Hal Elrod is a motivational speaker and author of the bestselling book “The Miracle Morning,” in which he explains how things like positive affirmations and finding community helped him get through times of incredible hardship. For example, Elrod was initially pronounced dead after a traffic collision in the ‘90s (he took his first steps three weeks after the incident) and received a diagnosis of acute lympoblastic leukemia at 37, being given a 20-30% chance to live (he’s still going strong today).
He shared how lessons from “The Miracle Morning” helped him get through the most difficult times and how others can apply the ritual to their lives.
How can a ritual like The Miracle Morning help people or caregivers in the rare disease community?
I really believe The Miracle Morning saved my life. For those who don’t know, it’s made up of six practices that are organized in the acronym “SAVERS” — I call these the lifesavers. It stands for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing, which is a fancy word for journaling or writing. Those are the six most timeless proven personal development practices in history that the world’s most successful people have sworn by for centuries.
And I’ll paraphrase my friend Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”: “How any one of the SAVERs will change your life and the world’s most successful people swear by those practices, but I’ve never met anyone who did all six of them. Maybe one or two, maybe two or three.” He said, “I believe you named the book ‘The Miracle Morning’ correctly, because he said since I started practicing the SAVERs, all six of the world’s most timeless proven ancient wisdom practices, I’m experiencing miracles in my life, in my health, in my business, in my marriage, you name it.” Basically, if one of them will change your life, all six will create miracles.
And so that’s been my experience. We have millions of people around the world who have these amazing stories of overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, health challenges, weight loss, you name it. And that’s how having a daily practice can help you optimize your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual state every single morning, so you can be at your best to serve yourself, your loved ones, the people you love deeply. That’s what The Miracle Morning, particularly positive affirmations, can do.
How can the power of community help those who are living with a rare disease?
For me, community played a very big part — I have this global Miracle Morning community. Now most people are gonna have their family and friends, and I have my family and friends, too, but leaning on them, you know, being vulnerable, telling them how difficult it is, is so important. You have to get over this idea that you’re burdening people.
Switch places with them and imagine someone you love was going through what you’re going through. And how would you want to do anything to help that person? And if they told you how hard it was, you wouldn’t feel like they were a burden. You’d be like, “Let me love you, let me support you.”
For me, I was committed to beating cancer no matter what; there was no other option. It’s that affirmation formula that enabled me to maintain unwavering faith.
So, I think being vulnerable is one of most important pieces. And in that same vein, asking for help and reaching out to your friends is critical as well. When we are in isolation, especially when we are sick, our thinking is not clear. And a lot of times, it can just take one conversation with someone that cares about you, one word of encouragement, one perspective other than your own, to change everything.
So, whether it’s spending time with people, calling people, having visitors, whatever it is, you’ve got to put yourself in community. We as human beings are designed to thrive in a community and to struggle in isolation.
What advice would you give to someone who has just been diagnosed with a rare disease?
So, there’s something that I’ve been calling the Miracle Equation. And the Miracle Equation is a philosophy, a strategy that I created when I was 20 years old. And it’s what I’ve applied to accomplish every major, meaningful, seemingly impossible goal in my life, from breaking sales records when I was 22, writing a book that sold millions of copies, and self-publishing it in spite of the odds I was facing.
This Miracle Equation is made up of two decisions: unwavering faith and extraordinary effort. And if you study anyone who has overcome the odds or accomplished something extraordinary, they have maintained unwavering faith that they could even do it, and that’s how they accomplished it. They had self-doubt they had to overcome with unwavering faith. They had fear, they were all human beings. Maintaining unwavering faith is not something that’s inherent.
For me, I was committed to beating cancer no matter what; there was no other option. It’s that affirmation formula that enabled me to maintain unwavering faith.
And then the second decision is extraordinary effort. That doesn’t mean you’re working 80 hours a week. It means you’re doing at least one thing every day to take a step toward the outcome or outcomes that you’re committed to. If you maintain unwavering faith and you have a chronic disease that you can’t heal, that faith isn’t going to make the disease go away. But it’s going to ensure that you are strong enough to handle it.
And the extraordinary effort is doing the things — it’s reading, it’s researching, it’s doing your Miracle Morning, it’s eating healthy — doing all of the things that contribute to you being at your best now every day and for the rest of your life.