By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo
Mornings are crucial to a successful day ahead. It all starts with how you start, as the author of this book “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life, before 8AM”, Hal Elrod, would say. He recommends some morning rituals to help your day not just begin well and end well, but can also pretty much change your life in terms of character growth and deep satisfaction.
Here are six timeless personal development habits with an acronym “S.A.V.E.R.S”, that if performed every morning, will create ‘miraculous’ changes in your life.
Silence
The author says, “If you want to immediately reduce your stress levels, to begin each day with the kind of calm, clarity, and peace of mind that will allow you to stay focused on what’s most important in your life, and even dance on the edge of enlightenment—do the opposite of what most people do—start every morning with a period of purposeful silence.”
Instead of checking your phone and seeing what’s happening in the world, check in with yourself by starting the day with a period of mindfulness. When you start the morning with either seated or walking mediation, you establish a calm and peaceful reference point for
the remainder of the day. Think of your morning meditation like lighting an internal candle you use to find peace of mind during a noisy and chaotic day.
In my case, my purposeful silence is with the Lord every morning. Right after breakfast, I do my 30-minute conversation with our Lord through prayer with a spiritual book at hand, to help me plan out my day well by scheduling it out with the Lord.
Affirmations
Affirmations is an inspirational sentence you say to yourself to identify yourself with that goal or dream of yours to help it come true. Examples of this would be, “I Sarah, or I John will be a successful architect, business person, or physician someday.” Affirmation forms belief; belief leads to action; action leads to progress; progress strengthens belief. Affirmations if done every day starting with your day, will solidify that determination in achieving that goal. “You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them.” ‐ Michael Jordan
In my case, I include my affirmations or goals in life, in my period of silence with the Lord. I turn that affirmation into a prayer of petition so that it could be “cleansed” of any self-serving interests and making it sure it is aligned to glorifying God. I reckon it has a better chance of getting fulfilled because you ask God to bless it.
Visualizing
Be like the Olympic downhill skier who imagines going down the mountain, executing each turn perfectly. Visualize yourself executing the work you need to do today to become the person you aspire to be. When see yourself executing a task in your mind’s eye you make the task easier to execute later in the day, because visualization fires and strengthens the same neural circuits you’ll use to complete the task.
Just a thing about visualization that makes it more “realistic” so to speak, is that we should include visualizing also those obstacles along the way and not just the success or end result of our task. We could get so possessed with the goal or end result that we forget to consider the means or the “how” to that goal.
Exercising
Physical exercise as a part of your morning ritual increases your heart rate, triggers the release of neurochemicals (dopamine, norepinephrine, and BDNF), which significantly increases your ability to focus during the day. John Ratey, a researcher at Harvard Medical Schools, says, “A dose of exercise is like taking a bit of Ritalin (a drug that helps improve mental sharpness).”
Let’s take it from the Philosopher Plato on his two ingredients to a successful life, “In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection.”
Reading
After purposeful silence, affirmations, visualization, and exercise, your brain is now hungry to learn – pick up a personal improvement book and start reading!
Whatever area of life you want to improve (relationships, health, finances, happiness), there is a book to guide you. Books are the richest source of high‐quality, curated knowledge. Skim a book every morning to find one big idea that may advance your life.
Scribing
Based on your book readings, try to write down things that struck you and reflect (especially during your purposeful silence) on those points, how these can be applied to your life. If, for example, you’re getting ready for a performance review with your boss, write out a few salary negotiation techniques from a negotiation book and plan out exactly what you will say during the salary negotiation as part of your performance review.
Or when you seem to lack patience with the demands of your job, try to read a book on the virtue of patience, write down tips you could apply, and bring it to your prayer with the Lord. I can assure you things would go right in your life and achieve that right life less difficult and faster when the grace of God is included.
