380: Upgrade Your Identity to Upgrade Your Reality

Hal Elrod: Hey, goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning community, welcome to today's podcast. Today, we are going to ask the question, is it time to upgrade your identity? Is it time to upgrade your identity? What does that mean? Well, we'll talk about that today, but it's based on the idea that how we show up every day and live our lives is based on who we believe that we are, how we see ourselves. If you see yourself as someone who is dedicated, committed, disciplined, then that tends to be reflected in your behavior and how you show up. If you see yourself as someone who procrastinates, then you probably are going to procrastinate, right? It's very much, identity is a driving force in our behavior, also in our mindset and our attitude. If you see yourself as someone who is a happy person and you often focus on the positive and you talk about things that make you happy and make others happy, if that's your identity, then that manifests in your reality.

In fact, that's the first note you can take, is that identity manifests into reality. And if your identity is someone that you complain all the time, I talked to a friend the other day, one of my best friends, Jeremy, he was talking about how, I think it was his girlfriend’s aunt. She said, “Yeah, I just hold grudges. I just tend to hold grudges.” And so, he said, “Oh, well, you know, you don't have to hold grudges, right?” And she's like, “No, but that's just me. I just hold grudges.” So, think about that, her identity is, I hold grudges. So, guess what she does? That identity manifests in her reality. So, today, we're going to really explore how do you upgrade your identity? How do you upgrade your identity so that you can upgrade your reality? And because the latter follows the former, right? If you want to upgrade your reality, starting with upgrading your identity can be key. So, that's what we're going to explore today.

Before we do, I want to thank and acknowledge the sponsors of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. There are two, as you probably know, if you are a long-time listener. The first is Organifi, and Organifi is my favorite nutritional supplement company. They make supplements from whole food ingredients, not synthetic vitamins. And I enjoy them every day from their protein powder to their green juice and their red juice and their probiotic, you name it. They've got dozens of products that you can check out at Organifi.com/Hal. Organifi is spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal, and be sure to use the code HAL, H-A-L at checkout to get 15% off your entire order. And I do hope you find something there that you absolutely love and adds value to your life, to your health, etc.

And last but not least, Self-Publishing School is a company that's owned by Chandler Bolt, a good friend of mine. I've known Chandler for many years, and Self-Publishing School has helped our community, hundreds of members of the Miracle Morning community, to write and publish their first book. And so, if you've ever thought about writing and publishing a book to help you leave a legacy to impact the world, to grow your business, to create an extra stream of revenue, there are many reasons to do it. Head over to Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal, again, that is Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal to turn your dream of writing a book into reality. You'll get a free training, completely free training that Chandler and I did a few weeks back called How to Go From Blank Page to Published Author In as Little as 90 Days. So, if writing a book is on your bucket list, take it off your bucket list and make it a reality. And speaking of making things a reality, we're about to talk about how to upgrade your identity so that you can upgrade your reality. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast, this is Hal Elrod, your host. How are you today? I hope you're well and I'm really grateful that you're here. Thank you for tuning in and listening. We're going to talk about identity today, and identity, in regards to your psychological identity. How do you view yourself? And there's a few questions that we're going to explore today, hopefully answer these questions. The first is, is your identity holding you back? I think I've mentioned this recently, that one of my favorite musicians ever, I just discovered about a month ago through my friend Brianna Greenspan, and his name is Rob Riccardo. I highly recommend checking him out on where we listen to music, iTunes or Spotify.

His album, he's got about five of them, I think, that I've got here, but The Fire in Me is just incredible. It's one of the greatest albums I've ever heard. And it really takes you on a self-help spiritual journey through the songs. Incredible. So, again, called The Fire in Me. Well, he has one song on that album called Identity, and the chorus says something along the lines of are we victims of our identity? Meaning who we see ourselves to be, does that limit us? And that's the first question that I want to explore today is, is your identity holding you back? Is it holding you back from what you want in your life? Is it holding you back from happiness, from success, from physical health? Is your current identity, which is really based on a past, is your current identity is the identity you've lived into and/or created and lived into for your life, your entire life up to this point? So, is your identity holding you back? And the short answer is yes. So, we'll talk more about that.

The second question that I want to explore today is how do you get out of your own way? And interestingly enough, and I swear this wasn't planned, but I'm looking at the playlist of Rob Riccardo on that album, The Fire in Me. And he also has a song called My Own Way. And it is about, I keep getting in my own way. That's the premise of that song. So, how do you get out of your own way if you identify that, okay, my identity is actually holding me back. I'm the one that's in my own way, right?

Then the third question is, can you change? Or maybe a better word is upgrade. Can you change or upgrade your identity and use it to create anything you want? And again, the short answer to that is yes. A friend of mine, Todd Herman, you may remember, I had him on the podcast. It's probably been a year or so ago. It was Episode 257. So, if you want to go back and listen to this episode, it's at HalElrod.com/257. Todd Hermann is the author of the bestselling book The Alter Ego Effect. And the title of that episode was Discover the Power of Your Alter Ego. And that book brings together many case studies of very successful people that have used an alter ego or an alter identity, a different identity to perform at their best.

And an example of that was Kobe Bryant, one of the best basketball players of all time. Kobe's alter identity on the court was Black Mamba. So, when Kobe went home, he would say, I'm different at home. Like, I'm just a sweet, off the court, I'm a nice guy, I'm a dad, I'm just chill. On the court, I immediately embody this alter ego of Black Mamba. And he said, Black Mamba is fierce, he is competitive. He will do whatever it takes to win. And so, he was able to separate those identities.

Another athlete, Deion Sanders, who you may or may not remember, I don't know when Deion was in his prime, probably in the 90s, I'm thinking, but Dion was actually mostly known for a football player, I believe, it was crossover, he did baseball and football, but his alter ego was Prime Time. And I've seen an interview where he talked about that, that off the field, he was a pretty mellow guy. And on the field, he had this alter ego that he created called Prime Time. And Prime Time, he was very clear on who that version of him was. And so, as soon as he stepped onto the field, he was able to flip a switch and jump into that version of himself and perform at an extraordinary level. And then, when game was over, he went back to being good old Deion Sanders.

This came up for me recently. I was at the Front Row Dads retreat a couple of weeks ago, I had Jon Vroman on the podcast talking about that. And at the retreat, quite a few guys shared that they struggled transitioning from work to home. And maybe you can relate to this, but they shared that they struggled transitioning from work to home. Front Row Dads is a group of men, primarily businessmen who really focus on being family men with businesses as opposed to businessmen with families, which very often, as an entrepreneur before I had cancer, I was for sure like a business and an entrepreneur with the family on the side kind of thing. And Front Row Dads helped me to really switch that and go, no, my number one priority in this life is as a husband and especially as a father for these two children that are counting on me to be their dad. And then the business is something I do on the side. And that in and of itself was a real identity shift from going from being like someone says, what are you, an author, a speaker? I'm an author, a speaker, a podcaster. Oh, yeah, and by the way, I live with my wife and kids in Austin, Texas. Right now, I'm thinking of you looking at a bio, the average person's bio. Their bio is all these accolades. They've done this and this and this and this and this professionally. And, oh, by the way, they have a family.

And Front Row Dads has helped and is helping me to flip that. In fact, I'm doing a new HalElrod.com website, like I don't know if you've been there. Don't go there, HalElrod.com, as it is now, is like the most outdated website ever. It's hurting a bit, but I've been working on it. It's funny. Anyway, it's another story. I don’t want to go there, but the point is I'm working on that. And when I updated my bio, family man is now first, husband, father, like that's first. And I think it's been that way for a bit in my speaking bio, but anyway, I'm going a little bit off track. Let me bring it back in.

At the retreat, a lot of dads shared, they struggled with transitioning from work to home. They said they would come from work and they would go home and they'd be at the dinner table, but they would be thinking about work and thinking about replaying the conversations that happened that day or thinking about the things that didn't get done or the things they needed to get done tomorrow, or they'd be strategizing and this and that, and they wouldn't be fully present with their family. And I think we can all relate to that at some level. And I shared a breakthrough that I recently had was to create a new identity as a father. And the identity, I gave it a name, much like Kobe Bryant had the Black Mamba and Deion Sanders had Prime Time. My identity was Superdad or is Superdad. And that's just the name I came up with, of course, you can call it whatever you want, but what I did is I simply asked myself, okay, what would the next level of being a dad be for me? What would that look like? What would the ultimate be? What would mastery in that role of being a father look like?

And I thought being Superdad, I would be always engaged with my kids. I would play with them. I would be curious. I would be so present with them. I would never be on my phone or distracted. Superdad would go over and above to create meaningful, memorable experiences with my family, with my children. And so, I shared this with the group and it really landed. And that's why I'm sharing it with you. And it's part of what inspired today's episode, but another thing that inspired it, I'll get to in a second, but with Superdad, I have it in my affirmations. I read it every morning. This definition of who Superdad is, and it evolves as I learn something new as a father, I add that or edit it. And what it allowed me to do is I go, look, when work's over, I don't need to, because they were talking about needing like 30 minutes to decompress between work and family life. And I go, I don't need 30 minutes. I said, I need like 30 seconds. And because literally, I've got this really clear defined identity as Superdad and so, all I need is to close my eyes. I usually put my hand on my heart, take a deep breath, and just repeat, I am Superdad, I go over and above for my children, I am fully present, I am engaged. I am curious. I care about what matters most to them. And I meet them where they are.

So, there's these different components of what I've defined Superdad to be. And so, all I need is those 30 seconds to immediately shift identity from work Hal to Superdad, from entrepreneur to Superdad. And it kind of reminds me of, I think about Todd Herman’s book, The Alter Ego Effect, and he really used superheroes as his metaphor to identify an alter ego. And I think about Clark Kent, who steps into the phone booth and then, 10 seconds later, steps out as Superman and then, just as quickly, he can flip back into his other identity. And you look at how different Clark Kent’s identity is, introverted and kind of calm and not even really confident, but Superman's identity is, I mean, he's Superman. And so, how quickly you can make that shift.

And what actually directly inspired the podcast episode today, in addition to what I've shared, but what happened last night, I was running a training for a company, Melaleuca. You might be familiar with Melaleuca. I was running a training for 548 folks on this live training yesterday. And I don't even remember how it came up, it wasn't planned, but this conversation came up and this concept of choosing your identity, of creating your identity of you as a peak performer in whatever area of your life you're wanting to perform at a higher level. And so, the idea of, I just gave the simple assignment. I said, look, I said, define what your identity would be in an ideal world. And this, again, was specific to their performance, their effort, their Melaleuca business, so it was very specific to that. I go, in order to be a peak performer in Melaleuca, what does that look like? What qualities would you embody and what actions would you take?

And actually, there's a third, I would actually say the first thing is the mindset, what is the mindset? What mindset would you have? What qualities would you embody? And I guess, those kind of overlap, right? Your mindset would be confidence, but you could say that a quality you're embodying is confidence. Discipline is another one. Discipline, it's part of your mindset, it's a quality that you're embodying. And so, the first part, and actually, I'm going to give you guys this as an assignment today. So, if you want to jot this down, you can start now. So, step one, define your ideal identity in one area of your life. Okay, so that's step one, define your ideal identity in one area of your life.

Now, again, that could be as a parent, and by the way, this is something you can do in every area of your life, but for starters, you can pick one. Don't try to pick six areas of your life and do this all at once. Of course, you could do them sequentially. And you actually could do that, you could say here's the six areas, and then, in each area, you can go, okay, I’m going to define my ideal identity. And here's how to do that. There are two parts to defining your ideal identity. Number one is the mindset and qualities that you would embody. So, the mindset and qualities that you will embody, that ideal identity, what does that look like? And if you need to get ideas for that, you can either look at when you've been at your best before, or you can look at others that are achieving the results that you want and you can ask what qualities do they embody. What mindset and qualities do they embody? Again, if you have times in your past when you have been at your best in a certain area, what were the mindset and qualities that you were embodying at that time?

And part of what led to the whole Superdad thing is that I did realize a while back, it was actually the morning I was getting ready to go to that Front Row Dads retreat a few weeks ago, and I realized that I am settling for mediocrity in most areas of my life. And mediocrity, if you read the Miracle Morning, the way I define mediocrity, it's not an insult. It's nothing to beat yourself up about. We all settle for mediocrity throughout our life. In fact, I did say we're always settling for mediocrity. And again, it's not an insult or a bad thing, it's just a reality, because the way that I define mediocrity is simply how you're comparing to the best version of yourself. So, I don't look at mediocrity in the context of, well, they're better than me, so I am mediocre. No, to me, I'm not measuring myself against others. And I don't say I don't do that at all. I think there can be health in that, there can be value to go, wow. Looking at other people that are performing really at a high level and go, wow, that's what's possible. Interesting. How could I get to that level? How could I show up the way they're showing up? How could I achieve the results that they're achieving?

So, comparing to the people has its place for sure, I believe, but really, for me, mediocrity is about how are you showing up compared to the best version of yourself. And that's the identity that we're talking about. It is one way to put it. The identity we're creating is the best version of you.  How would that gal or guy, how would they show up? So, number one, in terms of defining your ideal identity in one area of your life, in any area of your life, I should say, like I said, you can do this in every area of your life, and I actually recommend that. I'm just kind of saying one area as in start with one at a time, but defining your ideal identity in any area of your life, there's two parts to that. And I only shared the first one so far. The first one is defining the mindset and the qualities that you will embody. Define the mindset and the qualities that you will embody. So, again, focused, happy, peaceful, calm, disciplined, excited, consistent, some of these are aspects of a mindset. Consistent is more an aspect of qualities that you're bringing to the work or whatever it is that you're doing. So, define the mindset and the qualities that you will embody.

Number two is define the behaviors that you'll commit to. Define the behaviors that your new identity would commit you or would embody as well. So, defining this identity and again, also known as your alter ego, as Todd Herman writes about in his book The Alter Ego Effect, which is a phenomenal book. What this does, this is what's really powerful about this, and actually, when I shared this last night on the call, the gentleman that was hosting the training that I did last night, Chris Davidson, he actually articulated this. And I thought, wow, Chris, that was brilliant. He said, Hal, what you're talking about by simply taking a few minutes to articulate in writing to define a new identity, the best version of you, what would that look like? What would that person think? What would they say? What would they do? He said, you're creating an opportunity for virtually instant transformation.

And I thought that was a really interesting distinction, instant transformation. I mean, we all want it. We all want to transform our lives and we want to do it as fast as possible. And often, what prevents people from transforming their lives is that it takes too long, right? It’s like, oh, man. I tried, it was hard. It was like, I don't even know where to start or really, I'm so far from where I want to be that it's like, I don't even, like if your weight is a challenge, and you're much heavier, you weigh more, you're carrying more fat on your body than you want to. And if it's significantly more, like, you're obese, that can be really daunting to think of how far away you are from the outcome that you want. And we can apply that to any area of our life. Depending how far away we are, it can be overwhelming, but what's interesting is that when you focus on identity, you can transform overnight, not that your results are going to transform overnight, but that's just reality. And you're living in delusion and that often is what keeps us paralyzed is the delusion of, like, I want instant results. I want to get where I want to be, like tomorrow, but it's going to take five years. I don't want to wait five years. And so, here's the thing. I'm sure you've heard this before. It's such a simple, but powerful principle, like, hey, five years are going to pass either way.

Five years from now, you're going to look back at this moment, you're going to look back at today. And you're either going to go, yeah, I didn't do anything different. Five years passed, I didn't draw my line in the sand. I didn't make any significant changes. I didn't change my identity. Therefore, I didn't change the qualities that I embodied. I didn't change the behaviors that I implemented. And therefore, nothing changed. Therefore, it's five years, I can look back and I'm in the same place that I was. And sadly, that's the result for most people. And I say, sadly, actually, I take that back. Sadly is a judgment. I don't want to say it's sad. There's nothing wrong with you doing you, but I think that where you might be able to say, well, maybe there's something wrong with me not doing what I really want to do or being who I want to be or creating the life that I want to create. You might be able to judge, and then I'm not here to judge, but you, and really only you can judge if you're okay with that. If you're okay with settling for mediocrity in certain areas of your life.

And again, I might not be speaking to you. You might go, Hal, I'm crushing it in every area of my life. I'm really fulfilled. Then that's great. Like fitness, my fitness is on point. I'm healthy, I'm happy, I'm financially free. My relationships with my significant other and like, they are the most harmonious they've ever been. Like you might be at your best right now, but I think that's the minority. You might be in the top 1%, but that's the other 99% of us, because I feel like I'm often in that 99% where I am trying to improve and I'm looking at areas of my life where I might not be showing up to my full potential and I might not be showing up with my full potential. And again, only I get to decide if I'm okay with that or if I'm not.

And it was a few weeks ago, as I mentioned, I was getting ready for that Front Row Dads retreat and that morning, during my meditation, I don't even know how it just hit me. I go, I am settling for mediocrity in most areas of my life. And I could do some psychoanalysis or some evaluation of why that is in terms of the journey in my life, the place that I'm at right now, the season of my life that I'm in, but here's the point, and this is what I would encourage you to consider. That morning, it was just a wake-up call for me. It was, oh, wait a minute, I've been settling for mediocrity. I've been coasting for a while now. And then, I had to ask myself, am I okay with that? Am I okay with settling for mediocrity as a dad, when I could be better and I could do better for my kids? Am I okay settling for mediocrity? And again, mediocrity in terms of my own potential, not compared to you, not compared to anybody else. Am I settling for mediocrity as a husband? And the answer was, yeah, in some ways I am.

And then I thought, the next question is, am I okay with that? Am I okay with giving less for myself and for my wife than I believe our marriage deserves and that she deserves? Am I okay? And for me, that just looks like, I've slacked, I used to be a lot more patient. I've been more impatient lately, like, I don't know why. Yeah, I've been less sympathetic. There are just some little nuances that I realize I'm justifying that it's okay, but if I'm really honest with myself, it's not okay. Not with me, for me. And that's where I really want, I mentioned this to be a bit of a reality check for you, I gut check. I just want you to ask yourself. Are there areas of your life that you are settling for less than your best in? So, that's actually really step one. Are there areas of your life that you're settling for mediocrity in those areas? Is it your fitness?

And fitness is another example, I mentioned. That morning, I realized I'm settling in almost every area, my fitness. I exercise about five to six days a week, but my exercise is pretty mediocre. Like I don't push it hard. I exercise for like maybe, not even, maybe 30 minutes. Like, I go lift some weights, I do some pushups, I go for a bike ride, and it's pretty good. You may have heard good is the enemy of great. And that's what I realized is that, yeah, I'm settling for pretty good. And I got excited. So, first, I got like, okay, huh, I'm settling for mediocrity, so I experienced a little bit of pain like, that's not okay with me, but I didn't beat myself up. It was just an awareness. And that's all I'm inviting. I'm not inviting you to beat yourself up ever, never. Don't ever beat yourself up. Just heighten your awareness. That's another way of saying you're elevating your consciousness, you're elevating your conscious awareness as to how your thoughts, words, and actions are impacting your world, your life, and the people in it. That's what this is about. That's the gut check. That's the reality check.

Are there areas of your life you're accepting mediocrity? And are you okay with that? Are you okay with that? Or do you want more? Or do you want, and I should say, and do you want and deserve more? And I think the answer for most of us is yes. And again, it's the seasons of life. Sometimes, yeah, you just pushed really hard, maybe you worked really hard. And that might be, maybe I'm coming off the movie, the Miracle Morning movie came out in December. And I think after that, it kind of was like, oh, my gosh, I pushed so hard to finish this film and to launch it to the world. The Miracle Morning movie, it was a huge– it was a six-year project. And it finally came out on 12/12/2020, which was about five months ago, I guess, now five or six months ago.

And so, coming off of that, I think I decided to, even if it was unconscious, enter into a season of mediocrity, like I'm going to settle for, like, I'm just going to chill, I'm just going to coast. I'm not going to push so hard. So, as I say that out loud now, that's a distinction, I realize is, yeah, I was in a season of life. And so, have you been in a season of mediocrity? And again, don't take that like some people, that word triggers them. It's interesting, on Amazon, there's quite a few reviews, some of the one-star or two-star reviews, some of the critical reviews, there were quite a few people that brought that up. They were like, I don't like how Hal says, we're all mediocre and like they took it as a judgment against them. And even though I said in the book and like I wouldn't rewrite it, I'm like, wait, I didn't, because people were really hard on these reviews, like Hal, he looks down on us is all mediocre. And I'm like, is that how I put it? I read the book and like I am clear in the book. I clearly said this is not about how you compare to anyone else, this is simply that mediocrity is a measure of how you compare yourself at your full potential to the best version of you. And so that's it. And if you are living as the best version of you in any area of your life, then you're definitely not settling for mediocrity in that area. But again, I qualify that because some people get really triggered when you talk about that we are all or most of us are at least at times, settling for mediocrity, at least in some areas of our life. So, that's it.

So, today is asking, are there any areas of your life that you're settling for mediocrity? Identify that, and just go one by one, go, okay, health like my diet. How’s my diet? Am I eating? And by the way, I'll give you an example. I probably eat my healthiest diet, like, I eat the strictest healthy, I will not put any processed foods in my body, any preservatives, any unhealthy oils, like only organic olive oil. Like, I have the strictest diet. I rarely will go out to eat because I can't control what the kitchen is producing. There's like one restaurant here in Austin called Casa de Luz. They use no oils. It's all organic, vegan, non-GMO, locally grown food, like it's the cleanest food. And that's like my go-to when I eat out, but almost any other restaurant, you're not sure what oil they're using or what they're putting in the food, what preservatives, GMOs, whatever, it doesn't matter.

So, here's the point. I eat really strict, but I've been eating ice cream at night and I had stopped doing that for a long time. And when I say ice cream, I eat NadaMoo!, which is an organic coconut milk ice cream with only five grams of sugar per serving, which it's pretty healthy, but there are some nights where I– and I have like normally, I regulate, okay, only have a few spoonfuls of it just to get that sweet taste, but I realized I had gone through this period a few weeks ago where I was eating like a third of a pint, and like I just started to kind of backslide. And that's what happens often, we kind of backslide away from the ideals that we want to adhere to. And so, that for me, is like, okay, I'm going to cut out ice cream in the evening. It's like I want to pursue that excellence in that area.

And so, the first step, again, it's asking which areas, assessing which areas you may be accepting a level of mediocrity in your life. So, again, look at your health, look at your fitness, look at your marriage, if you have one or any relationships, friendships, I realize I'm accepting mediocrity as a friend. I'm not showing up as a friend. I'm very introverted, so I don't like to spend time with very many people. So, I don't go out of my way to spend time with friends. And I realize, okay, what ways can I be a better friend? How can I show up as a better friend? So, I've identified my identity in each of these areas. And by the way, the word mastery is linked to this identity. So, it's me defining what does mastery look like. That's kind of the context to which I articulate this, the identity in each area is what would mastery look like? So, that's a great question to ask.

So, you're defining your ideal identity or you can call it mastery, if you want, in each area of your life. And so, the first part of that, remember, is to define the mindset and/or the qualities that you will embody, that identity, that mastery, what does that look like? For me, as a dad, again, it's curious, it's playful, it's engaged, it's fully present. These are the qualities that I bring, that Superdad brings, and Superdad is fun. And so, when I see my kids, even if they just come into the office, I can immediately snap my fingers and switch into that identity of Superdad and I immediately take that on the way Kobe Bryant took on Black Mamba or Deion Sanders took on Prime Time or Clark Kent takes on Superman, even though that's a fictional character. The other two examples were real, but you can immediately snap your fingers and jump into that new identity.

And the second part of the identity is what are the behaviors that you'll implement? What are the behaviors that you will implement? This version of you, and last night when I spoke to this group, again, this was a direct sales organization, and so, I talked about the qualities, of course, discipline, consistency, that sort of thing, drive, but then type of the behaviors, I go, what does this, if you're defining your ideal identity or super identity and it does help to give it a name, it does help to give it like, I give it the name Superdad, that does help to have that name, because you have a label that you attach to that identity. And so, you can immediately use that label as an anchor to be able to immediately embody and transform into that better, best version of you that you've defined. So, that's really it.

Well, and then the third step, I should say, the third step is actually implementing this, but so, the third step is to review the identity every day during your Miracle Morning, review the identity every day during your Miracle Morning. And again, in terms of a label, you could use the label alter ego, your alter ego, but I think that having a specific name for it, like Kobe Bryant choosing Black Mamba and Deion Sanders choosing Prime Time and me choosing Superdad, having a name, and of course, it can change. It's a rough draft, right? You can give it a name and you could change it, but you could have a name for this version of you. And it may be a version of you you've never experienced.

And I want to share with you a quick story. And this is your upgraded identity. I think that's a good name for the identity that you are creating. And again, you can call whatever you want, but I'm calling it your upgraded identity. I mentioned earlier, mastery is a word that for me, I am attached to this whole concept, but I want to close out by sharing an example. And this is something I shared last night, being that I was talking to a group of direct sales people, 500 of them, and so, I shared my experience in direct sales. When I was 20 years old, I gave up my dream job as a radio DJ to try my hand at selling. And I never really formally sold anything before, but I got hired by Cutco, you probably know that. And I started in Cutco sales.

And here is the interesting thing about this, is I entered into Cutco sales with an identity that I had for my entire life. And identity is shaped, our identity is shaped by our life experiences, typically. So, usually, we don't intentionally create an identity that would best serve us, which is what I'm inviting you to do today, is to actually create your identity with total intention as in, I’m going to create an upgraded identity that will enable me to perform in whatever role you want to perform it at a level that you don't currently perform at and/or maybe have never performed at. And so, when I started in sales, my identity was, I was lazy. I had been lazy my entire life. And keep in mind, I was 19 when I started, or 20, when I started in sales.

So, my identity was I am lazy, I am undisciplined, I am inconsistent. I am not special, I am not an achiever like, I mean, in fact, an average or mediocre would sum up how I viewed myself for sure, average or mediocre, because I had a lifetime of experience with 20 years of experience at that point to reinforce that that is who I am, that is how I've shown up. And on day two of my three-day training, I told my manager, I want to break the company record. I don't know what happened, but well, I kind of know what happened. On day two of training, we learned about the company record for the first 10 days. For any new Cutco sales rep, it's called the Fast Start contest.

And a gal had just broken the all-time company record. She lived an hour and a half south of me in Bakersfield, California. I lived in Fresno at the time. And she had just sold just over $12,000 of Cutco in her first 10 days. And I don't know what it was, but something inside me, there was a spark, there was a thought. And I invite you to consider this for yourself, too, because I think it's so important. It was, why not me? If she could do it, I could do it too, maybe. If she could do it, why not me, why not be the one to break her record? She just broke the record. Why not break her record? And again, it was weird.

The reason I say I don't know where it came from because that wasn't who I was. Like, that wasn't my identity. Actually, I think I can identify what it was, is I was excited, like I wanted the recognition, honestly, I think that's what it was. If you broke the record, you got a bunch of prizes. First of all, I got to go skydiving. I got to go on a limo ride with my family, but also, I would be the record breaker, right. I would be talked about in the Cutco training around the country the way this girl was. I think that was it. I think I was so hungry for significance at 20 years old, I had never really been significant. At least, again, I'd never done anything special. I wasn't an athlete. I didn't get good grades. I was usually just in trouble. The attention I got was negative attention.

And so, I went up to my manager after training. I said, “Jesse. I want to break that girl's record.” And I thought he was going to be jumping for joy. I just wanted the significance of telling him that, I think, and him saying, “Wow, Hal, that's amazing,” but he didn't give me that. And probably, because he was a smart leader, manager. I told him I want to break the record and I was waiting for his response. And he goes, he nodded his head and kind of looked to the side and looked at me and he goes, “Okay, Hal, I hear that every week. I hear that every week. Do you know how many people have actually done it since I've worked here?” And I was a little deflated, go, no. He said, “Zero. Everybody wants to break the record, but very few, so far none are actually willing to put in the effort to break the record.”

And so, for me, I was a little intimidated because I go, effort, man, I'm not a hard worker. Like I don't know, but at that point, I had put it on the line and put it out there. He said, “If you're willing to work and commit, like you've never committed before, Hal, I believe that you can break the record, if you're willing to wake up every day and dedicate yourself for the next 10 days. Pretty much, that's all you do, if you're willing to give everything you have for 10 days to sell in Cutco.” And he said, “Follow my lead. I believe you can do it, but you gotta be willing to commit at a level you've never committed before.” And again, out of sheer embarrassment at that point, to say anything other than, okay, I'll do it, I said, “Okay, I'll do it. I'm committed.”

And I share that with you because that's what I'm inviting you to do today. I'm inviting you to let go of who you've been for who you can become. Let go of who you've been, not all of it, you're a beautiful human being. Don't get me wrong. I’m not saying let go of all of who you are, I'm just saying, any limitations, any aspects of your identity that are holding you back, and that might be something to evaluate in this, when you're asking yourself, are there areas of your life that you're settling for mediocrity? And ask yourself, are there aspects of your identity that might be holding you back? How do you view yourself? Think about that, meaning do you see yourself as motivated, disciplined, or the opposite? Are there any aspects of your identity that might be holding you back? And asking that in conjunction with the other question of, are there areas of your life that you're settling for mediocrity?

So, I'd probably ask that question first. Are there any aspects of your life that you're settling for mediocrity? And then, once you examine that, you then ask yourself that next question of, well, if there are aspects of my life that I'm settling for mediocrity in, are there aspects of my identity that might be holding me back? And then, once you define your upgraded identity, I think I called it your ideal identity, but you're upgraded identity, once you define that, define the qualities and the mindset that you're going to embody, the behaviors that you're going to implement, and commit to review that every day, you can transform almost instantly, because here's the deal. Actually, don't just listen to this podcast, if you need to go back and listen to it because you weren't taking notes, but if you actually implement those steps. And there are now four of them, because I just added the one, and I'll review these in a second. So, if you need to grab a pen, I'll review the four steps with you in a second, but if you actually implement this exercise and you create this upgraded identity, and then every day, you review it and you commit to live in alignment with it, the moment you make that commitment, just like on my second day of Cutco training, when I made that commitment to my manager, I’m committed, I'll do whatever it takes, I'll give it everything I have, I will live in alignment with this upgraded identity, this person that I've never been before in my entire life. I had never been disciplined and focused and committed the way that it was going to require me to be for the next 10 days to break that record, but I drew my line in the sand when I gave my word to Jesse Levine, my manager, who was at my wedding, we're best friends now.

And that's the invitation for you, is to draw your line in the sand, and decide I'm going to upgrade my identity. And it doesn't have to be in every area of your life, you could just be Supermom or Superdad or Super Husband or Super Wife or Black Mamba or Prime Time, whatever it is, it could be at work, it could be at home, it could be in your physical fitness. If you want to lose weight, your upgraded identity could be, I am someone that eats these certain foods, that believes I deserve to be fit and healthy. You can create this identity. And then, every day, when you review it, you live in alignment with it. And as soon as you transform your identity and you live in alignment with your new upgraded identity, you set forth a series of energy and events that will transform your life. And it happens instantaneously through your identity. The transformation is instantaneous. The results, of course, take some time.

So, last but not least, I'll review these four steps. Number one, ask yourself, are there any areas of my life that I'm settling for mediocrity in? Are there any areas of my life that I'm settling for mediocrity in? And I would follow up that question with, are you okay with that? Am I okay with that? And do you want and deserve more? So, they're all part of that first question is, are there areas of your life you’re settling for mediocrity? And are you okay with that? Or do you want to serve more?

Step number two, are there aspects of your identity that might be holding you back? Are there aspects of your identity that might be holding you back? Do you view yourself as lazy? Do you have a belief based on your past experience? Like, are you lacking evidence that you can accomplish great things because maybe in the past, you don't have that evidence of what you're trying to do now because you haven't done it before? Which is always true for trying something new, it's new, might be hard to draw evidence from our past. Sometimes if you draw evidence from other people or from the simple principle of that we're all unlimited, we're all limitless in our potential. So, number two is, are there aspects of your identity that might be holding you back? And identify what those are.

Number three, define your upgraded identity in any area of your life. And there's two parts to that, finding the mindset and the qualities that you'll embody and defining the behaviors that you'll implement. And then, step four, and this is crucial, is you have to review your upgraded identity every day. If you do the Miracle Morning, do it during your Miracle Morning, during your affirmations, but you got to review it every day. You can't just identify, create, upgrade, and then not actually live into it. You have to live in alignment with it. You have to visit it every day so that it becomes who you are, you become this upgraded identity. So, again, the invitation is to let go of who you've been in any way that's limiting you for who you can become.

Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning, I love you, I appreciate you. I hope today was valuable for you. And please let me know how this landed for you. I would really appreciate you sharing in the comments below this episode either how it landed for you or what you're going to do or what your identity is, you let me know anything. Anything you want to share, I will read every comment. I would really appreciate it. And you can go access this episode and leave a comment below at HalElrod.com/380. This is Episode 380, HalElrod.com/380.

And I just remembered, I almost forgot, if you don't know about this or if you do, we're doing the first ever Miracle Morning Live experience in North Carolina at The Art of Living Retreat Center. It is gorgeous. It's a retreat center at the peak of a mountain with trees and overlooking the valleys. And it's going to be the first ever Miracle Morning Live Retreat. I'm so excited for it. I think we have 40 people that have already signed up, and I need to do a better job talking about it because I haven't done a lot of announcing, but anyway, but this is it. So, here's your invitation.

And by the way, I'm not putting on this event. I got some emails going, Hal, how could you put an event in a pandemic? I'm not putting on the event. The event is being put on by The Art of Living Retreat Center, but they're basing it around the Miracle Morning, basing it around me. So, I will be there all three days guiding you through, not only the Miracle Morning practices, but I'm going to talk about all of the content from my new book and guiding you through how to achieve inner freedom, how to experience heaven on earth. A lot of the stuff I've been talking on the podcast, we're going to dive really deep into all of that in addition to diving deep into the SAVERS.

So, go to MiracleMorningLive.com, if you want to get all the details, get a ticket, bring a friend, again, MiracleMorningLive.com for all those details. And I'm so excited. Like the response from people so far has been incredible. I can't wait to be with our community, the Miracle Morning community, with you for three days doing yoga and meditation and eating yummy organic food and you name it, it's phenomenal. So, MiracleMorningLive.com, and I hope to see you in October. The event, by the way, is October 8th through 10th in North Carolina. And it's going to be a really special life-changing experience for all of us. So, hope to see you there. And I will talk to you all next week. Take care.

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