5 Minutes Could Be The Difference Between SUCCESS or FAILURE

byParthaB

4.1K followers

4 years ago

I recall the day with ease.

Saturday 13th January 2018.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about the day.

In fact, it was a typical winter’s day.

Dark, dank, miserable, and a day best spent curled up on the couch avoiding the outdoors.

So, I decided to read a book.

Once again, nothing particularly extraordinary about that.

I’d class myself as a pretty voracious reader and will usually devour anything that’s in front of me (and I mean anything - yes I even read about Bridget Jones before she became a film).

Now, I’m not going to make a sweeping statement and say that the book in question (NOT Bridget Jones btw) completely changed my life.

However, just the mere fact that I am still following many of the principles I learned (on a daily basis) shows that it certainly had some impact on me.

So, what was the book?

No need to get excited, it’s hardly going to win the Booker Prize (well it’s written in the wrong genre for a start).

The author won’t ever be considered a Nobel Laureate.

And there are probably many, many better books written on the same subject.

Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you:

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

What Did I Learn From Hal and The MM?

I’d never quite got my mornings right.

I guess I’ve always been a morning person. But I would generally get out of bed, grab a coffee and stare into thin air for about half-an-hour before I decided that I should really get ready for the day ahead.

No real direction though.

I was never going to be one of those people who simply rolled out of bed, late for everything, always in a rush, and barely getting out the front door in time for whatever they were about to face that day.

However, upon reading the Miracle Morning something really sparked inside of me, and what I learned actually made a lot of sense.

I researched this phenomenon further and found that many world-class, successful people and celebrities follow many of the principles in the book.

I’m talking Oprah, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Richard Branson, and even Jennifer Aniston (I had to include Jen okay, she’s hot!)

Basically, the book is about creating a morning routine that sets you up for a successful day.

This is about “ME” time, working on yourself, improving and bettering yourself, and using certain personal development techniques to achieve this.

Hal speaks of the 6 S.A.V.E.R.S.

• Silence
• Affirmations
• Visualization
• Exercise
• Reading
• Scribing

He suggests that you wake up an hour before you normally would (oh dear) and spend 10 minutes on each of these activities.

This should be a daily morning habit.

With that said, if there’s days when you’re extremely busy, then you may need to cut down on the time.

Or if this seems like too much to start off with, once again aim for less time.

Hal even states that just spending one minute on each item can still set you up to have a fantastic day.

There’s actually far more to the book that I’m currently crediting it with, but this isn’t a book review.

I also don’t want to get into the ins-and-outs of what each one of the S.A.V.E.R.S. actually means and how they should be performed.

If you are interested then please just ask, and I’ll be happy to answer.

Additionally, from reading about all these celebrities and successful people I soon discovered that you should perhaps adapt your morning routine to suit you.

You are really looking to achieve happiness, contentment, joy, and motivate & inspire yourself for the day ahead.

So, for some people this may involve listening to music and spending 10 minutes doing some yoga.

For others, you may want to sit in the garden in silence, breathing in fresh air, while sipping your coffee, followed by reading your favourite comic book.

For me, I tried the 6 originals that Hal suggested, but I just couldn’t get my head around visualization.

For some people this will involve creating a vision board and putting up pictures of each and every thing they want to achieve in their life.

Pictures cut out of magazines - dream house, dream holiday, dream car, dream partner, $1,000,000 spread out over a table, whatever takes your fancy.

You then visualize yourself achieving these dreams every single morning.

Nope, didn’t work for me.

Anyway, back to the point and the main reason I’ve written this blog.

I’ve taken on silence (meditation), I always read first thing in the morning for at least 10-15 minutes, I love exercise, so this was nothing new, I’m still struggling with affirmations, but it turns out you should be repeating them several hundred times a day, rather than once or twice…

AND

Scribing or Journaling is now a daily habit of mine.

The 5-Minute Method Of Scribing That I Now Use

Initially, my journaling turned out to be a bit of a moan-fest.

Just getting things off my chest, things that were bothering me, making me angry, upset, etc.

This is supposed to be a good practice, but more often than not it just put me on a downer for the day.

So, I converted to writing more positive things every morning.

With that said, I have spoken about adapting the S.A.V.E.R.S. to suit YOU, and I now use a method to actually help me be more productive (and accountable) during my working day.

Ever since I joined Wealthy Affiliate and started working on my websites, I have now got into a daily habit of setting a timer for 5 minutes (before and after my working day) and asking myself some very simple questions.

5-Minute Morning Journaling:

What one thing are you most proud of achieving yesterday?

What would make today great?

What’s the first task that you’re going to start with today?

5-Minute Evening Journaling:

Name 3 AMAZING Things That Happened Today?

What Would Have Made Today Better?

Why This Works For Me

My morning 5-minute routine initially puts me in a good mood, as I’m discussing an achievement that made me proud.

By asking, “What would make today great?” I’m setting myself a target for the day.

However, I always go a little over the top, knowing that I’ll never get everything done, but it helps me to have an extremely productive day (for some of you this could have the opposite effect, seeing your day as a failure).

Finally, by knowing exactly what my first task of the day is I don’t waste any time and get straight to it.

The evening 5 minutes is about reflection, but keeping things positive.

3 AMAZING things could be:

• I wrote half an article.
• I read a WA member’s blog and learned something new.
• I managed to go a day without asking Chrystopher a technical question.

Probably not AMAZING in the grand scheme of things, but a positive spin on my daily achievements.

And by asking myself what could have gone better I am taking responsibility for the things I possibly haven’t achieved in my day, but also showing myself where improvements could be made.

I’ve mentioned “adapting” a number of times.

These questions are actually an “adapted” version of journaling taken from Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris (the guy of “The 4-Hour Work Week” fame).

Final Thoughts

I’ve noticed that whenever I complete these 2 simple, 5-minute tasks I ALWAYS have a better working day.

I know whenever I don’t do this I seem to lack focus, motivation and direction.

This is what works for me.

Do you have a specific morning routine?

How do you set up your working day?

Do you reflect on your achievements at the end of the day?

As always, I’d love to hear and learn from you.

Thank You for reading.

Partha