The Art of Manliness - The 6 Practices of the Ultimate Morning Routine

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast

00:00:10.780 there's been a lot of talk about morning routines the last few years the idea is hardly new famous

00:00:16.500 men from thomas aquinas to benjamin franklin structure their mornings to accomplish great

00:00:20.400 deeds and live flourishing lives a modern advocate of this age-old practice is hal elrod author of

00:00:25.940 the miracle morning first published nearly 20 years ago long before morning routines became a

00:00:30.680 trend hal was experimenting with his own researching and refining what actually works

00:00:35.000 through his experiences and those of the millions who've tried his approach he's cut through the

00:00:39.120 aspirational noise to offer a doable effective framework for starting your day right today on

00:00:43.840 the show hal shares the six practices of the miracle morning routine why he chose them and how they set

00:00:48.600 up your day for success we also discuss how long the routine takes and how a shortened version can

00:00:53.060 be done in just six minutes as well as how to make it work if you're not a morning person along the

00:00:57.520 way i share what my own morning routine looks like after the show's over check out our show notes at

00:01:01.720 aom.is slash morning routine all right hal elrod welcome to the show brett it is good to be here

00:01:20.600 man like you and i were just speaking that we've both been around a long time man so it took a while

00:01:25.700 to connect but better late than never yeah so you wrote this book called the miracle morning back in

00:01:30.420 2012 it's all about setting up a morning routine for yourself to set yourself up for a day of success

00:01:37.520 and you've been blogging about it you've built up this community around miracle morning and then

00:01:42.800 recently a couple years ago you released an updated version of the miracle morning where you've

00:01:48.640 expanded and added some things you've learned over the past decade on how to you know amplify

00:01:54.660 someone's morning routine but let's talk about the origin of the miracle morning because it was

00:02:00.400 two personal setbacks that led to its development the first was a near fatal car accident you had in

00:02:07.120 your 20s tell us about that yeah so when i was 20 years old i was a one of cutco cutlery's top sales

00:02:14.200 rep i just finished my first year of college and i started a career kind of because a friend

00:02:19.360 pressured me into going into an interview and i just wanted him off my back so i i got hired to

00:02:24.200 sell cutco and i started doing pretty well with them and so they had me giving speeches at their events

00:02:28.560 and one night after a speech i was driving home when my car ford mustang was hit head on by a drunk

00:02:34.600 driver at 70 to 80 miles an hour and i was found dead at the scene and my heart stopped for six minutes

00:02:40.580 they revived me on a helicopter airlifted me to the hospital i spent six days in a coma when i came

00:02:45.600 out of the coma i was told by doctors that i had permanent brain damage and that i would never walk

00:02:50.060 again and i just had i i had this like dual mindset where i went okay if i never walk again and i'm in

00:02:56.180 a wheelchair the rest of my life and that is my reality i'm not going to allow that to dictate my

00:03:01.820 mental and emotional well-being and i told my parents i said mom and dad i know you're you're you're

00:03:07.040 worried about me don't worry if the worst case scenario is the doctors are right and i never walk

00:03:12.140 again i've decided i'll be the happiest most grateful person you've ever seen in a wheelchair

00:03:16.420 and then on the flip side i was like but i'm i'm not accepting that as my only option i'm maintaining

00:03:22.920 unwavering faith that i'm going to walk again while i simultaneously accept that i might not and

00:03:29.460 it's like a lesson for a lot of us right it's like how do you expect the best like go out there

00:03:33.320 with faith approach your life with this confidence and optimism and then also be at peace with like

00:03:39.060 hey sometimes things go my way sometimes they don't sometimes i'm down sometimes the the down

00:03:43.900 and out period lasts way longer than i want it to so how can i be at peace and grateful and happy

00:03:50.020 and keep moving toward the future that i want and so i took my first step a few weeks later and in

00:03:55.800 that kind of the rest is history and how that tied in you know indirectly to the miracle morning is

00:04:00.540 in that experience in the hospital i decided that i was going to use that experience to help other

00:04:06.500 people i thought i'm going to write a book i'm going to start speaking about this maybe that's why

00:04:10.700 god put me through this is i there's a bigger purpose and so when the miracle morning became my

00:04:16.340 morning routine and it changed my life so profoundly that my wife called it a miracle then i just felt

00:04:22.640 like i have a responsibility to share this with other people that idea of where you're holding those

00:04:27.160 two different ideas in your head of okay i'm going to have faith that things will get better

00:04:32.440 while at the same time accepting maybe they won't and maybe this is my reality reminds me of the

00:04:38.900 stockdale paradox from jim stockdale he was an admiral in the military in the navy who was a prisoner of

00:04:46.780 war during vietnam at the hanoi hilton one of the most brutal prisoner of war camps and before he was a

00:04:53.220 prisoner of war he studied stoicism and while he was there he developed this paradox he calls it the

00:04:58.040 stockdale paradox or it's become known as the stockdale paradox of holding these two different

00:05:02.160 ideas in your head he's like well maybe i'm i'm going to hope i'm going to get out but i'm also at

00:05:07.700 the same time going to accept maybe i'm not going to get out and that reminds me exactly what you did

00:05:13.020 thank you for that i just i just googled it i'm going to watch videos and read articles and i'm going

00:05:17.120 to start incorporating that because i i'd never heard of that before but yeah that's exactly it

00:05:21.140 so the miracle morning it's got six practices it's silence affirmations visualization exercise

00:05:28.980 reading and scribing and that's just another way of saying writing and use the acronym savers for

00:05:35.640 this routine your recovery from the car accident laid the foundation for the miracle morning routine

00:05:40.820 because it got you thinking about resilience and goal setting but it was another personal setback

00:05:46.520 that led you to actually creating this concrete morning routine for yourself what was the story

00:05:52.200 there and why did you end up choosing the six savers practices for your morning routine yeah so the

00:05:58.040 miracle morning specifically was born out of the 2008 financial crash i like millions of entrepreneurs

00:06:04.440 you know my business started to fail and i couldn't pay the bills and my house was foreclosed on and

00:06:08.860 it was kind of a six month downward spiral and then my wife gave me some advice actually she her advice

00:06:14.960 was call your friend john and get some advice like you're you're you know because i was struggling

00:06:19.500 man i like i couldn't figure out how to turn it around and i'm drowning in debt and then the house

00:06:23.640 gets foreclosed on and i call my friend john and he essentially tells me to listen to a jim rone

00:06:30.720 audio he goes this audio will change the way you think al and it will teach you to solve your own

00:06:35.240 problems and turn your life around i was like all right so i listen to jim rone audio and this one quote

00:06:40.060 changes everything for me it stands out and it's your level of success will seldom exceed your level of

00:06:44.740 personal development and i went well okay and if anybody's listening you can kind of take this and

00:06:49.220 apply it to your life right now which is like on a scale of one to ten if you're measuring the level

00:06:53.420 of success fulfillment happiness you know success in every area your your finances your relationships

00:06:58.980 your mental health everyone wants level 10 i've never met anyone that's like well i don't want to be

00:07:03.860 too happy or too financially secure or you know it's like no no there's this human drive and desire

00:07:10.560 to self-actualize and be like i want to be the happiest and healthiest and most financially

00:07:14.780 secure and most harmonious in my relationships that i possibly can be so i determined i want a level

00:07:19.660 10 in terms of my success and then my question was as jim rone is saying your level of success won't

00:07:24.920 exceed your level of personal development it's like well what's my level of personal development am i

00:07:29.060 developing myself to the degree that i need to to become the level 10 version of me day in and day out

00:07:36.480 so i can show up at a level 10 and create that success i want in my life and when i was honest

00:07:41.660 with myself and again if you're listening to this like do this assessment right now right what's

00:07:45.800 level of success do you want scale of one to ten probably a ten right or at least like an eight or

00:07:49.340 nine you want to be you know up there what level is your personal development at right now and you can

00:07:54.900 assess that based on your daily habits your daily rituals your daily routines are you doing things each

00:08:00.280 day to develop your mindset your physical mental emotional and spiritual well-being and

00:08:05.520 capacities to be at as close to level 10 as possible and for me it was a no it was like

00:08:10.380 i'm like at a two or three like my personal development is all over the place i start a

00:08:15.500 book i don't finish it i'll try a journal like i don't do anything consistently and so i just googled

00:08:20.680 what are the world's most successful people do for personal development and that's where these six

00:08:25.880 practices i had a list of six and i was looking for one i'm like oh yeah okay the world's most

00:08:31.060 successful people they swear by meditation i found this article fortune 500 ceos who swear by

00:08:36.700 meditation and they said this is what gave us our biggest breakthroughs that took our companies

00:08:41.280 and our revenue and our income to new heights and i was like all right i gotta meditate for that clarity

00:08:46.320 and that mental well-being and then i read articles on affirmations and the world's best

00:08:51.440 athletes visualize and a lot of people attribute the books they read and so i go well which of these

00:08:56.980 is the best and to keep a long story not too long it was wait a minute what if i did all of these

00:09:03.260 what if instead of picking one of the world's most timeless proven personal development practices

00:09:09.500 what if i created a simple ritual that combined all six of them and that would be the ultimate

00:09:16.700 personal development routine and so that was it day one it was like i did 10 minutes of each of

00:09:22.140 these practices and most people do anywhere from five to 10 each so it's like a 30 to a 60 minute

00:09:26.760 miracle morning this isn't like the 5 a.m club where you have to wake up super super early it's

00:09:30.840 just starting your day with these practices whenever you do wake up and so yeah that's how

00:09:35.160 the savers were born and it was these six practices i did all of them the next day and i've done all of

00:09:40.040 them you know more days than not for the last 17 years well let's talk about these different

00:09:45.480 components in detail because in the book you go into detail on what these different parts of the

00:09:50.500 savers routine could look like and you know the benefits of it the first one is silence why start

00:09:56.160 with silence as the first thing in the routine so you think about it when do your greatest insights

00:10:03.100 come to you is it when you're busy when your mind is racing with a million things on your to-do list

00:10:10.940 when you're checking emails or staring at a screen or scrolling your phone and the answer is no no no no no

00:10:16.420 your greatest insights and ideas and breakthroughs and perspectives and realizations always come in

00:10:25.720 moments of peaceful purposeful silence and that's often unintentional where it's like you're in the

00:10:31.720 shower or you're falling asleep at night or you just write like the calmer and quieter your mind is

00:10:38.180 the more there is space for you to access your highest truth your highest wisdom depending on your

00:10:44.480 belief system like the wisdom of god right and so because of that and because our smartphones have

00:10:50.680 robbed us of those periods of silence that used to be part of our like inherently if you're waiting in

00:10:55.420 line if you're riding on a bus if you're like we we were with our thoughts a lot in the past but now

00:11:01.320 because that smartphone's with us you know pretty close to 24 7 it's like we're not left alone with

00:11:07.000 that the benefits from silence so this is about starting your day with anywhere from one

00:11:11.980 minute of peaceful purposeful silence it could be prayer it could be meditation for me it's both it's

00:11:18.340 a little bit i always start with a prayer to like ask for guidance and really calm my mind and express

00:11:23.080 gratitude and then i'll set my timer on my phone usually for five to ten minutes depending on you

00:11:28.160 know what my schedule is like and what the day what my availability is and i just sit there and i have

00:11:33.040 my journal next to me by the way a lot of the savers you combine them so you can for example silence

00:11:37.840 and scribe and all my journal right there and as a thought emerges i'm like oh that's that's it that's

00:11:42.920 what i need to do today or that's the most important thing i'll open my journal jot it down close the

00:11:47.500 journal go back into silence but again that's where my greatest breakthroughs come from insights

00:11:52.340 realizations clarity peace of mind and so to start your day with that every single day

00:11:58.920 the benefits are immeasurable yeah i before reading your book i've been doing this for years first

00:12:04.300 thing i do when i wake up i'll get out of my bedroom and go to my couch and i just sit there

00:12:08.460 and i i pray and i just kind of sit there for a couple minutes in silence that's all it is and

00:12:13.040 it's nice and it is interesting you do get these insights i think particularly after you wake up but

00:12:18.800 not if the first thing you do is dive into your text and emails on your phone yeah so my rule is that

00:12:23.120 my smartphone you know i don't i don't check it until after silence is done yeah so that's crucial

00:12:28.180 because if you as soon as you start checking notifications your brain goes into reactive mode

00:12:33.100 yeah no i i remember a long time ago i'd get in the habit first thing i do is check my phone

00:12:37.300 and yeah it just ruins everything your big proponent of meditation particularly this thing

00:12:41.680 called emotional optimization meditation what's that so it's as simple as choosing your optimal

00:12:46.880 mental and emotional state and in the book of course like you know it's like four pages that walk

00:12:50.400 you through like how to do this how to identify it but it's you identify your optimal mental and

00:12:54.360 emotional state and then you essentially get yourself in that state and i give different ways to do it

00:12:59.720 one is to remember like when was the last time i felt that way or what makes me feel this way for

00:13:03.680 example let's say you want to be in a state of gratitude well it's like okay so for me i imagine

00:13:08.720 my kids and i just smile i mean literally i smiled as soon as i said my kids and i pictured them like

00:13:13.260 right now i just smile and so you get yourself in the state and then you set your timer and you

00:13:17.560 cultivate that state you meditate in that state and what you're doing is you're creating neural

00:13:22.520 pathways in your brain so you can access your optimal mental and emotional states at will it's kind of

00:13:27.920 like exercise for your muscles but it's for your mind and so that way as you do it day after day

00:13:33.600 after day after day and you continue to cultivate your optimal states you hardwire them in your brain

00:13:38.600 and your nervous system and it literally changes your quality of life and gives you access to those

00:13:43.300 states in the middle of the day or whenever you need them so whether it's the state being you know

00:13:48.560 joy happiness peace of mind confidence love empathy whatever that state is by hardwiring it in the

00:13:55.020 morning through emotional optimization meditation you gain access to it all day long yeah we've had

00:13:59.840 a podcast guest dr rick hansen on the show he's a psychologist and he does something similar he calls

00:14:06.920 it hardwiring happiness same sort of thing you should just think about these optimal states that

00:14:11.840 you want to be in this is particularly useful if you have a tendency to be an eeyore and you kind

00:14:15.780 of had that negativity bias yes to really sit with those positive emotions like really absorb them

00:14:21.640 like what it feels like enrich them and the idea is like you said you'll hardwire yourself for those

00:14:27.800 more optimal or positive emotions instead of just being a negative nelly all the time yeah absolutely

00:14:32.820 so the next part of the savers routine is affirmations now affirmations i think they got a

00:14:39.800 bad rap i think most people think they're cheesy they think of steward smalley from snl saying i'm good

00:14:44.820 enough i'm smart enough i'm smart enough and doggone it people like me right well you argue the reason

00:14:50.420 why they might have a bad rap is because most self-help authors talk about affirmations in the

00:14:56.280 wrong way what do they get wrong so i think there's one of two problems number one is they tell you to

00:15:02.260 affirm something that you don't actually believe so if you know if you're struggling it's something

00:15:07.060 that's not true if you're struggling financially they'll say just affirm i am wealthy i am right

00:15:12.420 and if you're affirming something that is not factually true or doesn't resonate as true for you

00:15:18.180 then you create an internal conflict as if we don't have enough of them right and you go i am

00:15:22.060 wealthy and then you're like this no i'm not i'm struggling financially right now this is bs right

00:15:27.000 so that's the first problem the second problem is we're taught to often create affirmations in this

00:15:31.400 flowery passive language that makes us feel better in the moment but is actually deluding us into

00:15:37.280 thinking something is going to happen without our effort i'll give you an example so we've all heard

00:15:40.680 the affirmation i am a money magnet money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance right and if

00:15:48.960 you're affirming that and you're struggling financially that feels good in the moment you're

00:15:53.260 like oh wow i'm a money magnet and money is going to magically flow to me effortlessly and in abundance

00:15:58.460 that's awesome god that feels so much better than my reality that i'm struggling financially but that's

00:16:04.400 deluding yourself and so i think those are the two biggest problems is we're taught to affirm

00:16:08.120 something that we don't believe in and it's cheesy and it's not true or we're affirming some magical

00:16:14.240 result that's going to happen independent of our efforts to give us relief from our stress

00:16:18.580 yeah it's a kind of manifesting secret stuff yeah exactly yeah so what's a good way to what's

00:16:24.680 a better way to craft affirmations so they're actually effective instead of cringy so for me i use

00:16:29.380 three steps and to me they've got to be rooted in truth they've got to be practical and they've got

00:16:33.820 to be actionable so the three steps number one step one is affirm what you're committed to

00:16:38.100 step two is affirm why it is a must for you and step three is affirm which actions you're going

00:16:44.560 to take and win so this is a very again practical actionable results oriented so it's like you're

00:16:49.200 affirming what you're committed to so not i am wealthy but i am committed to increasing my income

00:16:55.020 by 30 this year right or what it's like you're committing to some sort of meaningful measurable

00:17:00.560 outcome and then step two why is it a must for me why is it important who's this going to benefit

00:17:05.760 like you're getting clear on the why that is so compelling for you and usually i have like

00:17:10.720 you know two three four five reasons why i'm willing to commit to this thing for me for my kids my wife

00:17:17.760 like you know whatever whatever the benefits are and then number three okay well what am i going to do

00:17:23.280 when am i going to do it okay monday wednesday friday from 8 a.m to 9 a.m and it's going to go to my

00:17:28.400 schedule i'm going to commit to focusing on business growth period i'm going to read books on it i'm going to

00:17:34.740 take action on it i'm going to work with chat gpt to figure like make a plan so monday wednesday

00:17:39.980 friday and so when you create affirmations that are following those three steps really the only way

00:17:45.520 you can fail is to live out of integrity with what you're affirming every day because hey this is what

00:17:50.000 i'm committed to this is why this is what i'm going to do that to me is like my it's my north star

00:17:54.900 it's the anchor for the rest of my miracle morning the other savers really support what i'm affirming

00:18:00.920 every day and so i imagine you want to take some time before you start your miracle morning routine

00:18:06.200 to write this affirmation out yeah i always make them on like a microsoft word or a google sheet

00:18:11.320 because to me affirmations are always a rough draft because as we continue to learn and grow and gain

00:18:17.440 new insights and perspectives and strategies i'm always editing and updating my affirmations i'll make

00:18:23.260 my rough draft i'll print a copy and then i'll go in usually multiple times a week often during silence

00:18:29.040 or during reading i'll like i'll read something or i'll think i'm like oh i need to remember that

00:18:33.420 and so i'll put in my affirmations i always usually scribble on the sheet and then after the sheet's

00:18:37.880 gotten messy enough i go back into the word doc or the google doc update the affirmations print a new

00:18:42.860 copy and you know just kind of rinse and repeat and i've been doing that for 17 years and then when

00:18:47.060 you got your affirmation written out do you read it to yourself is that what you do or do you

00:18:51.880 read it out loud to myself quietly i you know i've had people in the miracle morning community that go

00:18:57.360 it's more powerful when i read it out loud so my whatever works for you and then i have another

00:19:01.980 uh honor a quarter who is my co-creator of the miracle morning book series she she reads her

00:19:08.440 affirmations so she types them out then she reads them into her voice into her app and then while

00:19:14.860 she's on the treadmill she listens to them so she's handling that we're going to get to the ian

00:19:19.220 savers exercise right she's doing exercise while she's doing her affirmation and she's listening to

00:19:24.440 affirmation so it's like she's killing two birds with one stone she doesn't have to separate them

00:19:28.220 and there's a lot of the savers that you can combine in that way where you're doing it at the

00:19:31.920 same time something i did when i was a young man this is back when i was in law school and my goal

00:19:38.360 was i wanted to do really well in law school get on law review and so i had these goals for myself

00:19:42.960 and every morning what i would do i would read these goals out loud to myself but i'd also write

00:19:48.900 them out like five times so i had these old journals full of just like pages of me writing

00:19:53.380 out my affirmations slash goals over and over again i guess it helped because i'm law school

00:19:59.120 went pretty well for me i guess it was a way for me to reinforce like what i was doing and why i was

00:20:02.980 doing it nice nice dude yeah i always say in the simplest form an affirmation is nothing more than

00:20:08.480 a reminder of something that you have deemed so important that you want to remember it that you

00:20:13.660 want to integrate it into your thinking into your belief system etc we're going to take a quick

00:20:18.060 break for your words from our sponsors and now back to the show all right so that's affirmations

00:20:25.040 the next part of the routine is v for visualization this is i think another thing that i think a lot of

00:20:32.100 people think is hokey or cheesy what does visualization look like so visualization is there's two parts to

00:20:39.020 it i think for it to be effective and most people leave out the second part which in my mind is the

00:20:44.000 most important and the first part is see the ideal outcome and that's what they teach like yeah yeah

00:20:48.880 make a vision board like put pictures of your ideal outcome and see it and feel it that's great because

00:20:53.940 a it's a reminder like oh yeah that's important to me i need to stay focused on that not get distracted

00:20:58.920 and not lose sight of that so i'm going to visualize it but more importantly i'm going to see it in a way

00:21:03.660 where it's so compelling where i'm creating i'm literally generating a compelling emotional

00:21:09.000 experience similar to that emotional optimization meditation i'm now creating a compelling vision

00:21:14.340 that makes me feel so inspired that i'm motivated like that fuels my motivation to do the things

00:21:19.940 today that'll get me there but the most important part of visualization that second part is mentally

00:21:25.360 rehearsing the things that are going to get you there that you must do today and in the same way

00:21:31.820 compelling seeing yourself following through with things that might be out of your comfort zone

00:21:36.500 they might be scary they might be difficult but they're necessary and so you use that visualization

00:21:42.320 it only takes a minute or two to see yourself tying your shoes heading out the front door going on that

00:21:48.340 run for that marathon right or opening of the word document the google doc and starting on your book

00:21:53.940 like whatever it is or or having that difficult conversation with your co-worker or picking up the

00:21:58.360 phone and calling prospects like whatever it is you mentally rehearse doing the thing and this is what

00:22:03.180 world-class athletes do on a regular basis the best athletes in the world one of their strategies is

00:22:11.140 i'm going to visualize i'm going to mentally rehearse performing at my best you know whether it's tiger woods

00:22:17.680 when he was at the top of the game on 18 holes or michael jordan on the basketball court right it was seeing

00:22:23.100 themselves and mentally rehearsing doing the thing so that when it was time to actually swing that club or step onto

00:22:28.980 that court they had already been there in their mind it wasn't like the first time they had

00:22:33.700 experienced it they had felt it they had seen it and now it was just time to go do it in real time

00:22:39.440 yeah the way you describe visualizations it reminds me of the whoop method of goal planning

00:22:45.540 you've heard about this sounds familiar but i don't know yeah so it was developed by the psychologist

00:22:49.220 named gabriella on i think her name's like autogen i can't pronounce her last name i thought i thought it was

00:22:54.340 gonna be whoop but no but whoop is an acronym stands for uh w is wish so you identify a desirable

00:22:59.760 but achievable goal o the first o is outcome so it's visualize the best possible outcome i mean

00:23:05.500 create a positive mental image of that see what it looks like and this is the most important part

00:23:09.040 the second o and whoop is obstacle so you got to identify a significant internal obstacle or external

00:23:14.900 obstacle that might prevent you from reaching that goal and then p and whoop is plan and then you

00:23:21.700 create an if then plan to address the obstacle so it's positive thinking but also adding in some

00:23:26.920 negative thinking but then coming up with a positive plan to overcome that obstacle i love that i love

00:23:32.560 that man yeah and then with this visualizations i imagine they can change every day so if you got a

00:23:37.180 big thing going on that day your visualization will be for that big i don't know sales call or something

00:23:41.540 yeah for me i'll actually i'll take a before i do my visualization i will look over well here's the

00:23:46.880 thing i'm looking over my affirmations typically and then that leads to the visualization

00:23:50.440 because i have an affirmation for each one of my goals and each one of my roles so like my most

00:23:55.360 important goals i've got an affirmation for you know here's the financial goal i'm committed to

00:23:59.400 as a father here's what i'm committed to as a dad here's what i'm committed to as a husband so again a

00:24:04.160 goal or a role an affirmation is appropriate and then once you've read the affirmation now you're

00:24:09.240 just visualizing yourself doing the thing that step three of your affirmations was which actions are

00:24:14.460 you going to take and win and that is the last thing you affirm before you go into visualization

00:24:18.600 giving it a real life example when i was a year into my miracle morning i decided that my level 10

00:24:24.600 fitness goal was going to be to run a 52 mile ultra marathon because i hated running ironically and i

00:24:30.960 thought man the person i'd have to become to run 52 consecutive miles when right now i couldn't even

00:24:37.260 run one mile at that point i was like i want to become that person so i'm going to make this commitment

00:24:41.880 publicly because it scares me right like i was really the miracle morning just got me thinking so big

00:24:47.200 and so i did i committed to it and what i would do is i would read my affirmations i'm committed to

00:24:52.000 running 52 miles on october 29th 2009 no matter what there's no other option this is a must for me

00:24:57.440 because it's such a fear and limitation that in order to overcome it i will be able to overcome

00:25:02.860 anything else in my life and then the third step which actions will i take and win i will read the book

00:25:09.080 the non-runners marathon trainer and follow the training plan to a t whether i feel like it or not

00:25:14.700 so i just affirmed that now i go into visualization part one i visualize myself with the outcome i see

00:25:20.900 myself crossing the finish line of the ultra marathon and i see it i imagine what it'll feel

00:25:26.540 like i smile i take a deep breath i'm like that's going to be freaking awesome when i do that even

00:25:32.140 though i'm scared even though like part of me doesn't even believe that i'm going to do it i'm

00:25:36.440 going to visualize it as if it were true and then the second part and the most important part is i would

00:25:41.620 mentally rehearse my cell phone going off at 7 a.m when it was time to run i'd visualize myself

00:25:47.000 reaching out turning the phone off walking into my bedroom getting dressed in my running clothes

00:25:51.660 walking to the front door of my house i can still see it today like it was yesterday open the front

00:25:56.440 door i would see the my driveway slanted down to the sidewalk and then i would read my affirmations

00:26:02.360 one more time in my head i'd recite them one more time while i visualize the sidewalk i am committed

00:26:07.120 to running 52 miles right yada yada yada and then i would visualize myself running out the door with

00:26:12.820 enthusiasm and energy and excitement now think about how that impacted real life when the alarm

00:26:18.420 on my phone went off at 7 a.m human nature if i had not affirmed and visualized would be like i don't

00:26:23.640 want to run i'll just do it tomorrow or i'm not even going to do the marathon man who was i kidding

00:26:28.960 but that's not what happened brett because that's not what i mentally rehearsed it's not what i

00:26:34.420 visualized so what would happen is like i was a robot that i programmed that morning the alarm would

00:26:39.820 go off my phone at 7 a.m i would turn it off i would get off the couch walk into my closet get

00:26:44.720 dressed go to the front door open it it was literally it would play out exactly as i'd visualized

00:26:51.060 it that morning so you can apply that practice that two-step practice of outcome and then the mental

00:26:57.160 rehearsal to any goal any role any aspect of your life and again the affirmations essentially lead

00:27:04.280 right into the visualization all right so the next part of the routine is e for exercise are we

00:27:10.800 talking like a full-blown workout in the morning for this no and this is i mean this is the one of

00:27:15.380 the simplest like this requires the least explanation it's move your body first thing in the morning or

00:27:20.740 relatively quickly after you wake up because it wakes up your lymphatic system it gets your blood and

00:27:27.740 oxygen flowing including flowing to your brain so you think clearer you feel better and if you ever

00:27:34.080 wake you know there are days where i wake up and i'm like i'm you know i'll even start meditating and

00:27:37.620 i'm like oh my god my brain is not on right now i am falling asleep i'm like not it's not working i

00:27:43.940 will stand up and do 60 seconds of jumping jacks or i'll just count to my age i'm 46 so i'll just do 46

00:27:50.440 jumping jacks usually but here's the thing you go from i'm so tired and lethargic to now you're like

00:27:57.980 breathing heavy after you know 60 seconds of jumping jacks you're breathing heavy you're alert

00:28:02.300 you're awake the blood is flowing the oxygen's flowing you sit down and now you're your mental

00:28:07.560 acuity is significantly improved than before you did that exercise but then on an average day it'll be

00:28:15.240 like you know five minutes of like stretching sometimes it's two or three minutes i'll do like

00:28:19.660 60 seconds of plank 60 seconds of downward dog and 60 seconds of backbend and 60 seconds of jumping

00:28:26.760 jacks that's actually my standard four minute workout that i do every morning it's 60 seconds

00:28:32.040 of each of those four activities but you can do whatever you want yes no full-blown workout just

00:28:35.960 the goal is to move your body and then i go after my miracle morning and after i've got the kids ready

00:28:40.000 for school when i go into my i have a home office with a little workout like a little tiny mini gym in

00:28:44.860 the back that's the first thing i do is i do like a 20 30 minute full-blown workout so yeah the

00:28:49.480 miracle morning part of my exercise in my savers is just to get the blood and oxygen flowing and wake

00:28:56.020 myself up yeah for me my routine is like i wake up i do the moment of silence pray and then i take a

00:29:02.180 morning walk it's a mile it takes about 15 to 20 minutes depending on how fast i go and like during

00:29:07.680 that time i'm thinking about what i got to do for the day so i'm doing maybe i'm just i'm unintentionally

00:29:12.360 doing some affirmations and some visualization during that morning walk i love that and you're

00:29:17.680 combining silence you're combining nature you're combining affirmation like yeah you can go for a

00:29:22.400 walk and while you're on your walk you can listen to your affirmations if you put them if you record

00:29:26.340 them right you can meditate and pray for me when i go on a walk or a jog around our property like

00:29:32.400 that is almost always almost 10 out of 10 times probably 9 out of 10 i gain some sort of profound

00:29:40.600 insight solution to my problem and i go back and i implement it yeah you're right taking that walk

00:29:45.440 does wake me up yeah i'm good to go after that all right so let's move on to our ours for reading

00:29:50.220 so in this reading part what kind of reading you're doing what kind of books you're reading

00:29:53.080 so i have a unique kind of self-imposed rule where you know family is my top priority well health is my

00:30:00.280 top priority but i've got that pretty dialed in i've read many many books on optimizing health and so i

00:30:06.180 you know i've got my health routines in place with diet and exercise and all of those things so

00:30:11.180 family is my number one priority or right behind health and it's the one that does require attention

00:30:16.760 because with you know human beings they're never stagnant they're always growing they're changing

00:30:21.180 they're evolving you don't just get in the same routine where it's going to work you know if i do

00:30:24.820 the same thing every day for my wife and kids like nope they need me to mix it up and adapt to them

00:30:29.980 so i have a self-imposed rule that i have to read a what i call a family book which essentially just

00:30:35.520 means either a book on marriage or a book on parenting before i read any other book which is

00:30:42.080 usually you know a business book that i'm excited about so right now i i just i'm rereading the book

00:30:47.500 raising a modern day knight you heard of that book before i've heard of it yeah yeah and so that's a

00:30:53.200 great book you know my son just turned 13 so i'm reading it for him and then after that book the

00:30:57.940 business book i read right now is called wealthy and well known by my good buddies rory and aj vaden

00:31:02.840 so that's it so first i read at least a few pages out of a family book so i can learn one thing so i

00:31:10.500 can apply to my family and then i go into the business book so you're doing a lot of non-fiction

00:31:14.460 reading during this time it's all non-fiction all non-fiction in the evening sometimes i'll do

00:31:18.600 fiction but it's yeah during the morning it's all non-fiction i'm i'm trying to optimize my mindset

00:31:23.840 and learn something that i can actually apply to improve my marriage my family my business etc

00:31:29.800 yeah lately i've been reading fiction in the morning i love reading non-fiction books but

00:31:34.940 i've been doing a lot more fiction reading and interesting how come well first i because i just

00:31:39.160 want to i read plenty of non-fiction it's like i need to do some more fiction it's enjoyable

00:31:42.460 but something i've found as a unintended like a side effect of this that you actually pick up a lot

00:31:48.940 of cool personal development insights while reading fiction like i'm right right now my son and i are

00:31:54.340 reading the count of monte cristo together the unabridged version it's like 1200 pages crazy story

00:31:59.460 but there's a lot of cool insights just about patience and you know these characters will drop

00:32:05.660 these little insights about life about business that i've been highlighting i'm like this is really

00:32:10.800 good i can use this in my my day-to-day life so i know you're big on non-fiction but fiction i think

00:32:16.200 you can find some really cool insights how old is your son by the way he uh he'll be 15 here next

00:32:20.640 or this month okay sorry so that i'm just i'm wondering if counting i'm already on amazon

00:32:24.740 adding counting monte cristo to my cart so it's a great 13 is that appropriate uh that might well

00:32:31.560 i think he there's some 13 year olds who could do it but it's a beast of a book but he'll feel

00:32:35.960 awesome once he finishes finishes he'll feel cool all right so you're gonna spend some time reading

00:32:40.720 the final part of the savers is the final s and that is scribing or writing what's the purpose of

00:32:46.860 writing in the morning and what are you writing yeah well and it's interesting i think this is the one

00:32:51.400 that i hear from people that they find the most challenging and for me and i i find it you know

00:32:56.360 visualization is my most challenging this one's pretty easy the reason why to do it is that when

00:33:02.260 you there's multiple reasons one of them is that when you put pin to paper or typing either way you

00:33:09.960 are forcing yourself to qualify your thinking like when you're just sitting there thinking if you're just

00:33:15.400 letting your mind race you can think about 10 things in you know the span of like a minute you could be

00:33:20.780 thinking about your you know this challenge in your business and then all of a sudden you're

00:33:24.760 thinking of oh wait i gotta remember to do this at the grocery store today and you're thinking about

00:33:27.940 oh my my wife was mad because i didn't and you're right like your mind just goes all over the place

00:33:32.120 you can't write like that nobody right when you put pin to paper you're forced to be coherent to

00:33:37.300 qualify your thoughts and determine discern those that are most important to articulate so that's one of

00:33:44.800 the benefits is you are focusing your thoughts and qualifying them in a way that is worthy of putting

00:33:50.640 them in writing so you're basically improving your quality of thinking also you're keeping a record of

00:33:56.620 your thinking and of your life right now i'm going through my journals from 2008 2009 2010 2011

00:34:03.780 which were my first four years of miracle morning it is so profoundly beneficial for me to read

00:34:12.700 one it's enjoyable like wow this is so cool to revisit you know i i mean i'm writing like man

00:34:18.440 ursula is the one for me i'm gonna marry her someday i have no doubt in my mind and i'm i'm i'm like

00:34:23.500 literally texting her pictures of my journal entries you know um like hey sweetie check out this journal

00:34:28.000 entry and same thing with ones with my friends and stuff so it's this beautiful record of my life

00:34:32.240 and of where i was at at the time and there's so many parts of my mindset that when i was you know

00:34:37.800 in a beginner's mindset that i've actually lost sight of like i've lost sight of a lot of the

00:34:43.060 basics and the things that that that got me to where i am and now i'm like man i'm not thinking

00:34:48.720 the way i used to that i actually need to get back to where i was thinking in certain ways in 2008 like

00:34:54.300 my mindset back then when i was young and hungry and still learning and growing in that way you know

00:35:00.180 not that i'm not still learning and growing but it's invaluable so so those are just a couple of

00:35:04.180 benefits and the last one i'll share is going back to that emotional optimization meditation

00:35:08.940 i believe that gratitude is one of the most important keys to optimizing your mental and

00:35:15.260 emotional well-being you know there's a million things that are going wrong in our lives and there's

00:35:19.300 a million things that we could be grateful for and so i write those things down every day one two or

00:35:25.380 three of them and then it's important my hand goes on my heart and i look at each of them and then i

00:35:30.780 close my eyes and i'll spend 30 to 60 seconds in silence smiling and feeling deeply grateful for

00:35:37.340 whatever i wrote down it might be my wife or my son or my daughter or that conversation i had

00:35:43.060 yesterday or my i helped my friend move yesterday for example i wrote that down right like that was on

00:35:47.660 my gratitude list today is that i got the opportunity to help my friend move into his new house last night

00:35:52.200 and we connected and he felt so grateful and like it was right and so when you do that you're again

00:35:58.700 going back to hardwiring these emotions of gratitude and joy and feeling like oh wait my life's not

00:36:05.480 totally it's not a lack like i have so much in my life it's so rich but if i don't actually pause and

00:36:12.580 take time to think about it and even better write it down and solidify it then look at it then contemplate

00:36:20.140 it i'm not it's one thing to have gratitude on a checklist like yeah i'm grateful for my house and

00:36:25.160 my kids and my wife and my money and whatever like that's intellectual gratitude but having

00:36:29.340 heartfelt soulful gratitude that you ponder for a moment that's where gratitude has a meaningful

00:36:35.920 impact in your life all right so journaling can help you with your thinking it can help you see a

00:36:40.480 record of your thinking so you can get some new insights and then you can also do the gratitude

00:36:44.140 work in that journal do you write by hand is that your preference yes and i've done both and i

00:36:49.080 actually still do both the miracle morning has a journaling app so i'll write there when i'm on the road

00:36:53.900 i don't always have my journal with me so i'll write there but then i i do prefer to journal my

00:36:58.680 hand because there's something about putting pen to paper you know and that isn't there like the the

00:37:05.000 the visceral experience when you're just you know just typing away on a keyboard yeah something i've

00:37:10.200 thought about experimenting with i haven't done i haven't been a regular journal keeper in a long

00:37:13.920 time i i was then i kind of gave it up because i just i wasn't getting much out of it i didn't think

00:37:18.020 at the time but if i decided to start up again i thought about doing it like on a google doc

00:37:22.920 and then using chat gpt to like look for insights like tell me you know find insights about myself

00:37:30.000 based on my journal entry have you found anyone in your community doing that i'm sure there are

00:37:34.940 many we have you know millions of people that are doing their miracle morning and using in fact i just

00:37:39.600 did a serve an ai survey for our community i was like because i was curious i was like you know i don't

00:37:43.120 know where they stand are they into ai are they anti-ai and it was something like 93 i think give or

00:37:49.100 take said like oh yeah we're using ai you know not necessarily during their miracle morning but just

00:37:53.980 in general so yeah i'd imagine that i like that i like that as a very strategic way to optimize your

00:37:58.780 journaling okay so we've talked about the six practices of the miracle morning we got silence

00:38:03.380 affirmations visualization exercise reading and scribing if someone were to implement these practices

00:38:09.520 how long would the routine take one thing with the miracle morning it's completely customizable

00:38:13.720 and i talk about starting with whatever time you have allotted and then dividing that equally by the

00:38:19.380 savers for the start to keep it simple you don't feel a lot of thought into it so it's like all right

00:38:23.780 i got 60 minutes i'll do 10 minutes each that's how i started my miracle morning in 2008 30 minutes

00:38:29.500 five minutes each six minutes one minute each right just keep it simple and try all the savers and so

00:38:35.660 for me i always do a one hour miracle morning i'll usually do five to ten minutes of silence

00:38:41.720 depending affirmations takes me usually five minutes visualization usually takes me between

00:38:46.660 zero and five minutes meaning that's the one saver that i personally do not do every single day

00:38:52.380 it just it resonates with me the least exercise takes me under five minutes i'll usually read for

00:38:58.900 15 to 20 so my reading is the longest of my savers because i i just i want to go as deep as i can i have

00:39:05.080 so many books that i want to read and then journaling takes me about five minutes so it's totally

00:39:09.960 customizable to fit your needs and you can it can change on any given day but by starting with

00:39:15.720 like a really simple let's just keep it simple divide it by six okay great and then as you do

00:39:20.740 the savers you find which of them you want to allocate more time to and which it's okay to

00:39:26.540 allocate less time to okay so depending on how much time you allot to each practice the routine could take

00:39:32.080 30 minutes to an hour and you even mentioned you can give each practice a minute and make it a six

00:39:37.580 minute routine that's not hyperbole it's not like six minute abs or whatever on days where we're

00:39:42.480 pressed for time we often have this all or nothing mentality which is let's say you like to go to the

00:39:46.580 gym for an hour and you only have 20 minutes you're like well i'm not even going to make the drive i'm

00:39:50.480 not going to go there's no point and i love the quote the philosophy don't let what you can do get in

00:39:57.620 the way of what you can't do i can't do an hour but i can do six minutes i can sit for one minute

00:40:03.780 in silence and i can say a prayer of gratitude and god for guidance and i can just calm my mind

00:40:10.280 and feel at peace then i can pull out my affirmations i might not get through the full

00:40:13.840 page in a minute but i might get through half of it and that'll remind me oh yeah these are some of

00:40:18.040 the most important things in my life that i'm committed to now i'm reminded why i'm committed and

00:40:22.400 i'm reminded which actions i've clarified that will ensure that i follow through then you go into

00:40:27.780 visualization you visualize yourself you mentally rehearse yourself doing the things for a minute

00:40:31.160 right 60 seconds of jumping jack 60 seconds of reading one page out of a book like in six minutes

00:40:37.100 the amount of growth you can experience when you do this is it's pretty profound okay so this is

00:40:42.140 something that's adjustable it can be shortened but let's say there's someone listening out there

00:40:46.360 who thinks okay this sounds awesome and they want to do the long version the full version of the

00:40:51.340 miracle morning but they're like you know i've got kids uh so if i'm going to do this i need to

00:40:56.220 wake up before them or i got a job i got to get to in the morning so i'd have to wake up earlier

00:41:01.420 they're not sure about doing it because they feel like they're just not a morning person any advice

00:41:08.660 on waking up earlier to do this if you're not a morning person yeah and i'll say that when i was

00:41:13.240 writing the miracle morning i mean the original edition back in i was writing in 2009 10 11

00:41:18.340 that was my number one fear or you could say insecurity is how am i going to convince you know

00:41:26.220 there's a large part of the world i don't know the exact stat if it's half you know but let's just

00:41:31.400 say it's half if half the people that pick up this book have a lifelong belief that says i am not a

00:41:37.320 morning person actually i do have a stat what am i talking about it's 72 percent of miracle morning

00:41:41.600 practitioners that we have surveyed over and over and over again over the last 17 years

00:41:45.460 that's the average 72 percent say they had never in their life been or believed they could become a

00:41:52.920 morning person when they read the miracle morning usually it was a friend that like convinced them

00:41:57.860 to read it and now like they do the miracle morning every day so 72 percent it's like join the club if

00:42:04.060 you're not a morning person and because that was my biggest fear and insecurity is that how am i going

00:42:08.880 to convince people yes i know they'll be convinced that like the way i can explain them starting your day

00:42:13.720 in a peak physical mental emotional and spiritual state with the six most timeless practices that the

00:42:19.540 world's most successful people have swarmed by for centuries like i i can make it's a compelling case

00:42:23.860 that like yeah that would definitely benefit my life like how could i argue that starting my day

00:42:28.040 in a peak way and then going off into the day at my best self like that got it but i'm not a morning

00:42:34.380 person you don't understand i've tried you don't understand i can't wake up and so because that was my fear

00:42:40.860 the entire book is holding someone's hand you know mentally emotionally psychologically overcoming

00:42:47.980 the limiting belief i'm not you know not being a morning person like from start to hey okay i could

00:42:53.620 do this okay what's the first baby step so it's not overwhelming okay so i always tell people don't

00:42:59.380 start with all six savers your first miracle morning should be waking up just like 10 minutes earlier

00:43:04.080 not an hour 10 minutes earlier and doing one of the savers and if you've never read the miracle

00:43:09.940 morning people will just do the r they're like all right i got the book on kindle i ordered it or

00:43:13.380 it's on audiobook and they go i'm gonna wake up 10 minutes earlier i'm just gonna listen to the

00:43:18.200 audiobook for 10 minutes that takes next to zero effort right and they do that every day and they're

00:43:23.860 like all right it's easy it's 10 minutes i'm listening to the book it's changing my mindset

00:43:28.120 and then they get to the chapter on silence and then they integrate silence into their next

00:43:34.900 miracle morning which again super easy they wake up you know maybe it's 15 minutes earlier and

00:43:39.040 for five minutes they do silence they do nothing and then they listen to the audiobook and then they

00:43:44.040 get to their chapter on affirmations and then they integrate that so it's like you're just baby

00:43:48.640 stepping your way and all of a sudden a few weeks into it you're like dude i'm getting up 30 minutes

00:43:52.780 before i used to it's not even it's effortless now and i'm doing all six of my savers so that's

00:43:59.640 that's the way that i would kind of lay this out for somebody i like that something that i've been

00:44:04.220 useful for me for my own morning routine i have these things i want to do in the morning but

00:44:08.400 sometimes i can't do them for whatever reason you know going back to the idea of like don't let what

00:44:13.140 you can't do get in the way of what you can do i love that if i can get something done later on in

00:44:18.200 the day like i'll break it up like okay if i can do my silence you know not first thing in the morning

00:44:22.360 but you know while i'm in the car i'll do that if i can't get my walk in first thing in the morning

00:44:26.120 well i'll do it at lunch but as long as i get it done it feels good like again i think the same sort

00:44:31.740 of thing you've been talking about this is adaptable you don't have to say like you have to do this

00:44:34.280 thing and if you don't do it then you're hosed yeah no that's exactly it it's not all or nothing

00:44:38.380 and that mentality is what stops us from doing or even starting anything right it's like we have

00:44:44.020 this perfectionist mind and i do too and we all suffer from this perfectionist mindset of like

00:44:47.880 if i can't do it perfectly i'm not even going to try you know for someone who doesn't currently

00:44:52.760 have this kind of morning routine how would you summarize the benefit of implementing one

00:44:57.780 like how does it set up your day in life for success the way that i look at it it's kind of

00:45:02.700 like hitting the reset button every day like we all have bad days life throws stuff at us that we're

00:45:07.300 not prepared for we don't even know if we can handle it and it affects our mental health like that's

00:45:12.980 we're all human beings but for most people you know if you go to bed going oh my god i've got this

00:45:17.940 problem in my life and i can't sleep i'm stressed out because i got to wake up tomorrow i got to deal

00:45:21.720 with it like people go to bed with high heightened levels of cortisol and stress and inner turmoil

00:45:28.760 and then they don't sleep well because their mind is replaying and racing like it was when they went

00:45:34.340 to bed then they wake up in the morning and their first thought as their eyes open is oh my god i've

00:45:38.360 got to face the problems that i'm dealing with in my life i don't wake up that way if you're a miracle

00:45:42.560 morning practitioner you like you go to bed you're like all right i got problems but there's no benefit

00:45:47.060 in worrying about them right now i'm going to think peaceful grateful thoughts i'm going to think

00:45:50.920 about the things in my life that i'm grateful for so i fall asleep in a state of bliss that feels good

00:45:57.000 and then you sleep better then when you wake up in the morning you're not waking up going oh my god

00:46:01.600 it's 8 a.m i've got to get out the door and get to work and deal with my stressful life now you're

00:46:05.820 like oh i've got to wake up and i've got to meditate and pray and then read my affirmations that make me

00:46:11.780 feel empowered then visualize right like then i'm going to act like then i'm going to read then i'm

00:46:16.300 going to journal what i'm grateful for oh that's a really nice way to start my day so it's

00:46:20.900 like hitting the reset button every day and creating this this self it's a self-care routine

00:46:25.100 right self-optimization self-care so that to me yes is why uh it's so important well how has been a

00:46:33.020 great conversation where can people go to learn more about the book in your work you need the book

00:46:37.000 you know audible if you're an audiobook person amazon you know kindle etc the best spot for

00:46:42.880 everything the book there's a movie there's a 90 minute documentary that features mel robbins and

00:46:48.360 brendan burchard and robin sharma and robert kiyosaki and lewis house and me and but miracle

00:46:54.540 morning dot com is a great hub because you can you know that'll point you to the books it'll point

00:47:00.040 you to the app it'll point you to the movie and you can watch the movie for free on youtube or again

00:47:03.920 miracle morning dot com is a great hub fantastic well hal elrod thanks for your time it's been a

00:47:07.940 pleasure oh brett man i i'm so grateful dude thanks for having me on my guest is hal elrod he's the

00:47:13.900 author of the book the miracle morning it's available on amazon.com you can find more information

00:47:17.940 about his work at his website hal elrod.com also check out our show notes at aom.is

00:47:22.380 slash morning routine where you find links to resources we delve deeper into this topic

00:47:26.040 well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast make sure to check out our website at

00:47:37.620 artofmanliness.com where you find our podcast archives and check out our new newsletter it's

00:47:41.340 called dying breed you sign up at dyingbreed.net it's a great way to support the show directly

00:47:45.800 as always thank you for the continued support until next time this is brett mckay

00:47:49.180 remind you to not listen anyway on podcast but put what you've heard into action

The Art of Manliness - October 13, 2025

The 6 Practices of the Ultimate Morning Routine

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