460: 4 Unique Steps to Make 2023 Your Best Year

Hal Elrod: Hello and welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and let’s make this the best episode we’ve ever had because we’re talking about how to make 2023 the best year of your life. And we’re going to break that down into four steps, step one, two, three, and four and I’m going to walk you through how I’ve implemented those steps. I’m going to give you real examples from my own life and how I’ve done these things and what they look like for me going into 2023 so that you can model that and then you can follow the four steps and create your best year ever in 2023 and utilize the next two weeks between now and the end of the year to implement these four steps so that you go into January of 2023 with momentum and clarity and energy and motivation and all the things that you need to make this the best year of your life.

 

All right. Before we dive into today’s episode, I’m going to take just a couple of minutes to thank our sponsors and let you know about two companies that I am a big believer in from the top down, meaning they’re the leadership, the people that operate these companies. I know them. They have great intentions. They have a real commitment to high-quality products. And I personally use these products every day. Number one is Organifi. Number two is CURED Nutrition. So, first and foremost, Organifi. And I want to talk about today, Organifi, from a place of stress and hormones. You know, if the last couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that stress and anxiety can cause a lot of harm to us, both mentally and physically. You know, stress can take a perfectly healthy person, and almost overnight, they can suddenly be afflicted with poor sleep, weight loss, fatigue, and mental fogginess. And the question is, how do we prevent this? Or if it’s already happening, how do we reverse this?

 

Well, cortisol, the stress hormone, is supposed to spike when we’re in danger. But the modern world has our cortisol spiking all day long. Fear-mongering in the news, clickbait headlines, and endlessly comparing ourselves to others on social media has our stress hormones absolutely flooding our body. Now, the good news is some rare superfood adaptogens have been shown to help reduce cortisol quite quickly so calming those hormones and bringing us back into our balanced, peaceful state. KSM-66 ashwagandha, the main active ingredient in Organifi Green Juice, has been shown in multiple studies to reduce cortisol and stress. This delicious drink also features ten other superfood ingredients to work synergistically in the body to promote natural detoxing, more energy, and even healthy weight management through reducing cravings. It is amazing what the body is capable of with the right fuel. Plus, it’s 100% organic, certified non-GMO, and tastes absolutely delicious. With their new apple crisp flavor, it is easy to support your stress levels while enjoying a delicious morning green juice. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal and then use the code “HAL” at checkout for 20% off your order.

 

And last but not least, our newer sponsor, CURED Nutrition. I swear by three of their products that I take every single day. First, I take Rise in the morning for focus and clarity. It’s got a combination of functional mushrooms, cannabinoids and adaptogens, and nootropics, a trinity of cognitive-enhancing ingredients. After my smoothie, I take their Aura, which is for gut health and immunity. And then before bed, if you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you know I take their Night Caps, which is a combination of CBD and CBN oil so that I fall asleep and I feel rested when I wake up in the morning. If any of those sound interesting to you, head over to CUREDNutrition.com/Hal and then use that same discount code “HAL” at checkout for an additional 20% off your entire order as a listener of the podcast. Between Organifi and CURED Nutrition, I take their products every day to enhance my health in addition to healthy eating and not eating crappy food as well. So, these are my supplement regimen if you will.

 

All right. Without further ado, let’s talk about four steps to make 2023 your best year ever. Here we go.

 

[EPISODE]

 

Hal Elrod: Hello, goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning community, friends, family. Today, the day this episode goes live should be December 14. Right now, it’s a few days before that but December 14, 2022, that means you’ve got a couple of weeks to prepare for 2023. And if I ask anyone, “Do you want to make this the best year of your life?” I have yet to meet someone that says no, right? That doesn’t actually want to make it, “Yeah, I want this to be my best year ever,” which is why I ran a live event for six years called The Best Year Ever Blueprint because that was something that we all share in common is that when you end one year and you enter into a new year, it’s very normal to go, “Okay. I want to learn what I can learn from the year that I just finished, made some mistakes,” might not have hit all of your goals. Join the club. But I can’t change the past. I can change everything else. So, I want to focus on the new year and making it the best year of my life. And so, that’s been a theme. Last year, I actually did a four-podcast series on how to make the New Year your best year ever. Well, this year you’re getting one episode, so let’s make this a really, really good one.

 

I will say this. One of the premises that I’ve always had to make a new year your best year ever is to make December your best month ever. And you think about it, most people go into December and it’s like they kind of wind down and they coast. And then especially when you hit the holidays, which is very relevant for you with the holidays coming up here in the next couple of weeks, most people utilize the holidays not to really be at their best but to really relax and enjoy. And by the way, I don’t want to tell you, I would never say don’t relax and enjoy yourself. Like, that should be a very high priority. But I feel like it’s not an either-or where it’s like, “All right. I’m going to just do what most people do and I’m going to eat too much. I’m going to stop exercising. I’m going to stay up really late. I’m going to sleep in. I’m basically going to assemble an arsenal of bad habits going into the new year.” Think about that. Like, that’s the reality for most people. That week between Christmas and New Year’s, it’s like we assemble the worst habits.

 

And so, instead of hitting January 1st with momentum and clarity and motivation and energy, we hit January 1st having shown up the previous week or a couple of weeks definitely not at our best. And so, the premise of if you want to have your best year ever in 2023, you might want to consider focusing on making December of 2022. And of course, whenever you’re listening to this, this would apply every year but making December your best month ever in terms of how you show up, in terms of the habits that you establish and maintain during the month of December, the clarity that you foster during the month of December, the planning that you do, which is really clarity during the month of December. You want to really optimize December so that you go into the new year as the best version of yourself. And so, being that this episode, if you’re listening to this the day it comes out is December 14, 2022, we’ve got two weeks left. So, the last two weeks, we can’t speak for how we treated the last two weeks but let’s focus on the next two weeks and specifically that week, that monumental week between Christmas and New Year’s, and how are you going to treat the next two weeks and then how are you going to make 2023 your best year yet.

 

And I have a philosophy on how we can do that and a strategy. And so, that’s what I’m going to share with you today. And there are infinite ways to approach this and having taught Best Year Ever strategies at live events and on the podcast, for literally going on 20 years I’ve been teaching this stuff, it’s like I’ve taken many different approaches. And so, what I’m sharing with you today is kind of where I’ve landed is what I find is the most effective and most significant and most realistic approach to making it your best year ever. Here is where we’ll start on this. Consider that the best year of your life or the best any timeframe of your life, the best week, the best month, it is created and lived one day at a time. That might sound obvious but it’s something that’s worth really considering and being present to. Like, the way that you have your best year ever is you string together 365 of your best days ever, right? And maybe not. You know, nobody’s perfect. So, let’s say just more often than not you really make each day your best day ever. In other words, the key to making 2023 the best year of your life is simply figuring out how to experience every day as the best day of your life more often than not.

 

And to do that, my perspective on this, again, after doing this work for 20 years, it’s a matter of living in alignment with your values. That is, in fact, I did a podcast How to Make Any Day Your Best Day Ever. That was episode, oh shoot. I don’t know what episode that was. I can find it for you real quick. I was right there. August 1, 2022. If you go to MiracleMorning.com/Podcast and you search “Best Day” you will find the podcast episode from August 1, 2022, on how to make any day your best day ever. The premise of that episode was how do you make any day your best day ever. You live in alignment with your values and it was based on me ending the day before I recorded the podcast. I ended it and I was like, “Wow. I feel like today was the best day of my life.” But nothing remarkable happened in terms of like I didn’t make $1 million or like get married or have a child or anything. And so, I asked myself, why was this the best day of my life? Like, why do I feel that way? And then I realized, “Oh, I lived in alignment with my values. I value health and I ate healthy and I exercised today, ate healthy all day, exercise during the day.”

 

And so, I value personal development and I value waking up early and starting the day with a Miracle Morning, and I did all of that, that day. I value my marriage, my connection with my wife, and that day I connected with my wife in a really meaningful way. I value my relationship with my children. I mean, those are some of my highest values is my relationships with my family, my wife and my kids especially. And that day, I really connected with each of my children. My daughter Sophia and my son Halston, really connected with each of them. I value productivity and making an impact in the world and also an impact for my family, for us making money, that kind of thing in terms of productivity. And I looked at that day, I was really productive that day, really focused on things that actually mattered. And I made progress in some of the most important projects I was working on at the time. And I value spirituality. And that day, I meditated and I prayed and I connected with a higher power, God, whatever you call it. And I went to bed that day feeling so satisfied because I lived in alignment with values.

 

And I went, “Oh, that’s how you make any day of your life the best day of your life or how you make every day of your life the best day of your life. You simply live in alignment with your values.” Now, that’s easier said than done, right? But how do you live in alignment like how do you even know what your values are? So, we’re going to break that down in terms of steps today. But I’m just starting with the high level, right, that any day you live in alignment with what matters most to you is the best day of your life. I’ll say that again. Any day that you live in alignment with what matters most to you, aka, your values are what matter most to you. Any day you live in alignment with what matters most to you is the best day of your life, and you’re ultimately in control of that nearly every single day. Some days, I mean, you’re sick or you’ve got some logistical challenge, like not every day, but more often than not, you’re in control of whether or not you live in alignment with your values. And you may have more freedom to live in alignment with your values on days when you’re free to do what you want, such as the weekends, like meaning there may be those logistical challenges like, “Well, but Hal I’ve got to work 8 hours today and then I’ve got to do this and that and this and that. Like, I’ve got these commitments and priorities.”

 

So, sure, on those days the amount of time you can dedicate to living in alignment with your values might be limited but often it’s simply a shift in your perspective. For example, I’ll use an example, I took my daughter out last night or the night before. I value my relation with my daughter and she’s 13 now. And as she gets older, I find it like sometimes it’s a challenge to connect with her. She wants to just be by herself in a room or with her friends or the things that I used to do that like made her laugh, like now she like rolls her eyes, you know? So, as a dad, you feel like you’re losing power of like, “I used to have power to like make her laugh or I could just if all else failed, I could tickle her.” And now she’s like, “Dad, don’t tickle me. You’re weird.” I’m like, “Oh, sorry.” So, one of my highest values is my relationship with my daughter and being able to live in alignment with that value has become a little trickier, right, like more challenging. And so, the other day, she wanted to go to the mall and I have some internal conflict with just buying things that I don’t feel like we need, materialism. Like, it’s a conflict with some of my other values, if that makes sense.

 

So, I’m like, “What do you want to go to the mall for?” She’s like, “I need some new clothes. I need an outfit for tomorrow or whatever. I’ve got this big party at school or in my theater group.” And I’m like, “You don’t need an outfit for…” So, I started to push back and then thank goodness I like caught myself and I went, “Hal, what’s more important here, the relationship with your daughter or projecting/imposing your values that we shouldn’t buy things that we don’t need?” And depending on the time and the context, you might argue that either of those are important. But in that moment, I’m so grateful that I decided that connecting with my daughter because I basically reminded myself, “Wait. You’ve been feeling a little bit of disconnect.” So, here’s what she’s asking you, “Hey, will you please take me to the mall?” Rather than get on your high horse about why we don’t need to buy things that we don’t need and da, da, da, da, how about you put the priority on the relationship? And so, my daughter and I went to the mall. It started in the car with a dance party. We were dancing like, I mean, I was still focused on driving but we were having a blast dancing and laughing and like rapping to the songs and this and that. So, that was fun.

 

And then we went to the mall and she doesn’t see me often in like, I don’t know, just these one-on-one situations where it’s just me and her. And in public, I’m kind of goofy like I have no inhibitions and so I’ll just act wild and crazy. I kind of like go into this delusional bubble and like think no one else can really see me. Anyway, it’s an issue I have. It embarrasses my wife from time to time but my daughter thought it was hilarious. So, she’s like, “Dad, you should have your own like reality show because you’re not afraid to do anything in public. Like, you should go out and just be crazy.” So, she loved it, right? And we were just connecting. And then here was the affirmation at the end of the day. We’re supposed to go to one store, by the way. I’m like, “Sweetie, can we go to like one store, get your outfit and go?” She’s like, “I’ll try.” But of course, she had to go to like five stores to find what she wanted.

 

And the last store that we went to, it was just us and the gal behind the counter. And the gal behind the counter was in her twenties. She was in college, I think she said, and my daughter is like showing me stuff. I’m like, “You don’t need that.” I’m like, “You do not need that.” And the gal behind the counter, she goes, “You guys are so cute. You remind me of me and my dad.” I said, “Yeah?” She said, “Yeah.” She goes, “When I was a teenager, he used to take me like for every single month growing up, we had a monthly daddy-daughter mall trip.” And she said, “We went to the mall every single month,” and she said, “It’s some of my fondest memories with my dad.” And right there I was like, I said… Oh, and she did tell me, by the way, she goes, “Every time I went to a store, he would just pick a chair, sit in the chair, and then he would watch me and he would just yell across the store. ‘No, you don’t need that. You don’t need that.’” And she’s like, “So, it reminded me of that.”

 

And I said, “Sophie, hey, what do you think of that idea? Do you want to do a monthly daddy-daughter mall trip and like you can come get one item each month? We’ll find like the best thing and we’ll have fun?” And she was like, “I would love that.” And so, just hearing that college-aged woman say that some of the fondest memories she has was those monthly daddy-daughter mall trips and then me bringing it up to my daughter. Then the next day I picked up my daughter at school yesterday and she said, “I told my friends that we’re going to do a monthly daddy-daughter mall trip and they were like, they couldn’t believe it. They were like so jealous. They were like, ‘What? He’s just going to take you to the mall for like no reason just to hang out and have fun?’” And just seeing her smile and that light up on her face, it made me so happy.

 

Now, the reason I share that story is it reminded me of what we’re talking about today because that night I went to bed feeling so happy like literally just a state of joy. And I thought to myself, “This was the best day of my life.” And again, it might be important to reframe what that means. Like, the best day of your life, most of us would think, well, no, no, no, no, no. We have to pick the day that is somehow better than any other day. What day was more extraordinary than any other day?” Typically, if I asked you what the best of your life was, you’d go back in your memory and try to think of the most extraordinary day. But how disempowering is that, right? How disempowering that you don’t have control over the best day of your life? It’s just based on some once-in-a-lifetime random event. I truly believe that we can make every day the best day of our life. Because, again, if you live in alignment with your values, if you do what matters most to you on any given day, why would one day of living in alignment with your values be better than another day of living in alignment with your values? Or another day or another day?

 

I’m inviting you to consider this paradigm that any day that you live in alignment with your values is the best day of your life. And you can do that almost every day, right? More often than not, you can live. You can identify what you value. We’re going to go through this process here in a few minutes. But you can live in alignment with your values and at the end of the day when your head hits the pillow, the way I felt the other night after that because I value that relationship with my daughter so much, and arguably that was like a peak experience for us. And I went to bed feeling like I could not be happier. And that’s how I want you to go to bed every night, “I could not be happier.” Now, you might go, “But, Hal, that’s easy for you to say,” meaning you might say, “I’m dealing with some challenges right now. I’ve got some challenges in my relationships or in my marriage or in my finances or in my business or interpersonally or some health challenge,” whatever you might have challenges. And so do I. And so have I. And that doesn’t change this mindset. In fact, it makes this mindset more important.

 

When I had cancer, as long as I lived in alignment with my values, every day while I was in the hospital bed, even if I was in pain, I still chose my perspective as this is the best day of my life because I connected with my family today. I did everything in my power to be healthy. Now, at that time, it wasn’t about comparing if I would say, well, the day that I ran the ultra-marathon, that was the best day of my life physically because that was remarkable and extraordinary. When I was in the hospital and I was sick, I couldn’t run a marathon. I could barely walk. But if I got out of my hospital bed, even though I was in pain and even though it didn’t feel good and I went for a five-minute walk down the halls of the hospital, which I did, I would do that. And my dad would go, “Hal, do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to get outside? Do you want to get some sunshine?” You know, and maybe it was only a five-minute walk. Got some sunshine, got some fresh air, but it was difficult to do those 5 minutes. I lived in alignment with my value of physical exercise, of fitness, of health.

 

And so, it’s not about how that compared to the 52-mile marathon. It’s about me doing the best I could on any given day to live in alignment with my values, whatever that was for me. As minuscule as that might have been, it was an extraordinary effort to do something that mattered most to me to live in alignment with those values. So, even in the hospital, even with cancer, even financial challenges, you have the ability to, once you’ve identified your values, to live in alignment with those values. And if you do that, you can give yourself permission every night when your head hits the pillow to feel like, “Wow. This was the best day of my life. I connected with my spouse. I apologized for something. I forgave her,” whatever, however that looks for you. I know my values and every day I will start my day with my Miracle Morning where I affirm my values and I will live in alignment with those values. And how do you make the best year of your life, right, is that you live in alignment with your values more often than not. At the end of the year, you look back and you go, “Wow. More often than not, when my head hit the pillow, I was able to feel truly fulfilled not because I had everything I wanted but because I did everything in my power to live in alignment with my values.”

 

So, let’s break this down into steps. How does this apply to you? All right. So, step one, it probably is pretty straightforward. It’s to identify your values. Identify your values in the form of an affirmation, okay, so in writing, something that you can read every single day. And your values can start generalized like, “I value health. I value relationships or I value connection. I value financial security.” So, you start with the broad categories of what you value, and then from there you can drill it down into specifics and you can call those your goals. So, I value health. So, specifically this year, I value in order to live in alignment with that value. So, let me simplify that. So, I value _____. In order to live in alignment with that value, I will ____. So, I guess, I’m sorry. I’m confusing myself here. Step one. Step two. Step one, identify your values. Step two, set value-aligned goals. I was getting ahead of myself. All right. So, number one is identify your values. What are the things that you value? Health, fitness, and you can get specific beyond that. So, health might mean I value having a fit body, right? So, that’s step one is to identify your values.

 

Step two is to set value-aligned goals. And that’s where you’re going to continue your affirmation. So, I value _____ and in order to live in alignment with my values this year, I will _____. And that’s where you set your goals that are in alignment with your values. A lot of what I’m sharing today, none of it is like rocket science. This is some of what you’ve heard before but you’re hearing it through this different lens of value alignment, right? That’s the lens that we’re looking at, the goals that we’re setting this year, the actions that we’re creating, the schedule that we’re creating, all of that. So, step one is to identify your values in the form of an affirmation. Step two is to set value-aligned goals and to add those to your affirmation. Right? Add those to your affirmation, so the value followed by the goal. And so, that every day you are affirming your values, you are affirming your goals and keeping them top of mind.

 

Step three is create a value-aligned schedule. Create a value-aligned schedule. Now, in the past, I’ve shared this concept. I’ve simply called it a foundational schedule. And again, this isn’t some fancy concept. It’s simply creating a recurring schedule that ensures that, I should say that incorporates your values to ensure that you know exactly what you’re committed to doing to live in alignment with your values. So, for example, I value fitness and so I’ve got my workout every morning. If I look at my schedule, I literally, in fact, let me look at it real quick. All right. So, first and foremost, I value starting my day with a Miracle Morning, right? So, what’s in my schedule? Wake up at 4:30 a.m. and do my SAVERS. Right now, because I’m working on updating the Miracle Morning book, I’m creating an updated and expanded edition, from 5 to 6 a.m. I write. So, I’m working on the new version of the Miracle Morning book that’ll be out sometime in 2023. And then from 6 to 7, I focus on my mission for the day. What’s my number one priority? What’s the project that I’m committed to working on that is really urgent right now?

 

So, for example, I just gave the opening keynote speech at the Front Row Dads conference this last weekend. So, every morning leading up to the last week or two before, every morning from 6 to 7, that was the next project that was due on my schedule. So, from 6 to 7 when I’m fresh, when it’s still early in the morning and I’m not mentally fatigued after I’ve checked emails and have interviews and phone calls, first thing in the morning after I’ve done my writing time for an hour from 6 to 7, that’s when I focus on my mission for the day. What’s my number one priority right now? And I make sure that I make an hour’s worth of progress. Now, what am I doing? I’m ensuring that my priority of personal development is handled first thing in the morning, followed by my priority of productivity as it’s related to impact. So, the impact that I’m striving to make with the Miracle Morning, the mission, the movement, the book, that is focused on first, and then value of productivity and focusing on that next mission that’s urgent in my life in terms of the next thing that’s coming up, the next deadline that’s around the corner.

 

From 7 to 8 a.m., my value-aligned schedule has family time. It actually says family quality time. It’s when I wake up the kids and I help with all the morning chores. I help feed the animals. Actually, that’s not true. I don’t help. Sometimes I do but usually, the kids feed the animals. But I will help with the dishes in the morning. I help make lunches. So, it’s helping with those items and just connecting with the kids. I’m the one that wakes them up with like a nice little back massage and some affirmations and, “Good morning. You’re an amazing human. I love you, blah, blah, blah.” “Dad, leave me alone. Let me sleep.” So, that’s my morning. That’s a beautiful morning, but I connect with my family first thing in the morning from 7 to 8, and then from 8 to 8:30 is a workout. I work out from home. So, I value physical fitness. So, that’s incorporated into my daily schedule, my value-aligned schedule, or what I call my foundational schedule. Because it’s foundational, it recurs, it’s the same each and every day. There’s time blocks to ensure that I’m living in alignment with my values.

 

And then from 8:30 to 9, I return text messages. And that might be I have a community text messaging platform to text our community. And then I also just go back and text whoever has texted me in the last 24 hours and I’ll get like 30 text messages in a day where I need to reply. And so, I do that first thing in the morning to get those out of the way and make sure that I have communicated with everyone because I value communication. I value connection, right? And then 9 a.m. I usually look at my to-do list and I execute my to-do list. So, again, it goes back to productivity and making progress on my most important goals, my tasks, etcetera. And then from there, I’ll do interviews, which is in alignment with my value of spreading the Miracle Morning mission. I have a 90-minute lunch and I know that for some people you don’t have the luxury of 90 minutes. You know, I know most lunches are 60 minutes but I adjusted my schedule so I could have a 90-minute lunch because I value what I call total time freedom. And that’s 90 minutes in the middle of my workday, which can often be stressful, but that’s 90 minutes where I just get to zone out. That’s when I watch TV, in full transparency.

 

I don’t watch really any TV in the evening, occasionally with my family like movie night or whatever. But usually, the only time I watch TV is during my lunch break while I’m eating. And then if my family’s gone, I will do it again in the evening while I eat. There’s something about I like to watch TV while I eat and just zone out. And so, during those 90 minutes, I don’t watch TV the whole time. I only watch TV while I eat. That’s like 30 minutes. And then I have an hour to just relax and I just rest and relax. If it’s nice outside, I go sit in nature almost every single day for about 30 minutes, get some sunshine, get some vitamin D. But I really value freedom. I value time and freedom where you don’t have deadlines, where you don’t have anything to think about. Matthew Kelly in his book, The Rhythm of Life, he calls it carefree timelessness. He says it’s the greatest joy of life, carefree timelessness. And he says it’s the greatest joy in relationships to spend carefree timelessness with someone that you love, where you’re not stressed about anything. You’re not worrying about anything. There’s ideally not even anything that you have to do on an agenda. You’re just enjoying each other’s company.

 

Carefree timelessness, I value that at a very high level, so I have 90 minutes of it in my schedule in the middle of the day, which gives me a break from the productivity where I’ve got to get this done, I’ve got to focus. I can just relax every single day. And then I have meetings typically. So, 2 to 3, I usually have meetings or interviews. 3:00 I leave to pick up my kids from school. That’s more family time, more connection time. And then 4 to 5, I’ll usually go outside with my son. It depends. Some days I still work from 4 to 5, depending on how much is on my schedule. Other days, I try to spend time with the kids depending on the time. And then in the evening, I’ll take my daughter to her theater class, dinner with the family every night, and then I have an evening ritual where I read. And again, it’s more personal development, more spiritual time, more total time freedom, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And then on the weekends, I have time working on our ranch and family time, essentially, and church and all that good stuff.

 

So, that is an example. I just wanted to walk you through that so that you literally knew this is how I structure my value-aligned schedule. And I will say this too, my days are slightly different. Tuesday and Thursday, I have meetings and such. I try to not have meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, although because those days are open, sometimes meetings get thrown in there, but I try to allocate days for specific things.

 

So, Monday is my planning day, reviewing all of my goals, really making sure that I know which way the ship needs to be steered this week. So, that’s like Monday is my clarity day of getting really clear and focused and productive and getting a jumpstart on the most important tasks and projects for the week so I can create momentum, but I don’t schedule any meetings on Monday because I want that space to really be able to make sure I have a grasp over my schedule and my goals and all of those things. So, Monday is strictly that way.

 

Tuesday, Thursday’s meeting days. Wednesday, I also try to keep somewhat open and I have different meetings on those days for my Front Row Dads group meets on Wednesdays. I meet with my GoBundance mastermind on Wednesdays. So, Wednesday is just kind of a free day where I don’t meet with my team, but I do allow time for other meetings.

 

And then Friday is kind of, okay, similar to Monday, Friday is like the other side of it where I look back and I go, okay, how did this week go? It’s my reflection day, right? So, Monday’s momentum, Friday’s kind of reflection. How did this week go? Are there any loose ends I need to tie up? Is there anything that I didn’t get done that I need to get done? What’s next week look like? So, Friday allows me to get closure, if you will, on the week that I just had and tie up loose ends, finish projects, etc. So, that’s my value-aligned schedule.

 

And here’s what’s cool about that. It’s one of my favorite things to do is to, like I’ll often go in and I’ll revamp the schedule. But I love it. It motivates me because, again, your best year ever is created one day at a time, making each and every day your best day ever by living in alignment with your values. And so, to do that, it’s identifying what your values are. It’s setting specific, measurable outcomes, a.k.a. goals that are also in alignment with your values, value-aligned goals.

 

And then it’s step three, creating a value-aligned schedule to ensure that your days are already planned ahead of time and you’ve got all of your values incorporated. So, it makes it easy, as easy as possible, to live in alignment with your values because once you’ve got your value-aligned schedule created, step four, really simple. Stick to your schedule each day and reflect on which values you lived in alignment with. That’s it. That’s how you go to bed every night and your head into the pillow and you go, oh, today was the best day ever, man. I lived in alignment with my values. I exercised, I’m healthy. I worked on my business or I went to work. I gave my best effort, right? Whatever you do as a side note, give your best. Be the best at whatever you do, whatever you do, be the best. Be your best, not the best. You don’t need to be better than anybody else. Be your best every day at everything that you do. Be all in.

 

And then, at the end of the day, that head hit into the pillow and you go, I did it. I did it, again. I did it again. And how fun. Like you string the other day after day after day, where you’re living in alignment with your values and you’re like every day, at the end of the day, I did it. I did it again. I did it again. Right now, you’ve shifted your perspective to what makes your day the best day ever. It’s just living in alignment with your values.

 

And if you do that every day and if you do that more often than not, at the end of the year, you’re going to look back, go, this was my best year ever. Why? Because I lived in alignment with my values. And then guess what? Fast forward to the end of your life. Fast forward to the end of your life and you’re going to look back and go, I lived a great life. I was clear on what my values were, also known as I was clear as to what mattered most to me in this one life that we’ve been blessed to live. You get to the end and go, I was clear on what mattered most to me. It was family, it was freedom. It was, whatever it is for you. It was fulfillment, it was impact. And you can look back and go, I lived a great life because I lived in alignment with what mattered most to me. I lived in alignment with my values. You take it one day at a time.

 

So, here’s what I’m going to encourage you to do, and I’ll review those four steps real quick or I’ll come back to those. But schedule time for this. This is not a listen to the podcast. And when I do the intro, I’ll mention this again. So, you probably have already heard me say this by now, but schedule an hour, at least an hour for this, ideally an hour every day. In fact, I would schedule an hour every day or 30 minutes, whatever it allows. And maybe you can’t every day, maybe it’s an hour a couple of times a week or whatever time you can schedule.

 

I would schedule not just one day to do this or one hour to do this. I would schedule a recurring time to do this because your thinking will evolve after you get some clarity on your values and then you plant those in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind goes to work, and then all of a sudden, you’re going to have new aha’s around your values and around your value-aligned goals and around how you can create a value-aligned schedule. All of that. You’re going to get clarity as you continue, right?

 

I know for me, as I’m writing a book, for example, if I just write one day, I might have an idea, but my best ideas then come from the seeds that were planted during that time I invested, they come in the shower that day. They come at night while I’m falling asleep. They come in the middle of my workout. I got the idea for my opening for my keynote that I gave on Saturday, the day before, while I was working out. In the morning, I’m working out, and all of a sudden, boom, it hits me. And what had happened that morning before my workout, I had been working on my keynote. So, I want you to really think about that.

 

If you want to make 2023 the best year of your life, literally, I just gave you my formula to do that. It’s about living in line with your values. But in order to do that, you really, I’m encouraging you to invest time over the next two weeks going into the new year, invest 30 minutes a day, ideally 30 minutes a day or more if you can, but focusing on this, focusing on identifying your values, focusing on getting specific around which specific aspects and activities can you do to be in alignment with your values and utilize that to set your value-aligned goals, do that over the next two weeks so that when you go into the new year, you go in with more clarity around what it’s going to take for you to live your best year ever, more clarity than maybe you’ve ever had before.

 

And please heed my advice to not let that week between Christmas and New Year’s completely be thrown to the wayside. Don’t let that be where you go. I’m just going to allow myself to develop a symbol, an arsenal of bad habits of overeating, oversleeping, overconsumption of media, all of these things. Like, do enjoy yourself, enjoy your holidays, enjoy the time with your family, but don’t be all or nothing, one way or the other, right? Don’t be all or nothing on just throwing caution to the wind and just go in. I’m going to overdo it.

 

And then, of course, don’t be a workaholic during that week, right? Like, lean towards relaxing and enjoying yourself. In fact, if all you do is just maintain those habits, where if you identify over the next week, if you follow these steps – step one, identify your values in writing in the form of an affirmation that you can read every day throughout the entire year so that you keep your values top of mind. Step one, identify your values in the form of an affirmation.

 

Step two, set value-aligned goals. What are the measurable, specific activities, habits, and outcomes that you will commit to this year that are meaningful for you to live in alignment with your values? For example, if you value financial security, you may have a goal around increasing your income or growing your income or maintaining your income or investing or whatever. So, that would be a goal that is in alignment with the value of financial security or financial freedom. Step three, creating a value-aligned schedule.

 

And so, if you do this over the next week, then you can use the week between Christmas and New Year’s, you can utilize the week between Christmas and New Year’s to actually implement this, to implement step four, which is to stick to your schedule and end each day reflecting on which values you lived in alignment with. And by the way, during the week between Christmas and Thanksgiving, you may be a little more lax in that schedule. But again, it’s not an all-or-nothing. It’s not don’t go completely one way where you check out from responsibility and good habits. And then don’t go too far the other way. Find that nice balance.

 

And if you failed to do so, and this is true not just over the next two weeks, but all over next year, step four, which is to stick to your schedule and reflect on which values you lived in alignment. On any given day, if you get to the end of the day and you look back and you go, man, I totally failed to live in alignment with my values today, I didn’t stick to my schedule, whatever it is, be at peace with that and just commit to do better tomorrow. Don’t beat yourself up. In fact, if you actually take that moment to reflect and acknowledge, I wasn’t at my best today. I’m going to do better tomorrow. Let that give you a sense of peace and happiness to go to sleep with.

 

You look back, oh, man, I didn’t live in alignment with my values. But you know what? I can’t go back in time and change today. So, the only choice I have is either to be upset about it or to be at peace with it. I’m a little upset I didn’t follow through so I’m going to let that fuel my commitment to do better tomorrow, and now that I’ve done that, I’m going to be completely at peace and I’m going to go to bed feeling fulfilled because I have clarity around living in alignment with my values and doing better tomorrow.

 

So, obviously, on the days where you don’t live in alignment with your values, I wouldn’t expect you to feel as great about that day as the day where you follow through and you live in alignment with your values, but I also don’t want you to beat yourself up and create a negative emotional response that turns into a bad pattern where one bad day turns into two. That’s one of my mottos that you can adopt is never let one bad day turn into two. And that applies to everything. That applies to eating unhealthy food, that applies to missing your workout, that applies to fighting with your spouse. Never let one bad day turn into two. Evaluate your mistake and make a commitment to do better tomorrow. Do that every single day. And if you do that, you live in alignment with your values, more often than not, in 2023, you will truly have your best year ever.

 

All right, goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning community, I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening. I hope this would add value to your life. And please leave me a comment under this episode. I would love to hear how this landed for you. What was your biggest takeaway? And even just a commitment that, Hal, I just finished listening and I am committing 30 minutes a day between now and the end of the year to follow these four steps – identify my values, set value-aligned goals, create a value-aligned schedule, and then to stick to my schedule, and at the end of the day, reflect on which values I lived in alignment with. Those are my four steps to having your best year ever in 2023, and I can’t wait to talk to you next week.