a miracle morning challenge

yesterday, i mentioned some of the books, shows, music i am currently loving on my august media spotlight. well… one of them i am so excited about!! … so excited that i have decided to ask you all to join me. i first heard about the miracle morning from one of my favorite people in life / one of my bridesmaids, my friend anna. we taught together for nine years and woke up early the way it was… but she was in love with hal elrod’s concept in his book and began waking up even earlier every day. she always raved about it. however, i was always like… ‘early mornings? umm, no way. i am a huge night owl… there is no way i would love this.’ (now, i wish i would have started years ago). i have mentioned a lot lately about how i am trying to slow down. one of the ways i plan to achieve this is through the method that this book teaches. i want to start each day on the right foot by waking up slowly and intently. i am currently about half way through the audio book and have read countless success stories this week… making me anxious to begin my personal journey. i got lost on so many blogs and videos recently … reading and listening to countless people post about their transition from being a non-morning person to loving it/seeing their life change in remarkable ways… and wanting to wake up even earlier? trust me- if this works for me, it will be a miracle. i recently read this article about moms who are night owls and stay up way past their bedtime (my husband and i usually go to bed around midnight- or later.)  i agreed with almost everything in the article; however, i really want to make some significant changes in my life and so many people are sharing how their businesses, health, and relationships all improved greatly by implementing this routine. so let’s do it.

would you like to join me? 

i would love to have a group of people experiencing this with me. you can learn more about the book and concepts here: the miracle morning (the audio is a little over four hours long/possibly doable over the weekend?) note: this post is not sponsored in any way – i am just excited and wanted to share!

below, i am going to list the six general things that he recommends doing every morning + some hacks + thoughts. i don’t plan to be on social media during my new morning routine but would love if you shared something on instagram or facebook every now and then (maybe right after?) about your thoughts (tagging @nellemonaco and using this hashtag: #theolivejunemiraclemorningchallenge) 

i plan on beginning this tuesday, august 22 and then plan on sharing my personal experience on friday, september 22 (with a link-up for bloggers, who would also love to share a post + readers can post a comment about their experience) i think it will be inspiring and interesting to see how this hopefully impacts everyone individually and profoundly. 

“how you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days — which inevitably create a successful life — in the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. by simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.”

– hal elrod . the miracle morning 

the six steps | 

(s)ilence: prayer, meditation, reflection, deep breathing

(a)ffirmations: mantras that you repeat to yourself ~ ways to change your programming or the negative thoughts that you carry around 

(v)isualizations: also known as a mental reverse, visualization is the practice of creating mental pictures of specific behaviors or outcomes 

(e)xercise: so important for us both physically and mentally 

(r)eading: a key from many experts in getting to where you want to go 

(s)cribing: journaling~ putting thoughts and ideas onto paper + helps to clear a busy mind 

i am planning on waking up at 5:30am to start and hope to do about ten minutes each 

today i got to experience a few hours away at this cute coffee shop in charlotte- hex coffee

hacks + thoughts: 

+ i am hoping to begin this ~ a kid memory journal during my ‘scribing’ sessions

+ for reading, i hope to do a combo of both business articles and personal reading 

+ i am going to have my journals and books stacked up and ready to go the night before

+ after a little research, the app, simply being, seems to be the simplest and best (free) app for meditation

+ i am planning on doing this on the weekends for the first thirty days but maybe not as early (depending on our plans?) and then after the thirty days, i will re-evaluate the weekends 

+ if your kids are the right age, have them join you for the scribing part (a gratitude journal is also a great idea for this part) 

+ i plan to do a combo of yoga, pilates, weights and cardio for the exercise portion

+ i think a pinterest board would be a great way to do the visualization part 

+ the key is to push through the first ten days – a.k.a breaking the old habits! he mentions three stages: unbearable, uncomfortable and unstoppable

+ i might try ‘zenawake‘ which is a gentler alarm clock 

a little off topic but a few style scenes from this week: