[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. I am your host, Hal Elrod, and this is the second special episode in our Miracle Year four-part four-week series where we’re working together to make 2025 the most meaningful, fulfilling, and successful year of your life. Last year, I led you through a process to thoughtfully and strategically reflect on 2024, celebrate your wins, learn from your challenges, identify areas of growth and improvement, and experience gratitude for all of it.

Now, if you haven’t listened to that episode yet, don’t worry. You can still follow along with today’s episode and gain clarity about where you’re headed in the new year. And of course, if you want to go back and listen to the last episode, which I highly recommend even with done after this one, that’s okay. It’s Episode 564, which you can listen to at MiracleMorning.com/Podcast or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Just go to the Achieve Your Goals podcast and look for Episode 564 on Reflecting on 2024.

Now, in today’s episode, we’re going to dive into setting the foundation for 2025 by clarifying your vision for the year ahead and aligning it with your values. We’re focusing on vision and values. And why is this important? Because when your goals are deeply connected to your vision and your values, they’re no longer just nice to have. They become ‘must.’ In fact, they become meaningful. And meaning is what keeps us going when the excitement of setting a new goal starts to fade and the excitement almost always fades unless you’re doing your Miracle Morning and keeping yourself excited. But today, I’m going to guide you through a simple process to define your values, create a vision for 2025, and start turning that vision into actionable steps so you can create progress immediately when this year starts.

Before we dive in, I want to take just a minute to thank our sponsors, Organifi, that brings you the highest quality organic whole food supplements. I take their Red Juice every day before my workouts. I take their plant-based vanilla protein powder after my workouts. I take their Shilajit Gummies in the afternoon for mitochondrial health and sustained energy. I take their Happy Drops, also gummies, with saffron extract which has been scientifically proven to improve your mood. It does that for me. I take their Balanced Probiotic, I take their Liver Reset, and I take their Essential Magnesium before bed. And if I’m under the weather, I take their Critical Immune. Those are just some of, well, that’s the list of products that I take on a regular basis from Organifi.

And if you want to improve any area of your health, head over to Organifi.com/Hal. That is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal and use the discount code ‘HAL’ for 20% off your order as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. And then also I want to tell you that the Miracle Morning app is new and updated. We just released a major update with new features. And with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars in the App Store and tens of thousands of daily users across both iPhone and Android platforms, you can join them and download the Miracle Morning app today and discover the simplest way to optimize your mornings and improve your life.

All right. Without further ado, let’s clarify your vision and your values for 2025. And by the end of this episode, you’ll not only feel more confident, more capable, and prepared, you will have clarity on what you want to achieve and why it matters so that you stay fueled and motivated throughout the entire year. Here we go.

[EPISODE]

Hal Elrod: Okay. With your journal in hand, hopefully, unless you’re driving, but if you can take down some notes, I’ll give you some thought joggers and ask you some questions and have you do some journaling. We’re going to start with why vision and values matter. And I’ll start by asking you a few questions. Number one, have you ever set a goal and then you lost motivation halfway through? You didn’t reach the goal. You gave up along the way. You just didn’t feel like doing the things that were necessary anymore. Or have you ever set out to establish a new habit but eventually, the initial excitement wore off and you didn’t stick with it? Or have you achieved a goal only to find that it didn’t actually make you as happy as you thought that it would? Now, all three of those are examples that I can relate to, I think all of us can relate to, and that is what happens when your goals aren’t tied to a bigger vision or rooted in your values.

Now, your vision, that’s your bigger picture. That’s what life could look like if you aligned your actions with your highest potential. It’s what we all aspire to. And if you have a compelling vision, it gives you a compelling reason to wake up and take action even when things get tough, even when you don’t feel like it. So, that’s the value of having a clear vision that you are working towards. Now, your values, on the other hand, those are your internal compass. They guide your decisions. They shape your priorities. They keep you grounded in what truly matters to you, not to other people, but to you. And when your goals reflect your values, they feel meaningful. And that meaning is what keeps you going long after the initial excitement wears off.

So, before we talk about creating your 2025 vision, let’s identify your values. All right. So, if you have a journal, grab it. And if not, listen along. That’s okay. But step one is to brainstorm values, brainstorm your values. So, take a moment to jot down some of the values that come to mind for you and I’ll give you some thought joggers right now.

A contribution is a value around making a positive impact in the lives of others. It’s about finding ways to serve, support, and uplift the people around you. That could mean mentoring someone. It could be volunteering or creating something that helps others improve their lives. When I wrote the Miracle Morning, it was the idea that this morning routine changed my life, and I feel like I have a responsibility to contribute to help other people by sharing this with them. So, the Miracle Morning Mission was rooted in that value, one of my values of contribution.

Another value is growth. Growth is about continuous improvement, learning, evolving, growing, becoming a better version of yourself each day. So, that can be one of your values. That’s one. And by the way, I am projecting here all of the values. I’m reading here all of my personal values. And these are just to give you thought joggers. And these are not in any particular order for me.

Number three is family, prioritizing the people who matter most to you, your loved ones. It could be your friends, not even blood relatives but your family, the people who matter most to you, and creating meaningful connections and spending time with those people and being intentional, supporting them, creating memories with them. That would be if family is a value, then you would start aligning your goals with that value.

Another value is financial security. You can also call it financial abundance or both. Right? Financial security is you can pay the bills and feel secure. Financial abundance is you have more than enough money, right? There’s an abundant supply of financial security, I guess.

Another one is integrity. Integrity means living in alignment with your principles, your values, right? So, integrity is kind of a value that encompasses all of the values. It’s about doing what’s right, even when it’s difficult, being honest, being reliable in everything that you do. So, integrity is a value for me in everything. Impeccable integrity, meaning always telling the truth, always following. I say always. Striving to. I’m never perfect, right? But it’s like I’m always striving to be impeccable with my word, with my commitment, following through, doing what I say I’m going to do. And I like the integrity definition of doing the right thing when nobody’s looking, right?

Health is another value. That one’s toward the top of my list because I learned with cancer like if I don’t have my health, none of the other values matter because I can’t hang out with family if I don’t have my health. I can’t earn money to provide for them if I don’t have my health, right? So, obviously, health is foundational to just about everything else in life. So, it’s taking care of… And it’s not just your physical health, right? You could branch out. Health could be your physical health, your mental and emotional health, your spiritual health. So, that value, living it might include exercising regularly, eating well, prioritizing mental health, like with practices such as meditation or mindfulness.

Freedom. Freedom is another value, about designing a life that reflects your values and allows you to focus on what matters most and having the ability to make choices to live in alignment with your values. Like, one of my values being family, I made a commitment after cancer that I would strive to only work while my kids are in school. And again, have not been perfect at it but that is a value that drives my behavior and that I set my goals in alignment with. And this last summer, I think it was the first summer that I was able to take a sabbatical. And I planned for it. I saved a percentage of each paycheck of all of my money going into the summer so that I could take those three months and not have to earn money and be able to spend the time with my family. And I’m planning on doing that again this summer. And so, again, it takes planning, it takes intention, but that’s an example of my value of freedom meeting my value of family, and the intersection between the two.

Legacy is another example of a value. It’s creating something meaningful that will outlive you. The Miracle Morning for me is that. I wrote that book that hopefully when I’m gone, it will continue to change lives and impact lives. And something to think about too is why is legacy important to you. For me, it’s not important because I need my name to live on. I’d be happy to, you know, I could take my name off the book, right? But like, for me, it goes back to that value of contribution. And so, to me, legacy is how do I create a sustained contribution even after I’m gone.

And then faith is another value, believing in something greater than yourself. It could be spiritual faith, faith in others, faith in yourself, faith in humanity. This value often provides strength during difficult times. I know it has for me. That’s my faith in God and faith in myself in which comes from my faith in God.

Gratitude is another value, the practice of focusing on things that are good in your life and appreciating the blessings that you already have. We talked about that on our last call about reflection and ended that call with reflecting on what you’re grateful for over the past year.

So, that’s, what is that? I don’t know. I think that’s my top ten values. And these are just some examples of foundational values. And each can look different for every person, right? As you think about your own values, ask yourself, “Which of these resonate with me and how can I live in alignment with my values every day?” Because when your life is guided by your values, you’re not just setting goals. You are creating a life that feels deeply meaningful and fulfilling because you are aligning your goals with your values, which is what matters most to you.

Now, I’m going to give you an optional step number two, which is narrowing down your values. I say optional because you don’t have to narrow them down. But many books that teach setting core values, my friend Darius wrote The Core Value Equation, and they talk about like narrow it down, quality over quantity. Like, you brainstormed ten values, well, can you narrow it down to your top five? But again, that’s optional for you whether you want to do that. I have my top ten, so I don’t have five. I mean, I’ve tried to narrow it down but I’m like, “Ah, I can’t eliminate like ten is I think that’s my minimum that I can get to.”

And then the third step here, and this is crucial, this is very important, this is everything we’ve done up until this point, the last six minutes or whatever it was of setting these values, establishing your values, is to connect your values to your goals. This is the third and very important step, connecting your values to your goals. So, once you’ve identified your foundational values, ask yourself, “How will these values influence what I want to achieve in 2025?” So, once you identify your values, I’ll say that again, ask yourself, how will these values, how will my values, not mine, yours, how will your values influence what you want to achieve in 2025?

So, for example, if one of your values is health, your goals might include exercising regularly, five days a week, or improving your nutrition in the specific ways that you’re going to do that. If one of your values is growth, your goals might involve learning new skills or tackling a challenge or implementing your Miracle Morning every day. If one of your values is freedom, you might set a financial goal around creating financial freedom for yourself. So, again, these are unique to you, but also you can model like the values that I shared with you, I didn’t invent any of those. I’m sure there’s other people in the world with the exact same values, right? Those are just examples that you can model in your own life. All right. So, that’s the first part of today is identifying your values and then aligning your values with your goals, connecting your values to your goals.

All right. Next, we’re going to talk about creating your vision for 2025. So, now that you’re clear on your values, let’s focus on your vision for the year ahead. Now, step one, imagine your ideal year. So, imagine it’s December 2025. If you want to close your eyes for this, you can. Take a deep breath and imagine it’s December 2025. It’s a year from now, and you’re looking back. You picture your face like eyes closed, smile on your face, maybe you’re sitting on your couch, and you’re looking back on the year that you just had in 2025 and you’re feeling proud and fulfilled and excited about everything you’ve accomplished, everything you’ve achieved, how you showed up, the way you showed up.

What do you want to be celebrating one year from now? What does that look like? What does that feel like? And if you have a journal, here’s a question to guide you. If 2025 were my best year ever, what would I have accomplished, experienced, or created? Again, if you’re journaling, write down, “If 2025 were my best year ever, what would I have accomplished, experienced, and/or created?” And I’m going to keep going. So, you don’t have time to answer that now, but I’m just setting you up for this whole four-part series for you to implement over the next few weeks and each week go through and answer the journaling prompts that I’m giving you. Last week it was reflecting on all of 2024. Now, we’re looking ahead to 2025. And again, this will culminate in a live Miracle Year event on January 8th and there are limited spots for that. And so, you can go to MiracleYearLive.com to get all the details and secure your spot.

All right. Step number two, after you imagine your ideal year and you look forward to 2025, December 2025, and you’re looking back, imagining that you’re celebrating your best year yet, now we’re going to break it down by life areas or what Michael Hyatt calls ‘life domains.’ So, to make your vision more tangible, break it down into the areas of life ideally that stem from the values that you set. So, health, like what’s your ideal physical and mental health look like? Your relationships, how do you want to strengthen your connections with your loved ones, your spouse, your kids, your mom, dad, brother, sister, relatives, friends?

So, now we’re looking at breaking this vision into the specific areas of your life. Your career, what does that look like if you have a career? Your finances, so what professional or financial milestones do you want to achieve? Your personal development, what habits or skills do you want to develop? So, break down the areas of your life that are most important to you and then set a goal for each area. And I want to share with you, I had a real breakthrough year in 2005. I know that’s 20 years ago, but that was like the year where I went from I felt like I had fallen short every year before. Every year would end and I would go, “Man, I might have reached a goal or two, but I fell short on a lot of my goals. I didn’t get where I wanted to go.” That’s how I ended most years.

And going into 2025, I began implementing much of this process that I’m sharing with you now. Of course, I’ve refined it and added to it over the last 20 years, but this is my process that, I mean, not my process that I invented. It’s me reading. I’ve read every book you can imagine on having your best year ever because I used to run an event called The Best Year Ever Blueprint for six years from 2014 to 2019. I started that a decade ago. So, once I committed to lead that event, I went on Amazon and ordered every book on how to have your best year ever, right? So, I’ve combined the best of the best of the best and trying to figure out what works for me in setting myself up each year to make it my best year ever.

This all started in 2005 initially where I went into the New Year and that was when I learned about the Wheel of Life and I identified eight areas of my life and I measured my current levels of success and satisfaction. It’s something we’re going to do on January 8th as a group, and we’ll do it real time. It’s a four-hour event so we’ll actually give you time to do this on the 8th. But when I did that, it made me realize, “Okay. Wow. I’m only like on a scale of 1 to 10, I’m like a four in this area and a five in this area and a six in this area, I’m an eight over here,” but I realize I’m not thriving in every area of my life that is important to me. The amount of time I was spending, calling my parents and connecting with them I was like a two.

I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, I’m so focused on work.” Like, I was thriving in work and fitness. Those were the two areas I was thriving in, and none of the other areas I was thriving in. So, that year, I set a goal to have my best year ever in work, and actually, it was to double my previous best, double my sales, double my income. I also wanted to achieve some big dreams. I wanted to write my first book that year. I want to get in the best shape of my life. I wanted to meet my wife. I wanted to launch a speaking career. So, I had all these huge goals that any one of them would have been like worth celebrating. But I got really intentional. And by creating a vision for not just one or two or three, but eight domains of my life, eight areas of my life, at the end of that year, I literally achieved 100% of my top, my number one goal. And I had more than one goal in some of the areas but my number one goal in each of those eight areas, I achieved every single one.

And so, I share that story with you because it’s just a real-life example that if you create a vision for what you want in each of the key life areas that are important to you, parenting, marriage, work, finances, health, fitness, fun, your social life, right, like each of these domains, you create a vision for each one of what you want to be celebrating a year from now and then you simply create a schedule… And again, I know we’re not talking about the scheduling piece right now, but that’s down the road here. But you create a schedule where you identify what are the habits that are in alignment with the goals I’m trying to achieve, the vision that I have for each area of my life. And then you put those into the schedule and then all you do is follow through with, I call it, your foundational schedule.

And again, we’re going to create this on the 8^th with you. But that enables you, it basically makes your success inevitable. The only way that you can’t succeed is if you don’t follow through. But if you don’t do these preliminary steps of identifying your values and then creating goals that are in alignment with your values and then a vision that’s in alignment with your values and your goals, right, then that foundational schedule, you’re not going to stick to it. Why would you stick to it if you’re not really clear on the compelling vision that you are working towards?

All right. Step three here in creating your vision for 2025 is to write your vision statement. And you could say this is an affirmation but it’s essentially where once you brainstormed your values and your vision in each area of your life, take all those ideas and write a simple vision statement for 2025. So, this is simplifying it, something you can read every day. So, for example, you could write, “In 2025, I will prioritize my health, deepen my relationships with family, and grow my income while maintaining balance and joy in my daily life.” That’s a simple vision statement. Now, you can elaborate on that. You can say, “I will prioritize my health by exercising five days a week and eating a vegan diet.”

I’m just throwing that out. I’m not advocating for a vegan diet. It was as an example, right? Or eating a paleo diet or eating the maker’s diet. There’s a lot of different diets or thoughts around health, right? But you can get specific. So, your vision statement can get more specific. Instead of just saying, “I will prioritize my health, deepen my relationships with family,” you could say, “I will prioritize my health by…” and list what you’re committed to doing that will prioritize your health. “Deepen your relationship with your family by _____.” What are you going to do? But the point is to have a vision statement that is no longer than a paragraph that summarizes what your vision is in the most important areas of your life.

And next, we’re going to talk about turning vision into action. A vision is only as powerful as the action that you take to bring it to life, right? Yes, a vision is crucial. It’s a preliminary step. It creates momentum. You’re more likely to achieve a vision if you have a vision than if you don’t even take the time to create a vision. However, without committing to the actions that will make your vision a reality, right, yeah, very little is likely to happen. And you’re likely to end up like I used to always end up like many of us do at the end of the year and go, “Man, I fell short. I did not achieve what I wanted to. My New Year’s resolutions did not come to fruition.”

So, now we’re going to talk about not rocket science here, but crucial, and it’s setting specific goals. So, take your vision and turn it into clear, actionable goals. Remember, your vision was what you wanted to be celebrating at the end of the year. It was fast forwarding to December 2025 and looking back on what it is that you accomplished. Well, now we’re going to set specific goals that will enable you to do the things that will make your vision a reality. So, you’re taking your vision, turning into clear, actionable goals. So, for example, if your vision is improving your health, a specific goal might be exercise 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Okay. So, now you’re going to set specific goals in each area of your life. Again, I know it’s not rocket science, but far too often we know we’re supposed to do this, but we don’t do it or we set the goals and then we don’t follow through. We don’t look at them again, right? Have you ever done it before? I used to do that where I’d set my goals for the year because I went to like some seminar or back in the day I’d go to a Cutco event. They would have us set our goals. But then I didn’t look at them every day. I didn’t have a Miracle Morning back then. So, I didn’t look at them every day, and then the only time I looked at them is at the end of the year when I went to set the goals for the next year. I would search like goals on my computer and I would go, “Oh, yeah, I totally forgot. I set my goals for this last year and I didn’t even look at them.” So, number one is to set specific goals.

Number two is focusing on the daily habits. Goals are achieved through consistent habits. So, ask yourself, what are the small habits that you can commit to daily or weekly to move closer to your vision? And again, if you have your journal with you right now or as you’re listening to this, write that down. “What small habits can I commit to daily or weekly to move closer to my vision to achieve my goals?”

And then number three, I’ve got four steps here to turning your vision into action. So, that’s specific goals, focus on daily habits, and number three, track your progress. This is crucial. One of the simplest ways to hold yourself accountable is to track your progress. And accountability is arguably one of the most overlooked and important keys to following through and making this your best year ever. If you don’t, if you’re not accountable, right, and you’ve probably done that before where you make a commitment to yourself but nobody knows you made the commitment, nobody else was involved, and it’s pretty easy for most of us to let ourselves down.

But if you make a commitment to somebody else, which is why a personal trainer is so valuable, right? You pay somebody to meet you at the gym at a specific time. You’re way more likely to go to the gym if you have someone that you are accountable to, whether you’re paying a personal trainer or it’s a friend of yours. But accountability is one of the most powerful levers to get us to do what we intended to do when we intended to do it or what we intend to do, in present tense, when we intend to do it, even if we don’t feel like it. It’s like, “I don’t feel like it,” and if nobody knew and there was no accountability, it’d be like, “Yeah, not going to do it.” However, if, “I don’t feel like it, but Sarah is going to meet me. She’ll be there. She’s shown up at the gym at 7 a.m. I can’t let her down. I need to be there.” That’s the power of accountability.

Well, tracking your progress is one of the simplest ways to provide self-accountability. So, like the Miracle Morning app, for example. The basic version of the app on day one was a SAVERS tracker where… And the same thing with the Miracle Morning Journal. Back in the day when I created the Miracle Morning Journal, an actual physical journal that you can get on Amazon, when I created that, the first every single week you open it up and top left is your SAVERS tracker where there is S-A-V-E-R-S vertically and then horizontally, there’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday with a little checkbox, right? So, you’re simply checking the box to hold yourself accountable to follow through. And there is leverage when you look at the box and you missed a day.

I mentioned that last week when I talked about journaling as a process of reflection. I used to have a dated journal. When I started the Miracle Morning, it was called the Winner’s Journal. And every day it was Monday through Sunday and there was seven lines for each day and they were dated. So, if I missed a day or two or three of journaling because it was tracked with a daily, it was a daily journaling format, I’d open the journal, I go, “Oh, shoot, I didn’t journal on Tuesday and Wednesday,” and that simple tracking gave me accountability. And then I didn’t like seeing those blank spaces. It got me back into the game and it kept me accountable.

So, track your progress. Keep either a journal or a planner, celebrate your wins, stay motivated, right? Like, use that. And of course, if you can partner with other people to be accountable, if you get an accountability partner, that’s probably 2X if not 5X or 10X more effective than just tracking your progress. But tracking your progress, that’s the simplest like you got to track your progress. It also feels good because, again, you get to celebrate the wins like, “Hey, look, I did it.” And I’ll tell you, you can also use an app for that, by the way. I use an app called Way of Life. And I’ve got about, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. I have 11 daily habits that I am committed to and I use the Way of Life app to track my progress.

Okay. So, I’m not telling you to do something that I don’t do. I do this every single day. In fact, I’m on a streak with reading every night for about 129 days in a row. And then I’m not perfect. There’s like loving my wife the way she deserves to be loved. I’m on a seven-day streak. There was one day where I didn’t show up. No, there was two days in a row where I didn’t show up like I feel like I should have. But before that, it was a 58-day streak. So, 58 days where I felt like I was showing up for my wife and treating her like a queen and loving her, selflessly serving her. That’s one of my commitments every day that I’m literally tracking my progress on. So, whether it’s reading or exercising or loving your wife the way she deserves to be loved. I’ve got another one, eating dinner together and praying as a family. That’s another one of my daily habits that I’m committed to. Last week, we nailed it every day. This week, we’re two out of three days. So, that’s the power of tracking your progress.

And then number four is stay flexible. Life happens, right? Plans change. Stay flexible and open to adjusting your goals as needed while staying aligned with your values and committed to your vision. I’m going to say that again. Stay flexible. Be open to adjusting your goals as needed but while you are staying aligned with your values and committed to your vision. Without that, you’re not going to make this the best year of your life. You’ve got to be in alignment with your values, doing what matters most to you, creating meaningful progress toward your vision.

And at the end of the year, you might achieve all of your goals. You might fall short of your goals. You might achieve some and miss others. But if you live the way that we’re talking about today, where you’ve identified your values, what matters most to you, you’ve aligned your vision with those values. You’ve set specific goals that are in alignment with your vision, which is in alignment with your values and then you’re working each day towards the vision. In my opinion, you can’t fail. You know, Jim Rohn always said, “The purpose of a goal is not to reach the goal. It’s to give you a target to work towards.” It’s about the journey. It’s about the progress that you make.

And so, as we wrap up today, I want to encourage you to spend a little time reflecting on your values if you haven’t already. I mean, I didn’t give you a lot of space today because it’s a podcast but spend time today reflecting on your values and writing your vision statement for 2025. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to feel meaningful to you. It has to be authentic. You can change this. This is always a rough draft. But let me leave you with this thought, clarity creates momentum. When you are clear on what you want and why it matters, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can start making progress.

Next week in episode three of this four-part series, we will take this even further by talking about how to evaluate your current morning routine whether that’s a Miracle Morning or whatever you call it and we’re going to evaluate your current morning routine. Everyone has one, even if you don’t think you have a morning routine, right? Whatever you do in the morning, that’s your morning routine even if it’s not productive. So, we’re going to evaluate your morning routine and then refine and optimize it so it aligns with your vision and sets you up for success every single day. Until then, keep dreaming big. Alright. Keep thinking about this preparing for 2025. Make December the best month of your life by implementing the mindset, cultivating the mindset, implementing the habits that you’ll need in 2025. Don’t wait until 2025. Start now. Start in December.

And this four-part series, this is setting you up for success. And again, next, all of this culminates into a special event that we are putting on January 8th. You can get all the details and secure your spot at MiracleYearLive.com. And again, this is a four-hour interactive experiential event where we are going to give you time to do all of the exercises. There will be a ten-page, minimum ten pages, it might grow, but at least a ten-page workbook that will be your blueprint for 2025. The event that I ran for six years was called Best Year Ever Blueprint. And so, this is a constantly improving document that is designed to give you everything you need to make it your best year ever. Again, so MiracleYearLive.com is where you can get the details and secure your spot. And next week, again, we’re going to go even further into this process of creating your Miracle Year for 2025. I love you so much. And I will see you next week.

[END]