Build an Environment That Fulfills You

If you do not have an environment that is supportive, that is cheering you on, that is forward looking, that's excited for building for the future, it is your job to build that environment, to create that culture, to shape that influence in your family. And if you can't do it there, if you can't do it at home or you can't do it at work, it is your job to go find a community or an environment in which it supports that period. I hope you woke up fired up to serve this week. I hope you woke up feeling blessed to have the opportunity to be present, to be loving, to be of service to others this week. I hope that you woke up today ready to get at it. I want to talk about that topic of optimism today for you. So many people struggle with it right now. It's very easy to drown in pools of pessimism that are perpetuated by everybody else in the world. And it's very easy to get down on ourselves, down on our times. And so where can that optimism come back to life? Where can that light spark back inside our heart and our soul and our mind to get us feeling good about our lives, our future together? Let's talk about it. Four big ideas in optimism today for your notes. Number one, environment. It's very true that optimism is greatly impacted by the environment in which you live. Specifically about the people, of course, who you are around and the people who you are around shape your attitudes and your beliefs and your behaviors. They serve as role models or they set the barometer for your own beliefs. They set the normalization of what's expected and what is possible. And they dictate often how we think, because the more we're around them, the more their mentality bleeds leads into ours. And so I say to you, if you do not have an environment that is supportive, that is cheering you on, that is forward looking, that's excited for building for the future. It is your job to build that environment, to create that culture, to shape that influence in your family. And if you can't do it there, if you can't do it at home or you can't do it at work, it is your job to, to go find a community or an environment in which it supports that period. I know that sounds like a privileged thing to say, but I can tell you where I grew up in an economically depressed Irish mining town where there was not a lot of hope for the future. It was survival, survival, survival. And it was a very, very difficult place to live. I recognized that I didn't have a lot of mentors. I recognized that the environment I was in, I didn't know anyone who was striving for things. I recognized in multip towns that we moved around as my dad got different jobs, I recognized like, wow, I'm never going to make it out of here if I don't meet some new people. I remember having this one situation where I had met a friend and they were talking about the future in ways I couldn't comprehend because we were barely getting by. And it made me realize, wow, I've never heard someone talk like this before about the future, about abundance, about opportunities. And so what I decided to do is get a new environment. I decided to start volunteering. I knew that by volunteering I would meet other people who are of service and faith. And as I met other people who are of service and faith, I knew my network would expand. And then I came to find out when you volunteer, you also meet people who are on the leaders in those nonprofit organizations or people on the board or people who donate who happen to be the most successful people in that town. Because usually leaders are givers. And so in volunteering I met a lot of leaders and I started shaping my network as I wanted to create it so that I could have access to a future. And so I think it's important that we all realize that we can build the environment that we need, even if it doesn't exist here. It doesn't mean we have to destroy our environment or our home life or quit our jobs. What it means is our. Oh, if those aren't sufficient to be around people who are high performing, who are successful, who are givers, who are supportive and cheering on of you and your future, then it's our job, it is our responsibility to go find that and build that. Second big idea I want to share with you is the ideals of individualism versus collectivism. And what I mean by this is when we lose an optimism for the future, it's often because we become myopic in our viewpoints. We believe our individual story and the individual happenings in our lives are the collective reality. If we're not getting ahead, you know what? The world's going to hell too, right? Oh, if, if I'm having a good time, then everyone else must be having a good time. If I'm succeeding, then it's easy for everyone else to succeed. We project our own individual reality onto the reality of the world. And tell you what, when your own individual reality isn't good, it sure is easy to imagine the rest of the world is not good too. And we have to be aware of that. We have to think, oh, wow, I need to make sure I get perspective. That's why I encourage you again to be around high achieving, successful, high contributing, heart driven, conscious people. And when I say high performing people, what I mean by that is people who do achieve long term success because of their diligence, their discipline, but they're also maintaining their well being, they're also maintaining positive relationships, they're also being role models that, you know what, when we're around that, when that's the collective reality, it lifts all boats. That's why you want to work for a positive, forward looking, service driven organization. That's why you want to make sure that you're reading books from history or reading things today in the media. That's about the collective positive because it shapes your mind and you start to realize, oh, things are going better than I thought. My friend Peter Diametis wrote a book called Abundance. And he wrote it because it was at a time when everyone was so pessimistic that he's like, let me show you the science of how far humanity has come in almost. Well, in every measurable area, literally, of everything in the human story has gotten better. All of it. Everything. Right? How long children live after they're born, how long you and I tend to live, how much abundance we have available to us worldwide, how far we've advanced in medical, in technical, in science, in every possible area. The human story of advancement has been outstanding and extraordinary worldwide. And yes, are there still challenges? Are some places getting ahead faster than others? Yes. But when you look at the collective human story, you would stand back in awe. Look how far we have come. But we don't see that if we're in our own little pocket for our own little cul de sac, if we're in our own little village. It's easy to imagine the rest of the world is just like us and, and it might not be going as fast as we would like, but when you lift your head up and you see the incredible advancement of the world collectively, you get optimistic. Third idea is just beware of the media. You know, the media is not there. When's the last time you finished a news report on watching something on television? God forbid you were watching like news on tv. When's the last time you finished watching that and you felt optimistic for the future? Well, the reason that doesn't happen is because news organizations are paid for engagement. And sadly, it's so easy to engage with that old rule that what bleeds, leads. It's that old rule in media that if you make it conflict, if you make it divisiveness, if you make it polarizing, if you make it sensational, people will watch. And the more they watch, the more ads become lucrative. The more ads that become lucrative, the more, quote, unquote, the shareholders win. Unfortunately, the shareholders, it's also the culture, it's also us. And a lot of the divisiveness and the negativity that ultimately breeds into pessimism and distrust that has been perpetuated by the media. And yes, no matter what media you listen to that you believe your channel is the truth and the other channels are all lies. No, yours too has a specific agenda and perspective. And no matter which one you think is true or better than the others, they're all playing on human psychology in which they use clickbait to engage you more, in which they get paid more. And once you know that's true, suddenly you decide to check that perspective. And I think that's more important now than ever. Last big idea. Progress. You want to be optimistic? Crush it this week. You want to feel better about your future next year? Crush it this month. You want to have a better, rosier, happier demeanor about your next five years? Crush it this year. I think the people often think that optimism, pessimism are these fixed things, like a fixed mindset, but they're not. You can deeply and dramatically change how you feel about the future by getting a little more progress this week. It's so funny how just a little bit of progress week over week can change someone's entire perspective about their health, about their family, about their future, about their finances. And as you gain more confidence in self, as you gain more confidence in realizing you can shift and shift shape the world to achieve your goals, you'll become more optimistic. That's the fire today, is that you get to dictate how you feel about the future based on how well you show up today. What a blessing. I tell you every single time, and I hope you hear it today. Every day is a good day to grow. I like to share some personal insights into some major life decisions that helped me change and, and help me find my path and hopefully lead to the destiny, the legacy that I desire. Today I'd like to share four of those personal life decisions I told you about. The first personal life decision that was critical to me was simply deciding that intentional living was important to me. I know that sounds kind of basic and almost silly as I say it, but you know When I was a young man, I was an unhappy person. And after my car accident, I realized I had no idea how to live or love or matter. I had no real direction each day. I mean, I kind of just went through the motions each day. I went to the classes I was supposed to go to. I had a job I had to go to to pay the bills and buy some food and pay for tuition in college. I just. I don't know that I was an intentional person yet. And so I was reactive. I was angry. I was conditioned to believe who I was or what I was capable of. And I didn't really know what to do each day. I didn't have the intention of, oh, let me develop clarity of who I really am. Let me develop clarity of how I want to treat people. Let me develop clarity about the skills I'm trying to build. Let me develop clarity about how I want to deliver the services and that I'm going to provide to the world so that I'm on my calling or in a passion or following a purpose. I just didn't have intention guiding me. And I think that's what the car accident gave me. A big knock in the head and say, hey, kid, life is short, life is precious. So get really intentional about who you are, and that's going to be a lifelong effort. You're always going to have to be examining yourself because conditions change, times change, you get older, family changes, career changes, health changes. You always have to ask, who am I now? What do I want of life now? And live each day intentionally to bring the energy that you desire into that day. Just your to do list strengthens an intention for the day, doesn't it? Second big life decision for me was the idea that I had to invest in growth education. And what I mean by that is I just put, you know, kind of quotation marks around that growth education phrase. It just means that I knew I was going to have to study personal development, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, behavioral economics, spirituality, if I was ever going to get anywhere. Because I didn't have the education for self mastery in my high school. I didn't have the education for self mastery in my immediate community or friends. I did not have that path to self mastery kind of just with anybody I knew. I mean, I had role models in my parents and maybe two teachers at school and one friend's father who actually believed in me. But I knew that I'd have to go read stories of great people, so I'd have to read some biographies. I knew that I didn't Know how to control my emotions. I was an angry young man, so I had to read books about that. I knew I didn't know how to communicate with people. I was awkward, so I had to read books on communication. I call that growth education. You have to invest in yourself, and you cannot play small in that area. You cannot be a major investor in your life. You should be the primary investor in your life, and your primary investment should always be in your development. I know people who spend more on bed sheets each year than they do on developing their mind into a tapestry of great thoughts, powerful, and positive thinking. I know so many people who spend more on the most trivial things, knickknacks that mean nothing two years from now. But if they'd taken a course or gotten a coach or gotten a mentor, it would have shaped their next 20 years of abundance and power and greatness and ability to serve and lead and contribute. I'm very passionate about this topic. You must invest in your personal development, period. I realize that it's a very few, a very select few who do this. And you know what? They're the ones who change the world. You know, you read about the founding fathers of the United States of America as an example, Deeply steeped in what we would call growth education. Most of them had to purchase libraries themselves. And those libraries were usually older texts, often in Latin, often from the Greek or the sort of the Roman Empire era. They were learning from Stoicism, they were learning from Christianity. They were learning from great works and even eastern cultures, trying to understand how the world of thought, philosophy had developed. They were working on themselves, constantly investing. Their proudest things were their books and their libraries. Today, the proudest thing I got, when I get to be around people, they're like, what's an app? You're like, I open my phone, I show them growth day. I'm like, check this out. This is how I'm a happy person. And they're like, wait, what? I mean, yeah, if I'm on my phone, I'm not in social media. I tend to be on growth day or in podcasts. That's about it. Because I really believe we have to have that intentional living. And to go to another level, we have to invest in ourselves. I remember the first personal development thing I ever bought was books. Bought a whole bunch of books, like six or seven books. And then the next thing I bought was a bunch of audiobooks. Back then were called tapes and CDs. And then one of the first major things I ever put on a credit card was to go to a seminar, a personal development seminar, and my dad actually had to put the other half of it on his credit card and sent me down just to learn from a conference that was happening with a bunch of motivational speakers. Totally changed my life. Third thing, inspired action. I decided to act each day from a place that was not just intentional, but also, I think, in alignment with the best of who I was, in alignment with my passions, a purpose, a calling. But I adopted this phrase, take the next right action of integrity. Take the next right action of integrity. That's what I call inspired action. It's, you're going to take that next action and you're going to do it in alignment with the best of who you are, with your ideals, with your values, with the beliefs that support something positive in life, with a morality in who you are. And that was important. I said, you know what? I don't want to just have an intention to be great going through the day or going through the, you know, have an intention to make me make money one day. It was like, no, I want to be proud of myself. I want to be congruent with the best of who I am and go to bed at night and put my head on the pillow and be like, that was me today that showed up. That was the best of me that showed up. And if it wasn't, let me do the reflection of how could I have been better without the self hatred, without regret, without guilt, without shame. Just to kind of observe how I was going through the day and asking, is that the best? Brennan showing up. And if it's not, coach myself. You know, really coach myself. And I think that was important. I suppose the last great big life decision for me at this stage of my life is you guys. It's a different type of investment. It was for me, investing in building something that would have a ripple effect beyond myself. And I don't know how to describe that one exactly, but I hope that whatever you're creating in life and whatever you're building or architecting or working hard towards, building your family, creating your art, seeking to leave a legacy, I think that all of those things are all about how can we leave things better than we found them? How can we leave a ripple effect of goodness into our family, through our teams, through our art or our creations, how can we leave that ripple effect of goodness? That's the things that made the difference for me. I hope you'll enjoy it. I hope you crush it this week. Let's go. You know, and I know it's a great day to grow.