When Hal Elrod was 20 years old, he was hit head-on by a drunk driver. His heart stopped beating for six minutes, and his doctors said he would likely never walk again and spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
While recovering in the hospital, Hal’s doctors, friends and family were concerned that Hal was still smiling and happy all the time—they thought he was rejecting his reality. When his dad sat him down to express these concerns, Hal remarked, “I thought you knew me better than that. I live my life by the five-minute rule. Remember, it’s been two weeks since the car accident, my five minutes are up.”
Hal was referring to a lesson he learned as a salesperson at Cutco, which sells knives. His manager at Cutco told him salespeople typically faced a lot of disappointment, rejection, adversity and hardships, so Hal would need to learn how to manage these emotions if he wanted to be successful. And his manager recommended that he give himself five minutes to feel sorry for himself and “moan, complain, cry, vent or whatever,” but once those five minutes were up, to say important words to himself: “I can’t change it.” Then he was to let it go.
The rule has served Hal well in life. Not only did Hal not fulfill the doctor’s prediction of lifelong impairment, a decade later he ran a 52-mile ultra-marathon.
Driven by a passion to motivate others, Hal dedicated himself to understanding how successful people think and behave on a daily basis. Then he distilled his learnings into a book called The Miracle Morning: The Six Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8am. The book has influenced the lives of some 3,000,000 people across 70 countries and is coming out in an expanded edition this month.
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