Today, I officially started my 30-Day Miracle Morning Challenge. I say “official” because technically, I started a
Why I Decided to Try The Miracle Morning
Before we get to the WHAT, I want to cover the WHY. Before we
In my case, I’ve contemplated waking up earlier to work on my blog – before my family gets up and I need to “go to” work for a while now. Since I started this blog, I’d work on it when I had the time. For the most part, that meant:
Although I really wanted to, I prioritized other things and I didn’t really make the time for it.
At one point, I thought I’d try working on it at night after we put the kids to bed. But that didn’t really work either. More often than not, I was too tired and for the most part brain-dead. I wasn’t capable of writing or thinking critically. And for a while, I consistently had the monologue that I’d work on my blog at night – that night. And for a while, it was FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
Then, as I deliberated how I was going to “find the time” for my blog, I thought of the inconsistent days I got up early to read, meditate and write before the sun came up and my kids woke – I loved it. I felt calm, ready and felt a sense of accomplishment so early in the morning. It was a great start to my day. But those days were rare.
And up until 3 weeks ago, I’d been sleeping in the same room as our toddler because he was still waking up at night. It was easier for me to get up and soothe him from the same room (and my husband and I fought less about it). Also, I was worried he’d wake our older daughter with his crying if she was sleeping in the same room as him.
After my intentional pause from my then already minimal blogging, I wanted to get back at it again, I kept telling myself each night that I’d get up early tomorrow to work on my blog. Unfortunately, on mornings I did manage to get up, he’d have some super spidey sense that I was up and would wake up earlier too. So – no blogging happened those mornings. It was a struggle. And eventually, I gave up.
I finally transitioned back to sleeping in my room – next to my husband! And the kids are both sleeping in the kids’ room. Oh, yeah! We’re still adjusting, but overall it’s going well. It seems like my son’s “Mom’s awake” spidey sense only works in close proximity 😉 (Fingers crossed, I don’t jinx myself)
The timing just seems right. I’ve been wanting to get up earlier to work on my passion project. And my head’s in the right place, ready to make a change. And I’m sleeping in the right place, not waking my son up when he ought to still be in bed. Top it with my brother asking me to join him in this 30-Day Miracle Morning Challenge. Things seem to be clicking and falling into place – internally and externally.
So, I decided that the time is NOW.
Having the Right Mindset
Before today, I would say I wasn’t fully committed to doing The Miracle Morning. I was more of the mindset of “I’ll try it, but I don’t really know if I can do it because getting up so early isn’t really a part of my DNA.” I mean come on… 5 a.m.? Hmmmm… seems hard. I told my brother I’d give it a try – but that’s what I meant … I was just going to give it a try.
That said, I didn’t even really try going to bed early. If anything, I ended going to bed later than I usually did because I was watching TV and didn’t have the discipline to tell myself to go to bed! In a nutshell, I was trying it because I knew it was a good thing for me, but my head and heart weren’t really in it.
So, while I did get up earlier than I normally would (which is still great), I wasn’t hitting my intention of waking up early enough to do my SAVERS in a pace that felt calm and steady. My plan was TO TRY waking up at 5:15 a.m., but I was waking up at 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. instead. And halfway through my Miracle Morning practice, my kids would wake. I’d continue on, but I now had distractions.
My intentions were good, yes. But my mindset wasn’t in the right place. I was simply “trying it” and didn’t make too much of an effort so it would be easier to drop if “it didn’t work out” for me. I half-lost before I even began.
Today, I’m fully committed. I’m pumped and prepared. I’m hoping this excitement I feel for wanting to make a change in my life will give me the edge I need to push through this.
What I Did for My First Official Miracle Morning
As I shared yesterday, I got my miracle morning routine started last night by preparing what I needed today. These included:
- Selecting my meditation video and set my bullet journal page on my affirmations and visualization notes.
- Picking out and set my morning stretch video in my YouTube queue.
- We started our bedtime routine with the kids on time so we had them in bed by 8:45 p.m.
- Preparing my coffee.
- Getting my “MM gear” ready and easily available (headphones, iPad and Apple Pencil for reviewing my Miracle Morning routine, reading my affirmations and goals and scribing) and my laptop for my blog work.
- Reviewing my Miracle Morning routine before heading to bed around 9:30 p.m.
- Setting my alarm for 4 a.m. and placed it at the foot of my bed (no, I didn’t put it across the room ;)).
- Saying my bedtime affirmation that I will have enough sleep to wake up refreshed and energized.
- Last but not the least … Dozed off.
Waking Up
I think I was pretty excited to start because I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night thinking it was time to get up. Anyway, I woke up at 4:13 a.m.! Though it’s a few minutes later than I planned, it’s still quite remarkable and unbelievable. I didn’t even have my back-up alarm set, like I normally do.
It was hard to get out of bed. But it feels doable!
I’m not yet totally convinced of the bedtime affirmations theory, but it did seem to help this morning. I’m a firm believer that we need a good amount of sleep to be functional human beings. So, we’ll see.
I didn’t feel like a zombie when I got up like I typically do when I wake up earlier than normal. But I was still a bit hazy when I first woke. So, I did the following to wake myself up (as recommended in the book):
- Changed my clothes.
- Brushed my teeth.
- Washed my face.
- Drank a glass of water.
These did help slowly energize me.
The Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
After my refreshing glass of water, I got set up on our living room couch – turned on a soft light and got seated cross-legged with a blanket on my lap.
- SILENCE: I wanted something to lift me up this morning rather than practicing the Headspace Basics (this is offered free without a subscription). So, I listened to this guided morning meditation.
- AFFIRMATIONS: This, plus other affirmations I wrote down in my bullet journal – were my affirmations for today. I would like to expand on what I currently have and include inspirational quotes I love too.
- VISUALIZATION: Then, I read my goals and the little details that make it up to help me visualize what I’m striving for. This visualization thing doesn’t come naturally for me. I definitely need more practice. Also, I haven’t yet, but I’d like to create some sort of vision board to give me the visual cues to inspire and help me see things more vividly.
- EXERCISE: I really enjoyed this morning stretch by Blogilates. It’s not too long or strenuous, but after completing it, I felt much more energized and awake.
- READING: I decided to take a pause on reading “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius until I finish “The Miracle Morning.” I listened to this audiobook and jotted down notes along the way. There are some books that I can listen to as an audiobook. But for some books, which are instructional, such as this, I would much have rather been reading this as a book so I could easily take notes from it and scan back and forth through the pages. But hey, I got this for free and we like free. 🙂
- SCRIBING: I then opened up my iPad to write down some thoughts in my bullet journal and track my progress for today. I quickly reviewed what else I had noted in March to see if there were other outstanding and pressing tasks I needed to do. I felt rushed in doing this part because I wanted to get working on my blog asap.
Miracle Morning Day One Observations
- Waking up earlier than I normally do was easier than I thought it would be. It was still hard, but it feels doable and manageable.
- Not having my back-up alarm, which I’ve had for who knows how long now might be more of an enabler to my snoozing habits. I didn’t oversleep without it, which has been a big fear of mine. Let’s see how it goes.
- I’ve always appreciated meditating and reading in the morning before my family woke and I started my day. And by going beyond this and doing the “Life S.A.V.E.R.S.” this morning, I felt like a zen rockstar! I was able to do so much more for myself than I normally would have and it felt great having done them by 7 a.m.! Definitely a mood booster.
- Quickly reviewing my bullet journal – although not as detailed as I would have liked to – helped ground me with what my priorities were for the day and reduced my overwhelm. It pointed out what I needed to do today. When I don’t review my bullet journal regularly, I often have this scattered feeling – like I have this open loop in my mind going round and round of worry that I’m supposed to be doing something or need to complete something, but I don’t know what it is. And the overwhelm just gets to me, so I simply try to avoid reviewing and writing in my bullet journal, which just makes things worse.
- When my kids woke up, I was excited for them to wake up. I felt ready for them. I didn’t feel the dread of “Oh no! They’re awake and I’m not even fully awake myself.”
- Our morning family routine felt calmer and unrushed. I felt more present with my kids. Surprisingly, I didn’t have thoughts popping in and out of my head about all the things I want to and need to be doing, which has been a struggle for me. Since I’d already accomplished what I wanted to do for myself, my attention wasn’t being pulled away from my family and I was able to fully engage with them. (That’s is my hypothesis, at least.)
- While I felt great (calm, centered and productive) in the morning, the feeling slowly began to fade during my workday. The feeling of being centered and on top of my stuff wore off by the end of the day. By the time I ended work, I was back to feeling rushed.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
- While I’m doing my S.A.V.E.R.S., I need to purposely focus on the activity I’m doing. Yes, I can keep track of my time. But I shouldn’t let that distract me and hurry myself to do the next thing – like work on my blog.
- I definitely need to train my brain with visualization. After I get to the part about visualization in the book, I’ll create a vision board or whatever other tool is recommended to help with this practice.
Overall, I’m super stoked to embark on this journey. I’m proud of what I was able to achieve this morning. One small step forward! And I’m hopeful to take many more little steps to bring me closer to my goals and dreams.
I’ll be back to share my progress. See you then!
