Order of Man - HAL ELROD ｜ Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort is Unstoppable

00:00:00.000 It can be challenging to be faithful towards your goals and objectives in the seemingly endless

00:00:04.620 supply of trials and adversity, whether you're dealing with a crippling financial situation,

00:00:10.260 a devastating divorce, or something like my guest today, Hal Elrod, dealt with a life-threatening

00:00:15.680 cancer diagnosis. And in spite of all that, guys, and more, you have responsibilities to take care

00:00:21.720 of and duties to fulfill. So how do you do it? Today, Hal and I talk about being realistic in

00:00:27.440 your pursuits by balancing the line between what is probable and possible, what is a true miracle

00:00:33.220 and how to create more of them in your life, the powerful connections between mind and body and

00:00:39.460 how to use those connections and using affirmations in a way that works. You're a man of action. You

00:00:45.960 live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you

00:00:50.960 down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged,

00:00:57.760 resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become

00:01:03.600 at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:11.440 Men, welcome back to the Order of Man podcast. I am Ryan Michler, and I've got a very good podcast

00:01:15.740 with somebody I have admired for a very long time. He was on the podcast years ago, and he's had some

00:01:22.260 recent personal developments that are very inspiring in his triumph and successfully fighting cancer and

00:01:29.880 other trials and adversities that he's had to deal with in life. And I love that he's willing to share

00:01:34.580 those concepts with us and those trials and ways that he's overcome them in real practical ways that

00:01:40.140 we can overcome what we're dealing with. Before I get into the podcast with Hal, just want to mention,

00:01:45.060 as I always do, my friends over at Montana Knife Company, they're making knives, hence the name,

00:01:51.240 and they're doing it out of Montana. But these are 100% made in America knives, and they are the best

00:01:57.280 knives that I've ever personally used. I've got about 14 of them in my house, and just about every one of

00:02:03.060 my friends that I hunt with ends up getting a knife from them as well, either a gift or they like mine,

00:02:08.500 and I happen to lose a couple here and there, and I'm using the word lose loosely, or they go ahead

00:02:15.300 and buy one. But either way, you need a Montana Knife Company knife as well. Go check them out,

00:02:19.540 montananifecompany.com, and use the code ORDEROFMAN at checkout. Now, man, let me introduce you to Hal.

00:02:26.680 He is a keynote speaker. He is a coach, but he's best known for his book, The Miracle Morning,

00:02:32.600 which has sold over millions. I think it's two to three million right now. And I'm sure it's just

00:02:39.860 going to be more than that. It's, at this point, a global movement. It's transformed the lives of

00:02:44.620 millions of people. He survived a near-fatal car accident when he was 20, left him with permanent

00:02:52.880 injuries. They said he'd never walk again. He defied the odds there. Crippling cancer diagnosis,

00:02:58.560 he defied the odds there. And so he's used the same methods that he's taught to millions of people

00:03:03.360 to overcome his trials and challenges and adversities in life. In addition to The Miracle

00:03:09.380 Morning, he has also authored several other books and speaks internationally on topics like

00:03:15.480 overcoming adversity and peak performance, conscious leadership. But he has obviously a story of

00:03:22.020 perseverance. He's got an energetic, relatable style, and that's why he's such a trusted voice in

00:03:27.440 personal growth communities. So enjoy this one, gents. How so good to see you, man. I was looking

00:03:35.120 at the last time that we talked and had an official podcast conversation. I know how busy you are. I was

00:03:41.480 looking at it. I cannot believe it was 2016 when we last had a conversation. Wow. And I'm guessing

00:03:47.880 that was right. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. So it was probably like months before.

00:03:52.500 Um, it was before because unless you knew about it and didn't address it, it must've been, I knew I

00:03:58.680 was in the hospital, like the same day. So I definitely didn't know about it. So yeah, man,

00:04:03.020 that's wild. Tell, tell me what happened there. I mean, obviously you had this diagnosis. I'm not

00:04:08.640 sure the, the nuance and the intricacies of it, but, um, I'm actually very curious about what,

00:04:14.720 what happened there. Yeah. So I'm, so I was 37 years old. Um, my, uh, I had two kids,

00:04:19.520 still have two kids, but at the time they were, my daughter was seven and my son was four. So,

00:04:23.920 you know, relatively young. And, uh, we had just moved to Texas. My wife and I had moved to Texas

00:04:27.960 like three, four months prior. So we're in a new house and, uh, and like my career had taken off

00:04:34.020 miracle mornings, international, all these things, you know, like life was great. Um, and, uh, and I'm

00:04:39.440 a pretty healthy person, or I should say I had the identity of a healthy person, right? Like it's

00:04:44.520 interesting. I learned a lot about our identity. Like you think you're healthy because you're

00:04:47.820 healthier than maybe most people, but what do you, what, what are you taking? What are you eating?

00:04:52.340 What are you drinking that might not be, uh, contributing to your health? And so I just woke

00:04:56.740 up in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe. And, um, long story short, it was many

00:05:01.120 days in the hospital. They're draining a liter to two liters of fluid from my lungs so I can breathe.

00:05:07.320 Uh, and then it, and it's refilling with fluid and I'm going back to the hospital and just,

00:05:11.680 I'm like living in and out of the hospital and it took a while to diagnose, but it was a very

00:05:15.700 rare aggressive form of cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia, uh, which, so it's a

00:05:21.640 blood cancer and that particular cancer, it shuts your organs down. So when they finally found out

00:05:26.240 what it was, not only was my lung filling with fluid, uh, my heart was on the verge of failing

00:05:31.360 and my kidneys were failing. And so they had to do immediate, I had to go into immediate procedures

00:05:36.480 and, um, ended up given being given a 20 to 30% chance of surviving, which, you know, as a dad

00:05:43.960 with two young kids being told the flip side of the 20 to 30% survival rate is of course a 70 to 80%

00:05:50.360 chance that I'm going to die. And, um, so I had to pull out every tool that I knew in terms of health

00:05:56.900 and mindset and the mind body connection and all of it, um, to, uh, you know, to, to try to beat cancer.

00:06:02.700 And the last thing I'll say, and then I'll ask me any questions that you have. Um, but, uh, my wife was 1.00

00:06:07.700 of course distraught and scared and, you know, thinking I'm going to lose my husband. And I said,

00:06:12.720 sweetheart, I know you're scared, but I believe that there is a 100% chance that I will be among

00:06:19.380 the 20 to 30% of the survivors of this cancer, because I will do everything that they did. And more,

00:06:26.200 you have to understand that that survival rate is people that live in fear, that eat terrible food,

00:06:31.440 that have a really weak mindset. Like I'm going to do everything that the survivors do and more.

00:06:37.820 So I'm actually not scared. I have unwavering faith that I will beat this cancer. And, and,

00:06:42.700 and, and then fear came later as I was laying in bed, bald, 40 pounds lighter on chemotherapy,

00:06:49.520 feeling like I was going to die. That that's when the fear crept in a little bit after.

00:06:54.960 What was the fear that, I mean, obviously you have a fear of leaving your family behind.

00:06:59.920 Was it a fear of the unknown of the afterlife? Like what?

00:07:02.820 Not at all. No fear of death. So no fear of death. So, uh, when I was 20 years old,

00:07:08.040 I was hit head on by a drunk driver, uh, found dead at the scene of the car accident. My,

00:07:11.940 my heart stopped for six minutes. I broke 11 bones, came out of a coma, told I would never walk again.

00:07:17.360 So I'd already faced kind of death and made peace with it at that, at 20 years old. Um,

00:07:22.800 I was never afraid of death after that. I was like, Oh, whenever it's time to die,

00:07:25.740 like it's time to die. And, and to me, the way I look at death, I feel like a fear of death is in

00:07:30.380 some ways irrational, unless the fear is of like how it's going to affect your family. That,

00:07:35.220 that was my fear. But to me, death, death and birth are two sides of the same coin. Like

00:07:39.920 if you're born, that means you will die someday. And to me, there's no fear of being born. And like,

00:07:44.980 to me, there's no fear of death. It's like, that's just the other side. Whenever it's time,

00:07:48.120 the fear was, what does that mean for my family? Like, what is it, what is it going to do to my kids?

00:07:55.040 I'm, I'm at peace with death, but I'm not at peace with my, my babies growing up without dad.

00:08:00.620 Like the, the, the impact that that could have on them is, is really terrifying for me. And so

00:08:05.560 that's where the fear was is not, not the fear of death, but the fear of leaving my children without

00:08:11.420 a dad. I guess I've always felt like I'm, I'm, I'm a faithful person. I'm, I'm probably not as,

00:08:19.840 as active maybe as I need to be with my relationship with God. Yeah.

00:08:23.380 But I either feel like he exists and all will be well, or he doesn't. And I'll never know.

00:08:30.520 Yeah. And either way I am coming to terms with, and I'm okay with that, but you're right. I do not

00:08:38.180 want to leave my kids destitute, sad, uh, without the lessons that I would have otherwise taught them

00:08:46.140 those sorts of things. Yeah. And my wife and I really balance each other out. Right. So it's like,

00:08:50.460 if it was just me, uh, with my kids, without my wife, like they, they would, they would not get

00:08:56.360 a full parenting experience that they need to be well-rounded. And then I think the same is true.

00:09:00.520 Like I'm thinking, oh man, if they just have my wife, who's amazing, but it's like, ah, they're,

00:09:04.900 you know, we really, they, they really do get so much from, from each of us. Like I think most kids

00:09:08.920 get from their parents. Well, yeah, I think every child has it. I would dare say a right to be raised by a

00:09:16.140 mother and father and it doesn't always work that way. And I went through a divorce several years ago

00:09:20.360 where, you know, my kids, my four kids are split equal time between their mom and myself. It's not

00:09:26.640 ideal. Ideally it would be a mother and a father in the house. So I, I can definitely agree with what

00:09:32.860 you're saying on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, the, the thing that was hard with the cancer

00:09:38.120 was, you know, so I have, I wrote a book, uh, my, my follow-up to my, my, my primary book,

00:09:43.540 Miracle Morning. I had a follow-up book called The Miracle Equation. And The Miracle Equation is

00:09:47.400 just two simple decisions. Um, unwavering faith, primarily in yourself, like unwavering faith that

00:09:53.880 I can overcome or accomplish anything. Uh, and then extraordinary effort, which is just the

00:09:58.420 commitment to do whatever it takes, right? It's very simple binary. And, um, the hard part was,

00:10:03.880 so I was trying to maintain and reinforce this unwavering faith. When I, when I had my car accident,

00:10:08.440 I had unwavering faith that I would walk again, right? Even though the doctor said I would never walk

00:10:13.000 again. And I took my first step three weeks after I was found dead at the scene. So it was this a

00:10:17.080 miraculous turnaround. Um, and I had faith based on that, especially going, wow, okay. I did this

00:10:24.040 once when the doctors told me I wouldn't walk again, that I defied the odds. Now the doctors

00:10:29.560 are saying, I have a majority chance that I'm going to die. Well, I'm going to defy the odds again

00:10:34.040 with unwavering faith that I'm going to live. So here was the hard part is I ha I was trying to

00:10:39.680 reinforce unwavering faith through affirmations and prayer and meditation and visualization,

00:10:44.600 you name it while simultaneously as a father having to do what is responsible. I had to prepare

00:10:51.360 for my death, meaning I had to go, okay, yes, I'm going to live, but in case I die, I have to get

00:10:58.040 all my affairs in order and I have to prepare everything for my kids as if I were going to die.

00:11:04.820 That was the hardest part was this dichotomy between how do I maintain unwavering faith in

00:11:09.620 every fiber of my being while I prepare logistically for the death, uh, that could

00:11:14.800 come, uh, so that my kids aren't left, you know, and my wife's not left without all of my affairs in

00:11:19.920 order. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I've never been in your position, so I'm speaking from ignorance here,

00:11:27.220 but I imagine it would be pretty difficult to update your will and your trust documents and then

00:11:33.060 also simultaneously believe that you're actually going to live. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's,

00:11:38.720 you're preparing to die while you maintain unwavering faith that you're going to live.

00:11:42.300 That was a new one for me, for sure. I don't, I hope this doesn't come across as disrespectful or

00:11:50.100 insensitive to your experiences, but I imagine there's a lot of individuals who are permanently

00:11:56.140 paralyzed, um, or have, have since passed away who feel like they would probably say they had faith

00:12:03.800 and they did what they needed to do. And yet fate dealt them a different hand. Yeah. How do you

00:12:08.780 reconcile that? That was hard. That that's, that's where my faith wavered as well, because I, uh, for

00:12:15.380 example, um, Wayne Dyer, who wrote the power of intention, one of my favorite authors and spiritual

00:12:21.440 leaders, and I went and saw him speak when he was alive. Um, I didn't realize this, but somehow I

00:12:27.880 don't, I don't know where I was doing some research on some holistic healing. And I came across

00:12:31.280 Wayne Dyer's story and he died of leukemia and I have leukemia. And the way I view Wayne Dyer is

00:12:38.800 he's a much older, much wiser version of me, right? Like he's someone I learned from, I aspire to be.

00:12:44.860 And I went, Whoa, wait a minute. I guarantee that Wayne Dyer, not guarantee, but I would imagine Wayne

00:12:50.840 Dyer utilized all the mental, emotional, and spiritual tools at his disposal. And yet he still

00:12:58.340 died. Well, what, what chance do I have? So then, yeah, the fear of, wow, what if I maintain unwavering

00:13:05.100 faith and I do everything right and I still die? Um, so yeah, man, it was, it was, uh, it was, it was

00:13:10.340 challenging. And I'll tell you that for me, um, I, you know, this, this morning practice

00:13:15.480 that I do, it's, it's, it's made up of six, six, six practices in one, if you will, right?

00:13:19.640 It's the miracle morning. There's an acronym, the savers S A V E R S and the A in savers is

00:13:25.480 for affirmations and affirmations are my favorite of the savers. I think it's the one that's the

00:13:30.160 most misunderstood. If you watch Stuart Smalley on Saturday night live in the nineties, he had

00:13:35.080 that show. You remember daily affirmations with Stuart or whatever. Yeah. I'm good enough. I'm,

00:13:40.900 and it was a real, a real exaggerated list. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it.

00:13:45.860 People like me. Right. So affirmations were thought of as a joke for that reason, or because

00:13:49.940 well-meaning self-help gurus will tell us like affirm something that you wish were true. That's

00:13:54.900 not true. Like if you're struggling financially, just say, I am wealthy. I am wealthy. Right. But,

00:14:00.580 but, but that's why I think people are disenfranchised with affirmations is they're like,

00:14:04.180 these are, they're cheesy or you pump yourself up. For me, I use a really specific formula for

00:14:09.960 affirmations. And I believe these played a huge part in saving my life during the cancer journey.

00:14:15.580 And, uh, at the very least overriding that initial fear. And so the three steps I use for affirmation,

00:14:23.280 step one is affirm what you are committed to. So I couldn't guarantee I was going to beat cancer.

00:14:29.000 I had no way, but I could guarantee I could be committed. So I, I phrased it. I am committed to

00:14:33.880 beating cancer and living a long, healthy life alongside Ursula and the kids, no matter what,

00:14:38.600 there's no other option. And what you affirm repeatedly becomes your reality. So every time

00:14:43.840 I felt fear, Oh my God, what if I'm sick? I'm, I'm, I'm, my fever is 105 degrees. I'm, I'm close to,

00:14:50.100 you know, I'd pull up my affirmations and affirm. I am committed to living, to beating cancer and living

00:14:55.660 a long, healthy life alongside Ursula and the kids. And I repeated it with such conviction and such

00:15:00.780 repetition over and over and over and over and over again, Ryan, that it literally reprogrammed

00:15:06.540 my subconscious mind. And the fear, the fear went away. I literally got to the point of, you could

00:15:10.860 call it even delusion where like, I forgot that fear was a possibility. So the first week or two,

00:15:16.000 I was struggling with fear. And then I start focusing my, all my savers, my miracle, my affirmations

00:15:21.060 on beating cancer. Step two was affirming which, why it was a must for me to beat cancer. And I had

00:15:27.100 reasons that were so compelling for my wife, for my kids, for my parents, for myself, that when I

00:15:32.220 didn't feel like going on, and there were times where I wanted to die in terms of like, I felt so

00:15:37.820 sick and so exhausted and so terrible, but reading my affirmations, affirming the commitment and then

00:15:44.400 affirming why, Oh yeah, it's not about me. It's not about how I feel in this moment. It's bigger than

00:15:49.900 that. I'm doing this for my wife, for my children, for my parents and on and on and on. And then the third

00:15:55.060 step was affirming which actions I would take and win. And that's where I clarified exactly what I

00:16:01.180 would do, which holistic practices, which allopathic protocols in order to beat cancer and follow

00:16:07.860 through with that commitment. And so that was a huge game changer for me in terms of focusing the

00:16:13.980 mindset, not on my fears and not what could go wrong, but on what I was committed to, why it was a

00:16:19.860 must for me and which actions I would take and when I would take them to ensure that I followed

00:16:24.180 through. I see the power in that. And, and yet I still, I, and I'm, I'm only framing this through

00:16:32.900 the lens in which I am right now in life, which is a little pessimistic if I'm being honest and a

00:16:37.820 little skeptical to, to, to, um, maybe to, to put it mildly. Um, and so again, I want to be respectful

00:16:47.660 of what you feel, but when you, you talk about those affirmations, did those, did that help you

00:16:53.620 cope with, like, I'm committed to beating cancer, for example, did that help you cope with the reality

00:17:00.920 of what you were confronted with? Like, Hey, all that's within my control is I'm going to do what

00:17:04.740 I need to do. I'm going to, I'm going to work on my nutrition. I'm going to work on my exercise.

00:17:08.620 I'm going to work on my mentality. Um, or did that literally help you beat cancer?

00:17:14.860 Hmm. I love that. Um, so, uh, yes. And I don't know, meaning yes is, uh, all we can control is

00:17:21.820 what we're committed to. And here's the thing in life more often than not, we don't get what we want

00:17:26.940 unless we're committed to it. Right. We only get what we're committed to. And the more committed we

00:17:31.140 are, um, the more likely we are to get it. You know, I, I, I talk about, um, well, I don't want

00:17:38.800 to miss this question. So, um, in terms of the mindset, it absolutely allowed my mindset to stay

00:17:44.380 focused on what I needed to do and follow through with that commitment. And here's the thing that

00:17:48.840 affirmations formula I've been using for 15 years. I've used that to double my income during the 2008

00:17:53.440 economic crash. I use that to sell a million copies of the miracle morning, even though in year one,

00:17:58.440 I sold 13,000 and I was 987,000 copies short of my goal. Right. But I read those affirmations.

00:18:04.740 I'm like, this sucks, man. I'm going to be 110 years old at this pace by the time I sell a million 0.95

00:18:09.480 copies of the book. Right. But, but I just, every, but I was like, I dusted myself off and I was like,

00:18:13.660 I am committed to changing 1 million lives one morning at a time, no matter how long it takes,

00:18:18.720 there is no other option. Right. So again, by, by focusing on what you're committed to, right. And you can

00:18:24.220 apply this to changing any aspect of your life, achieving any goal, right. You reaffirm it every

00:18:30.840 day and you just remain committed to do what you need to do for as long as it takes until you get

00:18:34.920 there. And you finally more often than not get there. Right. So that's, that's kind of the,

00:18:39.340 the big picture answer around how it not only focuses your mindset, it focuses your behavior

00:18:43.300 and your actions to be in alignment with what it is you're committed to. Now, did it actually help me

00:18:49.340 beat cancer? I can answer that in two ways. One is if I hadn't affirmed the commitment every day

00:18:55.760 and reminded myself by affirming why it was a must for me and then clarifying and affirming which

00:19:01.840 actions I was going to take, which included, okay, I have to do chemotherapy. And I say have to,

00:19:07.780 because I tried to avoid it. And some of the best holistic oncologists in America said, Hal,

00:19:12.280 your cancer does not give you the luxury of trying a holistic approach, a natural approach.

00:19:19.780 You have two to three, I was given one to three weeks to live by the doctors. And I thought they

00:19:24.620 were scared, fear-mongering me into chemo, which is why I called these other holistic oncologists.

00:19:28.540 They're like, they're not exaggerating how your heart, lungs, and kidneys are already shutting down.

00:19:33.660 You have one to two weeks to live. They said, so you've got to do the chemo. They said, but

00:19:38.920 we would also recommend do every holistic practice that you can, as if that's all you were doing to

00:19:44.360 detoxify from the chemo, which a lot of people die from chemo, right? So I was doing three coffee

00:19:51.340 enemas a week. I was doing ozone massage or lymphatic massage, ozone sauna. I took 70 supplements every

00:19:59.900 single day. I did organic juicing, but here's the thing. All of that was part of my affirmations every

00:20:07.700 day. In fact, day one, it wasn't all of that. I didn't know what to do. Day one was I will relentlessly

00:20:12.660 research every holistic protocol that has proven effective in beating cancer, and I will implement

00:20:18.760 every single one. That was that step three of affirming what you'll do and when. That was how it

00:20:24.940 started. Then I eventually built the list out of, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going

00:20:29.480 to do this. So did it help me beat cancer in my mindset? Yes. In terms of it guided me and kept me

00:20:38.120 focused on the actions that I had clarified that had proven to help people beat cancer that were

00:20:43.360 natural. And then last but not least, and this is the one that I, you know, it's theoretical, I can't

00:20:48.380 prove this, is the mind-body connection. And I do believe, based on my anecdotal evidence of, I was told I

00:20:56.340 would never walk again by the doctors, you know, when I was 20 years old. And I told my parents, I'm

00:21:01.240 going to walk again. You watch. And every day, I prayed that I would walk again. I didn't have

00:21:05.740 affirmations back then. I didn't know about them. I wasn't using the affirmations. But I prayed every

00:21:10.440 day that I would walk. I maintained unwavering faith. I would visualize walking again. I talked about

00:21:16.900 that as the only possibility. And you could call it a coincidence, but my femur broke in two pieces.

00:21:23.180 I was hit head on by a drunk driver at 70 miles an hour. Second vehicle crashed into my driver's

00:21:28.440 side door at 70 miles per hour. My femur broke in half. My pelvis broke in three places. I was

00:21:34.180 clinically dead for six minutes. I spent six days in a coma. And when I came out of the coma,

00:21:40.120 doctor said, you'll never walk again and you have permanent brain damage. Two weeks later,

00:21:45.500 they came in with routine x-rays and they said, and they had told my parents, by the way, because I

00:21:49.740 kept telling them I was going to walk again, they said, your son is delusional or he's in denial and

00:21:55.040 you need to get this through to him because he needs, he can't heal emotionally if he doesn't

00:22:00.140 face reality. And what I told my parents is I said, no, no, no, I'm facing reality. If I, I understand

00:22:05.480 that I might never walk again. And I've accepted the worst case scenario and decided I'll be the

00:22:10.860 happiest, most grateful person that anyone's ever seen in a wheelchair if that's my fate. Because I'm in a

00:22:16.800 wheelchair either way, can't change it. I'll be peaceful, happy, whatever. Okay, great. But now

00:22:22.320 that I've accepted the worst case scenario, I'm putting zero energy into that possibility. I don't

00:22:27.740 need to, because I already know that might happen. And I'm at peace with it. I've already accepted it.

00:22:31.500 Done. 100% of my energy is going into what I can control, which is visualizing walking, talking about

00:22:38.780 it, praying about it, right? Imagining my body healing completely. And two weeks after I came out of the

00:22:45.240 coma, the doctors came in with routine x-rays that said, we don't know how to explain it.

00:22:49.600 But how? Your body has healed. You can take your first step today in therapy. So you can call that

00:22:54.980 a coincidence. You can call that a miracle. Or you can call that the extraordinary power of the human

00:23:00.840 mind in healing the body. And I'm not a scientist. And so I'm gonna explain this in my layman's term

00:23:08.840 version, Ryan. We have trillions of cells in our body. It is proved, there is science proving that,

00:23:14.400 right, our thoughts and emotions affect our cells, which is why stress is such a cause of disease,

00:23:20.460 right? So here's the way I think of it. Our trillions of cells, they do whatever we tell them

00:23:26.720 to do through our thoughts and our feelings. And so if you're living in fear, and you're going,

00:23:31.260 oh my gosh, I'm probably gonna die. I have cancer. And you know, my grandfather died of cancer. And my

00:23:37.740 mother died. And I knew I might get it. Oh, this is it. And you're living in fear. And your trillions of

00:23:42.660 cells are like, oh, okay, I guess we're dying. And I guess that you're telling us that's what we're

00:23:46.080 doing. I guess that's what we're doing, right? Versus this unwavering faith. And so all I have,

00:23:51.640 I'm not the scientist. I just have the anecdotal proof that somehow I took a step three weeks out,

00:23:57.280 you know, I started walking in three weeks after the crash, when doctors said it was impossible.

00:24:02.780 And then when doctors said I had a 20 to 30% chance of surviving, right, a month later,

00:24:08.620 I was in remission. And they're like, they couldn't explain it. So like, I don't know,

00:24:12.900 I wish I had graphs and charts to be like, look at how my body healed in alignment with this

00:24:17.680 mindset that I had. I just know that it worked. And last thing I'll say is this.

00:24:22.880 There's a famous surgeon, Dr. Bernie Siegel, written a lot of books, he has over 3000 cancer

00:24:29.180 patients, he was a cancer surgeon. And I had him on my podcast. And he said how, and I think this was

00:24:35.360 actually in his book, which is why I had him on my podcast. He said, Hal, I've treated over 3000

00:24:40.800 patients. And he said, I've lost plenty of patients, they died. And I've had a lot survive.

00:24:46.700 And he said, I had a lot of I've had a lot of patients that had very beatable cancers that had

00:24:52.960 a very high survival rate. But they had made up their mind that they knew they were going to die.

00:24:58.160 It was almost always like someone in their family had cancer that then you knew they knew that it would

00:25:02.000 happen to them. And now they did. And now it was over. What'd you say?

00:25:07.180 I said fate almost like this is my fate. This is what I'm saying.

00:25:10.720 And he watched them die when they should have beat the cancer. And he said, and he also saw so many

00:25:16.600 cancer patients that had cancers that the survival rate was extremely low. He said the number one

00:25:23.800 common denominator in the cancer patients he's treated over the years, over decades, that survived

00:25:30.820 was that they decided they were going to survive and that there was no other option. And he said,

00:25:38.520 didn't matter if the cancer was unbeatable or difficult to beat. He said that was the number

00:25:43.400 one common denominator. So I just think there's so much evidence of that across the board of human

00:25:48.660 beings defying the odds. And it always started with the mindset, the commitment like, no, I'm going

00:25:54.760 to make this happen. Come hell or high water, no matter what, you watch me do it. And then they do it.

00:25:59.160 Yeah. I mean, as, as a, uh, a habitual skeptic, when I hear you say that, I can't help but think,

00:26:08.620 well, what's the alternative? Yeah. Yeah. You know, the alternative is just to resign, to die,

00:26:13.940 to fade away, to leave your family, to do all the things that happen when a person dies prematurely.

00:26:18.920 Yeah. And you know, that happens. And, and, and I'm, I'm not even criticizing those individuals.

00:26:24.400 I'm just saying that's one route or the other route is you can be based on what I'm hearing you

00:26:31.440 say, optimistic, excited, faithful, put in the effort. And maybe you'll live, you might still pass

00:26:39.040 away, but at least you give yourself the best opportunity. It's literally, I love you're saying

00:26:44.760 it because it's literally, what do you think is going to increase your odds, right? Giving up and

00:26:49.700 living in fear of the worst case scenario and being depressed and angry and sad. Like, is that going

00:26:54.460 to make your body thrive? Right. Or, or, or taking the approach of unwavering faith. And I think one

00:27:00.800 thing that prevents people from doing that is that deeply ingrained fear of failure is a lot of folks

00:27:07.440 are afraid to approach any goal unless they have, they feel a sense of certainty that they're going

00:27:13.480 to succeed. And that includes being given a diagnosis, right? You're like, but what if I say

00:27:19.140 I'm going to succeed? I say I'm going to survive. I say I'm going to walk again. I maintain every

00:27:23.740 faith, but then I don't. Well, then you, you do what I did, which is you go, great. I tried, I gave it

00:27:29.860 everything I had. I'm still in a wheelchair, but watch, I'm at peace with it. Like I can't change it. I

00:27:35.640 tried. I gave it my all, but we got to try and give it our all first and then make the best of

00:27:40.560 whatever's left over. Do you feel like people in that situation where they have that, that fear of,

00:27:47.400 Hey, I put myself out there. I said, I'm going to overcome this thing. And it could be something as

00:27:51.600 tragic as being diagnosed with a terminal cancer diagnosis, or it could be you lost your job today,

00:28:01.380 or you had a breakup or you had a bankruptcy or a lawsuit. Do you think the fear is derived from

00:28:08.740 what other people will think of you more than anything else? That might be a little bit of a

00:28:13.040 leading question, but no, it is. I think that's actually, I think that's more, more likely that

00:28:17.460 than anything that that's where the, it's that the fear of failure more often than not is the fear of

00:28:21.540 what other people will think of us. Right. When we fear in, in, you know, in the dark and fear,

00:28:27.000 or I mean, sorry, when we fail in the dark, we fail alone. That's actually, there's, there's not

00:28:31.800 a lot of fear around that. It's like, no one saw no big deal. Almost. I'm glad you brought that up

00:28:36.960 because most of the fear is absolutely the fear of what other people are going to think. And I think

00:28:42.460 that to, to combat that fear, to address that you could take that approach that I took, which is

00:28:48.540 like, Hey everybody, worst case scenario, I'm in a wheelchair the rest of my life. Worst case scenario,

00:28:54.140 I don't complete the marathon worst case scenario. Um, nobody buys my, like whatever, whatever the,

00:28:59.260 you know, whatever the opposite is of what you're trying to do. Um, and I've decided I'm at peace

00:29:04.040 with that worst case scenario. If that comes to pass, I can't change it. So I'll be at peace with it,

00:29:09.620 but I'm going to, I'm going to put it to the side now. Cause there's no point in putting energy in

00:29:13.460 that. I'm going to put everything in my power to trying to make it happen. So it's almost like

00:29:17.540 you're saving face by going like, Hey, look, if it doesn't work out, I'll deal with that when it comes.

00:29:22.460 But I figure the best chance I have of making it work out of achieving the goal of doing the thing

00:29:28.200 is, is giving everything I have to it with unwavering faith, extraordinary effort,

00:29:34.200 and then let the chip fall where they may. So it's kind of like you can address that in advance.

00:29:38.080 So people are like, Oh, okay. So you're realistic that it might not work out, but you're going to

00:29:41.880 try everything you can to make it work out. Well, damn, I'm learning a lesson from you. I'm going 0.99

00:29:45.940 to do the same in my life. You know, man, I'm going to step away from that conversation very briefly.

00:29:51.260 Uh, I want to ask if you're ready for battle. Now I don't mean battle in the literal sense,

00:29:56.280 although it could be, uh, I'm talking about the battles of life and that's where our battle

00:30:01.460 ready program comes in. This is a 30 day foundational course. Now it is a free course as well, but it's,

00:30:06.400 it's built to forge stronger, more disciplined men. Uh, and it's designed for those ready to stop

00:30:12.340 drifting, to start leading. It challenges you to take consistent in, uh, intentional action every

00:30:19.340 single day. And through a combination of daily tasks and reflection and accountability, the men

00:30:25.140 that go through this program really gain a lot of clarity, uh, in their mission. And they're able

00:30:29.720 to establish core habits that are necessary for your long-term success, but it isn't just motivation

00:30:35.240 or, or theory. It's about doing the actual work every day. You're going to get a series of emails

00:30:41.180 over the course of 30 days that are going to put you to work and help you actually produce

00:30:45.900 something tangible, something you can use and build the habits that you need to

00:30:50.360 be disciplined and have growth in your life. Check it out. It's a free course. It's called

00:30:55.220 battle ready. Go to order of man.com slash battle ready. Again, that's order of man.com slash battle

00:31:00.880 ready. Let's get back to it with how I like that. I would use the term hedging a little bit. And it

00:31:06.800 sounds like I was going to ask you the question as to whether or not you vocalize those things,

00:31:10.400 but it sounds like you did where you said, Hey, look, this is what I'm going to do. And worst case

00:31:14.920 scenario, fill in the blanks. Yeah. I would, I would call that hedging. I think hedging has a

00:31:19.840 negative connotation to it, but it also lets people know and yourself know that at least you're being,

00:31:27.320 you're not a crazy person. You're a rational level-headed individual. It's a great point.

00:31:33.300 Yeah. Which is another fear. People probably have like embarrassed, like they're going to think I'm

00:31:37.060 crazy or they're going to think I'm delusional. Right? So yeah, I think it's a good point. Like address

00:31:41.400 both possibilities and then let people know and yourself know where you're going to put your

00:31:45.280 energy. Yeah. You know, you talked about, I may or may not have a miracle. And obviously the breath

00:31:51.140 of your work includes the miracle morning. Can you define miracle for me? Is it some higher source?

00:31:57.380 Is it some thing that we can't see? Or is it, I can create these things?

00:32:05.240 The latter in my opinion, and maybe both, but, but here's the thing, right? I, I prefer taking agency

00:32:11.820 over my life. So while I might pray to God, Hey God, help me out with this miracle that I'm trying

00:32:16.780 to make happen in my life. I think that passively praying, hoping, and waiting for a miracle is

00:32:22.740 definitely the wrong approach. But the idea is like, how can I create a miracle? And let me define it

00:32:27.740 because that is, I'm glad you asked this because it is a word that has a lot of different definitions

00:32:31.980 and there's a lot of skepticism around it. Like, which is like, Oh yeah. Miracles. Those only

00:32:36.300 happened 2000 years ago or, or, you know, you can't bet on a miracle. The way that I define a miracle

00:32:41.960 is any measurable outcome that is beyond the realm of what you currently believe is probable for you.

00:32:51.220 Right. And so when you achieve that outcome through two decisions, I mentioned unwavering faith,

00:32:58.240 not in God. Yes. It can be in God also, but you've also got to, you've got to pour, turn that faith

00:33:04.140 around on you. Like, even if you, you give the glory to God, right? And you're like, well, the faith

00:33:08.720 goes to God. Okay. But have faith in yourself, right? Have faith in your ability to overcome or accomplish

00:33:14.220 anything that you fully commit to and give it everything you have. And the second decision is

00:33:18.740 extraordinary effort, right? So it's unwavering faith and extraordinary effort for as long as it takes

00:33:25.300 to achieve that measurable, meaningful outcome that is beyond the realm we currently believe is

00:33:31.580 probable for you. And I didn't say possible. It's an important distinction because if you're an optimist

00:33:37.220 in any sense of the word, you believe anything is possible, right? It's the most cliche phrase in the

00:33:43.120 optimist vocabulary, right? Anything's possible, but we don't pursue that which is possible. We only

00:33:49.200 pursue that which is probable, right? Anything's possible, but you only, we only set our sights on like,

00:33:55.940 okay, I think there's a chance. Even if it's a long shot, there's a, there's a, there's some probability.

00:34:01.640 I could achieve this thing, right? And so that's where the probability becomes important. You've got to

00:34:07.880 accomplish something that is probable. And here's the thing. Once you maintain unwavering faith and put forth

00:34:14.440 extraordinary effort, day after day, after day, what might be impossible when you start, it becomes

00:34:20.820 the, the probability increases day by day by day as your capabilities and your mindset grow. So day by

00:34:30.440 day, you're becoming better. You're moving forward in the direction of that predetermined result, that

00:34:36.000 miracle. And now it's becoming more and more and more probable as you keep making progress toward it.

00:34:42.060 I mean, I'm really glad that you talk about the, um, the unwavering faith plus extraordinary effort

00:34:48.880 because, um, I, I, I'm, I'm a believer, but I also, I don't resonate with the word faith. I just,

00:34:57.300 to some degree, sure. But the way that people often understand it or articulate it, it just,

00:35:04.380 it doesn't sit well with me that if, if we believe whatever, that it will naturally come to us. And,

00:35:10.560 and I'm reminded of the scripture, I think it, I pulled it up here as James two 26 and it's

00:35:15.420 faith without works is dead. Yep. Meaning that if you have this unwavering faith,

00:35:21.820 but you're not really willing to do the work, then to me, that's actually not indicative of faith at

00:35:28.640 all. It's just a hope. Totally. Yeah. No. And that, and that's the extraordinary effort piece of it.

00:35:33.840 Right. Like, right. And, and, and just a quick aside or, or, or where this came from. Um, when I

00:35:40.560 was in, I sold Cutco from age 19 to age 25. So I became one of Cutco's top sales reps and I was

00:35:49.100 trying to break a sales record and I was trying to do something that no one in 50 years had ever done

00:35:54.960 before. It was to sell $20,000 of Cutco, uh, in 10 days, three times in a row. No one had ever done

00:36:01.500 that before. And, uh, and so I'm going into the last, the third time and self doubt. I'm like,

00:36:06.840 man, the, this was, I got so lucky on the first two. Like if that person wouldn't have bought and

00:36:12.140 then their neighbor came over and you know, like, and that's how it always works in life. Like the

00:36:16.040 harder you work, the luckier you get there. That's part of the equation, but I'm going, how am I going

00:36:20.480 to do this three times in a row? No one's ever done this. Right. And so as I'm sitting there the

00:36:25.600 night before my first day of, of, of the sales competition, um, I go, all right, I'm going to

00:36:31.040 reverse engineer this. All right. Let me visualize 10 days from now. All right. Let's just pretend I

00:36:36.360 did it. I sold $20,000 of Cutco in 10 days. Okay. And by the way, the previous two, uh, were 14 day

00:36:42.120 periods, which is what made this so hard. They had cut our, our time period back four days out of the

00:36:46.840 14. So that's, that's why I'm like, I did this in 14 days, twice, not 10 days ever in my whole life.

00:36:54.900 Three times. Oh, let alone once. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so I,

00:37:01.040 I reverse engineered and I go, okay, if this were to happen 10 days from now, what will have,

00:37:05.920 what will I have had to do every day? And what came to me is I have to maintain unwavering faith

00:37:12.820 that I can do this because anytime we're working towards a goal and we fall off track or, you know,

00:37:20.620 we're not on pace, uh, or things that we hit an obstacle, our faith, which often, so you can call it

00:37:26.720 belief, call it faith, right? These are just synonyms. Um, but if you go into, you know, when you set a

00:37:31.660 goal, you're like, all right, I just went to a Tony Robbins conference. Like I know I can do this.

00:37:35.640 Right. And you're all fired up. So your faith on day one is like, it's, it's, it's, it's right there.

00:37:41.020 But as soon as you're not on track, your faith waivers. And as soon as your faith waivers, the

00:37:47.020 necessary effort that would get you there, it waivers in parallel. You're like, what's the point of even

00:37:53.140 trying? I'm not on track. It's not looking like I'm going to even achieve the goal. So I realized,

00:37:57.860 you know, I've been in sales for a couple of years at that point. I go, okay, I know that I'm going to

00:38:02.500 have some major adversity. I just know I'm going to have some people not buy from me. I might have

00:38:08.120 canceled orders. I might have people not show up. I might be halfway through my push period as it was

00:38:14.940 called and, and, and not be on track. So the only way that I'm going to make this miracle happen

00:38:21.080 is I've got to maintain, I can't let my faith waver. I have to maintain unwavering faith for the

00:38:25.900 whole, till the last moment. How am I going to do that? I have to do it through the language in my

00:38:31.380 head. So I'm committed to say, I am committed to sell $20,000 or at least give it everything I have

00:38:38.740 until the last possible moment, no matter what, there is no other option. So I wrote that down. So

00:38:44.420 technically that was my first affirmation. I am committed to sell $20,000 or at least give it

00:38:49.380 everything I have until the last possible moment, no matter what, there's no other option.

00:38:54.520 That's how I solidified a statement of faith that I would recite when that voice of self-doubt,

00:39:01.140 of skepticism, of fear, whatever came up. So that was the first decision. I go, okay,

00:39:05.360 what else do I have to do? I have to put forth extraordinary effort. I have to do everything in

00:39:10.540 my power again until the last possible moment. And so I go out there, I'll tell you how it played out

00:39:18.800 real quick. First seven. Now keep in mind, I got to sell 20 grand in 10 days. So $2,000 per day

00:39:24.100 average. At the end of seven days, I needed to be at $14,000 to be on pace. I was at $7,000.

00:39:31.900 So I had three days left and I was $13,000 away. So I just, I just, I just maintained unwavering

00:39:39.880 faith and extraordinary effort for seven days, sold seven grand. And now I'm supposed to somehow

00:39:44.280 not, there's nothing more I can do. And I have to sell 13 grand in three days. So Ryan, if here's

00:39:51.060 the, here's the interesting thing about this. If you would have asked me at that time, how do you

00:39:55.860 really believe that you're going to sell 13 grand in three days? I would have said, no, I don't

00:40:03.760 actually believe it, but I'm maintaining unwavering faith that I'm going to do it. Like catch that

00:40:11.180 distinction, right? Like if you would have said, bet me money, you'll do it. I'm like, I'm not

00:40:14.480 betting you money. Right. But I didn't give up the faith. I know it's, it's like a weird nuance

00:40:20.500 and distinction. And, and I can tell you how it played out. I went into the office on Monday to

00:40:24.480 turn in my orders for the week and my manager, Frank, he goes, hell, I know, I know you're going

00:40:29.900 for 20 K man. Are you, are you on track? I said, not even close, man. I'm at seven grand. I got to sell

00:40:34.640 13 grand in the next three days. He goes, oh, and he tried to talk me into lowering my goal. He goes, hell,

00:40:40.080 dude, why don't you just go for 10 K man? That's still, that's a huge performance. You're coming

00:40:44.940 off, you know, you'll still be a, I go, Frank, I don't think you understand, man. I made a decision

00:40:50.040 that I'm going to maintain unwavering faith that I will sell $20,000, no matter what, there is no

00:40:56.500 other option. And I'm going to put forward the extraordinary effort for the next three days

00:40:59.860 to, to, to try to make it happen. And I went out, I sold three grand the next day, three grand

00:41:07.080 the day after now I'm four grand away. My very last appointment, I sold $3,000 to the wrong woman 0.99

00:41:16.340 who was out of town from Europe. Like it was the craziest story. Just some wild story. Some wild

00:41:23.040 story. Like the sister-in-law was there and the real lady was out of town. And like, it was crazy.

00:41:28.780 And I actually, at the last thing at the doorstep, I go, she's like, she had an accent. She's like,

00:41:34.240 I'm so sorry. My sister forgot you were coming. Um, anything I can do to help you? And I'm like,

00:41:39.820 what are you doing here? And she goes, I'm her sister-in-law here for my brother's 50th birthday

00:41:43.620 party. And I'm thinking, I'm like, dude, the foreign lady on vacation is not going to buy knives. Like 0.77

00:41:49.640 this is a waste of time. And right as I was, I actually told her, I go, no, thank you, but no,

00:41:55.400 thank you. And then I started to turn around and this voice in my head was, dude, you committed until

00:42:02.040 the last possible moment. And this woman just asked what she can do to help you. The moment

00:42:08.080 hasn't arrived, bro. You have a responsibility to your integrity to do the thing right now.

00:42:14.360 And I turned back around and go, Oh ma'am, actually, do you mind if I do the presentation

00:42:18.320 for you? So Ryan, so I do my presentation. She tells me two things that made me call this

00:42:24.200 the miracle equation. She says, it's so interesting that you're showing me high quality kitchen knives.

00:42:29.520 She said, um, my husband and I were just looking for knives in Europe and we almost bought a set

00:42:37.340 of your competitors Hinkle, but we, something inside us told us to wait until after our trip

00:42:43.160 to America. Whoa. I'm like, no fricking way. And then, um, she was there for her brother's

00:42:50.200 50th birthday party. What do you think his hobby was? Oh, he's probably like a chef or something

00:42:56.000 like that. He goes, we have not been able to find him the right gift. Our biggest set that we sold

00:43:00.360 was $1,500. And I was $3,000 away from my goal. She bought two ultimate sets, one for her and one

00:43:08.840 for her brother. And it put me over my goal by $17. And I drove straight to the conference and took

00:43:15.660 number one at the event. And it felt like such a miracle that I was like, dude, that's the miracle

00:43:20.980 equation. And I started teaching it to all of my colleagues and one after another, after another,

00:43:26.320 they went and did similar things that they had never done before. And then like 20 years later,

00:43:31.440 I wrote it into a book. That is, that is such a wild, you know, what she didn't tell you. She

00:43:37.160 actually just put it on her sister's credit card because her sister gave it to her while she was

00:43:40.680 house sitting for her. She didn't tell you that part of it. Yeah. She left that out. That's fine. I don't

00:43:44.100 care. Yeah. Regardless, you hit your goal, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was wild. How do you, how do you

00:43:50.380 though maintain this unwavering faith when other people have a say in the equation, right? She has

00:43:57.060 a say, of course, um, maybe you get passed over for a promotion and a boss has a say, or there's a

00:44:03.820 romantic relationship and you'd love nothing more than to win her a heart back, uh, or, or pursue

00:44:09.900 somebody else. And other people have a say, there's gotta be some, some room for that. Right?

00:44:16.740 Yeah. And, and, and there's two parts to this answer. Um, the first part is unwavering faith

00:44:23.320 is a strategy, not a guarantee. And that's where people are getting goes back to that fear of

00:44:27.760 failure. Well, how can I maintain unwavering faith when I don't actually know for sure if it's

00:44:31.400 going to happen? Well, do you want to increase the likelihood that happens? Yeah. Okay. Then

00:44:36.100 maintain unwavering faith and then accept whatever the outcome is. So that's right. Like

00:44:39.680 that's the answer. Um, now if other people though, like are involved, great, great, uh,

00:44:44.960 great example. I mentioned this earlier. So I, I, I self-published the miracle morning and

00:44:49.860 you know, no one knows who I am. I'm an unknown author. Right. So I'm like, I'm getting on Facebook.

00:44:53.980 I'm a Facebook's like relatively new at that point. I'm like, I'm hustling. Like I don't

00:44:57.960 have any connections. I'm just like, I'm committed. And my goal was to sell a million books that

00:45:04.080 first year, not because it's a realistic goal. I didn't even break it down. I'm just like, let's,

00:45:09.300 let's go for something that's so big and I'm going to apply the miracle equation, unwavering

00:45:14.540 faith and extraordinary effort. Like keep in mind, I published the book, uh, nine years

00:45:19.580 after I had that sales contest where I developed the equation and I applied that equation to

00:45:24.300 everything in my life thereafter. And so, um, at the end of that year and that, that year,

00:45:30.320 by the way, I was on 152 other people's podcasts. And again, from no connections, I am, I'm just

00:45:36.800 reaching out. I'm emailing 500 to get on those one 50 and I'm asking every podcaster plus a week.

00:45:42.920 Yeah. I'm asking every podcaster for referrals to other podcasters. Like I'm using my Cutco skills.

00:45:47.600 I'm doing everything I can. Right. Um, I also, I didn't, I didn't have much money at the time,

00:45:52.120 but I hired this PR kind of company that got me on 13 morning talk shows across the country. So I was

00:45:59.180 like, good morning, Sacramento. Good day, Houston. Yada, yada, yada. Right. Um, I gave 36 speeches at

00:46:05.780 colleges across the country to promote the book. So my point is I maintained unwavering faith.

00:46:11.880 I had affirmations that I used every day during my miracle morning that I would, you know, I was

00:46:15.380 using my miracle morning to sell the miracle morning and do the, the things I put forth

00:46:19.960 extraordinary effort through the, you know, the podcast, all the things, the schedule,

00:46:23.660 the interviews, the TV things, the speeches at the end of that year, I was 987,000 copies short of my

00:46:31.580 goal. Right. Right. Just, just a little bit, just a little, like think about, you know,

00:46:35.780 yeah, it's a nine, 98.7% failure, if you will. Right. Failure. And so like, was I discouraged?

00:46:42.660 Totally. I mentioned earlier, I did the math. I'm like, okay, 13, uh, or a million divided by 13,000

00:46:48.460 is 76. I'm 33 now. So I'll be 110 years old by the time I reached the goal of a million. I'm like,

00:46:55.880 that sucks. But here's the, one of the most important parts of the miracle equation is the word 0.89

00:47:01.940 until I will maintain unwavering faith and put forth extraordinary effort to achieve my goal

00:47:08.940 until I do, no matter how long that takes. So I brushed myself off a little discouraged and I'm

00:47:15.360 like, all right, I'm going to try again. And so this is like, when you have other people, let's say

00:47:20.300 your goal is to, you know, make a hundred grand in a year and you want to, you go for the raise and you

00:47:24.600 get fired or whatever. Right. Okay. The word until is the underlying piece of that miracle equation,

00:47:32.520 which is like, all right, things don't always work out the way we want them to the way we hope they

00:47:37.100 would. Right. You might get fired from the job that you were maintaining unwavering faith that

00:47:41.740 you'd become the CEO of because you're supposed to go work for a different company or start your own

00:47:46.800 company. Right. So it's kind of like this miracle equation, this unwavering faith and extraordinary

00:47:51.240 effort. It's, it's all in, it's a way of living. It's not based on each individual isolated outcome.

00:47:59.820 It's a way of showing up and living and approaching all outcomes, knowing that at the end of your life,

00:48:05.260 when you look back and you're like, dude, I had a bunch of failures, I had a bunch of successes,

00:48:09.660 but the day that I made the decision to maintain unwavering faith that I could accomplish anything I put

00:48:15.960 my mind to, and I put forth extraordinary effort, which is not 80 hour work weeks.

00:48:21.100 It's just consistent effort for as long as it takes. Right. That changed everything. That's what led to

00:48:26.400 that opportunity and led, enabled me to overcome that setback to achieve the next thing. Right.

00:48:32.500 It's a way of living. It's a way of showing up to everything that we do.

00:48:37.600 I am really glad you said that because I've always wondered if there's room for

00:48:42.240 pivoting and adjusting and this unwavering faith thing. And you know, what I'm hearing you say,

00:48:47.980 correct me if I'm wrong, is that you might say, I'm going to become a CEO of this company

00:48:52.760 and maybe becoming a CEO of that company is not in your cards. Maybe it's you becoming a CEO of a

00:48:59.260 company. Yeah. Or I'm going to find this incredible lifelong love that I have with a romantic partner.

00:49:06.780 And you think it's with this one person and you pray and you hope and do everything you can.

00:49:11.020 And maybe it's not with that person, but maybe there's somebody else to come into the picture

00:49:15.680 relatively soon. Yeah. And that's what I'm hearing you say is there's some,

00:49:21.060 it's not so much that desired outcome. It's that you can produce a outcome over a period of time.

00:49:28.040 Yeah. I like that. And I think that what just came to me is it's, it's unwavering faith in the

00:49:32.240 micro and the macro simultaneously, right? The micro, like the micro is the, like, it's a strategy

00:49:38.720 to increase your likelihood of achieving everything that you want, right? Knowing that it's a strategy.

00:49:44.320 It doesn't mean I'll give you, here's a, here's a great example. Um, Michael Jordan is one of my

00:49:50.240 favorite athletes of all time. Right. And you know, back when I was, for every man listening to

00:49:55.800 this, every man over 40, right? A hundred percent. Um, now it's, you know, Steph Curry. No, no, no, no,

00:50:02.080 no. I said, and younger as well. Okay. Let's just set the record. Nobody else still has the shoes

00:50:07.360 selling it, you know, millions of shoes a year. Right. Um, so, but, but think about this, think

00:50:11.760 about Michael Jordan or any elite athlete. Now I've never talked to Michael personally. I've never

00:50:15.940 heard him say this, but if you think about the world's most successful athletes, I believe

00:50:20.740 that they have unwavering faith that they can make every shot that they take. Well, the average

00:50:26.740 athlete, their faith is dependent on their results. Like it is for the average person,

00:50:31.520 right? So let's say you're an average athlete, even an average NBA player. Right. So let's

00:50:35.900 say you're, you're above average, but you're, you're in the NBA, the cream of the crop. Yeah.

00:50:39.660 But you're no Michael Jordan. Right. So you think about it, let's say the average player

00:50:43.040 gets the ball and he's like, dude, I'm going to crush this game. And he misses his first

00:50:46.240 shot. He's like, Oh man, I missed the first shot. No big deal. Right. Gets the ball again,

00:50:49.340 misses a second shot. Now his faith starts to waver. He gets the ball a third time. Maybe he

00:50:54.720 passes it. But when he takes that third shot, maybe if he misses it, his faith is completely

00:51:00.220 out the window. And he's like, don't, don't even give me the ball again, dude. I'm off

00:51:04.260 tonight. That's the average mediocre mindset. Right now, Michael Jordan says, give me, and

00:51:10.920 this is true for Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, you name it. The best of the best.

00:51:16.340 Give me the ball. They miss a shot. Give me the ball. They miss a shot. Give me the ball.

00:51:20.020 They miss a shot. They miss seven shots in a row. Give me the ball. I'm going to make the

00:51:23.980 eighth shot. They miss the eighth shot. How many times have we seen the greatest basketball

00:51:29.420 players in the world miss have the worst three quarters of all time? They cannot make a shot.

00:51:37.160 They are so far off and it doesn't change that their faith, their faith doesn't waver in the

00:51:43.220 fourth quarter. They come alive. They score 35 points. They bring their team back from defeat

00:51:49.600 to win the game. That's the miracle equation in action. It's let me say one more thing on

00:51:57.540 it. Has there ever been an NBA player that made every shot that they took?

00:52:03.640 No, of course not. No, but there are NBA players that have unwavering faith that they will make

00:52:08.120 every shot they take, even though they know it's not an actual possibility, but they know it increases

00:52:12.840 the probability of their success. That's how you apply this in real life. That's, that's actually,

00:52:19.120 that, that resonates with me that you, you, you might realistically understand. I might not make

00:52:25.700 the shot, but I believe that I can. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, one of the things I hear often from guys

00:52:31.620 is this concept of imposter syndrome. And I hate, I hate the phrase. I hate the concept. I don't,

00:52:38.380 I don't know that I've ever dealt with it in the way that most people describe it because

00:52:42.220 I don't believe I'm God's gift to whatever I'm doing at the time, but I believe I can be.

00:52:48.400 Why, why would I do this podcast if I did not think I could be the best at podcasting? Yeah.

00:52:53.820 You know, why, why would I go learn how to cook dinner for my kids if I didn't believe that I

00:52:57.900 could make a delicious meal over time? Yeah. Not immediately. Yeah. Might be mac and cheese and

00:53:02.620 hot dogs for a little while, you know, and then we moved to, to, to, you know, steaks and

00:53:07.380 asparagus or whatever it is, but why would I do anything that I don't believe that I could get

00:53:13.180 better at? Yeah. That I have some level of faith, maybe not unwavering, but some level of faith that

00:53:18.140 I can improve. Yeah. Do you, do you think this, Hal, do you think this is a thought that's crossed my

00:53:24.220 mind? I've interviewed, gosh, probably 550 ish, maybe a little bit more hyper successful men in their

00:53:31.620 own right. And sometimes I wonder if it's unwavering faith or if it's, and I'm trying to be very gracious

00:53:39.580 when I say this, I even feel this way about myself personally. Is it just a level of delusion or

00:53:45.780 density or ignorance even that, Hey, I don't know, but if it's going to be somebody, it might as well

00:53:51.760 be me. Cause I feel that way sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I always say there's a fine line

00:53:57.040 between optimism and delusion, right? Like it's a very fine line. Um, and, uh, and, and I think

00:54:03.520 that, you know, I know, I know I cross it often. Um, but I, and I think that's just, that's also a

00:54:08.500 strategy for success. Um, I interviewed a gal for my podcast yesterday. Uh, her name is Hala Taha and 0.94

00:54:14.080 she, uh, she hosts the young and profiting podcast. Um, and she taught like she has, she's her company

00:54:19.960 did like, I think $7 million last year. Like they're crushing it. They're a podcasting marketing network and

00:54:24.780 this and that, you know, she's in her thirties, like they're crushing. And she was talking about,

00:54:29.480 like, I was asking her, you know, what, what are your superpowers? What are the keys to your success?

00:54:33.460 And she's like, I just always believe I can do whatever I try and do. And she's like, and I've

00:54:37.800 had, I've been rejected and I failed, but I just keep believing I can do whatever. And she said

00:54:42.000 something on the lines of it's probably partly naive or delusional, but I just maintain that. And it's

00:54:48.540 like, so call it whatever you want, dude. Like it's, it's a, it's a strategy. And here's a great

00:54:53.260 thing. If you would compare it to that unwavering faith, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of

00:54:57.120 overlap in unwavering faith and, and, and just this belief that you can overcome, you know, or accomplish

00:55:02.000 whatever, be the best at something. Um, it's a strategy that increases your probability. So even if

00:55:07.980 you, even if you're delusionally optimistic, great, that's better than being overly pessimistic. You know

00:55:13.480 what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. But you know, I do have another question. Uh, you know, I see all the book

00:55:19.220 iterations and versions behind you. There's probably, I don't know, 20, 25 different iterations

00:55:23.220 there. Have you felt like, um, you know, you've, you've, you've put your hat on this miracle morning

00:55:28.980 concept and I think it's beautiful. And I think it's served literally millions of people. Cause I imagine

00:55:33.580 at this point you sold over a million copies. I'm sure you've hit your goal. Yeah. A little, a little

00:55:38.040 bit more, two to three ish. Yes. Right. Um, do you, what's next? Is it, is it just more

00:55:44.580 iterations of this? Is it in depth? Is it nuanced to the conversation or is it a completely different

00:55:50.440 concept? I love that you asked that because it's actually the, that's very, the timing of that is

00:55:54.660 great because the, the way I would have answered that question for the last 15 years, and this is

00:55:58.520 still the answer, but it's now only half of the answer, um, is that the miracle morning, you know,

00:56:03.880 it's been read by roughly 3 million people in 42 languages around the world. And I still, to this

00:56:10.480 day and then I published it in 2012. So what, 13 years ago, um, to this day, I get emails every day

00:56:17.200 and this keeps me on the mission, which is like every day out of 3 million people that have read

00:56:22.640 it. That means there's 8 billion people that have never heard of it. And there's nothing that I've

00:56:27.420 ever created in the world. No book, no speech, nothing that has impacted people as like deeply and

00:56:34.840 profoundly and as universally. Like I get high school kids. I just spoke to a high school

00:56:40.440 two days ago, um, on the miracle morning and they were like, you know, they're doing a 30 day

00:56:44.700 challenge, you know, but then we have a miracle morning, uh, after 50 book coming out. That's

00:56:49.380 addressing people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. And that's based on how many stories I have

00:56:55.240 from people who were 50, 60 had lost their purpose in life and the miracle morning transformed their

00:57:00.720 life. So my first answer is I will continue sharing the miracle morning as a big part of my life's

00:57:08.280 work, a central theme for, you know, indefinitely. And part of this is an, here's a little, a side

00:57:14.820 answer that, that, that, that for anybody that like professionally you're thinking about your

00:57:19.860 profession. Um, once I got clear, the miracle morning, it makes a profound impact for people.

00:57:25.080 It made it easy for me to say yes and no to things. Uh, I said, so I, you know, I get the more

00:57:29.860 the miracle morning blew up, the more opportunities I got, Hey, you want to do this? You want to write

00:57:33.520 this book? You want to make a movie? You want to do this? Um, if it helps me reach more

00:57:37.380 people with my mission of the sharing the miracle morning, it was a yes. So we made the miracle

00:57:42.000 morning movie, a filmmaker reached out a friend of mine. He said, how I'm in the miracle morning

00:57:47.300 Facebook group. There's 350,000 people in that Facebook group. And the stories of how it's changing

00:57:53.340 lives are extraordinary. We need to make a movie to share this message in these stories to inspire

00:58:00.540 other people, right? Well, that helped me reach more people with the miracle morning. Yes. So we made

00:58:05.680 that movie. Right. Another friend of mine is an app developer and he's like, hell you need a miracle

00:58:10.180 morning app, man. You know, everybody in the miracle morning community is like, I use six apps. I have a

00:58:14.640 meditation app and a visualization app and a journaling app. And I got a reading app. We need

00:58:19.280 all in one, like six apps in one. So we developed the miracle morning app. It's crushing, you know,

00:58:24.600 4.9 out of five stars. People are loving that app. And because it helps reach more people,

00:58:30.280 you know? So that's the first half. And the second half is real quick. I talked to my agent the other

00:58:34.560 day and I was going to write a book called the miracle life. That was my next book. And she said,

00:58:38.780 Hal, don't take this the wrong way. I think you've squeezed the juice out of the miracle lemon.

00:58:44.500 I think you need a new Hal Elrod brand, a completely new vertical. You, you know, whether it's a sales

00:58:50.400 book or it's a productivity book, whatever she goes, and that'll bring more people over to the 1.00

00:58:56.080 miracle morning. But she goes, you know, you've like, otherwise if it's the miracle life, it's just

00:59:00.220 going to be like, oh, he's doing another miracle book, you know? So yeah. So the answer is I will

00:59:05.140 continue to share the miracle morning message for probably the rest of my life. It's my keynote

00:59:09.080 message. When I speak to companies, the miracle morning is my, my signature keynote, right? So it

00:59:14.480 still is my thing, but I'm also in the process right now of figuring out what's the next book and

00:59:19.420 the next brand going to be. Yeah. For what it's worth, and she's more credible than I am. I agree

00:59:25.480 with her. I would love to see something new and fascinating and interesting. That's not to dismiss

00:59:30.900 or diminish any of the work that you've done with miracle morning by any means, but I would love to

00:59:35.220 see what's next. You know, I'm all, I'm the kind of person who's like, okay, I got that. I can

00:59:39.780 incorporate the savers method into my daily life. And then, and then what, then what's next? What's

00:59:45.140 new? You know what I mean? So that's, that's cool. I'm glad you're getting that feedback.

00:59:48.880 Yeah. I can tell you the premise of the new book. So it's, it's a, Oh, you have it already.

00:59:54.060 Yeah. I've got the premise. I just don't have the title yet. Um, so let's hear it.

00:59:58.280 I feel like all of us spend our lives balancing two forces, what we do and how we feel, right?

01:00:06.520 Like you think about it, like we're trying to optimize what we do and get ourselves to do the

01:00:10.240 things that'll lead to health and success and wealth and happiness. And most people,

01:00:15.760 when I survey the miracle morning community and I ask what your number one challenge is,

01:00:19.120 it's almost always getting myself to do what I know I need to do. So self-discipline,

01:00:25.900 if you will, like that's an area that I've excelled at. So it's teaching people the simplest way to get

01:00:31.000 them, get themselves to do what they need to do when they need to do it, whether they feel like it or

01:00:34.560 not. And then the other is inner bliss, like your emotional state, how we feel. And I've also,

01:00:41.120 that was like an area of mastery for me where even in the car accident, I was at peace.

01:00:45.140 I was happy. I was optimistic even with cancer. So it's teaching how to, how to really thrive

01:00:51.440 in those two areas, what you do and how you feel. I just got to figure out how to package it in a way

01:00:56.820 that's memorable and that kind of thing. That's interesting. Well, can I offer maybe some insight,

01:01:04.180 please? So I've often thought about when I started order of man, um, my goal was to bridge the gap

01:01:10.980 between what we know and what we do. Okay. Very similar. Yeah. What we feel and what we do.

01:01:17.060 And I've, I've often referred to that as the integrity gap, what we know we ought to be doing

01:01:22.600 and what we're actually practicing in, in real life. And the wider that chasm, the more discontent

01:01:32.020 and frustration and contention and feelings of inadequacy and anxiety exist, the better you

01:01:40.300 bridge the gap between what you know, or in your case, what you feel and what you do, you begin to,

01:01:45.940 to bridge that gap and you start to find more fulfillment and peace. Inner bliss is the term

01:01:51.420 that you used. Yeah. We've always referred to it as the integrity gap. Do with that what you want,

01:01:56.240 but that's how I've always framed it. I'm taking notes, dude. I love it. Thank you. Yeah, man.

01:02:00.800 Yeah. Well, brother, this has been a great conversation. Um, tell the people how to

01:02:05.040 connect with you, where to learn more about what you're up to. And of course, incorporate

01:02:08.100 the savers method and the miracle morning method, and then whatever the new and next thing is as

01:02:12.780 well. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man. You can, uh, you can, of course you can buy all of my books,

01:02:17.260 the miracle morning, the miracle equation on Amazon. Um, the, uh, you can download the miracle

01:02:21.620 morning app, uh, in the app store, the Google play store. Uh, the best spot for everything is

01:02:26.720 miracle morning.com. Like that's the hub miracle morning.com. If you go there,

01:02:30.540 links to the books, you can watch the movie for free. You can download the app there. So yeah,

01:02:34.680 that's the best hub. You can opt into the miracle morning, like the weekly pot. I have a podcast

01:02:38.680 that comes out every week. So you can opt in there at miracle morning.com, uh, as well.

01:02:44.000 Awesome. We'll sync everything up. I really appreciate your work. I know we haven't talked

01:02:47.660 for almost a decade, which is crazy to think about. Um, but I've watched your story from the

01:02:54.260 sidelines and I've seen what you've overcome mentally, physically, emotionally. And I got

01:03:00.500 to tell you, man, I'm just inspired. You know, when somebody has a setback, the way that you've

01:03:04.580 had setbacks in your life and overcomes those things, it's inspiring to me. I see so many people

01:03:11.180 who almost as if they have the Midas touch, like everything they touched is just amazing.

01:03:16.400 And I love a story of redemption. I love a story of, of, of men and women who are on the brink of,

01:03:23.580 of death in your case or catastrophe and find a way to overcome it. And I'm inspired by it.

01:03:28.800 I know a lot of people listening will be as well. I appreciate you, man. Awesome. Thank you, Ryan.

01:03:32.800 I'm inspired by you too, man. Over the last nine years, what you've built, I was telling you before

01:03:35.960 we started recording the podcast, uh, with order of man, dude, you're, you're on a mission. You've

01:03:40.540 got a global community. You're making a huge difference, man. So thank you for the work that

01:03:43.600 you're doing. And thank you so much for having me back. And hopefully, yeah, we don't wait nine

01:03:47.080 years for the next time. I was just going to say that let's not let it be nine years before the

01:03:51.220 next conversation. Thanks brother. Man, Mr. Hal Elrod. I love that guy. Um, he is energetic.

01:03:58.500 He's got a lot of passion for what he talks about and it's not just hype, uh, or hyperbole or

01:04:04.960 some theory it's actual practices. It's millions of people going through his savers method. And you

01:04:11.620 can look that up in the miracle morning. If you haven't already, it's one of my books on my

01:04:15.500 bookshelf. It is, it is a must read if you're trying to create good daily habits, uh, and produce

01:04:21.700 results in your life. So go check that out. The miracle morning. Also check out my friends

01:04:25.760 over at Montana knife company. And last make sure you check out the free battle ready program

01:04:31.040 at order of man.com slash battle ready. And then I do have one ask for you to, if you guys

01:04:36.460 would leave a rating and review, uh, wherever you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts,

01:04:43.040 wherever else you might be listening, YouTube, maybe even, um, and just let people know what

01:04:48.180 you think about the podcast. Those go a long way in promoting what we're doing here. And it

01:04:51.980 would mean a lot to me. So just please leave a rating and review. And outside of that,

01:04:57.080 just connect with us on the socials at Ryan Mickler. And we'll see you there on Instagram

01:05:01.300 X and Facebook. All right, guys, we'll be back tomorrow until then go out there, take

01:05:05.980 action and become the man you are meant to be.

01:05:10.040 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your

01:05:14.320 life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of

01:05:19.260 man.com.

Order of Man - April 29, 2025

HAL ELROD ｜ Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort is Unstoppable

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