Wow this week was busy! Luckily, I’ve found something that, if not totally keeping me sane, makes me feel like I have a better handle on life that I (probably) actually do.
I read The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents awhile ago, but never committed to actually trying out the Miracle Morning. However, after hearing Hal Elrod speak a few times on podcasts and stumbling across article after article where successful people talk about their morning routines…I decided I needed a better morning routine than getting up and trying to leave the house on time without forgetting anything.
I’ve now been doing my own version of the Miracle Morning for a little over two weeks (I skipped one day, more on that below) and surprisingly, this is very doable. Much more doable than I thought it would be.
So I call myself a morning person. But really that just means I prefer being awake in the morning over being awake at night. Not that I’m any good at getting up in the mornings. I once told the boyfriend I considered myself a morning person and he laughed and said I was a slug in the morning.
He totally meant it with love. And he’s definitely not wrong.
Getting up usually involves at least a couple cycles of snoozing the alarm until I absolutely have to get up. I do usually leave the house by 7am, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a struggle to get there.
So when I decided I probably needed to get up at 5:30 or 5 to do this Miracle Morning business and have time for some writing and exercise, I was very skeptical. Very skeptical.
But. It’s working. I get up at 5:30 without too much fuss and I go do the thing. I’ve only missed one day out of seventeen.
I’m so proud of myself. Even if 5am still feels like an unattainable unicorn.
The Miracle Morning is based on the acronym of SAVERS:
S= Silence
A= Affirmations
V= Visualization
E= Exercise
R= Reading
S= Scribing
You’re supposed to start this whole thing with meditation or prayer or just being quiet. I don’t actually do this because I think I’ll just fall back asleep. So what I do instead is “meditate” on the affirmations I’ve printed out for myself. I read these once through, slowly and silently, and then read them again out loud.
I didn’t really know what to do for the Affirmations sections, but I found Hal’s personal affirmations sheet here and just modified it to be for me. I figured this is good enough to get me started.
After that, you’re supposed to do some visualization of achieving your goals. But my goals are so large right now, I don’t really know what the steps are to get there. And again, I think this will put me to sleep so I don’t do this part yet either.
Then, it’s time for exercise. I actually go and exercise for a longer time after I’m done with the Miracle Morning (or I’m supposed to) so I just do some stretches and try and move all the parts of my body around for five to ten minutes.
Once that’s done, it’s time for my favorite part – reading! Yay! It shouldn’t come as any surprise that this is probably what actually gets me up in the morning. I read a non-fiction book for about 10-15 minutes about business, personal development, marketing, etc. So far I read Building a Story Brand and now I’m reading Give and Take.
Finally, I take a few minutes to write down what I’m grateful for, at least one thing I think I’m doing well, and at least one thing I think I need to work on.
Altogether, the Miracle Morning takes me about 30 minutes to complete. I don’t have any immediate afterwards effects from doing the ritual, but it is significant that when I wake up in the morning and remember what I’m waking up to go do, going back to bed isn’t winning anymore. I also think I am a little calmer, less anxious, and happier throughout the day. Not every day, But I did notice the day I didn’t do the Miracle Morning, I was not particularly calm or happy and I was definitely more anxious. So, I am seeing some small effects from my morning ritual as a whole and I also don’t hate it so that’s reason enough to keep going.
My goals are to write for a little while after completing the Miracle Morning and then go to the barn or the gym after that. This is a work in progress, I’m definitely not there yet, but I would say I’m still in recovery from the really hard months of my life and so trying to be gentle with myself.
With that, let’s dive into the week!
Saturday, I woke up late after LED on Friday night. This was the day I skipped the Miracle Morning and I regretted it. I had a very meh day and was not stoked on life.
I did go to the tack store however which is always fun. Horseback riding may be a super expensive hobby, but it really makes you see that it is possible to mass-produce quality items. Most brands are built to last and many things can be repaired to extend their life still further. Just as an example, I’ve had my riding boots for about eight years and parts of Escobar’s main bridle are over fifteen years old.
I buy new things for riding rarely so it’s a treat to go and pick something out. The liner of my show helmet was literally disintegrating and my breeches have been ripped for months – definitely time to replace those two things. I LOVE that Mary’s has a points program now – I already had a $30 credit available when I went in on Saturday!
Then I worked until it was time to go to night two of LED. We ended up staying out really late on night two because I kept liking each DJ progressively more than the one before and I also wasn’t falling asleep like I was the night before.
Sunday, I woke up last as well, but did not skip doing the Miracle Morning and so had a better work day overall. We got late lunch/early dinner with our neighbors at Siam Nara and then we went to Baskin-Robbins afterwards. I’m a little obsessed with BR…I love living in Mira Mesa because there is a one nearby. We didn’t have any close by in Colorado so I still think of it as an extra special treat even though I’ve been in Mira Mesa now for about four years.
Monday, I didn’t go to the barn because the horses and humans took the day off. Well, the day off of riding…this human was working again. But I actually finished my to-do list for once (shocker!) and I watched a little Netflix with the boyfriend. We watched the pilot of Everything Sucks! which I enjoyed, but then the boyfriend wanted to watch an episode of Black Mirror. I’ve never seen that show before, but had been wanting to start it. He’s been watching it without me, but it was nice that I could just drop into a random episode since they aren’t linked by an overarching storyline.
I also wrote for a bit in the morning which was A++++.
Tuesday I went to the barn in the morning and rode Pia who was again like, I had three days off, why are you here? But she was good. Her personality is quite different than Escobar’s. When you get on to ride, she usually likes to go to work and get things done. She does not really like being ridden around for fun. She wants to do her job, get a treat, and go back to bed. She likes to please, but she also has her own opinions and doesn’t bend over backwards for you every single ride. Escobar, in contrast, is such a people-pleaser that I’ve witnessed him hiding lameness or injuries from me before.
After the barn, I went home and did some work before I had to make some client calls. I also got my ride times for the show this weekend which I’m not super stoked on. I ride really late and it’s supposed to be super hot in Temecula. Oh well. It is what it is.
Wednesday, I did some research for my book instead of writing, which I do need to do and something is better than nothing. Then I went to the barn again and rode. This was my last ride at home, the next time I ride Pia it will be on Friday at the show grounds. Afterwards, I went by my old office for a little bit and then home to work before I got dinner at Woku Ramen with my friend, L. The food was good and it was nice talking to someone who understands a bit what I’ve been going through with the business so far. I tried to do a little more work when I came home, but ended up falling asleep in the chair again. This is another reason I need a new chair…the chair should not make it possible for me to sleep in it. Going back to look at more chairs next week. If I can’t find a tall enough chair that I can use with the kitchen table, I’ll probably have to put the table in the garage and put my desk in the kitchen….not stoked on that, but I have to make sure I’m not hurting my shoulder and some days it does bother me.
Thursday I had to go take my car to get serviced and get an oil change. I was trying to put this off until after the horse show, but I got an alert that my car needed an oil change. Since I will be driving to Temecula and back three times this weekend, I figured I needed to go get that done rather than risk having car problems. Adulting, amirite?
I went to the chiropractor again for my pre-horse show tune-up. I ride so much better after I go visit Dr. Brady so I always try to go the day before I head to the horse show. Then I went home to work and then I had a few calls in the afternoon. Finally I went to the bank for the third time in as many weeks. Can we talk about annoying the bank is? I’ve invested two and a half hours into setting up a separate checking account and credit card. The first visit was probably my fault because I forgot to bring my business license and wanted to use a DBA, but the two visits after that did not need to take as long as they did. Ugh. Talk about archaic systems. Almost done though, finally. Just need to wait a few days for my DBA to be approved.
On Thursday I also had a blog interview with Angela Nunez published on Equine Journal. If you missed it, you can check out that post here.
Friday, I got up and squeezed in a little writing time after doing the Miracle Morning. I stopped by the barn to get all my stuff ready for the trailer and then went to a meeting with one of my clients and their team. It was also national doughnut day and I stopped at this little doughnut shop around the corner from their office. I really wanted to go to V.G.’s, but no time. Then I drove up to Temecula for the warm-up day of the horse show.
This was the first day it’s felt like summer in awhile…which meant it was hot in Temecula. And we were doing all the set-up work which meant a lot of sweating in the heat. Pia was pretty good considering it’s a new place she’s never been and she wanted to look at absolutely everything. And this facility has longhorn steer which was a trip. I’ll try to get a picture of them tomorrow – Pia wanted nothing to do with them!
We brought Escobar to the show, too. He’s being shown by one of the ladies who leases him and he had a super warm-up day! I’m looking forward to watching him tomorrow and competing with Pia who will hopefully be a bit more focused!
What I’m Reading:
The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood
Give and Take by Adam Grant
What I’m Listening To:
This:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUaVhMjlPZg?rel=0]
What I’m Watching:
Links to the Netflix pages of the two shows I watched are above.
What I’m Loving:
That this week just honestly felt so much more doable than last week. And also that Ham has started perching on top of my chair while I work.
