Book Review: Miracle Morning

VO: Get ready for your semi-regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codelation. We like to talk about big ideas companies that are winning, and those that aren't along with current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Eric and Josh, who challenge you to think big, start small and turn your ideas into something on this episode of, from idea to done.

Josh: Hey everyone, I'm Josh.

Erick: and I'm Erick. All right, Josh. Today, we're going to talk about miracle morning written by that one guy. You actually asked me to read this hog when I started here and, and I did, I tried to do what you S what the book said, and it didn't quite super keep up with the, uh, books advice. What do you, what do you have to say about the big idea of this book?

Josh: Well, yes, if you mean that one guy, uh, you mean how L rod, the author, and by hog of a book, you mean all hundred and 80 pages, it's pretty simple. Wake up early 60 minutes, early six different activities each 10 minutes to segment your day and to start it. Right.

Speaker 3: And I guess I don't disagree with the principle of this hog of a book, but if you would, like, I think we should just kind of go over the main points of it. Sure. Sounds great. So the first thing, and it's silence, and you should just straight up kind of Yoda into the day. And I love this. I've kind of tried to, to implement some meditation when I wake up in the morning and as I go to bed at night,

Josh: I, you know, I try to do the same thing when I'm really tired in the morning, and I try to get my meditation and I'll try to cheat and say, I'm just going to lay down and meditate. I end up falling back asleep. Um, however, what, uh, the book teaches you to do is to set your alarm clock far away from the bed. So you have to get up and go shut it off. You want to jumpstart something, so you don't go back to bed. You know, he teaches you, you drink a full glass of water to hydrate. It's typically been eight hours that you've been sleeping and then do something to wake up, brush your teeth, take a shower, you know, do something. So you're not so in that sleep mode,

Speaker 3: And I'm not going to lie. I fall back asleep sometimes when I do this, but I should probably have a glass of water by my bed or move the alarm clock. But even if I fall back asleep, I'm waking up an hour early. And so that's just kind of fine. And so the, and, and I, even if I do fall back asleep and then I wake up, I do feel better about the day. And so that kind of brings us into our next action item, which is affirmations or encouraging words that help you tell yourself to achieve your goals. And to me, attitude and mindset are they're so important. It's pretty powerful to go into a day with a better feeling. I hate Monday is like telling yourself each morning that you're going to do great. Things is a way better attitude than same, different day.

Josh: You know, I, I think of it as kind of your friend alter ego that hates doing something, but, you know, it's good for them. You need to convince, convince them to keep going. Sometimes you need to do the same thing for yourself. You may not believe it, but if you keep reinforcing the consistency of it, it's going to turn into a habit for you. And

Speaker 3: That's a good point. Cause like I saw a friend that I have on Facebook and he's been struggling with weight issues, honestly, since I've known him and he was online the other day and he was crying because he's been trying to lose some weight and he took a little step back and he gained some and I stepped in and I told him, you know, you're brave and hardly anybody does any work to change what they don't like about themselves. So good for you for even trying and nothing, even nothing I've ever done in my life that I'm proud of is come easy. And if you want some help, I'll help him. And I was just kind of there for him. I should be mirroring that message to myself every day. And, and that will, you know, take my day kind of to the next level, because I know that he felt better after that. And so that kind of brings us into our next main point of the book is, and that's visualization.

Josh: Yeah. I think to that point too, Eric, that we're harder on ourselves than we are on other people. Why can't we be the same way to ourselves as you work to your friend? Right. Right. So, you know, visualizations, I used to think that affirmations and visualizations were kind of overly woo. You know, they're some sort of late night infomercial way to scam me out of a hundred dollars to get on some course. But as I've moved on in life, I find there's so much negativity. And so many, you don't want won Debbie downers out there that you need to be in the right frame of mind to start your day. So Eric, what are your, what's your take on, you know, visualization? I

Speaker 3: Think it's an interesting thing that nobody does, but basically every successful professional athlete that I know does it, and this is one thing that I can, I know I could do better. I write out a list of things I do every day. I should change my list to say, to say things, to be a little more positive and a little more like real, like today, I want to talk to blank and a proposal to blank will be sent instead of write a proposal, I'm going to talk to, you know, it's not, as, it's not as powerful.

Josh: I think changing that from want dwells, a big thing. And another important piece to add is, you know, to add in the success, what does that look and feel like? So after sending that proposal, then what happens,

Speaker 3: CNN, this is what we need to really do. Cause like we send the proposal, they accept, they pay us with actual money. Yes. And then we eat victory tacos a hundred percent. Like I got to visualize the victory taco, oh, that's way better than like I should send our proposal. And then we will be consistently eating victory tacos I'm in, which brings us kind of to our next point, which is exercise. And like, does anybody actually get enough exercise? I hate mornings, but I fight with my schedule every week to get exercise. And at a minimum, I should try to combine that even in my meditation with some stretching in the

Josh: Morning. Yeah. It's tough. You know, I've found, uh, doing a full workout in the morning. It kind of drains energy sometimes in my skinnier days, you know, AKA my twenties, um, that wasn't the case I could get up in the morning. 5:00 AM go to a full weight training session, be just fine with it. Um, but what works for me now with my current body shape and age is, you know, do a bunch of push-ups go on the walk with a dog, something to break a light sweat. It's enough to get me moving without draining my energy for the morning.

Speaker 3: I think the main point of that is movement. And so all of those blasted app developer nerds have made it so easiest for us just not to move. And I think anything is better than nothing. 10 minutes is better than watching half of a season of the office. Again, you know, as long as we're talking about not moving and nerds will jump into the next main point of the book and I don't do this, but I, I should. And that's reading and I guess, unless you count checking and bay rumors on my phone, I'm just not really a reader. And I shouldn't try to get a little little learning in though. And it doesn't have to be through directly reading a book. I mean, even just dedicating 10 minutes of that morning to learning something new is what I should really implement.

Josh: Yeah. Not everyone is a reader. I, I totally get that. But you know, you talk about nerds. Here's a little nerd knowledge tree, Eric, if you read 10 pages per day for the next year, you'd have read this hog of a book the miracle morning over 20 times. So Eric, if you aren't consuming words, maybe you could move on to the final point, which is write some words.

Speaker 3: It's almost like we wrote this episode and then it brings us, like I said, that's the last point is, is actually writing. And that's the thing that I've also got away from it. I wish I hadn't. I used to try to send thank you cards to people every week. And it made me feel good and it strengthened some of my connections and it helped me with my terrible third grade handwriting.

Josh: True. That, um, I've found that even just writing down what frame of mind I'm in, um, and what I'm thinking about, you know, it's an out of my head. So instead of starting the day, trying to think of where I'm at, I start the day with action. You know, once I hit the office, it's a, it's a big step forward.

Speaker 3: And so, yeah, so there, you kind of have it. Those are the six basic principles of the miracle morning. It's just take 10 minutes at the beginning of your day, wake up early and, and do all of these. And I tried it and I, I'm just not a morning person and it basically destroyed my production in the afternoon. But one of the bigger takeaways is time management is important though. I know that I can squeeze all of those important things into my day if I actually try. And so what our, that was kind of, one of the big takeaways from the book is to like take that hour a day that you waste, make it work for you to make your day go better. And that's, that's an applicable thing that I can bring to our business. Like, do you have any other things you'd like to kind of implement in your life or in the business?

Josh: Yeah. Some takeaways I had Eric were, you know, if I'm starting my day with intentionality and I'm not just slumbering into yet another day in the office, I'm a more effective person. Plus for me, this just, isn't one about one aspect of life. Um, by having a better morning routine, I find that my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual life, you know, is really in better check every, from everything from, you know, it's a, it's a ripple effect. So everything from thinking about what I do for lunch, how I interact with team members or how I view opportunities and setbacks throughout the day. Um, so those are really my takeaways that it just, it helps strengthen the day. If you're paying attention to these things,

Speaker 3: It's a good book. You should probably read it even if you don't read or get into reading. And so, yeah. Thanks everybody for listening. If you know a startup that could use some advice, have them subscribe or leave a review on iTunes.