Miracle Morning - Day 24

I would love to say that I did my Miracle Morning every morning since my last update six days ago but life is not like that for me at least.

Day 19 (Friday 22nd July) was a good day - I did my miracle morning session including a three mile run.  In addition, I had a good purge of the back bedroom, also known as Storeroom No.1.......

Day 20 - I did ten minutes silence and a 6.5mile run but nothing else other than plenty of extra walking to allow my daughter to walk the kilometres she needed for her Pokemon Go egg.

Day 21 - When I got up at 6.30am on the Sunday, I choose to head out for my long run straight away, and on reflection I feel I should have still allowed some Silence time and possibly a running affirmation and/or visualisation session before heading out.
The weather even at 6.30am was hot and it made for a slow and hard-going run resulting in just 11.5miles over three hours.

Day 22 - On Monday, I did no exercise but did do my Silence, affirmations, and finished the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book*.

Day 23 - I was poorly with digestion during the night so no Miracle Morning session happened.

Day 24 (today) - Again it did not happen as I recovered my lost sleep from the night before and I needed to get the car to the garage early, so it can have it's MOT and service - which to my surprise it passed.  When I got to work, I went to the large work canteen atrium area, got a coffee and sat down at a table in the corner and did my Silence there - I have no idea if I had any strange looks as I my eyes were closed but clearly my mind assumed it was happening.......
I also spent the evening in the city with my daughter as she wanted to do some more Pokemon Go, resulting in me doing 19k of steps overall for the day, without any running involved.

*Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki brief thoughts - I found parts of what he was advocating disturbing e.g. don't pay your bills and use it to buy assets instead, and his absolute belief in tax avoidance as he considers money spent by Governments as wasted money, yet there was no mention of him being charitable to those who cannot help themselves.  It wasn't all negative but overall I would not recommend it.

Miracle Morning - Day 18 - Fell off the wagon!

So four days have now passed since my last Miracle Morning, with only one being intentional.
There was no running in those four days as well, so not a great outcome but I cannot change the past so all I can do is keep on trying for each new day.

We all go through phases where life just gets a bit pants and I had ones of those moments but I did get an opportunity to refocus today and I will return to normality from tomorrow onwards.

Yesterday I was able to help my daughter sort her clothes out and this resulted in three black bag full of clothes that will go to either charity shops, friends for their daughters, or the next local jumble sale - the impact is to reduce the clutter in her room which then makes it easier to see what else needs to be dealt with.
I am on leave tomorrow, so I am planning to use the long-weekend to place a heavy focus on de-cluttering and tidying the house and garden.

Miracle Morning Day Twenty

So after my wobble early in the week, yesterday I was up at 5.45am and did my miracle morning including a three mile run and twenty minutes further reading of Rich Dad Poor Dad - I am not sure of that book but I will persevere with it.

Today I did a six and a half mile run and a ten minute silence but no reading.

I did two walks with my daughter today, both Pokemon Go related including a walk along the seaside at Great Yarmouth, which all helped me clock up over 21k steps.

I bought a nice journal in the Jarrolds Sale for £5.50 instead of £11

My plan is to use it from 1st August as a bullet journal and whilst it will have colour, I am not seeking to go all arty with mine - keep it simple and see what parts of bullet Journalling work for me.

Miracle Morning - Day Fourteen - 2nd week review

This morning I was up at 6.30am, did a slighter longer seven minute silence to start with, followed by twenty minutes of continuing to read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, before finally heading out for my ten mile run which turned into a 3.5hr twelve and a half mile run - long story but the point is I did it.

Yesterday in addition to silence, reading and running, I also spent a good ninety minutes watching YouTube (mainly TEDx) video talks by Dr Alan Watkins about how to be brilliant every single day - he has a book out called 4D Leadership.

Looking back at the last seven days, I have placed placed the emphasis on the Silence/Meditation, Reading, and Exercise, with the affirmations and visualisations only being done if I have the time.

Again as per last week, the least productive days were the ones with no miracle morning sessions so it is clear it does at some level have a big impact.

Miracle Morning - Day Thirteen

Day ten (Wednesday) I did get up at 5.45am and do my miracle morning session including a three mile run, and it was a good day - I had my final school governors meeting prior to the summer break, and it did highlight to me that I have not actively done as much for the school as I had wanted to do, so the community aspect of my level 10 wheel of life needs to be tackled soon, otherwise I may as well not be a governor for the school.

Day eleven and twelve saw me waking up at 7am, and with my routine in tatters for both days, I found myself struggling to be at my best - the more shocking side is the instant slipping back into very poor eating habits, and inability to fully focus on what needs to be done that day.


Day Thirteen (Saturday aka today), I was intentionally up at 6.30am, I did my five minute silence, and about twenty minutes of reading (Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki) before heading out for a five mile run.
I still need to plan my day as when I tried to do it last night, my brain had in effect switched off and I found it impossible to think about today.

Miracle Morning Day Nine

This morning I was up at 5.30am and did 2.5 mile run so it was done and out of way before starting my miracle morning hour.

Doing the silence was fine but needing to sort out breakfast and a cup of tea for the missus before she went to work interrupted the natural flow of the MM hour and I struggled to focus on the affirmations and visualisation.

The Journalling was more successful but not in terms of planning the day ahead.

Some positives and negatives to the day - it certainly was not a disaster or failure but given the extra 15 minutes it could have had a bigger impact on the day overall.

Miracle Morning Day Seven - Review Of First Seven Days

This morning I was up at 6.45am which was intentional once I realised it would be after midnight before I went to bed.
I got up and then went for a leisurely six mile run as part of my training for the Thetford Marathon in September but by the time I got back, washed and changed, everyone was up in the house so the opportunity for my miracle morning hour was gone,
However I did find them to plan out the day which helped me focus on lots of gardening (to fill the brown bin) and doing the washing - I also had time to make a Salted Chocolate Tart for desert at dinner time.

This was from the Tanya Burr cookbook.

So what I have learned about the Miracle Morning having done it for seven days?

• It's hard to wake up early and I find I need the first 15 minutes for my brain to wake up, so allow some time to have a drink of water, go to loo, feed the cats etc before starting the clock on your "hour".
• Be flexible on your time allocations in that miracle morning hour - If you are on a non-exercise day then extend other parts, or you want to do a longer meditation/silence, consider shortening your reading time etc.
• It doesn't have to be an hour - it can longer or shorter depending on circumstances in general or specifically on that day.
• The world does not end if you miss a day, preferably intentionally but if unintentional, tomorrow is another day.
• Silence for me works although it is also hard to do.
• You do not need to have a full suite of affirmations or a whole-life visualisation to do them - go with what you have done and build it up and modify it as appropriate.
• The day I did not do any (Friday) was my least productive day of the week - so it is having an impact for me.
• So far so good but early days.

Miracle Morning Day Six

There wasn't to report yesterday as I knew I would not be able to fit my Miracle Morning hour in, so I intentionally did not do it and got up at 6.30am to ensure everything was sorted so I could drop the missus off at the bus stop five miles away (going to work and then doing a Gin a Festival).

My ability to focus was really impeded, and I did not achieve as much as I planned.

Anyhow today I was up at 5.45am, did a non-exercise miracle morning hour followed by a four mile run - I have been on top of everything I wanted to do today.

I also had an uber healthy brunch (see below) Toasted Sandwich with Avocado and Tomato - clocked in at 511 calories but it was breakfast and lunch.

I am 650 calories under my limit today despite one rocky road, one cupcake and half a flapjack as my second saving grace was a low calorie dinner (pasta and home-made ratatouille).

In part because I ran four miles but I have clocked up 15k steps today due to lots of walking at Cantley Village Fete where for the first hour or so it chucked it down and then stopped raining and the heat suddenly made it very muggy as it remained overcast.

Whilst i am really enjoying the Steve Edwards 700 Marathon book, I am going to replace it in the morning read with a book by the Dalai Lama and read Steve's book in thee endings instead.

Miracle Morning Day Four

Still managing to get up at 5.45am but everything felt more resistant to do in the miracle morning hour - no exercise was done today in part because I wanted to rest the legs but also because I have been finding the Steve Edwards book very engrossing.

Miracle Morning Day Three - resistance

So I managed to get up for the third day in a row at 5.45 and do the miracle morning hour but it was more of a struggle today.

Meals were sensible and healthy for breakfast and lunch but dinner consisted of too many homemade millionaires shortbread and a chocolate frosted chocolate cupcake - surprisingly I was only 250 calories over, even with a bottle of real ale.

I made the millionaires shortbread for my daughter as it was the last Wind Band session before they break until September, and all the players were encouraged to bring food for it.

In case you are interested it is a Nigella Lawson recipe from one of her older books called The Domestic Goddess - always popular at work when I make it.

Below are the few remaining bits after Wind Band.

Miracle Morning Day Two

I managed to get up again at 5.45am and continued with the sequence as yesterday.

The book I am now reading is about someone who has run over 700 marathons and given the first area of focus on the Level 10 areas is health and fitness, I thought this would help me understand the mindset behind how he does marathon after marathon especially I want to achieve my best marathon result in just ten weeks time.

Miracle Morning Day1

The gap since April has been due to some personal complications that are still on going but I have finally decided I need to take back control and become again the positive minded person I normally am.



As part of this I have just finished reading the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod which has given me the inspiration to break free of the inertia in my life.



Over the coming weeks I plan to introduce all ten aspects of my life into this but for the moment I am focusing on Health/Fitness which I have ranked as being about a 3 out of 10.
I have seen versions where the wheel is replaced by bar chart instead, and in terms of using my journal that will be the way I do it as it's easier to draw.

So this morning I got up at 5.45am, and having done the "usuals", had a drink of water, put my running gear on,  and fed the cats, I sat down and started the hour system with five minutes of Silence/Meditation which having never done it before it is very hard to keep your mind clear for the whole time.

Next was five minutes of affirmations which actually turned out to be me creating them rather than doing them but no excuse tomorrow.

This was followed by five minutes of visualisation which again was more of starting to create the vision.


I then read for fifteen minutes - it was meant to be twenty but I finished my book and I was feeling conscious of the time as I wanted to be in work early.
If you are interested it was not a personal development book but a travelogue called Walking the Wood and the Water where Nick Hunt recreates a journey taken in the 1930s by Patrick Leigh Fermor - I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I need to unearth a book to start reading tomorrow.

I then did five minutes of journalling before heading out for a fifteen minute run (about 1.5 miles) and then had a wash and headed to work with no breakfast.
I had a wholewheat bagel with a smear of peanut butter on it at work and a cappuccino and was on either water or herbal teas.  Lunch was a homemade garden salad (some chopped, some spiralised) with some cheese.
Dinner will be homemade butter chicken, rice and naan, followed by some strawberries and a dollop of thick double cream yet somehow I am still within my calorie target.