The Miracle Morning for Writers: How to Build a Writing Ritual That Increases Your Impact and Your Income (Before 8AM)

183 Pages·2012·0.76 MB·English

by  Hal Elrod

Contents
Copyright
A Special Invitation from Hal
Dedication
Foreword
Introduction: My Miracle Morning
Chapter One: Why Mornings Matter (More Than You Think)
Chapter Two: It Only Takes Five Minutes to Become a Morning Person
Chapter Three: The Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
Chapter Four: Building the Routine
Chapter Five: Treat Your Writing Like a Job
Chapter Six: Tracking Your Brilliant Ideas
Chapter Seven: Creating Consistent Content That Readers Love
Chapter Eight: Monetizing Your Words
Chapter Nine: Building a Writer Platform
Chapter Ten: The Miracle Equation
A Special Invitation from Hal
About the Authors
THE MIRACLE MORNING FOR WRITERS
Hal Elrod & Steve Scott with Honorée Corder
Copyright © 2016 by Hal Elrod International, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cover Copyright © 2016 by Hal Elrod International, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or
electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the author or publisher (except by a reviewer, who may quote brief
passages and/or show brief video clips in a review).
Disclaimer: The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is
sold with the understanding that the Author and Publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or
other professional services. Neither the Author nor the Publisher shall be liable for damages arising
herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation or a potential
source of further information does not mean that the Author or the Publisher endorses the information that
the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware
that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was
written and when it is read.
Interior Design: Christina Culbertson, 3CsBooks.com
A SPECIAL INVITATION FROM HAL
Fans and readers of The Miracle Morning make up an extraordinary community
of like-minded individuals who wake up each day dedicated to fulfilling the
unlimited potential that is within all of us. As the author of The Miracle
Morning, it was my desire to create an online space where readers and fans
could go to connect, get encouragement, share best practices, support one
another, discuss the book, post videos, find an accountability partner, and even
swap smoothie recipes and exercise routines.
I honestly had no idea that The Miracle Morning Community would become
one of the most inspiring, engaged, and supportive online communities in the
world, but it has. I’m blown away by the caliber of our 40,000+ members, which
consists of people from all around the globe and is growing daily.
Just go to www.MyTMMCommunity.com and request to join The Miracle
Morning Community (on Facebook). Here you’ll be able to connect with others
who are already practicing The Miracle Morning—many of whom have been
doing it for years—to get additional support and accelerate your success.
I’ll be moderating the community and checking in regularly. I look forward
to seeing you there!
If you’d like to connect with me personally on social media, follow
@HalElrod on Twitter and Facebook.com/YoPalHal on Facebook. Please feel
free to send me a direct message, leave a comment, or ask me a question. I do
my best to answer every single one, so let’s connect soon!
DEDICATION
HAL
To the writers, may your words improve the world in ways you have yet to
even imagine.
STEVE
This book is dedicated to the five most important people in my life whom I love
more than words can say.
To mom, thanks for always being there and for showing me what it means to
selflessly take care of the people you love.
To the “Three Genes.” My father who constantly gives great advice (even if it’s
in a PowerPoint presentation), my brother who protected me (even when I
deserved a butt whooping), and my son who changed my world as soon as he
entered it.
To my amazing wife Kristin, who patiently listens to my crazy ideas without
judging me. I’ll always be your big stinker!
FOREWORD
By James Altucher
I can't believe three of my favorite authors asked me to write a Foreword to their
book, The Miracle Morning for Writers.
I feel like the new drummer of the Rolling Stones.
Writing is hard. You have to sit for hours and type letters. You have to think
of things that nobody ever thought of and tell them in ways that nobody ever told
them before.
Humans weren't made to sit and write for hours. We were made to hunt and
gather. And climb trees. Or whatever they did back then.
People say, "Every idea has been done."
This is not true. The world lives in a giant comfort zone. A good writer's job
is to take us outside that comfort zone, to see something new inside of something
old.
When I write, I'm terrified. I want to be able to say something new. I want to
say it in an entertaining way. I want to be scared to hit publish. (If I'm not scared
to write it, nobody will be scared—or even shocked—to read it.) I want to take
chances (else, how will I grow?). I want readers to say, "I can't believe he just
said that!"
When I wrote the book Choose Yourself! I started off talking about how, at
my worst moments, I wished I were dead.
Then I wrote about how I came back from that wish. How I thrived after
having such a horrible wish. How my wishes didn't come true.
The goal of the book was not to give advice. But advice is autobiography.
The best any writer can do is tell a good story—not preach from a pedestal or
give advice with no backbone.
This is a book that seems to be about writing. But not really. Again ... advice
is autobiography. This is a book by writers, and the story is how they do this
amazingly difficult thing that humans were never meant to do.
Hal Elrod has written The Miracle Morning, which is not only a massive
bestseller, but also the story of how he literally came back from death.
It's not about how you can come back from death. It's Hal's story. But it's a
big enough story that it has literally inspired millions to try out and follow a path
similar to Hal's. To establish their own healthy morning routines so they can
come back from whatever deaths are in their lives.
I love how Honorée Corder then took this simple idea and made it accessible
for many other categories in her own writing. She took The Miracle Morning
and then wrote X, Y, and Z.
And now this book.
I follow a Miracle Morning routine as well, and I am grateful for it.
Steve Scott has written dozens of books. I can't even keep track of the
number of books Steve (and his alter ego, SJ) have written.
When I first started seeing Steve's name all over the bestseller lists I knew I
had to call him and ask him how he did it. So I did, and he told me.
Now he's telling you in this book. He's not telling you what to do. He's
telling you how he did it. And how he makes a great living doing it.
I follow a morning routine for my writing. If I didn't, I would never write.
I've written 18 books. I have a children's book coming out soon. I have a book
on mentorship coming out soon.
And I hope to write many other books in my life.
Writing is an IV transfusion directly into my soul. It takes out the bad blood
inside me and puts in good blood. Without a Daily Writing Routine, I think I still
would be dead, or stuck, or unhappy, or unsatisfied, and I would have less
opportunity and fewer friends in my life.
Hal, Steve, and Honorée are my friends—entirely because I write and that's
how we met and bonded.
I wake up, I exercise, I shower, I read, I drink coffee, I play around with
ideas, and then the writing begins.
I can go into more detail of this routine. Particularly what I read to inspire
my writing. And how I come up with ideas. And how I mine my past to dig for
gems that I haven't discovered before. And how I put words together to tell a
gems that I haven't discovered before. And how I put words together to tell a
story that I think will be fun for people to read.
But that would take an entire book.
And instead, Honorée, Hal, and Steve have written the book. I know that
what they describe works. Because it works for them, and I have seen a routine
work for me.
I know it will work for you also.
James Altucher, Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author, and Podcaster.
http://www.jamesaltucher.com
WHY MORNINGS MATTER
(MORE THAN YOU THINK)
How you start each morning determines your mindset, and the context, for the
rest of your day. Start every day with a purposeful, disciplined, growth-infused,
and goal-oriented morning, and you’re virtually guaranteed to crush your day.
Yet most writers start their days with procrastination, hitting the snooze
button, and sending the message to their subconscious that they don’t have
enough self-discipline to get out of bed in the morning, let alone do what’s
necessary to reach their writing goals.
When the alarm clock beeps in the morning, consider it to be akin to life’s
first gift to us. It’s the gift of time to dedicate to becoming the person you need
to be to achieve all of your goals and dreams while the rest of the world is still
asleep.
You might be thinking, All of this sounds great, Steve. But I am NOT a
morning person.
I understand. I really do! You’re not saying anything I haven’t told myself a
thousand times before. And believe me, I tried—and failed—many times to take
control of my mornings. But that was before I discovered the Miracle Morning.
Stay with me for a minute. In addition to becoming a successful writer, I bet
you also want to stop struggling and worrying about your finances, quit missing
your goals, and release all of the intense and not-so-great emotions that go along
with those challenges. Am I right?
Then know this:
Mornings are the key to all of it.
More important than the time that you start your day is the mindset with
which you start your day.
Maybe your dream is to become a famous writer so that you can inspect your
alarm clock’s insides with a baseball bat and see what it’s like to start your day
on your time for a while.
Trust me, I get it, and I often decide to start my day whenever I wake up
naturally. However, even when I do that, my Miracle Morning is the first part of
my day and gets me in the right mindset to make the most of the rest of my day.
Plus, there is a good chance that you are reading this book in the early stages
of your author business, which means that you are probably paying your bills
with a day job and writing on the side. If that’s the case, then learning to
implement your Miracle Morning routine with your day job is critical to
exploding your writing efforts so that you can finally ditch that alarm clock for a
few weekdays (or forever) and see how it feels. Here’s the good news … It’s
worth it, and it is far more fun and rewarding than you might expect.
But, before we get into exactly how you can master your mornings, let me
make the case for why. Because believe me, once you know the truth about
mornings, you’ll never want to miss one again.
Why Mornings Matter So Much
The more you dig into mornings, the more the proof mounts that the early
bird gets a lot more than the worm. Here are just a few of the key advantages to
laying off the snooze button.
You’ll be more proactive. Christoph Randler is a professor of biology at the
University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany. In the July 2010 issue of
Harvard Business Review, Randler found that, “People whose performance
peaks in the morning are better positioned for career success, because they’re
more proactive than people who are at their best in the evening.”
You’ll anticipate problems and head them off at the pass. Randler went
on to surmise that morning people hold all of the important cards. They are
“better able to anticipate and minimize problems, are proactive, have greater
professional success and ultimately make higher wages.” He noted that morning
people are able to anticipate problems and handle them with grace and ease,
which makes them better in business.
You’ll plan like a pro. Morning folks have the time to organize, anticipate,
and plan for their day. Our sleepy counterparts are reactive rather than proactive,
leaving a lot to chance. Aren’t you more stressed when you sleep through your