shower moments or right before bed or first thing in the morning

when you're in that alpha state still, your brain is still in the alpha state and your mind is quiet and you can sit and give yourself space to just be, just think, just feel. So really there's no wrong or right way to do it. And for meditation, I always encourage you to start with whatever feels good. I like it as well because presumably you're not then starting your morning with your phone. So you're starting your morning in your headspace, allowing your thoughts, kind of emotions, whatever it is to be processed and kind of digested. And you're not starting by immediately kind of an overflowing inbox or a kind of influx of terrible news from, you know, whatever headlines are coming up that morning.

And that seems like quite positive in itself. Yeah. So step two, affirmations. Do you tend to pick a certain affirmation that you repeat to yourself over a period of time? Or is it something that's quite dependent on the day, on what's happening? Or is it more of a kind of future life goal? So my affirmations, the way that I define an affirmation in the simplest form is it's a reminder. That's it. And specifically, it. And whenever I have a thought or an idea about something I want to focus on, I want to improve, I want to ponder, I want, right? I just, I pull out my phone and I just write, I write about that. And that becomes my, and then usually I'll edit, I'll keep editing it and it'll become more of an affirmation. Let me say this, that Ella,

I think that affirmations have a bad rap because of a few different reasons. One is just that people feel awkward talking to themselves, right? Like saying things to themselves. You have to get over that. You just have to get over that. So you say it out loud, your affirmation? I actually usually do it in my head. Okay.

And some people say them out loud. Some people I've heard record them into like a voice app on their phone and then actually play them back in the morning or play them back while they're exercising. Kind of kill two birds with one stone. But I think there's two major problems with affirmations other than the whole talking to yourself is awkward. So here's the two problems.

Number one is lying to yourself doesn't work when it comes to affirmations. And we've been, I think, mistakenly taught by self-help gurus over the years. If you want to be wealthy, for example, just write an affirmation that says, I am wealthy. And say it over and over until you trick yourself into believing it essentially. And the problem is truth will always prevail. So if you say, I am wealthy and you're broke or you're struggling, then your subconscious will fight with what you're affirming.

It will say, no, you're not. The solution to that is don't say you are something that you are not. Affirm that you're committed to becoming that thing or achieving that thing or creating that thing, right? So instead of – it's a real simple shit, but it has massive implications in how it affects your psychology. Instead of saying, I am wealthy, say, I'm committed to becoming wealthy. If you're not happy, instead of saying, instead of saying, I am a happy person, right? And then your brain goes, you're miserable. What are you talking about? Say, I am committed to becoming a happy person, right? Very subtle change in terms of the language, but a radical change in terms of the meaning and the impact it has on you. The second problem with affirmations is that using passive flowery language is

counterproductive. And I'll use an example. There's an affirmation that's very famous that says something along the lines of some version of, I am a money magnet. Money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance. That might give you temporary relief from your money worries, right? Like if you're looking at your bank account balance and you're going, man, I'm in debt. Okay, I'm gonna do my affirmations. And then you go, I am a money magnet.

Money is flowing to me. That's not true. That's not how money works. You're not a magnet. Money doesn't flow to you effortlessly. If you ask almost anyone that has amassed a fortune, right, or financial freedom, doesn't flow to you effortlessly. If you ask almost anyone that has amassed a fortune, right, or financial freedom, they didn't do it effortlessly. They actually had to put forth effort, create value for the world, and therefore earn that income, right?

So I'll give you four really quick steps to create affirmations that are practical and results oriented and rooted in truth and actually affect your psychology and affect your behaviors in a way that you not magic, but you create the reality that you're affirming. So step one is already, we went over this, affirm what you're committed to. So instead of saying, I want to be a millionaire, say I'm committed to blank, right? Not what I want, but what I'm committed to. Cause we don't get what I want, but what I'm committed to. Because we don't get what we want. Everybody wants lots of great things.

We get what we're committed to in our lives. Step two is, why is that deeply meaningful to you? Right? That's where we get our drive to push through challenges and obstacles to achieve that outcome we're committed to is by being clear on what we're deeply or what's deeply meaningful to us. Why is it important? Why does it matter enough for us to do whatever is necessary to make that outcome a reality? Step three is which specific actions are you committed to taking to achieve that outcome? And that's the thing is right. You know, money doesn't flow to you. You have to

actually do something to, you know, and I'm using money as just an example. This applies to your health affirmations, your, and I have affirmations in every area of my life to be the best husband I can be for my wife, the best father for my children. Affirmations just that deal with my own self-doubt. And then step four is when are you committed to taking those actions? So again, number one, what are you committed to? What outcome are you committed to? Your goal, your dream. Number two, why is it deeply meaningful to you? Number three, which actions will you take

to ensure that you achieve that outcome? And number four, when will you take those actions? Now your affirmations aren't some false saying, I am something I'm not. It's not rooted in some made up lie. You're not using flowery passive language, some promise that magic's going to come into your life and give you what you want. You're affirming in practical terms, exactly what you need to think, feel, believe, and do in order to achieve everything that you want. I love that because I do think you're right. It's the kind of wishy-washy nature, the kind of woo-woo sort of feeling that some people can have towards

this sort of space that puts people off. And as a result, you don't take time to kind of set some semblance of intention or goal and therefore figure out exactly how you're going to work towards it because you're so off-put by the concept in general. So when it comes to visualization, is that a kind of, you know, does each step lead to the next? So are you visualizing what you're affirming? Are you visualizing that next step, what you're working towards? Yes and no. The no is, people always ask, you know, do I have to do the savers in order? And the answer is absolutely not. You know, for example, the E in savers is for exercise. But if you wake up in the morning and I do this, I like to do silence first. I like to meditate first and kind of slowly come into the

day. But if I am sitting there meditating and I feel like I'm going to fall asleep and I feel like my brain is, I'm so I'm still half asleep to where I'm not really present to the meditation. I will stand up and I will do jumping jacks for 60 seconds. Like I'll just get my heart rate up and my blood flowing. So you can do the savers in any order. You can also adjust the time. You could do five minutes for one, 20 minutes for another. You might do 20 minutes of exercise and five minutes of reading or 20 minutes of reading and five minutes of meditation or whatever. So that's the first answer is you can do them in any order that you want. There is some logical progression to definitely affirmations into visualization. Visualization for me is actually the hardest of the savers. Some people it's their favorite. It's interesting how some people say affirmations is the hardest. That for me is like cake. I love affirmations are very concrete. I write them out. I read them. you know, I feel them. But the point is the way that I make visualization easier, easier is I do my affirmations first, not all of them. I do each affirmation and then I

visualize, I close my eyes and I visualize that affirmation being a reality. So I visualize me often doing the thing that I need to do that will make the affirmation a reality, that outcome a reality. And I'll go, here's a tip on visualization. The problem with visualization, I think, as it's been taught by a lot of people, is that we're taught to visualize the end result, right? If you want to, you know, buy a mansion, just make a picture of your mansion on your vision board and stare at it and, you know, or if you want to run a marathon, you know, visualize yourself crossing the finish line. There's value in that, but it's also can be counterproductive. And here's what I mean. If you visualize yourself crossing the finish line of the

marathon, the value in that is the more you visualize it, the more you will reinforce that it is a possibility and that it is, it can happen. Like on day one, you visualize it. You're like, Oh, I see it, but I don't believe it. Right. But day 20, you might be like, okay, okay. I see it. I believe it. Right. I feel it. The problem with that is if you leave your visualization at, if that's where it begins and ends is with seeing the outcome, you, the counter productivity is you actually trick your brain into thinking that it's going to happen with or without your effort. Just like, yeah, yeah, no, I see it. I believe it. It's going to happen. I've seen it so many times. That's not true, right? You have to actually

train for that marathon. So I always say that visualization, there's two parts to it being effective. Number one is yes, see the outcome so you believe it's possible, but number two, and I would argue it's even more important, visualize the activity that you're going to do that day that will ensure that you, you, you pace yourself on track to achieve the outcome. So for the marathon example, when I ran that ultra marathon hated running, I still hate running. Um, so I had to overcome that, right? And a lot of times we, whether we hate the activity or it's just out of our comfort zone, or it'd be easier not to do it. Right. Visualization for me is about creating the optimum emotional experience

for you to engage in that activity when that is the, when it's time to do so. So here's what I would do. I would close my eyes and I visualize crossing the marathon, the finish line. In fact, I actually Googled a picture of the exact finish line of the marathon I was running and printed it so I could see it. And I would close my eyes and I'd imagine running across. I'd imagine the way it felt. And that's the key with visualization

and affirmations too. It's not just doing it. It's the emotional experience that you create for yourself. So if you create an emotional experience of the outcome where you see it and you feel it and it feels amazing, now you're way more compelled to do whatever's necessary to make that a reality. And then here's the important part.

Both are important, but here's the more important part. I would close my eyes and I would visualize the clock turning 7 a.m. because that was the time I ran every morning. And I'd visualize walking into my closet, putting on my running clothes and lacing up my running shoes. Then I'd visual, and I would literally create a movie in my mind where I would see this. Then I'd visualize myself heading out the front door of my house and I would visualize myself smiling. Cause remember, I hated running, but hating something isn't the best emotional state to be in to do the thing. Right. So I would, you can almost say I

would trick myself. I would just imagine, right. What if I did enjoy running? What I was looking forward to, what would that look like and feel like? What would my face do? I'd smile. And in real life while visualizing, I would smile. And I'd imagine heading out the front door. I imagine taking a deep breath and hitting the pavement and going for that run. And here's the beauty and the power of visualization. When the clock struck 7 a.m., after doing this for a few weeks, without much thought, I got up.

There was no resistance anymore. See, that's the power of visualization. You overcome that resistance. I walked over to the closet, put on my running clothes and running shoes, headed out the front door. And Ella, let me ask you, what do you think I did as soon as I headed out the front door? You had to smile. I smiled, literally, right? And it became automatic. And what did that do? It put me in a positive state of mind to go on that run. And I already created that emotional state in the morning. So it was

like, it was automatic once it was timed to hit the road. And so this applies to everything. Let's say you're in sales, for example, and most salespeople, when I was in sales, you know, making calls is you, you procrastinate, you resist it. You know, you put it off as long as you can. You put it off till the next day and the next day and the next day, and then you're out of money and you go to get another job. And so I would visualize myself when I would always, it always, the visualization started with the time I was committed to making my calls. I would visualize it turning that six o'clock, 6 p.m. And I'd visualize myself picking up my phone, grabbing my notebook of people to call, and then dialing the first number and then smiling and feeling confident. And I would create that

emotional experience through visualization in the morning. And I would create that emotional experience through visualization in the morning. And then guess what? When it was six o'clock, grab my notebook, the resistance was minimized, if not eliminated, and I'd make the calls. So you can apply this strategy. And that to me is how visualization becomes effective. Visualization is effective with not just the end result. Seeing that is important to you, believe it, but it's more important to visualize the activity for the day and create the positive, optimum emotional state to execute that activity. And that's the power of doing all of this in the morning, right? Because then you can create these positive states and then transfer them throughout

your day. Yeah, into action. Because I was asked, I gave a speech at the How To Academy in London today, and I was asked by a gentleman, he goes, can we do miracle evening? Like, do we have to do the savers, the six practices in the morning? And, and, and basically what you said is what I said. I go, look, you do it in the evening, but they produce benefits all day long. Yeah. You know, when you exercise, you release endorphins. So you feel better. You have more energy throughout the day. You get really, you get blood and oxygen to your brain. So you think clearer. You don't want to miss out on that throughout the day, right? These are benefits that impact your day. If you do them at night, you might feel good before bed, but you

kind of sleep them off and then you're just starting the day over again. So yeah, doing them in the morning is crucial because it puts you in a peak physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state. In other words, I always, I kind of say it makes it so that you're a better version of the person that went to bed the night before. Yeah. Right. You want to become that best version of yourself first thing in the morning. And then you're better for your family. You're better for your clients. You're better for your colleagues. You're better for yourself, right? You're a better version of yourself. And that impacts everything you do throughout the day. I honestly, I couldn't agree more. I think you see such a difference when you start your day kind of consciously and mindfully than you do when you're just like disorganized and frantic

and running out the door. So with your next three, so exercise, reading, and then scribbling or journaling, what are the kind of key themes for them? Two things. There's two objections that come up here for people. One is, I don't like to exercise. Two is I already exercise. I go to the gym in the afternoon after work, right? I'll handle both of those. One is I don't like to exercise. Okay. Do 60 seconds of exercise in the morning. Anybody can do 60 seconds and do just jumping jacks. Here's the point. You will, by doing that, you will see immediate benefits. Like if you wake up and you're like, Oh, I'm groggy. I'm tired. Do 60 seconds of jumping jacks. That might sound like very little, but you'll be at the end of that going, Oh, okay.

I'm ready to go. Like I woke myself up. Right. And the next day do 70 seconds. And the next day do 80. So right. Just, you know, or I, and I've heard the strategy, right. Do one pushup and the next day do 70 seconds and the next day do 80. So right. Just, you know, or I, and I've heard the strategy, right. Do one pushup and the second day do two pushups and the third day, right. Anybody could do one pushup. You hate exercise. And it's really easy to go from one to two and it's really easy to go from two to three and it's really easier from three to four. And all of a sudden you're going from 20 to 21 and then 30 to 31 and right. You, you're getting stronger and it's become, and here's the thing, the psychology of it, as you start really small and really easy, and then you increase it by a very tiny amount each day, all of a sudden, 30 days from now, you're doing 30 pushups a day or 30 crunches or 30 jumping or whatever, right?

But you've acclimated to it gradually, subtly over time. And now it's a part of you and it's super easy. So that's the tip is start easy. Um, for if you don't like exercise for those that are saying, uh, I like to, I have, I go to the gym in the afternoon. So I'm good on that. I would still encourage you to do, you know, one to five minutes of exercise in the morning for what we talked about is you get benefit from it right away. So you don't want, if you're waiting until 5 PM to go to the gym, well, you've missed out on the mental, emotional, and physical benefits of having exercise for even just a few minutes in the morning. And my favorite app, by the way, if you like apps, there's an app called 7 Minute

Workout. It's free on the iPhone, I think on all devices. 7 Minute Workout, but that's a full body workout in seven minutes. It it's fun it's easy it's yeah it's fantastic it's amazing how much i think we can be quite all or nothing like i'm either going to the gym for an hour yeah or there's no point at all and we we have a little girl she's three and a half months old now oh thank you but obviously that shifts you know that shifts your morning but it's really interesting because i used to go to yoga for an hour every morning it was a kind of completely non-negotiable that's how I'd like to like to start my day obviously that's not happening at the moment but just doing like five minutes just doing 10 minutes before she gets up of yoga

is so powerful and I feel like I all you know yes of course the physical benefits a bit different you know five minutes versus 60 but the mental benefit really isn't you know it's really interesting just like for me a couple of sun salutations, a few tiny stretches, and you feel that sense of kind of intention, of purpose, of kind of like, yep, I'm taking care of myself today. And it carries through. And I have been really struck by just like how much just a few minutes can do. And I think it's worth saying, like, not to be put off by that. You know, if you don't have time for the hour in the afternoon, it doesn't matter. Yep. Well, in the entire Miracle Morning, you know, there's a chapter I wrote called the

Six Minute Miracle Morning. And this is, it speaks to the all or nothing mentality, right? And how to overcome that. And it was, this is my, almost everything, in fact, everything in my, in both Miracle Morning and Miracle Equation are all, I write from experience, right? So, there was a morning where I went, oh, I woke up a little late and I think I got late going and I went from experience, right? So there was a morning where I went, I woke up a little late and I think I got late going and I went, Oh, I'm already, you know, 15 minutes late to leave for the gym. And I had to get dressed still. So I wasn't gonna leave for 20 minutes late. I go by the time I get there, you know, I'm gonna miss half my workout. Nevermind. And, and then I realized it's better to work out for, you know, 15 minutes than not at all. And I did it at

home. And then the next day with the miracle morning, I had something similar where I was missing my miracle morning. And I went, I only had like 10 minutes before I had to leave. And I went, what if I did a six minute miracle morning? What if I just did one minute of each of the six savers practices? And so I meditated for one minute and I calmed my mind and my nervous system. And I felt kind of centered. And then I pulled up my affirmations and I read a few of them and I, I got, you know, I felt more focused and confident and I visualized and I, you know, 60 seconds or I did all the savers. I pulled out a book. I read one page. I pulled up my journal. I wrote down three things I was grateful for. It was only six minutes, but the benefits were

profound. And there aren't so many things that you could do in six minutes, right? Or one-tenth of the time that you would normally do them and have, I would say, 80% of the benefit. I still felt calm and inspired and centered and focused and energized and all of the things. And quite a lot of us would say I don't have the time. And then they'd spend the same six minutes on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram without the kind of massive benefits. So even if you're not getting all the benefit, you're still getting great benefit. That's it. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend six minutes every day. Like you can't go real deep. But yeah, on those days where you're busy. And just to wrap up the last two, the R is for reading.

And, you know, I always say that we're one book away from changing any area of our lives. If you've read self-help books, who hasn't read a book that like it made a radical change on your life? Whether it's your marriage, anything you want to improve, there's a book on that. You want to be happier? There's a book on that, right? I mean, there's thousands of books on these topics. And the final S for scribing, which is a, you know, fancy word for writing, right? I mean, journaling. For me, I just, every day I use an app called the Five Minute Journal. It's also a physical, you can get a physical version of it. I like to do it on right? I mean, journaling for me, I just, every day I use an app called the five minute journal. It's also a physical, you can get a physical version of it. I like to do it on my app though, because I'm traveling a lot. I have my phone with me. Um, but it simply asks, what are three things

that you're grateful for? And what are the three most important actions for you to take today? That's it takes five minutes. And, uh, you don't need the, you know, you can get the app if you want, or you can, I like the app because I can put a picture every day. I put a picture of my family or highlight of the day. But anyway, the point is when you write down three things you're grateful for, starting your day reminding that you already have a lot of things, because we often live in this scarcity mindset where we separate ourselves from where we are and what we don't have, right?

And we think, oh, I'm not where I want to be. Well, in a lot of ways, you are where you want to be. Are you alive? Check. Well, that's pretty, that's about as good as it gets, right? And we think, oh, I'm not where I want to be. Well, you, in a lot of ways, you are where you want to be. Are you alive? Check. Well, that's, that's pretty, that's about as good as it gets, right? If you were dead, you'd be like, or, you know, if you were on your deathbed, all you want is life. Yet we take our life for granted, right? To me, it's like, how dare I wake up and not be so grateful that I woke up, right? I've been given another day. So write down three things I'm grateful for. It puts me in a really positive frame of mind. And then I've got, you've got a to-do list with, you know, there's 10, 20, a hundred things I could do in any given day. I look at my to-do list and I go, okay, what are

the three most important things for me to do today that will move the needle in my life, my business? And so getting that clarity in writing is a game changer and affects your, both your way, the way you feel your peace of mind and your productivity throughout the day. Yeah, so it's basically all about creating intention, isn't it? And about creating a kind of, yeah, something that's concentrated and trying to push you forward in your life as well as kind of reminding you of what you've got,

which feels like what you need, as you always say, to live your life to the biggest potential. But I guess, you know, it's a kind of obvious question, but, you know, people are quite busy and they don't have time and they're hectic and life feels quite disorganized in the morning. What's your kind of top tip for just trying to change that for everyone who says, I'm not a morning person. I can't do it. I'm too busy. I don't have time. Yeah. So, I always say, well, there's a couple of things. One of my co-authors, I wrote a book called The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents, and Michael Mayer wrote that book with me. And he said,

you know, Hal, I realized the miracle morning, people are all afraid that, oh, I got to wake up early, got to wake up early. He goes, it's not about waking up early. It's about waking up better. And I went, yeah, that's a really good point. So a few things I would say. Number one is depending on what you're doing in the morning, you might just need to swap it out. So if you're watching the news, watching TV, checking social media, just use that time, right? And actually step back and ask yourself, is this making a radical pause, you know, a significantly positive impact in my life? And if it's watching the news or social media, it's probably, or checking email, it's probably not. And I mean, maybe it is, but most likely it's not. But, but the, so you just switch the activity out with doing the miracle morning, these six

practices that will radically enhance your life. And that's why millions of people, you know, are doing them. But what I would say is it's really about wake up 30 minutes earlier. And that might mean you have to go to bed 30 minutes earlier. And for most people, that might mean like 30 minutes less watching Netflix at night or whatever, but the payoff is incredible. And for those that think I'm not a morning person, it's like anything, you're not a morning person if you don't wake up in the morning with intention. I used to think I wasn't a runner because I didn't run. And then when I started running, I became a runner. And when I started waking up early, I wasn't a morning person my whole life. Then I started waking up a little earlier. And at first it was a little tough,

you know, I had a little inertia, a little resistance, but I did it. And within a few days it became exciting and it was easy. And then within a month, it was a habit that I, and I, you know, it's been, I've been waking up doing the miracle morning for 12 years, probably an average of six days a week. So if you're busy, right, the idea is wake up 30 minutes earlier, try it for 30 days. You have nothing to lose and more to gain than you could possibly imagine. Yeah, I love that you do. You have absolutely nothing to lose. And so I read your follow-up book and I thought it was really interesting how you'd kind of,

in retrospect, notice sort of one sort of, one to a better word flaw or something missing from the concept of the kind of morning routine which is that you know you can do all the self-help and self-development and read the books listen to the podcasts and go to the talks but if you don't have that complete drive and the effort you you may feel like you're bettering yourself as a person and maybe feeling better especially in terms of like happiness and health, but not necessarily getting to the next step that you want. And you felt there was a kind of something different that you needed to focus on for that. Yeah. These practices enable you to become the person that you need to be to create everything you want for your life, both internally and externally. I mean, create the, you know,

happiness and the mental and emotional states you want and create the external success. You know, you're actually seeing tangible results, right? So, but it's the inner game, right? You're developing the knowledge, acquiring the knowledge, developing the confidence, the mindset to achieve these things. But the miracle morning doesn't actually produce the achievements.

Personal development helps you become the person that you need to be. But I realize it is still possible to stay in your comfort zone. And, and that was why the biggest thing, the biggest question I got from people, um, and a lot of people, by the way, to be fair, I mean, the majority of people that do the miracle morning, they were getting the results in the real world, but there was also a segment of people that go, how, how do I get myself to do the things that I'm afraid of or even do the things that I'm

lazy around? I know what I need to do, but I can't get myself to do it. So while the miracle morning is a practice for personal development, what I realized is we also need a process for goal achievement. Okay. How do you translate this personal development and the growth that you're experiencing into action, into activity, into changing your behavior in a way that will actually lose the weight, write the book, produce the income, you know, whatever the results you want to see in your life. And what is that? So there are two decisions, right? The subtitle of the book kind of sums up what the promise of the book is, if you will. The two decisions that move your biggest goals from possible to probable to inevitable. And if you think about it, if you're an optimist,

then, you know, the optimist kind of motto is anything is possible. But if you really stop and think about it, we don't pursue that which is possible. We pursue is anything is possible. But if you really stop and think about it, we don't pursue that which is possible. We pursue that which is probable, right? When was the last time that you pursued a goal that you didn't think was probable, right? You're like, well, there's probably not a good chance this is going to happen, but I'm going to try anyway. I'm going to, most people don't do that, right? So you have to move your biggest goals from possible to probable first. That's the first step. And then eventually you want to make them inevitable. So how do you move them from possible to probable? The first decision is

unwavering faith, or specifically, you have to establish unwavering faith, and then you have to maintain unwavering faith until you achieve your, well, your miracle. And let me define that real quick, because that's a very loaded word with kind of a bad rap, I think, because whether either it's viewed in a religious context where it's like, well, you know, miracles only happen for certain people, or I'm praying and hoping for a miracle. It's like a passive thing. Or I think miracles are, are viewed as random. You know, like there's a story I tell in the book of the gentleman who fell 14,000 feet out of an airplane skydiving, his parachute didn't open and he lived somehow. Like how that's not, it doesn't seem impossible. Well, that's an interesting story, but Ella, that, how does

that help you or me or anybody listening? Right? Like, well, that's a cool story, but I'm not trying to jump out of an airplane without a parachute and live, you know? So here's the way i define a miracle a miracle is any meaningful outcome outside the realm of what you currently believe is probable for you therefore when you finally achieve the outcome because you don't think it's probable you might not even believe it's possible yeah but when you achieve it it feels like a miracle yeah right so that's how i define it because it's a long way away from where you are today. It's usually a long way away. That's exactly it. It's a big gap. Like writing the miracle morning, it took me three years, you know? So it's not something that you're going to achieve today. Yeah, exactly. So my, my goal originally, not my original goal was

just to write the book. I didn't know I would sell a lot of copies. And then once I started seeing the momentum, I went, Oh, I'm gonna go for a million copies. And my goal was to do it in a year. That year I sold, it was, I think, either 13,000 or 17,000 copies. So if you're doing the math, I was 990, you know, 980,000 copies short, right? That's like 99% short of my goal.

So I kept at it and it took me six years, but I finally got there. And was I upset that it took me six years? No, I was celebrating, jumping for joy. I was, you know, I realized why it took that long and that my timeline was unrealistic initially. And for most of us, here's what you're about to find is that when you apply these two decisions, your success is inevitable.

It's only a matter of time. But it is time. I think that's exactly it. It's patience. It's time. It's patience. It's only a matter of time. But it is time. I think that's exactly it. It's patience. It's time. It's patience. It's commitment. So, the first decision is unwavering faith, meaning you have to override the fear that you might fail with the faith that you will succeed. And presumably also on the assumption that during this time, you will fail at points, like they're going to be big hiccups and big speed bumps, and you're going to have to find a way to push through those. That is why the word unwavering precedes the word faith. Yeah, because you're exactly right.

Very go find a successful person in any walk of life, athletics, you know, business, whatever. And say, hey, was it an easy, smooth road to get here? Right. Good luck finding somebody, you know, unless they woke up and inherited all their money, which even that came with probably a bunch of challenges, but right. But for most people, they had to fail and overcome that failure and they had to then succeed and then, you know, and then learn about the success that it wasn't what they thought it was going to be. And then, right. I mean, it's, so yeah, you're exactly right. The

faith has to be unwavering. And I mentioned earlier that I would give an affirmation later. So I'll give it to you now. Here is how you maintain unwavering faith in writing, or here's one way, right? This is my favorite, one of my favorite affirmations for this. Cause faith, let me say this. Faith is the opposite of fear. And what holds us back is fear. And it's usually in the form of self-doubt because if you're trying to accomplish something you never accomplished before, you go, I have no evidence in my past that I could do this. So you have to step out on faith. So the affirmation is, I am just as worthy, deserving, and capable of blank and blank is whatever it is that you want in your life. I am just as worthy, deserving and capable of blank

as any other person on earth. And I will prove that today with my actions. And so what you're affirming is that's establishing the faith because it's faith, not in a higher power, not that anything's wrong with that. It's faith in yourself. It's faith in, you know what? I'm just as worthy. I am just as deserving and I am just as capable as whatever you want. And, and I'm not going to leave it at that and pat myself on the back. I will prove it today with my actions. That's how you transition the faith into the second decision, which is extraordinary effort. Once you establish unwavering faith and you commit to maintain it for

as long as it takes to achieve your miracle, your meaningful outcome, then you've got to put forth extraordinary effort. And here's the good news. If you're listening and you're like, I'm lazy, I don't want to put forth extraordinary effort. It's not hard work. That's not what I'm talking about. If I were to define extraordinary effort in one word, the word is consistency. That's it. If you do one thing a day, every day, that moves you closer to your ideal outcome,

your meaningful outcome, your miracle, again, success is inevitable. It's only a matter of time. And for me, I tried to write The Miracle Morning in 2009, I believe it was. Didn't do it. 2010, didn't do it. 2010, didn't do it. 2011, still didn't do it. I finally finished it in 2012, but I just kept applying unwavering faith and extraordinary effort, consistent effort by writing 30 to 60 minutes every single day. And then when I wanted to sell a million copies, right, it didn't happen in year

one, but I didn't give up. Didn't happen in year two, but I didn't give up. Didn't happen in year two, but I didn't give up. And I mean, after year three, four, five, I'm like, oh my gosh, is this ever going to happen? Finally, in year six, we surpassed a million copies sold. And then it only took a few years to sell the next million copies. And now we're selling a million copies a year. I mean, you know, so it's like, once you achieve goals and dreams and these, these things that you once thought were impossible, you then become a different person. And then like the sky's the limit

and you start going, wait a minute, if the miracle equation works for that, what else could I do that I haven't even thought about? Right? And you really become, you join the 1%. And I don't mean that in elitist sort of way, but you join the very few people in the world who live this way.

Because see, these two decisions aren't one-time decisions. These are every day for the rest of your life decisions. And you apply them to every area of your life and you create meaningful outcomes. You know, you create success, however you define it, beyond what you might right now, not even imagine is possible. Because I never imagined I'd be in London, Ella talking to you right now, not even imagine is possible. Cause I never imagined I'd

be in London, Ella talking to you right now about my, you know, 14th book. Like I never imagined that ever little old me when I wrote my book, I thought no one's going to read this. What, who am I kidding? Right. But you keep applying the miracle equation. You keep applying these two decisions. And there's, in my opinion, in my experience, nothing really that you can't overcome and nothing that you can't achieve. I love it. And so it does, it is, it's the answer to the question, like, yes, an hour can change your life, but only if you really, really want it to. Like, it's not as simple as just like getting up, sitting around and being like, my life's going to change. It's not, as you said, it's consistency. It's unwavering kind

of optimism and faith that you can do what you're going to do, which actually is so powerful. And yeah, so grateful for your time today. I think there'll be a lot of people listening, hopefully, who it's resonated with a lot, because I think it is exactly that. It is that you've always got to put in the effort and you've got to take the time to believe in yourself to kind of carve out that vision. Absolutely. Ella, thank you so much for having me. This was a blast. Thanks for the great questions.

My absolute pleasure. So we will be back for our final episode of this season next Tuesday. It's going to be me and Matt. We've got loads to talk about and we will see you then. Thank you so much. You're a podcast listener and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Thank you. thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-s-y-n dot com.