HAL ELROD ｜ Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort is Unstoppable
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 5 minutes
Words per Minute
200.13469
Summary
When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated. This is your life, this is who you are, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
Transcript
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It can be challenging to be faithful towards your goals and objectives in the seemingly endless
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supply of trials and adversity, whether you're dealing with a crippling financial situation,
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a devastating divorce, or something like my guest today, Hal Elrod, dealt with a life-threatening
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cancer diagnosis. And in spite of all that, guys, and more, you have responsibilities to take care
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of and duties to fulfill. So how do you do it? Today, Hal and I talk about being realistic in
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your pursuits by balancing the line between what is probable and possible, what is a true miracle
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and how to create more of them in your life, the powerful connections between mind and body and
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how to use those connections and using affirmations in a way that works. You're a man of action. You
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live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you
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down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged,
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resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become
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at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Men, welcome back to the Order of Man podcast. I am Ryan Michler, and I've got a very good podcast
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with somebody I have admired for a very long time. He was on the podcast years ago, and he's had some
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recent personal developments that are very inspiring in his triumph and successfully fighting cancer and
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other trials and adversities that he's had to deal with in life. And I love that he's willing to share
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those concepts with us and those trials and ways that he's overcome them in real practical ways that
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we can overcome what we're dealing with. Before I get into the podcast with Hal, just want to mention,
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as I always do, my friends over at Montana Knife Company, they're making knives, hence the name,
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and they're doing it out of Montana. But these are 100% made in America knives, and they are the best
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knives that I've ever personally used. I've got about 14 of them in my house, and just about every one of
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my friends that I hunt with ends up getting a knife from them as well, either a gift or they like mine,
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and I happen to lose a couple here and there, and I'm using the word lose loosely, or they go ahead
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and buy one. But either way, you need a Montana Knife Company knife as well. Go check them out,
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montananifecompany.com, and use the code ORDEROFMAN at checkout. Now, man, let me introduce you to Hal.
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He is a keynote speaker. He is a coach, but he's best known for his book, The Miracle Morning,
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which has sold over millions. I think it's two to three million right now. And I'm sure it's just
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going to be more than that. It's, at this point, a global movement. It's transformed the lives of
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millions of people. He survived a near-fatal car accident when he was 20, left him with permanent
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injuries. They said he'd never walk again. He defied the odds there. Crippling cancer diagnosis,
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he defied the odds there. And so he's used the same methods that he's taught to millions of people
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to overcome his trials and challenges and adversities in life. In addition to The Miracle
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Morning, he has also authored several other books and speaks internationally on topics like
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overcoming adversity and peak performance, conscious leadership. But he has obviously a story of
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perseverance. He's got an energetic, relatable style, and that's why he's such a trusted voice in
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personal growth communities. So enjoy this one, gents. How so good to see you, man. I was looking
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at the last time that we talked and had an official podcast conversation. I know how busy you are. I was
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looking at it. I cannot believe it was 2016 when we last had a conversation. Wow. And I'm guessing
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that was right. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. So it was probably like months before.
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Um, it was before because unless you knew about it and didn't address it, it must've been, I knew I
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was in the hospital, like the same day. So I definitely didn't know about it. So yeah, man,
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that's wild. Tell, tell me what happened there. I mean, obviously you had this diagnosis. I'm not
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sure the, the nuance and the intricacies of it, but, um, I'm actually very curious about what,
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what happened there. Yeah. So I'm, so I was 37 years old. Um, my, uh, I had two kids,
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still have two kids, but at the time they were, my daughter was seven and my son was four. So,
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you know, relatively young. And, uh, we had just moved to Texas. My wife and I had moved to Texas
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like three, four months prior. So we're in a new house and, uh, and like my career had taken off
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miracle mornings, international, all these things, you know, like life was great. Um, and, uh, and I'm
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a pretty healthy person, or I should say I had the identity of a healthy person, right? Like it's
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interesting. I learned a lot about our identity. Like you think you're healthy because you're
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healthier than maybe most people, but what do you, what, what are you taking? What are you eating?
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What are you drinking that might not be, uh, contributing to your health? And so I just woke
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up in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe. And, um, long story short, it was many
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days in the hospital. They're draining a liter to two liters of fluid from my lungs so I can breathe.
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Uh, and then it, and it's refilling with fluid and I'm going back to the hospital and just,
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I'm like living in and out of the hospital and it took a while to diagnose, but it was a very
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rare aggressive form of cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia, uh, which, so it's a
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blood cancer and that particular cancer, it shuts your organs down. So when they finally found out
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what it was, not only was my lung filling with fluid, uh, my heart was on the verge of failing
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and my kidneys were failing. And so they had to do immediate, I had to go into immediate procedures
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and, um, ended up given being given a 20 to 30% chance of surviving, which, you know, as a dad
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with two young kids being told the flip side of the 20 to 30% survival rate is of course a 70 to 80%
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chance that I'm going to die. And, um, so I had to pull out every tool that I knew in terms of health
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and mindset and the mind body connection and all of it, um, to, uh, you know, to, to try to beat cancer.
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And the last thing I'll say, and then I'll ask me any questions that you have. Um, but, uh, my wife was
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of course distraught and scared and, you know, thinking I'm going to lose my husband. And I said,
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sweetheart, I know you're scared, but I believe that there is a 100% chance that I will be among
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the 20 to 30% of the survivors of this cancer, because I will do everything that they did. And more,
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you have to understand that that survival rate is people that live in fear, that eat terrible food,
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that have a really weak mindset. Like I'm going to do everything that the survivors do and more.
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So I'm actually not scared. I have unwavering faith that I will beat this cancer. And, and,
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and, and then fear came later as I was laying in bed, bald, 40 pounds lighter on chemotherapy,
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feeling like I was going to die. That that's when the fear crept in a little bit after.
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What was the fear that, I mean, obviously you have a fear of leaving your family behind.
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Was it a fear of the unknown of the afterlife? Like what?
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Not at all. No fear of death. So no fear of death. So, uh, when I was 20 years old,
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I was hit head on by a drunk driver, uh, found dead at the scene of the car accident. My,
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my heart stopped for six minutes. I broke 11 bones, came out of a coma, told I would never walk again.
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So I'd already faced kind of death and made peace with it at that, at 20 years old. Um,
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I was never afraid of death after that. I was like, Oh, whenever it's time to die,
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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
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some ways irrational, unless the fear is of like how it's going to affect your family. That,
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that was my fear. But to me, death, death and birth are two sides of the same coin. Like
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if you're born, that means you will die someday. And to me, there's no fear of being born. And like,
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to me, there's no fear of death. It's like, that's just the other side. Whenever it's time,
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the fear was, what does that mean for my family? Like, what is it, what is it going to do to my kids?
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I'm, I'm at peace with death, but I'm not at peace with my, my babies growing up without dad.
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Like the, the, the impact that that could have on them is, is really terrifying for me. And so
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that's where the fear was is not, not the fear of death, but the fear of leaving my children without
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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,
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as active maybe as I need to be with my relationship with God. Yeah.
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But I either feel like he exists and all will be well, or he doesn't. And I'll never know.
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Yeah. And either way I am coming to terms with, and I'm okay with that, but you're right. I do not
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want to leave my kids destitute, sad, uh, without the lessons that I would have otherwise taught them
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those sorts of things. Yeah. And my wife and I really balance each other out. Right. So it's like,
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if it was just me, uh, with my kids, without my wife, like they, they would, they would not get
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a full parenting experience that they need to be well-rounded. And then I think the same is true.
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Like I'm thinking, oh man, if they just have my wife, who's amazing, but it's like, ah, they're,
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you know, we really, they, they really do get so much from, from each of us. Like I think most kids
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get from their parents. Well, yeah, I think every child has it. I would dare say a right to be raised by a
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mother and father and it doesn't always work that way. And I went through a divorce several years ago
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where, you know, my kids, my four kids are split equal time between their mom and myself. It's not
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ideal. Ideally it would be a mother and a father in the house. So I, I can definitely agree with what
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you're saying on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, the, the thing that was hard with the cancer
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was, you know, so I have, I wrote a book, uh, my, my follow-up to my, my, my primary book,
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Miracle Morning. I had a follow-up book called The Miracle Equation. And The Miracle Equation is
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just two simple decisions. Um, unwavering faith, primarily in yourself, like unwavering faith that
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I can overcome or accomplish anything. Uh, and then extraordinary effort, which is just the
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commitment to do whatever it takes, right? It's very simple binary. And, um, the hard part was,
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so I was trying to maintain and reinforce this unwavering faith. When I, when I had my car accident,
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I had unwavering faith that I would walk again, right? Even though the doctor said I would never walk
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again. And I took my first step three weeks after I was found dead at the scene. So it was this a
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miraculous turnaround. Um, and I had faith based on that, especially going, wow, okay. I did this
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once when the doctors told me I wouldn't walk again, that I defied the odds. Now the doctors
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are saying, I have a majority chance that I'm going to die. Well, I'm going to defy the odds again
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with unwavering faith that I'm going to live. So here was the hard part is I ha I was trying to
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reinforce unwavering faith through affirmations and prayer and meditation and visualization,
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you name it while simultaneously as a father having to do what is responsible. I had to prepare
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for my death, meaning I had to go, okay, yes, I'm going to live, but in case I die, I have to get
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all my affairs in order and I have to prepare everything for my kids as if I were going to die.
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That was the hardest part was this dichotomy between how do I maintain unwavering faith in
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every fiber of my being while I prepare logistically for the death, uh, that could
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come, uh, so that my kids aren't left, you know, and my wife's not left without all of my affairs in
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order. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I've never been in your position, so I'm speaking from ignorance here,
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but I imagine it would be pretty difficult to update your will and your trust documents and then
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also simultaneously believe that you're actually going to live. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's,
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you're preparing to die while you maintain unwavering faith that you're going to live.
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That was a new one for me, for sure. I don't, I hope this doesn't come across as disrespectful or
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insensitive to your experiences, but I imagine there's a lot of individuals who are permanently
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paralyzed, um, or have, have since passed away who feel like they would probably say they had faith
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and they did what they needed to do. And yet fate dealt them a different hand. Yeah. How do you
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reconcile that? That was hard. That that's, that's where my faith wavered as well, because I, uh, for
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example, um, Wayne Dyer, who wrote the power of intention, one of my favorite authors and spiritual
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leaders, and I went and saw him speak when he was alive. Um, I didn't realize this, but somehow I
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don't, I don't know where I was doing some research on some holistic healing. And I came across
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Wayne Dyer's story and he died of leukemia and I have leukemia. And the way I view Wayne Dyer is
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he's a much older, much wiser version of me, right? Like he's someone I learned from, I aspire to be.
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And I went, Whoa, wait a minute. I guarantee that Wayne Dyer, not guarantee, but I would imagine Wayne
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Dyer utilized all the mental, emotional, and spiritual tools at his disposal. And yet he still
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died. Well, what, what chance do I have? So then, yeah, the fear of, wow, what if I maintain unwavering
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faith and I do everything right and I still die? Um, so yeah, man, it was, it was, uh, it was, it was
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challenging. And I'll tell you that for me, um, I, you know, this, this morning practice
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that I do, it's, it's, it's made up of six, six, six practices in one, if you will, right?
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It's the miracle morning. There's an acronym, the savers S A V E R S and the A in savers is
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for affirmations and affirmations are my favorite of the savers. I think it's the one that's the
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most misunderstood. If you watch Stuart Smalley on Saturday night live in the nineties, he had
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that show. You remember daily affirmations with Stuart or whatever. Yeah. I'm good enough. I'm,
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and it was a real, a real exaggerated list. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it.
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People like me. Right. So affirmations were thought of as a joke for that reason, or because
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well-meaning self-help gurus will tell us like affirm something that you wish were true. That's
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not true. Like if you're struggling financially, just say, I am wealthy. I am wealthy. Right. But,
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but, but that's why I think people are disenfranchised with affirmations is they're like,
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these are, they're cheesy or you pump yourself up. For me, I use a really specific formula for
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affirmations. And I believe these played a huge part in saving my life during the cancer journey.
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And, uh, at the very least overriding that initial fear. And so the three steps I use for affirmation,
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step one is affirm what you are committed to. So I couldn't guarantee I was going to beat cancer.
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I had no way, but I could guarantee I could be committed. So I, I phrased it. I am committed to
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beating cancer and living a long, healthy life alongside Ursula and the kids, no matter what,
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there's no other option. And what you affirm repeatedly becomes your reality. So every time
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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,
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you know, I'd pull up my affirmations and affirm. I am committed to living, to beating cancer and living
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a long, healthy life alongside Ursula and the kids. And I repeated it with such conviction and such
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repetition over and over and over and over and over again, Ryan, that it literally reprogrammed
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my subconscious mind. And the fear, the fear went away. I literally got to the point of, you could
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call it even delusion where like, I forgot that fear was a possibility. So the first week or two,
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I was struggling with fear. And then I start focusing my, all my savers, my miracle, my affirmations
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on beating cancer. Step two was affirming which, why it was a must for me to beat cancer. And I had
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reasons that were so compelling for my wife, for my kids, for my parents, for myself, that when I
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didn't feel like going on, and there were times where I wanted to die in terms of like, I felt so
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sick and so exhausted and so terrible, but reading my affirmations, affirming the commitment and then
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affirming why, Oh yeah, it's not about me. It's not about how I feel in this moment. It's bigger than
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that. I'm doing this for my wife, for my children, for my parents and on and on and on. And then the third
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step was affirming which actions I would take and win. And that's where I clarified exactly what I
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would do, which holistic practices, which allopathic protocols in order to beat cancer and follow
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through with that commitment. And so that was a huge game changer for me in terms of focusing the
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mindset, not on my fears and not what could go wrong, but on what I was committed to, why it was a
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must for me and which actions I would take and when I would take them to ensure that I followed
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through. I see the power in that. And, and yet I still, I, and I'm, I'm only framing this through
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the lens in which I am right now in life, which is a little pessimistic if I'm being honest and a
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little skeptical to, to, to, um, maybe to, to put it mildly. Um, and so again, I want to be respectful
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of what you feel, but when you, you talk about those affirmations, did those, did that help you
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cope with, like, I'm committed to beating cancer, for example, did that help you cope with the reality
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of what you were confronted with? Like, Hey, all that's within my control is I'm going to do what
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I need to do. I'm going to, I'm going to work on my nutrition. I'm going to work on my exercise.
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I'm going to work on my mentality. Um, or did that literally help you beat cancer?
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Hmm. I love that. Um, so, uh, yes. And I don't know, meaning yes is, uh, all we can control is
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what we're committed to. And here's the thing in life more often than not, we don't get what we want
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unless we're committed to it. Right. We only get what we're committed to. And the more committed we
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are, um, the more likely we are to get it. You know, I, I, I talk about, um, well, I don't want
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to miss this question. So, um, in terms of the mindset, it absolutely allowed my mindset to stay
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focused on what I needed to do and follow through with that commitment. And here's the thing that
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affirmations formula I've been using for 15 years. I've used that to double my income during the 2008
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economic crash. I use that to sell a million copies of the miracle morning, even though in year one,
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I sold 13,000 and I was 987,000 copies short of my goal. Right. But I read those affirmations.
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I'm like, this sucks, man. I'm going to be 110 years old at this pace by the time I sell a million
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copies of the book. Right. But, but I just, every, but I was like, I dusted myself off and I was like,
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I am committed to changing 1 million lives one morning at a time, no matter how long it takes,
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there is no other option. Right. So again, by, by focusing on what you're committed to, right. And you can
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apply this to changing any aspect of your life, achieving any goal, right. You reaffirm it every
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day and you just remain committed to do what you need to do for as long as it takes until you get
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there. And you finally more often than not get there. Right. So that's, that's kind of the,
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the big picture answer around how it not only focuses your mindset, it focuses your behavior
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and your actions to be in alignment with what it is you're committed to. Now, did it actually help me
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beat cancer? I can answer that in two ways. One is if I hadn't affirmed the commitment every day
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and reminded myself by affirming why it was a must for me and then clarifying and affirming which
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actions I was going to take, which included, okay, I have to do chemotherapy. And I say have to,
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because I tried to avoid it. And some of the best holistic oncologists in America said, Hal,
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your cancer does not give you the luxury of trying a holistic approach, a natural approach.
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You have two to three, I was given one to three weeks to live by the doctors. And I thought they
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were scared, fear-mongering me into chemo, which is why I called these other holistic oncologists.
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They're like, they're not exaggerating how your heart, lungs, and kidneys are already shutting down.
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You have one to two weeks to live. They said, so you've got to do the chemo. They said, but
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we would also recommend do every holistic practice that you can, as if that's all you were doing to
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detoxify from the chemo, which a lot of people die from chemo, right? So I was doing three coffee
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enemas a week. I was doing ozone massage or lymphatic massage, ozone sauna. I took 70 supplements every
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single day. I did organic juicing, but here's the thing. All of that was part of my affirmations every
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day. In fact, day one, it wasn't all of that. I didn't know what to do. Day one was I will relentlessly
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research every holistic protocol that has proven effective in beating cancer, and I will implement
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every single one. That was that step three of affirming what you'll do and when. That was how it
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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
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to do this. So did it help me beat cancer in my mindset? Yes. In terms of it guided me and kept me
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focused on the actions that I had clarified that had proven to help people beat cancer that were
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natural. And then last but not least, and this is the one that I, you know, it's theoretical, I can't
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prove this, is the mind-body connection. And I do believe, based on my anecdotal evidence of, I was told I
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would never walk again by the doctors, you know, when I was 20 years old. And I told my parents, I'm
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going to walk again. You watch. And every day, I prayed that I would walk again. I didn't have
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affirmations back then. I didn't know about them. I wasn't using the affirmations. But I prayed every
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day that I would walk. I maintained unwavering faith. I would visualize walking again. I talked about
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that as the only possibility. And you could call it a coincidence, but my femur broke in two pieces.
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I was hit head on by a drunk driver at 70 miles an hour. Second vehicle crashed into my driver's
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side door at 70 miles per hour. My femur broke in half. My pelvis broke in three places. I was
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clinically dead for six minutes. I spent six days in a coma. And when I came out of the coma,
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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
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
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00:30:45.900
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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you think about the podcast. Those go a long way in promoting what we're doing here. And it
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would mean a lot to me. So just please leave a rating and review. And outside of that,
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just connect with us on the socials at Ryan Mickler. And we'll see you there on Instagram
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X and Facebook. All right, guys, we'll be back tomorrow until then go out there, take
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Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your
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life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of