417: How Can We Elevate Human Consciousness?

[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello and welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and I am so grateful that you are here today because we are going to talk about how do we elevate human consciousness? How do we do this as a community? How do we do it collectively? How do we do it individually? It's a very real question. It's a very important question because the consciousness of humanity right now is, I think, we could say safely that it's challenged, right? I did an interview today for Success Magazine on their podcast.

And the host of the show, Tristan Ahumada, I believe how you say his last name. He opened up the episode by saying, “Hal, we're going to start in a different spot than you might be used to, but it just came to me, what are we all struggling with right now? What are we struggling with as a society?” And I talked about different things, but one of the things I talked about was our level of consciousness that we're all in these themes of consciousness around judgment of other people, around fear of the future, fear of the unknown, even fear of other people, right? And really, this division that's been perpetuated through our media and our government and on and on. And I'm not trying to go down that road. Today, we're not going down that road at all, but we just got us on the topic of consciousness and what it means to elevate consciousness.

And the Miracle Morning mission to elevate the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time, it might sound like a catch phrase, but it's a literal statement, and we're going to talk about that today. What does that mean? What does that look like in real practical application for our community and for you as an individual and a member of not just the Miracle Morning community, but more importantly, a member of your community, whatever that looks like for you? So, we're going to dive into that today.

Before we do, of course, I want to take just a minute to thank our sponsor, Organifi. Organifi makes the highest quality, whole food-based nutritional supplements that are in powder form. You take a scoop and you put it in your smoothie or a juice or water. Give yourself a boost of adaptogens that help you adapt to stress, give you a boost of nutrition and a boost of energy and mental clarity. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal, that is spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal. And if you find something there that you love as much as I love their products, use the code HAL at checkout, H-A-L at checkout, and you'll get an additional 20% off your entire order.

And then for those of you that don't know the Miracle Morning app was released in January. We already have over 10,000 users, which is exciting. The feedback has been phenomenal. And also, the suggestions have been phenomenal, and we are working on incorporating those into the app, working on a journaling feature, an affirmation feature, a library of guided meditations and visualizations, all sorts of stuff that we are working on to be rolled out in the near future. However, I had a call with Josh Eidenberg, my good friend and the developer for the app, yesterday, and we talked about the future of the app, and I was so pleased to hear him say, “Hal, I'm working on perfecting what we have now, the 30-day challenge and the streaks and all of these things. I want to really make sure that the app, as it is now, is such a great experience, so we’re incorporating feedback before we start adding all the new features.” So, new features are coming soon, but we are making sure that the app, as it is now, is even better. So, that is that.

Is there anything else? Anything else? Any other announcements? I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so. Oh, there is one thing I forgot to mention. I remember, I realize this after I finished recording this episode in terms of what the Miracle Morning Community, the impact that you're making and that the community's made. And the one thing I forgot to mention is how much money has been raised and donated to charity. So, you may not be aware of this, but the Miracle Morning Community has contributed over $1 million to charities. And the way that's done is I've given 10% of every book sold of not only the Miracle Morning, but there are 18 books in the Miracle Morning series. Every book that's ever been sold, a minimum of 10% of those proceeds have gone to charities. And then a big portion of that money was raised back at our live events. We would do auctions and auction off items that were donated and we raised over half a million dollars doing that as well.

So, anyway, I forgot to mention that today, and I thought that was worth acknowledging that the Miracle Morning Community has supported those that are in need, those that are less fortunate, those that are struggling with all sorts of charities. We've done pencils of promise and Front Row Foundation and Miracles for Kids and many more that I'm forgetting the names of. So, anyway, thank you for remembering the Miracle Morning Community. And let's answer the question. Let's explore the question, how do we elevate human consciousness?

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Hey, goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning Community, friends and family, welcome to the podcast. Today, we're going to talk about the Miracle Morning mission. And you might know what that is, you might have no idea what that is. The mission, in short, is to elevate the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time. Now that is something that it might sound like a cute tagline, it might sound like a grandiose tagline. It's not either of those things. It is a quite literal statement. And I'll tell you this mission, it started much smaller than that. Essentially, the Miracle Morning mission when I wrote the book was change one million lives, one morning at a time because I couldn't really think, or not I couldn't, but I wasn't thinking bigger than that. For me, to reach a million people, that was grandiose, that was beyond what I had ever done before and beyond what I could even really fathom doing.

And so, I thought, well, there's a lifetime target that I can spend my life focused on. And once we reached, you may know the story that the goal was to do it in one year to reach a million people and sell a million books and that you resold 13,000 copies, the first year the book came out, it was 987,000 copies short. And I dusted myself off. And there's such a lesson in that, by the way, for any of your goals that you are working towards, your big goals, your big dreams, that they don't usually happen as fast as you want them to. So, if you're in the midst of something right now and you go, man, it's taken forever, I'm not where I want to be, realize that it usually takes longer than you initially anticipated.

And so, for me, I went for it year two, alright, year two. Year one, I didn't do it. Even though I gave it everything I had, I did interviews and I was on TV and I give speeches and I did podcasts. I did everything I could to reach that original mission of changing one million lives one morning at a time, and I was 98.7% short of the goal. Year two, I went for it again, and I think we sold 23,000 copies of the Miracle Morning. So, we impacted 23,000 lives, give or take. And again, still 97%, 98% short of that mission. And for me, it was a lifelong mission. It was as long as it takes to change one million lives, one morning at a time, I'm committed. I will continue doing everything in my power to reach that goal.

And it took six years. Six years later, we had sold over a million books and reached over a million people. And I think that we've impacted a heck of a lot more lives. And when I say we, I really mean all of us because I've had it pointed out to me and brought to my attention that when someone reads the Miracle Morning, and then they start practicing the Miracle Morning, the SAVERS every day, essentially, that person becomes a better version of themselves, they become more conscious and more intentional, right? They're elevating their own consciousness and they show up in a way that impacts the people that they love, the people that they lead, every life that they touch. The ripple effect of one person doing the Miracle Morning is it's really immeasurable if you scale it out to all of the millions of people that have been practicing the Miracle Morning around the world.

And once I reached a million people, then I went, well, the mission of changing one million lives one morning at a time. Does it apply? Like, well, we did that. Okay, what's next? And so, I took the number off of it and I just said, I asked, what is the Miracle Morning? What does it really do? And what is needed in the world? And for me, it was to elevate the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time. And I'm going to share something with you today that actually, I posted this in the Miracle Morning Community in our Facebook group, which is now over 330,000 members from 200-plus countries, it's incredible. And if you're a member of that community, I go in there every day and I am beyond inspired. In fact, I'm going to read you a few posts from members of our community that just showed up today.

But I want to frame the rest of this episode with what I wrote in there today. And actually, it's well, you'll get it. So, I wrote, MMRs, Miracle Morning practitioners called MMRs for short. I wrote the Miracle Morning mission is to elevate the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time. That is a literal statement, not a catchphrase. As I'm reading the book The Inner Work, I should say rereading for my third time, I came across the following excellent description of how our Miracle Mornings are doing exactly that, being elevating consciousness. And I wanted to share this with you and get your thoughts on it. So, this is an excerpt from the book The Inner Work, which I've recommended a lot, have had the authors, Matt and Ash, on the podcast. I highly recommend that book as a side note.

Here's what I read, though, that really resonated with me and our mission and how this is really the answer to me, this is the answer to how the Miracle Morning is elevating consciousness, how does that actually, what does that look like? Here we go. The next stage of human evolution is not a physical adaptation, but an evolution of consciousness, an internal shift that can only be brought about through the inner choice of peace, happiness, and love. As each individual makes the higher choice to transcend the limiting themes of consciousness, such as shame, fear, anger, pride, etc., humanity as a whole will gradually adapt to new levels of maturity, eventually leading to inner liberation for all. Therefore, every individual is important, needed, and a necessary part of the greater whole. Everyone must do their own inner work. That's the Miracle Morning is, doing our inner work. No one can do it for us.

Every thought and action of the individual contributes to the collective consciousness. There is no separation. You are a crucial part. You, you, you, you, you are a crucial part of the greater whole. Deciding to choose the love, happiness, and the peace of remembering who you truly are, and while the effect of your choices will have immense benefits for you personally, the world will benefit a thousandfold. For every time we heal a personal limitation and trauma within ourselves, we are healing it within the collective as well by holding the door open for others to join us by following our example. There could be no greater contribution to humanity than doing your own inner work. Now, the only thing I would change there is by then doing your own Miracle Morning, right? But which is that inner work.

So, Miracle Morning Community, this speaks so deeply to me, like this resonates. When I read that, I went, that's what we're doing. I couldn't have said it better myself. And I'll read that last line. There could be no greater contribution to humanity than doing your own inner work. So, yes, it benefits you personally, but it benefits the collective. And if you follow the podcast, you may be aware, I took a six-month sabbatical last year at the end of 2021, the second half of 2021, my family and I moved out into the country, and well, I took a sabbatical, and the real reason I took it, there were two reasons. There was a moving away from something and a moving towards something. The moving away from something is I was burned out, I had overworked myself for too many years, going through the cancer journey, I went through with chemotherapy. I had developed real severe cognitive challenges, chemo brain, they call it, and anxiety in a way I never had experienced before, where I was afraid to live life, I was afraid to interact with other people. It was wild.

And it's still like once you've experienced trauma, which if you're listening to this and you’re a human being, you probably have. But once you've experienced trauma, there's resonance of that trauma within you. So, it's always like, it's there, and you're going, wait a minute, is it going to show up again? Or is it going to overtake me? Or can I handle it? How do I feel today? Is it a good day? Is it a bad day, right? So, it's always in the back of my mind, but I'm able to transcend it. And I think that for you, for all of us, it's doing our inner work that enables us to transcend what the authors of The Inner Work call limiting themes of consciousness. When you're in fear or shame or anger or guilt, those are limiting themes of consciousness that limit you from both enjoying your life and also limit you from showing up at your best, believing in yourself, having confidence, having motivation, clarity, being able to really contribute at the level that, deep down, you're capable of contributing.

And so, for all of us, this inner work, this Miracle Morning is so crucial. And so, I took a sabbatical for six months, and again, it was moving away from the anxiety and the fear that I had, and it was moving toward being able to spend time with my family. I have a daughter, she's just turned 12. My son just turned nine. My wife, I won't tell you her age, but it was being able to be with my family and really, we moved on to this property and we wanted to become self-sufficient. And this is all new for me, I'm not very handy with my hands. I've never been much of an animal person, and like, it was a total complete 180. And I always joke that I feel like we're those 80s movies, in the 1980s when the city folk would move on to the farm. They were like always comedies. And I just go, that's our real life, all these blunders.

But anyway, so it's moving toward spending time with my family, really supporting my wife on setting up this new life on the land. And so, doing that, you get used to your daily patterns. I'm a real creature of habit. And so, I got into this rut almost of being on sabbatical, going, I don't think I can go back to work. I don't want to go back to work. How long can I extend this for? And so, going into this year, my plan was to extend the sabbatical for, I thought, even maybe like trying to take a year off because I felt like I didn't do the sabbatical right. I was still stressed over things and I wasn't really free in the way I wanted to be. I mean, I was a lot, it was like half and half. It is life. Life's never all one thing or all another.

But in December, when I was doing my Miracle Morning, when I was really reflecting on my life and I was journaling and I was meditating and I was thinking about the future and I was thinking about goals and I was looking at my purpose and I was reviewing old journal entries and affirmations. And December, I take kind of the entire month usually or at least the last week, at the very least the last week, Christmas to New Year's to really go deep in terms of introspection and planning and all of that. And as I was doing that, it just like, I don't know, God gave me the message, higher consciousness, my intuition, I just got the message that you're sabbatical is over, Hal, like you did that, you had that time. It is over. Like now is not the time, the world is in a challenged place. Humanity is in a challenged place that probably just saying it lightly.

And I need to do my part, I need to do everything in my power to help as many people as I possibly can. That's been my mission for a decade or more, took the sabbatical, and thought I could extend it and then realize, nope, you got your time off right now is a crucial time for all of us, I believe to emerge as leaders and to show up in the way that we can and make the impact in the world that we can make. We don't have to change the entire world, but absolutely, we can change our world, we can impact the lives of the people who we're able to reach, we're able to touch. And it begins at home with the family. Of course, it begins with our family and our families.

And the Miracle Morning, the original mission, change a million lives, the way that I look at my role moving forward, and I'm going to invite you to consider that this is really in some ways for all of us, but three million-plus people have read the Miracle Morning around the world, roughly, but it's somewhere around three million people that have read the book. The way that I look at it, that means that seven-plus billion people have not yet heard of the Miracle Morning. They don't yet have that practice in their life to benefit them in the way that it benefits you and I and so many people. By the way, so that's my mission is like, I've got a lifetime of work to reach those seven billion people. I don't know how long that is going to take. And I want to share with you some of the things that we're doing to reach folks.

But first, I want to read to you. I went into the Miracle Morning Community today, the Facebook group I mentioned earlier. And just like the first, I'm looking at the first few posts that showed up, and this reinvigorates me. This reinvigorates me of seeing folks that many of them are brand new, they just discovered the Miracle Morning. And I'll just read them to you. So, here you go. One hour ago, Ashley Tope, she said, “Today was my first day of the Miracle Morning. I already feel so proud of myself and can't wait to see the continued benefits from making this a habit. I've never posted here before but have found so much inspiration from what I read here. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday.”

So, like simple, but this person Ashley, she just discovered the Miracle Morning. Today was her first day. And not only is she feeling incredible, but what she said she's never posted, but she's found so much inspiration from what I read here, right? The Miracle Morning Community, if you're a member of the Facebook group, you'd probably agree it's one of the most inspiring, encouraging, supportive communities that you could ever hope for. To me, it's the finest, like, it's the example of how humanity can be, of how we can treat each other. Like, I don't know, Ashley’s political beliefs or affiliations or I don't know anything about her, right? All I know is she's a human being. And that, to me, the Miracle Morning Community, that is what is happening in terms of what I read earlier from The Inner Work is each of us are elevating our own consciousness, right? We're becoming more human, more compassionate, more forgiving, more loving, more accepting. And in doing that, we are leading by example and impacting everybody around us by the way that we think and the way that we live our lives.

So, Ashley is a great example of just reinvigorating me to go, yeah, I have a responsibility. And you don't have to take that responsibility on its mind in terms of as the creator of the Miracle Morning to share it with seven billion people. Are we up to eight billion now? Actually, I don’t even Google how many people are on the planet now, I think it's growing rapidly, but I want to read you this other one. And this actually is the one that caught my attention. This is from Lloyd Rosen in a Facebook group. He said, “Hey, everyone, I'm brand new to the group. I just started reading the Miracle Morning and thought I would share. I've been getting up at five a.m. for a month or so and have been going to the gym before work. I prep my meals for the day so I can eat healthy and lose a few pounds. I journal every morning and quit drinking 802 days ago for my little daughter that is now almost 21 months. This is all very important to me because I have a heart issue that wants to kill me, and I need to be as healthy physically, mentally, and spiritually so I can see my baby girl grow up. I want to encourage anyone that needs it. This truly does work if you want it to. There is something about taking your life back and making good choices that fills you up. I'm very happy I found a group of like-minded people to be a part of. Happy Tuesday, friends.” It's funny how they're all saying Happy Tuesday. But I don't know about you, but that's moving to me, right? Lloyd has a 21-month-old daughter that he loves dearly. And the Miracle Morning is a catalyst for him to be physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy so he can see his baby girl grow up. I don't know about you. That's priceless to me. That's priceless.

The next post is from Lisa Wyeth, and this is so beautiful and seeing the dynamic. Between Lloyd and Ashley, they just started the Miracle Morning. They're new to Ashley. It was her first day. Lloyd's been doing it for a month, and then Lisa posts, “Day 900 Miracle Morning, I woke up feeling great today. I said my prayers and thanked God for giving me another day. I am grateful for life, a roof over my head and fresh water to drink. I have completed my SAVERS. It's going to be a great day.” Day 900, right? She's going on three years of the Miracle Morning. And what does it do for her? Enables her to wake up feeling great, say her prayers, thank God for another day, express gratitude, and experience gratitude for life, a roof over her head, fresh water to drink. She's completed her SAVERS. It's going to be a great day. I mean, I probably am preaching to the choir here, but it's just for me to see these because if I'm not paying attention to this or I'm not looking at this, then I'm in my own head about my own issues and my own problems and whatever.

But when I read this, I'm reminded that we're all the same. That's been a message I've recorded podcasts on over the last year that we're– drop the hate, drop the judgment, drop the ideologies, like, no, we're human beings, we're all the same. And seeing each of these posts in the Miracle Morning Community, it just reinforces that, that hey, everybody, we're just waking up and dedicating time to our inner work to become the best version of ourselves so that we can create the life that we want and we can help other people do the same. And if I keep going down the next post in there, it’s hello, everyone, I'm from Algeria. I'm a new one here and I want to help. Like from Algeria, where we have Miracle Morning members from, to my knowledge, 217 countries around the world.

And so, let me tell you a little bit about what we're doing moving forward to expand the community, to nurture, to help, just to keep growing the movement and evolving the mission and so on and so forth. So, I mentioned that we're in 217 countries. One thing about the Miracle Morning that I think is so powerful and I had this distinction, I don't know, probably a year ago, but once I realized this, and someone might have said it to me, I don't remember, but I realized that the Miracle Morning is so universal. In terms of it transcends languages, the books translated into 37 languages, I think. And it transcends language, it transcends demographics in terms of, there are people in the Miracle Morning that are in high school. There are people in the Miracle Morning that are younger than that, ever since the Miracle Morning and parents and families came out. Kids are doing it. There are people doing the Miracle Morning that are in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. So, it transcends all ages. it transcends all religions, it transcends all races. It is universally applicable to everybody.

And because of that, and because it's already in 217 countries, practiced by people in 217 countries, it is poised to be the one thing. And I say this humbly, this is not me taking any credit at all for this. This is just me shining a light on this. The Miracle Morning is poised to be the thing, not the one thing, but to be something that can truly change the world, that can truly elevate consciousness. I mean, it's already doing it, but it has the legs where it's spreading internationally. I mean, we keep more and more and more. New countries, new languages, new publishers are translating the book and bringing it into their native language into their country.

One of the things that we're doing, and this is a dream, and I've mentioned this once or twice a year over the last probably few months. But the Miracle Morning in schools is one of the most profound opportunities because if we can inspire and empower young people, we're talking first grade, second grade, third grade, so on and so forth, to start their day with the SAVERS, then we can create the benefits that we've all gotten from the Miracle Morning, most of us later in life. I was, what was I? 28, 29, when I started doing my Miracle Morning, but if those benefits, imagine if you’d had it and had the SAVERS to help you stay grounded and motivated and conscious throughout your childhood and then your teenage years and then your 20s and then your 30s, the difference that that can make. And so, what's happening is Brianna Greenspan single-handedly, she leads the Miracle Morning Clubhouse room every day. If you use the app Clubhouse, I invite you to join that room. It's the Miracle Morning Clubhouse room. It's every day from seven a.m. to nine a.m. Central Time, seven a.m. to nine a.m. Central, eight to ten Eastern.

And if you're on the West Coast, five to six a.m. Pacific. And if you're around the world, which I know our listeners are, you have to do your own time zone conversion. I don't know top off my head all the different time zones, but she leads that room, and there were some principles in there that the Miracle Morning had transformed their life and they had brought it into their school and they were doing it in their daily announcement. They did a six-minute SAVERS every morning, and a principal shared this. Well, there happened to be a few other principals in the room that day, and they said, “Oh my gosh, this is brilliant.” They were taught about how it was impacting their students. In fact, one school, I don't know if this was one of the initial schools or one of the schools that adopted the Miracle Morning later. I don't have the number in front of me, so I'm going off of memory here.

It was something like before they started doing the Miracle Morning in their school, they had a major problem with detention. Students were acting out, misbehaving, and they had just a lot of detention that they were handing out. Again, I'm going off memory. If I remember correctly, since they started doing the Miracle Morning, they hadn't had a single detention, and it feels like it was 115 days or something. There might be like 40 days, I could be– just don't quote me on the days. The point is it was a very significant amount of time where the Miracle Morning in this school transformed. I mean, that's a significant and measurable transformation where they went from having a problem with detention to having zero detention for a meaningful period of time.

And so, the Miracle Morning Brianna has connected with actively. Proactively, now, she is connecting with all these principals, all these schools, and she's partnered with one of the biggest educational book buyers in the East Coast, and I can't even keep track. She moves so fast, she's doing so much. But she has singlehandedly been responsible for tens of thousands of book sales of not just the Miracle Morning, but the Miracle Morning for Parents and Families, her book that I coauthored with her, which is the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations coloring book. If you're not familiar with that, basically, we took all of my favorite affirmations and then we partnered with an artist, Paul Joy.

Anyway, the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations, so Paul drew the affirmations into like bubble letters and really cool art so that you could color them, hang them on the wall. The book has an adult section, a kids section. Anyway, so a lot of the schools are doing that. And so, we've seen pictures of schools where students are coloring these affirmations that say, like, I am my potential, not my past. I'm committed to making this my best year ever. I do the right thing, not the easy thing. It's all these mantras or affirmations or quotes that have been part of my life and implanted them in the book. And so, then now, these students, they've got them all over their walls at their schools. So, all these positive messages, just programming, if you will, the student's subconscious mind in a positive way.

And so, that is one element of the mission to get the Miracle Morning into every school in the world. We've got seven billion, eight billion people that have yet to discover the Miracle Morning, and a lot of those are young people. And so, starting at a very young age, giving these practices that can enrich these students’ lives and help give them confidence and peace of mind and just their inherent self-worth, I see so much. I posted about the other day something about self-worth and I had a lot of folks saying that they struggle with their self-worth, with feeling worthy of happiness, worthy of success. And if we can start that at a young age because I think the problem where we don't feel worthy, a lot of it begins in our childhood, and then it stays with us. The Miracle Morning can help enhance the inherent self-worth of all people, especially young people.

One of my favorite affirmations, personally, and if you don't have this one in your Miracle Morning, I'd encourage you to jot this down and incorporate it, but it's very simply, I am just as worthy, deserving and capable of creating everything I want for my life as any other person on Earth. I'll say it again, I am just as worthy, deserving and capable of creating everything I want for my life as any other person on Earth. And then later on, I added on to the end of that affirmation, I put, and I will prove that today with my actions. That was the gut check like. Alright, you say you're worthy. So, then I put where the rubber meets the road. I will prove it today with my actions, meaning I will do the things today in alignment with me creating the things I want for my life.

Now, another variation of that affirmation, I wrote about this, I posted about this on social the other day. The post started with friends checking in with yourself right now. Are you allowing yourself to be happy to really enjoy your life? Or are you perpetually stressed about something, your work, your money, your marriage, or some other challenging circumstance in your life? So, that's how I opened up that post, and then I talked about me personally, realizing that I block happiness sometimes because I'm always waiting for the shoe to drop. I think that's the phrase, right? And waiting for something to go wrong because in my life, that's happened where life was great, then I had a car accident. Life was great, then the financial collapse of 2008 happened, and I lost my money and lost my house. Then life was great again, and I got cancer.

So, for me, it's created this, like, I became jaded from that, and I didn't even realize it until the other day where I kind of realized this. And whenever I realized something, I shared on social media or email or wherever I can to try to help somebody with my realization because usually, we all struggle with similar things. But I realize that I kind of sabotaged my happiness because I was always waiting for the next challenge. I was always waiting for, like, just only something's bound to go wrong, that always when things are great, something goes wrong. And so, here's the solution to that, a very simple solution. And for me, it's every day taking a deep breath, and then here's the affirmation, which is kind of a variation of the one I just gave you. It's reminding myself that I deserve to be happy and enjoy my life as much as any other person on Earth.

And the same is true for you. You deserve to be happy and to enjoy your life as much as any other person on Earth. Some of you are nodding your head, like, yeah, of course I do. But many of you were like, you're right, but we often, that inherent self-worth, it's been stripped away from us or it's been dented or damaged or twisted in some way where for some of us, we've experienced trauma where we are so far from believing that we are worthy and deserving of just the goodness of life, the joy that's always available to us. And that book that I mentioned that I read from earlier, The Inner Work, that's the essence of that book. It's that we are all like true happiness, or what is it? They call true freedom and lasting happiness are always available to us. It's not that we have to attain them. We have to stop blocking ourselves from them. They're always available. They're within us. And we're blocking ourselves through various limiting themes of consciousness, such as fear or shame or anger.

If you are in a theme of consciousness of shame, well, that is blocking the inherent freedom and happiness that is available, always. We're blocking it. It's not that we need to do something or get something or make something or earn something or get a relationship or find someone that completes us or make more money. Those aren't the things that make you feel happy and give you true that inner freedom that I've talked so much about. Those are available to you right now, always. You may have heard me say before that you already have or we already have everything that we need to be the happiest we could ever be. It's called life. Think about that. That's it. If you are listening to this, if you can take a breath, you have everything that you need within you to be the happiest you could ever be. There is nothing outside of you that is going to make it so that you can be happy.

Now granted, absolutely, when you achieve goals, when you do things that bring you joy, like I'm not discounting, yes, how you live your life does impact your happiness, how easy it is to be happy, but your happiness is not dependent on those things. So, a very important distinction. Your happiness is not dependent on anything outside of you. Sure, when you do things that bring you joy, when you achieve things that are meaningful, yeah, like being happy is easy, it's automatic, you don't even think about it.

But as Viktor Frankl, who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, taught us, when he was in a Nazi concentration camp with horrific conditions, the last of man's freedom is to choose one's own attitude in any given set of circumstances. I know that I'm totally off on a tangent for the last few minutes in terms of this has nothing to– well, not nothing, but we're not talking about this Miracle Morning mission that I brought up, but we are talking about is The Inner Work, we are talking about doing the things to liberate yourself because think about this, by the way, let's just think about what this looks like sort of like your own circle, meaning like your family. If your theme of consciousness is anger or fear or shame, how are you showing up for your family? How are you showing up for your spouse? I know that for me, I was struggling. I shared this on social that I went through just about a period of depression last week, last week or two weeks ago, anyway.

Luckily, it didn't last that long, and I used all the tools, I used my Miracle Morning, I use the different tools I have to get out of it. But it was that I was in conflict with somebody. It was a major conflict, and I found myself being reactive and blaming that person for the way that I was feeling because of what they said to me and what they did. And then I snapped out of it and I realized, wait a minute, what part of me is so hurt by this? Well, it's my ego. It's the identity I’ve constructed where there's belief that say this is how I deserve to be treated and I deserve to be shown respect and I deserve to be treated with kindness, and how dare you treat me otherwise? And I'm deeply hurt that you would do that, right? It was my ego. Our higher self doesn't worry about those things. You call it spirit or God consciousness or enlightened self. It doesn't worry what other people say. That's their opinion. You say whatever you want. I don't have to let that affect me.

And while that's normally how I live, I don't know why it hit like I lost control of my consciousness, like I was in those limiting themes, I was angry, I was hurt, I was so upset. And then as soon as I realized, oh, wait, it's my ego, that's upset. I don't have to identify with my ego unless I want to, unless I choose to. The way that I look at ego is our ego serves a purpose for sure. And I don't want to go too far down this path because it's a big conversation around ego, but our ego, we can either use it for good or we can use it for evil kind of thing, meaning if your ego enjoys getting credit for doing things like helping people, for example, and in full disclosure, I do, if I help someone and then they really appreciate it or acknowledge it, or if someone is being very transparent here or somebody is like, Hal, you really help a lot of people. Yeah, my ego enjoys that. And to me, that's the healthy way to use your ego, to go, yeah, thank you, I receive that. Like, I receive that. Thank you very much.

And then the unhealthy way to use your ego is when your ego controls you, when your ego is hurt by someone else, something someone else does or says or a failure that you produce, right? The ego, you get to choose how you use your ego. Where the hell was I going with this? Well, let's circle back. So, the mission, the Miracle Morning mission, you're a part of it whether you like it or not, right? I mean, if you're doing your Miracle Morning, you are contributing to elevating consciousness, period, right? If you're doing your Miracle Morning, you cannot help but to contribute to this mission of elevating the consciousness of humanity.

And I guess in terms of closing today out, I want to thank you. I want to really thank you for caring enough about yourself to wake up every day and do the work, do the inner work that is not just benefiting you, but it is benefiting your family and your friends and your coworkers. It is benefiting every person that you touch, and then it may be benefiting the collective consciousness in a way. And actually, it is in ways that you can't see, that you can't even imagine. Life is long. We got many years ahead of us. Well, actually, none of us know how many years they have ahead of us, but my intuition says we got quite a few years ahead of us. And the question is what are we going to do, of course, between now and then? How are we going to spend our time? And for me, it's doing everything in my power to make my life as good as it can be selfishly while– I love the word while, it's so important because it's a yes, and word, it's not either/or, it's yes, and, meaning I'm committed to do everything in my power to make my life as great as it can be to serve my family and make my wife life as wonderful as it can be, and same thing with my kids while I do everything in my power to serve my fellow men and women, my brothers and sisters. I believe that we're all part of that human family, the human family. I love all of you.

And so, I just wanted to give you kind of an update on the Miracle Morning mission. I want to let you know that it is in full effect, that I am more committed than I've ever been before. For six months, I was on sabbatical, and my commitment was starting to waver, I'll be honest. But now I'm reengaged, and I'm so excited to share the Miracle Morning, the movie, the book, the app. However, I can share it, getting it in schools, serving the community, recording this podcast, doing everything that I can. And so, for you, I'm not trying to make– how do I say this? Yes, today's episode is about the Miracle Morning mission, but I want to end this about you. This is about you living your life to the fullest, it's about you fulfilling your potential. And if the Miracle Morning is a part of that, awesome. If it's not, that's fine. This is about you and about how you're living your life in a way that is fulfilling the potential that you have within you while, there's that word again, while you're helping other people do the same.

And remember, I want to read that last part of the inner work that I said a little bit ago. There could be no greater contribution to humanity than doing your own inner work. So, keep waking up every day doing your Miracle Mornings, dedicating time to becoming the person that you need to be, doing your inner work to create everything that you want for your life, including the impact that you're destined to make for other people. I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening today, and I'll see you in the Miracle Morning Community.