The Miracle Equation: The Two Decisions That Turn Your Biggest Goals from Possible, to Probable, to Inevitable

by Hal Elrod

The first decision is to maintain Unwavering Faith and the second is to put forth Extraordinary Effort, and the key to creating tangible, measurable miracles is to do both, over an extended period of time.

You will first need to envision your ideal future, see it clearly, and then establish the belief that it’s possible.

Remember, the goal you decide to tackle does not necessarily have to be world changing. It can be as big or small, as easy or complicated, as you like. The key is that it must be meaningful to you. That significance will serve as your driver.

to wake up every day and invest time into becoming a better version of the person you were when you went to bed the night before.

The key is not to come from a place of I’m not good enough but rather from I am limitless, and I have more to give.

What makes the effort extraordinary is that it is sustained over an extended period of time. And without it, you will have nothing to fuel your faith.

“The purpose of a goal is not to reach the goal. The purpose of a goal is to become the type of person who can achieve any goal, by always giving it everything you have, regardless of your results. It’s who you become through that process that matters more than actually reaching any one goal.”

We put forth just enough effort to get by. We run through our days on autopilot, often with no clear goal or intention. We allow others to impose limits on us.

You are exactly where you’re supposed to be (and who you’re supposed to be) to learn what you need to learn so you can become the person you need to be who is capable of creating everything you’ve ever wanted.

It may or may not be your fault if you’re not living the life you want, but it is your responsibility to make the changes necessary to go to the next level. No one is going to do it for you.

in order to be lazy with no guilt, you have to accomplish something first to award yourself earned laziness. I have a rule to spend time with my kids, do something that adds value to my wife’s life, and complete all of my work-related tasks before I get to enjoy “guilt-free” laziness.

Being too busy is essentially doing things that don’t really matter, so we trick ourselves into thinking we’re being productive.

Staying busy with low-priority activities is a behavior that keeps us from feeling we deserve the success we want.

Our emotional pain and those times we’ve felt bad have far less to do with what’s going on around us and everything to do with what’s going on inside us.

“The Five-Minute Rule,” and it basically stated, “It’s okay to feel bad when something doesn’t go according to plan, but not for more than five minutes.”

However, armed with the new awareness that it was my choice whether I continued to resist my reality or chose to fully accept what was now in the past and out of my control, I started choosing acceptance.

It’s not the experience, circumstance, or event that causes our emotional pain, but rather our unwillingness to accept life as it is and move forward that’s the cause.

Everything is easier said than done when it’s new to us.

Through acceptance, releasing any resistance and unnecessary pain created a space to focus all my energy on what I could control,

I had chosen to fully accept what I couldn’t change, my circumstances as they were, which had freed me from all emotional pain and allowed me to focus my energy on what I wanted.

all emotional pain that we have ever experienced, are experiencing now, or will ever experience in the future is self-created by our resistance to our reality.

The only way never to experience unwanted emotional pain again is to make a conscious decision to accept everything that has ever happened or will ever happen to you.

It’s often said that hindsight is 20/20. Sure. But why suffer now and wait until some point in the future to learn and grow from your adversities in the present?

Our initial emotions aren’t the problem; it’s what we do with them beyond the initial feeling that can make or break us.

Don’t wish for a perfect life tomorrow. See the perfection of your life today.

You can’t change anything that’s ever happened. You can only make changes to your actions now, which will lead to different circumstances in the future.

the purpose of a goal is to develop the qualities and characteristics of a goal achiever.

The purpose of setting a goal is not to hit the goal. The real purpose of setting a goal is to develop yourself into the type of person who can achieve your goals, regardless of whether you hit any particular one or not. Some goals you’ll reach, and some you won’t. It is who you become by giving it everything you have until the last moment—regardless of your results—that enables you to develop the mindset and behaviors that will help you achieve bigger and bigger goals for the rest of your life.

Failure is a foundational part of the learning process. It’s how we grow.

Multitasking slows down your progress. And pursuing several goals, with equal importance assigned to each, does the same thing.

The more goals we set and give equal priority to, the less likely we are to achieve what matters most to us.

We allow our busyness to usurp our limitlessness.

“You can’t win a gold medal at more than one [sport].”

I don’t have enough time to get to my top priority every day, it’s not necessarily that you don’t have enough time but more that you are spending your time on lower-priority activities

My number one priority in my life is to connect with and positively influence my children, and the only way to do that to the fullest is to spend quality time with them.

Goals: Many things we want to accomplish. Mission: One thing we are committed to accomplishing, no matter what.

Establish Monthly Missions (Accomplish More Every Thirty Days Than Most People Do in Twelve Months)

The challenge of long-term goals is that, by giving ourselves so much time, we miss out on an invaluable sense of urgency.

integrity, which I define as doing what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it, without exceptions or excuses.

CommitTo3, which calls on them to clarify their top three objectives each day and make sure that they follow through.

I’m referring to faith in the context of what’s possible for you—your ability to overcome any adversity you face and produce tangible, measurable miracles. Which, at first blush, still feels intangible—and not so trustworthy. Because having faith requires taking a leap away from our typical skeptical nature.

when you believe that you are the one—the one who is just as deserving, worthy, and capable as any other person on Earth—you will gain full access to your limitless potential.

Sometimes you have to borrow the faith that someone else has in you until your faith in yourself catches up.

You can always fall back on the universal truism that if another human being has done something that you desire, their accomplishment serves as evidence that it’s also possible for you.

I am fully committed, no matter what…there is no other option.

Extraordinary Effort has three components: ✓ Actions that move you closer to your ideal results ✓ Actions that will most likely take you out of your comfort zone ✓ Consistent effort over an extended period of time (regardless of your results along the way)

becoming wealthy is simply a choice. If you make the choice to study wealthy individuals, adopt their mindset (faith), and model their behavior (effort) over a sustained period of time, you will experience similar results.

Successful people make a habit of doing what unsuccessful people do only some of the time”

Which activities, done consistently, will make my success inevitable?

we are emotionally attached to our results, but our emotional attachment hinders our ability to remain committed to the process that will put us on the path to achieve those results.