Q&A WITH HAL ELROD

Q: Let’s hear about how you came up with the concept of the Miracle Morning.

• The Miracle Morning was never a book idea.
• It was very organic and from my own life in 2008 when the US economy crashed.
• I was a couple of years out of Cutco and was coaching Cutco reps and managers.
• That was my primary business.
• When the economy crashed, I kind of crashed with it.
• I lost over half of my clients, and couldn’t pay my mortgage.
• For the first time in my life, I was depressed. I was really scared. Nothing I was doing was working.
• About 6 months into this downward spiral, Jon Berghoff gave me some advice.
• “You’ve got to start exercising every day, ideally in the morning. While you’re on that run every morning, listen to some sort of self-help audio, so you take it in and apply it when you get back to the office.”
• I said, I’ll give it a try, and he recommended this Jim Rohn audio.
• There’s a quote from Jim Rohn which gave birth to the Miracle Morning.
• Paraphrasing, “your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development.”
• If my level of success isn’t going to exceed my level of personal growth, then there are 2 questions.
• First, what is the level of success am I aspiring for?
• Second, what level of personal development would I rate myself at?
• That was the epiphany. I realized that I had to create the most effective, proven, extraordinary personal development ritual known to man.
• So I researched the practices and rituals of the most successful people, and I incorporated six of these practices into my daily morning routine.
• The biggest surprise was how fast this changed my life.
• I went from being in the worst shape of my life to committing to a run a 52 mile ultra-marathon.
• My depression went away within a day or two. I felt so on fire.
• My wife called it my “Miracle Morning.”
• I shared it with my coaching clients, and 13 out of 14 had the best sales week of their career.
• That’s when I thought wow, If the Miracle Morning changed my life, the lives of my clients, this could change everyone’s life.
• I started writing the book. It took me 3 years. I self-published it and kept sharing it.
• We’ve now sold 2 ½ million copies and there is a movie coming out.

Q: You’ve got an acronym for the 6 practices in the Miracle Morning and its S.A.V.E.R.S.  The first S is silence or meditation, the A is affirmations, the V is visualization, the E is for exercise, R for reading and the last S for scribing or journaling. Tell us why each of those 6 things is important?

• I was writing the book one day and I was wondering how I’m going to teach these 6 practices in a way people will remember and can implement.
• My wife suggested why don’t you get a thesaurus and see if you can find words to replace each of the words and form an acronym you can remember.
• I didn’t invent these 6 practices.
• The world’s most successful people from all walks of life had sworn by them for centuries.
• A lot of these have been taught in a really impractical way
• All the S.A.V.E.R.S, the way I teach them in the book, they’re reframed in a practical, tangible and result-oriented way.
• I reframe the concept of meditation into “emotional optimization.”
• We can learn to anchor certain emotions through our morning meditation.

Q: How about affirmations?

• Affirmations are my favorite of the S.A.V.E.R.S and are the most misunderstood.
• If you’re overweight and want to be thin, just saying I’m thin until you feel and believe you’re thin, that doesn’t make you thin. It’s deluding yourself.
• The 2^nd problem is we’re taught to use this flowery passive language that promises results with absolutely no effort on our part.
• I teach 3 simple steps to create affirmations that are actionable, tangible, and results-driven.
• Step #1 you don’t get what you want, but what you’re committed to.
• When you read the affirmation, you are literally programing your subconscious mind to feel, stay and remain committed to that outcome.
• Step #2 is why is that meaningful to you. You’ve got to affirm the juice, the fuel that will fuel your motivation and drive you to follow through making that commitment a reality.
• Step #3 is what are the specific actions you’re going to take to win.

Q: How about visualization?

• Visualization is similar to affirmations. We’ve being taught in a way that’s ineffective.
• We’ve being taught to visualize the ideal outcomes and to make a vision board.
• Visualizing your ideal outcome is beneficial because you start to believe it’s possible the more you see it in your mind’s eye.
• But if you leave it at that, you’ll actually delude yourself it will happen independent of your actions.
• The way visualizations become effective is you’ve got to visualize yourself engaged in the necessary activity and in an optimal emotional state that will compel you into that activity.

Q: What can you tell us about exercise, reading and scribing?

• The benefits of exercising first thing in the morning have been scientifically proven to last as long as 13 hours after the initial exercise.
• For me, I go for a 10-minute ride in my neighborhood.
• Reading, we’re all a book away from learning what we need to learn to transform our lives.
• You want to sell more, there is a book for that.
• You want to improve your marriage, there’s a book for that.
• You want to be happier, healthier, there is a book for all of that.
• Scribing is journaling. There’s magic that happens when you put a pen to paper.
• It forces you to clarify your thinking. One thought leads to another.
• Often, all I do for my scribing is write down what are the 1-3 things I’m grateful for.

Q: You’ve got a concept in the book you call 95% reality check. What is that?

• For me that’s a wakeup call.
• There is a social security administration study that revealed at retirement age only 5% of people are financially free and 95% are dependent on the government or family to take care of them.
• Most of us, we’re not living to our full potential.
• That was me for at least half of my life when I accepted mediocrity.
• On a scale of 1-10, how am I doing in my health, my friendships, my finances, my career, my happiness?
• You measure yourself in each of these areas and then start applying the S.A.V.E.R.S to increase your level of success and fulfillment in the areas that matter most.

Q: What’s your favorite story about how the Miracle Morning has helped someone become a part of that 5%?

• That was one of the basis of the documentary.
• Nick Conedera, a filmmaker approached me and said, I’m in the Miracle Morning community in Facebook, a group with 270,000 people
• I’ve seen people post everyday these unbelievable stories of how the book has enabled them to do extraordinary things.
• But how many read?Now how many people watch movies or TV?  We’ve gotta make a video production about The Miracle Morning incorporating the stories of people whose lives have been changed.
• One gentleman we interviewed for the movie was Mike Eaton.
• He was obese through his entire life. He had tried everything to lose weight.
• He discovered the Miracle Morning and after 6 months lost 90lbs.
• He focused his energy through the S.A.V.E.R.S on becoming the person he needed to be in terms of his mindset, habits, beliefs to lose that weight.

Q: Tell us more about the movie.

• Nick reached out and said I’m seeing all these stories in the community we should make a documentary on how the Miracle Morning is changing the world.
• We interviewed all these ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
• Then we interviewed some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, visionaries and leaders.
• We videotaped them doing their morning routines. You get to see the morning rituals of some of the world’s most successful people.
• Lastly, halfway through the filming, I got cancer and was given a 30% chance of surviving.
• I called Nick and said I’ve got this aggressive cancer and they’re giving me maybe weeks or months to live.
• He called me back and said, if you’re ok with it, I’d love to come to the hospital and be by your side in the next few months and capture you beating cancer.
• It was an 8-month journey fighting for my life.

Q: Tell us about the movie release.

• We’re doing a special thing for the launch.
• If you go to miraclemorningmovie.com you can preorder the movie.
• You get a ticket to the online world premiere on 12/12/2020, which is the 8^th anniversary of the book’s publishing.
• You also get a Miracle Morning Implementation Training and a live Q&A session with me, Nick and the film team.
• Then, there is this brand new Miracle Morning 30 Day Challenge to make it a lifelong habit.

Q: So you’ve sold 2 ½ million copies of the book.  How has the success of the Miracle Morning transformed YOUR life?

• Selfishly, it has earned millions of dollars.
• For me, it’s becoming the person you want to be to create the success you want.
• When I was 27, I defined my purpose in life to selflessly add value to the lives of every person I possibly could.
• That eventually evolved into elevating the consciousness of humanity.
• I wake up every day and I’m so driven and committed to reach out … first it was a million lives, but now a billion lives.

Q: Any last message of inspiration or encouragement for our audience?

• Be at peace at where you are right now and with who you are and constantly strive to improve both of those things.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• The concept of what level of success do you want vs. what level of personal development are you engaging in to move in that direction.
• Are you moving yourself forward on a daily basis through the learning you undergo, and the personal development you strive for on a regular basis?
• Becoming more is the key to having what you want in life.