Best Of: Mid-Year Acceleration Strategies

Many people lose their focus because they have too long of a to do list. I'm like, get rid of those. If they're six months out, don't have them on your to do list anymore. Have a January 1st journal and go park them in there like a parking lot. Your tendency, high performer, to over commit yourself is actually stealing from your ability to make good choices, to feel the day, to win the day.

Hey, my friends, it's Brendan Burchard. And welcome to a best of edition of the Brendan Show. These best of episodes feature training that I have done live, sometimes online to tens of thousands of people or live on stage where I was speaking on some stages across the world. Or these might be some of my monthly training programs and highlights of those that I do every single month with our monthly students. So I know you're going to really enjoy these because these are a little bit more of a deep dive. Look at some of my training as a personal and professional development trainer. You know, I focus so much on helping you find that deeper level of motivation and and start practicing some of those high performance habits. Well, you hear me talk about many of those concepts in these special episodes here. These are my best of trainings only and exclusively right here on the Brendon show. So I hope you enjoyed them. Please note that as you hear me speak in many of these, you'll hear me reference something because sometimes I'll have been training live or on video or on stage or through a broadcast. So you might not be able to see something, I'm sorry, suggesting or motioning tool or maybe even drawing out on a flip chart or motioning towards on a presentation. But you'll get the gist of it. So make sure you bust out your journal. Take some good notes here because this is really valuable insights on the mindset or the strategies that you need to adopt in order to improve your life. And if you want to go and get more content like this, but much more deeper and have more of an interactive relationship with me in this type of training, make sure you join our high performance market monthly training program. That's our monthly subscription program where I go live with you and our high performance students every single month and I train on a new topic or a new piece of research that we've created from the high Performance Institute and I train on that and then I do Q and A and actual live coaching, interactive coaching with people every single month. That's called high performance monthly and you can Access it at brendon.com forward/monthly. That's brendon.com forward/commonly B R E N D O N.com monthly to get deeper dive training similar to this. So if you like this, you would love that training program. But without further ado, let's jump in right now to one of the brendon show's best of trainings.

Let's use this as a sort of checkup but also more about how do we accelerate to the end of the year so you get so much more done. I love this time of year because a lot of people completely take their foot off the gas, which I love. I'm all for going for vacations. Many of you guys seen from the blogs. We've been in, you know, Indonesia, we've been Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic. We've been all around, been really fun and I'm really focused on making sure that I crush it these next couple months because look, this year's gone fast, right? So I want to congratulate you for being here because ultimately today is going to be a real gut check to how much you can accomplish in the remaining months of this year. And I love to do that right now at this time of year. So I'm going to cover five things that are going to absolutely accelerate your ability to get more done this year. And you're going to love these. I'm going to help you prioritize. I'm going to help you quit some things, start some new things. I'm gonna help you get yourself in order for the rest of the year. This session, bust out your journal. I'm gonna ask you some tough questions. We're gonna do some real high performance work here about planning an exceptional remainder of your year and I know it might take a mental shift and I love when everybody else is in summertime mode for me to switch into strategic mode and just slay throughout the fall and the winter. My favorite time to get really strategic about the rest of the year because like you, I got people counting on me. I always love to start high performance sessions with asking who needs you on your a game? There's probably somebody in your life who really needs you to perform well the rest of the year, who needs you to make more money for the family. Who needs you to get that promotion, who needs you to finish that project, who needs to see you be the role model that you are. So I'm getting really serious right now and we're going to do a real strategic session with you and we're going to jump right in because I have a ton to give you today. First Idea. Remember, these are five things to help you accelerate your achievement by the end of the year. Write them down in your journal and let's get in your head thinking about the rest of the year. Okay? Number one, big, huge thing, one hour more per day on my core three, okay? I begin this every year. I go, okay, first move, I know I need to identify what are the core three things right now that have been bringing me results this year? The core three things. So as an example, because I'm an entrepreneur, like many of you guys are in my business, I go, okay, what are the three primary revenue drivers we have right now? Because just like you, if you're in marketing, you probably tested a lot of things throughout the, you know, the early part of the year, the spring, even early part of summer. So my question is, what's been working? And I mean absolutely working, what are the three absolute best things are working for you in your business or your career or your personal life if you're not employed or not self employed? Like, what's absolute? The three things that are so working for you want you to know what those three things are. And overall, I want you to give an hour every day more to a focus of one, two, or three, all three of those things. So let me give you an example right now, in my business, right, one of my core three is our book funnel. Like, so for me, as you guys know, as an author and a trainer, when I sell books, that's good for the business, we sell books. Then people want online courses, then they want to come to our seminars. Then someday they might join our program like we're doing here at our live events or our masterminds. Or they might hire us for coach, or they might hire me for speaking. But the book is a big core three for the business, right? And so right now I go, okay, I need every single day, the rest of this year to give more time to that thing every day. Not on a Wednesday, not on a Saturday, like every day. I need to check in the numbers, create a new ad, flip out a page. I need to lead my team better on it, something every day for that one thing make sense? So if you got three things, what I want, I want an hour more. So that means might be in 20 minutes. 20 minutes, you know, and, you know, 20 minutes. So you're giving 20 minutes more each day, or maybe you just choose one and you're gonna give that an hour more a day. But it's basically this one more work hour of the day focused on one of the core Three. Got it? Write it down. And this for you. I want you to start this today. Today. If that means you're watching this in Munich, Germany, and we finish this tonight, and you stay up one more hour, I'm like, cheers, man. Do that. But it's like, today, one more hour on focusing. I often call it the core three, or the needle movers, the primary three things that are working. I need an hour more from you a day for the rest of the year. And you will thank me for the next decade. You're like, oh, my God, Brandon. Because what happens is. And you know this, you're getting caught up in distraction. Especially in summer, people start spending their time on stupid stuff because they think they got all year. But you know how fast. Like, once September hits, it's foot on the gas. And guess what? It's Thanksgiving. And guess what, it's Christmas and New Year's. And you felt that every single year. All of a sudden you're in, like, November. You're like, oh, my God, it's Thanksgiving already. And so right now, people are lackadaisical. They're not focused on the right things. So I want you to think, where are you distracted? I want you to clear out the distractions. I want you to say, the core three things in my business are. And I need you to give an hour more a day on those. That's it. If you'll start that now and you'll punch in that hour more every day until Thanksgiving, I promise your Christmas will be unbelievable. People are always surprised at how myself, my team, we SWAT team the fall. You know, we do like four or five events. We're out on the road. I'm, like, totally booked. Like, I'm slammed in September. But I always know that in the summer, because right now I start thinking, what are the main things? And while I get slammed in the fall, just like you for the holidays and for the business or the traveling or the conferences. The other thing I do, though, I'm able to do all that because right now, this time of year, I identify what's been working, and I kind of double down on those. Give them more. One hour more. Because think about, you know, maybe you're like a coach or, you know, certified high performance coach or a business coach or a life coach, and you're like, I've been doing this one thing. It's been giving me most of my clients. I'm like, well, that would be one of the core 3. Do that more an hour a day, and then thank me two months from now. I need one more hour, guys. One more hour a day on the core three. So it's two parts here, right? You need to identify your core 3. What are the core 3 things that.

Are working the best for you?

And then how are you going to get that hour, and how are you going to divvy that up? Is that hour more each day you're going to do 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20 minutes for an hour a day? Or are you going to focus on, okay, this week, one hour a day more on this core number one. Next week, one more hour a day on core number two or three. I don't know what it is for you, but I need that hour, one more hour a day on the core three. Either all of them together or one at a time. I promise you, if that's all you get, you will thank me. I will get the best Christmas cards from you. I mean, they will just be. They'll be filled up with the money, and it'll be like, I'll be so excited to get your Christmas cookies because you'll be like, brendan, thank you so much. That one hour core three thing, I achieved more in the second half of this year than I've ever achieved in the second half of a year my entire life. One hour, guys. One hour, second big idea. And I love this one significant growth rule. And here's what the significant growth rule means. I look at everything I'm doing right now, everything for my business right now, and I go, okay, of all these things I'm doing, which ones will lead to significant growth this year? Which ones will lead to significant growth this year? Everything else. Everything else I start pushing out on the calendar. Whether I push it out 2, 3, 4 months from now or I push it till next year. But I do a real close look at all of my activities. I look at my partnerships, my relationships. I look at everything I'm doing in terms of marketing funnels or brand building or what I'm doing in the marketplace or what I'm doing in my career, And I go, which one of these things are leading to significant growth? And if it's not leading significant growth, I need to minimize that time. Now, I know you might say, well, what's the difference between, like, a core three and a significant growth rule? Well, the significant growth rule is for the rest of the year, right? The core three, you already know. The core three are the three things you're already doing, getting results. The significant growth rule is all these new ideas people are going to give you and put on your plate. In August and September and October, November, everyone's going to give you some more things to do, right? There's going to be new opportunities, and every new opportunity or every new idea your thing has to be at this time of year. Will that lead to significant growth this year? If it is, maybe you can add that on to your workload. Because remember, I'm just asking for an hour here, maybe you can add that on. But if a project comes your way and it doesn't lead to significant growth at this stage of the year, and it won't lead to significant growth the rest of this year, I'm out. I'm out. So I turned down two or three projects just last night from people. Good ideas, great ideas, but I know those won't lead to significant growth until next year. So I'm like, not till next year. Because I know that instead if I focus on these Things, the Core 3 or other projects that I do know lead to significant growth. In other words, significant growth is a way for you to prioritize and say, no, I don't want you taking on any new projects at this stage of the year if you don't believe they'll lead to real growth by the end of the year. Because you could just focus on these more, right? It's that old story of acres of the diamonds. You know, people travel all around the world looking for the treasure and working so hard, looking for the new, new thing. And then they come home and one day they put the spade in the backyard and they dig up some diamonds, right? Often your next big breakthrough, you already, it's already in your yard. You know what I tell people all the time? You've probably already met the person who's going to help you generate your next hundred thousand dollars. Your next million dollars, like you already met, they're already in your network, but you're spending all this time to go do all these other things. You already met the person who's going to make you your next million dollars, give you access to an audience, or give you access to an opportunity. You've already met the person, but you're out there searching for new and you're accepting all these new ideas. And as you accept new ideas as a high performer, what does that do? That crowds out other things. And so from this day forward, until the end of the year, I want you to have the significant growth rule. Will this project lead to significant growth by the end of the year? And if not, table it. People say, but, Brandon, I don't know if I pass up that Opportunity, it might not ever come around again. I'm like, what are you, 20 years old? Only 20 year olds believe that by the time you're 30 and 40, you kind of recognize things come into your life in waves and in circles and in rhythms and you don't worry that one day you're going to run out of opportunities. That FOMO stuff, leave that to the 20 and 30 year olds. You're ready. You got it. Like the world is never going to dry up of opportunities on you one day, right? The only way that would ever happen is if your mindset closed out everything because of fear. But the world, man, have we ever lived in a time of more opportunity. So don't worry about saying no to something that isn't significant growth for you. Focus on your core three or everything else you're doing, your brand, your business that is working or could lead to significant growth. That's number two. Third big idea, which I love is my 45 day quit rule. Now this is one of those things. I think I mentioned the email announcing this you guys aren't going to want to do. There's two things on here. I know you're not going to want to do. This one I forced myself to do. Here's what the 45 quit rule is. And it's hard for me. I hate this one. I look at all my big project ideas, you know, I don't know about you, but I have a journal with all my big ideas in it, you know, or I have my vision board or I have an Excel spreadsheet of all these different ideas and projects I want to do. And I've got like, you know, right as an example right now. I know my next six books I'm going to write. I know, I know my next three campaigns I'm going to launch know them. But here's what I have to force myself to do and I don't like it. I say, okay, if this is a major project that I want to do, even if it could lead to significant growth, if I'm not going to start it, listen to this. If I'm not going to start it in the next 45 days, it's off my plate until next year and I push it to 2019. I literally just take it from my journal in my little bucket of things I want to do this year and I put it out into 2020 and I feel so mentally relieved. A lot of people have a lot of anxiety about the number of projects they have on their plate that they really want to do. And so what ends up happening is that anxiety leads to a lot of procrastination. That anxiety leads to a lot of poor prioritization because there's so much to do. They're like, oh, my God, there's so much to do here. So I won't do any of it. Ever had that? Have you ever found yourself in front of Netflix going, oh, my God, I have so much to do. But I just watched the fourth video in the third season. Has that ever happened? You have so much to do. And that's the problem. You have so much to do that you haven't prioritized what you are going to do. So you don't do anything. So what I do is this time of year, I look at all those things that are on my plate and I get honest. Which ones am I going to start in the next 45 days? And if I'm not going to start the next 45 day, put it in 2019. Now it's not even on my mental concern. It's not even on my dashboard. No anxiety there. No. Oh, my God, I still got to get that one in. Nope, it's gone. Arianna Huffington always says, you know, the best way to complete a project is to quit it. Just like, well, I'm done with this. Just stop. And now all the mental concerns, like, once you allow yourself to release from a project, it's so freeing. And now your mind can go back to these two. What's going to be significant in growth and what's going to be my core three. And now life gets easier. Because when you clarify, when you prioritize and you take like 50 things, when you take a list of 50 things down to three or five, confidence comes back in. Motivation comes back in. Focus comes back in. Many people lose their focus because they have too long of a to do list. That's not realistic, that's not motivating. That's honestly full of a lot of things that are like six months out. I'm like, get rid of those if they're six months out. Don't have them on your to do list anymore. Go park, open, have a journal. That's your January 1st journal. And go park them in there like a parking lot. Take those. Take those projects, those ideas. That's my January 1st. It's not even on my mental concern anymore. I have tons of. That frees me. It's like, how come, Brendan, how do you get so much done? I'm like, I'm not worried about the things I'm not getting done. How do you get so much done, Brendon? I'm not worried about the things I'm not getting done because I parked them, they're over there. They're not on my mental dashboard. Clarity, confidence, motivation, focus comes back in. And that's what I personally need. I don't know about you, but the fall is a big time in our business. So I got to be, I got to enter my Septembers and October's razor clear about what's on the dashboard by the completion of December and what's not, that's the 45 day quit rule. I encourage you to challenge yourself to try it. Fourth big idea, the deliver excellence rule. This is another prioritization move for me. It's like, okay, someone throws a big opportunity to me, it could lead to significant growth. I could get it going, but it compromises the deliver excellence rule, which is, wait, if I take on these anything here, would that prevent me from delivering what I already promised the best that I could? Like for me, I'm very stretched in my schedule. I mean, very stretched. I got to get a lot done during the day. Big team, big brand, big business, big clients. I gotta be man, I gotta be good. But lots of great opportunities come my way. That could be significant growth this year. But then the second level of that evaluative tool is to say, huh, if I do that though, will that steal away from something I already promised to somebody I care about or who's important to our business? Will that make me fail to deliver what I wanted to deliver? And so I got to be honest and I got to prioritize. And I am. Like, if you saw how much I work to prioritize things doesn't mean I don't leave things. I mean, I'm sure my team could tell you a hundred things I haven't done that I'm supposed to or whatever. So it doesn't mean I'm perfect. It just means I work really hard at it. I'm very diligent and focused on it because I got people counting on me. I got you. And I know you got people counting on you too. So if something comes up and it's like this great idea, but you're honestly, it doesn't lead to significant growth or you're not going to start it, park it. But also, if it is something that you could get going and it would lead to significant growth but it's going to screw up what you already promised, don't break your integrity. Put that thing back in that parking lot. I'll start it In January. It will give you so much mental freedom. Your tendency high performer to over commit yourself is actually stealing from your ability to make good choices, to feel the day, to win the day. And so you've got to kind of reevaluate where you're at and what you're doing. This is the phrase I want you to write down in your journal. Not this year. Write it down. Put a star next to it. Write down, everyone type it in caps. Not this year. You got to get good at that right now. This is the time to really evaluate what can you deliver. And because you can't deliver everything with excellence, this is the time to go to that core three, deliver that. Pick one or two projects that might deliver extra significant value. Cool. If you're not going to start it next 45 days or it's going to compromise, deliver excellence. You're going to write this down. Not this year. And I'm telling you, doesn't it feel like just say, I know you're sitting at home and maybe this is a little weird, but just, just say it with me. Not this year. Does that feel good? You know, your neighbor comes around, someone comes to your business, hey, why don't you do all these things? You're like, not this year. It feels so good. It's just like, I think I'm gonna say it all day. I think I'm just walk into the next restaurant and they're like, would you like something to eat? I was like, not this year. It just feels so good to say. I mean, just start saying it to random people. Not this year. I'm sure some of you put on a T shirt or on a hat. Not this year. It's like, no, just not going to happen. That is going to make you so much more accomplished by the end of the year. Getting in a rhythm right now. Not this year. Because I know that we live in a culture that's very different. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'll take it on. You know, it's never say no to everything. Say yes to everything. Well, you know what? Saying yes to everything was awesome pre Internet. I love that rule. Yes to everything. Absolutely. But before the Internet, welcome to 2018. Hell no. No, not even close. Never hire by September. One of my favorite things, you've been thinking about hiring somebody. You haven't done it yet. I told this to clients all the time. It's like, you know, the year gone by December, you know, gone by September, gone by November, gone by October. So you want to get your team in place, ready to Rock that fall season out. And so hire. If you've been waiting for that virtual assistant one day, honey, I'll hire a virtual assistant. Hire them. Just go on the Internet tonight, get it done. Set up the meeting. I've needed to hire four more sales managers. Okay? Call that headhunter company, go out to that contracting agency, contact them tonight or tomorrow morning and get that in motion. There's no reason you need to be urgent about hiring now. Now, those are my five greatest tools for accelerating the best things that I do in my career. To accelerate, I immediately identify my core three things. Getting results. Now I double down on them by giving them an hour more a day. I start looking at everything through the lens of is this significant growth or not? If it's not, it's gone. If I'm not going to touch it in the next 45 days, not this year, then I go into delivering excellence, making sure that I'm doing whatever I'm doing, delivering it well. Because the best way ever to continue growing is to have raving fans. And that's those who you deliver well for. And then get your team in place so you can crush the rest of the year, that single thing you'll be so happy that I told you to do. I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, go perform at your best because the world needs you at your best. We'll see you soon.

All right, my friend. I hope that you enjoyed that best of episode. Was that inspiring? Were you fired up? Did you love it? If you did, make sure you do me a favor, go out on social media somewhere and share that episode. Just go out, post it somewhere, post yourself, listening to it. Make sure you hashtag the brendanshow because when you do that, I can look you up and we can find you on Instagram and post that on social media. And sometimes we do all expense paid trips to people we find. We just randomly select people, we send them gifts, autograph books, swag T shirts, all expense paid trips to some of my seminars. So make sure you let us know, share what you thought about this episode out there on the social media worlds and then we can find you and celebrate you. And also I would love to invite you to join us in our high performance monthly program. So just go to brendan.com monthly, that's brendon.com monthly. That's where we do deeper dive trainings.

Like you just heard.

But we do that every single month and there's some live Q and A there and I do some giveaways and we give students in that monthly program, tickets to my seminars, and some extra special training on leadership. So make sure you check it out@brendon.com monthly. I appreciate you being part of this community of so many people dedicated to finding that deeper drive of motivation and practicing high performance habits so that they can become extraordinary in their careers. In your personal life, in your health, you can live an extraordinary quality of life. And sometimes you just need a little bit more training and a little bit more nudge, a little bit more energy, a little bit more drive and consistency. And I'm hoping that being part of this community with the Brendon show, I'm providing that to you in some way. So thank you, my friend, for listening. I look forward to seeing you or listening with you on the next episode of the B R E N D O N show.

It.