Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. Welcome back to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and today I’m excited to dive into what I am going to call the Fulfillment Formula. This is Part 2 of the Fulfillment Formula two-part series. Now, it’s an unofficial series because if you heard my previous episode, The Shortcut to Self-Discipline, which we can consider Part 1 of this series, I didn’t call it a series. It was only when I was thinking of today’s podcast episode. I’m actually preparing for a message that I’m giving for a group. And the message I decided to call the Fulfillment Formula because I thought, “What do people want? They want to live a fulfilling life.” Okay. And then I thought, “How can I simplify what it takes to live a fulfilling life?”

And if you look at it from a high overview and you simplify it, there are really two parts. Number one is what you do and number two is how you feel. If you can master those two, those are the two driving forces of our lives, right? We’re constantly trying to do the best we can, what we do, and we want to feel the best we can, how we feel. And many of us struggle to get ourselves to do what we need to do when we need to do it because we don’t feel like it. We’re not motivated. We don’t have enough energy. And that was the last episode that we did on The Shortcut to Self-Discipline, how to get yourself to do what you need to do when you need to do it, whether you feel like it or not.

And by the way, that was Episode 582 and I encourage you, I thought that was a really important episode. In fact, when we survey you, our listeners and members of the Miracle Morning Community, and we ask what you struggle with, the number one answer we get is, and it’s worded differently, either a lack of self-discipline or I know what I need to do. Usually, it’s just general language, “I know what I need to do to be happier, to be healthier, to make more money like I know what I need to do but I just can’t get myself to do it. I procrastinate. I avoid what I need to do. I am afraid of failure of whatever it is.” So, that’s the first element, the first side of the coin, if you will, of leading a fulfilling life is mastering the ability to get yourself to do what you need to do when you need to do it, whether you feel like it or not.

It’s not a feeling, it’s not motivation that you need. It’s a decision to do the things that you want to do, that you need to do. And that’s what successful people, as I talked about in last week’s episode, successful people aren’t necessarily more talented or more motivated than you. In fact, I don’t feel motivated to do things a lot, but I just do them anyway. And there is certain psychology and strategy that enables you to do that. So, without going into too much, that’s last week’s episode. Go listen to it if you can. I highly recommend it this week. Put it on your schedule. It was less than an hour, I think, 45 minutes or so. I don’t remember. 30 minutes.

But it’s at MiracleMorning.com/582 or you can listen to it on your favorite podcasting platform, Apple iTunes or iTunes, Apple Podcast, whatever it’s called. So, that was Episode 1. Today, we’re talking about the second half of the Fulfillment Formula. And this is The Blueprint for Inner Bliss. So, today’s conversation will be all about finding that deep sense of purpose and meaning, and joy, and love and gratitude, and lasting contentment no matter what’s going on in the world around you. All right. So, buckle up. We are about to get blissful. All right.

Now, before we jump into inner bliss, there’s one other thing I want to say on The Shortcut to Self-Discipline that I talked about last week, is that discipline sets the stage for everything else. It’s like the strong foundation of a house, right? If you don’t have discipline, the walls might wobble and eventually, the whole structure comes crashing down. So, in the previous episode, I talked about how discipline makes it easier to maintain good habits, avoid distractions, and stay consistent with your goals. And it’s virtually impossible to feel good when you’re falling behind financially, in your relationships, around your midline, right? Like, you’ve got to get yourself to a place where you can consistently do the things that move you forward in your life, that help you improve physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, et cetera. So, again, go back and listen to that episode.

All right. So, let’s define inner bliss. What is inner bliss? I’ll give you a straight answer. It is a state of genuine contentment and joy that doesn’t depend on external events. That’s the important distinction. It’s feeling at peace, feeling happy, regardless of what’s going on in your life. Because if your emotional state is dependent on your circumstances, and most people it is, which is why we’re constantly trying to avoid circumstances that cause us emotional pain and we are pursuing circumstances that we perceive will make us feel better. But if you’re dependent on external events and circumstances, then when things don’t go your way, when another person doesn’t meet your expectations, when you lose something, a loved one, a job, something happens that’s completely out of your control, you’ve given away your power to create your internal state. You’ve given away the power.

And think about how normal that is for people. Not that it’s effective or it’s right, but it’s normal where whenever someone’s upset, whenever we are upset and I’m guilty, we can all relate to this, right, we often, if not always, point to or blame something outside of ourselves for why we feel the way we feel. “Of course, I’m angry. Didn’t you hear what happened? Of course, I’m scared. Aren’t you watching the news? Aren’t you seeing what’s going on? Of course, I’m sad. Look at what I lost,” as opposed to, “Yeah, these things are happening but I’ve taken complete ownership of cultivating optimal mental and emotional state so that I can feel the way I want to feel and show up the way I want to show up no matter what’s going on around me.” It’s the ability to maintain your center, even when everything around you might feel like a giant circus or chaotic or out of control.

I want to reference a powerful study from Harvard. It was the Harvard Study of Adult Development and it’s often touted as one of the longest-running studies on what makes for a happy life. Now, if you listen to my episode a few weeks ago on repairing relationships, damaged relationships, then I mentioned this then as well, but it comes in right now, which is strong relationships and a sense of meaning rather than money or success or status are what keep people happiest over the long haul. And this aligns with a quote from the Dalai Lama. Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

In other words, you can’t buy a ticket to inner bliss. You cultivate it through your thoughts and your behaviors day by day by day. Now, one of the biggest obstacles, and this is so important, whenever you’re trying to make a change in your life, externally or internally, we’ve got to identify what are the obstacles that I need to be aware of or prepared for. So, one of the biggest obstacles to finding inner bliss is comparison. Now, we are all guilty of it. You hop onto social media and you see someone’s highlight reel. They’re traveling the world, they’re landing big deals, or they’re with their family and they’re looking so happy with their spouse on a beach and you’re fighting with yours, right? It’s looking effortlessly like their life is fabulous.

And you might think like, “Oh, why can’t I be like them?” And so, you chase external stuff. We all do this, wealth, status, recognition, but we only scratch the surface because you realize that the kind of happiness is fleeting when it’s based on external events and forces. Now, inner bliss is the opposite. It’s about building your own sense of well-being. It’s not compared to anyone else’s, and it’s finding contentment from within, not from comparing your life to another or comparing any aspect of your current reality to a perceived better reality. Let me unpack that for a second.

What I mean is this isn’t just about comparing your reality to someone else’s reality on social media. It’s about comparing your reality to maybe the way that it once was. I mean, a lot of folks, I just finished the final edits on my next book, which is The Miracle Morning After 50. So, I coauthored it with Dwayne Clark, who is an expert in, well, seniors specifically but he really focuses on how do you thrive after the age of 50 in every aspect of your life. And one of the things that, when I was doing research for that book is I came across a lot of people as they pass 50, you can call it the second half of life if you will, they end up comparing their life to how it used to be.

And the common sentiment was, “My best years are behind me.” People feel like their best years are behind them. And, by the way, I’ve felt that many times. I have to manage my mindset because I can go, “Man, I don’t know if my career will ever be at the height that it was at one point when I was traveling the world to Paris and Brazil and sharing the Miracle Morning. I don’t know if I’ll ever do that again.” So, if I compare, if that’s my comparison, right, how my life used to be, or when my kids were little, oh, man, if you’re a parent, like, I fall prey to this one more often than I care to admit, which is like I look at pictures of my babies. Like, my daughter’s 15 and I look at her when she was three or she was four, watch a home video from when she was young and, “Daddy, daddy, I love you,” right?

Like, she didn’t talk to me like that anymore. We have a great relationship but… right? It’s easy to go, “Oh man, those were the best times. Oh, it’s never going to be like that again.” And then all of a sudden, I mentioned that comparison, you’ve heard it said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” So, it’s crucial. And I’m going to give you three pillars of inner bliss here in a minute, but it’s crucial that you understand, that we understand that comparison is the thief of joy. It’s the thief of inner bliss. It’s the thief of happiness. And what is the opposite of comparison? It’s embracing your life in this moment, at this time, even with all the challenges and difficulties that you might be facing.

It’s embracing your life exactly as it is. It’s being at peace with your life exactly as it is. It’s finding the elements within your life that you have to be grateful for, finding that place inside of you. And my hand always goes to my heart when I say what I’m about to say, which is that place inside of you. That’s just grateful for the breath that you just took. Grateful to be alive. And I want to say this. We have to understand that happiness or inner bliss, right, these are all just words that are pointing toward the same thing. But we have to understand that you have the power, you have the choice to be as happy as you choose to be no matter what’s going on in your life.

And if you find yourself resisting that, like if that triggers you, if you’re like, “No, Hal, you don’t understand. I’m going through really difficult times,” I get it. And I’ve been through really difficult times as everybody has and I love giving… I’ll use this example because I think it’s hard to argue against this, right? Which is that if you can imagine, you have two people, okay, so I’ve got my hands up right now as I’m using this example, and my left hand is representing person number one, and my right hand is representing person number two. If you want a visual of this, right? And my left hand here, person number one.

Person number one endured a tragedy. It could be any adversity. Well, we’re just going to say the same adversity happened to both of these people. They both lost their job or they literally have identical tragedy, circumstances, challenges that they’re going through, and person number one is emotionally distraught. They are blaming the challenge, the loss, the tragedy on why they are miserable. And they are unhappy and they’re blaming the loss. And then person number two, they’re actually totally at peace. They’re experiencing inner bliss, but they just experienced the exact same tragedy that person number one is allowing to ruin their mental and emotional well-being while person number two is not allowing anything outside of themselves to determine how they feel.

They’ve decided at one point in their lives or maybe in the moment of this tragedy, “I can’t change what’s going on, so I’m going to be at peace with it. I’m going to show up every day at my best. I’m going to find the things in my life I’m grateful for and I’m not going to allow my outer circumstances to determine my inner world.” That is inner bliss. It is not dependent on circumstances. It’s dependent on you taking 100% responsibility and ownership of choosing how you want to feel and then actively cultivating those mental and emotional states. And if you do a Miracle Morning every day, I know that most of our listeners, I don’t know the percentage exactly, I’d say it’s probably 90%, 80%, or something, are familiar with the Miracle Morning. You’ve read the book or you’ve done it before but that for me is the daily practice that enables me to actually remember this stuff and implement this stuff.

All right. So, let’s talk strategy. So, I call these the three pillars of inner bliss, and I believe that there are three main pillars that keep inner bliss sturdy, if you will, like sustainable where you don’t just hear it on a podcast, you go, “Yeah, that makes sense,” but you actually integrate it into your life. These three pillars, number one is acceptance. You’re probably like, “Hal. Oh, man. I’ve heard you talk about acceptance a lot.” Well, I can’t leave it out. Like, it is the key that unlocks the door to inner bliss. Like, it is step one. You can’t skip it, right? And hopefully, I’ll address it in a way today that is not only helpful, but you’re going to hear some things that maybe I have not shared before.

Because I’m always learning and growing and I’m literally reading a book about acceptance right now. I mean, I’m always trying to continue learning and growing and evolving my knowledge and my experience so that I don’t just keep saying the same things in the same ways over and over again. But I do think it’s important to hear the same things in different ways as well as the same ways as reminders so that we can go, “Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that before, but I’m not living it.” Number one is acceptance. Number two is gratitude. Gratitude is the gateway to inner bliss. And then number three is purposeful living.

And when these three pillars are integrated into your life, it is a lot easier to navigate life’s inevitable ups and downs. All right. So, number one, acceptance. Acceptance is about acknowledging reality instead of fighting it. Classic example, you’re stuck in traffic. You’re frustrated because you’re running late, right? You’re riding the bumper of the car in front of you. Maybe not to be a jerk, but just because you’re like, it’s like this energy where you’re like, “Ugh, come on, go faster, go faster.” How well does that work, by the way? You can’t magically make the cars disappear. You can’t control the speed or the impact of the traffic.

So, you either become a ball of stress, honking your horn, raising your blood pressure or you can say, you can take a deep breath, I always start there, “Alright, this is happening. I’m in traffic. I’m going to be late. What can I do in this moment to make it more peaceful?” Take another deep breath. That’s the first thing that you can do is allow your breath to calm your nervous system. But you’re asking an actionable question. “What can I do in this moment during this car ride to feel more peaceful?” Maybe you listen to a podcast. Maybe you listen to your favorite music. There’s actually a great song called “Peace” that I listen to whenever I want to calm my nervous system. I actually listen to it before I go to bed so that when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, it’s the soundtrack in my mind.

It’s literally like a daily thing for me. I listen to the song called Peace. Let me see if I can look it up and tell you who the… And actually, I think it’s technically like a religious song. I’m not sure. A friend sent it to me but the lyrics are… Where is it? Hold on. I want to give you the exact artist so that I don’t just leave you hanging here. Playlist. Peace by Bethel Music and We the Kingdom. So, yeah, I think it’s definitely a religious song, but it’s not super religious. It’s more just a peaceful song. Or maybe in that car ride when you ask the question, “What can I do in this moment to feel more peaceful?” you just practice deep breathing, just something that helps you accept what is instead of wishing it wasn’t so.

Now, I personally had to learn this the hard way when I was negotiating a business deal. And I shouldn’t say, “Learn it.” I learned it in my Cutco sales training, as you’ve probably heard, but there was a recent situation where I was negotiating a business deal and I kept pushing for things. Or how do I say this? I kept resisting the reality of how the other person was responding and they weren’t budging, they weren’t being fair, they weren’t being reasonable. And from my perspective, now, that’s my perspective, right? I bet you from their perspective, they were saying the same thing about me so in no way do I think I’m right and others are wrong, like we’re all just doing the best we can with who we are.

But it wasn’t until I took a step back and said, “Okay. I can’t force them to see my perspective, but I can choose how I respond. I can choose how I show up.” And so, I decided to bring it into my meditation every day and my affirmations, and that I was going to view this business negotiation from a place of love and really love the other person and a place of empathy and really put myself in their shoes. And when I shifted from resisting and frustrated with how they were responding and how they were being to going, “No, I just get to own my inner state and the way that I respond, the way that I show up,” that allowed me to experience peace.

All right. A quick exercise for acceptance. The next time you find yourself thinking, “I hate this. I wish it wasn’t happening. I wish that didn’t happen. I wish it were different,” pause, take three deep breaths, and label the moment. This is frustration. This is tension in my body. This is me resisting reality and creating mental and emotional turmoil, and that’s okay. I accept that this is part of my current experience. You’d be surprised how freeing, how liberating that can be. Acceptance is the key that unlocks the door to inner bliss to emotional liberation.

And last thing I’ll say, and this is my classic teaching, this is what taught me the power of acceptance, is the five-minute rule, which when you feel yourself upset, set your timer for five minutes and give yourself five minutes to feel your emotions, b*tch, moan, complain, cry, vent, punch a wall. Literally, this is a very actionable strategy. You set the timer for five minutes and while it’s running there are no limits to how upset you can feel. Get mad, like, feel yourself, right? This is kind of an opposite of going straight to acceptance because some people, they’re like, “No, I have too much pent-up aggression and anger and energy.”

Okay. If you can’t go straight to acceptance, which is completely understandable and expected, set the timer for five minutes. Give yourself five minutes to fill your emotions, and when the timer goes off, then you say three very liberating words, “Can’t change it.” Take those deep breaths and acknowledge I can’t change what happens. So, now I get to choose: do I want to continue being upset about it or do I want to be at peace with it? So, the first pillar of inner bliss is acceptance.

Number two is gratitude. So, if acceptance is the key that unlocks the door to inner bliss, gratitude is the gateway that gets you there. And, yes, you’re probably like, “Gratitude, yeah, I hear it all the time.” Like, we hear about gratitude so much these days, but it’s for good reason. Researchers like Dr. Robert Emmons have studied gratitude extensively and found that people who regularly practice gratitude not know about it, not roll their eyes and be like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, gratitude. I get it. I always hear about this.” No. People who regularly practice gratitude, like daily gratitude meditations, going for a gratitude walk, which is basically a walking meditation, writing down in your journal what you are grateful for.

I was showing this to my good friend and Chief Growth Officer of the Miracle Morning, Jeremy Reisig, the other day. The way that I journal, in my journal, actually, I write gains and gratitude, and that was inspired by one of my favorite books, The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. It basically talks about how in life kind of goes back to the comparison thing, that when we’re in the gap, we’re unhappy, we’re stressed, we’re frustrated. The gap is when we’re comparing where we are towards some imagined ideal. It could be our past, like I talked about, “Oh, things used to be so much easier and better, and now my life’s not as easy. I wish it was the way…” We’re resisting reality, wishing it were different, or we’re comparing ourselves to someone else, “Man, they have it so easy. I wish my life were like them.”

Or we’re comparing ourselves to just the way we think life could or should be, “Oh, man, I wish it was this way.” Right? We’re resisting reality. So, gains, when you’re in the gain, it means you’re not comparing yourself to an ideal. You are focusing on how far you’ve come, the gains you’ve made. So, anything that I do during the day, that’s a gain, spending time with my kids or my wife, recording this at the end of today, recording this podcast will go under my gains and gratitude. So, gains and gratitude for me is I write the things down that I have gained for the day or that I am grateful for.

So, again, going back to Dr. Robert Emmons who has studied gratitude extensively, this is not just some opinion like he has done deep research on this and found that people who regularly practice gratitude report higher levels of happiness, optimism, and even physical health. So, it’s not just a cliche, but being thankful genuinely rewires your brain toward positivity. A super practical approach is the gratitude journal, or like I said, for me it’s gains and gratitude. So, every morning, during your Miracle Morning, every night before bed, write down, it could be one thing, two, three things that you’re grateful for.

I like three because if you just go with one, it doesn’t give you a broader view of like, “Wow, I have a lot to be grateful for.” I don’t think you should aspire to write a list of a hundred, right? But three is good. Three is a nice round number. And don’t worry about making it profound. It could be something like, “I had a really nice cup of coffee this morning,” or, “I got a text from a friend who remembered me, who thought about me.” The key is consistency. That is the key. It’s when it’s done daily. When you become disciplined about gratitude, you train your mind to seek out more reasons to be thankful for, right? So, the second pillar of inner bliss is gratitude.

The third is purposeful living. Now, this is where Viktor Frankl’s quote comes in. Viktor Frankl, by the way, wrote a phenomenal book, if you haven’t read it, called Man’s Search for Meaning. And Viktor Frankl was a Nazi concentration camp survivor. He was a psychologist. And the quote that I’m referring to, and he has a lot of great quotes from that book, “Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how.” So, purposeful living means aligning your daily actions with your core values and beliefs. You’re not just existing. You’re living for something bigger than yourself.

What do you value? Are you living in alignment with your value? What do you believe? Are you living in alignment with your deeply held beliefs? I was talking also, referencing another conversation with Jeremy Reisig the other day aka J Hobbs, by the way. He and I did The Miracle Morning Song, which you can find on Spotify or wherever, J Hobbs and Hal Elrod, of course, or featuring Hal Elrod. It’s a fun song, by the way. Do you know there’s a Miracle Morning song? So, go find J Hobbs, Miracle Morning song.

But I was talking to Jeremy and I was telling him about when I was going through the most difficult time in my life, which there’s been a lot of difficult times in my life, just like there probably have for you, my car accident, cancer. But the most difficult time in my life, it was the only time that I was really contemplating suicide, like trying to figure out how I could take my life and not have it or have it minimally affect my kids. I was in such a dark place. This started in, well, it started at the end of 2019 in December when I slept for two hours one night and then that continued for five months where I was sleeping two to four hours a night for roughly five months.

And if you ever slept two hours in a night, you’re a mess the next day. Well, two to four hours a night for five months, chronic sleep deprivation. I was hallucinating. I was delusional. I developed extraordinary, extreme, severe anxiety, and I prayed a lot, “God, why has this happened to me? I’ve already been through so much. Like, please help me.” And every day I’d wake up, I’d try to be optimistic, do my Miracle Morning, read my affirmations, and try to figure out how to get some sleep and figure out supplements. And I was trying everything. I was desperate, trying everything.

And it just kept going. I mean, even after a week of this, I was like, “Please, no more. I can’t handle this.” And then another week, and then a month, and then another month. I mean, I can’t even tell you how bad it got. If I tell you, I was telling Jeremy. I actually went in-depth with Jeremy and I started bawling. I started crying, remembering how horrible this was. And I don’t want to do that right now. I don’t want to become a blubbering mess on this podcast. So, I’m not going to go in too much depth, but just know that I was genuinely suicidal, planning, figuring out, can I take my life and not have it really hurt my kids? And obviously, you got to be in a pretty bad place that you can even entertain that, “Is that a possibility?” Thankfully, I never got a good answer like there was no way to do that so I never followed through with my darkest intentions, thankfully.

But here’s the point. I was telling Jeremy that when I would pray like, “God, why is this happening?” and I would try to get clarity, the answer that came back for me is that like my purpose, this is integrating into this concept of purposeful living and those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how, my why, my purpose in my life and I have multiple purposes depending on different contexts, but one of my fundamental primary purposes is to fulfill my potential so that I can help other people fulfill theirs. And other people starts with my family, my children, and then it branches out to my exterior family but ultimately to you. Like, my purpose in life I feel like everything I’ve endured, the big challenges I face like I’ve tried to learn from it so that can help other people.

And so, the message that I got and the purpose that I was living from was I am supposed to be going through this horrific time where I’m so depressed and anxious and to the point of being suicidal because tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people are suffering their own version of this. And I can only help those people if I’ve endured it and overcome it myself. And so, during my darkest times, it was living this purpose. It was my why to endure whatever I have to endure, to learn and become who I need to become to help other people in their lives and on their journey.

That was my why, that was my purpose, and that got me to go one more day and one more day, and one more week, and one more month until finally seeking lots of help from therapists and coaches and counselors, and Dr. Michael Breus, The Sleep Doctor, who really helped me with my supplementation ritual that I’ve talked about in even the New Miracle Morning book. I shared that story and which supplements I take in the chapter called The Miracle Evening in the new updated and expanded edition of The Miracle Morning. So, I won’t go into that right now. But that got me through it.

So, if you’re not sure what your purpose is, start small. You don’t have to have a grandiose purpose, and you can change it at any time. That’s what’s important is people think, “Oh, what’s my purpose in life?” like it’s supposed to be handed to you. It’s not. I believe that we choose our purpose and that we can choose a purpose, and then we can iterate on that purpose and we can test it and try it on like you try on an outfit and see how it fits and see how it feels and see how it enables you to show up in your life. And then you can evolve it or you can change it, or you can choose a new one or you can add another one, right?

My first purpose in my life was to selflessly add value to the lives of other people. That was the first time when I learned about purpose, that was what I resonated with, what I wrote down. And obviously, that’s in alignment with my other purpose that I just shared, which is to fulfill my potential and endure whatever I have to endure so that I can help other people fulfill theirs, right? Two different purposes, very much related. So, this isn’t a black and white you only have one purpose, you were born to fulfill the purpose. No. Your purpose can evolve over time. But so, start small. Don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself.

Ask yourself, what do I value most in life? Is it family? Is it creativity, contribution to others, or something else? Is it business? Is it like, “Hey I’ve thrived in business and that’s allowed me to create financial freedom and security for me and my family, and I feel like my purpose is to help other people.” In fact, I think that’s one of the fundamental formulas for figuring out your purpose or deciding what it’s going to be is, what have you overcome or accomplished in your life, or what have you figured out? Like, did you figure out how to be happy in spite of challenges, right, which is what I’m talking about here?

What have you overcome or accomplished in your life that you can now help other people do in their lives? That’s a great question to figure out what your purpose is. And I forgot who said this, but there’s a great philosophy or quote, which is you are most qualified to serve the person you once were. I wish I knew who originally said that. I do not recall. I’m sure you could google it, but I’ll say it again. You are most qualified to serve the person that you once were. So, like when I left my Cutco career and I was like, “I want to be an entrepreneur. What am I qualified to do?” I go, “Well, what I’ve done is I’ve sold a lot of Cutco, so I guess I’m qualified to coach other Cutco sales reps and teach them the things that I figured out that allowed me to be very successful.”

And then I also went, “Oh, what else?” And I overcame the car accident and I was happy in the midst of the most difficult time in my life. And then I wrote my first book, Taking Life Head On!: How To Love The Life You Have While You Create The Life of Your Dreams. Because I was like, “I’m qualified to teach people how to love the life they have even when it’s really difficult,” which by the way, is what the premise of this podcast is largely about, right? That’s inner bliss. Independent of your circumstances, how can you feel at peace and grateful and joyful, and content, and happy and all of the things?

So, ask yourself those questions. What do I value most in life? What have I overcome or accomplished that I can help other people overcome or accomplish? And then try to line up your daily tasks. Try to set your goals in alignment with those values, with your experiences, with the things that you are qualified to help other people do. Now, for example, if you value creativity, that could be like if you’re an artist, right? For example, maybe carve out 30 minutes a day to write or paint or start a YouTube channel if you’re funny, whatever, brainstorm. If you value helping others, look for ways to volunteer or mentor someone. When you find, and actually not find, when you decide, when you choose a purpose, your purpose for now, that could change in the future. That’s why there’s no pressure. You literally just try on a purpose.

And that’s why people, I think, struggle with finding their life purpose because they put way too much pressure that it’s like, “It’s one thing. It was like predetermined before you were born.” I don’t believe that, but when you find… Sorry. I keep saying find. When you choose and honor your purpose, life takes on a whole new level of meaning. And guess what? That meaning fuels inner bliss. And like Viktor Frankl said, “Those who have a why to live by a purpose, can bear with almost any how.” All right. So, those are the three pillars of inner bliss. It’s acceptance, accepting and acknowledging reality instead of fighting it; gratitude, that’s the gateway to inner bliss and purposeful living; being clear on what’s your bigger why that will allow you to endure whatever life throws your way.

All right. So, here’s the big question. How do we bring self-discipline from Part 1 and Inner Bliss, our current focus today, together? Honestly, discipline is what helps you practice the three pillars. Think about that. Without self-discipline, you’re going to hear this podcast and go, “Yeah, that was cool. That would probably help me if I was proactively cultivating acceptance and gratitude and purposeful living.” But without self-discipline, you won’t do it, right? We can all say we want to be more grateful, but it’s our discipline that actually gets us to pick up that gratitude journal every day. We can talk about living purposefully, but discipline is what pushes us to follow through even when we’re tired, we’re stressed, or tempted by distractions.

So, quick daily routine you might try: Number one, morning mindfulness. That’s your acceptance. Right after you wake up, take five minutes to just breathe. Set your timer, ground yourself, “Ah. See, I accept my reality exactly as it is. I will not fight with reality. I won’t resist reality and notice any tension or anxiety and allow it to be there without judgment.” We carry so much of our stress in our body. And using the deep breathing and the meditation and the prayer and the mindfulness allows you to release that tension, release that anxious energy, and move toward that inner bliss.

Number two is the gratitude check. Write down three things you’re grateful for that you can do it in two minutes. It’s simple. But it shifts your mindset before the day begins, before the day’s chaos begins. And then number three, review your goals. This is the purposeful living. Like, look at your to-do list, look at your goals, connect each item with your why, and if it doesn’t align with your values and what’s most important to you, ask yourself why it’s there in the first place. Make sure that you’re living in alignment with what matters. And by the way, if you’re like, “Hal I wake up, I got to go to work. It’s not aligned with my purpose. I don’t like my job. I hate it, but I have to do it.”

Okay. Find other outlets for purposeful living and that routine, that miracle, whether you integrate in your Miracle Morning or if you’re like, “I don’t do the Miracle Morning, Hal. I don’t even know what that is.” Okay, great. Just do these three: morning mindfulness to cultivate acceptance, a gratitude check in writing, and reviewing your goals and asking yourself, are they aligned with your purpose? And if they’re not, set some new goals, even one new goal that is aligned with your purpose. That routine might take you 10 or 15 minutes in the morning but it sets the tone for your entire day. And over time, you’ll find it easier and more natural because that’s what self-discipline does, right? It carves out a path for your habits to follow. It makes it easier and easier as you continue going.

All right. Let’s wrap up. So, we started with self-discipline in part one, The Shortcut to Self-Discipline. If you want to go back, and that’s a masterclass, if you will, on how to become self-disciplined. Even if you don’t consider yourself a self-disciplined person or you’ve never been that, that is your foundation. It is the backbone that keeps your habits running, that ensures that you’re doing the things that will bring you fulfillment. And then now with inner bliss, you add depth and meaning and joy to the equation, the fulfillment formula, if you will, and you put them together, right? You have that fulfillment formula, though again, I make no promises that I coined that phrase, I’m sure, right? I’m not trying to claim that. I don’t copyright that. I’m sure other people have said it. It’s just what came to me.

So, alright, here are your key takeaways. Number one, self-discipline. It allows you to practice the habits that lead to fulfillment. Number two is inner bliss. It’s the result of the three pillars: acceptance, gratitude, and purposeful living. And number three, combine the two by using self-discipline to follow through on the daily actions that cultivate joy and peace and inner bliss in your life. Remember, if you’re feeling overwhelmed at all right now, you’re like, “That’s a lot, Hal,” this is not about being perfect. It’s about building a life that genuinely feels good from the inside out.

And if you slip up, congratulations, you’re officially human. If you don’t get it perfect, that’s to be expected. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. Those are the two forces that we are constantly balancing in life, what we do and how we feel. And the whole purpose of this episode and the last episode on self-discipline is to begin mastering. And that’s a heavy word. So, begin implementing, starting with even the intention to become in control, to take responsibility for what you do, and do the things that fulfill you and light you up, and realizing that how you feel is up to you. It’s not dependent on your circumstances or outside forces unless you continue allowing it to be.

When you take ownership of how you feel and what you do, and you don’t worry about getting it perfect, but you make progress toward getting more effective and more disciplined, and more at peace, less resistance of reality, more acceptance, more gratitude, living more purposefully, you create a fulfilling life. You become productive and you become fulfilled. So, I could go on and on, but I think we’re wrapping up here. Thank you so much for tuning into this second part of our journey, and I hope you feel inspired to explore and create your own version of the fulfillment formula. Stay disciplined. Stay blissful. I love you so much, and I will catch you in next week’s episode.