Hal Elrod, a devoted family man with 14 years of marriage and two children, has turned personal adversity into a global mission. Surviving a near-fatal car crash and a rare cancer, he’s on a quest to elevate humanity’s consciousness through his bestselling book, “The Miracle Morning,” which has sold over 2 million copies in 41 languages. His latest project, “The Miracle Morning Updated and Expanded Edition,” reflects his commitment to positive change, adding new insights and chapters. Today, Hal shares how simple morning routines can transform lives, making his wisdom accessible to everyone, even those who’ve never considered themselves “morning people.”
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- What Inspired Hal To Try and Help People
- The Head On Collision That Changed Hal’s Life
- Beating Cancer and Keeping The Positive Mindset
- Why The Miracle Morning Has Changed So Many Lives
- Robert Kiyosaki & The Miracle Morning
- The Reason For The New Edition Of The Miracle Morning
- Why Hal Approaches Things With His Incredible Mindset
- The 5 Minute Rule For Rejection
- How To Keep Your Discipline In Horrible Situations
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
00;00;00;01 – 00;00;16;16
Rod
Welcome back to another edition of Life Time Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing. I’m Radcliffe and I am thrilled that you’re here. And boy, do you guys have a treat today. So I’ve got Hal Elrod on today, who’s the author of the book called The Miracle Morning. He’s written lots of other books, I think 12 and total. But that’s the that’s the big one.
00;00;16;16 – 00;00;40;12
Rod
And I asked his team to bring him back on, which I’ve never done before. By the way, bring an author back on like this. But he has enhanced the original book. He’s got a new book, and I’ll let him tell you all about it. But, you know, let me pre frame this by saying I’m so impressed with his previous work that I’ve given his book to probably 2000 of my warriors over the years.
00;00;40;13 – 00;00;52;09
Rod
Okay. That’s one of the gifts they all get. And my love language is gifts. So they always get gifts from me. But that is absolutely one of the most important ones. They get. So it’s a real treat for me to have him back on. How Welcome back, brother.
00;00;52;09 – 00;01;10;06
Hal
BROADMAN It’s an honor to be here. But the fact that, you know, I just found out right before we started recording that you’ve given away 2000 copies of The Miracle Morning, and I cannot tell you how much that means to me. Obviously, it means the people that received it. But your support is is so, so, so I just so appreciate it.
00;01;10;06 – 00;01;10;22
Hal
Thank you, man.
00;01;10;23 – 00;01;30;02
Rod
No, you bet. And, you know, I got caught up in that that I really didn’t give you a proper introduction by any stretch years. Your story is so freaking amazing what you’ve been through that I’d like you to share that before we dig into your new project. And the reason I wanted you back on.
00;01;30;02 – 00;01;50;07
Hal
Yeah, absolutely. And there’s a new part of the story that I never used to share, and I just recently started sharing it. It came up in an interview organically and then it was really impactful. So when I was eight years old, that was my first kind of experience with life and death. Not personally, but I woke up one morning and I was eight years old.
00;01;50;09 – 00;02;14;21
Hal
My mom was home, my 18 month old sister Anne-Marie was home and my dad was at work and my younger sister was at my grandma’s house and I woke up my mother screaming and my sister Anne-Marie died in her arms that morning. So I watched my sister die at eight years old and she was just a baby. And what I what I saw from that was I mean, obviously it you know, it was devastating for our family.
00;02;14;23 – 00;02;36;28
Hal
But within about 6 to 12 months, my mother was leading a support group for other parents who had lost children. And she turned her pain into purpose. And I really learned that from her a young age. And then my dad started a fundraiser to raise money for the hospital that cared for my sister while she was alive. She had a really rare birth defect that caused the eventual death.
00;02;37;00 – 00;02;56;22
Hal
But but so I saw my parents take this tragedy and rather than wallow in it and feel sorry for themselves, they asked, How can I use this experience to help other people? You fast forward 12 years later at age 20, and I was driving home after giving a speech at a sales conference. I was selling Cut, Cut cutlery, gave a speech at an event.
00;02;56;25 – 00;03;21;29
Hal
I would my car was it had on by a drunk driver at 70 to 80 miles per hour, and I was found dead at the scene. I broke 11 bones. I clinically died for 6 minutes. No heartbeat, not breathing for 6 minutes. They revived me on a medevac helicopter taking me to the hospital. I spent six days in a coma, flatlined twice more when I came out of the coma, I was told by doctors that I would never walk again and that I had permanent brain damage.
00;03;22;02 – 00;03;44;05
Hal
And within a matter of days, I started asking myself how can I use this experience to help other people and realize that my parents did that? And so I also decided I’m not taking the doctors prognosis as the only option, that I’m never going to walk again. And I decided if I never walk again, I’ll be the happiest person you’ve ever seen in a wheelchair, because I’m in a wheelchair.
00;03;44;05 – 00;04;01;16
Hal
Either way, I won’t let the unchangeable affect my mental state, which is always changeable. And a week later I took my first step, and a month later I gave a speech at my high school that I graduated from a few years prior. And you know, the rest is kind of a history. And then we can we can get back into there was another tragedy six years ago with cancer.
00;04;01;16 – 00;04;03;26
Hal
But but that’s enough for now.
00;04;03;28 – 00;04;25;13
Rod
Well, I actually I mean, I’d rather you shared it, but because it’s it’s so and it’s so amazing, you know, that you’ve been you’ve been smacked on the side of the head a few times and you’re still here and you’re still thriving. I mean, I tell my story about losing $50 million and recovering from that. And and, you know, and that’s a different kind of of a of a problem.
00;04;25;13 – 00;04;28;11
Rod
But, yeah, please, please share the cancer thing real quick. Yeah.
00;04;28;14 – 00;04;50;25
Hal
Yeah. So, you know, after you you literally die in a head on collision. You think okay I’ve, I’ve, I’ve that’s it. You know, my parents wanted to keep me in a bubble from that point on, right? But at age 37, so I was so eight when my sister died. 20 when the car accident happened. And then at 37, which was seven years ago, I went into the hospital, my lung, I couldn’t breathe.
00;04;50;27 – 00;05;20;10
Hal
And after about seven days of draining my lung every other day, I was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer called acute lymphoblastic Leukemia. And I was given a 20 to 30% chance of surviving. So, you know, 70 to 80% of those that get this cancer end up dying and it causes your organs to fail. And when I went into the hospital, my heart was failing my kidneys were failing in my lungs, one lung was failing, and the doctor said, you have 1 to 3 weeks to live if you don’t start chemo tomorrow.
00;05;20;13 – 00;05;36;00
Hal
And I said, I don’t want to poison my body with chemo. I want to heal this naturally. And he said, You don’t have that luxury. This cancer doesn’t give you time to try to heal it naturally. And I and I, I, I said, give me 24 hours to do my own research. And I called some of the best holistic oncologists in the country.
00;05;36;02 – 00;05;58;10
Hal
And they both told me, I mean, one of them is famous. He cured Suzanne Somers of cancer multiple times, both of them said how the doctor, your doctor was not exaggerating. You literally have 1 to 3 weeks to live and chemo is your best bet. There’s nothing we can do for you. And so I ended up on a seven month chemo regimen, 650 hours of chemotherapy over seven months.
00;05;58;12 – 00;06;18;15
Hal
Because it’s such an aggressive cancer, they hit it as hard as they possibly can with chemotherapy. And I maintain the same mindset that and here’s here’s what I’ll close with. And my my wife was naturally distraught listening to the doctor say there’s only a 20 to 30% chance I was going to survive. And once we got home, I said, sweetheart, you know, look at me.
00;06;18;15 – 00;06;43;26
Hal
I want you to know the 20 to 30% survival rate, that’s a statistic based on the collective, based on people that live in fear, people that eat horrible junk food, people that have a terrible mindset. I said, I’m not in that group. I said, in my mind, there’s a 100% chance that I will be among the 20 to 30% of those that survive this cancer because I will do everything they did and more to do everything in my power to beat it.
00;06;43;26 – 00;06;51;19
Hal
And I’m here seven years later, I survived. And knock on wood, I think I’ve been through enough.
00;06;51;20 – 00;07;09;20
Rod
Yeah, Yeah. Let’s. You know what? God’s got a sense of humor. Something else will pop up, but nothing as dramatic as as you’ve had. And I have to share something just because of this. I didn’t intend to, but I can’t let it go by. You know, my daughter got diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and 85% of her bone marrow.
00;07;09;21 – 00;07;34;21
Rod
She spent eight months in Moffitt Cancer Center because she had surgeries for GI issues and and before she went in. I’m very big on holistic as well. I’ve got a whole library downstairs of holistic methodologies. And so we got to I actually got her on ivermectin before she went in. I actually she was doing colonic coffee enemas. She was doing juicing every single day, ozone treatment, oxygen treatment, all sorts of holistic stuff.
00;07;34;23 – 00;07;50;14
Rod
They told her that she would have been their fastest recovery patient if she hadn’t had the GI issues that popped up while she was in there. That’s how fast her blood recovered. And I believe it was what we did before she went in there. But I just, you know, wow, She is all I can tell you.
00;07;50;16 – 00;08;04;20
Hal
Say every single thing you mentioned except the ivermectin. I didn’t know about that back then. I did. I did coffee and HMOs three times a week. I took I juiced every day. I took 70 supplements a day. I did Ozone Sauna multiple times a week. So, yeah, man, I’ve been totally on the same.
00;08;04;20 – 00;08;22;00
Rod
All of that. Yeah. No, I researched it. And ivermectin is a freaking miracle drug. And I know I’ll get haters about the whole cover crap on here. And I don’t care, honestly, because I know I’ve got cured myself from COVID and like a day and a half on ivermectin. But, but I researched it that, that it in conjunction with chemo is incredibly powerful.
00;08;22;04 – 00;08;45;02
Rod
So I, I didn’t even want to tell the doctors I said this. You just take these. She trusted me completely because she knew I’d researched this stuff for years. I if actually, you know, actually used to have a501c3 called A Better Choice Foundation, which was around natural and holistic ways to treat and cure cancer. I never took it and did anything with it, but I’d lost someone close to me to breast cancer when I was younger and I started this foundation.
00;08;45;02 – 00;09;04;13
Rod
I just I never ran with it. But but anyway, yeah. So interesting. But I know guys, I know this isn’t real estate. We’re not talking about real estate, but we’re here because Hal is awesome at helping you start your day out right? And so let’s go there. Let’s talk about why the Miracle Morning has changed so many freakin lives over the years.
00;09;04;13 – 00;09;22;19
Rod
And I know it’s changed numerous my scores of my students. In fact, I had one student that did it, I think straight four years. His name is Powell. He’s one of my exemplary students. And he did it for years. It was like a big deal, like he’d been doing this for so long. But anyway, please talk about the book and why it’s so awesome.
00;09;22;21 – 00;09;48;27
Hal
Yeah. So I mean, I the original Miracle Morning book was born out of the 2008 Great Recession, and I, like millions of Americans, I lost not everything, but but damn near close. I lost over half of my income so I couldn’t pay the mortgage. My house was foreclosed on. First house I’d ever bought and I stopped exercising. My body fat percentage tripled and I was really physically, mentally, emotionally and definitely financially in the lowest point in my life.
00;09;48;27 – 00;10;06;03
Hal
And I heard a quote from Jim Rohn. So six months into this downward financial spiral, living on credit cards and Jim Rohn, I heard him say, Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. And when I heard that, Rod, you know, being in sales, I’m a numbers guy as well, you know, like you are.
00;10;06;06 – 00;10;21;03
Hal
And my brain quantified that. I went, Okay, wait, your level of success will rarely see your level of personal development. What level of success do I want my life on a scale of 1 to 10? And of course, the answer is ten. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want to be as happy and healthy and financially secure as they can be.
00;10;21;05 – 00;10;41;04
Hal
Then I asked myself, What’s my level of personal development every day? Like, what’s my daily personal development ritual like? And it was like a two or three, like I had nothing consistent. I would read, I would do you know, this? And that’s but, but, but, but relative to a ten, it was very low. And I realize I believe this is the disconnect for 99% of our society is if you’re looking at my hands.
00;10;41;04 – 00;11;07;24
Hal
Right. Got one at the top of my head, that’s that level ten success that we want. But if your level of personal development terms, your daily rituals isn’t in alignment with a ten, if it’s a two or three or four, that’s the disconnect. And when I heard that, I go, I went, okay, I’ve got to create the most effective proof in personal development daily ritual that combines with the world’s most successful people do for their personal development.
00;11;08;01 – 00;11;26;10
Hal
So I can become the level ten version of myself that is capable of turning my financial situation around and creating and sustaining the level of success that I want. And I just went online, right? I Googled, you know, what are the world’s most successful people do for personal development? And I was looking for like one or two practices.
00;11;26;11 – 00;11;51;12
Hal
And after about 30, 45 minutes, I had a list of six. It was meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and journaling. And depending on which article you read or which interview you watched, any one of those, somebody would have said this was the number one key. Like Ray Dalio, billionaire investor. When he’s asked what the number one key to his financial success is, he says meditation.
00;11;51;14 – 00;12;11;09
Hal
Right? Like that for me was a it was a paradigm shift because I always thought of like monks in a monastery, not billionaires, but but he attributes his best ideas, best breakthroughs, not to mention managing his daily stress. It’s his meditation. So the epiphany for me came when I almost got overwhelmed. I almost threw in the towel and I went, I can’t do all of these.
00;12;11;13 – 00;12;33;23
Hal
Which ones? The best. And then the epiphany was, Wait, what if I did all of them? What if I woke up 30 to 60 minutes earlier tomorrow? Even though I’m not a morning person? I wasn’t back then and I do the six most timeless, proven personal development practices that the world’s most successful people in all walks of life have sworn by for centuries.
00;12;33;25 – 00;12;51;03
Hal
I thought that would be the ultimate daily ritual to increase my level of personal development to be a ten. So I create the success I want and I’ll close the story with this. I was thinking it’d be one year out, like, give me a year, you know, I’ll get a little better every day, 1% better every day. I can turn this thing around.
00;12;51;06 – 00;13;10;15
Hal
In less than two months, at the height of the great Recession, I more than doubled my income. So the economy didn’t get better. I got better. I went from being in the worst shape of my life physically to committing to run a 52 mile ultramarathon because I hated running. And I thought, what would a level ten be physically?
00;13;10;15 – 00;13;29;08
Hal
I thought, I have a friend that ran a 52 mile ultramarathon. How about that? I’ve never run more than a mile, so I don’t even know who I’d have to become to run 52 in a row. But I’m going to figure it out. And my depression didn’t take two months to go away. It started fading on day one because the depression was caused by hopelessness and fear of the future.
00;13;29;10 – 00;13;40;14
Hal
But my very first miracle morning, I went, This is the one thing that’s going to change everything. So now I have hope that if I get better, I can change my life and make it the way that I want it to be.
00;13;40;17 – 00;13;42;23
Rod
Repeat those six again, please.
00;13;42;25 – 00;14;00;29
Hal
So now they’re organized in an acronym. This makes it a lot easier to remember, and I owe this to my wife. She gave me this idea when I was writing the original book on savers, and if you’re taking notes, you can write them vertically. Write s a VR s. The first s is for silence. That is your meditation or your prayer.
00;14;00;29 – 00;14;11;14
Hal
Time to center you first thing in the morning. The A is for affirmations and we can dive into that because I think affirmations have a bad rap. I’m going to teach them to you in a very effective, very different way.
00;14;11;16 – 00;14;23;01
Rod
The values of I use verbatim them. I’m sorry to interrupt. I’ve used affirmations for decades. I have them down on my wall, my exercise room below us here, I mean, for decades. So I’d love to talk about I’m sorry, silence, affirmation.
00;14;23;04 – 00;14;52;10
Hal
They have all the sabers. They’re my favorite. The V is for visualization. And I have to think about is it the world’s greatest athletes? Right. The best athletes in the world utilize visualization to show up at their best every single day. And why wouldn’t we do the same? The E and Sabers is for exercise. You know, if you go to the gym in the morning, but 60 seconds are jumping jacks at the very minimum, get your heart rate up, get the blood and oxygen flowing to your brain so you have more energy and more mental clarity.
00;14;52;13 – 00;15;13;12
Hal
The R and sabers is for reading. And you know, we’re all one book away from one strategy that we need to transform our lives. And the s in sabers is for scribing, which is a fancy word for journaling. But the J would have made the acronym really awkward, right? Saber But, but so every day getting clarity pen to paper, right.
00;15;13;12 – 00;15;36;07
Hal
It takes the thoughts, the stressors out of your head, puts them on paper. I write down what I’m grateful for and I sit with that for a minute and feel deeply grateful for my wife, my life, my kids. And then I write down. I look at my to do list. I got 20 things on there and I ask myself, What is the number one thing that I might not want to do I might be procrastinating on because it’s scary.
00;15;36;07 – 00;15;52;06
Hal
It’s out of my comfort zone. What’s the number one thing that’s going to move the needle in my life or business? I’m going to commit on paper to do that first before I get to the rest of the to do list. And I’ll close by quoting Robert Kiyosaki, or at least paraphrasing, I spoke at an event. Robert was the headliner.
00;15;52;06 – 00;16;13;08
Hal
I was his warm up act. This was 2015, I think I gave him a copy of The Miracle Morning thinking the guy’s worth $80 million. I don’t think he needs my little self-published book. But you miss all the shots you don’t take. Who knows right away game the book. Three weeks later, his assistant emailed me and said, Robert has read The Miracle Morning three times that dropped my jaw.
00;16;13;08 – 00;16;32;11
Hal
Right? Well, he’s read my book three times in three weeks. You had to be kidding me, she said. It’s changing his life and he wants to have you on. Rich Dad radio. So I was on cloud nine. I’m actually going back on there next week. By the way. He’s he’s become a friend. But I’m but Robert said basically at the end of the interview, he said how you named the book The Miracle Morning.
00;16;32;12 – 00;16;52;07
Hal
It’s the perfect name. And he said, I’ll tell you why. He said, Before I read The Miracle Morning, before you wrote the book and you came up with a saver’s acronym, he said, Every successful person on the planet swears by at least one of the savers. Maybe they do two or three, he said. But I’ve never met anyone in my entire life that did all six of those ancient best practices.
00;16;52;10 – 00;17;09;29
Hal
And he said, If you do one of them, it’ll change your life. If you do all six, you will experience miracles. He said, I’m losing weight. I’m the happiest I’ve been. Like he was in a He’s told me he was in a dark, like not a good place. When you read the book, he lost like £40. He’s like, you know, just it was a game changer for him.
00;17;09;29 – 00;17;20;07
Hal
So I figure if it works for me and I was at rock bottom at work for Robert Kiyosaki, worth $80 million, if you’re anywhere in between rock bottom and 80 million, it could work for you.
00;17;20;10 – 00;17;40;01
Rod
Oh, that’s that’s an incredible endorsement. Holy cow. You know, obviously, you guys all know Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. You know, I just have to enhance some of some of what you said because, you know, I talk about meditation. You know, I listened to two podcast, Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss and I did try to get both sides of the aisle.
00;17;40;01 – 00;18;02;14
Rod
Okay. On Tim on Tim Ferriss show, He interviews the best of the best in the world, including Ray Dalio, best athletes. You know, Michael Phelps and best actors, and Ed Norton, Hugh Jackman, Arnold, you know, billionaires like Zuckerberg. I mean, the best of the best in their walks of life. And he deconstructs their success and and I started to hear a pattern.
00;18;02;17 – 00;18;21;07
Rod
Many of them meditate, most of them and I use this as an analogy to tell people about the importance of focus, how focus is power. So I use that as an example of focus. So that’s number one. You know, the affirmations I’ve got I use, I am statements, you know, because anything you put the words I am in front of is an identity statement.
00;18;21;07 – 00;18;36;22
Rod
So, you know, I am success. I’m the world’s greatest husband. I am, you know, correct courage, whatever, whatever ever, whatever I’m trying to build in my life. I use effort and I have for years. In fact, I used to yell this shit running down the street. My kids help me up, my kids help me in my boot camps.
00;18;36;22 – 00;18;56;10
Rod
Now I’ve got an exercise room, but my kids help me in my boot camps. And that’s the question they get most often. Did he really do that shit when he’s running down the street? Like, Yeah, we had to hear it. So. So affirmations, visualization. I visualize my, you know, everything. I use examples of cars that I’ve gotten in my life where I put pictures of the cars on the visor before I got them.
00;18;56;14 – 00;19;14;08
Rod
You know, I show an example of my my planner, which has the cars that I’ve had, the stupid shit that I thought was important, the Lambo and the Rolls and the Bentley, all the stuff that I got because I had pictures and I visualize them. Of course, the exercise, that’s a no brainer. I’ve got 1000 books in my library downstairs.
00;19;14;08 – 00;19;38;18
Rod
I never went to college reading as a no brainer. All of these things and journaling, the fact that you weren’t ascribing, you call it, but the fact that you journal magic moments. I’ve got some journals up there on the bookshelf and I tell people this as part of a planning process that I, I walk them through, which includes blocking time, by the way and I tell them journal for five freaking minutes a week about anything amazing that happened that week.
00;19;38;18 – 00;20;01;09
Rod
And I, I, I did that with my kids. I pulled those journals down and we laugh. My daughter cries when we go through some of this stuff and it’s such a gift. So, yeah, you know, you’re right. When you can incorporate all of these incredible time tested strategies, it’s it’s game over, man. And so so why don’t we talk about the enhancements you’ve made to the book like this, Your new book?
00;20;01;09 – 00;20;03;05
Rod
Basically, it’s a new book now, so.
00;20;03;07 – 00;20;19;23
Hal
Yeah, sorry about that. And make sure you give me your address at the end. I don’t know if I have that yet. I got to say I’ll send you a signed copy. Thank you. Yeah, but so. So the original Miracle Morning book published on December 12th, 2012 1212 12. I thought it was a great date to to put a book out.
00;20;19;26 – 00;20;21;06
Hal
It’s been 11 years.
00;20;21;09 – 00;20;32;20
Rod
Hold on, hold on, hold on. I’m sorry to interrupt. Yeah, I almost died on 11, 11, 11. I swear to God, I was in a Lamborghini. I got in a car accident, and I. And I almost died. Had to have surgery. Anyway, I just. I couldn’t let that go.
00;20;32;20 – 00;20;35;23
Hal
By without a memorable date for you, I would imagine. Right, Right.
00;20;36;00 – 00;20;37;05
Rod
Anyway, sorry to interrupt.
00;20;37;10 – 00;20;55;11
Hal
Yeah, right, right, right. So. So the new edition, there’s really two reasons that I wrote it. Well, there’s three. Number one, if you go back and read your own work from ten years ago, you’re embarrassed by it, right? So even though the Miracle Morning sold millions of copies, I’ve always whenever I go back, I’m like, Oh my God, I can’t believe I wrote that.
00;20;55;11 – 00;21;14;01
Hal
I you know, I was such a kid. I was so immature, you know, I was so cheesy. So I always wanted to improve it just for my own, you know, selfishly, like I want this to be a better representation of who I am as a person. Right? The second thing is that the miracle Morning, when I when I started doing it, you know, I was brand new to these practices.
00;21;14;01 – 00;21;34;25
Hal
And then I started writing the book probably six months later. So I was relatively new. I’ve been doing the Miracle Morning for 15 years now. I’ve done over 4500 Miracle Mornings. So I have created my own custom meditation practices. I’ve taken the best of the best of these various practices and enhanced them. So I always want to be like, Hey, I want to write a book that everything from the original, it’s still in there.
00;21;34;25 – 00;22;06;06
Hal
I did rewrite it, make it better, but it’s all in there. But then there’s 70 new pages of content interwoven throughout the entire thing. So for example, the Savers section alone has 25 new pages of advanced Techniques for Silence, affirmations, visualization, all of that and then I added two new chapters to the end of the book, The Miracle Evening, which is your strategy for blissful bedtime and better sleep, because when I speak at events, I always say, Hey, raise your hand if you struggle either falling or staying asleep.
00;22;06;06 – 00;22;28;09
Hal
I’ve been asked that a while and it’s like 50%, if not more, of the room. And I went through a really difficult time in 2020 coming off chemo where I was sleeping 2 to 4 hours a night for six months. And it was the worst time in my life. And and I figured it out. I went I relentlessly figured out how to solve that chronic insomnia and that severe sleep deprivation.
00;22;28;09 – 00;22;48;07
Hal
And now is like I wanted to help other people. So that’s a 22 page chapter in the book. And then there’s also the last chapter in the book is called The Miracle Life. It’s Your Path to Inner Freedom. And it’s basically teaching what I did during my car accident where I was so happy, genuinely happy, even though I was being told I would never walk again.
00;22;48;07 – 00;23;08;27
Hal
And I told my doctors they thought I was delusional because I was so happy. I said, No, you guys don’t get it. I can’t change that. I was in a car accident. I can’t change that. I broke 11 bones. If I’m in a wheelchair the rest of my life and I’m in a wheelchair the rest of my life, but I can choose to be the happiest, most grateful human being that you’ve ever met going through all of that.
00;23;09;00 – 00;23;29;24
Hal
And so I’m going to teach you in the Miracle Life in that chapter, how do you optimize your mental and emotional well-being no matter what’s going on outside of you? How can you be genuinely at peace in the face of the most difficult time in your life? And with so many people going through it right now, I feel like now is an important time to be able to understand how to take control of your inner world.
00;23;29;27 – 00;23;50;28
Rod
Now, that’s good stuff, man. That’s good stuff. I got a question. How did what brought that energy to you when you’re in the depths of that situation? And for you to approach things with that, with that frame of mind, I mean, you know, that’s a that’s a challenging I mean, was it were you modeling someone you’d seen? Did you read something?
00;23;50;28 – 00;23;53;20
Rod
Did you hear something? Where’d that come from? Yeah.
00;23;53;22 – 00;24;15;14
Hal
No, 100%. So a year and a half before my car accident, I got hired to sell cut coke, cutlery and direct sales. Right, Right. And on my second day of training, I learned something called the five Minute Rule. And my manager, my mentor, now of my best friends, Jesse Levine, he basically said this. He said sales and this would apply to real estate as well.
00;24;15;16 – 00;24;38;29
Hal
But he said sales is a microcosm for life in terms of adversity. He said in other words, the average person faces rejection. Occasionally the average person fails, occasionally, he said, you’re going to face rejection multiple times a day on the phone in person, etc.. You’re going to fail at least a few times a month. You’re going to fail to reach a goal.
00;24;39;05 – 00;25;00;08
Hal
You’re going to fail it, Right? And he said, you need a strategy to quickly move through adversity so you can keep moving forward because most human beings, they can’t succeed at sales or another. They can’t, but they don’t because they can’t move through the adversity and they let it win. It’s like I tried. I can’t do this. I suck at this, I fail.
00;25;00;08 – 00;25;22;05
Hal
Right? So he said, The five minute rule simply states that when something goes wrong, you set your timer on your phone for 5 minutes, literally, and you allow yourself 5 minutes to feel your emotions fully. Bitch, moan, complain, cry, vent, punch a wall, like whatever you got to do, don’t suppress your emotions. Don’t pretend like you’re big and tough and it’s okay.
00;25;22;08 – 00;25;43;29
Hal
Feel your emotions fully, he said when the timer goes off After 5 minutes though, you say three life changing words can’t change it. Can’t change it. You. It’s an acknowledgment that, okay, I can’t change what happened. 5 minutes ago. So right now I have a choice. I can either continue to be upset over something that I can’t change, which is futile.
00;25;44;00 – 00;26;07;07
Hal
It doesn’t change anything. And I’m self creating emotional pain unnecessarily. So choice number one is you stay upset. Choice number two is you accept reality exactly as it is, and it doesn’t mean you’re happy that that thing happened, but it’s far more powerful. You’re at peace with it. And here’s the thing Happiness is an emotion and emotions are fleeting.
00;26;07;07 – 00;26;30;19
Hal
You can be happy. One minute and get a phone call. Bad news now. You’re not happy. Well, then you get another phone call. You win the lottery. Now you’re happy, right? So emotions are fleeting and they’re short lived. But when you accept your life as it is and you don’t waste your energy wishing that things in the past or even things in this moment are different then then reality is you’re allow yourself to be at peace.
00;26;30;19 – 00;26;49;19
Hal
And that’s a state of consciousness. It’s I am at peace with my life, you know. Yeah. Some of these things they suck and I hate that they happen. But because I can’t change them, I will not allow them to determine my mental and emotional well-being. I will choose to accept them Exactly as they are and be at peace.
00;26;49;21 – 00;27;09;25
Hal
And when I came out of the coma a week later and my dad came in and said, The doctors think you’re in denial because you’re just pretending like everything’s okay, They think you’re delusional. How are you really feeling when you’re at night? You’re by yourself, you’re thinking of never walking again. I said, Dad, I live my life by the five minute rule.
00;27;09;28 – 00;27;24;08
Hal
It’s been two weeks since the car accident. My 5 minutes are up. I can’t change that. I was in a car accident, broke 11 bones, and I might be in a wheelchair the rest of my life. But again, that’s when I told my dad and he told the doctors I’ve chosen to be the happiest and the most grateful I’ve ever been.
00;27;24;08 – 00;27;30;06
Hal
While I endured the most difficult time in my life. And then when I got cancer, I applied the exact same strategy.
00;27;30;08 – 00;27;48;19
Rod
Hmm. Wow. So, I mean, I. How did you have the discipline to stick with that? Okay. Because you’re human. Yeah. I mean, I’m sure you fought it on occasion, but. But I don’t know, Maybe. Maybe I’m digging too deep with you here, so.
00;27;48;21 – 00;27;53;13
Hal
I’ll give you an all. That’s a great segway into affirmations, if that works for you. That’s actually. Oh.
00;27;53;15 – 00;27;54;02
Rod
Hell, yes.
00;27;54;02 – 00;28;17;23
Hal
Yeah. Now, now, I didn’t know affirmations when I had my car accident. I didn’t know anything about them. Right. However, I had practiced that five minute rule for a year and a half consistently, and and I want to I want to say this before we go into the affirmations. If you’re listening to this right now or you’re watching this and you’re thinking, how 5 minutes, dude, like I’m not going to get over because that was my first thought when I learned this.
00;28;17;23 – 00;28;33;01
Hal
I’m like, I’m not going to get over it in 5 minutes just because my timer went off. And the only reason that we say that is because that’s how we’ve lived our lives and everyone we know, that’s how they’ve lived their lives. We’ve been conditioned to think when bad things happen, I feel bad and I have no control over that.
00;28;33;01 – 00;28;50;17
Hal
It’s too bad. Then it’s not my fault. It’s the thing. It’s what she said. It’s what he did. Not my fault. I feel the way I feel because of what happened outside of me. Right and right. Practice the five minute rule in little stuff like traffic, right? Most people get frustrated in traffic, you know, And I and I used to.
00;28;50;18 – 00;29;07;07
Hal
And then I would go, Wait a minute, I can’t change that. I’m in traffic. I can either enjoy the next 30 minutes in this traffic or I can be miserable. That’s my choice. I can’t change it. What am I going to do? And so the first time I had to do the five minute rule, I remember I drove out to this woman’s house.
00;29;07;07 – 00;29;23;15
Hal
She was 45 minutes out in the boonies, but her friend that referred her said, Oh, she’s a great customer, you know, Good, good, good. Lead free. Am I? So I made the drive out. When I got there, there was a note on her door. It said, I don’t want any knives, exclamation point. And I knock on the door and she’s not there.
00;29;23;17 – 00;29;36;04
Hal
And I was so mad I thought, That’s how rude. Like, first of all, she had my phone number. She could have called me back, you know? And so I get in the car, I set my timer for 5 minutes. I start driving away and I’m just doing I’m just like, what are you know, I won’t say what I’m saying.
00;29;36;04 – 00;29;50;15
Hal
Thank. And, you know, I was like, I can’t believe she did that, you know, because I know it now. Now I wasted an hour and a half of my day. I could have had another appointment. Now I missed the sale, you know, So I’m just going on and on and the timer goes off, right? Time flies. 5 minutes later, timer goes off, and I hit the snooze button.
00;29;50;15 – 00;30;11;16
Hal
I’m like, I’m still pissed. See, I was right. 5 minutes isn’t enough. But, Rod, something magical happened within about a week or two of doing this. I think it was on week two, it was a Sunday. I scheduled two appointments that day because I was $2,000 away from my goal for the week. Now selling $2,000 in a day with Tuco.
00;30;11;22 – 00;30;29;21
Hal
I mean, the biggest that we had was 750 bucks, so you’d have to sell two and a half of them, right? So the odds aren’t very good, but I’m going for it. Go to the first appointment. She buys nothing. I’m like, Ha, crap. I’m going to my last appointment. The day I got, I got to sell $2,000. She ends up buying $2,300.
00;30;29;21 – 00;30;50;02
Hal
I am on cloud nine. She bought three sets, one for her house, one for their vacation home and one for her mom. And I’m just I’m stoked and I’m so I celebrate. I call my manager. I said, Jesse, I just sold 2003 year old. I said I hit my goal for the week. He said, Not only is it your goal for the week, well, that makes you the number one rep in the office for the week.
00;30;50;02 – 00;31;02;10
Hal
We’re going to recognize you this week at the weekly team meeting. Now, I’m 19 years old at the time. I’ve never done anything in my life that I’ve been recognized for. Right? So I’m on cloud nine. I call my mom and dad. I’m like, You guys should drive down for this. Come to the meeting. It’s a big deal.
00;31;02;13 – 00;31;18;08
Hal
9:03 p.m. That night I get a phone call and it’s the woman and she says, My husband came home. He got so mad that I spent so much money on knives, I got to cancel the order and I go, Oh, no, no. You know, I try to talk her into it. There’s a money back guarantee. Give it a shot, right?
00;31;18;08 – 00;31;37;04
Hal
No, I’m. I’m just I’m devastated. And I pick up my phone out of habit because, I mean, do that every time I feel upset, I just automatically hit the timer for 5 minutes. I hit the timer and I go, Son of a I can’t believe she did that. God, she she loved those knives. Her husband would’ve loved those knives, man.
00;31;37;04 – 00;31;57;21
Hal
Now it him. I go for the week, I’m not going to get recognized. He meaning what can I even do? I mean, all I can do is wake up tomorrow morning and I guess make more calls and try again next week. And I picked up my phone and there was 4 minutes and 32 seconds left and I went, Wait a minute, what’s the point in dwelling on something I can’t change for four and a half more minutes?
00;31;57;26 – 00;32;17;16
Hal
Why don’t I just say I can’t change it now, accept it, be at peace with it, and go enjoy the rest of my night. And I immediately went, You know what? Not only is 5 minutes long enough, it’s a waste of time to be upset. I’m going to make it the five second rule. Like like, let me feel the emotion.
00;32;17;17 – 00;32;43;02
Hal
Maybe it takes 30, whatever it takes. The numbers, arbitrary. But I realized I have control over my mental and emotional state and the way that the key that unlocks the door to that freedom, if you will, is acceptance. It’s accepting the things I can’t change, not wishing they were different, but being at peace with them. And yeah, so so if you’re listening in 5 minutes sounds like not enough, it probably won’t be the beginning.
00;32;43;09 – 00;32;49;27
Hal
But after a week or two of doing this, you’re going to realize, I don’t even know if I need 5 minutes, man. I can just move through things quickly. Now.
00;32;50;00 – 00;33;08;04
Rod
Yeah, that’s awesome. But the incredible value in sharing that five second rule, I’m really glad I asked the question that prompted that. So let me ask you this. Obviously, that was some incredible advice. One of the questions I wanted to ask you is what some of the best advice you’ve ever received. Can you can you can you maybe give me number two?
00;33;08;11 – 00;33;19;14
Rod
Okay. Because you’ve got such great insights. I’m sure something else incredibly valuable will come out of that. QUESTION. So what’s some of the best advice you’ve ever received besides the one you just shared?
00;33;19;16 – 00;33;38;24
Hal
Yeah, I’d say some of the best advice I’ve received comes from Michael Singer’s book, or any of Michael Singer’s books. The Untethered Soul was the first one I read, and then I read the Surrender experiment. But basically Michael Singer talks about and I’m going to paraphrase here, but it goes along the lines with optimizing your mental and emotional state.
00;33;38;24 – 00;33;53;24
Hal
He says, All we want is to feel good, right? Like every choice that we make is because of how we believe the choice or the outcome of that choice will make us feel. All right. I’m going to I’m going to buy that Lamborghini because it’s going to feel good to buy it. It’s going to feel good to drive it.
00;33;53;24 – 00;34;15;06
Hal
It’s going to feel good to show my friends right on, you know, on board. I’m going to turn on the TV to change the way that I feel to change my interstate. Right. And so and this really goes hand in hand with this. It’s really the follow up lesson to this acceptance lesson, because when you accept life as it is now, you find a place of peace, you’re emotionally neutral.
00;34;15;08 – 00;34;46;03
Hal
But then it’s about choosing your optimal state. How do you want to feel? And so I use my miracle morning to condition my optimal states of consciousness, or in simpler terms, my optimal mental and emotional state. So it’s about choosing to be at peace, choosing to be grateful, choosing to be happy, choosing to be confident. And then I use my in the new book, I teach a new technique that I have developed over the years called Emotional Optimization meditation.
00;34;46;06 – 00;35;03;27
Hal
And it’s essentially where you ask when you wake up, you go, okay, how am I feeling right now? Not how do I want to feel, how am I feeling? And really be quiet and really you go, okay, you know what? I got some stress. I’m a little stressed. You know what? There’s some fear over the economy. There’s some fear over this.
00;35;03;27 – 00;35;20;08
Hal
You know, I’m a little angry over yesterday, so you got to get those emotions and bring them to the surface. And then I’ll actually I’ll use my scribing and I’ll write them down. Right? Hmm. Okay. Now they’re out of my head. Now they’re on paper. I don’t. I don’t they’re not inside me anymore. Right? I can see them.
00;35;20;08 – 00;35;38;12
Hal
They’re separate from me. And then I ask myself, what is the optimal mental and emotional state for me to be in today? And that might vary day to day. The default is bliss for me. I want to feel blissful. I want to feel happy. I want to enjoy every moment of this one life that I’ve been blessed to live.
00;35;38;20 – 00;36;01;27
Hal
So that’s the default state that I’ll get into. Just bliss, gratitude, happiness. And I’ll set my timer for 5 minutes or 10 minutes and I’ll meditate in that state. And what you’re when you do that, you are rewiring your reprograming your subconscious mind, rewiring your nervous system. You are making that more of a default state, a default way that you feel.
00;36;02;01 – 00;36;21;21
Hal
It’s how you generate happiness instead of allowing happiness to be dependent on external conditions. Now if I have a presentation to give, I get to give a speech. Confidence might be the state that I choose. If I got in a fight with my spouse the night before, I might choose that I need to be in a state of love and empathy and forgiveness.
00;36;21;21 – 00;36;40;29
Hal
And I might ask myself, When was the last time I felt deeply in love with my spouse? Or what’s great about her? What what could I appreciate? Right? And then I’ll set my timer and I’ll get into that state. Now, when she walks out of the bedroom in the morning, instead of being triggered over the fight we had last night, I feel that love toward her because I generated it.
00;36;40;29 – 00;37;05;02
Hal
It wasn’t dependent on an apology from her. It wasn’t dependent on whether or not she smiled at me or glared at me when she walked out. I choose how I feel in every moment of my life. So that’s the greatest lesson I’ve learned, is that you can choose your mental and emotional state. But if you don’t get the first part right, if you don’t learn how to accept the things that are causing you inner turmoil, there is no space to choose.
00;37;05;02 – 00;37;21;12
Hal
So those are sequential lessons except life exactly as it is set. That five minute timer get to the place of I can’t change it. So the only intelligent choice I have is to accept it. And now what state do I want to be in? And I will now condition that state.
00;37;21;14 – 00;37;40;13
Rod
Love it, love it, love it, love it. You know, I spent 20 years following Tony Robbins around the planet. And, you know, a lot of this stuff was resonating with me that he he talks about as well. Well, listen, brother, I really appreciate you coming and and I can’t wait to read the new book and start gifting that instead of the old one.
00;37;40;13 – 00;37;57;11
Rod
And, you know, it’s great to see you again. And I know we just crossed paths. We talked about this before we started recording. We both were keynoter. Is that at a military investor conference from one of my one of my students is involved in called ADP, which is just a great organization and we missed each other, but that was just last week.
00;37;57;11 – 00;38;05;00
Rod
Even so, anyway, but it’s great to see your brother and and I look forward to hopefully shaking your hand in person. One of these, you know.
00;38;05;00 – 00;38;10;24
Hal
Heck yeah. Rob, thank you, brother. I appreciate you more than you know, man. Thank you for this. And thank you.
00;38;10;27 – 00;38;12;04
Rod
I’m all right but.
