Either you run the day or the day runs you! – Jim Rohn

One of the biggest challenges we all face is staying in control of our day. Far too often we end a long day exhausted with nothing really to show. We work hard, but in the end of the day often you can question – did this get me closer to my goal? If you didn’t start the day right, then the answer is usually “no”.

One way to ensure you stay in control of your day is to start it correctly. If you wake up to a buzzing alarm clock, stumble out of bed, get ready and leave for work; then you have already lost control of your day.

Owning your day, starts by waking up earlier to spend time alone to refine your purpose, set proper mindfulness and establish priorities for the day. You can accomplish this with set routines that you can easily run though in the morning hours. This process takes a bit of effort to get started, but makes a massive difference in the long run. There are countless leaders and successful entrepreneurs that recommend a good morning routine because of the benefits they experience.

The well known leadership speaker, Robin Sharma, has been a major promoter of a morning routine. He calls his concept the Holy Hour and even provides some tactics to help you get out of bed early.

The first step to get started is to adopt a proven routine. A few years ago, I was introduced to the book, “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)” by Hal Elrod. The book is the tells the story of his interest in finding common traits that successful people share. From his studies, he discovered the value each placed on their morning routine. Hal created a set of morning routines called the S.A.V.E.R.S (explained below). This simple routine can help you get organized with a solid morning strategy.

So, let me explain the S.A.V.E.R.S and share a few hacks that work for me.

(S) Silence
Morning meditation or prayer is a time of purposeful silence. If you are like most, your day runs at light speed. This time is to establish an optimal mindset that can guide your actions for the rest of the day. Many successful businessmen and celebrities claim that this daily time of clarity and self awareness helps them deal with stress of a high profile life.

I find great value in my morning meditation. For optimal organization to get into a meditation session, I have found the iPhone app, Calm, to be very helpful.

(A) Affirmations
Affirmations allow you to program your mind for optimism and success. We all have self doubt and limiting beliefs which make it vital to surround yourself with optimism. If we can believe in our actions, great things can happen. Henry Ford summed up the idea by the statement, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right either way.”

There are many ways to time hack daily review of affirmations. You can record affirmations to play while driving or just listen to recordings by others on YouTube. I have found that just simply writing my affirmations on a index card and repeating them 3 times each day is most effective.

(V) Visualizations
Visualizing is creating a mental image of what you really want. In the process you visualize exactly what you want to achieve or attain, then mentally rehearse what you will need to do to accomplish it.  Keep only positive thoughts – where everything works out for you. Then think about after you achieve your goal.

For example: if you want to own an island; you would visualize yourself finding great success in what you are doing now. With this success, you would have great amounts of wealth or insider knowledge of gaining an island without money. You would visualize finding the prefect island. Then, imagine yourself owning the island – walking on the beach, looking at the waves, the sun glaring off the water, toes in the sand.  You get the idea.

The actor, Jim Carrey, wrote a check to himself early in his career for 10 million dollars. He dated for 10 years in the future and added in the memo line, “For acting services rendered.” He then visualized it for years. Less than 10 years later, he made 10 million dollars for his starring role in Dumb and Dumber.

I find that early in the morning my mind tends to wander too much when I am trying to visualize. My hack is to write down the vision of success (with details of how I enjoy it) as the images pop in my mind.

(E) Exercise
A very simple workout will get your body in a positive mode and mentally prepared. Your brain soaks up 20% of the oxygen in your body. Cardio-focused workouts boosts blood flow to your brain delivering the essential oxygen to stimulate the important muscle. As a word of advice: Don’t overthink it. A simple set of jumping jacks, sit-ups or even a walk around the block will do the job and get your mind ready for the day.

I have experimented with several great apps, such as Seven and yoga videos on Youtube. However, I will primarily run or walk in my neighborhood because I love being outdoors.

( R) Read
Keep your mind active and thoughts progressing by reading every morning. If you really don’t like reading a book, then listen to an audiobook or consider a daily thought guide. You can even time hack by listening to an audiobook while you exercise.

I have found the greatest success reading something that is thought-provoking. I really enjoy Easwaran’s Thought for the Day app which provide a good variety of secular quotes or readings and bible verses with additional thoughts about how the message relates to our lives.

(S) Scribe
Journaling (or scribing) is the last step of the S.A.V.E.R.S. method. During this step, you are to write what is on your mind. This can include anything from thoughts to feeling to ideas. You can either us a blank notebook or use a daily journal guide like the Five Minute Journal.

I use a blank notebook to free flow thoughts and ideas what is on my mind. I also created my own guide that covers different mindsets that I want to cover such as gratefulness, daily priorities, thoughts of others and awareness of fears.

That’s the overview of the S.A.V.E.R.S. strategy. Many have found success with this strategy. Even the Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, claims that “I can always make another dollar, but I cannot make another day.’ If you want to maximize every day of your life, read The Miracle Morning.”

Book Overview

During a series of unfortunate events in his life; the main character, Amit,  casually commits to an unplanned pilgrimage – the Camino de Santiago. The Camino de Santiago (aka: The Way of St. James) is an ancient 550-mile Christian pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the city of Santiago De Compostela, where St. James’ body is buried. Today, it is popular with non-Christian and Christian pilgram searching for purpose and deeper understanding of life.

The book is a collection of conversations during the pilgrimage on the Camino. Most of the conversations are with other travelers, but some are internal conversations as the author tries to figure out answers to his own life. 

Amit ponders the recent death of his father and his struggle to come to terms with anger with is father. He also deals with the loss of his job, failing career and collapsed relationship with his girlfriend. He thinks and discuses these issues as he simply walks in nature and follows the trail markers each day on  the Camino.

As Amit works through these issues, he discusses thoughts on fear, choice, struggles and vulnerability. The pilgrims that he meets each share their individual bits of wisdom that culminate to provide a greater understanding of how Amit can work through his own challenges in life. Below are several selections from the book that can serve as great takeaways.

Thoughts on Fear

At one of the refuges (essentially a hostel established for the pilgrims on the Camino), a traveler told a story about temptation of fear and the Buddha. The following excerpt is from the book.

The night before he achieved enlightenment, the Buddha was attacked by Mara, the God of Death. He threw everything he had—lust, greed, anger, doubt, fear in all its forms—at the man meditating under the tree. No luck.
But even after he lost, he continued showing up throughout Buddha’s life. Each time, the Buddha said, “I see you, Mara.” That’s it. The genius of this is in the simplicity. He named fear for what it was, acknowledged its existence, and then just let it be. That took away Mara’s power, which was an illusion anyway. Eventually, Mara grew bored and lost interest. 

The biggest take away from this story is that fear is often defeated when we just acknowledge it’s existence thus removing the majority of the power of fear.

Reflections on choice

Amit had several discussions and thought about choice and consequences. One thought in particular that stood out was the idea of a different outcome to Ernest Hemingway’s life. The following excerpt is from the book.

The stories Hemingway told, the life he lived, all of it ended with a squeeze of a finger on a trigger. What else could he have done if he had put the shotgun down, gone back to bed? What would he have learned in that moment of choosing to live, what other books would have been written?

A simple, interesting thought about what other ways Ernest Hemingway could have contributed to society, if he had not passed by the actions of his own hands.

Thoughts on Struggle

Amit had various reflections on learned lessons through struggle. There is one point in the book, after spending weeks in basic refuge housing with many pilgrims, he mentions desire to have enough money for a nice hotel room. He then immediately realizes that if he had money, he would  not have committed to the pilgrimage in the first place. The discovery of the lesson is that the struggle is the blessing. It is a true time of growth.

Thoughts on Vulnerability

Although Amit had many challenges in life, he meets a fellow pilgrim that has grand challenges and experiences making his seem not so big. The pilgrim’s name was Cat and she was quirky as she was profound. She had dealt with many traumatic experiences in her life and shared her thoughts on vulnerability. The following excerpt is from the book.

We must be vulnerable. In life and in love. It’s by being vulnerable that we learn. It’s our vulnerabilities that move us forward, not our strengths. That’s why I so do not like convention. Convention says: be strong. Especially for a man: be strong, don’t show emotion. Poppycock! My greatest strength is my vulnerability

Growth through vulnerability is an interesting concept. It makes sense, but takes a certain level of self-awareness.

Conclusion

The book ends with the main character completing the Camino de Santiago and finding peace through the experiences and people he met along the way. The book appropriately leaves readers with the mystery of what direction the author will take next, but confident that he will make progress towards creating a positive future with whatever he decides.