Buy the book through our affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4iJijGz

The primary focus of this podcast episode revolves around the significance of establishing a morning routine as articulated in Hal Elrod's acclaimed work, "The Miracle Morning." We delve into the various components of this transformative regimen, emphasizing the importance of motivation to rise each day and the necessity of cultivating a positive mindset. Throughout our discourse, we critically examine the book's assertions, particularly regarding the challenges individuals face when attempting to implement these strategies amidst the demands of daily life. Furthermore, we engage in a candid dialogue about our personal experiences with the prescribed practices and how they may be adapted to suit our individual circumstances. Our exploration ultimately underscores the potential for small, deliberate changes to foster a more fulfilling and productive existence.

A profound exploration of self-improvement serves as the crux of this episode, wherein the speakers dissect Hal Elrod's "The Miracle Morning," a seminal work that purports to transform one's daily routine for enhanced productivity and fulfillment. The dialogue begins with a lighthearted acknowledgment of the legal ramifications of podcasting while driving, setting the stage for a deeper examination of the psychological barriers that impede our ability to rise with purpose each morning. The speakers articulate the multifaceted challenges individuals face in cultivating a morning routine that is both inspiring and effective, emphasizing that such a transformation is not merely a matter of discipline but rather an intricate interplay of mental health, motivation, and life circumstances.

As the discussion progresses, the speakers engage critically with the book's structured approach, particularly the SAVERS framework, which encourages practices such as meditation, affirmations, and exercise. They advocate for a personalized interpretation of these concepts, urging listeners to consider their unique lifestyles and psychological needs when implementing such routines. The conversation further delves into the importance of mindset, positing that one's perception of sleep and daily activities can significantly influence emotional well-being and overall life satisfaction.

In conclusion, the dialogue resonates with a powerful message: personal development is a nuanced journey that requires deliberate action and self-reflection. The speakers encourage listeners to adopt a flexible approach to their routines, emphasizing that even incremental changes can facilitate profound transformations in one's life. This episode serves as both an insightful critique of prescriptive self-help methodologies and a heartfelt reminder of the importance of personal agency in shaping one's destiny.

Takeaways:

• The act of waking up in the morning often requires a deep sense of inspiration and motivation to overcome the urge to remain in bed.
• A critical aspect of personal development is the ability to find and celebrate small victories throughout each day, regardless of larger setbacks.
• Mindset is posited as a pivotal factor in determining the success of one's day and overall well-being, transcending mere sleep duration.
• Engaging in a daily practice of intention-setting can significantly influence one's outlook and productivity, potentially transforming an entire year.
• The content of the book 'The Miracle Morning' emphasizes the importance of establishing a morning routine to catalyze daily success and fulfillment.
• Balancing the pressures of modern life with personal aspirations necessitates a flexible approach to self-help strategies, adapting them to individual circumstances.

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Record.

You're driving, bro.

I'm driving, bro.

I'm out.

I love this.

Hey, is it illegal to do a podcast while driving?

Yes.

Highly illegal.

All right, man.

This is it.

We're.

We're breaking the law over here.

This is amazing.

I love breaking the law.

No, I don't.

What?

No.

You know, there is a saying.

There's like some.

There.

I don't want to get political, but there's something like when the laws are unjust or something or other.

That's it.

I came prepared.

I came prepared, Dan.

Apparently, mind blown.

So enjoy that.

You know what?

Put that one in your pocket.

Put that one in your pocket.

Save it for later.

This is not a podcast about.

Traffic law, bird law, nothing.

None of that.

This is a podcast about.

Becoming a better person.

That's what it's about.

And I have to say, Dan, one of my things right now is that.

I never know what we're.

I mean, I know we're going to talk about a particular chapter of this book, but I.

Every single time we start, I feel like, is there going to be value in this?

And every single time when I'm preparing for it, I feel like there's value for me.

But I think that the main thing is that the reason there's value for me is because I am reading the book and I feel like I get a little bit out of it no matter what.

And so.

But let's.

So let's see if I can.

Let's see if we can bring that value to this podcast somehow.

So.

We'Re talking about this book here that I'm holding up.

It's called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.

And I'm still convinced that this is.

Like the number one self help book to read.

It's like Self Help 101.

Basically.

And I actually, for today, I have a lot of stuff that I sort of disagree with about this chapter in a way.

Oh, good.

That makes it interesting.

Yeah, it makes it interesting.

But I.

But I also think I.

But that doesn't mean the book's any less valuable.

I think.

You do.

Everybody who you know, you read a book and you have to bring your own critical analysis to it, you know.

But.

But I do have some qualms, I guess.

You know, there's some nits and nits to pick.

I. I have a few nits to pick.

Let's go.

So this chapter is chapter four, and we're going chapter by chapter, so if you want to read along with us.

Oh, you can.

The first link in the Show Notes is going to be.

An affiliate link to buy this book.

And if you buy it through our affiliate, we'll make probably 10 cents or something, so.

Great.

Do that.

So chapter four is why did you get out of bed this morning?

And it's basically a chapter about finding the inspiration to get out of bed.

Okay, Right.

And I guess, like, okay, you know, trying to find the inspiration to get out of bed and not hit the snooze button.

Even chapter five is about hitting the snooze button and strategies to get out of bed.

Here's the thing, and I actually do think that.

I do think that the end goal is that you want to be inspired every morning.

And you want to jump out of bed.

You know, raring a go and loving life and being excited for the day.

But the reality is that a lot needs to be in place in your life to get you to that point, and that doesn't happen overnight.

But it doesn't mean you shouldn't do the things in this book.

And I feel like one of the main things that you have to really do is look for those little wins.

And even if you have a hard time, I don't get out of bed right away in the morning, I snooze, you know, and I. I actually do exactly what everybody tells you not to do.

Every morning I get up, and instead of getting directly out of bed, I get on my phone and I go on social media, which is exactly what they tell you not to do.

Oh, key.

I do.

I do it every morning, Dan.

You know, I do it every morning.

I still love my life.

And I know I'm not supposed to do that.

I get out, I get up, I walk a right window.

I look at that bird that lives in the fucking tree next to me.

I'm like, you son of a.

Tired of you, bird.

I just yell at the birds.

Gets me out of bed.

Gosh.

Wait a minute.

Are you serious?

You're not serious.

No, I'm not serious.

I like the birds.

See, because.

So you literally.

You pick up your phone before you even get out of bed.

I absolutely do.

I know you're not supposed to do that.

Okay, okay.

Keith, are you.

Is this.

Is this gonna turn into a.

Okay, Keith, it's just gonna turn into.

What do you call those things?

An intervention?

Yes.

Okay, so here's the thing.

I leave.

I don't take my phone into the bedroom.

Nice.

I go into the bedroom.

I leave the phone elsewhere because, like, literally my routine isn't that I get out of bed, grab A cup of coffee, then go on social media.

It's like five minutes, but.

But like still.

On that note, also.

Leaving your phone behind, going to do something without your phone.

I highly recommend it.

Yeah.

Anywho, Go on.

I digress.

So, you know, there's stuff in this book, there's stuff in this chapter about being depressed and, and, and how.

Getting up in the morning feeling excited is going to get you, you know, I don't know, like help with your depression.

But it's like a chicken egg thing, you know, it's like what comes first?

Do you.

Are you depressed about something in your life and then all of a sudden you're going to start getting out of bed early and that's going to cure your depression?

I doubt it.

I think that.

So.

So I want to.

Right, right.

You know, this book is extreme.

I know I'm coming down hard on this book right in this moment.

This book is extremely valuable.

But the whole thing is that it's called the Miracle of Morning.

They want you to do all these things first thing in the morning.

And I don't.

I think because I work for myself and I have the luxury of being able to do things throughout the day and space out all these things that they recommend in this book.

And some people don't.

I think that some people need to do it all at once, whether it's in the beginning of the day or all at once at the end of the day.

I take a different approach.

So the things are.

There's an acronym for it, Savers.

Yes.

So it's silence, Affirmations, visualization exercise, Reading.

And.

Silence is meditation.

Sorry.

And the last S is scribing or writing or journaling.

I take a different approach.

Instead of doing them all every morning, I have reminders on my phone for all of them and I'm always doing one of them.

Like I meditate pretty often because my anxiety is very high.

So.

But I got bored.

So and I.

And I found some free meditation stuff on YouTube and I just do those meditations and I got bored of meditating, so I started doing breathing exercises and I found some cool breathing exercises and I do those in place of meditation and I'll do those.

A ten minute thing and I'll do it a couple of times a day if I need to.

Either a 10 or a 20 minute one.

But I might not do.

I might do that every day because I feel like I need it.

But I don't exercise every day, even though this book tells me that I'm supposed to do that.

But I do have a reminder in my phone.

I would say I exercise kind of every other day, but, you know, sometimes I.

My ability to stick with this stuff goes up and down the journaling, which I think is very valuable.

I don't do that even close to every day, but.

And I actually have a hard time sitting down to actually write things out.

So what I've done instead is actually I just get my phone and I open the Notes app and I just talk.

I just talk into the phone.

And honestly, it's really, really helpful.

It's.

Even though I'm not technically journaling and I'm not doing the whole, like, you're writing on the paper.

So there's this, like, you know, there's this, like, motor cortex, like, reinforcing.

There's all this, like, scientific stuff that's connected to actually journaling, which is.

Which has benef.

Beneficial.

But I don't have the capacity for that right now.

And sometimes you have to just do things and figure out a way to make it happen.

And that's what I did.

So now I just journal by talking directly into the phone.

And it's almost like going to therapy for me.

And I don't do it every day, but when.

When it pops up on my reminder, it's scheduled for every day, but I don't.

Just don't get to it every single day.

But when it's up, I make sure to do it that day.

And so.

But I.

And I find all of this to be extremely helpful.

And I think that just.

It's like, I think this book prescribes this, like, do everything every morning.

And if you want to be some, like, insane rock star who's like, you know, like, really, you know, I don't even know, like, taking over the entire universe.

And you want to do every single one of these things every single morning, great.

That might work for you.

It doesn't work for me.

You know, the way I'm doing it works for me.

And I'm feeling okay.

I don't feel great about everything in my life, but I feel pretty good about most things.

And I feel like I'm finding a way to integrate this crap into the.

Into my life.

That's not so prescriptive as the book lays it out.

I still think the book's super, super valuable.

So.

He talks a little bit about sleep and how.

Everybody says you're supposed to get a certain amount of sleep, but he found.

So this is a really interesting thing.

He recommends a book that I've read that I think is great.

It's called Sleep Smarter by Sean Stephenson, which I absolutely do recommend.

I read it on this channel, actually, already.

I did it solo years ago.

I did like a, you know, chapter by chapter review of the book, and I do think it's probably the best book on sleep that there is.

And.

But he goes on to say that the biggest factor in whether he feels good the next day after a night of sleep is not how many hours he got.

It was his attitude about whether.

About how many hours of sleep he needs.

And if he felt like he only needed four hours, then four hours would have been enough the next day.

But if he didn't feel like nine hours was enough, he would wake up the next day after nine hours and feel like shit.

You know what I mean?

So basically, he was saying, like, your attitude about how much sleep you need is the biggest factor.

I totally disagree.

I think humans just.

I totally disagree.

And I think he does go on to say it.

But I think the point.

Because people need a certain amount of sleep.

Like, we.

Feel like if, you know, you don't have enough time to get the sleep that you need, it can make it harder to fall asleep and get restful sleep because you're already anxious about the fact that you're not gonna get enough sleep.

You know what I mean?

Like, oh, I have to get up at 6 in the morning, and it's 1 in the morning.

Right?

It's 1 in the morning.

I have to get up at 6 and I won't sleep well at all.

Right.

You know what I mean?

But if I went to bed at one thinking I could sleep forever.

Right.

Expectedly, I probably would have gotten more rest that way.

Yes.

But anyway, yeah, so I.

That's.

You did you sort of cut out a little bit.

But I think we got the point was basically saying, yeah.

Um, that.

Yeah, like, you can.

You can psych yourself out of a good day.

You know, you can psych yourself out of a good night's sleep.

And.

And I.

So that's maybe one of the biggest takeaways.

So I'll.

And there's a lot in this chapter that I do recommend reading about mindset.

And maybe mindset might be the most important thing that you can work on.

It's another chicken egg sort of thing.

It's like, what comes first?

Does your mindset come first or when?

Or does your mindset improve after you stack up a few wins here or there?

My attitude is you just got to attack the problem every single day and from both angles.

Because I Don't know the answer, but I could read a.

Well, I won't read from the, from the book.

I'll just summarize and say that this, this guy, Hal Elrod, who's a great dude, he seems like a very conscientious, soulful, really nice guy.

And smart guy.

And he wrote what I think to be is like basically the, the best self help book that you can buy.

He interviewed this doctor named Bernie Siegel, who was a cancer doctor, and he said that in his 40.

And this is of course anecdotal, Right.

This is his.

But this is this guy, Bernie Siegel, saying that in his 40 plus year career, every single cancer survivor had one thing in common and that was basically just mindset, the belief that they were going to get better.

And he said that he saw people who statistically should not have survived survive, and they all had great mindset.

And, and he also saw people who had these like, like, you know.

Curable, you know, no big deal cancers who had terrible mindset and didn't survive.

It's anecdotal, but there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of.

Scientific exploration of this idea.

And I do think mindset is a big deal.

So after we finish this book, I think that it could be, it could be a good choice for a next thing because I'm really trying to think hard about what are the lowest hanging fruit things you can do.

Along with sleep.

I'm thinking, because we all sleep every day.

Getting grounding sheets.

It's like how if you want to improve your life and your health in a way that's like really just zero effort.

It's like just changing the thing you sleep on that you're gonna do, you know, seven, eight, nine hours every single day anyway, could be like literally the easiest thing you can do to improve your life and health.

I can't think of anything easier.

And for me, I drink so much coffee, I feel like leveling up my coffee might be a really good choice because, you know, it's just something that's just going through my body in volume.

That.

Yeah.

That I.

If, you know, that's like also something where, if there's toxins, which I know there are, especially in Starbucks and crap like that, which I happen to be drinking at this moment.

And only because it's like two seconds from my house and I just moved and all my stuff is still in boxes.

But.

Anyway, that's a, that's a digression.

So anyway, mindset is a big deal.

Yes.

And then he Goes on.

And he says, you know, just like in the end of the chapter.

He talks about how the.

Because it's.

This book is called the Miracle Morning.

It's about the morning.

It's about winning the morning to win the day.

Yes.

And to me, I feel like that's one of.

It's something that's so great about the book, but I think it might be the book's Achilles heel.

Is that.

You can win the day, you know, and still not win the morning.

And sometimes, like, getting better at anything and changing your life.

Is so much about those little wins and setting it up.

Setting up an expectation that you're going to win every single morning is probably the one thing that's the hardest hurdle, especially since it is the morning.

And it's just like.

And I get what he's saying because it's like so many people are.

They say they're not morning people.

And if you win the morning, it can be a real game changer in your life.

But I think the main thing that I want to just drive home is that you can still win.

You can still win your life and not win every single morning, you know?

Yes.

So.

Oh, yeah.

So.

And the thing that I wanted to say was that, you know, he has a lot of prescriptions about what you should do in the morning when first thing you get up, things you shouldn't do.

That I do.

But I think that there's one thing you can do every single morning.

That is a mindset thing.

And it's something that you don't have to get right or you don't have to get perfectly right every single time.

But all you actually need to do is just set an intention to do it every single morning and just set and just think to yourself every morning that you're going to win the day or you're going to get a win today, or today's going to be a good day.

Right?

Yes.

Yes.

And that could be like.

That could be your win this entire year, you know, because that's going to change a lot in your life.

And it sounds so simple, but I think it really can make a big difference.

It's just every single morning, even if you're like me and you get on your stupid phone and you go on Facebook.

My Facebook feed is the best Facebook feed.

It's all.

I mean, it's political stuff is creeping in, but it's like, it's all political satire, so it makes me laugh.

Yeah.

Other than that, my Facebook is all like, inspirational stuff, science stuff, and then guitar Stuff so you can craft your, you can craft your.

Algorithm, you know, by looking at things you want to see.

And it'll keep feeding you things you want to see so you can use the algorithm to your benefit.

And I know you're not supposed to look at the stupid phone every single morning, but I do it every morning, almost every morning anyway.

But you know, maybe just starting today, what I think I'll do is, and I do sort of do this is just think, you know, I'm going to win the day or how am I going to win this day?

Or what's one, just one small thing I can win today?

I don't know, dude.

What do you think of all that shit?

Well, I will.

My mind kept going even.

You keep talking about when you're waking up and sleep and I guess it's kind of a digression.

We're just talking about sleep quality.

But it is an important discussion to have.

I.

I have been reading before bed instead of playing on my phone.

So if you haven't been doing this key, I would highly recommend at the end of the day, whatever you're scrolling, doing your social media stuff, put down the phone and read, get in bed or whatever.

Where you're gonna sleep and just read until like you can't read any.

Like you'll start like reading the same page 10 times because it's like time to go to bed.

If you read to that point where you're falling asleep as you're reading, you're gonna get such good sleep.

I think it just fires up different parts of your brain, turns off like the, like there's no glare on your eyes.

But it also like you're using the part of your brain as you're reading.

Of course I'm reading fiction.

That's not leading to any like personal.

Like, you know, I'm not like sitting there reading and like reflecting on my.

I'm just reading.

But I guess been reading Stephen King recently.

But my quality sleep has gone up so much doing that.

I can't read that because I, I'll get too scared.

Shut up.

I'm dead.

I'm serious, man.

I can't read weird stuff before bed.

I'll read fiction.

I actually picked a few fiction books out.

I did.

I took one small step.

I actually, I don't read when I'm going to bed because I often just go straight to bed and I just put on a podcast and I like set it to just.

I fall asleep.

I don't scroll before, I don't scroll at night.

Oh, good, good, good, good.

I, I specifically picked up the reading because I found myself doom scrolling every night and.

Yeah, and I know that's bad.

Well, you know, it's, it's, it's definitely healthier.

And I, I agree with you.

I think that one of the things that is valuable about us doing this podcast is that it's the consistency of actually doing it that reminds me to actually, you know, keep sort of putting the walls up or, or keep.

Like, you know, reinforcing the dam.

That's.

That, that is like protecting me against all my bad hat, my potential bad habits.

And it's really hard to do that in general, but it gets easier to do it if there's some sort of mechanism to remind you or you have some, you know, like, like a.

What do you call it, accountability partner, so to speak, you know, and not everybody's going to launch a podcast like this, but maybe watching a podcast like this can be that, you know, periodic reminder, hey, the dam is there, but there's crack.

There's always going to be cracks forming in the dam, and nobody's willpower is going to be, you know, 100% perfect against all the onslaught of things that we have to fight against every day.

But having some input in your life, like a podcast like this or anyone that focuses on health in any way might be this just a periodic reminder saying, hey, there are cracks in those dams.

And one of the ways you can do it is.

And here's something I did do.

So you, you say reading before bed.

I haven't been reading before bed, but I put a book on my night stable.

My night stable.

My night stable.

I have a stable of nights, I guess.

Yes.

What.

You know what?

You put it on your t. Here's what you do, Keith.

Put the book, when you go to bed tonight, put the book on top of your phone so that when you wake up, you're like, wait a minute, I'm gonna read in first instead of social media.

Yes.

Okay, that's not good.

I don't think that's gonna happen.

Oh, you know what, though?

Wait, wait.

To answer the question, to make raise your point about the miracle morning, and specifically morning, I think his whole conceit there was that we're all too busy during the day.

There's no time to do this stuff.

So the one time you could actually carve out is like, you just start up a little earlier.

There's like time there.

Right, to just get off.

I think that's as well.

Like maybe if you have the luxury of actually having time during your day.

Yeah.

And I, I do have that luxury, you know, and I don't want to, you know, like rub it in for people because I know there's a lot of people who have to get up in the morning.

Well, you know, some, sometimes I don't.

The main reason I don't get up and scroll on my phone in the morning is because I have to take my daughter to school and her school is 30 minutes away.

But the days that I don't take her to school, I scroll.

The days that I do, I gotta get up and I have to be out the door at 7, which is, you know, when a lot of people have to be out the door, but, you know, and lots of people have to be out the door way earlier than that.

But I am lucky in the fact that I do get to work for myself and set my own hours.

I do work for myself, but I have a day, a day job, so to speak.

Like I work in finance, so I have to be at my desk most days because the market's open and I have to be aware of what's going on.

So I have to be there.

But it doesn't mean that I can't take a 5 minute break or 10 minute break to go do something that if I had a boss breathing down my neck, I couldn't do.

But I, you know, did work in a job like that for 20 years.

Where I couldn't, you know, do any.

I couldn't, you know, do anything.

I just had to.

I did have people breathing in my neck.

So it wasn't like I, you know, didn't have that experience.

But so that is the major conceit is that a lot of people do have to squeeze all this stuff in.

Either before or after work.

And the morning is a great time to do it.

I'll still push back a little bit and say.

If you did only one thing I'd probably exercise is the one, you know.

Yeah.

Because that's the one thing you can't do during a workday.

I think a lot of people can't.

But even when I did have a desk job, I could steal away for 5 minutes or 10 minutes here and there and do a quick meditation or breathing exercise, which I did often even when I worked in a corporate job.

I think the same would go for journaling.

I think it would be possible to step away daily, you know, and journal during the day.

But it's harder to go to the gym and work out because you have to get changed.

And if you get sweaty, you have to take a shower and you know, so that's hard.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's a good point.

So what, what are the.

What are the six ones?

It's meditation.

Affirmations you can do, right?

You can do an affirmation at your desk.

Visualization you can do at your desk.

Honestly, I'm really excited to get to the chapters where we talk about affirmations and.

Journaling because those are the ones that I find that I feel like have been helpful and that I found my own solution for that I think is interesting.

The visualization I still don't get.

I'm not really sure, you know, like how to visualize things.

But anyway, I think we're rambling or at least.

Yes.

I hope this was helpful for you people.

I hope somebody actually watches this.

I also would love it if you went to the.

The.

Well, you know, do the.

All the things.

Do all the podcast things like subscribe.

Leave a rating, review.

If you think we suck, you can write it in the notes.

If you think we're awesome, you should write it in the notes too.

And you can buy the book through our affiliate link.

And I do, and it really is highly recommended.

Even though we sort of, you know, at least I did.

Got a little bit down on it today.

All right, dude.

Are you almost to your destination?

Destination?

What's that?

Destination?

I've just been driving.

I'm in the middle of nowhere.

I.

I don't know which way it is, but I'll find my way back.

I am currently.

In the middle of farmland.

So.

Dan, you're living it, man.

You're just doing it.

That's what might do it, lady.

It's my, it's.

It's.

So.

I like to go.

I drive and.

A little solitude.

And.

And just, you know, it's good.

Road therapy.

I call it road therapy.

Oh, I.

Because I do like, I know for driving's a chore for a lot of people, but I work in sales.

I'm constantly at work.

I have almost no free time outside of work and I have a.

A five minute drive to work, so so little of my week is spent drive.

I just don't really drive that much.

So I don't mind getting in and doing it for fun.

And I'm blessed to just have beautiful rolling farmlands around where I live.

So that's awesome.

Yep.

So.

Then, good man.

Thanks for taking us with you on our.

On your drive.

Thank you for, for being with me, Keith.

You're so welcome.

Did you know that you can do this.

You can choose an avatar and do.

And do the.

The podcast as an avatar.

Like, I just.

I'm talking to you.

I know you can't look because you're.

I know you can't look because you're driving, but I'm a fox right now.

Oh, look at that.

So you can choose from this, like, range of avatars, which is hilarious.

Okay.

I've seen that before.

Yeah.

But they can't see the book, so.

It'S funny because I had.

I did.

I remember doing on a Zoom call once, and then I think my manager at the time, she.

She's like, oh, look, I can do little.

I can do an avatar.

So then I spent the rest of.

She spent the rest of the meeting as an avatar, gesticulating and making really weird faces the whole time to see what the avatar would do.

Of course.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

All right, Keith.

Until the next time.

Yeah, ma'.

Am.

Adios.

Later.