511: The 3 Most Important Things to Focus on Right Now

[INTERVIEW]

 

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends and family and members of the Miracle Morning Community. Who else? Listeners of the Achieve Your Goals podcast, of course, welcome to today’s episode. This is going to be, I think, a really important, timely episode and I think it’ll be really helpful for you. And I thought of today’s episode as I was driving back from dropping my daughter off at school this morning. And actually, I’m going to circle back to my daughter and kind of the story of what led me to be dropping her off because I don’t normally do that in the morning. And I had a lot of things I needed to do this morning, but I decided that was really important for me to take her to school. So, again, I’ll circle back to that.

 

But anyway, I was driving back and asking myself, as I often do, what’s going on in my life right now that I am either struggling with, that I am excelling at, that I am struggling with and I’m overcoming it, I’m managing it effectively, and what might other people be struggling with in their lives that I can help with? Unless I have a guest on the podcast and talking about their area of expertise, when I do a solo episode, it’s

usually either what am I learning that I can share with you or what am I implementing that I can share with you or what might you be struggling with? And maybe it’s based on emails that you all have sent me or what I’ve seen on social media or what’s just going on in the world, right? Collective consciousness. What’s everybody struggling with?

 

And arguably, the single most determining factor in your quality of life and my quality of life is what we choose to focus on. At any given moment, that’s arguably the single most determining factor, and this is true both in the short term. So, as in what you focus on in any given moment determines how you feel in any given moment. And it’s also true in the long term. What you focus on over an extended period of time determines what you do or don’t accomplish and create for your life. So, your internal quality of life is based on what you’re focusing on in the moment and your external quality of life in terms of your circumstances, your relationships is based on what you focus on consistently over an extended period of time. But again, it all boils down to the single most determining factor in your quality of life, both short term and long term, is what you focus on.

 

And again, true for me, true for all of us. And the problem is that we are so overwhelmed with life, like we’re so overstimulated every day. We have so much information being thrown in front of us, so many distractions, and so many competing priorities. Can you raise your hand if you have competing priorities? That’s probably my biggest challenge as I wake up and I go, okay, I have to get this done today, like, right now. It’s really important. It’s urgent. My wife’s waiting on this or my team’s waiting on this for me. Oh, boy, but wait, I also have to get this done because my publisher’s waiting on this thing. This is also just as urgent and just as important. I go, “Oh, oh, but wait, I need to get this thing done.” I’m speaking at Front Row Dads next week. I need to get the handout done. It needs to be done by tomorrow. I also have a ton of priorities that need to get done by tomorrow for my book launch. I also need to get this podcast episode recorded by, well, today or tomorrow, right?

 

So, all of these competing priorities and starting to make it about me there for a sec, but I’m asking you, are you suffering from that as well? So, again, if we’re overstimulated every day, we have too much information, our brains are just overloaded, too many distractions and, again, maybe bigger and more prevalent than all of that in terms of the consequences are competing priorities, it is beyond overwhelming. And maintaining our focus, which again is the number one determining factor in our quality of life, maintaining our focus on what really matters is more difficult than ever.

 

So, since I’ve been really having to struggle and manage and overcome that, the distractions, the challenges, just like you have, today, I’m going to talk about what I’ve determined are three of the most important things for you and me to focus on right now to feel better and to do better so that we can experience the life that we are meant to live. And as we’re going into the end of the year, right now, I think that episode will come out on December 6 next week, which is quick plugged, six days before the new Miracle Morning updated and expanded edition comes out. And if you haven’t yet, please go preorder your copy at the new MiracleMorning.com. You get over $200 in bonuses for preordering, including the immediate implementation kit, which means immediately you’re going to get an email with the first 40 pages of the new book, including a five-page preview of the Miracle Evening Chapter and a five-page preview of the Miracle Life Chapter and then 30 pages of the front end of the new book. You’re also going to get a one-hour masterclass and you’re going to get two guided meditation tracks, each over 10 minutes long. One is the Miracle Evening Meditation. One is the Miracle Life Meditation.

 

If you’ve already preordered, thank you so much. And I also want to mention that once you preorder or you can go directly to the new MiracleMorning.com/event, you can buy gift copies for friends, family, clients, colleagues, etc. And if you buy five, pay it forward, gift copies to give out for the holidays, you get tickets for you and every person you gift a book to, to the Miracle Year Live Virtual Event happening on December 14th. And that event is going to have– I’m going to basically combine, it’s a two-hour event. It’ll be interactive with you connecting with other people that are at the event, plus connecting with me, asking questions, so on and so forth. And I’m going to walk you through how to apply three things. Number one, the Miracle Morning to have your best year ever in 2024. How do you apply the Miracle Equation to have your best year ever? And by the way, when we back up, the Miracle Morning is your daily practice for personal development. The Miracle Equation is your daily process for goal achievement. And then last but not least, how do you apply the Miracle Life, which is your daily paradigm for personal fulfillment? How do you apply all three of those components to make 2024 the best year of your life?

 

So, if you buy five copies of the book, which is about $100, a little over $100, with shipping and everything, you get five tickets. And the tickets are valued at $247 each. So, you end up getting over $1,000 in bonus tickets, plus you get the implementation kit to gift to all five people that you are giving your book to. So, it’s a really cool deal and it’s only good while the preorder bonuses are available, which is until December 11th and then the book publishes on the 12th. And if you go to the new MiracleMorning.com, you can preorder your first copy. If you’ve already preordered one copy and you want to get the five gift copies to get tickets to the Live Miracle Year Event, go to the new MiracleMorning.com/event. Hopefully, that’s clear. And I didn’t talk too fast.

 

All right. So, let’s dive in to today. What are the three most important things to focus on right now? I want to start with this and you’ve probably heard me say this before if you’re listening to the podcast for a while. But in 2020, I realized that everyone was hyper-focused on things that we couldn’t control – the pandemic, the election, the economy which is very true today, other people, focusing on what they’re posting on social media and getting angry at other people and their political beliefs. And you can’t believe that your aunt and uncle are posting that they support Trump, and your cousin is all about Biden. Like, we were so inundated with things that were completely out of our control.

 

And it became clear to me very quickly in March of 2020 that when we focus on things that are out of our control, we feel out of control. And that is as true now as it was then. In fact, as a timeless principle, it was just true a thousand years ago, it’s just that we didn’t have nearly as much a thousand years ago to focus on that was out of our control. We didn’t have our phone buzzing with notifications and the news on and social media and text and on and on and on. So, that which is out of our control is just in our face to almost 24/7 except when we’re sleeping, right? Although maybe you’re dreaming about what you’re watching on the news, so maybe it is 24/7 for a lot of us. But when we feel out of control, it creates stress, fear, anxiety, and depression. And if you consider that we’ve had more of that, which is out of our control, shoved in our face for the last three years, it’s no wonder that more people are feeling more stress, more fear, more anxiety and depression than arguably ever before.

 

So, what are the three most important things for us to focus on right now? I’m going to share with you what they are. We’re going to go through each one, but I’m also going to unpack them. So, meaning, I’m going to talk about why are these the each one, why is, number one, double down on self-care? That’s number one if you’re taking notes. The number one most important thing for you to focus on right now, for you to do is to double down on self-care. We’re talking about why, I’m going to give you examples and then how to do it.

 

So, here’s the why. Because if you don’t take care of yourself first, you’re not going to be effective at what you need to do, right? I mean, you know that, if you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re showing up your day stressed and you’re reactive and you’re at the mercy of other people’s demands, and their priorities get imposed on you. And I’m guilty of succumbing to that all the time. So, this is all of us, right? We all struggle from everything I’m going to talk about today. And so, we all need to be reminded of what we need to focus on. We need example. We need to be reminded of why it’s important to focus on that. What are the benefits? And then giving examples to go, “Oh, yeah, those examples help me to contextualize this area of focus.” And then I’m going to share with you some tips and strategies on how to do it.

 

Every morning, you need to optimize your mental and emotional state so you can show up at your best, right? That’s just a given. It’s what the Miracle Morning is for. The Miracle Morning is a daily practice that enables you to optimize your mental and emotional state to review your goals and your commitments, which I recommend you turn into affirmations so that you’re fully present to what you’re committed to, why it’s a must for you, which actions you need to take and win. But by doing the SAVERS every morning, going to the Miracle Morning, it enables you to prioritize self-care first thing in the morning.

 

And it’s the analogy that is probably overused is the oxygen mask analogy, but it’s overused because it’s such an effective analogy, right? If you’re on the airplane, they say, “Hey, if turbulence happens or we’re going down and your oxygen mask drops from the ceiling, put yours on first, take care of yourself, give yourself oxygen so that you can be effective to help the people you love that are sitting next to you, to help the people that are in the seat next door, to serve others. You have to take care of yourself so that you can be at your best to show up, and not only for other people, but for yourself.” For you to be effective at the things you need to do each and every day to maintain your life, to improve your life, you’ve got to start by prioritizing self-care.

 

And for the last 15 years, I’ll say this. And this will be the first example. When I’ve endured the most difficult times in my life, my Miracle Morning got me through all of them. The financial crash in 2008, that’s where the Miracle Morning was born from. Being on the brink of death in 2016 when I got cancer, my Miracle Morning literally saved my life by meditating in an optimal state of being healed, of optimizing my mental and emotional state so that I wasn’t living in fear, but I was at peace with what I couldn’t change and I was able to foster faith in the possibility of me healing. And I poured out my affirmations, affirming what I was committed to, why it was a must for me, which actions I was going to take and win.

 

Then I visualized every cell in my body being completely healed. I visualized walking my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. I visualized my son being a grown man and sitting in on my front porch and talking. I visualized my wife and I growing old together. I visualized a compelling future, which, by the way, that’s foreshadowing of one of the three things to focus on today or right now in your life. But I visualized such that I saw, not what I was afraid of, which early on, before I implemented the Miracle Morning to beat cancer, those were the thoughts. It was the fearful thoughts. What if I die? What if my kids grow up without me? I was seeing those visions and they weren’t serving me. They were leading me toward fear and leading me toward death, if you will.

 

I exercised every morning because the correlation of exercise and creating new healthy cells is a scientific, I don’t have the studies in front of me, but there’s the correlation between exercise and not only your physical energy, but healing and health. I read books every day on my number one priority, which was beating cancer. I read books on how to holistically, naturally build my body up and cure cancer. And last but not least, my scribing practice, I journaled every day what I was grateful for. I journaled my highest priority to heal myself that day. The SAVERS literally saved my life in 2016.

 

And then, in 2020, when I went through a six-month chronic sleep deprivation and I was suicidal, literally, I had suicidal ideation every single day. I was at the worst time in my life mentally and emotionally. And I used the Miracle Morning to get me out of it. I doubled down on my self-care. And so, in terms of the how, you already know, unless you’re brand new to the Miracle Morning. The SAVERS are the answer. They are six of the most timeless, effective self-optimization practices of all time. So, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You don’t need to look for something new. You need to get back to the basics, get back to what countless, millions of highly successful, fulfilled, happy, healthy people have done for centuries, which is one or more of the SAVERS.

 

And to quote Robert Kiyosaki or to paraphrase his quote, when you do any one of the SAVERS, it’ll change your life. When you do all six, it creates miracles. And you’ve probably experienced that if you’re a Miracle Morning practitioner. So, if you’ve fallen off, I was on an interview this morning at 6:45 in the morning with James Shaw with a thousand people on live, it was incredible. And he said the most popular question that he got before our interview was what happens when you fall off the Miracle Morning? He said, “Hal, we have our community, there are already a lot of Miracle Morning practitioners and they want to know when you fall off, how do you get back on?” And so, I’m saying that because if you’re listening and you’re like, I’m a Miracle Morning practitioner, but I’m not doing it consistently or I’ve kind of fallen off of it, it’s simply, I always quote Penelope Cruz. This is in the movie Vanilla Sky. She said, “Every passing moment is another chance to turn it all around.”

 

And so, it’s putting the past and the past has been going, I’m recommitting today. I’m drawing my line in the sand today. I know that the SAVERS are the answer. I know that when I do my SAVERS, when I do my Miracle Morning, I feel better, I think clearer, I show up better for myself, for the people I love, the people I lead, right? You know the answer. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You only look for something new. It’s getting back to the basics, getting back to what works.

 

So, number one, the first thing for you to focus on, for you to do every single day right now is to double down on your self-care, get back to your Miracle Morning, or realize how important it is for you and how, sometimes, it’s being present to the benefits of what you’re doing alone can make a little bit difference. Sometimes you’re just going through the motions and you’re not present. And by the way, I’m guilty of that with the Miracle Morning over the last 15 years, is sometimes I’m just doing it to check the boxes and go through the motions. And by not being fully present to my why, why, why am I engaging in this self-care practice every day? What are the benefits? Am I present to the benefits? Because without being present, you can be unconscious and you don’t really experience the benefits. You just, again, go through the motions. Make sure you’re reminded of the why. Why are you doing the Miracle Morning?

 

For me, it’s to always become the best version of myself every single day, to become a better version of who I was when I went to bed the night before, to start every day in a peak physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state. If I don’t do the Miracle Morning, think about this. If you don’t do the Miracle Morning or some version of it, call it whatever you want, well, what are you doing to start each day in an optimal mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual state? That is something, it doesn’t typically just happen automatically, like exercise, right? You don’t get physically stronger unless you actually put in the time and the effort to do the work to exercise.

 

Well, you don’t get mentally stronger unless you put in the time, the energy, and the work to become mentally stronger. And that’s the same with emotionally stronger, physically stronger, and spiritually stronger, right? You’ve got to put in the time, energy, and attention. So, double down on your self-care. And of course, the new edition of the book is going to help you do that because it’s the next level of the Miracle Morning with 70 pages of new content.

 

Number two, and this is a big one and this is almost the opposite in some ways of number one. And it’ll make sense, though, once I explain this. So, number one is double down on self-care. Number two is support other people. Support other people. Support the people in your life with what they need help with, with what’s important to them. I’m going to give you some examples that’ll make a lot more sense when I do.

 

But here’s the why. Focusing on serving other people re-energizes you. Think about that. When you focus on serving, it re-energizes you. I’ll give you an example. On Monday of this last week, so what is today? Thursday. On Monday, I had such a stressful day. It was such a stressful day. And it was so stressful that I was having some anxiety and I didn’t want to be on any of the calls that I had to do.

 

And at 7 p.m. Central Time, where I live here in Texas, Monday night, we had the Miracle Morning Messengers book launch team call and they were every other Monday. And now, they’re going to be every Monday here for the next few weeks. And the book launch team, we usually have about 150 people to 200 people on the live calls. I think, we have about 160 or something on this one. And going into it, in full transparency, anybody listening to this on the Messengers, you probably didn’t know this, but I did not want to be on that call. I was like, “Oh, my God, I have to do this.” It was not I want to, it was I have to. And that’s nothing, like I love doing these calls normally. But I had such a bad day, I was in such a bad state.

 

And I started the day in a peak state with my Miracle Morning. And then just one thing after another overwhelmed distractions, other people making mistakes, me making mistakes, just all of these things started to compound. It was like a snowball. And by the time the call rolled around in the evening, I was not in a good state. And I got on the call and right before the call, I just did a little five-minute, maybe even probably three-minute prayer and meditation. And I said, what I say, the prayer that I say whenever I give a speech on stage or do an interview or even record a podcast, “God, fill me with the words and the intention and the energy that will serve these people at the highest level.” And it’s not always word for word. Sometimes, it’s let me show up in the way they need, but it’s a general, that’s the general prayer that I say, right? Or fill me with the energy and the intention and the words that will impact these people’s lives, what they need, etc. And I just kind of give it to God, if you will.

 

And 99.9%, maybe 100% of the time, what comes through me, and it really comes through me because it’s often, I don’t think about it, I don’t plan it. It’s just what comes through me. It’s almost always exactly what people need. And here’s the point. My prayer was not about me. It wasn’t, God, let me show up awesome and impressive, so people think I’m great, right? It was fill me with the words, the intention, and the energy to serve these people at the highest level.

 

And I’ll tell you, I showed up on, like as soon as we hit go, as soon as the call was live, the Zoom call, it was an hour long, I was on fire and I was a different level of consciousness than five minutes before the call started. And here’s my point. What did I just say? Why to support other people? The first reason is focusing on serving re-energizes you. And when I focused on serving the 150 or so people on that launch team, it re-energized me. And I got off the call, I went in the living room, and my wife Ursula was here all day at home and she knew that I was having a really stressful day. And she said, “Hey, how did the call go?” I said, “Amazing.” She goes, “Really?”

 

My mom is visiting. She was here, too. And my mom knew I was stressed out too, having a tough day. And I said, “It was amazing.” She really went, “Tell me about it.” I go, “Well, it came, everything that needed to be said just flowed through me. And people shared their stories and how they were sharing the Miracle Morning as members of the launch team, as messengers, and the response they were getting from their friends and their family. And one gal bought five copies for her staff, and then another lady came on, said she bought seven copies for her staff. And another lady said they’re going to do a book club for her and her friends,” and on and on. I was so energized. And so, I want you to think about that because I forget it as often as anybody, that when you focus on serving others, it energizes you. That is the first reason to support other people.

 

The second reason is the law of reciprocity. When you add value for other people, they feel inclined to want to add value back to you. When you help others, the law of reciprocity, which is an unconscious law, that it’s the law of the universe, it works for all of us, people feel compelled to help those that help them, right? Think about that. If somebody lends a hand and helps you and then they need help, don’t you automatically, naturally, you want to help that person?

 

And for me, it’s important that I don’t ever help others because I expect or want something from them. In fact, I think I don’t have proof of this, but I think that that disengages the law of reciprocity. If you’re doing it for the wrong reasons where you’re like, “I’m going to help them because I want to manipulate them so that they’re going to help me later,” if that’s your intention, I don’t know. I can’t prove that it doesn’t work, but I always try to come from a place of selflessly adding value for others because I want my intention to be pure. I don’t want it to be about what I can get out of the relationship, right? To me, that’s manipulation. That’s not serving.

 

So, the second reason, though, is the law of reciprocity. It’s okay to know that, hey, I’m going to serve others knowing that it’ll probably come back to me. I’m not going to keep score. I’m not going to get upset if I help somebody and they don’t help me back and go, “Hey, I helped you. Why didn’t you? You’re supposed to help me.” No, I’m going to just know that if I live a life of service and I’m always trying to help every person I possibly can in every way that I possibly can, that it’s going to come back to me. And I can tell you countless examples of how that has happened for me. One is, well, I don’t want to use those as examples, but I help somebody, you get it, right? You help somebody, and then when you need help, they’re going to be there for you.

 

And then number three, and this really leads into the examples that I have in just the last few weeks. I’m going to give you these examples and how they bear fruit in just the last few weeks in alignment with every single thing that I just said, including law of reciprocity. And this third reason, it creates new possibilities and opportunities. When you support other people, it creates new possibilities and opportunities because it re-energizes the relationship or re-establishes the relationship.

 

And here’s a few examples of that. So, in the last few weeks, I’ve been consumed with my own priorities, my own goals because I’ve been so overwhelmed with this book launch, so much to do, not enough time to do it, that anyone asking for me to do anything outside of what’s in front of me on the to-do list, including my own team, they’re like, “Hal, hey, can you record these three videos?” I’m like, “I can’t. My schedule is, I don’t have, there’s no– no, I can’t.”

 

And the other day I realized there are some friends of mine that need help right now. Brian Johnson. I had him on the podcast recently, in fact, twice in the last few months. I love Brian. He wrote the new book Areté, which beat the number one New York Times bestseller last week in terms of 16,000 copies sold. And for some reason, he didn’t make the New York Times list, which is, I don’t know, that’s a whole ‘nother story.

 

But the point is, I’m like, you know what? Brian’s launching his book right now. I can’t say I’m too busy to help him because then how would I expect him to help me with launching my book? Like, I need to act as I would hope someone else would act in the same circumstance, right? And so, I’ve been helping Brian, I’ve been sharing his book, and I believe in his book. I love it. In fact, if you don’t have his book, A-R-E-T-E, Areté, it is phenomenal. I talked about it on the podcast, again, recently. And it’s a great book. So, I encourage you to grab a copy. It came out a week or two ago.

 

But I started helping Brian with his book. I was promoting it and it was all sincere because I believe in it. And what do you know? He invited me to come and do a live on his podcast and he had me on another, like he’s invited me on multiple things, and I wasn’t doing it for that reason. I didn’t even know, I didn’t ask for him to help me in those ways. I didn’t know that he would because I knew he was in the middle of his book launch, but I just helped him because I genuinely wanted to serve and help someone that I care about and who has a goal right now that I wanted to help with. So, I bought Brian’s book, I bought a few copies. I gifted some copies, I shared it. I invited him on the podcast, on and on and on. And it immediately or almost immediately, not immediately, but once he got through his book launch, hey, come on my podcast. Hey, come on this call I’m going to do, on and on and on.

 

And then Giovanni Marsico, this is actually, I love this story because there’s a few more layers that I think you’ll really get value from. Giovanni Marsico is a friend of mine, but we haven’t really connected in probably five years, six years, it’s been a long time. And I found out he was in Austin and I reached out, or maybe he reached out. I don’t remember which one of us reached out, but it was let’s get together. And you may not know this about me, but I am an introvert, believe it or not. I don’t like social activities. I’d always rather stay home.

 

And then the weird thing is, is I always feel better after I do a social activity and meet with other people. It’s kind of weird how that works. Like, on the front end, I don’t want to do it. Maybe you can relate, right? But then when I do it, I feel energized. Focusing on serving energizes you, but so does just connecting with other humans we’re meant to connect.

 

So, I reached out to Giovanni. I was like, “Hey, let’s connect, let’s get a smoothie.” So, we went and got a smoothie. And we hadn’t talked in five or six years and he told me what he was up to. He just made a second movie. You maybe saw me share it and I started sharing it, right? Hero, it’s called Hero. And then he has another new movie coming out next year and another one next year. He makes movies, one a year.

 

And I was like, “All right, I’m going to help Giovanni. I believe in what he’s doing. I love his new movie. I’m going to share it.” And I started sharing it. And now, Giovanni, the law of reciprocity, I guess, he just had me on a live call recently. He just invited me to speak at his live event next year. He just invited me to be in his next movie that he’s making, his next documentary about being your best self. And I don’t know what it’s called yet. But the point is, I decided to help my friend Giovanni Marsico because I believe in him, I love him. I shared his movie, and it’s coming back. Right now, he’s wanting to help me. And I didn’t do it for that reason, genuinely, but it’s working.

 

And then, my friend Jon Vroman, Jon Vroman is the founder of Front Row Dads, he has an event coming up called Front Row Dads Live. And I believe so much in what Jon does. I’m speaking at the event. I go to the event every year regardless if I’m speaking or not. I’ve been a member of Front Row Dads since the beginning. I love that group. It’s helped me to be a better dad and a better husband.

 

And I’m thinking the other day when I had this, it was during my Miracle Morning when I had the epiphany. Who needs my help right now, right? And I thought, my friend Brian’s got this book coming out. Giovanni has got this movie coming out. Jon Vroman’s got this event. They all really need my help. And so, I sent out an email for Jon about the event, sharing, inviting all of my fellow dads to come to this Front Row Dads event. And I’m speaking, anyway.

 

So, last but not least, is my daughter Sophia. This morning, my daughter was very frazzled. She has a play tonight. It’s her opening night tonight. And she was having a very stressful morning. Now, I have a packed day. And she said, “Dad, is there any way you can take me to school today? I just need some space. Can you take me to school?” And I knew she has already cried that morning. She’s been having a stressful morning. And my first thought was, “Oh, I don’t have a second to schedule.” And it’s an hour roundtrip drive to take her to school. That’s an hour out of my morning that was booked solid, but I probably gave it about two seconds of thought and initially went, “Oh, I don’t know if I can do that.” And I was like, this is my daughter. She needs me right now. She’s more important than anything.

 

And I didn’t even look at my schedule. I wasn’t even sure what was my schedule. I just knew it was packed. I literally didn’t know if I had an interview, I didn’t know what I had because I had brain damage. I don’t remember what’s my schedule. I have to look at it. I don’t know what I’m doing today unless I look, literally. But I just said, within about two seconds, I said, “Yes, I will take you to school.” And then I went and grabbed my phone and I’m like, “Crap, what’s on my schedule? What am I missing? Who do I have to text and say, hey, I can’t make it?” And luckily, all it was, was recording this podcast, which I delayed by two hours to take her to school. But I’m so glad that I did.

 

Supporting other people to me is the right thing to do. And when we are overwhelmed with our finances, with our to-do lists, with whatever it is, we often say, I don’t have any space for other people, I don’t have any capacity for other people. And by the way, that’s what doubling down in your self-care does every day is it expands your capacity. It helps you optimize your mental and emotional state, right? There are so many benefits to starting your day with that Miracle Morning.

 

And how do you do this? I mean, it’s simple. It’s just stop, spend some time in silence, maybe even pull out your journal and do some scribing and ask yourself, who in my life needs help right now? Or maybe just go by, who in my life is important to me, right? My spouse, what do they need right now? How can I best support them? My kids, how can I best support each of my children? My friends, how can I best support them? My team members, my employees, how can I best support them? And obviously, there is such a thing as overextending yourself. You have to protect yourself, that’s why you start the day with self-care. You double down your self-care first. And then, you ask, how can I support the people in my life who need help right now?

 

And number three, the third thing to focus on is to create an exciting future. Create an exciting future. Why is that? Because when we lose hope for a better future, we lose our inner drive, our mental health suffers. We become fearful and depressed. And here’s the thing. None of us know what the future holds. The things you’re afraid of that are dominating your mind, your consciousness may or may not happen. And even the things that are inevitable that you know they’re going to happen, like death is inevitable, you know it’s going to happen. You still don’t know what it’s like. You don’t know what the future holds. You don’t know if the thing you’re afraid of, losing your job, the economy crashing, you don’t know what the fruit of that is going to be. The worst thing that you fear may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

 

So, since we don’t know what the future holds, and if you look at the fact that when we have an exciting future that we’re anticipating, when we go, “You know what, I’m working towards this goal versus, you know what, the world’s fallen apart, so I don’t even know, if I should set this goal because the future might not even be what I think it’s going to be.” I’ve seen– my daughter’s 14 and she’s told me her friends are like, “What’s the point? What’s the point of anything? We have nuclear weapon.” I mean, it was really depressing to hear her tell me what her friend was saying about, “Nuclear weapons are pointed to us.” And I just told her, I go, “Sweetie, that’s been the case for decades. There’s always been the threat of nuclear weapons, there’s always been the threat of death, of the economy crashing, of– you name it. But we’re still here. Humanity is still here. We’re still going.”

 

And so, since we don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that when we’re working towards an exciting future, even though we don’t know what the future holds, meaning we don’t even know if the exciting thing is actually going to happen, if the goal that we’re excited about, we don’t know. What we do know is that we feel better and we do better in the moment. When you have an exciting future that you’re anticipating, hope for a better future, and you might not know the time frame, like you might know that the next few years are going to be hard. But after that, it might be the best time in my life. You may not know. We can’t predict the future at all. You can’t predict the timeline. You don’t know if you’re going to win the lottery tomorrow. You don’t know, we don’t know, but we do know that when we have a future that we’re excited about, a goal, a dream, something we’re working towards, an event, whatever it is, time with our loved ones, something that we’re looking forward in the future, we feel better and we do better in the moment. Meaning, when you create an exciting future, first in your mind, then on paper, then through your actions, right? But when you create that exciting future, just the possibility of it, you improve the quality of your life now.

 

Some examples. I’m actually going to turn to you for the examples. Think of any time in your life when you were working towards an exciting goal. Think about it. Just any time when you’re working towards a goal or when you’re looking forward to a concert, an event, a birthday, a wedding, Christmas, right? I didn’t invent this. But it’s the anticipation principle. When you have something that you’re positively anticipating, you feel better in the moment, right? You feel better, you do better.

 

So, think of a time in your life when you are working towards an exciting goal. How did you feel each day when you woke up and you made progress towards that goal, when you woke up and you go, okay, I’m going to do one thing today that’s going to move me closer to the goal, closer to the dream? Maybe it’s just a baby step, maybe it’s just a little bit closer. But how did you feel when you were working towards an exciting future, when you woke up and you made a little progress? It feels good. You feel better, you do better.

 

Now, think of a time when you didn’t have anything exciting you were looking towards. Anything. And maybe that’s right now for you. I think for a lot of us it is. I know there have been many days or periods over the last few years when I’ve been so focused on what’s going wrong in the world and what could go wrong that has become my dominant thought and it’s affected my state of consciousness. That’s become my reality. Those are the possibilities that I’m afraid of. And I feel worse now and I do worse now.

 

So, think about a time in your life and, again, it might be right now for you when you didn’t have anything you were looking forward to, when you were convinced that the future was going to be worse than the present. Think about that. I think about 2008 when the economy crashed. And at first, I was hopeful, I was optimistic. I’m going to turn it around. And then I lost another client and another client, and my income dropped further and further. And I went further into debt and further into debt. And the economy got worse and worse and worse. And the news got worse and worse and worse. And the prospect of what I thought was going to happen and go wrong became more and more and more real because I was experiencing it. Now, I’m losing my house. Now, I’m in credit card debt. Now, my credit score is plummeting in 2008. Think about that.

 

So, that’s probably the best example I can give because you can apply that to right now, right? Oh, the economy’s terrible. It’s getting worse. Inflation’s happening, war, on and on and on. There’s so much to be afraid of. There’s so much that could go wrong or that is going wrong, like not could, for sure. For sure. These things are, like, you can go, “Hey, I can pretty much anticipate that the housing market’s going to go a certain way down. The economy’s probably going to go down. Inflation’s going to keep going up.” So, there’s certain things that are inevitable. It’s not just possibilities. It’s like this is going to happen.

 

In 2008, same things. Banks are failing, housing market’s crashing. However, you’re just not looking far enough ahead to create an exciting future, right? Meaning, the mindset is, hey, yeah, there’s a storm, it’s here now and I can see on the right. It’s getting worse. But I’m going to survive the storm and the future is going to be incredible. The storm will pass. It always does, it always has, and it always will. The storm will pass. If I can endure the storm, which I can, you can, we have a 100% track record of surviving, thriving, getting through every challenge we’ve ever faced and that is a very good evidence that you’re going to make it through everything else.

 

So, again, if you’re afraid of the future, you’re just not looking far enough out. Life happens in seasons, right? There are winters and we’re going to make it through the winter and the future is bright and you have to maintain that, you have to create that exciting possibility to keep working towards meaningful goals, even if you’re not sure if or when they are going to happen. You’ve got to work towards those goals now.

 

And again, we don’t know what the future holds. The start of this year, I created an exciting future by committing to release the updated and expanded edition of the new book, The Miracle Morning. For the first half of the year, I actually updated the book. I was excited. I was writing the new book, I was updating it. The original, I was changing it, I was adding to it. And then, the second half of the year, it was about focusing on doing everything in my power to let people know about this new edition so the book can impact as many people as possible, right?

 

Even though and that, what that did by me creating an exciting future as opposed to being fearful over the future because think about this, the negative possibilities of the future didn’t disappear when I set a goal. The negative possibilities of your future, of our collective future, they don’t disappear when you create an exciting future in your mind, meaning you set a goal. You decide to improve yourself or an area of your life or to work toward something important, meaningful, even though you don’t know if the rug might get swapped out for money, you don’t know.

 

But like Jim Rohn said, the purpose of a goal is to inform your behavior now. You feel better when you’re working towards an exciting future and you do better now when you’re working towards an exciting future. That’s why you create it. And how do you do it? First in your mind, second on paper, third in your actions, right? So, in your mind, ask yourself, what would you really want? And what would you attempt if you weren’t afraid, if you weren’t living in fear, and you could erase?

 

Okay, let me just suspend the fears I have or the knowledge I have of what is going to happen in the future that is scary. I’m going to move that to the side, okay, and I’m just going to go, “Okay, if I wasn’t afraid, what would I attempt? What would I do?” And I’m just going to allow myself to, then I’m going to pull out the paper, right? So, you start in the mind with giving yourself permission to consider a better future, an exciting possibility. Knowing the time frame, you might be off, you almost always are because you’re not a fortune teller. You can’t predict the future, right? Your one-year goal might take four. My one-year goal to sell a million copies of the Miracle Morning and change 1 million lives one morning at a time, that was my one-year goal. And I fail by 98.7% the first year. I was 987,000 copies short of the goal. But I create an exciting future by trying to reach a million people in year one and I only reach 13,000. I say only, because relative to a million, that was a dismal failure, right?

 

But think about this. I was excited every day to reach as many people as I could. I felt better every day. And every day, I woke up and I put forth meaningful effort toward that outcome of reaching a million people even when I wasn’t on track. Halfway through the year, I go, I’m at like 5,000 copies sold, I’m 995,000 copies away. But if you ever read the book, The Miracle Equation, that was my follow-up to the Miracle Morning, I talk about how it’s about maintaining unwavering faith in that exciting future, unwavering faith that you can reach your goal and putting forth extraordinary effort regardless of your results along the way for as long as it takes. It’s a way of living your life where you always consider and create an exciting future in your mind.

 

Then you pull out a piece of paper or a Microsoft Word document and you brainstorm, you think, on paper, you write down, what would I do if I wasn’t afraid? Maybe you write that question down and just start brainstorming in a journal or on Microsoft Word, think on paper, get it out of your head, and consider what’s possible. If you weren’t afraid, what would you attempt? What would you do? What would be exciting? What are goals that you’ve put on hold because you’ve been so consumed with that which is out of your control? You’ve been so afraid watching the news that you’re paralyzed with fear, and so you’re not taking action on the things in your life that you decided at one point you really wanted. It’s time to revisit those things. It’s time to recommit to doing the things today that move you in that direction no matter how long it takes you to get there.

 

And that leads to the third part of how you create the exciting future, it’s the actions. Take baby steps, do one thing each day that moves you forward. Do something. Do anything. Google an article on how to take the next step. Read a book. Do something, right? Move toward that exciting future. Again, creating an exciting future in your mind is to inform your behavior today so that you feel better and you do better.

 

All right, let’s wrap up. I’m just going to recap the three crucial areas of your life, the three most important things to focus on right now. Number one, double down on your self-care, right? Don’t reinvent the wheel. That doesn’t mean figure out something new. It means go back to your Miracle Morning or keep up with your Miracle Morning and be more intentional, more aware of why you’re doing it. You’re doing it to optimize your mental and emotional wellbeing every single day so you can show up at your best for yourself, those you love, and those you lead.

 

We’re doing the Miracle Morning and the SAVERS each day to expand your capacity so that you can get into number two, which is supporting other people. When you put your oxygen mask on first in the morning and you breathe that oxygen, you fill your spirit. Your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual capacities are expanded. And now, you can show up for yourself. You can also support other people, show up for others because it re-energizes you. It engages the law of reciprocity, so those people will help you when you need it. And it creates new possibilities and opportunities.

 

And last but not least, create an exciting future. Do it in your mind by considering what you want. If you weren’t afraid, what would you create? What would you write down? What would you pursue? And then make a plan, brainstorm. What might I do each day that would move me one step closer to that exciting future? And then commit, put it in your schedule, take action to make progress.

 

All right. That’s it for today. Goal achievers, I love you, I appreciate you. If you haven’t preordered the Miracle Morning yet, head over to the new MiracleMorning.com, grab your copy. Thank you so much. And for those of you that are going to the Miracle Year Live Event, I’ll see you at that. And I’ll be in touch. I’ll talk to you next week. Yeah, oh, next week, the book will be out. The book comes out on December 12. So, this episode, the following episode from this will be on December 13th, so I don’t know when I’m going to record, but we’ll see what comes to me.

 

I love you, seriously. Thanks for listening. It really means a lot to me that we spend this time together. So, I love you. Make it a great day. Make it a miracle life. You deserve nothing less. Take care.

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