The Miracle Morning

The Miracle Morning: the Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life Before 8am is a book by Hal Elrod, based on the premise that one's success in life is limited by individual commitment to personal development. The author has come up with a one-hour morning routine, which may very well be the ultimate personal development routine.

It is composed of six ten-minute life SAVERS, done consecutively (but in any order, customizable by individual) that are proven routines used by the world's most successful people. SAVERS stands for the following acronym:
S= Silence (meditation, prayer)
A= Affirmations
V= Visualization
E= Exercise
R= Reading (a business or personal development book, 10 pages)
S= Scribing (journaling, listing best moments, best activities to make today great, gratitude list, etc)

The book is full of inspirational quotes and Elrod's own amazing life stories. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"According to the Social Security Administration, if you take any 100 people at the start of their working careers and follow them for the next 40 years until they reach retirement age, here's what you'll find: only 1 will be wealthy; 4 will be financially secure; 5 will continue working, not because they want to but because they have to; 36 will be dead; and 54 will be broke and dependent on friends, family, relatives and the government to take care of them..."

"The reality is that, statistically, 95% of the people that read any book don't implement what they learn, because no one is holding them accountable to do so..."

"...from Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love...: 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we ae liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"The key is to learn from the experts - those who have already done what you want to do. Don't reinvent the wheel. The fastest way to achieve everything you want is to model successful people who 
have already achieved it. With an almost infinite amount of books available on every topic, there are no limits to the knowledge you can gain through daily reading..." 

"If we want to have more energy...and if we want our lives to be healthy and disease-free...then it's crucial that we reexamine why we eat the foods that we do, and...start valuing the health benefits and energy consequences of the foods we eat as much as...the taste..."

I have been practicing the Miracle Morning routine on my own now for about two months, and I have seen immediate results in the growth of my business, my productivity and my relationships. I highly recommend this book, as a good way to get started on your own personal development path.

Happy Investing!

Grit to Great

As a volunteer for the Real Estate Association of Puget Sound (REAPS), I have been given many tokens of appreciation - which I enjoy! One of them recently was to select a few books from the stack distributed to top volunteers. One of the books that I selected was Grit to Great: How perseverance, passion and pluck take you from ordinary to extraordinary by authors Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval.

Often the only thing that separates winners from losers is this thing called "grit." The authors give numerous examples of people who have become successful against all odds. An example is the lesson summed up by Michael Jordan about what it takes to become the best player in basketball history:

"I've missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I've lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, I've been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that's why I succeed."

Most people are surprised to learn that hard work can be the key to personal happiness, as well as its own reward.

Those who succeed work hard, they have a vision for their life, and they do not give up, even when the odds are stacked against them.

At the same time, those who succeed are often the ones giving back to society the most. The authors quoted a study from JAMA Pediatrics which claims that "even completing five small acts of kindness...one day a week for six weeks created a significant boost in overall feelings of well-being. And the effects are cumulative. Imagine the benefits of working full-time for decades helping others."

Real estate entrepreneurs will find great lessons and motivation in this book about the importance of vision, hard work, ethical work habits, consistency, persistence, and belief in helping others. This book is an easy read, and a reminder to keep on keeping on - even when the going gets tough!

The next book I will be reviewing is Richard Branson's The Virgin Way. Keep reading this blog to catch it soon!

Happy Investing!