Life S.A.V.E.R.S.: 6 Simple Morning Habits That Quietly Change Your Whole Day
Power Acronym 203: Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
What if the first 20 minutes of your day quietly decided how the other 23 hours go?
I’m a morning person.
I enjoy being up just as the sun begins to rise.
The quiet before anyone expects anything from you. The smell of coffee. The slow awakening to the simple gift of another day to live.
My mornings aren’t always that poetic or picturesque, but they bring me a joy that staying up late just doesn’t.
Lately I’ve been implementing a lot of what Hal Elrod shares in his book The Miracle Morning. I haven’t read the full book, but I did go through a Philosophers Note summary, which is where I first came across this Power Acronym.
As a morning person and a practitioner of each of the habits he packages as the Life S.A.V.E.R.S., I believe implementing even one of these will not only help you win your morning, but set you up to win your whole day.
Power Acronym 203: Life S.A.V.E.R.S.
Silence
Chelsey and I recently traveled to Colorado for an anniversary getaway. The first thing we did on our first day there was find a trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. The trail we picked was 4.5 miles. About two-thirds of the way up the mountain, at roughly 9,000 feet, the silence was incredible.
I’d never experienced silence like that. No highway. No planes. No people—not even animals scurrying around. We stopped for several minutes, several times, just to experience it. (And catch our breath!)
Even now, weeks later, I can bring my mind back to that feeling.
It’s easy to take silence for granted, even when it’s not in its “purest” form on the side of a mountain. I try to practice it in my media diet. I’m often listening to a podcast or music on my Spotify app. For some reason I can forget how healing a silent car ride can be.
Next time you get in your car, don’t listen to anything. Just drive. Breathe. Observe—without judgment.
Affirmations
Each day I affirm the identities I have for myself as part of my personal Heroic protocol. These are the things I’ve recognized that, when I do them, I’m performing at my best—or at the very least, not having a bad day.
Some of my affirmations are about identity:
I affirm healthy masculine energy: I am a King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. (Great book I just finished.)
I am a “Connected Contractor”.
I have an abundant love life.
I affirm the virtues I want to embody—wisdom, discipline, love, courage, gratitude, hope, curiosity, zest, dedication, integrity, enthusiasm.
When I do something I know is good or that I sometimes resist, like working out or doing the dishes in the sink, I affirm that I am the type of person who does the thing.
Science backs this up: when we affirm ourselves, we lock it into our mind and become more likely to become the type of person who does that thing habitually.
Visualization
Visualization is powerful because it helps set you up for what is to come.
If you’re anxious about a situation, visualization might sound scary. It doesn’t have to be. The thing you’re facing might be intimidating, but visualization is less about controlling the thing and more about who you are as you move through it.
In the book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz explains that your brain’s built-in “servo-mechanism” responds to vividly imagined experiences almost as if they were real. Sports psychologists have been proving this out for decades. Jack Nicklaus, for example, talked about mentally playing each golf shot in detail before he ever stepped up to the ball—seeing the flight, the landing, and the ball dropping into the cup before he swung.
As Maltz puts it, “Your nervous system can't tell imagined from real experience.”
That means when you visualize each step of the journey you’re about to take, you’re giving your nervous system a practice run.
You’ve already felt some of the emotions beforehand, so when the real moment comes, it feels more familiar and less overwhelming.
You’re rehearsing who you want to be when it matters most.
Exercise
Movement is the energy hack everyone has access to but too few take advantage of.
I know this says “exercise,” but I want to invite you to change the language you use around “exercise” or “working out.” Especially if you don’t have a habit in place yet or you have a negative opinion of exercise, the words themselves can block you from the power of movement and what it can unlock for you.
Just call it movement.
Movement can be walking. Or stretching.
It sounds like a paradox, but when you move enough that your heart rate elevates, and even when you start sweating, your body is actually giving you the chemicals and energy you need to keep going.
When done in the morning, some studies show you can experience these benefits for up to 12 hours afterward.
Even a few minutes counts.
Reading
If you have time to stare at your phone, you have time to read.
The problem is that reading isn’t as visually stimulating as 15–60 second videos that are optimized to lock in your attention and flood your dopamine system.
But reading does provide amazing benefits for our brains. It can be a powerful vehicle for affirming ourselves and teaching ourselves new skills. Or, if you enjoy fiction, it can give you something novel when your life feels so calendar-dependent and rote.
You may even sleep better, because you’re not blasting your eyes with blue light before closing them.
Read and let your mind imagine—and see how it changes your day.
Scribing
I’ve been journaling for years. Not always every day—I go through ebbs and flows.
Recently I’ve been using ChatGPT to prompt me with three journal questions in the morning. It uses everything it already knows about me since I’ve been working with it for a few years now, and the prompts are really great.
Scribing is getting your thoughts on paper and out of your head. It can be extremely cathartic. It’s just for you, so you can use that space as sacred for your true thoughts and feelings.
It alone is transformative. Get out of your head and let your heart express itself through your hands.
I don’t hit every S.A.V.E.R.S. every single morning, but most days I’m doing some version of all six. That didn’t happen overnight.
You don’t have to go all-in tomorrow. Just pick one S.A.V.E.R.S. practice that resonates—Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, or Scribing—and commit to it for the next seven mornings.
Power Acronym exists to encourage, enrich, and empower you with the language of leadership. Life S.A.V.E.R.S. is one example: simple words for daily practices that quietly change who you’re becoming, one morning at a time.