Welcome to a new monthly feature! So many of our readers are writers, aspiring writers, librarians, teachers and other reading and writing professionals. We all want to learn to work better! So I thought I would highlight one book a month which can help us all do that.
For my January pick, [easyazon-link asin=”0979019710″ locale=”us”]The Miracle Morning[/easyazon-link], I was inspired by a recent comment Juli made about how she organizes her day: with a series of task lists, one for ‘today’ and one for ‘general.’ She said she works through the ‘today’ list first, then opens the second list and picks from those if she has time. I have implemented this same system since Juli mentioned it, and it’s been working for me. So when ‘The Miracle Morning’ came my way via an Amazon recommendation, and it promised to give me a morning routine that would jumpstart my day and let me accomplish several key tasks before I even got to work, I was hooked to read further.
Elrod begins the book with a longish story about his own journey, a somewhat Tony Robbins-esque tale which sees him nearly die in a car accident, overcome and earn a fortune, then lose the fortune, then hit rock bottom and finally see the light. I admit, I skimmed through this bit a little. I find when books like this get into motivational seminar mode, they strain credulity a little. Nobody’s life is that on all the time—striving for, as Elrod calls it, a ‘Level 10’ life is admirable, but nobody should feel bad about themselves if every day isn’t perfect and productive and miraculous!
The meat of the book is Elrod’s six-pronged morning ritual, which he calls the life ‘S.A.V.E.R.S’: silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and scribing. This section of the book was worth the price of entry. Elrod makes clear arguments for the benefits of these practices, and while he suggests you spend ten minutes on each, he is a realist too and usefully offers a six-minute ‘express’ suggestion for those busy mornings where you just can’t manage more.
I think that, practiced faithfully, these six things really would improve most people’s motivation, inner peace and productivity. And I like his premise that a productive start to your day puts you in a better frame of mind for a productive rest of your day. I have found for me that in spite of Elrod’s assertion that I really would get used to getting up so early, that hasn’t been true and I have had to modify the plan a little. I have allocated the visualization, affirmation-reading and spiritual reading to be done during my commute (I take the bus so there is time to do this en-route) and I find the journal-writing more helpful as an evening unwind than as a morning ritual. But I have found the core of the premise useful. I start my way with a moment of silent reflection, do twenty push-ups before my shower (and a post-work workout later in the day) and give myself a little boost on my way to work with some inspirational reading. It really does put me in a productive and collected mindset by the time I get to work.
A lot of the book is filler, I suppose, but it was inexpensive enough that I don’t regret its purchase. I would have liked a little more realism from Mr. Elrod that even his own post-epiphany life is not a ‘Level 10’ at every moment, so I won’t give this a five. But it’s a solid 4 stars for me simply because it was so simple, yet useful.
