Table of Contents
Most of us fall into cycles of getting all excited about a new goal and then abruptly stopping, either when things get tough or even before we begin. Why is this?
It all starts with the human brain. The human brain is pretty incredible. It’s the central command center of our bodies. It keeps our lungs breathing, our heart pumping, and our body moving. It even enables us to determine how good or bad our life is by focusing on the aspects of our lives that make us feel good or those that cause us to feel bad. All that we do or don’t do begins with our brain. But even though our brain enables us to experience life, it also gets in the way of our creating the life we want. (Content credit to “The Miracle Equation” by Hal Elrod).
“To reach your greatest potential you’ll have to fight your greatest fears.” – Anonymous
Modern Caveman
Though we’re all born with limitless potential, we’re also born with a brain that operates under many of its primitive, ancient reflexes. We are hardwired to scan our environments for danger because back in the caveman days, not spotting a fast-moving lion meant a painful death. Eating the wrong greens could be toxic. We could encounter life-and-death situations multiple times a week. We were just trying to get through another day, literally. Luckily, most of us don’t run into these types of experiences often—or ever. But our brain doesn’t know that. It’s still paranoid, always scanning for potential threats, in a constant attempt to keep us safe.
Instead of fearing death, though, our brains are on high alert for anything that could take us out of our comfort zone. The fear of death has been replaced by the fear of failure and discomfort, both emotional and physical. Staying safe is no longer only about avoiding predators; now we avoid opportunities, too. For the most part, we fear the unknown. When a new opportunity pops up that would give us the chance to develop ourselves further into the person we would like to be, our brain sounds the panic alarm. We immediately run through everything that could go wrong: I could fail, I could be embarrassed, I could be disappointed. All of this stress makes it hard to make intelligent decisions and disrupts our emotional well-being. Sometimes it can feel as though our emotions control us, rather than the other way around.
The Emotions
Our external circumstances begin to dictate our internal state. We become reactive and lose the space in which we can calmly think through how to respond optimally in any given situation. When our emotions take control, it is nearly impossible to stay focused on our goals, as any minor setback feels insurmountable. So we continuously crawl back into the cave that is our comfort zone. Although it’s dark in there, it feels safe.
All of our energy and mental focus is directed toward trying to turn off that stress response and we then interpret a great opportunity as being too hard, too dangerous, and just too much to attempt. Any opportunity that pulls us away from what we have come to understand as our norm is perceived as something to be avoided.
Now let’s understand the unique concept of Miracle Equation to overcome these hurdles. This concept is extensively used by Miracle Maven.
Miracle Equation
The Miracle Equation is a process, that only a small percentage of our society understands how to execute it. It consists of only two decisions: 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.
When we study the world’s most prolific achievers, innovators, philanthropists, athletes, and just about anyone else who has made a significant contribution to the world, we see that they have done so by establishing and maintaining Unwavering Faith that they could and then putting forth Extraordinary Effort until they did. When you consistently maintain Unwavering Faith and put forth Extraordinary Effort over an extended period of time, you cannot fail. You may stumble, you may experience setbacks, but your success will ultimately move from possible…to probable…to inevitable.
Miracle Maven
At the point of being able to make reaching your goals inevitable is where you become what Hal Elrod calls a Miracle Maven. Miracle Mavens have solved the mystery of creating miracles and live by the Miracle Equation. Unwavering Faith is their de facto mindset. Extraordinary Effort is how they approach all of their goals. Committed to these two decisions, Miracle Mavens create extraordinary results in the world, not just for themselves but for everyone. And because miracles are their way of life, they consistently create extraordinary results over and over again, in nearly everything they do.
Way Ahead
Miracle Mavens have figured out something that the rest of us haven’t: how to bypass the stress response in life. Or, more accurately stated, how to turn it off when it’s harmful or holding them back. They have trained their brain to understand the difference between an uncomfortable situation and one that is truly life or death. They consistently choose to replace the fear of what could go wrong by consciously choosing to focus on and maintain the faith that things will likely go right.
Miracle Mavens invest time in exploring and pursuing the possibilities that will make them happy and fulfilled, even though they know that the possibility of failure always exists. Rather than dwelling on their fears and past failures, Miracle Mavens understand how crucial it is to both have faith in themselves and actively figure out which steps they must take to turn their most meaningful goals into reality. By actually taking control of their brain, they’ve taken control of their lives.
Most of us have not. From high school students yet to enter the workforce all the way up to Fortune 500 CEOs, we all struggle with irrational fears and an overactive stress response. We need to consider how our irrational fears suck the air from our dreams and the lives that we could be living. Instead of fearing and avoiding opportunities, we need to take a deep breath—and then run toward them. We need to be willing to fail, learn from our mistakes, and try again. We need to replace our fear with faith as there is no other way to overcome this conflict and achieve success.
