[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends, and welcome to the final episode of our Miracle Year series here on the Achieve Your Goals podcast. I am your host, Hal Elrod, and today we are tying it all together. This is where we move from vision and planning, which is the fun and kind of the easier part, to action and habits, the daily practices that will make your goals for 2025 a reality. How do you get yourself to do what you need to do when you need to do it, whether you feel like it or not, so that you can follow through and achieve your goals? Now, let me recap what we’ve covered so far.

In Episode 1, we reflected on 2024. We celebrated your wins, learned from your challenges, we identified the lessons you can carry forward into the new year, and that is the foundation because reflection gives us clarity. It’s the foundation for everything that we’ve built in this series. It’s like a GPS, right? Where are you now needs to be identified to figure out where you’re going to go. In Episode 2, we focused on clarifying your vision and values for 2025. We explored how aligning your goals with a deeper purpose. Your deeper purpose ensures that your efforts feel meaningful and rewarding so that you feel propelled and motivated to keep going.

In Episode 3, last week, we talked about customizing and optimizing your Miracle Morning routine specifically so that it supports you in achieving your goals. Now, your morning routine is still where you create the clarity and the momentum for your daily actions, and you build the habits that set the tone for the rest of your day. Now, in Episode 4, we are talking about how to turn your resolutions into results by taking consistent action and building habits that support your success, that support your desired outcomes.

I’m going to break down how to simplify your actions, how to build momentum, how to stay committed, and how to overcome obstacles so that you can actually achieve the goals you’ve set for 2025. I’ll also share a powerful strategy that I learned from John Maxwell to help you take action even when you don’t feel like it. And I’ll share the most overlooked tool for getting yourself to follow through and how to implement it. I call this, number one, we’re covering the power of the process today; number two, acting your way into feeling; and number three, establishing accountability.

Before we dive in, I want to take just a minute or two to thank our sponsors that bring you today’s episode. First and foremost is Organifi. A lot of us have health goals. In fact, we should all have health goals, optimizing our health. Where my favorite supplement company that makes organic whole food supplements to boost your nutrition, help you with sleep, weight loss, building muscle, you name it, if there’s a health outcome, they’ve got a solution for you. It’s Organifi. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal. That is spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal, and use the discount code ‘HAL’ to get 20% off your entire order.

And I use their Organic Vanilla Protein Powder in my smoothies every day. I use their Red Juice before workouts to give me caffeine-free energy. I use their Critical Immune right now when my family, everybody’s sick. I’m the only person not sick in my family. This is how it always goes. So, I’m taking Critical Immune, Organifi’s immunity supplement, so that I can boost my immune system and not get sick right now. So, again, whatever your health goal is, Organifi have the solution, Organifi.com/Hal.

And last but not least, we have an event coming up, The Miracle Year Live event. Head over to MiracleYearLive.com. It’s on January 8th and we’re going to take everything we’ve been talking about in this podcast series but we’re going to give you a ten-plus page detailed handout that will become your Miracle Year blueprint. And it’s a four-hour live event with me and my team. And it’s going to be immersive, it’s going to be experiential, it’s going to be interactive to be able to ask questions. We’re going to give you time to actually do the work right there. So, you’re not going to just take a bunch of notes and leave with a bunch of homework. You’re going to leave with your blueprint completed, everything that you need to make 2025 the best year of your life. You can get all the details and sign up for that event at MiracleYearLive.com.

All right. Without further ado, let’s dive in. We’re going to cover the power of the process, acting your way into feeling, and establishing accountability so that you can follow through this year with every action you need to take, every habit you need to maintain to make this the best year of your life.

[EPISODE]

Hal Elrod: All right. We’re going to start by what I call the power of the process. So, obviously, we know goals don’t achieve themselves, right? We know this. But here’s the thing, success this year is not just about big, bold actions and quantum leaps, which we often trick ourselves into thinking that it is, right? Or at least we feel that way. Because if we have big goals that are way beyond where we currently are, then it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by how far off that goal seems. And that’s one of the challenges when you’re starting a new year is that you’re looking at what feels like the Grand Canyon between where you are and where you need to go.

But these bold actions and quantum leaps are occasional. It’s really about the small, consistent, daily actions that you create and stick with over time. It’s the daily 20 minutes of exercise, the 10 minutes of reading each day, right? It’s these small habits that build up and have a compound effect. Now, why do I call this the power of the process? Well, let me tell you a quick story. So, the year was 2001. This is 23 years ago. I was 22 years old, I believe, and I was in sales. I was trying to have my best year ever at Cutco Cutlery. I was selling Cutco. And I remember I had a really tough start to the year.

This was in January and I couldn’t schedule any appointments or I was scheduling very few. And then I had a couple of cancellations and then I couldn’t make any sales. Nobody was buying from me and I got a big order and then it canceled. Like, it was just the worst start to the year and it took an emotional toll on me. We’re all emotional creatures and we can be sensitive when things don’t go our way and we face rejection or failure. And so, I lived in an apartment right next door to the Cutco office and I remember thinking, “Man, I want to do something else. I want to get a different job that is more predictable and that doesn’t have so much uncertainty and I don’t get rejected.” And it was really just I don’t like the way that I feel. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I want a job that doesn’t make me feel this way.

And think about that, by the way. That applies to every area of life, right? If you’re in a marriage and you’re thinking, “I want out,” what you really want is you don’t want to feel that way. I remember when I was depressed, not to go too far off on a tangent here, but in 2020 when I went through that six-month of sleep deprivation, where I was sleeping 2 to 4 hours a night and I was hallucinating in my brain. I mean, two hours a night, four hours a night for six months really messes you up and I was suicidal. I was like I was so unhappy. And I would think I just want to end my life like I can’t do this anymore. And it wasn’t that I wanted to end my life. I just didn’t want to feel that way anymore, right?

So, keep that in mind, by the way, just as a little bonus lesson that whenever you think that you don’t want the thing anymore that’s causing you pain, realize that really you just don’t want to feel that way anymore. And we actually have more control over our feelings than we think. I’ll save that for another time. But in fact, we’ve covered that before, right? The Miracle Life, choosing how you experience each moment of your life, regardless of your circumstances or challenges you face. So, anyway, back to the story. So, I was like, “Man, I need to quit.” And that night I’m falling asleep and I have a breakthrough.

I realize, “Wait a minute. Yeah, I’m not on track for my goal yet this year. I’m having a really rough start. Okay. However, if I fast forward 12 months from now,” and I’m inviting you right now listening to this to fast forward 12 months from now, 12 months from now, whether or not I achieve my… And at that time, it was a sales goal for me, right? “Whether or not I achieve the goal really is dependent on how many phone calls I make.” Because the averages always work out, right? If you make 20 phone calls a day, five days per week, 100 calls per week, then at the end of the year, that’s going to equal X number of sales.

And you can apply this to losing weight or building muscle or any area of life where if you go, if you exercise 20 minutes a day, four days per week, three or four days per week, that’s going to generate a result. You’re going to be burning calories. At the end of the year, you will have a result based on committing to that process that you define that process of, for me, it was I needed to make 20 calls a day, five days a week. And here’s what I realized. And follow along, because this might sound overly simple but it’s actually really profound in its simplicity. I’m not calling myself profound, but this concept is profound. At least that’s how I felt when I had the realization that night.

I went, “Wait a minute, if I make ten calls a day, five days a week for the entire year, I’ll sell X number of Cutco knives. If I go from 10 calls a day to 20 calls per day, I will double that number.” And again, this might sound simple. Don’t miss this, though. So, I could literally double my income, like the idea of, think about that, the idea of doubling results, like increasing your results of your income, for example, imagine doubling your income from this year to the next. That’s usually overwhelming. You’re like, “Maybe I can increase it by 10% but doubling it? Like,  no, that’s not even realistic.”

But I realized doubling my income sounded very challenging and seemingly impossible, but doubling the number of daily effort, doubling from 10 calls to 20 calls, that was completely within my control. And so, that’s what I did that year. And then here’s the cool part. This is the other part you don’t want to miss. I realized that whether I achieve my goal at the end of the year will not be dependent on how my day-to-day results go. So, why am I wasting so much emotional energy getting stressed out over my day-to-day results? I just need to define the process, which I did, 20 calls a day, and I need to commit to the process without being emotionally attached to the results, right? Still with me?

So, I said, “I’m going to commit to 20 calls a day and I’m not going to worry how the calls go. No longer am I going to stress out when I don’t have good results on the phone or no longer I’m going to stress out when someone is rude to me and hangs up and says, ‘Don’t ever call here again. We don’t want your knives.’” That used to really like that was like a gut punch. I’m like, “Why would they be so mean? I’m a good person. I can’t believe they would treat me like that. I’m a human being.” It used to really get to me how people treated me, and I was very emotionally attached to my results. And then I realized I’m going to be completely emotionally unattached to my results and therefore no one will have any power over me.

If they hang up on me, if they don’t show up to the appointment, if they cancel their order, if they don’t buy from me, great, because I know. Now, why I was able to maintain the emotional detachment from the results? Because I know that if I make 20 calls a day, five days a week, or for you, it’s running on the treadmill 20 minutes a day, three days a week, whatever, or it’s writing like when I was writing the Miracle Morning, I applied the same practice. I have good days and bad days, days with writer’s block. But I would write a thousand words a day no matter what, whether they were good words or crappy words. And some days, let’s say three out of five days they weren’t great, but two out of five days they were amazing. And that’s what actually ended up going into the pages of the Miracle Morning book.

So, you can apply this, date nights, taking your child to school, right? Quality time with your loved ones. When you commit to the process without being emotionally attached to your short-term results, that for me and for you is one of the most effective strategies that you can implement this year. Define your process, the consistent effort, and then commit to it for the entire year. And don’t worry about the results along the way. And it doesn’t mean you don’t pay attention to the results and maybe adjust. Like, for example, if I was making 20 calls a day, five days a week, and gone in the last few days, I wasn’t on track for my goal for the week and I wanted to make up some ground, I might increase it to 30 calls a day or 40 calls. Or I might make calls on a sixth day instead of just the five days a week, right?

So, yes, you can adjust your effort according to influencing your results however you want. But here’s the beauty of it. At the end of four months later, four months of implementing the strategy, and, literally, I was all in on the strategy and I just had no stress in my life. Like, there was no stress over my work where I used to ride this emotional roller coaster based on how my results would go. And if you’re in business or in sales and you’re paid based on your results, you get that, right? You’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I worked really hard this week and I didn’t make any money.” And then some weeks you work really hard and you make twice as much money. It all averages itself out.

But here’s the beauty of it. It’s four months later. I was the number one sales rep. Out of 60,000, give or take, 60,000 sales reps in Cutco, I was number one in the company, but this was the cool part. Everyone else, my competition who I was ahead of, they were still riding the emotional roller coaster. They were still emotionally attached to their day-to-day results and they were having good days and bad days and okay days and terrible days. And every day for me was great. As long as I made my 20 calls for the day, I gave myself permission to celebrate as long as I followed through with the process that I committed to. Then the only emotional attachment I had wasn’t to the result. It was the process.

Now, if I didn’t do my 20 calls, yeah, I would get on myself, “Hey, that’s not okay. You’re better than that. Follow through. Commit. You missed one day. Don’t let one bad day turn into two.” So, when it comes to action and habits, the way that I like to simplify it, I call it the power of the process, being committed to the process without being emotionally attached to the results. Now, let me handle one concern that many of you have, that you may have, that I have had in the past, and I still have sometimes. It’s how do you get yourself to do the thing that you need to do if you don’t feel like it? Like, what if you don’t feel motivated?

Whenever I survey our community, our listeners of the podcast and I ask, “What’s your biggest challenge?” Following through is always at the top of the list. Following through. Getting myself to do what I said I was going to do, what I “committed” to do. And the reason I say quote-unquote, there’s air quotes there, is you didn’t actually commit to it if you’re not following through. Like, a true commitment has to be followed through if it were to have been a commitment. Otherwise, it wasn’t a commitment. You were just interested in doing the thing, right? If you’re committed to something, that means there is no other option.

And one of my mentors, I think I said this on one of the recent podcasts, his voicemail when I used to call my friend, Romacio, a very successful individual, and his voicemail would always end with, “And remember my friend, there is always a way when you’re committed.” Let me say that again. He said, “There’s always a way when you’re committed,” and it’s so true. If you’re committed, there’s always a way. However, okay, well, what if you think you’re committed and you’re afraid? Like, what that actually did, what I just said can actually generate fear within you because you go, “Oh, man, well, then I don’t want to commit because in my past I’ve known myself to not follow through when I do commit. So, I don’t want to set myself up for failure.” Right?

Maybe you’re feeling that like, “So, it’s not a commitment unless I follow through. Well, then I guess I shouldn’t commit because I don’t know if I’m going to follow through.” I’ll share with you one of the most effective strategies that I ever learned. And it’s not my own. It’s from John Maxwell. I want to emphasize this. You don’t have to feel motivated to take action. Okay. This is where John Maxwell’s strategy comes in. He teaches the concept of acting your way into feeling. Instead of waiting until you feel like it to take action, you take the action first and the feeling of motivation then follows. Think about that.

How many times have you dreaded starting something like a workout or a challenging task? Maybe you were procrastinating and putting it off, but once you actually began it, you felt energized and even proud of yourself for doing it. That is the power of acting your way into feeling. When you commit to taking even a small step, you build momentum, you generate energy, you generate momentum. I’m sorry. I meant to say motivation that carries you forward. So, the key is combining intentional action, committing to your process, and then doing the thing, taking the first step without thinking yourself out of taking it.

And I’ll go back to the example of how I applied this that year that I was talking about, where I committed to the process of making 20 phone calls a day, five days a week. What I would do to make it easy, to eliminate or minimize inertia and resistance is in the morning or before I went to bed, I set out my referral notebook that had all of the people who had been referred to me by other Cutco customers that I was going to call. I would open it up to the exact page of the first person that I needed to call the next morning when I did my phone calls at 8 a.m. and I would set my pen on that line with the end of the pen pointing at the name. So, there was no confusion. This is the person I’m going to call.

And the next morning I would schedule an alarm at 8 a.m. to make my phone calls. And then what happened was I acted my way into feeling. In the past, I didn’t have an alarm. I didn’t have my notebook set out so there was a lot more inertia. It was like I would just go, “Oh, I’m supposed to make calls at 8 a.m.,” and I look at the clock. I’m like, “Oh, it’s 8:04. Eh, I don’t want to make calls,” and relate this to whatever habits you procrastinate on, whatever things in your life you put off that you know you should do, you said you were going to do them, you know they’re good for you, but it’s easier not to do them. And human nature is to do what’s easier, right?

So, I would procrastinate and I’d go, “I’ll just take my calls at 8:30 or at 9:00 or tomorrow.” But with this new strategy of acting my way into feeling, what happened was the alarm went off, I would literally turn off the alarm and I decided this the night before. It became a daily strategy. I would walk over without thinking. Literally, I shut my brain off, “La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Not allowed to think. I’m not allowed to think. I just have to take action and act my way into feeling.” So, I’d walk over, pick up the referral or look at the referral notebook, grab my phone. I would dial that first phone number that I had predetermined the night before and it would start ringing and then I’d go, “Okay.”

As the phone’s ringing, I’m like getting myself in the zone to like start going through my approach. Then the person would answer or not answer, right? If they didn’t answer, I left a message. If they answer, I’d go, “Hi, Betty. My name’s Hal Elrod. We haven’t met before, but you know your friend Joanne Smith? You know Joanne? I was at her house the other day, and your name came up. She said you were super nice, and she thought we would get along. What I’m doing is I’m actually working with a company while I go to college to earn money to put myself through school. It’s called Cutco. Have you heard of it before?” And then yada, yada, yada.

So, you guys just heard me go right into my script from 23 years ago. But the power is if I had allowed myself to think about whether or not I should make calls and play that game of, “Could I put it off? Could I do it later?” I didn’t have motivation to make calls, so I acted my way into feeling. And by making that very first call, taking that baby step, that creates the momentum and the energy and the motivation that you need to follow through. Now, how might you apply that to a different area of life? Well, my favorite example is let’s say you have a fitness goal. Maybe you want to lose weight. Maybe you want to build muscle, whatever it is, maybe you’re training for a marathon, and maybe it’s a long way away, right? You want to lose 20 pounds and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I’ve tried before and I’ve failed.”

Well, if you think about the gap between where you are and where you want to be, you’re likely to put yourself in a state of deficiency, in a state of overwhelm. And that does not serve you, right? So, instead of doing that, instead of overthinking and thinking your way out of it and creating that state of fear, overwhelm, or scarcity, pack your gym bag the night before and set it out on your kitchen counter with your car keys. And before you go to bed, maybe you even sleep in your workout clothes, right? What you’re doing is you’re making it as easy as possible to act your way into feeling to take action.

Because here’s the thing. If you’re sitting on the couch going, “Oh, I should go to the gym,” you’re unlikely to have… Motivation doesn’t come and just pick you up and go, “Yeah, let’s go,” and pick you up and put you in the car. However, if you have your gym backpack, there’s very little inertia, it’s super easy, you got your car keys and you have a timer that’s on your phone that says, “Get in the car with your gym bag and drive to the gym.” And you don’t think yourself out of it. You don’t think about how many pounds you have left to lose, how far away you are from the goal. No, none of that. You just grab your gym bag, grab your car keys.

If you start catching yourself thinking, “I could do this tomorrow. I don’t feel like it. I’m busy. I have other stuff to do,” you just interrupt your thinking, your pattern. You go, “La la la la la. I’m not going to think my way out of this.” You just grab your gym bag, grab your car keys, get in the car, and set your GPS to the gym, and go. And at that moment, you might not feel motivated. You might be tired. You might not have energy. But guess what happens? As you’re driving to the gym, you’re generating momentum. You’re generating energy. If you drive to the gym, you’re almost certain to go inside the gym, right? You’d have to really, now, you have inertia.

Think about this. You have now flipped inertia on its head. Now, there’s inertia to not work out. Like, as soon as you grab that gym bag and grab those car keys and get in that car, you have shifted the momentum forward toward you getting a workout in that will perpetually or, what’s the word I’m looking for, consistently over time that’s going to lead to that 20 pounds that you want to lose. But if you drive to the gym, if you get in the car to go to the gym, you’re going to drive there. And if you drive there, you’re probably going to get out and grab your gym bag and walk inside. Then when you do, the music’s pumping. People are fit. They’re on the treadmill. You’re all fired up, right? And now you’re like, “Okay, let’s go.”

And then you go get dressed and you get in the gym. But think about this. You didn’t think your way into the gym. You acted your way into the gym. You acted your way into feeling. So, I like to say it this way. If you want to get in the best shape of your life this year, all you got to do, you got to have that gym membership, right, or that walking group or whatever but let’s just use the gym example since we’re on that. All you need to do is have your gym bag packed and your keys and an alarm set every day and get in the car and set your GPS to the gym. Like, that’s all you have to do. Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about the 300, what have we got? Let’s say so 50 weeks out of the year, let’s say you’re exercising 3 to 4 times a week. That’s 150 to 200 workouts. See, right now, you’re like, “Oh, God, that’s so far away. I’ve never worked out that much.”

No, don’t overthink it. You’ve just got to pack your gym bag every day and set out your car keys and set an alarm. And that is how you get in the best shape of your life. All I had to do when I was selling Cutco to have the best year of my life was I just had to set up my referral notebook the night before with a pen pointing to the name that I was going to call and my cell phone setting an alarm to make that first call. And I didn’t think about the call because I would have thought myself out of making it. I would have thought myself into procrastination. And instead of thinking about it, I just grabbed my phone and dialed the first number and I built my wings on the way down, so to speak.

So, that is the power of the process. It’s you determining what are the actions and the habits that you need to implement this year for each of your goals. Last week we talked about setting your goals for 2025. Now, of course, at the Miracle Year Live event on January 8th, we are going to do this together in over a four-hour period with exercises and different prompts, and you’re going to have a ten-plus page handout and all of that. If you want to join that, you can sign up at MiracleYearLive.com, get all the details, and you can join us for that live event. So, if you haven’t already done that, set your goals and everything, you can go back to last week’s podcast episode.

But the point is, once you have your goals set, that is not enough. You will have to clarify the actions and the habits or what I call the process that are going to enable you to achieve your goals. Again, it’s not about the bold actions and the quantum leaps. Occasionally, you got to take some bold actions and occasionally you’ll make quantum leaps. It’s about the small, consistent daily habits that you create and stick with over time. That is your process and the secret to success.

I really believe if you had to sum up the secret to success when it comes to achieving goals is to commit to the process without being emotionally attached to your results. Because every result that you want to accomplish in your life you can call it a goal, an outcome, or results, all synonyms for the same thing, every result that you want to accomplish, every goal you want to achieve is preceded by a process. And if we get granular, that’s what matters is that you define what that process is for you, that you’re flexible, might need to adjust it over time, might need to add a little bit or subtract a little bit or modify it a little bit, iterate, but define that process, commit to it day after day after day.

And as we talked about last week, actually, I guess two weeks ago, we started setting your goals. Last week was about optimizing your morning routine to achieve your goals. And I mentioned like my Miracle Morning, that is my keystone habit, right? That is part of my process. It’s the personal development process that enables me to identify my highest priorities, to articulate those in writing in the form of affirmations, to read those affirmations every day, to be reminded of what I’m committed to in my life, why it’s a must for me, which actions, habits, routines I am committed to as well the process that’s going to get me there. Then I visualize myself doing the things. I read books that amplify my knowledge and my skills and my strategies and my abilities.

So, the Miracle Morning is part of that process. It is arguably the most important part. So, those are my two favorite strategies for achieving goals this year. It’s the power of the process and acting your way to feeling. I’m like, “Wait, what was the second one I was talking about?” The power of the process and acting your way into feeling. Combining those two, like we could go on and on and on about doing your smart goals and setting up your accountability partner and all of that. That is the third thing I want to talk about is your having accountability for your life. That is one of the most missed opportunities to follow through. Think about it. We’ve all been there before where we let ourselves down.

It’s easy to let ourselves down, but we’re much less likely to let someone else down that we have given our word to. I learned this initially when I hired my first coach, and he really taught me about the value of integrity, doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. And by the way, my first coach, his name is Jeff Sooey. Shout out to Jeff. But he taught me the value of integrity and the power of integrity. And if you think about it, integrity is arguably one of the most powerful forces in a human being’s life. Because if you master your commitment to integrity, to maintaining impeccable integrity, which isn’t just about being a good person and telling the truth, it’s about doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it, whether you feel like it or not.

And it has shown up for me in many ways. Where it made a big difference is when I set a goal to, as we talked about earlier, to double my best year ever. Now, that year that I talked about when I developed the power of the process, that was doubling my previous best year ever. However, my previous best wasn’t that great because I only worked for six months. So, basically, I was trying to kind of maintain the pace that I had set. I was only a year and a half into my Cutco career or two years. So, my very last year with Cutco, my last year and I thought I was going to be done before it even started and I realized I have not fulfilled my potential at this company. I’ve got to set a goal to double my best year ever.

Now, keep in mind, I had been with Cutco for six years so I had really been striving to achieve great results. Well, my sixth year, I have five years with Cutco, my sixth year, I set a goal to double my best year ever and I realized I needed accountability. So, I did two things. I hired a coach to hold me accountable every single week to follow through with my commitments. But I’m going to share a strategy that you don’t need to hire a coach. Like, if you want to hire a coach, great, but I’m not going to put you out that money if you don’t have that in your budget. So, there’s a way to do it without any kind of financial cost other than your time.

And what I did is I realized there are other people. I had colleagues that also wanted to have their best year ever, and I realized that they may not have accountability in place. So, I formed an accountability team. I call it the Ultimate Club because the highest level of sales in Cutco was called the Ultimate Level or something, something with the ultimate. So, I called it the Ultimate Club. And we had weekly calls every Sunday that I led to hold people accountable.

Now, here’s the point. I was the leader of that group. Every person on that team, every week, I would have them make commitments of how many calls they were going to make. So, literally, I taught them at the very first call what I taught you today, the power of the process. And then every week I would say, “Hey, what is your process that you’re committing to?” And they would tell me, “I’m committed to make 20 phone calls a day.” And some of them were doing other prospective things like they were selling to real estate offices. So, they’d go, “I’m going to do 20 calls a day and I’m going to speak at two real estate offices to generate leads or whatever.”

So, I had a little spreadsheet and I would write down and there was like 20, I think there were roughly 20 of my colleagues and I was friends with mostly all these people. And I would write down what they committed to and I would say, “Okay. Do you give me your word that you’re going to follow through with your commitment?” And they would say yes. And I’d say, “Okay. Do you…” Again, I taught them all of this in advance, but I’d say, “All right. Do you have your call times in your schedule every single day?” And they would say yes. And I go, “Okay. You are set up for success. The only way you can fail is to not uphold your integrity because you’re clear on what you need to do. It’s in your schedule and you’ve given your word to our group and to yourself. So, you are set up for success.”

That year, that team exceeded anything any group of Cutco representatives had done before in 50 years with the company. We had more people reach the highest level of sales that year that were all on that team than in the 50-year history of the company. I believe that it’s simply because of accountability. If it wasn’t for our team and for me holding these people accountable every week, then they would have done what we do when no one is watching over us. No one is looking at whether or not we’re following through and only we are. And we let ourselves down all the time. We go, “Nah, it doesn’t matter. There’s really no consequence,” because we haven’t decided to value our integrity at the highest level.

Maybe nobody taught us about the power of integrity where you go, “If you understand that me not following through with what I said I’m going to do is a lack of integrity and it arguably will cause me pain for my entire life.” You might even write that down. “Me not following through with what I say I’m going to do when I say I’m going to do it is lacking integrity and it will cause me pain for the rest of my life.” So, if you don’t decide that you’re going to have integrity, then you’re going to suffer the consequences, the unintended consequences of not having that level of integrity. Now, how do you implement it?

Well, you can do it on your own just by understanding the value and making an affirmation that says, “I will maintain impeccable integrity this year and do exactly what I say I’m going to do when I intend to do it no matter what, there is no other option.” That’s one way. I don’t believe it’s the most effective way. Why? Because human nature is to do the easiest, whatever the easy path is. So, I encourage you to find an accountability partner. Now, whether it’s a friend or a colleague, it could be your spouse, although I find that spouses can be challenged like we tend to, “Eh, fine. You don’t need to do it like we’ll let each other off the hook.” Or like if there’s a conflict and you’re arguing, then it’s not really good to be fighting with your accountability buddy, right, going to bed angry next to your accountability buddy.

So, I think it’s better. If you think it’ll work for you and your spouse, great. You could also do it with one of your kids, right? The more you’re leading the charge, I find the more effective it can be, the more likely you are to follow through. Like, when I formed that accountability team, I was the most accountable person because I would have looked like a total schmuck to show up to these calls that I initiated, that I was leading, that I was holding everyone accountable. And then if I were to be like when it came around to me and I think I usually went first anyway, but when it was my turn like, “Yeah. So, anyway, guys, I didn’t do what I said I was going to do, but let’s see if you did.” Right? They would have no respect for me. You have to lead by example.

So, I found that by me being the leader of this accountability group, I was arguably the most accountable among all of us because I didn’t want to look like a schmuck, right? And that’s why accountability is effective because you don’t want to let the other person down that you are being accountable to, whether you’re the leader of that or not. So, three strategies for you to implement this year to be able to take action, maintain your habits, follow through with what you need to do each and every day to achieve the results that you need to achieve.

Number one, the power of the process, to find what your process is for each of your goals. And I would encourage you to keep that Miracle Morning as part of your process, should be starting your day with a Miracle Morning because that linchpin routine affects your mindset and your habits, your discipline for the rest of the day. So, define your process toward achieving your goals each goal. So, each goal is different, right? If you have a, like for me, the sales goal was 20 calls a day. The exercise goal, right, is going to be working out three, four, or five days per week. If you are improving your marriage, then a goal to do a date night every week and spend time in the evenings reading.

My daughter, I take her to school every day. That’s a habit I committed to because I wanted that quality time with her in the morning when she’s not all cranky and tired at the end of the day because I found that picking her up at the end of the day, that time wasn’t effective. She’d be like, “Dad, don’t talk to me. I just want to decompress.” So, anyway, those are examples of how you define your process, which is the habit or the routine or the daily action in each area of your life for each goal.

Number two, act your way into feeling. Determine that first baby step that you need to take that will generate the momentum that you need to keep following through. And then last but not least, establish accountability, find an accountability partner, form an accountability group. And that group could be you and two other people, you and one other person, right? I mean, it doesn’t matter. If you want to hire a coach, that can be very effective because you’re investing not only time but money in hiring someone to hold you accountable.

And there’s a great app, I forgot what it’s called, but if you want an inexpensive coach, there are some apps that are coaching apps. I’m drawing a blank. I had the founder on years ago of this app. If you just go to the App Store and type in ‘coaching.’ It’s not as effective as having an in-person holding you accountable that you’re talking to, that you have the nuance of discussion and conversation, but it’s more effective than nothing. So, that’s also an option. You can hire a coach or utilize a coaching app where you’re putting your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

[CLOSING]

Hal Elrod: So, those are my three favorite strategies to turn your resolutions into results to make this your best year ever. That is our final call or our fourth and final episode. So, as we wrap up the episode and this series, I want to leave you with this. Your best year ever won’t happen because of a single decision. Your Miracle Year will happen because of the small, consistent actions and habits that you commit to every day. And over the past four episodes, we’ve reflected on the past year, we’ve clarified your vision and values, we have optimized your morning routine, and now focused on turning resolutions into results. You have all the tools that you need, so it is time to put them into action.

And remember, you don’t have to feel like it to get started. You just have to take the first step and let the momentum do the rest. So, let’s make 2025 your best year ever. If you want to join me live for the four-hour Miracle Year Live experience, where here’s what you’ll learn, by the way at that event. You’re going to discover your paradigm for personal fulfillment. We’re going to align your action to what truly matters to you. We’re going to create your level ten goals in not one, but every single area of your life. We’re going to break down, and this is important, understand what drives or derails your success so you can identify patterns and habits that either propel you forward or hold you back so that those don’t derail you during the year.

We’re also going to design a winning process for predictable achievement, building a clear strategy for turning your goals into reality. We’re going to structure your practice for personal development beyond just the Miracle Morning. What about throughout the rest of the day? And then ultimately, we’re going to help you to do everything in real time. So, you’re not going to leave the event with a bunch of homework and assignments. You’re going to leave the event with your ten-page Miracle Year blueprint completed, filled out, and ready to guide you the rest of the way. Just go to MiracleYearLive.com for all the details on how you can join us for that event.

All right. Goal achievers, members of the Miracle Morning community, friends, and family, I love you so much. Thanks for joining me for this four-part Miracle Year series. Have a great New Year and I will see you in 2025.

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