The Morning Challenge: How A Simple Routine Can Change Your World!

The Morning Challenge: How A Simple Routine Can Change Your World!

Written By Tohar Scheininger, Ph.D

The Morning Challenge: How A Simple Routine Can Change Your World!
Adobe Stock Photos

If you’re like me and find mornings challenging, chaotic, and complicated, I’ve got a challenge for you. I understand that you probably don’t need yet another thing for the to-do list (especially a morning to-do list), and trust me, I’m with you. 

I’m hardly what you’d call a “morning person.” Before I took on the challenge, you’d probably find me gulping down a quick cup of coffee, scanning the news, and rushing off to work. So, when a friend encouraged me to read The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, I was beyond skeptical. Even just the title of the book was enough to make me pick up the book and immediately put it down (several times in a row)! But now, two months later, I am so grateful that I pushed through the book and that I developed new habits that reshaped my morning and my entire day. 

S.A.V.E.R.S., a simple morning routine that Elrod writes about in detail, has become a habitual part of my morning. I’ve outlined the key points here: 
  • S: Silence/Meditation
  • A: Affirmations
  • V: Visualizations
  • E: Exercise
  • R: Reading (with an emphasis on self-help books)
  • S: Scribing/Journaling

These six well-studied yet simple steps come together to help create inner peace. By setting an intention, creating unique and personal daily goals, and visualizing meeting those goals, morning becomes a time for self-care. The exercise portion gets your blood flowing. You also read about topics directly related to your self-growth and advance daily intentions through journaling about goals and achievements.

Here’s what I found:

By carving out a time to find inner peace each morning, I felt empowered. Waking up early created some valuable me-time, allowing me to take care of my needs before I had to deal with the usual morning rush.

Saying a few mantras or affirmations each morning allowed me to create a habit which prepared me for whatever stresses I met throughout the day.

No day ever goes perfectly. The practice of visualization early in the mornings really helped me to be prepared and strategize my workday.

Through exercise and self-help topics I chose to read about each day, I found a new sense of energy and excitement. I felt ready to tackle anything!

Journaling about my successes and gratitude helped me to figure out what I wanted to focus on. I also was able to become more aware of what strategies were working well for me.

You might be thinking, “Ok, that sounds great and all, but how are you doing this every day?” I would have to chalk up my answer to habit formation. An early American philosopher by the name of William James believed that habits could be formed by doing an action repeatedly such that it becomes ingrained in the brain wiring. Then, a behaviorist named B.F. Skinner expanded on James’ idea of how habits are engrained by studying how rewards play into the habit formation system. In short, he found that behaviors can become habits if the behaviors are reinforced by a desired reward. 

I challenged myself to complete this routine for 30 days, and after just the first day, I realized how transformational SAVERS was for my day. Instantly, I associated the impact of completing SAVERS as my reward. From Day 2 onwards, I looked forward to completing my SAVERS routine so that I can experience an improved day (i.e., my wonderful reward)! 

Each morning, I chose to do SAVERS on my balcony at 6am. It is likely that my consistency in doing this helped my morning routine to become a habit. Ouellette and Wood found that habits are more likely to form and stick around if they are performed in the same context and with high frequency (1998). Additionally, I made sure to monitor my success every day in The Miracle Morning app, which also likely contributed to my success at making and maintaining this habit. Researchers have found that monitoring plays a key role in habit formation, specifically with helping work towards one’s goals (Harkin et al., 2016). 

At The Kahane Center we use STEPS, a sub-skill in the POWERS program to help individuals of all ages work towards achieving their goals.

STEPS provides us with a template to successfully set and achieve goals. STEPS is an acronym that stand for: Simplify, Track, Evaluate Effort and Endurance, Pause Praise Progress and Step Back In!

The best part about this technique is that it can be done in as little as six minutes, one minute per letter. I love that I don’t have to spend much time on it each morning to feel the lasting impact on my whole day. 

If mornings feel too hectic, and maybe it feels worse knowing that the school year is about to start up again, I encourage you to try it out. Of course it can be even more challenging if you are a parent to find even a few minutes of time to give to yourself but try and prioritize it as you may find it very helpful all around. 

See what it feels like to enjoy some uninterrupted time JUST FOR YOU each day. It really changed my world.

So, what do you say, are you ready to apply STEPS and challenge yourself to begin to build a new habit and work towards developing  a lifetime of powerful mornings?

Some additional resources