352: It’s Time To Create Your 10 Year Vision

 

[INTRODUCTION]

 

Hal Elrod: Hey, goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning Community. It's Hal Elrod, and welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. I appreciate you. Before we jump into the episode, solo episode, by the way. It's just me all day today. For the next hour, you're just going to hear my voice, I hope that you get a lot out of this episode but I want to thank our sponsor, Organifi. Organifi, spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, I always spell it because I feel like my brain puts a Y at the end of Organifi, it just sounds like you would have a Y at the end, but it's actually an I. But anyway, Organifi is one of my favorite health supplement companies. And so, if you want to boost your health, your energy, your immunity, Organifi is the place to do it and I just found out since they're one of my sponsors, they're doing a big Black Friday sale and it's actually pretty good. It's 20% off sitewide plus when you use the discount code, Hal, you get an additional 15% off. So, 20% off plus 15% off of all of their products and I've used them for years. 

 

They make their protein powders, one of my favorite. They do a green juice and a red juice and they have some powders that make a tea at night to go to sleep. They've got a pumpkin spice, gold pumpkin spice that just came out. It's like a holiday special during Thanksgiving time. So, anyway, check out their products. I'm sure you'll find something that you love as much as I love their products. Go to Organifi.com/Hal. Again, that's Organafi.com/Hal and then when you're checking out, use the code, Hal, to get an additional 15% off of your already 20% off for the Black Friday sale. So, from November 26 to 28, you get 20% off the entire site, and then when you enter the code, Hal, at the end, you get an additional 15% off. So, 20% off for the Black Friday plus 15% off, and then on Cyber Monday, they're also doing free shipping. So, check all that out. 

 

Without further ado, enjoy today's podcast episode. We're going to talk about why to create a 10-year vision for your life and then how to create a 10-year vision of your life. First, I'm going to give you a few examples of 10-year visions that I've created for my life and how they have come true, and how many of them have actually been even better than when I envisioned them. So, hope you get a lot of value from today's episode and I will talk to you all soon.

 

[EPISODE]

 

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. It's Hal Elrod and today's going to be fun. I'm excited. I've spent quite a bit of time on the podcast for today and actually, I'll tell you two things happened that inspired today's podcast episode. The first was last weekend my wife and I did The ONE Thing Couples Goal Setting Retreat. So, we participated in this two-day virtual retreat with Jeff Woods and Jay Papasan. Jay Papasan co-authored the book, The ONE Thing, with Gary Keller and Jeff Woods is the president of The ONE Thing company, and they led this awesome two-day goal-setting retreat. I've had Jeff on the podcast multiple times. He spoke at our event. I always say he's been the most effective person I've ever learned goal setting from. So, that was an inspiration for today's episode as we kind of set our someday goals and then worked back to five-year goals, one-year goals, and weekly and daily activities. So, that inspired today. But what ultimately inspired today's podcast episode was that I found an old journal entry a few days ago that I wrote in 2016 and it was titled The Miracle Morning movement 10-year vision. Actually, I'll share that with you today what that vision is and which aspects have come true from that, that inspired me because it was inspiring to reread and revisit some of the possibilities. But what was really cool is to realize that, wow, actually a lot of this stuff has come true. It's been four years since I created this document and a lot of the things on this list have already happened. So, yeah, really cool. 

 

So, there are three parts today, three parts to what we're going to cover. Number one is I'm going to give you an example of a 10-year vision. It's mentioned that I created mine, I'm actually going to read through it with you and then tell you which things have kind of come to fruition. The reason for that is so that you get to see a real-life example of, wow, you can at any point create a vision for your future of things that you may have no idea how those are going to come to fruition or if they're going to come to fruition and then all of a sudden, one-by-one-by-one, they start coming to fruition and what does that look like? So, I'll give you the example first. Then we're going to talk about why to create a 10-year vision like why is this something that you should invest your time to not only listen to the podcast today, which might be 30 minutes or an hour of your time. Why is that important? But why is it so compelling, so valuable to create a 10-year vision that you should actually after the podcast sit down, schedule another hour, and actually work through the steps I'm going to share with you today to create your 10-year vision? Why is that valuable? 

 

And then the third part for today is how to create your 10-year vision. I'm going to give you a handful of steps that will help you and some that might be common sense for you, and some that probably will not be, but ultimately, just a really simple step-by-step process to create your 10-year vision so that you can design your life. And you think about that most people don't design their life. They just live life, they react, they show up, they repeat the same processes every day and the same habits, and life pretty much stays the same. But then there are those of us, you, me who want to be intentional and design the life that we want, and then begin living in alignment with that design, with that vision that we create so that 10 years from now, five years from now, one year from now, we're living the life that we intentionally designed, and not just one where we look back and you look back like many people do. Sadly, you look back 10 years and you go, "What the hell did I do with the last 10 years?” 

 

I was thinking about when you're young, when you’re in high school or college and you've got these big goals and dreams and these ambitions and then you turn 30 and you look back, you're like, “Man, this isn't the life of my dreams that I had envisioned,” but you don't do anything different. You don't create a vision for the next 10 years and get clear on what am I going to start doing differently now to ensure that 10 years from now, I'm at a radically different place. I'm literally living the life of my dreams. Most people don't do that. So, then 10 years goes by, you wake up at 40 and you look back you go, “What the hell happened? The last 10 years flew by,” but again, most people go, "Dang, this isn't where I thought I would be or knew I could be or I'm not living to my full potential,” but then they don't actually create the 10-year vision for the next 10 years. And then all of a sudden, they wake up 10 years and so on and so forth and people go through life like that and then it goes to that Robin Sharma quote. Robin Sharma said, "One of the saddest things in life is to look back one day and to realize that you could have been, done, and had so much more.” 

 

And so, that's the objective of today's podcast that 10 years from now, and not just 10 years, but five years from now, one year from now that you look back and you're like, “Damn, I did it. I got really clear on the life I was committed to creating. I identified what I needed to do, and who I needed to become to create that life. I begin living in alignment with that vision that I created. I became very intentional, and I am now living the life that I designed, the life of my dreams.” You know, it's a cliche phrase, the life of your dreams, but I think it's only cliche because most people aren't living that and they roll their eyes at it. You say life of my dreams and people were like, "Come on. Life of my dreams? I'm just trying to get by. I'm just trying to survive. I'm trying to make it through the day.” But those that are living the life of their dreams, they don't scoff at that. They're like, "Yeah, that's the greatest decision I ever made was that I define the life my dreams, committed to it, and I created it. I'm now living it, and it feels pretty damn good.” 

 

So, before we create a vision for your future, let's go back to your past. A lot can change in 10 years. So, let's go back to your past. What was your life like 10 years ago? What were you like? Maybe logistics. Where did you live? What did you do for work? So, seriously, minus 10 years, go to your age, whatever age you are now, back it up 10 years. Go back to that age. I'm 41 now so 10 years ago I was 31 and then go what was your life? What were you doing 10 years ago? And that would be 2010. We're in 2020 right now. So, what were you doing in 2010? Where were you living? What were your relationships like? What was your health like? What did you do for work? And I think for some people, that might not actually be an exciting activity. That might be a painful activity. They might go back and 10 years ago, I was actually in better shape. I was healthier and thinner or more physically fit than I am now. I know, for me, I was, well, I guess I was in better shape. 

 

So, personally, if I look back 10 years, my life how it is now, where it was then compared to where it is now, 10 years ago. So, actually, by the way, this is the power of creating a 10-year vision. I'll share a personal example here. Ten years ago, my wife and I had just had our first child so we had our first child in 2009. So, my daughter, Sophie, was one in 2010. I was roughly $50,000 in credit card debt. I had lost my home a year or so before and I was living with my dad. Not the dream that you have your first kid and you can't afford to live on your own. You have to move back in with your parents. So, my wife and I, and our first child, our daughter was living with my dad in a room in his house. Not ideal. I mean, it was great. No complaints. I'm grateful that I had that opportunity, for sure, but again, that was not what I envisioned that at 31, I'd be back with my dad that I would have lost my house to the bank on foreclosure. You know what I mean? 

 

Now, one thing too, I was one year into writing a book, that I had major doubts, would resonate with people and that was The Miracle Morning. I had this limiting belief over and over almost every day, that said, “Who the heck am I to convince people that they should wake up early?” I don't know how am I going to convince people of that, like I have this practice, this Miracle Morning. It's changed my life and I really want to share it with the world, with other people, but I never felt like I was this really great writer. I'm like how am I going to write in a way that's effective to actually get people to not just go, "Wow. This is a great idea,” and maybe try it for a day or two but actually stick with it because that was it for me. I go, "It's not going to matter if I write a book that entertains people, inspires people, but they don't actually change their behavior. So, I was in the middle of writing that book, and I was a college speaker. I just launched my first speaking career. Finance is really tight. So, I was really in this kind of beginning stages of I was coaching people. I was like really trying to become an entrepreneur and very in the early stages having had my first business fail and lose all my money and all of that. 

 

So, that was 10 years ago and I look at 10 years now how far I've been able to come in those 10 years, it's been incredible. And so, what I want to read to you, I want to share this journal entry that I wrote in 2016. So, this wasn't 10 years ago. This was four years ago. But this is again what inspired today's podcast episode. So, this is the Miracle Morning movement 10-year vision and I wrote this in 2016. Again, I just randomly came across this in my journal the other day and it inspired a Facebook post that inspired this podcast. So, word-for-word here is what I wrote. “By 2026, the Miracle Morning movement has begun to elevate the consciousness of the human race one person and one morning at a time. Billions of people wake up every day and do the Miracle Morning and the SAVERS routine and as a result, they are fulfilling their potential, and together we are improving our world in ways we never initially imagined. The human race is operating from a place of love, growth, and contribution and as a result, people are happier, they're healthier, kinder to one another. 

 

They're more thoughtful, generous, more emotionally intelligent. Many of the world's greatest individual and societal epidemics are being eradicated including depression, obesity, divorce, war, bullying, specific initiatives that have been put in place. Number one, nearly every school in the world begins class each day with the Miracle Morning by guiding students through the SAVERS. As a result, students are happier, more present, more intentional, compassionate, and focused. And ADHD medication…” Oh, this is. I shouldn't say it. All right. I'm just going to read it word for word. This is what I wrote. “ADHD medication is illegal for anyone under 18 and has been replaced by diet and exercise, and bullying is virtually nonexistent.” Hey, I'm not making any prescriptions. This is my own personal journal entry. I want to be really clear on that. I know that anything with prescription drugs is a very touchy subject. So, anyway, that was my vision. 

 

“Number two, millions of couples start each day with the Miracle Morning for couples ensuring that they grow together, so they never grow apart. As a result, the divorce rate has plummeted, couples are thriving and love is the energy that is spreading through families. Number three, prescription medication is minimal because practices such as mindfulness and exercise have become the go-to cures for disorders like depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Number four, Miracle Morning coffee, tea, and transformation centers are in every major city, serving healthy organic affordable food, beverages, and providing services like yoga, meditation, and of course, the SAVERS. Number five, the Miracle Morning updated and expanded edition has been released to help people go deeper into their daily Miracle Morning SAVERS practice. And number six, the Miracle Morning is done in prisons and as a result, the repeat offense rate is minimal.” Now, here's what I'll say. If you're listening, you might go, “Yeah, that's a little pie in the sky or it's a little utopic or delusional,” right? Yeah. Some of those things may be true. And rereading that, I’ll tell you, it's inspiring me both to see what has actually come to fruition. 

 

Some of those things that have come to fruition, which I'll share that in a second, but also just to reimagine the possibilities. And just to think it's interesting, I think I've become more jaded than I was back then and maybe you can relate to that, right? Are you more jaded now than you were 10 years ago based on your life experience? Think about that. Are you more jaded now than you were 10 years ago based on your life experience? And maybe it's less. Maybe you actually used to be really jaded and really cynical and skeptical and now maybe the Miracle Morning has opened you up to more of a possibility mindset. For me, I think that through my cancer and just some of the challenges that I faced in the last 10 years, back then I was much more of a dreamer, and reading this really helps me to get back in touch with that younger version of myself that kind of believed anything was possible. And while I still believe that, I think that it was easier back then for me. So, yeah, I'm curious what that's like for you back 10 years ago. How are you different now than you were then? Now, here's what I'll share those. Since that was written in the past four years, here's some of what has happened.

 

The Miracle Morning for Teachers is one of the latest books, actually, the latest book in the Miracle Morning book series. It was co-authored by Honorée Corder, my co-founder of the Miracle Morning series, and it was published and now hundreds of teachers around the world have begun implementing the Miracle Morning and practicing the SAVERS with their students, and they report incredible results from the next generation. That's how when we wrote the book, we did like an experiment where we had Miracle Morning practitioners that are from our community, from the Miracle Morning community that we say, “Hey, any teachers in here that want to volunteer to try the Miracle Morning with their students for 30 days and report back and that'll become a lot of kind of what we put in the book.” I forgot how many we had. It was I think 80 teachers or something like that, that volunteered and the results we got back from the reports from teachers were like put you in tears, hearing that some of their most difficult students that a lot of them had really difficult home lives or just a tough time at school were reporting back like they said their students were coming to them in tears saying that this Miracle Morning is changing my life. 

 

My life at home is so difficult and doing my affirmations and my meditation, it really helps me to get in touch with what's most important. I mean, I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember all the details. It was so long ago but, yeah. So, anyway, the point is that vision of the Miracle Morning being practiced in schools is literally happening. In 2016, I don't know, we had written maybe a few books in the series, maybe two or three. So, it's like I don't even know how that was going to come to fruition. I just created the vision and what's amazing, one of my mentors taught me this when I was young when I was like 19, he said, "When you commit…” Oh, gosh, I'm butchering. When you commit to a goal, the how reveals itself. When you commit to a goal or a dream, the how reveals itself. In other words, when you create your 10-year vision and when we get into the steps on how to do that, we'll talk about kind of removing limitations but you don't need to know-how. Ten years is a long time. You don't even know how but when you commit to a vision, the how tends to reveal itself. And there’s part of that is the reticular activating system, the part of your brain that it starts to look for things that you place in front of it.

 

When you put an idea or an outcome in your mind's eye, your brain starts to look for ways to make that happen. Just simply by you thinking about it, by you making it part of your consciousness. So, that's the first thing that's come to fruition, which is kind of cool. The other thing, the other goal I had on there was that millions of couples start each day with the Miracle Morning and the Miracle Morning for Couples co-authored by Lance and Brandy Salazar and also Honorée Corder. That was published a year or two ago and many couples now have reported results such as, "Literally, it saved our marriage.” In fact, those results came from the original Miracle Morning book which is why we did the couples book because we had people reach out and say, “The Miracle Morning saved our marriage,” and many variations of that sentiment, and so we co-authored the couple's book and now that's available, of course, on Amazon and you can go read the reviews. You can go see people. Don't take my word for it. Both the teachers book, the couples book, or any other book in the series, don't take my word for it. Go read the reviews from people that will tell you how that has transformed their relationship. 

 

As a child of divorce, my parents got divorced when I was actually an adult child but I know how painful that is. I also, being married, I know how challenging marriage can be and so, yeah, that was really amazing that that's actually come to fruition. Now, the original Miracle Morning book, which when I self-published that in 2012, my vision was to change 1 million lives one morning at a time. That book now has been translated into 37 languages, which was not even on my radar and didn't even cross my mind to translate it into a language. Then we signed to the publisher who we've signed with 37 foreign publishers and they've done all the translation. So, it's now impacting people around the world and it's surpassed 2 million copies sold, which my wildest dream, my vision, when I wrote the book was to change 1 million lives one morning at a time, and I will tell you, this is important, I had zero idea how I could sell a million copies of that book. Many of you may not know this but the Miracle Morning is actually my second book. My first book, Taking Life Head On, I wrote and it's really the reading level for that is like high school or college. 

 

I need to either do a rewrite on that or I need to say this is for high school or college students. I started writing when I was 26 and I think mentally I was like 16. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is that book had sold, I don't know the exact number, but it was a few thousand copies in the six years that it was published. So, six years and it sold maybe 6,000 copies, if that maybe three, I honestly don't know but it's 3,000 copies in six years. So, the idea of me creating a vision to change 1 million lives one morning at a time, which is meant to sell a million copies of the Miracle Morning, that was a pipe dream. I'm sharing this with you because I'm trying to inspire you to consider to think big, and we're going to talk more about that in a few minutes. Again, once you commit, the how reveals itself. And so, I'm just planting that seed now that my goal was to sell a million copies of Miracle Morning and I thought that might take my entire life. It took six years. But again, I had no idea how I was going to do that but I stayed committed, and one strategy after another, one connection after another, one resource after another, one opportunity after another presented themselves year-after-year-after-year that enabled that to be possible.

 

As a result, we've seen the Miracle Morning has transformed people's lives in ways that I never imagined from probably one of the most common, honestly, is overcoming depression, like we hear that all the time, overcoming anxiety, any kind of mental disorders or mental challenges or emotional challenges. I think that's because the Miracle Morning when you do it, it enables you to put yourself in that peak mental and emotional state every morning and if you have a stressful day, instead of waking up from one stressful day to another to another to another, which most people do because they don't have that time in the morning, if they don't have a morning ritual, it doesn't have to be the morning Miracle Morning, but even if they just meditate in the morning, like if people aren't doing something like that, then one stressful day rolls into another and it starts to spiral where fear builds on fear and anxiety builds on anxiety and it gets worse and worse and worse over time. But when you have the Miracle Morning, I've always said it's kind of like a reset. Every night it’s a reset button and every morning you wake up and you might have had a stressful day the day before but you're not waking up diving into your stressful day. 

 

You're waking up and giving yourself that space to meditate and to read your affirmations that remind you what you're committed to, who you're committed to be, who you are at your core fundamental level. You're this limitless spiritual being with infinite possibility and when you get in touch with that every day, you metaphorically and literally take a deep breath and gain clarity on what life is really about. And it's about you manifesting the next best version of yours. It's about a lot but that's one thing it's about, right, is the limitless you showing up and living into your full potential every single day. Yeah. So, that impact the Miracle Morning has made was beyond or, yeah, I should say it's beyond the vision because I didn't even know the ways it can impact people's lives. Now, another thing that you may not know, and I have some friends that tell me they're like, “Hal, you don't talk about this. You need to talk about this,” and I don't know why I don't, but I'm talking about it now. You ready? Here we go. 

 

Over $500,000 from Miracle Morning book sales have been donated to charities, to support everything from building schools around the world. The Miracle Morning community, I donated $25,000, from the book sales to Pencils of Promise, and we built a school throughout the country. I think it was Kenya or I can't remember, but we built a school. So, the Miracle Morning, over $500,000 from book sales have gone to charities from building schools to providing clean water to supporting families who are facing life-threatening illnesses. We donate to Heroes for Children, which is a cancer organization. I've sponsored them. I take a percentage of Miracle Morning book sales and we’ve donated ever since day one so for eight years. Now, not only have I donated over a half-million dollars from the book but that doesn't count that we've raised, I know it's over 400,000, I think it might be over half a million dollars, at our live events. So, we haven't done that. We didn't do the Live Best Year Ever Blueprint event this year. We took this year off but we've done it for the last six years and every year we do a big auction to raise money for charity. Usually, it's the Front Row Foundation and sometimes other charities. 

 

So, not only has over a half-million dollars from Miracle Morning book sales gone to charity but roughly a half-million dollars from members of the Miracle Morning community donating money, participating in our live auctions at our events, that sort of thing. So, almost a million dollars as a result of the Miracle Morning and our community has gone to support causes. I will tell you this, most recently, we are partnering with a foundation for the movie. The movie is coming out. We'll talk about that in a second but I've been looking for the charity that I wanted to partner with for the movie and I wanted something that felt really aligned. It was like on my to-do list but it wasn't. I wasn't a priority and then magically, serendipitously, miraculously, if you will, this charity was like dropped into my lap by a gentleman who reached out and wanted to support the movie and he said, “Hey, would you be open to donating $1 or $2 from every ticket sold to a charity?” And I said, "Yeah, absolutely.” And he said, "The CEO of our company is really big on this charity called MiraclesForKids.org.” 

 

Of course, the name having miracles in it, I'm like, “Alright. Well, the name aligns. Let me see what the charity does,” and I went to their website and their charity is they support families who have a child that's critically ill and the family is suffering the devastating effects of that. This charity provides support for the housing and food and hospital care and your medical care, whatever they need and that really aligned with me. When I was in the hospital with cancer, I saw a lot of families. My dad and I and my mom, we talked to a lot of families who were really suffering and they didn't have the resources. It's like one of the parents had to take off work to take care of the child and now they only had half of their income. It was really difficult. And so, that, for me, is something that I'm totally aligned with. And so, Miracles for Kids is the charity, we're partnered with the movie. Then the next update I was going to share is since 2016 and that vision was created, the full-length Miracle Morning documentary was filmed over the course of six years from 2014 to 2020 and it'll be released via a live online world premiere on December 12, this year 2020, 12-12-2020. 

 

I think you probably know about that. If you've followed anything, it's all I'm talking about. By the way, I hope you're not tired of it because, until December 12, it's what I'm going to keep talking about like our goal is to impact over 100,000 people on that day and I think we're at like 2,000 tickets sold. So, we have 98,000 tickets to go but I can tell you from experience, The Miracle Equation, which is like the formula, it's one of my most recent books, but it's the formula that I've always used to create these tangible, measurable miracles, and it always comes at the 11th hour. So, if you maintain unwavering faith and you put forth extraordinary effort until the last possible moment, that's when I found you create miracles, results that you can hardly imagine. It's amazing how all these little miracles are coming out of the woodworks. I had a gentleman reach out, actually, the same one that introduced me to that charity, Miracles for Kids, and hit the company that he is an executive for. They have millions of customers that they want to either get tickets for. Yeah. What's crazy is 100,000 goal that feels so out there, it looks like it could even be exceeded. I don't know. I really don't know. But if you want to get a ticket to the live online world premiere, go to MiracleMorningMovie.com. That's all I'll say about that. I'm not doing a big pitch for that at all. 

 

Then the last thing I want to say on what's happened since 2016 is the Miracle Morning community and specifically the Facebook group, where you can just focus on that. It's grown to over 280,000 members from over 100 countries who wake up every day and support each other in becoming the best version of themselves. And so, that's just off the top of my head, some of the things I thought of that have happened since that vision was created. And so, I'm sorry. I know I spent more time on that than I intended to. We're going to get into now, how do you create, why to create your 10-year vision and how to create your 10-year vision. But I wanted to share that with you because those are miracles, right? Those are measurable outcomes that were born from a vision that I created four years ago that most of which I had no idea how those things would come to fruition. But again if you don't create the vision, well, there's nothing guiding you. There's nothing guiding you. Again, if you don't commit to the vision, then the how is not going to reveal itself because there's no how-to reveal anything, right? You don't have a vision. You don't have that figured out. 

 

So, I wanted to share this with you as a personal example that I can share of how this looks in like in real-time. Of course, that I've created various visions and goals for my health and my family and my income and all these other aspects, which I won't bore you with all that. So, I want to share with you the specific vision and how it came to be. So, let's dive into some tactics for you. So, why to create your 10-year vision and how to create your 10-year vision. I'm only going to spend a few minutes on the why because I've already talked about it but the why, again, is that you want to give yourself a target, and remember this, something to shoot for. Remember the philosophy that I taught in the miracle equation and this was not my philosophy. This came from my mentor, Dan Casetta. He learned this from his mentor, Jim Rohn, and the basis of the philosophy is that the purpose of a goal, and you could say the purpose of a vision, you can use those words kind of interchangeably, vision and goal, but the purpose of a goal or a vision or a dream is not to hit the goal. It's not the specific result. It is to become the person that you need to be that's capable of achieving the goal, the dream, the vision. 

 

Or as Jeff Woods and Gary Keller and Jay Papasan would say in The ONE Thing, the purpose of a goal is to inform your behavior in the moment. I might be butchering that, but that's essentially it. In other words, the reason you set a goal is so that it tells you, okay, in order to hit this goal, this is what I need to do now. Whether or not I hit that goal is less consequential than the behavior that I embody now. I’ll give you an example. Let's say your goal is to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, in the next two months. That might be too big. Lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. Holidays are coming up and that's a tough one, but just follow me for the sake of the example. Let's say your goal is to lose 10 pounds in the next two months. Now many people, I think we've been conditioned to think if I don't hit the goal, I'm a failure but if you follow Jim Rohn’s philosophy that it's really about who are you becoming, how are you showing up, or Jeff Woods and Gary Keller and Gary Keller, by the way, is the founder and CEO of Keller Williams Realty or founder I should say, and Jay Papasan, author of The ONE Thing. 

 

You follow their philosophy, which is the purpose of a goal is to inform your behavior in the moment. Well, that would mean that you have to ask yourself, what do I need to do now? What do I need to do daily in order to lose those 10 pounds in the next two months? I need to eat better, I need to cut sugar out of my diet, I need to cut down my carbs, stop drinking soda, I need to not eat late at night. I need to lower my caloric intake. Now, there are myths on that. I need to lower my stress levels because when you're stressed, your body holds weight. So, asking yourself, what do I need to do now and tomorrow and the next day and the next day, in order to be on track to lose those 10 pounds in the next two months? So, the purpose of that goal is to give you a target to shoot for that informs your behavior now. So, if you approach it that way, well, that means you start eating healthier, and maybe exercise is another piece. I need to start exercising, burning some calories, burning some fat, by the way, exercise, ideally, on an empty stomach so that you just bring some water in the morning, do your morning workout. 

 

When I used to try to really lose – I wasn't trying to lose weight but I was trying to really get toned and lean, that was one of my simple strategies that I think I learned it in the book, Body for Life, like in the year 2000. But it was eating on an empty stomach so that your body burns fat for fuel. If you have carbs in your system, your body will immediately go to the carbs. It’s the most readily source of energy available. Then it'll go to fat. If you don't have carbs in your system, it just goes to the fat right there burning fat. Anyway, don't take my advice. I'm no expert in that area but anyway, the point is it's informing your behavior. So, all of a sudden, you start eating healthier, you start exercising daily. If you do that every day for the next two months, does it really matter how many pounds actually fall off of your body? In fact, you might build some muscle and that's going to add weight. Now, maybe the goal of 10 pounds, you don't hit it, maybe you only lose seven but maybe that's because you put on four pounds of muscle. So, actually, you're one pound of fat and, I mean, like you're good. You've actually succeeded. The point is that it's the behavior. It's how you show up. It's what you do that matters. That's the purpose of the goal. 

 

So, the point of a 10-year vision is it's to transform your thinking and your emotions, and your behavior. It's transforming how you approach every day of your life so that you become the type of person that you need to be to make your vision a reality. And what often ends up happening is your vision might change. You might get six months into your vision and go, “Actually, I just had a new idea for a new business I want to start or I thought I wanted to go further in my career but I actually want to start my own business, be an entrepreneur. I thought I wanted to put on a lot of muscle but then I realized that being a bodybuilder, maybe that's not as healthy for me as being lean.” I'm just throwing out random examples. You understand the point. The point is your vision might change but you are becoming the person that you need to be with the mindset and the habits, and the various qualities and characteristics that will enable you to not only achieve that vision and possibly something bigger and better but it enables you, you're now becoming the person with the qualities and the characteristics and the habits that can do anything. 

 

You can accomplish anything that you want so the greatest benefit of creating a vision, a 10-year vision and the number is arbitrary. Create a five-year vision. Create a one-year vision if you want. Now, there are and actually, I'm glad I said that because let me get back to reminding myself and selling you on why the 10-year vision is important. There is the value of going that far out is that the closer we set our goal or vision from today, the closer it is from today, the more we tend to limit ourselves. For example, if you set a one-month vision, how big can you really dream in a month? I want to quadruple my income. I want to be earning this. I want to start a new business, a career. I want to lose 50 pounds at whatever. The shorter the time frame, the more you are inherently going to create limitations on the size and the meaning of that vision. But the further out the vision is, the more you go, “Alright. Ten years is so far away. I don't even know what life's going to be like at that point. I can really think big. I can really imagine what's possible.” 

 

Again, looking back earlier, I said, look back at where you were 10 years ago and I should have framed it this way and I didn't so I will now. Let me ask you some very positive success-seeking questions, some empowering questions, some confidence-inspiring questions. How are you better now than you were 10 years ago? In what ways have you improved? In what ways have you grown? What have you learned? You know, 10 years ago, I was 31. I thought I knew at all and then as time goes on, you realize, “I didn't know anything. Who the heck?” I was very uninformed or unrealistic back then or whatever. So, think about, in what ways have you improved? In what ways have you gotten better, wiser, more effective? In what ways have you grown or improved? If you practice Miracle Morning, I would imagine that you can just look back as far as when you started your Miracle Morning because I know for me and I know for millions of people and thousands of reviews I've read on Amazon, people experienced transformations in like, days, weeks, and months let alone the years after doing the Miracle Morning. You tend to start tapping into your full potential, so to speak. And so, how have you improved just since the Miracle Morning, let alone 10 years ago? So, think about that. 

 

And then imagine, wow, where who could you be? Who can you become? There's no limit to who you can become in terms of the version of yourself, the better, the best version of yourself. So, why to create a 10-year vision? It gives you a focal point. It gives you a target that informs how you need to start behaving now in order to create that vision. By identifying what those changes in your thoughts, your beliefs, and we're going to do that when we get to the how here in just a minute but by focusing on that, you start becoming the person that you need to be who is capable and qualified, and therefore deserving based on how you show up, deserving of creating and living the vision that you have for your life. So, that's the why and why to choose 10 years versus one is that you're giving yourself enough distance to remove the natural limitations that will come upon us if the vision is too close. Because it's hard to see how we're going to make radical changes in a month or sometimes even a year, right? Usually, when we set goals for the year, they're incremental goals, just a little bit better, a little bit better.

 

My goals, I forgot who taught me this, but when I was in my early 20s, when I was in sales, I think it might have been like at Brian Tracy audiobook, I honestly don't even remember but maybe it was a book called The Quantum Leap. I don't remember. Anyway, the point is the philosophy that I learned is don't just set incremental goals. Double. Double your best ever. In the first year that I fully implemented, that was 2005, I think, I set a goal to I've been in sales for five years. I set a goal to double my best year ever which is big because like the year that I had my best ever, out of 60,000 sales reps in the company, I was number six. So, to double that was terror like that was so intimidating but I decided to approach it with this philosophy that I'm sharing with you from Jim Rohn, which is the purpose of a goal, isn't to hit the goal. It's just to enable you to become the person that you need to be who's capable of achieving any goal that you set. And so, I committed. I'm going to give it everything I have to try to double my best year ever. Even if I fail, I fail as long as I give it everything I have and I am appropriate in the moment, meaning my behavior each day is in alignment with the behavior that I need to achieve that goal then it's a win. 

 

If the year ends and I don't double my best year ever, I increased by 50% or 30% or 12%, whatever, but if the way I show up is in alignment with how I determined I needed to show up, my behaviors, my habits, my rituals, my routines, if those are in alignment with who I've identified I need to be to achieve that goal, that vision, then it's a win. Because even if you don't achieve the goal, the growth lasts forever. Think about that. Only the growth lasts forever. If your goal is financial, you make some money, you spend it, but if you become the person that you needed to be to achieve that goal that you set, that growth is with you forever. It's a part of you. So, there's the why. There's the why that set your 10-year vision, and let's dive into the how and this is something that I'm going to encourage you to ideally take some notes on. Pause it if you don't have something to take notes on, but these are specifics to where listening to this isn't going to change your life, listening to this isn't going to create a 10-year vision for you. This is I would say probably a 30 to 60-minute exercise that you're going to want to take what I'm sharing with you. 

 

My wife and I went through a two-day goal-setting retreat. It started at 9 AM, finished every day at four. So, that’s what? So, it’s like seven hours for the lunch break. So, that's like 6 to 12 hours is how much time we spent on creating our vision and our goals for the future. So, I'm telling you at least 30 minutes, probably 60, to really get a lot of value out of this. But this one exercise, creating your 10-year vision and then bringing it down into five and one-year goals and what you need to do daily and weekly to change your behavior, to live in alignment with that vision, this can arguably be one of the most important effective life-changing things we do. I'll tell you this. It's not a one-time thing. I've done plenty of goal setting. Every year I go through a goal-setting process. I usually get a new book each year to learn anew, add to my knowledge in the area of goal setting, learn new strategies, new ways to approach it. So, I'm always trying to develop in that area. That's the Achieve Your Goals Podcast that you're listening to right now. Ever since I was 19 and I started in sales and I started setting goals, that became a big part of my life and how I was able to constantly kind of design my life and what I wanted to create from year-to-year and so on and so forth. 

 

So, with all of that, we'll break into the how right now. Number one, and this isn't tactical. I guess it's kind of more mindset but don't limit what's possible for you. Ten years is a long time. That's why I shared a lot of what I shared today, giving you some examples. Ten years is a long time. Remember, 10 years ago, where were you? For me, I was living at home with my dad because I lost my house and I lost all my money and I went in debt. That was 10 years ago. And now I'm blessed to say my wife and I are living in a home that we love and we're in a neighborhood that we love, and we're with our family like life it's what I always dreamt it would be but that wasn't by accident. That was because of vision after vision after vision and setting these goals and living into them. So, don't limit what's possible for you in the next 10 years. Again, that's part of the reason that the 10-year time frame is the place that you want to start. It really is kind of just dreaming like, alright, if there were no limits, what I want my life to be like in 10 years? In fact, write that down. That is the question that I would encourage you to start with. If there were no limits, what would I want my life to be like10 years from now? I'm writing that down, which is why I'm saying so slowly. If there were no limits, what would I want my life to be like 10 years from now? That's the question I want you to start with. 

 

Now, let's get tactical. So, you could answer that generally but I want you to get specific. So, I want you to choose which areas to create your vision by asking what you want to accomplish in each area or asking that question. If there were no limits, what would I want my life to be like 10 years from now, in regards to my health? So, area number one, let's say your health, health and fitness. It could be both. Now, you could say, “I want to be in the best shape of my life general,” but I would say, "Look at your age 10 years from now. How old are you going to be in 10 years? And what would be possible?” Look at like a Jack Lalanne. If you don't know Jack Lalanne, I think he passed away but when I was growing up Jack Lalanne had the juicer like the juicing infomercial but he was like in his 70s or 80s, I don't remember, when I was younger but he was like a 70s, 80s, a bit older and he would sit there, he would do like 20 pull-ups and like he was a fitness machine. So, he was in incredible shape. So, think about that. What do you want your health to be like? And get specific. 

 

Now, you don't have to get specific. You can just be, “I want to be healthy. I want to have energy. I want to be able to do 10 pull-ups and 20 push-ups and whatever. But what do you want your health to be like? If there were no limits, what would you want your life to be like 10 years from now in regards to your health and fitness? Area number two, your relationships. Now, relationships is a really broad topic. So, you might add to that, you might jot down or put in parentheses, marriage, if that's something if you're married or aspired married. Parenting, so your relationships with your spouse, with your kids, your friendships, your extended family. What do you want your life to be like? By the way, this should be a fun activity. What I'm inviting you to do, this should be fun to just take a deep breath, close your eyes, and envision the ideal life, the life of your dreams 10 years from now and it doesn't matter how old you are, by the way. I'm not looking at numbers but I know Colonel Sanders was like in his 50s or 60s, I think, when he decided to create Kentucky Fried Chicken and achieve his dream of being a millionaire and impacting people's lives. 

 

I don't know if it’s a positive way. I don’t know if Kentucky Fried Chicken is super healthy but he wanted to share his chicken recipe with the world to each their own and so he did that. He did that in a big way. So, I just wanted to, again, no limits. Doesn't matter your age. You're never too young. You're never too old. So, what do you want? If there were no limits, what would you want your life to be like 10 years from now? Number one, health and fitness. I'm going to go through all these. Number two relationships. Again, marriage, parenting, friendships, extended family, etcetera. Number three, finances. What do you want your financial situation to be like? Do you want to be financially free to where you don't have to work and your passive income exceeds your expenses? By the way, I think anybody could do that in probably a year. You don't even need 10 but let's start with 10. You definitely do it in 10. In fact, I just interviewed my good friend on the podcast, Justin Donald, yesterday I think, but the podcast won't come out until January because his first book is coming out. But you can go check out his website now and get a bunch of free stuff. It's JustinDonald.com 

 

The reason I'm sharing that is his book is called The Lifestyle Investor. And Justin is financially free and he started down that path when he was 27 years old and now I think he's like probably 37-ish, maybe 40 but he's financially free. He only works because he wants to. He doesn't have to work. Hey, retiring at 40, not a bad gig. Our other friend is retired at 35 and again, he still works because he wants to but he doesn't have to. Anyway, what do you want your financial situation to be in the next 10 years? Number four, lifestyle. This, to me, is the most important, by the way. In fact, this can be the only one if you want. Everything else to me is informed by lifestyle which to me is how do you want to spend your time? How do you want to spend your time daily? What do you want your life to be like? Do you want to wake up and have nothing on your agenda? That's where I want to be. I want to be able to wake up, nothing on my agenda. In fact, that was the plan for this year and then we have this movie so I had to put that on my agenda and work hard to honor the people that have blessed or put their heart and soul into this project for 10 years and the impact it’s going to make for people. 

 

So, I plan on taking this year as kind of a sabbatical and focusing on my health and my family and I decided I've got to get this movie out. So, now my goal is this next year to kind of take it easy a little bit but what do you want your lifestyle to be like in 10 years? Do you want to go to wake up and do whatever you want? Do you have a specific dream that you want to wake up and be a famous musician and travel the world inspiring people or entertaining people with your music? Or be an actor or an actress or start a circus or reading or whatever. Like, what do you want your lifestyle to be like? What do you want to be doing on a daily basis? For me, actually, my kind of dream lifestyle is I want to have nothing on my agenda so I don't have anything that I have to do. And if it is on my agenda, it's because I put it there because I really wanted to do this thing at this time or talk to this person this time. But I want to be able to wake up and I want to just be able to like my favorite thing is just growth, spirituality, and contribution, and family. I guess they kind of those the four, right? Growth, spirituality, contribution, and family like I want to wake up and I want to do like a two-hour Miracle Morning minimum. 

 

I want to meditate for 20 minutes. I want to read for an hour. I want to go exercise for maybe an hour. So, I guess, I want like a three-hour Miracle Morning. But now I wake up and I do like a one-hour Miracle Morning sometimes two, but then I'm getting the family ready for school and this and that. So, I would love to do that. I'd love to just kind of read all day. I have so many books. I haven't read half of them. I've got hundreds and hundreds. I don't know about you, but it's easier to buy books than read them. So, I'm a little behind on my reading. But anyway, and then I would love to just spend time contributing to charity and then spend time with my wife and kids like I only want to work while my kids are in school, which I tried to do that, but I’m not successful like I want to because I have these big projects come up. Anyway, so enough about me. How about you? Sorry. I tend to go down that rabbit hole. What do you want your lifestyle to be like? What do you want your life to look like in 10 years? And realize you can create that. You can create that. 

 

Remember that when you finally get to the point in your life that you've been working so hard for, for so long, you almost never wish it would have happened any sooner. Instead, you look back and you realize that the journey is almost always perfect. When you finally get there, there's a quote that I used to live by that my wife reminded me of the other day, I was really stressed out and she said, "Sweetheart, remember, on the day of victory, no fatigue is felt.” And I said, "Thank you so much. I need to remember that,” because when you're in the midst of it, when you're struggling through the challenges and the stress trying to achieve a goal or dream or just you're doing something that you feel like you have to do to pay the bills and you can't quit the job right now because you've got responsibilities, on the day of victory, no fatigue is felt one year from now, 10 years from now, whenever you get to that point. I should say I don't want to take us away from the beauty of the present moment, the perfection of the present moment but when you're in it, it can help to remind yourself that on the day of victory, no fatigue is felt. 

 

So, the fifth area is your career. What do you want your career to be like? Again, I mentioned that the question of lifestyle kind of informs all others because what I want to do every day? I don't want a career. There you go, boom. Done. Or I want to do this one thing. I want to be running my own business or I want to be leading a group of people or I want to be traveling the world as a magician like whatever. So, that's your career. Number six spirituality. What do spirituality look like for you? And that could just be dedicating time each day to a spiritual practice. That could be dedicating time each day to helping contribute to charity. That's actually the next area is contribution. What do you want your life to be like in the area of contribution? And the final area that I have here on the list is fun and adventure aka your bucket list. What do you want? What are the dreams like the big cool fun stuff that you want to be doing 10 years from now, or have done? 

 

Alright. Getting to the next step here. Number three, identify the personal qualities that you need to develop in order to accomplish your vision. I'll say that again. Number three here, identify. So, number one is don't limit what's possible for you. Number two is choose which areas to create your vision by asking. If there were no limits, what would I want my life to be like 10 years from now in each of these areas. I gave you the list of eight areas. Number three, identify the personal qualities that you need to develop in order to accomplish that vision. So, you can ask yourself some questions like this to figure out what are those qualities. Number one, which limiting beliefs do you need to overcome? Write that down which limiting because we all have them. I have limiting beliefs. I have a lot of them. Which limiting beliefs do you need to overcome? One of them, a big one for people is I'm not deserving. We have this inherent belief where we don't feel like we're deserving of the life of our dreams. Like who am I to accomplish all this? I'm just me. I'm little old me. So, we got let go of that inherent limiting belief of a lack of deservingness. 

 

I think one of the most important affirmations I ever created for my life was, “I am just as worthy, deserving, and capable of creating everything I want for my life as any other person on earth.” And then I would go as far as to say, "And I will prove it today with my actions.” I'll say that, again, one of the most important affirmations I ever created was I am just as worthy, deserving, and capable of creating everything I want for my life as any other person on earth and I will prove that today with my actions. So, number one, which limiting beliefs do you need to overcome? Literally, write them down, ask yourself, what are your limiting beliefs? Keep a running list, by the way, and don't wait 10 years. Remember, the purpose of the vision is to inform how you behave today. So, I'm going to start overcoming these limiting beliefs now. I just gave you the how do you do that. Well, you take your limiting belief, you then write an affirmation that counteracts that limiting belief, you read that affirmation every day, and you start programming your subconscious mind to rethink differently than that limiting belief. And now you start to over-commit, override your limiting programming with limitless programming. 

 

Number two, which empowering beliefs do you need to develop? So, number one, figure out what limiting beliefs you need to overcome but which beliefs you need to develop? And often that can be two sides of the same coin where you go, “Okay. Here's my limiting belief.” So, whatever the opposite of that, that's the belief that I need to develop. Number three, which habits do you need to change or adopt? Again, don't wait. Once you create the vision, it informs your behavior now. I'm going to start adopting these habits now. I'm going to start in order to create my 10-year vision for my health, I'm going to start eating this way, exercising this way. In order to create my 10-year vision for my finances, I'm going to start reading these books, I'm going to start saving money, I'm going to start learning how to make more money. I'm going to start pursuing that business that I always wanted to start or creating multiple sources of income. The purpose of this vision is to inform your behavior now. 

 

Number four, which rituals and routines do you need to put into place? Which rituals and routines do you need to put into place? And now, by the way, rituals and routines, that can fall into the guise of habits. So, whatever language works for you, but I'm trying to give you some thought joggers here. In other words, this is all asking, “Who do you need to become? Who do you need to become to create this 10-year vision? Who do you need to become in terms of your thoughts, your words, and your actions, your mindset, and your behaviors? Who do you need to become?” And if you're not clear on that, that's a crucial part of the vision. The vision isn't just what you want. The vision is what you want supported by who you need to become and then what you need to do? And so, step four here is to work backwards, break your 10-year vision down into five-year goals, one-year goals, and then into those daily or weekly rituals that will ensure you stay on track to achieve your vision. Remember, I'm going to say this over and over again like I have been: The purpose of the 10-year vision is to inform your behavior today, and your thinking, your thoughts, and your behavior today. 

 

When I say thinking, those are your beliefs. That's a big part of your thinking. What are you telling yourself every day? I can't do this, which is a limiting belief or I will do this, I can do this. For example, if your vision for your health requires that you change your eating habits or develop a consistent routine again, don't wait. Start now. Identify that mindset, those beliefs, those habits, and start now. Here's what's crazy. I shouldn’t say crazy. Here's what's encouraging, is your 10-year vision might come true in a year or two or five or whatever, right? And the beauty of it is it doesn't matter. It's not about that end result because if you get better every day, that's where fulfillment comes from. I don't know about you, but for me, if I'm not productive, if I don't learn or grow or evolve or accomplish something where I feel like I'm moving forward and this is for the most part. I can have a day where I just meditate all day, but actually, that's not true. Meaning, if I do meditate, I'm growing. I'm learning, I'm evolving. I am moving forward. So, I might not be achieving a measurable result where, actually, there's no numbers I'm seeing that I can track any data or anything I can measure. But I'm growing, I'm evolving, and learning through just a day of meditation, which I do that typically it's when I'm by myself, family's out of town or when I used to go give speeches, I would sit down in hotel room and meditate for hours but when family’s home, it's a little harder.

 

Then last but not least, step five is stay in relationship with your vision. Stay in relationship with your vision. In other words, revisit it daily or at least weekly and evaluate your progress. Evaluate, pivot. You might need to adjust the vision. It might change. It might evolve. As you grow and evolve, it's normal for your vision to evolve but you've got to stay in relationship. That's a concept that is taught in The ONE Thing is that the key to achieving your goals is you've got to stay in relationship with your goals. Just like in order to have a relationship with a person, you don't meet a person and then never talk to them again. You stay in a relationship, right? You revisit, you reconnect with that person, you've got to reconnect with your vision every day, and reconnect with the vision in each of the eight areas I gave you and reconnect with the qualities and the characteristics that you have identified that you need to develop to achieve the vision. You've got to revisit this thing like a one-page blueprint, one-page plan that incorporates everything that I just shared with you. 

 

You can use affirmations to support each of those eight areas, and affirmations that remind you, and articulate the beliefs that you need to overcome, the ones you need to develop, the habits you need to change, the rituals and routines. You've got to re-visit that and maintain a relationship with the vision through consistent revisiting and reconnecting so that you begin and continue to live in alignment with your vision. If you think about this, real simple, you want to create the life of your dreams? Create your vision, revisit it every day, and commit to living in alignment with the vision. Because the vision, it did the work for you or you did the work but you identified how you need to think and what you need to believe and what you need to do. So, just live in alignment with it and you can't fail. You can't fail to become the person that you need to be who's capable of creating everything you want for your life. And you may be surprised that it doesn't take 10 years. 

 

In fact, it starts as soon as you commit to create that vision, just making that commitment, putting that hour on your calendar, scheduling time to create the vision sets in motion, energies that you, and I don't mean to get you woo-woo here but energies that you can't really measure. There may be devices that measure but you can't even measure that create those tangible, measurable miracles, specifically those results that will show up in your life in ways you never imagined. When I created the 10-year vision for the Miracle Morning movement and other 10-year visions for my life, most of my visions have been exceeded. Almost every vision I've ever created has been exceeded and then I went, “Whoa, I never thought it can be this great. I never thought this would happen. Now, I've got to think even bigger, right? Because as you become more, as you develop and you grow, and you learn and you become the best version of yourself, your vision for what's possible continues to expand and continues to grow and evolve. And there's nothing that you can't create. 

 

So, that's it. I'm encouraging you to schedule that time to create your 10-year vision. Follow these steps. Let me know how this episode is serving you and let me know what your vision is. If you want to share it, go to HalElrod.com/Podcast, and underneath, that might be where you're listening to this episode but that's where all these episodes are. And you can find this episode and ultimately, leave me a comment. Sorry. I get distracted for a second. I was looking for the number of the episode. Alright. This will be it looks like 352. I was trying to do it without you noticing but I can't do two things at once. Go to HalElrod.com/352 and you can access this episode and you can leave a comment and let me know what your 10-year vision is. Let me know. Or if you have a question, let me know and I'll answer it. 

 

[CLOSING]

 

Hal Elrod: Alright. Goal achievers, members of the Miracle Learning Community, I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for your valuable time and hope this was valuable for you and I hope to see you at the Miracle Morning Movie world premiere. Head over to MiracleMorningMovie.com and we're going to watch it together live on 12-12-2020, the 8th year anniversary of the Miracle Morning book. Yeah, really, I'm excited. I'm inspired to see how this movie serves you and impacts you and empowers you to take yourself and your life to the next level, make it even better than it already is. So, I love you. I appreciate you and I will talk to you all next week. Take care.

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