How FATIGUE is Killing Your Dreams

Who got tired last year? Okay, fix that. Let me tell you something. You are not tired. Oh, no. You feel fatigued. You have a feeling. You are not. Fatigue is the true thief of our dreams. Most mental fatigue is consuming. You need more space. Your fatigue is because you keep cramming. You're cramming your body full of food it does not need, and you're cramming your mind full of stuff it doesn't need. You have to say this year, best health of my life. You're going to combat fatigue. I'm not tired. You are not tired. Our, our whole way of thinking is so identity driven, isn't it? You are tired. Oh, no. You feel fatigue. You have a feeling. You are not self above situation. Situation is feeling. Because when we don't understand that, we tell ourselves this, I am this. I am tired. You say it to people all the time, I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired, I'm tired. And confirmation bias says, yeah, we are. Let's keep doing all those things that make us tired. Because I said I'm tired, you think I'm joking. Same as to me, I'm old. Some do things that old people do because I believe I'm old. You know, I'm done. I've heard this from so many successful people, Brandon, I'm done. I go, you are done or you're feeling done. It's two different things. And I want to let you know that fatigue is the true thief of our dreams. People always say it's comparison. No, we can work through comparison, but fatigue is a big deal. And I'm going to say this, and I'm going to say it cautiously, because I do understand that there is a thing called chronic fatigue. And just like I'm not talking about therapy here, I'm not here to address you as a physician either. Right. I understand there are things that are well beyond our control with chronic fatigue. The issue is, if you have chronic fatigue, your physician is still going to ask you to change your routines. They're still going to ask you to have goals. They're still going to ask you to take daily health tasks and actions to improve. There's still empowerment there, even if it doesn't feel like it. You still have to try, you still have to do it, and it's super hard. And I understand that, believe me. I've been at the bedside of, well, many more people than most people do. I understand it. I've seen it in action. I've watched people pass and die. And I've Been at that bedside a lot in my life. I understand. But I also know that there are people in those beds who still try, who still give the effort, who still choose the attitude, who still eat healthy and it's hard. But if you're gonna blast something this year and you'll be like, okay, I'm gonna make one needle moving thing this year, you're gonna combat fatigue this year. And that's the word I want you to write. Combat fatigue. You are in a battle with fatigue and you cannot let fatigue keep winning so many battles. I want you to understand this because most people write, oh, I want to lose weight. I'm like, no, no, no, yes, fine, lose weight. I want you to battle fatigue. That's the secret. A lot of people lose weight and they're still tired. Who knows what I'm talking about? Like, see, they're in the wrong battle. They're in self conscious battle. I need to lose some weight. I'm like, I want you to beat fatigue. Not that it won't be there. Remember the dial fatigue will be there, but just like anything else, we can dial it up and we can dial it down based on our own thoughts and physiology. Most people's actual fatigue is not some long running thing. Usually you can look at the last three months and see how they burn themselves out, how poorly they slept, how poorly they ate, which is a good news. It means most of us can significantly shift this. Even if we have some people say they outsource their fatigue. No, you don't understand, Brendan. My parents have these genetics. You don't understand. I grew up in a household like this. You don't understand. I'm dealing with. I'm like, no, no, it's not that. I understand. The question is, what are you doing to combat it? I understand these things are hard. Remember, I'm the realist and I've been at the bedsides. The issue is, what are you doing to combat it? How are you going to beat it this year? Too many days lead to fatigue. Most people, they say, oh, well, they're distracted, so they're scrolling. I go, they're tired. Most people are scrolling because they're mentally fatigued. All day long they're scrolling. They're making these judgments, these thoughts. They're thinking, they're thinking, they're thinking. They're on what's called mental overload. Who's a mental overload person in the room who's good at doing mental overload? Combat that fatigue. Everyone always thinks and goes to physiology. I'm like, yes. And don't think the mental aspect isn't just as powerful that you keep stacking so many things. You can't even go to the bathroom without scrolling a thousand posts. Do you know that every one of those scrolls is taking mental bandwidth? That's mental work. Every single thing. Do I like it? Do I judge it? Do I want it? Do I want to share it? It's like constant. And you're like, why am I so tired? I'm like, how many hours did you scroll today? Because I can correlate your fatigue to your levels of distraction or overload. It's why, if I can give you a phrase this year, make more space. Make more space for peace. Don't pick up the phone. Just wander around the house. Literally. Don't even listen to the podcast. Go on a walk with your thoughts. You know, the creatives, creatives in the world were walkers. They loved to walk and they would walk and they would just think. Do you remember just thinking, let me give you my, like, aha. Moment for me about. Yeah, it was the beginning of this last year. Was working with a client and he was sharing my schedule with. And there were all these mysterious blocks on his calendar and he wouldn't tell me about three months. I said, I don't. What is that? He goes, oh, that's my thinking block. I go, what do you do there? I'm high, paid for a reason. I'm very smart. Very smart. He goes, no, I just. I literally sit and think. Like Einstein would just sit at his desk and think. He didn't need to consume more papers. He had to sit and think through problems. See, what happens today is because we are uncomfortable with the problem, we. We don't want to think about it, so we distract ourselves. I was just teaching somebody who's a great friend of mine the difference that he falls in this position of starting new projects all the time. Any start new projects people. Yeah, the start new projects syndrome. What this usually comes from is not lack of clarity or an overabundance of creativity or. Or Brendan, I'm just a starter. I'm like, no, I think what's probably happening is you started something and it's uncomfortable or it's underperforming. When something is uncomfortable or underperforming, we want to turn away from it and start or engage in something that has greater energy or progress. Because we like that energy and progress. Something. You can always get faster energy and progress on something new than continuing to incrementally build up something else. Because, you know, we've been running this thing three or four, five years. So it's really. It's slow. It's like turning the big ship. It's just slower to move something that's big or moving along. So what you do. Oh, Brenda, I'm a procrastinator. You're not a procrastinator. You're turning away from something that is uncomfortable or underperforming. And the pleasure that you get is new things neurologically give something called novelty. Novelty increases dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin. And so we feel energized by new. And you take a few steps on something new, you get progress. There's a faster uplift. So you're not procrastinating. You're finding pleasure in novel things that are easier to understand, move, or influence. And you're turning away from what's uncomfortable or underperforming. It's the same reason people often cheat in relationships. It's the same reason entrepreneurs start too many businesses and don't actually make manifest one into a real business. This business or this project got hard, and it's underperforming. So let me start something new and get some radical lift. And a lot of that happens because we're tired. The more mentally fatigued I am, the more I just want that quick energy, the more I want that quick progress. But when you're energized, your mind and your body, your spirit is energized, you'll run through walls. Is this true? Everyone say, I'm ready. There's like a different level of willingness. When this is aligned, you'll just keep going. But if you keep burning yourself out, which most people do by consuming versus thinking, they think they're mentally tired because they've been thinking. I'm like, you haven't thought all day. You consumed all day, and you're tired from consuming. You're not tired from creative thinking. Very. You know, the average American worker only creatively thinks for 20 minutes a day. They're paid eight hours, but they creatively think for 20 minutes. Not my research. That's incredible, right? 20 minutes of creative thinking a day. That's it. Because they're just doing tasks, they're not thinking at a bigger, higher level. I want you to get this. Most mental fatigue is consuming. You're just consuming too much, taking on too many zoom calls. That's consumption, too, where it's just like, you're not creatively thinking. I want more time and space to think this year. Who would love that? More time and space to think. Put that down. And by the way, that's not a goal, that's a task. More time and space to think. Maybe some of you will take the challenge with me. Why don't at just 1:30, your local time, all year long you just decide you're going to do the task of a release meditation technique. 1:30. Where's Bren Burchard? At 1:30? At 1:30 I'm doing a release meditation technique. What does that mean? I'm closing my eyes, I'm releasing all the thoughts in my brain, I'm releasing all the tension in my body and I'm repeating the mantra release, release, release as a self command to release the tension and to release the thoughts. If thoughts come up, I return back to the mantra, release, release, release. How about you do a release meditation technique in 2024 for 24 minutes starting at 1:30 so you can make your 2:00 clock call. Could we try it, ladies and gentlemen? Who's willing? Who's gonna try? You wanna try it? 1:30 is super strategic for most people's circadian rhythm. It's super strategic for your digestion of when your meals typically happen. And 1:30 you do a release meditation technique. By 2:00', clock you're good to go the rest of the day. So give it a try. It's just space. You need more space. Your fatigue is because you keep cramming. You're cramming your body full of food it does not need. And you're cramming your mind full of stuff it doesn't need. Garbage in, garbage and the garbage out is fatigue and frustration towards others. So be aware. Mental fatigue and physical fatigue. And I know many of you heard me teach at this 15th year, I've stood in front of an audience, I said this. If as an adult you've never chosen a year to get in the best health of your entire life, make that this year. This year, give yourself the gift. Some people, they turn 60 years old and they never took a year and said in that year I'm going, they've lived 60 years. And they were said, I'm getting the best health of my life this year. They've never chosen it because it doesn't happen. You have to say this year, best help of my life. If you've never done it, make it this year. Who would put your hand up and go for it this year? Would you do that? You got to do it. You got to come back and see.