“Love the life you have while you create the life of your dreams.” – Hal Elrod

One of the reasons I decided to start this blog was after listening to Hal Elrod speak at the REV Real Estate conference I went to last weekend in Seattle. Hal spoke about two game changers that I have already started implementing in my life and cannot stop telling people about so I thought this would be a good follow up to yesterday’s post.

Hal is a Hall of Fame business achiever, International Speaker, Life Empowerment Coach and Bestselling Author of his latest book, The Miracle Morning, all before the age of 30. As he stood up on stage with his mom in the back row watching, I couldn’t help but think, wow I am underutilizing my potential! It’s okay, I still have two years :). A little backstory on Hal. “At age 20, Hal got in a head on car wreck at 80mph with a drunk driver and was found dead on the scene. Despite being dead for six minutes, in a coma for six days, breaking 11 bones and being told he may never walk again, Hal defied the logic of doctors and the temptations to be a victim, and he bounced back to prove that ALL of us are capable of overcoming extraordinary adversity to create extraordinary results in our personal and professional lives.”

What I love about Hal’s story is his mental fortitude. After getting out of the coma, Hal was told he may never walk again. Instead of being defeated, he came to terms with not walking as his worst possible outcome and chose not to let that fear cripple him. He chose instead to be positive and thankful he was alive. He chose to focus on the possibility of walking again. This is the kicker…he gave himself 5 minutes to be as upset and angry as possible, and then he let it go and chose to move on. His motto was, “Can’t change it.” He even had rubber bracelets made for everyone that said “can’t change it” and showed us pictures of people who had tattooed the phrase on their body because of him! I can’t get over it. The guy died, was in a coma, told he would never walk again and then he gave himself only five minutes to be upset about it because he couldn’t change it!!! I cannot tell you how much of a reality check that was for me. I sometimes spend hours, days, months and even years still dwelling on things and people that have upset me. Hal says only spend 5 minutes, then move on.

This was an action item I started using right away! Jarrod and I are already holding each other accountable by saying, “okay you have five more minutes to be upset/angry” and then we let it go. It is beautiful. Challenging? Heck ya. But there is so much more life to live than to worry about the things we cannot control. Traffic? 5 minutes. Missed workout? 5 minutes. Life shattering event? 5 minutes.

That was the first big message, the second was the introduction of his “miracle morning.” Hal decided to find out what made the most successful people in the world successful. He wanted to find out the one thing that they attributed to their success. He ended up with a list of six things that the most successful people do every day, and he decided why not just do all of them!? He came up with S.A.V.E.R.S. A daily morning ritual he believes will not only transform your life, but take every aspect of it to the next level by showing you how to wake up each day with more ENERGY, MOTIVATION, and FOCUS.

Seeing that I could DEFINITELY use all three of these, I started right away. He claims you only need 6 minutes…one minute for each one, but I have found myself needing at least an hour, and sometimes if I’m on a roll a little more. Point is, it’s flexible and once it becomes part of your routine it probably won’t take as long. Okay, so what are they?

S: Silence- prayer or meditation. I use the HeadSpace app on my phone and meditate. I am currently at 15 minutes of guided meditation. He has a cool accent and is very calming. I have learned not to do this from my bed because I fall back asleep! Wake up, grab some coffee, plop yourself on a chair and get to it.

A: Affirmations- anything you declare to be true. I like to look at myself in the mirror and say them to myself. Just like that cute girl in the video :). It helps me believe what I am saying to be true when I make eye contact. Yesterday I decided to add them to the bottom of my blog posts. Feel free to steal mine. Things I am currently affirming myself of: I am strength, beauty, love, capable, confident, whole, powerful, successful, radiant. You can also google affirmations and some pretty awesome ones pop up!

V: Visualization-  How do you envision your life now? How do you envision it will look like in the future? How do you envision getting there? A lot of times we only think about where we want to go and don’t envision the steps it will take to get there. Make sure you plan out the steps in your mind as well. If you visualize yourself 20lbs lighter, think of the healthy food you’re eating, workouts you’re accomplishing and friends holding you accountable. My current visualization is with my husband Jarrod and my pup waffles. We are laughing and radiating love and happiness. We are healthy and fit and confident. We are surrounded by loving friends. We live in a beautiful contemporary farmhouse in Rosedale with chickens 🙂 and Mike Johnston’s awesome TRUTH artwork covering the walls. We have two kiddos running around the house laughing and playing. There are italian lights strung up in the backyard, a fire pit and large oak trees. There’s a cool breeze and a nip in the air. Music is playing and we are dancing. Life is sweet.

When I worked at lululemon we posted our 10 year vision along with our goals on the wall of the store for everyone to see. I loved the transparency of strangers and coworkers reading about what you wanted to accomplish, what you were going to do to get there, and where you saw yourself in 10 years after completing those goals. It was powerful. There was accountability to it. It was in writing! I’m glad life has brought me back to this exercise. Speaking of exercise…  

E: Exercise- This one I thought I had down because I love working out in the morning, but then I changed my mind about what it meant to me. Since I still had two more SAVERS to do after my workout, I didn’t want it to be something I left the house for because then I wouldn’t be in the mental space to finish my miracle morning. I would be up and about and on to my daily schedule. So I decided to use it as a gentle yoga flow that will enable me to stretch and wake up my body for the rest of the day. I have been following morning yoga sequences on YouTube. “Yoga with Adriene” is pretty good! Shelby, the owner of Bfree Yoga also gave us a quick morning sequence to get us up and moving when we are not at the studio. BTW, Shelby’s yoga class is pretty much my favorite thing to do in the world so doing it at home without her really isn’t the same. If you have a chance, go check her out, she will change your life. Anyway, get up, stretch, run, do yoga, anything that gets your blood flowing, heart beating, mind awake and body moving!

R: Reading- This can be any book, article, podcast you choose. I have been devoted to Brian Johnson’s daily Philosopher’s Notes. He reads the best personal growth books and then summarizes them in an easy to follow Cliff Note style summary. This is also a good time to read Hal’s book as you’re getting started with your miracle morning or read another personal development book that excites you! I also love to listen to TEDtalks as I go for a run…two birds, one stone! I just have to make sure to get home and write :).

S: Scribing- OKAY, this one is my FAVORITE! I love to write, but I never prioritize it. Shame on me. I want it to be and sound perfect, so I just don’t do it. Ah, so ridiculous. But now that it’s part of my miracle morning, I can’t not do it! So that’s what I’m most excited about with the SAVERS and what is going to keep me blogging away day after day. I also really love that it’s the last one because the five before it put me in a really awesome creative space. But honestly, there is no need to start up a blog. I have just wanted to for years so this was a great opportunity for me. If you don’t want to write, this is also a great time to journal. It can be a prayer journal, goal journal, gratitude journal, funny jokes, random thoughts, whatever you want it to be, just take some time to write/type it out.

Today’s Daily Affirmations: I am thankful to be alive. I will live today in my fullest capacity. I will give love. I am loved.