DianaHale

Books

The Miracle Morning For Writers by Hal Elrod, Steve Scott, and Honoree Corder

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Miracle Morning For WritersHave you ever had a strong desire to write a book, but just can’t find the time in your busy schedule? Then this book is for you!

I have been a fan of the Miracle Morning for years. Most people say that they don’t have time for meditation, visualization, affirmations, journaling, reading, or exercise. The Miracle Morning makes a convincing case for getting up early to do them.

The Miracle Morning For Writers is about scheduling time every day for your writing, and making it as important as your job. It is also about organizing your ideas, creating great content, and building your writer’s platform.

The truth is that most successful writers started by writing part-time, while working another job or caring for a family. They had to make the time to write and market their books.

John Grisham comes to mind. Like me, he went to law school to become a tax lawyer, and practiced law for many years. One day he was at the courthouse, when he overheard a 12-year-old girl telling the jury her story. Members of the jury cried as she told them about having been raped and beaten. John started to think about what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. It took him three years to write his first book, A Time to Kill, in his free time.

If you are serious about your writing, The Miracle Morning for Writers is one book you will want to add to your library. I really love this book and highly recommend it!

You can learn more about The Miracle Morning for Writers here.

The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson

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End of JobsI read The End of Jobs last year, and thought it was great!

Taylor Pearson makes a convincing argument that work in the future will not look anything like it does today, but one aspect is inevitable – personal entrepreneurship.

In 2011, the Wall Street Journal published Marc Andreessen’s famous essay, “Why Software Is Eating the World”. Today, software is still eating the world, including a whole lot of jobs.

The traditional path to success through formal education and the career ladder is failing. It is not just failing for recent college graduates who can’t get professional jobs after accumulating hundreds of thousands of college debt. It is failing for all workers.

Globalization is not just continuing, it is accelerating. Educational standards around the world have improved, and so has the communication technology to find and work with people around the world.

The middle class is not only being being replaced by overseas workers, but also by the technology that is being developed around the corner. Jobs in almost all industries are becoming commoditized. This is true not only for low-skill jobs, but also for highly-credentialed ones.

I liked Taylor’s discussion of the evolution of our economy. He begins by describing the agricultural economy from 1300 to 1700. This was followed by the industrial economy from 1700 to 1900. Next came the knowledge economy, and the rise of the corporation, from 1900 to 2000. Today, we are seeing the rise of the entrepreneur, and the traditional “job” is disappearing.

Taylor concludes the book by providing actionable strategies and tactics.

I highly recommend this book! You can learn more about it here.

Kevin Kruse Crushes Time Management

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Kevin KruseKevin Kruse is a New York Times bestselling author, Forbes contributor, and keynote speaker. He is a recognized expert in the field of productivity.

Kevin has advised Fortune 500 CEOs, Marine Corps generals, and members of Congress. But he was not always so successful.

Kevin started his first company when he was 22 years old. He couldn’t afford both an apartment and an office, so he rented an office, slept under his desk, and showered every day at the YMCA.

Kevin tried one business model after another, including selling software, creating computer games, and building computers for sale. Although he worked as hard as he could, nothing succeeded. A year later, his company had failed and he was deeply in debt.

Kevin learned two important lessons. The first lesson was that hard work does not necessarily lead to success. (Can you think of an example of this?)

The second lesson was that he had been chasing multiple random product ideas without any focus, and it just wasn’t effective.

Kevin realized that what he needed to do was to focus and dedicate himself to a single target market. Once he made this shift, his business began to take off.

Today Kevin is a top performance productivity expert, with multiple income streams.

Kevin Kruse was recently interviewed by one of my favorite bloggers, John Lee Dumas, and you can access the interview here.

Kevin is the author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs.

One of my favorite tips from Kevin’s book is to throw away your “To Do” list and schedule all of your tasks on your calendar.

The Miracle Morning Routine

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Miracle MorningYesterday I talked about Hal Elrod, author of the Miracle Morning. Today, I will tell you what the Miracle Morning routine is.

The Miracle Morning routine consists of six daily practices, which Hal Elrod refers to as Life SAVERS. This is an acronym for Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing.

Silence
Some of my favorite activities for this practice are meditation, prayer, deep breathing, and gratitude. If you have trouble meditating, you can try using a guided meditation. Kelly Howell has produced a wide assortment of guided meditation MP3s. You can also use one of the meditation Apps. I have heard good things about the Headspace App, but have not used it personally.

Affirmations
Affirmations are powerful tools, if they are phrased correctly. Lying to yourself doesn’t work, so repeating affirmations like “I am a billionaire” or “I have the perfect body” generally fail. Instead, try affirmations about actions you can control, such as “I am committed to running three miles every morning” or “I am committed to writing a blog post by the end of the day.”

Visualization
I like to visualize my day, seeing myself doing the activities I have scheduled on my calendar, and getting good results! I have used vision boards in the past, but seem to lose interest in them pretty quickly. However, I know that many people have great success with that technique, and there are several free Apps for creating virtual vision boards.

Exercise
The important thing is to get moving and raise your energy level. You can even do something as simple as a few push-ups or yoga stretches when you get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes I will drive to the gym at 5:00 a.m., but it is usually more efficient for me to do a short workout at home in the morning, and save the gym for the evening.

Reading
Hal’s recommendation is to read personal growth books. It has never been easier, since so many books are available in audio format. Often I will listen to a motivational speaker, like Joel Osteen. I also love business podcasts, and my favorite one is the Tim Ferriss Show. I get lots of great ideas from TED talks, which you can download from ITunes.

Scribing
Writing or journaling is a way to process thoughts or reflect on your life. The Five Minute Journal is a good option because it keeps you focused on the positive and it only takes a few minutes.

I really believe that focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days. The Miracle Morning routine is a big part of that. Give it a try!

Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning

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Hal ElrodHal Elrod, author of the best-selling book The Miracle Morning, says that he created the Miracle Morning routine after hitting “rock bottom” for the second time in his life.

The first “rock bottom” experience happened when Hal was only 20 years old. He was working in sales, and became one of the top sales reps in the history of his company.

One night, after giving a motivational speech to his fellow sales reps, he was struck head-on by a drunk driver going the wrong direction on the freeway at 70 miles an hour. The left side of his body was crushed and his heart stopped beating. However, his life was saved and he was rushed to the hospital, where he remained in a coma for six days.

When Hal woke up, doctors told his family that he had permanent brain damage and would never walk again. But Hal proved them wrong! Not only did he learn to walk again, but he went on to become an ultra-marathon runner. He also went back to work. His experience led to a successful career as a life coach, a motivational speaker, and a best-selling author.

Hal’s second “rock bottom” experience happened when the economy crashed. He slowly lost his business and his house, and accumulated $50,000 worth of credit card debt. For the first time in his life, he was depressed.

One day, Hal heard a quote by the late motivational speaker Jim Rohn: “Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of self-development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.”

Hearing that quote became the catalyst that turned Hal’s life around. He realized that if he wanted to reach a high level of success, he would need to devote time each day to becoming the person capable of that level of success.

Hal developed the Miracle Morning routine that he still practices today. He believes that it sets your mindset for the rest of the day. It is all about getting up early and starting your day in a focused, goal-oriented, and productive manner. It is about self-discipline.

I started the Miracle Morning routine several months ago, and it is the best thing you can do for yourself! Give it a try!

Mini Habits: Small Habits, Big Results

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Mini HabitsI bought this self-published book on Amazon last year, and it is one of the best purchases I have ever made!

If you have ever tried to make a big change in your life, you know how hard it is.

The reason why most people fail in their attempt to create a new habit is because they try to do too much at once. If your new habit requires more willpower than you can muster, you will fail. If your new habit requires less willpower than you can muster, you will succeed!

A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day. It is a habit so small that it is practically impossible to fail. But that is what makes this strategy so powerful!

Here is how you do it: First choose a desired habit or change you would like to make. (For example, the author wanted to do 50 push-ups a day.) Then, shrink the habit down until it seems stupidly small. (In the author’s case, it was to do one push up a day.)

You can guess what happened. After the author did his one push-up for the day, he decided to do a few more since he was already in position. The next day he did a few more. Before he knew it, he had the new habit of doing 50 push-ups a day!

You can learn more about Mini Habits in this video.

Try it! You will love the results!

The Power of Keystone Habits

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Power of HabitOne of my favorite books of all time is The Power of Habit, written by the award winning New York Times reporter, Charles Duhigg.

In my opinion, the best part of the book is the detailed description of the way habits work. The habit loop is a three-step process: (1) There is a cue, which is a trigger for an automatic behavior to occur. (2) There is a routine, which is the behavior itself. (3) There is a reward, which tells our brain whether we should store this habit for future use or not.

I loved the description of the way habits work, because once you understand the process, you can create good habits intentionally by changing the cue, the routine, or the reward.

For example, when I started getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go to the gym, the cue was crucial. I laid out all of my work-out gear the night before, down to my socks, heart rate monitor, and the elastic band for my hair. When the alarm went off the following morning, and I saw everything neatly stacked by the bed, it seemed ridiculous not to go.

One of the most important concepts in the book is that of keystone habits. Keystone habits are like good habits on steroids, because they create other good habits.

Keystone habits have three characteristics:

1. They give us a sense of accomplishment or a “small win.”
2. They cause other good habits to develop.
3. They create a whole new mindset.

Examples of Keystone Habits

1. Exercising regularly – It is correlated with better diet, better mood, less stress, more confidence, and better sleep.
2. Daily meditation – It is correlated with increased memory and awareness, reduced stress and anxiety, and increased goal-setting.
3. Making your bed every morning – It is correlated with increased productivity, greater sense of well-being, and better budgeting skills. Bed makers are also more likely to enjoy their jobs, own a home, and exercise regularly.

This book is great! If you haven’t read it yet, check it out!

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