You’re Not Lost. You Just Stopped Pushing
A motivational talk about why people feel stuck: not because they're lost, but because they've stopped pushing themselves toward something meaningful. The speaker uses a story about a violin prodigy to show how potential dies without challenge, then Brendon Burchard promotes his app Growth Day for staying consistent with personal growth.
You have to challenge yourself. Whatever your craft is. If there's no challenge, if you're not pushing yourself there, you'll start to hate the craft. You find your joy and your activation in every situation. And now the scenes aren't so scary. That's what makes a great CEO a great leader. They have found their power in the scene, in the problem, and so you have that in you. But there has to be a new conviction inside that says, I'm ready for that hunt. I'm ready to push again. The reason most of these successful people I work with who don't feel alive anymore is because they built their whole life to have comfort and freedom, and they got it, and they stopped hunting anything. Conviction to hunt. Why don't most people do it anymore? Well, here's what happens for them, and this may or may not apply to you. If you've heard me teach this, I've taught it in a different way before, called meaningful pursuits. If you don't like the language of hunting, which I understand, it means you need a meaningful pursuit. And when that pursuit is not there, no one can do anything for you. Your spouse can't placate you. He or she can't make you feel better. The next sale, the next investor, the next thing, it doesn't do anything for you. You lost the meaningful pursuit. Now, here's the difference. Here's why I use meaningful pursuit versus, like, a grandiose life purpose. Your life purpose might change throughout your life, right? You're striving and building, and then you have kids, purpose might shift. And the challenge is when you have unused potential, it hangs on, like, baggage. You feel bad that you're not using it. It's not in the hunt. It's sitting on the sidelines. When you have stuff that's sitting on the sidelines every time you walk by, you think, I should use that more. You know what I'm saying? It's like if you have something. If you have, like a lot of people have, like, a stair climber or they have a treadmill in their house, and they walk by that thing all the time, and they notice they've hung their clothes on it, they've got boxes stacked up on top of the treadmill, and they walk by every day and they think, I should really use that, and they kind of feel less than because they didn't use it. That's you and your potential. If you are not activating your potential, you are degrading your psyche. Your psyche just kind of goes a little crazy. Kind of like when you walk by that treadmill, because here's what happens. Tell me if this is true or not. Those people who walk by their unused treadmill in the house, first couple times, they see the boxes on the treadmill, they see their coats, they're hanging things on it. The gift boxes are there. I mean, they can put Christmas stuff on it. It's a storage unit, not a running treadmill anymore. So they walk by the treadmill that's supposed to be for activating themselves, and now it's really a storage unit. And they walk by the thing, and the first couple times, there's still, like, self agency there. They're like, you know what? I should use that more. I should use that more. I should use that more. But a couple months go by, I should use that more. I should use a couple more months. I should use that more. And then one day, they don't know, but then they say, I hate that thing. Oh, I hate that thing. Hmm. Well, remember the treadmill. The unused treadmill is like your unused potential. You don't activate the thing, you end up hating the thing. Now we're into some coaching. When you don't activate the thing, it's why my friends and the people in these positions who I coach, they cannot understand, after all the achievement, why they have found all this success and suddenly they're miserable. It is a massive mystery to them. Massive. They're like, I don't understand why I don't feel like enough. I don't understand why I hate myself, Brendan. And then they go on this grand search, looking for what it is. And I go, you're not committed to any hunt. Your potential is not being activated in any way. And so, just like the treadmill, you hate the treadmill. Well, your potential, you say, I need to activate that more. I need to use that more. I'm capable. I could become more. I can achieve great dreams. I can help people. I can make a difference. I could serve the world. And then one day, you don't do any of that. And your brain goes, I hate myself. And that's when I usually get brought in. And they don't recognize. What happened is they didn't activate. They must activate. And I'm using a different language here. Commit to the hunt. A meaningful pursuit is what most people need. That's why we say people need purpose or they need meaning. I like meaningful pursuit. Because you have to be in that hunt. You have to challenge yourself, whatever your craft is. If there's no challenge, if you're not pushing yourself, there you'll start to hate the craft. I worked with this lady recently, she brought me in, she has a 13 year old who was a. What do you call them when they're brilliant at music? Early. What's that called? Prodigy. Thank you. Big word for Montanans. We ain't got none of them up there. Okay, so this is a prodigy. And she was a violinist. And so I was already working with the parents and she says, you know, we're having this weird thing with our daughter. She's not playing the violin anymore and she's like really good at it. And I said, okay, well, what's the challenge? So she describes it to me and the next time I was out visiting with them, I got to sit down with their daughter and I just said, hey, I heard you like the violin. She's like, yeah, I used to. I go, you used to? She goes, yeah, I kind of got bored with it. I go, oh, you got bored with it? Do you know how many people are bored with life because they don't push? Do you know how many people are with life? Think how expansive life is. To be bored with life fascinates me. It seems so impossible. The expanse of the universe is so impossible to understand the possibilities for you. How many more people do you need to hear? Became a millionaire, became influential, reached people, turned around their family, got fit, got. How many more examples of extraordinary turnarounds and excellence do you need before you go for it? How many more? I mean, it's amazing that people can get bored. To me, I can't understand, like, there's so many stories of hope out there. I wanna be a story of hope, but I'm gonna have to push myself. Well, I'm talking with this 13 year old girl, prodigy of violin, and I say, why don't you do it anymore? She goes, I got bored with it. And her mom was standing behind her at the counter and we were in the kitchen and her mom was at the counter when she said. When her daughter said, I got bored with it. The mom literally, just like you just saw, she was like wrecked by it. Because sometimes when you see magnificence in other people and you don't see them activate it, it's just like, that's my career. For those who want to know the reason I still do that after 25 years of this, every arena, every major show, every, every, like, it breaks my heart that people don't want to activate that magnificence that's already there. But I can tell you how you turn around. I said to the 13 year old girl. I said, oh, you got bored with it? I said, what's like the hardest piece you've ever played before? She's like, the hardest one. And she mentioned, you know, some kind of music we don't listen to in Montana. She didn't say Metallica, let's just say that, okay? She said, some, you know, Bach or these fancy people and you know, real music. And she said, well, this one. I said, interesting. I said, do you still own your violin? She goes, I have many of them. I said, do me a favor, go get your best one. But before you come back here, before you come back here, I want you to come back and play for me. But before you come back and as you go to play, I want you to play it at 1.5 speed for me. She's like, what? I said, I want you to come back and play that song at 1.5. Now, I don't know what that means. Just so you know, I just have a pod, you know, I listen to podcasts and when I listen to Irwin, I press the button that says 1.5. Does everyone know what I'm saying? Okay. I don't know what that's called in real music. Tempo, beat, I don't know. Okay. You saw me dancing, ain't much rhythm up in there. So I said, okay, okay, okay. So she looked at me, this little girl looked at me, goes. She shot out of the chair, shot out of the chair, marched away. Her mom's like, what's going on, kid? Like maybe 6, 7 minutes comes back like with the best violin she's got, I guess I don't know anything about those either. She comes in, she, she sat down almost like in a huff, like, kind of like little, you know, that 13 year old pissy girl thing, you know, I'm sorry, I don't know what you call that either. She sits down, looks at me, bam. And she starts ripping on this thing, man. I was like, wow. And she sees my face. Her mom and her dad come over and they're like. And she just rips this thing. And I said, you're not bored? You're not trying hard enough to push yourself. That's it. Apparently this girl is ripping it up. She is back on fire. She forgot to push. She wasn't committed to the hunt of excellence and challenge anymore. She was not in pursuit of hard excellence anymore. She was not committed to a hunt of becoming, of challenging, of exploring and pushing. You must find that thing to push into. Now you want to come back to life you want progress and fulfillment. Your spirit will not be fulfilled unless you push into something. That's how you grow. Just like at the gym, you got to push heavier weight, you got to push the heavier weights. If you want development, you gotta push the heavier weight. It doesn't mean now some people get confused. Well, Brendan, does that mean I gotta do what I did before? I'm like, no, no, no. It can become some. It can be a complete side quest. I don't care. But if I don't have you activated pushing against something, you won't feel life. You can do yoga. My friends literally are the top meditation teachers in the world. And most of them I've had to coach to get out of their funk. Because you can live in peace forever. But there's a reason it was called War and Peace. There's a reason there's an opposite to things in life, right? You can comfort, you can peace, you can chill. But if there's no hunt, I promise you, that is where the lack is. And this is not type A stuff. This is spiritual. There is no character or historical figure in any spiritual text in the history of the world that was not commanded, called, forced into expansion, into growth, into leadership, into harder service. We're all called to another thing, right? We're all called the harder path. And if you don't access that, something inside starts rattling. And at first it feels like maybe boredom or frustration or maybe I should, I should, I should, I should, I should, I should. But remember, just like the treadmill, I should, I should, I should, I should, I should becomes I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate. You know, that's why some people hate your success. Do you know that? You know why they hate your success? They don't even know you. Why would they hate your success? People who hate other people's success, it's the same thing. They see the success and they say, I should have done it. I should try harder. I should do this. I shoulda, I shoulda, I shoulda, I shoulda, I shoulda, I should've, I shoulda always generates. I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate. Right? Regret is corrosive. An unlived life is corrosive. A non activated human, it doesn't feel good. Here's why most people get stuck. They don't hunt. Here's why. There's a lot of ways to measure performance. One, people, they're just living and you hear it. The comfort zone. I don't love that language as much, but they're in a Comfort zone. Now, by the way, I am weird. Not a lot of my peers. I want you in comfort. I don't want you in the comfort zone, but I want you in comfort as you do hard things. See, I have a spiritual home. I have a self confidence. Even though the thing is hard, I. I'm centered in the thing. Even though the thing is a problem, I'm present in the problem. You are bigger than the problem. How you show up in the problem is half the problem. My old mentors called that a writer downer. You all remember Les Brown, Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer. Those writer downer moments. The writer downer is when they say something. See, half the problem is how you show up in the problem. Too many people show up in the problem angry, confused, bitter. What if they're in the wrong state of mind to serve in the moment? They're in the wrong state of mind. I want you to be comfortable. I'm comfortable up here even though I know I'm not doing, you know, my best. I'm comfortable up here even though all the reasons. You can all come up with reasons. Except when you find the comfort in you, that's the flow of you. When you find your flow and you can bring that flow into lots of chaos, lots of problems. Find your way of engaging and activating and everything. I can activate and engage in anything. I know no matter where I go, I'm going to do my best job. Do you know how much confidence that gives you? Every meeting. I'm gonna do my best right in that meeting. Every date night with my wife. Not kidding. I'm gonna do my best at this date night. I'm gonna do my. I'm gonna activate myself. I'm gonna challenge myself to summon the best of who I am at date night. You find your joy and your activation in every situation. And now the scenes aren't so scary. That's what makes a great actress. That's what makes a great actor. That's what makes a great CEO, a great leader. They have found their power in the scene, in the problem. And so you have that in you. But there has to be a new conviction inside that says, I'm ready for that hunt. I'm ready to push again. I'm willing to go for it. I'm proceeding in strength and vitality. I'm here, I'm ready. I'm proceeding. You have to. You have to tell yourself to commit to the hunt.
Hey, my friend, sun is going down behind me and I just want to thank you for watching my YouTube channel. You know, so many of my subscribers are always asking me, brendan, how do I go to another level of my life and stay consistent in my personal development and really get progress? You know, we all want to be more motivated, more productive, more confident. We want to be better leaders. We want to be better at our craft. But how do you do that on a consistent basis? Well, that's why I built Growth Day. It's an app that you can use that builds your personal growth streak, that every day you come in and you do a series of actions and you listen to some inspirational training and life strategies that advances your life. It's very hard to stay consistent in your life. I know sometimes you watch a YouTube video, you read a book here, you.
Listen to a podcast.
There's. But you're not developing your habits. You're not scoring yourself. You're not finding real progress and insight.
That kind of wows you and opens.
Up to, I say, the awe and.
The real agency that you have in life.
So please, go to Growth Day in the App Store. Just go to the App Store, go to Growth Day, or go to growthday.com and get growth day.
I promise you, with your seven day.
Free trial, you'll go through Growth Day. And in seven days you're gonna be.
Like, totally, totally, like, feeling fired up. But also you'll find a new momentum.
Because every day as you do your growth streak, you start to really discover what you're made of. And we access different parts of your brain.
You're listing something inspirational.
You're doing a checklist or doing a journal prompt that blows your mind. You're scoring your habits and reflecting on your day in ways you've never done before. We're basically taking all of personal development and putting it into a streak that you'll get, like, totally addicted to. You'll be addicted to that progress, that growth, that joy and energy that you deserve to feel every day. Go to growthday.com or go to the App Store and just download the Growth Day app. Start your 7 day free trial, and let's level you up. Every day is a great day to grow, but you have to stay consistent to get real progress and to really change your Life. Go to growthday.com or go to the App Store and get the Growth Day app right now.
