Keys to Consistent Goal Achievement

No matter what your business, your career, your personal life is, there's just something about being consistent and steady over time that not only leads over the long term to outstanding results, but also gives you internally a greater sense that you're on your path, a greater sense that you're doing the right thing, more likelihood that you'll find some mastery or fulfillment in the process when you're steady, showing up day after day, staying focused, doing your best, being a good person. Out of last year and this year, the thing I'm seeing the most in the world when I have my lens on as a coach is the reality that people are dealing with two sides of a very difficult coin. One is exhaustion and the other is discouragement. Now, I know we've got a lot of leaders here and we've got high performers here. So you're like, what are you talking about, Brendan? I'm positive. I feel good. I'm in the best health of my life. I'm kicking butt. And yet some others aren't. And so maybe this will help in both cases. One, to help you maintain a higher level of high performance. If you're already there and. And if you're not there and you feel like you're in that other camp of just exhausted, this might be helpful. I'm going to take on this topic in a way maybe you've never heard before. I'm going to make some assumptions you may not like, but I bet I can get you back a lot of your time. And I know that a lot of the exhaustion and fatigue we often feel is honestly related to time management. Of course, I'll talk about some health practices, but the funny thing is, most of our exhaustion in our lives is time management and social drama. First, let me hit you with some uncomfortable math. Now, the average American would say that they spend about 30 minutes of wasted time on social media per day. Now, what they mean by that is this is not social media that is particularly inspirational or educational or informing or really even connecting with friends. It's just scrolling through garbage as an example. Now, of course they say 30 minutes, but the truth is, we do know from data it's 60 minutes. But let's assume people are being honest. I know. Stick with me. You'll see where I'm going in a minute. Here's what's fascinating about this. I'm gonna do some math for you. 30 minutes a day. What do you think that adds up? First, let's do a little bit of audit. Do you feel like you waste 30 minutes a day on Social media, scrolling through junk. What do you think? All that scrolling, all that swiping, you do 30 minutes or more. Be honest. On average, every day, what do you think it is if we average over the week? Well, let's do some math. 30 minutes a day is what, 210 minutes a week, that's three and a half hours a week. Okay, let's extend that out through the month. Let's call it 30 days in a month. 30 minutes, 30 days, that's 900 minutes a month. That's what, 15 hours a month. 15 hours a month. Okay, maybe that doesn't sound too bad for some people. You know, it's two full work days, but let's extend that now to the rest of the year. That's what. So that comes out to be 4.5 work weeks. So 30 minutes a day means you spend one full month of work out of a year. Let me say that again. 30 minutes a day adds to 4.5 weeks on social media if you count an average four hour work week. So you lost four and a half, 40 hour work weeks. Now, in those 40 hour work weeks, think about how much you can get done. You know, think about that. A whole month of work. How many projects you can invest. I can write an entire book in that amount of time and run the company and do interviews and scale and have a great lifestyle. You can do a lot in a month. So you might think, no, okay, whatever, Brennan, fine. But we do know that people spend more than that, more than that, by double. So run that back. 60 minutes a day, that's over 400 minutes a week, which ends up being what, seven hours hours a week. Meaning they lost a full day, an actual full day of the week to social media. Think about that. That means we're now over, what, 1800 minutes a month, which is 15 is 30 hours a month. Ooh, wait a minute. Now you're really talking. 30 hours, that's almost a whole work week, isn't it? So you're losing almost a whole work week. That does end up being what? That ends up being nine weeks. Two full months of 40 hour work weeks are being spent on social media and you say you're really tired. Think about that. Just think about that. I'm so exhausted. Yeah, yeah, I would be too if I spent two hours. Listen, I can get you two hours. I'm sorry, I can get you two months back a year if we can just cut out 60 minutes of nonsense social media. Think about that. That time can be used for what? Sleep, yoga, meditation, Learning nutrition, cooking better meals, taking a walk, working out. As soon as you realize that our social media addiction is causing a lot of the exhaustion. And notice all I've mentioned to you so far is time. I haven't talked to you about the mental damage from social media when it's just the garbage social media that you're scrolling through. We know that causes increased anxiety, increased stress, increased social comparison, decreased productivity, less feelings of empathy. I mean, look at all those things. That's emotional problems, not just time management. But, you know, I'm a practical guy and maybe you enjoy social media, no problem. But what's more important? Because if you're tired and you're spending 30 minutes a day on social media again, that's three and a half hours a week. That's 15 hours a month. Think about that. 15 hours a month. Well, that means you could add, you know, three more hours of sleep each week. Think about that. There's a lot of time there to get more sleep, get that workout in, do that meditation journal for your positive mentality. But so many people say, I don't have time, Brandon. I don't have time. I don't have time. I'm like, if you're spending that much on social media, I promise you are. But remember, most people are spending 60 minutes, which is nine weeks a year. That is 30 hours a month. Think about that one for a second. Whoa. I always tell people this. You have more time than you think, and if you better manage it, you can get in those good positive health practices that will make you feel more rested, make you feel more energized. Second big idea for you today is that distraction. You're going to hate me after the session. I know it did. You know, the average person says they lose at least 60 minutes a day on distraction. Dang it, Brendan, there you go again. You know that 60 minutes a day is nine weeks a year. Now this is distraction unrelated to social media. So check that out. Nine weeks a year to distraction, plus nine weeks a year for 60 minutes of social media a day. We're at 18 weeks per year. That is what, almost five months work months per year. That means five 40 hour work week months gone to two things, social media and distraction. Now, of course, I know a lot of high performers. Like, I'm not distracted. I have goals, man. And I'm working all day. I'm working all day or I'm with the kids all day. There's no distraction. I'm like, if you're not, if you don't have high intention for that day. If you don't have a goal for that day, or you don't have three priorities or a clear checklist, or even a to do list. And I keep myself, of course, using the growth day plan section for that. If you don't have a plan each day, you're distracted. It doesn't mean every second needs to be planned. By no means is that true. You might just have a day you're hanging out with the family, no problem. But it doesn't mean that you couldn't send off that one email, or it doesn't mean that you couldn't return that one voice message. Or it could mean that you're not even productive doing something that you want. You know, maybe you realize, gosh, I wish we could have gone to the park today. We didn't do it because you got distracted with social media or distracted into some other, you know, thing you didn't need to do that took away from the enjoyment or fulfillment of going to the park. Obviously, everyone is different, right? Everyone's different. You got a newborn, these numbers get all whacked around, right? You got a new startup, these numbers get all whacked around. I'm not here to tell you what you should be doing. I'm here to put a big old radar in your head, to pay attention to how much time you're spending on social media and distraction. Because the average American is now at between those two things at 18 work weeks gone because they didn't have a plan, so they fell into distraction and because they consumed too much social media. Now, of course, you might have met me through social media, so I'm happy for social media, but I'm also somebody who puts educational content out there. I'm not a meme guy. I don't post a lot about kittens. Sorry. There's a lot of good stuff that maybe is fun, is mildly entertaining, is a positive distraction, take a little pressure off. I am not here to say social media is awful. My podcast, the whole podcast industry, tons of videos on YouTube, Ted Talks, there's so much good stuff out there. So I just say, okay, if you are going to limit it or if you find something good, just make sure you realize that old saying of garbage in, garbage out. If you're not putting good stuff in there, I only put empowering stuff. I only follow empowering people who I can learn from. I only consume empowering content. I'm totally not interested in, in drama or in nonsense. It doesn't mean I'm not easily entertained by things I've got great, I follow great comedians who have a great look at the world, who can make me laugh and think there's plenty of pressure valve releases there. I'm just not going to lose nine weeks of my life every year. Think about that. Oh my gosh, five months a year to lost a social media distraction. That's why people are tired. Third, big idea is drama. When you take things personally or you engage with the wrong crowd or in useless conflicts and debate, it's mentally exhausting. I think people are mentally exhausted by politics, by neighborhood nonsense, by judgments and the bickering and the blaming and the complaining that happens in our social realm. And we have to be careful about that, don't we? You know, the more stuff that we take personally, the more we're exhausted. I mean, I had learned this very early on as an author. You know, my first couple books came out and they were big and I started getting all this feedback and I would get hooked on a review or I'd be upset about something someone wrote in and for, you know, two, three hours I'd just be emotionally heightened and find myself exhausted at the end of the day from all of the drama that of course I was creating in my own mind. That conflict, that forever feeling like we're superior to others or below others, that feeling that everything that someone does to you causes this huge reaction because you haven't gained control over emotions and your feelings and your thoughts yet. That stuff is mentally draining. We have a mental health epidemic not because the world is any crazier. We have a mental health epidemic because we have more people who are not doing personal development or getting assistance of therapy to learn how to understand their thoughts, guide their thoughts, deal with uncomfortable emotions, have the ability to express their truth and get positive feedback or coaching in such a way that people are honored and seen and understood. And where does a lot of that vitriol come from? Social media. Fourth, big idea, okay? If you don't agree with any of that and you're like, Brendan, you don't even understand. I'm just tired because I'm working these crazy hours. Believe me, I know. Have you seen what we've done with Growth Day? In six months? It's been a full on unbelievable sprint. Not just for six months, but for about the last four years of my life. And if I didn't have my high performance habits, practices in place, I'd be in a lot of trouble. But the basics are always there, aren't they? Most of us, if we're honest, we know exactly what we need to do to feel more rested. We really do. We gotta get our time back, we gotta deal with drama less and then ultimately we've gotta take our meds. And if you heard me teach on this over the years, I usually teach it as medsrx. Meds is meditation, exercise, diet and sleep. That's meds. It's an acronym. Meditation, exercise, diet and sleep. And then RX is relationship quality and X means supplementation. Making sure that you've visited with a nutritionist at some point in your life to understand or you know, your holistic, you know, doctor that you work with or your practitioner who's going to help you figure out what should you be eating and what supplementation do you need for your age, body style, demographic and goals for health? Those things. Meditation, exercise, diet, sleep, relationships and supplementation. I know you already know those, but maybe this year you say, you know what, I'm too dang busy to be tired. I'm tired of being tired. So I'm going to get my health optimized this year. I'm going to start with my mental health. Clearing out some social media, getting more focused, avoiding the distractions and the drama each day. Starting there, that's just mental health, then the physical health. Gotta meditate, gotta exercise, gotta get your diet right, gotta get your sleep game going. And then make sure you're surrounded by positive relationships and that you know what supplements you need for your lifestyle and your health goals. Those things are more of the physical side, aren't they? Most of them. You know, you should do make this year the year that you actually do it. You can feel way more rested, way more rested mentally, emotionally, physically, even spiritually. If you can just hear a few of the ideas I shared with you today. I know it's not always positive and maybe this is a counterintuitive approach to it, but I've worked with a lot of people over the year. I've found that when I'm able to get them a lot of time back, suddenly they feel like a renewed spirit. This is the promise really of high performance to me is figuring out how can we build a better life that allows us to not only succeed over the long term, but have positive well being. Like enjoy the journey with great relationships and great mental, emotional wellness. That is what we are doing here on growth day. Those life scores that you can track each day. Yeah, you get to track things like your energy and your sleep and your nutrition. You know, the weekly reviews in the journal section as you think about these types of topics there's so much here. Use the tools to keep considering these things. Use the plan tool to make sure you're staying focused. You know what? When you feel drama or conflict in your life, come to the journal and just sound it out, let it all out, type it all out. Make sure you're capturing things that also bring you joy and gratitude and appreciation, because those are also the things where I've shared with you, things not to do. The things to do are all the things we've talked about here in growth day and we continue to that are like plus ups and downs, like energizers, things that make you feel fully alive again. When you feel appreciative and you have your goals and you thinking about the positive intent in your life, you can change the energy that you feel. That's like a superpower, isn't it? It doesn't mean I'm that guy promising you overnight weight loss or overnight, you know, massive energy. These things take different discipline, they take time. They take high intention and follow through. But that's why you do personal development. That's why you're in this growth day community. You raised your hand, you said, you know what? I know there's another level for me. Let me go explore it. Let me go try. Let me get there. So be patient with yourself. Be patient with yourself. But you can increase your energy, make this year that year that you finally get some real rest. You deserve it. I think that one thing that really makes a difference every single week is that old idea that steadiness wins the race. Be steady, you win the race. And I think that's such an important thing these days where we all want such immediate payback. You know, we want to put in just a few days or weeks of really hard work, and we want to have some extraordinary payoff. When we just started. Who are we kidding? You know, we want to be able to, you know, good job making the kids some lunch today. Well done. And you've done that day after day, month after month, and you're just steady at it. You're consistent at it. And you want the kids to come in with glowing hugs and compliments. I love you, Mom. I love you, dad. That, oh, you're so great. And yet sometimes they don't say nothing. And no matter what your business, your career, your personal life is, there's just something about being consistent and steady over time that not only leads over the long term to outstanding results, but also gives you internally a greater sense that you're on your path, a greater sense that you're doing the right thing, more likelihood that you'll find some mastery or fulfillment in the process when you're steady, showing up day after day, staying focused, doing your best, being a good person. I was recently talking with a dear friend, and they were struggling in their career, and they were struggling in such a way that they felt always stressed. They had outsized success in some ways, but they said that they were tired of being so successful, but also miserable. And we were talking about their weekly rhythm, and what became pretty clear is that their life was always in a reactive mode. And they were always doing lots of things, but it was always kind of like reacting or fulfilling someone else's obligations. And they weren't steadily marching to their own beat during the week. They didn't have a rhythm that they had set up for themselves. And so they suffered that sort of ruinous feeling when you're always reacting to everything. Now, listen, we've all had jobs where, you know, things were put on our plate. We had tasks we didn't want to do, and we thought, oh, well, it's just the boss telling me what I have to do. But the truth is, we still got to set up the day. We still had the choice of what our morning routines were. We had the choice of when to take a quick mental break throughout the day. We had the choice of the quality of output that we would create or the quality of interactions we had with other people. I've had jobs where my job was all day just calling people. Leads would show up, I had to call people. I've had jobs where I just had to reply to emails all day. I've had jobs where it was just kind of dictated by the customer or the client. And yet I never felt like I was out of control. I never felt like they were in command because I knew I could command myself of how I showed up, the quality and nature and attitude and service that I brought to the world. And we all have that choice. I'm asked all the time, including by my friend the other day, Brendan, after 16 years, doing what you do in one of the absolute hardest industries there are that, you know, for entrepreneurs where you're both the CEO and the chief marketing officer and, you know, creating content and in the public eye and running teams, and very few CEOs are also the content creators, creators who are also the managers of the people. Those are hard jobs to do all together. And. Well, I put that in perspective for me as a kid who my first job was painting chicken coops and then a truck driver and then, you know, some really difficult, hard, just, you know, dirty, difficult work. I don't look at it that way. I look at content creation and leading a team and everything as an extraordinary blessing and privilege. And isn't that it? Isn't that the thing that keeps us steady? That we have gratitude for what we are doing and we have perspective about what we are doing, and we have the internal wherewithal to choose our own attitude and the quality and nature in which we show up each day, that's been part of the secret. But for me, being steady for 16 years, unbroken, in terms of creating content every single day for 16 years, probably even more than that, that's only the 16 years I've been paid for it. That I'm a steady person. And while I don't always get as much done as I want, just like anyone else, I'm pretty steady. I'm steady in my friendships, I'm steady in my relationships. I'm steady in my health practices. I'm kind of a boring guy. Probably if we got to hang out, you'd be like, wow, you're pretty steady, dude. And sometimes I think people wonder how to be so steady in what they're doing because it's so easy to get discouraged or distracted in this modern world. So here's a couple ideas about being steady. Number one, trust in a hard day's work. I think there's so much value in having a hard day of work or, you know, a challenging day where you show up and you're kind of like, you know, juggling the kids, the career, the life, the spouse, the bills, just the neighborhood, the chaos of the world, and just showing up and working through it with a delightful attitude and in care and compassion to others. But there's something about if, you know, you gave your best that day, and that's what I mean by a hard day's work, you gave your best that day. When you go to bed at night, you lay your head down, you give some gratitude, you think about your major questions of your life. I want you to feel like that was a great day's effort and trust that the future will take care of itself. See, the reason so many people aren't steady is because of that discouragement or that projection into the future where they feel like, I'm doing all this stuff, but it's not paying off or it's not paying off fast enough. And so the next day, the habit is to disengage, to stop, to feel discouraged, to feel overwhelmed and stressed and think we're not doing enough. And so instead of staying steady, we find distractions, addictions, ways to quit, ways to bow out of our responsibilities, obligations, and those commitments we've made to ourselves and others. But being steady means you wake up the next day and say, here we go again. I'm going to give my best today. I'm going to choose a great attitude today. I'm going to treat others with respect and kindness today. I'm going to do my absolute best. And tonight we I'll lay my head on the pillow again, say good job. It doesn't mean you have to be perfect each day. Far from it. It doesn't mean that everything has to go your way that day. Nope. Ups and downs, turmoil and chaos. It doesn't mean that you always have to be confident and know every step. It means you show up, you do the work, you lay your head on the bed at night and think, all right, I trust that by giving my best each day, the world, the universe is going to open more doors in the future than I can ever imagine. And then I guess that's it for me. In some ways I always just trusted that by showing up every day and following a plan and working that plan and learning from others and always staying in self improvement, that doors would open more, abundance would appear, better health would appear, new relationships, new opportunities, something would open. I always feel like when you are grateful and you are striving with a positive trust, you are a faithful warrior, that the future does tend to hold good things for you. Even when it's one of those days, one of those weeks or months where you don't believe it can be true. What I found is if you have breath today and you have the blessing of listening to this voice, you are far better off than one you might imagine. That's hard to say, I know, depending on what you're going through in your life, but out of 7 billion people in the world, a couple hundred thousand didn't wake up today and have another day on this planet. And you did. You got another day. That in itself is a blessing. Trusting a hard day's work, that's something about learning to be steady, having that faith, having that trust to go at it again, to give again, to serve again, to be kind again. Steady, steady, steady. Second idea is that at the end of each day or the beginning of the next morning, in your morning routine, when you do your morning mindset journaling that you learn before you enter that day, you release the disappointments, the tension, the discouragement, the drama, as many of you know, I practice what's called the release meditation technique, which, where I literally say the word release over and over in my mind as part of my meditation, part of my mantra, release, release, release. And I repeat that self, releasing the tension in my body, releasing the thoughts that come across my mind as they come up, and just returning the mantra, release, release, release. And I created that now famous meditation because for me, I carried those things sometimes into the next day. You know, you have a fight with your spouse or your partner or your friend one night, and the next day you wake up and you're still sour about it. And you go halfway through the day still upset about it, or someone cuts you off in the traffic, and four hours later you still on edge about it, or you tried that project or you made that move or did that promotion, and then the next day or the next hour, it failed. And so you get upset, and so you allow yourself to get distracted. But if you can learn to release discouragement, disappointment, drama, as the days go on, you're way more likely to be steady. But think about this. If you're going for a long walk, and as you're walking on that long path, you pick up all these boulders, these boulders of discouragement and disappointment and drama. And every time something happens, you pick up another one. Well, as you can imagine, not too long into that walk, you are weighted down by an unsurmountable heaviness on your body, mind, and spirit. You can't walk as long, you're not as steady. And soon you fatigued and exhausted yourself, when all along those were just emotional boulders you had to learn to release, to stay light emotionally, to stay light spiritually, and to keep walking released. It's something you can feel in your body and your mind and your spirit. Every day I show up with a released, free spirit, even though it was difficult yesterday, even though I've had traumas, even though we've got dramas, even though stuff happens in life, it's showing up with that renewed spirit each day. That's not just the gift that we have from our creator, though it is. Obviously, that's a choice we make every day. But I hope that you hear the common theme that you're the one architecting your mindset. You're the one architecting your habits. And that's a great gift every morning. That's why the morning mindset is so critical for you to establish so that you're entering the day in an intentional, sort of like, centered way. Learn to release those boulders that you're carrying. Find your Freedom each morning, find your freedom at night to let it all go so that you can go again the next day. You can be steady when you learn to release the stuff next being steady. I believe an UN championed topic in this world today is the idea of building peers. You know, I like that word, building or that phrase, building peers. I know the common term now is build community. Build community. Build community. Well, you know what? Where I come from, community is a couple houses. You know, it's like four or five houses. It's like we're all on a journey together and it's 10, 15, 20 people. But I think the secret is building peers. People who are like you and striving forward towards something like where you are trying to go. And what I mean by that is there's a common destination and it's peers doing the same thing. Whether that's, hey, on your block, there's five other moms and they're also strolling around. Or it's, hey, also, there's five other moms on the block and they also are running their own business. Or, hey, it's like 10 other people, and they are also in your field of expertise and you build relationships with them, but you also build them up. You help not just be part of a community, but you build the individuals in the community that you get to work with. People say all the time, brendan, how are you so steady? I mean, 16 years daily of creating content. How, dude, how is that possible? I'm like, I'm totally inspired by my peers. I've had the opportunity of elevating a ton of diverse voices in this industry for 16 years. I've learned from diverse voices. I had that opportunity to seek out, reach out, and mentor people in my own industry. And so I've got this incredible peer group of people who I'm on text strings with, who I exchange daily audios with, who I get emails champing it on. Like, it's that social encouragement that makes it easier to be steady. But see, we all want that social network to suddenly develop around us, as if we're, you know, walking down the street and people are attracted to us. But the reality is you got to build your peers. You got to seek out clarity for your dreams and find people on that path. They don't got to be like you in the sense of your, like, your personality or like your background or like your age, race, nationality, gender preferences. No, no. It means they're like you in that they are also seeking a similar dream. Talk to them, encourage them, cheer them on, give Them advice, brainstorm with them as you build up peers, those peers become a community and then an unstoppable force. Last idea in being steady, which I just think is probably the most important thing I can say is you've got to calibrate every week. You got to calibrate every week. What does that mean? Okay, was this week something where I had clarity, where I was generating energy, I was raising psychological necessity to stay focused and motivated? I was productive, influential, courageous. Yes. Again, I'm encouraging you to score your week and calibrating yourself each week to make sure that you're practicing the high performance habits. In terms of any research I've ever seen, these are the most important performance variables for long term success. Positive well being and positive relationships. And so recalibrate. Am I on path? Have I finished the things I said I was going to finish this week? When you get to the end of Friday and you go towards the end of the workday, looking back, okay, what is still undone? What could I have done? What should I be focused on next week? What can I learn about myself? What can I learn about other people? How did I do in my high performance habits? Just asking these questions. I promise you it's so important. Because being steady doesn't mean you're steadily walking in the wrong direction. Being steady means you are steadily marching towards a desired destination, one foot in front of another. Even if you're new at it, even if you're unsure, even if you have a bad day, that next foot is in front of another and another the next day and the next day and the next day. You show up each day intentional. You show up each day with the willingness and the attitude to do your best, to treat others kindly, compassionately, with respect, to serve at your highest levels, to be even a role model for others. Every day, every day, every day you have a bad day, that's okay. Next day, release that discouragement. Start fresh with your mindset. Work in the morning again. Trust that that day's hard work will pay off. Build up the people around you, calibrate where you want to go and move towards it again. Repeat, repeat, repeat.