What or Who are you Waking Up for?

What wakes you up in the morning? Is it an alarm? Who set the alarm? And why for that time?

Most of us wake up because we have some place to be. We take the time we need to be there, subtract the time it takes for us to get ready and travel, and that, is our wake up time. Maybe you’ve got work, or maybe your morning entails painfully getting your kids off to school. Whether your mornings are organized or chaotic, either way it’s about getting up on someone else’s schedule.

But what if you had a different reason to wake up? What if, despite years of explaining that you are a night owl, you have found a way to make the early morning your favorite time of day? I can hear the protests now. Not possible you say. But think about it. What if the first thing you did in the morning was something you LOVE to do. Suddenly the point of waking up is no longer about time, but about jumping out of bed to do something you love.

What would it look like to wake up for yourself?

The Miracle Morning, or, you want me to get up when?! And do… what?!

If you’re new to the self-help, time-management, productivity party-bus, welcome. Your first introduction will be to Hal Elrod, author of the Miracle Morning. Hal is one of those influencers that is everywhere. In short, dude was hit by a drunk driver, died for 6 minutes, came back to life… I guess as a productivity zombie? When one dies, and then gets another chance… well that might just scare you into acting right and maybe doing a little something with your life. Am I right?

So, he wrote this cool book laying out his argument for a new kind of morning. And now it’s become this cult classic among high achievers and entrepreneurs. After hearing him on an old episode of The Smart Passive Income Podcast, I gobbled up his book and set own to make my own miracle morning.

How it works. Every day, you do the same thing. You wake up earlier than you used to to tackle a familiar routine. The idea is that before you do anything else, you invest regular, consistent time into yourself. Your health, your spiritual well-being, the days most critical tasks. The Miracle Morning gives us six tasks to do before we do anything else, to dramatically impact your productivity for the rest of the day.

We all know we need a routine. We know we’ll never be Steve Jobs or Winston Churchill or Ben Franklin without one. But establishing the “perfect” routine can be overwhelming. The Miracle Morning helps by taking the guessing out of what you should be spending your time on. Six morning activities meant to have a big impact on your state of mind for the rest of the day.

The standard miracle morning

Meditation- because none of us know how to focus anymore
Affirmations- repeating powerful phrases that are particularly inspiring
Visualization- when we visualize, we spend time imagining the future that we want to create
Journaling- writing marries the day to our memories and gives us an excuse to reflect on life
Reading- Because no one reads anymore…
Exercise- Yeah yeah, we are supposed to do that. Whatever.

A Stoner Miracle Morning

Before establishing my own miracle morning, I had to do some reflections on my current one. I used to put off waking up until 6:30 so I could get in the most sleeping time. After a morning of getting everyone else ready for their day, I would crash hard, full on falling asleep wherever I was finally able to. By the time I would wake up it would be 10am. A late start to the work day and still haven’t accomplished anything other than getting kids to school.

My new routine was not exactly easy to begin, but even through barely awake eyes I cam feel the benefits. Here’s my routine:

At 5 am hubby wakes up, shakes me a few times, touches me inappropriately, and heads down to make coffee.
I get up, pee, brush my teeth and then put on one of my standard “morning outfits”. These are outfits that technically work- I can take the girls to school in them. They aren’t pajamas. But, they are so casual that I don’t have to worry about makeup or even a bra. Yoga pants, tank top, zipped hoodie, sneakers.
By the time I make it downstairs, David has coffee poured and we sit together in the living room in a perfectly still house. Upstairs children are oblivious. Often our pets are still passed out.
For one hour the two of us work on our most important projects. You know the ones. Those life goals that you will never get to because, you know. Real life gets in the way. Right now we are both writing books, so the most crucial task for every day is to write.
Around 6:20 I wrap it up and then spend about 10 minutes doing other “things” online.
By 6:40 it’s time to prep breakfast and wake up my girls.
Between 6:45 and 7:45 I scramble around, warm up the car, feed my babies, clean their faces, drive to school, battle the other parents and then watch my ducklings toddle off to class together holding hands.
Drive back home to an empty home and the free hours stretch before me. Not even 8:00 yet and I’ve already written a chapter of a book. GTAV anyone?

With my new miracle morning it doesn’t matter if I go home and pass out for a couple of hours, because I already tackled the most important thing on my daily list- write. With one massive victory under my belt before 8am, my day is considerably more upbeat and productive.

Don’t Consume until you Create

One vital tip for this new lifestyle is that your phone shouldn’t be invited to the party. Information overload is a thing, and every time we let something into our brain, no matter how small or insignificant, it takes up valuable energy. Stare at phone, swipe left or right, bookmark until later. Everyone of these small actions is carried out by our brain which was not formed to multitask but rather to focus on and complete on task at a time.

I recently heard the idea, “No consuming until you create” and it has become my favorite affirmation. Such a simple phrase that I can mutter when I find myself grabbing my phone to pass the time. My gorgeous brain has ideas man, and I can’t dump a whole bunch of Candy Crush on top of them first thing in the morning.

Focus!

Remember when I talked about my goals for 2016? This year I am learning to focus, specifically in this crazy future world where it’s socially acceptable to check your email every three minutes. It’s March now, and I feel like I have made a small shift towards a more focused life. Another great phrase that runs through my head “I will do this until I die”. Meaning, there isn’t a stopping point. There is no level of success that I can reach that will allow me to stop working. Strength training the human spirit is about never, ever, considering it finished. It’s a practice, a life long practice, and not perfection, which is unattainable.

The easiest way to start is to just start.

xxoo The Stoner Mom