10 Lessons of 2017!

Hey, my friends, it's Brendan. And I'm about to jump into this episode of the 10 Lessons I Learned in 2017. I think they'll really support you in going forward in 2018. And I'm recording this after I actually just recorded the episode. So I forgot to do this intro for you. And I want to do this because the time of year, it is Saturday night as I am recording this. December 30, 2017. Only one day left. And you'll hear me talk about it later. But look, on January 1st, from noon Pacific to 4 Pacific, I go live every single year. That's right, four hours. I am live online training people how to have an extraordinary new year. How do you strategically plan your 2018? How do you stay disciplined? How do you 10x your achievements in a given year? All of that is what I train every single January 1st. I think this is our third or fourth year in a row. Live for four hours. The only people get to tune into that are my monthly members, which I'm hoping you are a member of by now. If not, just go to Brendan.com monthly, that's Brendan B-R-E-N-O-N.com monthly. And you can sign up to join me on January 1st. And if you can't make it on January 1st, you can get the replay for free once you're a member. So just go to brendan.com monthly with that. Let's jump into this episode. And It's Saturday night, December 30, 2017, as I'm recording this. And that means tomorrow is New Year's Eve, the last day of 2017. So I thought I'd take this moment, this time with you to share my 10 big lessons learned from 2017. The things that really impacted me and touched my heart or changed my mind or made me better or tossed me on the floor and kicked my butt. You know, I know 2017 was hard for a lot of people, and myself included. And I know that though, as we enter 2018, I have a wish for you. And my wish for you is that no matter what change you want to make, know that you can. That no matter what dream you want to achieve in 2018, you will. That no matter where you've been in the past, it does not dictate the future. And that you can never limit the future vision you have for yourself based on the past circumstances you've been through, that you're entering a new year, that blank space, that new page, that time of transition in your life where you can now take a deep look inside and say, okay, what am I really about now? What do I want to achieve? What do I want to give? How do I want to feel? How do I want to love? How do I want to connect? How do I want to create? This is that great time of year to do that. But as much as we could rush forward in 2018, I want to honor a commitment, and that is every year with my audiences in one way or another. Whether it's I'm doing a seminar at the time or it's a YouTube video, or it's a podcast or an email out. I always share my 10 lessons learned from the year because I really think you can't move ahead if you don't do some deep work of insight on yourself to say, okay, what mistakes do I need to make sure I don't repeat? What new commitments and goals do I have based on what I have been through in these last 12 crazy months? So that you're not doomed to repeat the same year over and over and over and over again, but rather you're using your history of each year as stepping stones to the best and highest you. And so I'm going to do that. I'm going to share my 10 best sort of lessons learned of 2017 with you. And as I. I guess, you know what, before I do that, I just wanted to share this. Thank you. I'd like to begin with gratitude. And you guys, wow. This year I really appreciated your support and you coming out to the events, you supporting the books, you cheering on the new efforts I'm doing, whether it's in the podcast or other mediums, mostly just the tour. I hadn't done a tour in a while. I didn't know how it would go. And I'm thrilled that so many people came out to see us at one of our events or one of my partner events that I spoke at. So many sages. It was a very, very blessed year, sharing my message and meeting so many of you. More people. I met more people this year of my students than any other year of my life. I mean, it was signing tens of thousands of books, I think this year in total, shaking, signing or taking pictures with or whatever, tens of thousands of people. It was crazy. I spoke to 60,000 people live in arenas and conference centers and hotel ballrooms throughout the country. It was intense. But you came out and you supported me and you shared the message of this podcast and you've allowed me to keep the blog and this podcast, my YouTube show and all my work. Ad free, because you just support the books or you tell people about them. And I'm eternally grateful, you'll hear as I go through the lessons of 2017, how grateful I really am for you all. I mean, even as we speak, I'm kind of bumbling through my words a little bit here as you hear it, before I start, because I just found out today that a video that I have out there has gone super viral. It's actually a video someone else made of me. They took some footage of my car accident story, they spliced it together, and they put it up online, I don't know, 72 hours ago or something like that. It's a Facebook page called Goalcast, and it's got, as I'm speaking to you right now, 9 million views. It's just me on stage sharing five minutes about my car accident. If you haven't seen it, go to my Facebook page. And I shared it on my Facebook page, so you'll be able to see it. 9 million views in 72 hours, which makes it the most successful video of any message I've ever put out there. So thanks and shout out to the guys at Goldcast for doing that. Thanks to you all. I'm sure many of you seen it and shared it. I'm kind of blown away that's happening right now at that level. And, you know, I think of all the videos that we've done in the world that have gone and, you know, made their mark or served millions of people, I never forget that each one of those views is a person learning something about my life or sharing something that I've created or been a part of. And that means the world to me. 2017 was a hard year for me, too. So I'm sure you know that when you have a hard year and a lot of people do kind things for you, it means so much more, you know, and it meant a lot to me. So for every one of you who supported any of my books, High Performance Habits for Motivation Manifesto, Life's golden Ticket, the Charge, Millionaire Messenger, Student Leadership Guide, any of those books, I appreciate you. Thank you for sharing the messages of everything I'm doing. Because it's. Why, two nights before New Year's or one night before New Year's, I'll stand in this dark room to talk to you guys and share something, hopefully, of value to you. So bust out your journal. I'd like to share these 10 things that I learned this year. And my wish is that it supports you in achieving the dreams that you want to achieve in 2018. Number one, commitment hurts, but it always pays off. You know, I know you're tired of hearing about high performance habits, so I promise I won't share too much here. But Listen, I spent three years on that research project, basically 24 7. And I don't know if you ever had a project where you spend 247 on it for three years or longer. And that level of commitment where you are all in every day, every hour, up at night, where you don't get to hang out with your friends as much anymore, or your spouse or your friends, where other things in your life that usually don't compromise get a little compromised because you're so all in. In those moments in that time where, you know, you just live, eat, breathe, and sleep thinking about one thing. For me, that was the research study behind high performance habits. You know, I sensed that there was a time to commit to that message, and I'm sure you have that, too. If you haven't, I mean, is there something you really need to commit to right now in your life? Like, what is it and why now? For me, it was what I've been doing for 10 years, which is high performance. But it took on a different angle. I saw so many podcasters now saying that they were high performance experts, or I saw so many people, you know, doing good work, interviewing lots of people, and then trying to extrapolate from that sort of casually what they thought about high performers, but they were speaking, you know, really about that one person's experience or one person's story. And, you know, one person's experience and story is always valid, but you got to be careful of making generalizations from that about the general public without greater data and insight. So I went all in on this research study, and I'm not an academic, so it was crazy hard for me, and it was a monster of a project. I mean, I wrote that book. You know, I was thinking I was going to tell you where I wrote the book, but honestly, I wrote that book in Portland, Oregon, in Puerto Rico, in Phoenix, in San Diego, in writer's cabin, in my office, in other people's offices, in investment companies or in companies that I've invested in in their offices. I wrote it on big planes, small planes, private planes. I wrote it in waiting rooms, in bathrooms. I wrote it everywhere. That book. Nowhere ever have I written a book in so many different places as a high performance habits. Usually I write it in one or two places. This is all over the country. This book was written. It was every waking moment and it hurt. A lot of times I was tired, my brain was fried from going over the data. I, like I said, I haven't been in academics. So here I am now working with academic teams to analyze some of this. But I'm also doing 300, you know, some structured interviews that are very different than like a casual lifestyle interview on a podcast. This is like structured, in depth interviews to really understand habits and behaviors that people are doing deliberately and repeatedly, but also the things they don't know that they're doing on purpose to understand what's replicable and trainable. And I mean, it was another level of high performance rigor that's never been done before to my knowledge. And it hurt. But commitment hurts and always pays off. I did miss some time with family and friends. I did have a lot of doubts through the process if it was something I was ever going to figure out how to corral into a book. And even though I had to cut the book, you know, a thousand pages from what I wrote to release something that, you know, wasn't too long, you know, his books under 400 pages. So it was tough. But I think about other times in my life where I made those major commitments and I went all in. They always pay off. They don't always pay off on my timeline, but they pay off. You know, I think about when I went all in with Motivation Manifesto and then the publisher who had, you know, acquired the book, they didn't like the outcome, so they said, you know, give us our money back. We're not going to publish you. It's not good enough. And that hurt. But the commitment to that voice and that message and what that book was, you know, led to a 32 week New York Times bestseller. I mean, to have something on a bestseller list these days, you know, six, seven months is super rare. Especially in the topic of self help. I was super honored by that. Well, now, High performance habits. We've blown through. I don't know, we're on y'. All. Your support has been insane. We've blown through, I think our sixth, seventh, no, wait, wait. Our third or fourth major printing, you know, blown past 200,000 copies in what, two months? That book will, you know, be my million copy hardcover at this stage. At this point. It's bananas. And, you know, I could never do that if you didn't support me. So again, back to gratitude. But also the urging, find something creatively to really commit to in your life at some point. And that might be starting your new business, starting a new job that in 2018, that might be for you, finally finishing your book. I'm cheering you on if you are finally starting your YouTube channel, cheering you on if you are doing your own podcast, if you you want to do that. I'm cheering you on every step of those ways. And know that commitment hurts. And maybe it doesn't pay off as fast as you want, but the mastery gained in full commitment always pays off. I'm more, for me personally, I'm more confident than I've ever been in what I do. I'm still more curious than I am confident. But I'm learning so much and able to share so much. It's just, it's free and thrilling. But that commitment hurt. So I tell you, please know that what I shared in High Performance Habits was critical to the success of the book itself and my life, which is identifying PFI and PQO. And if you haven't done that yet for your 2018, please do that. PFI, if you read High Performance Habits, you know, stands for primary field of interest. You got to determine something that you're going to go really deep and all in on. Not, I'm not talking about just specialization here, because a lot of high performers are also generalist in some ways, but the highest high performers, the most successful, they're really zeroing in on something that they're going to master. And that might be their company, which does lots of products and services, but they really get committed to building that company as an example. But a primary field of interest is usually your topic. And then you have to determine pqo, which is the prolific quality output that you need to create in that specific field of interest in order to get ahead. And if you find PFI and PQO and you go way deep, you go, I mean, you really commit into that. It will pay off because people will recognize that commitment over a period of time. Maybe at first they think you're nuts. That's part of the process. Make sure you read the section on obsession in High Performance Habits. If you feel like, you know, everyone's always telling you you're crazy, that's okay. Because normal isn't always healthy either that sometimes an obsession about something that you can create or give or serve with or connect with, that's okay. So allow that in 2018. Commitment's going to hurt. It's going to pay off, too. Second, big thing I learned this year in 2017, man, take your time with your ambitions and your team. I. I don't know if you have a team or not. I got about 17 folks who work with us. And I'll be hiring like crazy in the next 60 and 90 days. But here's the deal. My big failure in 2017 is I didn't hire enough people fast enough. Matter of fact, I barely brought on anybody when I'd planned on to bring on 30. So when I look back, I'm like, ah. But I was so committed to finishing high performance habits and delivering that with excellence that I allowed that other ambition, team building, to slide a little bit. And I didn't get mad at myself, and I didn't let other people pressure me into meeting their timelines for that. It's important that you take your time with your ambitions. I really believe we've gotten into a dangerous sort of zeitgeist where people feel like you have to just rush to the market. You have to rush through your decisions, you have to take action, grind, hustle 24. 7. Just throw s H I T out there and hope it sticks. You know, just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And I don't know, I think it's important to be working every day diligently towards your vision, but I also believe it's okay to take pauses to make sure you do things right. You know what? I didn't Release as many YouTube videos this year as I usually do. I used to do one a week, and I didn't get to do that. I released less videos this year than I have in three or four years. But I did that for the sake of the quality of what I wanted high performance habits to be. And I didn't hire the team that I wanted to hire because I knew that that's a big time commitment to do it the way that I want to. So I was, okay, I'd scooch it another three months. And then I said, well, team, we might not do it till six months. And then it was like, oh, now we might not do it till February 2018. And some people were like, come on, come on, come on. Other people like, hey, that's fine. But for me, I am living on my timeline. It's the most important thing that I can share with you for your 2018, outside of commitment, is to own your agenda. I hope you've read the motivation manifesto, my book. There's a chapter on that. It's a must read. It's, you have to get your life agenda back. You have to get things done on your timeline. Always keep it accelerated. Always keep it accelerated. Meaning, like I said before, the preface is, you are consistently every day Moving towards your vision, but do it on your timeline. You know, so many people struggle with this situation where they, you know, they say, well, Brendan, I want to do ten more things, but I also want to be a good dad. I'm like, then be a good dad and know that the 10 things will happen. Maybe you can't do them all at once. You're going to bite one off at a time, but don't stop being a good dad. I have other people who say, well, Brandon, you know, I just, you know, I don't feel I want to do this book right now, but, geez, all these other crazy things are going on. And, you know, I got someone who's sick over here, and I'm dealing with it over there. I'm like, it's okay, it's okay. Move towards it every day. Maybe you write a paragraph. Yeah. Maybe you're not able to go to your writer's villa and write for three weeks at a time with the wind blowing through the windows and, you know, the flowers, you know, in the outs. Look, it's not always going to happen perfectly. It might be scrappy, it might be ugly. It might be one little paragraph or one little thing a day that you're moving towards in your goals and your dreams. One new sale, one new call, one new something. You can be moving forward, but don't let other people impose their timeline on you, especially when it comes to team. I worked with a lot of major Silicon Valley folks this year. If you read High Performance Habits, that chapter, which I really resonate with people, it's surprising more than I thought it would. The chapter on generating energy and that concept of how we have to learn to release tension, set intention. And that practice I talk about in the book being so powerful for so many Silicon Valley people I taught, you wouldn't believe how many of them were telling me, well, Brendan, but my investors are telling me I got to hire another 50 people. I don't. I just don't think we can do it. And I'd say, then don't. And they said, well, no, our investors are telling us to. I go, don't. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and so many of the titans that we recognize they were on their timeline, not other people's timeline. And that's important to know that you're going to do it at your. Doesn't mean that you might be. Might not be, you know, yes, it could be a mad scramble. Yes, the timing can be crazy and all, and you're moving forward Anyway, but you know what? Isn't it true that maybe 2018 is the year that you enjoy it a little bit better, too? I saw so many people fail to enjoy 2017, and they blamed the media, they blamed the president, they blamed, you know, the culture. They blamed something. If we can't make ourselves enjoy our days and our weeks and our year, that's on us. And a lot of the enjoyment gets sapped out when we overcrowd our days. Setting more time to have white space in your life will benefit you. For almost everybody I've ever met, particularly high performers, they got to have that time to recharge. They got to have that time for that creative idea to come into their mind. They got to have that time, man. So give yourself that time. I'm going on a higher speed in 2018. I'm hiring all these new Facebook ad support people. I'm adding new video editors to my team. I'm adding a social media person to my team. I had that for a while, then lost that. So I'm having social media. If you've seen any social media, it's for me. So I've just got so much that I'm taking on myself that is limiting me from creating more things. As much as I want to, believe me, this is no woe is me store. I'm really happy and thrilled with the amount of balance and support and team I have, but I also recognize it's time to scale. You know, we have done something so unique. I'm not sure how familiar you are with, you know, my overall education brand, but I've been very, very, very blessed to reach more people about the topic of personal development than almost anybody. When you consider training, you know, not conversation like, you know, lots of great podcasters out there, lots of great, you know, entertaining YouTuber people, lots of great people posting funny stuff. But when you talk about training, you know, we've graduated 2 million online students. That's unheard of, especially when you're talking about, this is personal development online courses. It's an unbelievable number, especially for a single trainer. That's me. You know, it's unbelievable. But I couldn't. When you look at everything that I've done and all the brands and all the books, everyone goes, oh, my gosh, that's so crazy. You're just out there crushing all the time. I go, oh, no, not really. I took my time. It doesn't look like I took my time. If you look at everything today, you say, wow, look at that. You know, look all those things. That kid did. And some days I am. I'm like, wow, I can't believe all these things, you know? But I'm also honest to realize that many times I was lazy, many times I took too many days off, many times I screwed around on a Saturday that I said I was going to work. And that's okay because I was also enjoying life to the fullest. And that's my hope for you, as much as you commit and you dive deep and you go for things in 2018 to also enjoy life to the fullest as you do it, because you get to set your timeline, nobody else. And so if you actually look at my career, what it turned out to be at this stage, you know, this is my. What? This is my 12th year, full time in the thought leader space. That's what they call it now, the experts, industry, thought leaders space, whatever you want to call it, social influencer now. But for me, I'm a trainer and I'm a writer, and it's been 12 years full time, every week, every day, creating content and teaching and. Or writing. And in that process, the truth is I basically created one new major thing every year. You know, I've been at this for 10 years, but I've only written six books. So it's not like I'm kicking out a book every three months. I've been at it, you know, 12 years, but I've only really got 13 major online courses. So if you think about it, I'm really kind of creating one book and one course every year or every other year. And some of you think, oh, my gosh, that's so much. Remember, this is all I do, you know, it's just all I do. And so I think that could I have doubled my output, I actually know it would have been easier, easy to double my output, but it would have been hard on the lifestyle that I enjoy. Does that make sense? And it's not like when I say lifestyle enjoy, like it was always bouncing around in fancy planes or, you know, being Richie Rich Guy. Most those years I was broke and I was terrified and I had no idea what I was doing. And I didn't know even if we had the abundance and was rocking, would it be there the next week or the next month or next year? If we had one great seminar, you didn't know, would the next seminar pay off? So there was a lot of unknowns, but I took my time and I stayed committed. But I also made sure I enjoyed the ride because I didn't want to be that person who could end a year and throw away the whole year. Well, the whole year sucked. I hated that year. Screw that whole year. Believe me, there was lots in 2017 that sucked. Lost my grandma. I had a computer crash that, you know, made me start basically all over again in the summer on some major initiatives that I spent years creating. I had some losses in my circle of influence, people who passed away. I struggled with my health several times relating to my brain injury from 2011. I had plenty, plenty of difficulties. I know you have too many, but, man, I'm so happy to be alive. I'm so thankful for you. I'm so thankful that I have this breath. I get to create 2018 in any way I want. And if I'm honest, I could great 2017 in any way that I wanted. You created 2017. I created 2017. We created 2017. A lot of people are just so. They hated the year so much. And I'm like, just be careful of saying that you hate a full year because if you can't bring mindfulness and awareness to all the good things that also happened because they did. A lot of wonderful, amazing, incredible things happened in 2017 for you and other people. Moments that maybe sometimes you just didn't think were a big deal, but they were a blessing. And so I hope that these two big things are resonating the most with you. And that's why I'm sharing them and spending so much time on these two ideas. Number one, my biggest lesson was commitment hurts, but just trust it'll pay off. Number two, take your time with your ambitions, Whether that means your team or your craft or your thing that you're doing, take your time at it so that you can still enjoy life. Number three. And this is critical to being able to do number one. And two, don't lose your self care routines. Don't lose your self care routines. I did that. I failed. I messed up. I forgot so many times to do a routine that I know is so important to me and that for me is my morning routine. 2017 goes down as the year that I was probably the least disciplined in my morning routines that I've been since I was 19 years old and still I think I was pretty, you know, on the average comparison chart of other people, from what they tell me, fine, I was okay. But for me, because of my brain injury from 2011, I've got to be on my routines. If I fall off of them, then distraction steals me. If I fall off of them, I can't think clearly. If I fall off of Them I struggle to maintain my motivation or my drive or my ambition. If I fall off of them physically, I feel like crap. So it's important for me to maintain all my self care routines. And I don't know what yours are, but you need to make sure you get them and you develop them. Mine are basic. Many of you guys already know it. You know, I have the hour I win every single morning with by breaking up into three parts. I do 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of planning and thinking through visualizing the day. That's just my morning. And you know where I do that movement, it might be an intense. That 20 minutes might just be stretching, which most often time it is stretching and calisthenics. They're just open up on your yoga to open up the body. It's not a full hard hit training, you know, it's no, it's no crossfit, you know, but it's getting my body open and going. And what happened with that routine is sometimes on the road, I just had to get up so early and do something on the road and I'd be out late because I'd be traveling or in planes and trains and automobiles. I didn't get to get a full night's sleep so I wouldn't compromise on the sleep. So I'd miss the morning routine and so the rest of the day wouldn't go the way that I wanted. And too many days I lost motivation in 20, 2017. I'm the motivation guy and I didn't lose motivation all day, but I lost enough of it that I know that I held my own progress back. If all I had to have done was do my morning routine. You win the morning, you win the day, you win the day, you win the week, you win the week, you win the month, you win the month, we win the year, you win the year, you win the decade, you win life. So you got to get that morning taken care of. But there's other self care routines, aren't there? From what you eat to how you speak up for yourself to how you speak to yourself. This year for me, too many, I think too many times I was mad at myself and I said, brennan, you idiot, you know, or Brennan, come on, man. I just got, I got hard on myself without recognizing, you know, without stepping back and saying, hey, you're doing all right. You know, I carry a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders and I know you do too. I mean you got your family and you got your dreams and you got your people that you Serve. That's a lot. You know, you got a lot. You know, sometimes the family can be the whole day and you didn't even plan on that. It's just the way it is. There's a lot of things that are thrust status, and if we don't take care of ourselves, our sleep, our nutrition, our exercise, I mean, how can we possibly ever feel High performing energy was such a huge component to high performers. How they managed it, how they determined the feelings they wanted to experience in life, and they cultivated those feelings, not waited for something to create them. And it was eye opening in that research to see how good of self care the highest to high performers were taking care of themselves. It put me back on track. So don't lose your self care routines, Brendan. And of course, you guys listening to number four. This is important. Master something, move on from it and expand beyond it, but don't leave it forever. What I'd love for you to try to do in 2018 is ask, how can I take mastery in something that I've done onto a bigger stage? How can I take something I'm already good at onto a bigger stage? How do I take something I'm already good at onto a bigger stage? Now, I'll use a very direct metaphor for that. As I was speaking to everybody this year, I was speaking to such huge audiences, and I found myself at some point playing it safe. Maybe it was one or two speeches. You know, there were probably five or 8,000 people in the audience, and I felt myself kind of play it safe with them. And then I said, you know what, what would make this challenging where it would push me beyond something that I'm comfortable with? Well, I used to tell this story, this skydiving story at the first five, six years of my career. I always told the story on every stage I got in because it was. It was something that meant something to me. It was fun to tell. It'd sort of get the audience all riled up and positive and excited and laughing. It just break the ice. It was my skydiving story, which now another video on that thing has been viewed like, I don't know, another 3 million times. It's crazy, but I hadn't told that in years. I remember getting really good at telling the story, but I hadn't told it in years. And I really thought that that was only a story I could tell in front of a couple hundred people, maybe a thousand. And because I didn't think I could hold the space for a story that big for a huge arena and So I said, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to. I'm going to try this thing. I mastered that story once a long time ago in my life, and I haven't used it for a while. I'm going to put that story on a bigger stage and see how it goes. And that's just a metaphor for you. Is there something that you got good at that you haven't revisited for a while, that maybe if you put on a different context or a different size stage, you could get more recognition and awareness for it, that it could help you again? And here's what I mean by that. I'll take one of my friends, an unbelievable musician. I mean, this guy was so talented at his music, but he, you know, he got a career and he moved on and, you know, grew a family and everything else like that, and just really, you know, kind of dabbled with the music, but didn't revisit it for a long time. And when I spent some time with him in 2017, I was doing some coaching with him. I said, hey, man, you know what? Maybe it's time to try the music thing again. And he said, no, no, no. You know, I've been there before. I've done. I said, yeah, but that was like seven years ago. The world really changed. You know, the world really changed. Why don't you try, and if you're interested, try this again. Take that old knowledge, skill, ability, competency. You have put it out there again. 2018 is a different year than five years ago. I got another friend who used to be huge in radio, had a lot of talent and skill, and then left it, you know, spent Most of his 30s and 40s and 50s doing deals, investment deals. Then I said, you know, we're talking about radio. And he was talking about, like, a nostalgic thing. I said, yeah, the medium might be nostalgic for what you used to do, but my brother, the skill that you had from that could still be applied. There's this thing called, you know, podcasting, and I don't want to mention this person's name because I mentioned that I coached this person. But an unbelievable explosion, this person's podcast this, this year. And I think it's just really important to realize that sometimes the things that you were good at, pull them out again. It's 2018. It's a new year. Maybe you were good at poetry, but you haven't written in years. Try it again. Maybe you had that dream and it's still that inkling in the back of your head. But you tried it, and it didn't work. Maybe it's time to try it again. I think a lot of people develop tremendous amounts of competencies, and they try it, they master it, they get good at it in one medium, and then they quit. They go do something new, a new opportunity, something new. They have kids, whatever happens, and they don't kind of refresh it again. And I'm like, if you took all the time to develop that thing, maybe that thing could pay off. Now, of course, some people say, well, Brendan, should I. You know, you know, I have some things I've done. I should just. I should quit it. You know, I got to give up that dream. I got to stop that thing. Yeah, that's. Maybe that's true. If you're struggling with that question, go to my YouTube channel. There's a video on there somewhere about how to quit. How to quit in my name on YouTube. I'm sure it'll come up, and that will give you some insight about how to make that decision, when to quit and move on. But I also believe that there's just some dormant capabilities that people have applied to this new world that we experience today with social media platforms. The opportunities, the ways that you can share a message or raise money online. Today is so different. I'm like, maybe you got something in your back pocket. It's that old acres of diamonds metaphor. You know, the guy leaves his house, travels the world looking for wealth, fails, comes back home, puts the spade in the backyard, and discovers diamonds in his backyard. You know, sometimes the wealth is already in us. Number five, supplements save you. Now, I don't have a supplement to sell any of you guys. Don't worry about that. I speak at a lot of companies that sell major supplements, whether it's, you know, fortune level companies or it's network marketing companies or what have you. But here's the deal. Supplements are important. It is very important, as you had in 2018, that you go and you get your blood work done, that you go get your blood work done, that you sit down with a nutritionist or a healthcare expert who's really known for helping people become healthy. And you go over your data, you go over what's in your bloodstream, what vitamins are you deficient at, what minerals do you need? So many people, they're wiped out all day long because they're not fueling their body with healthy food. But also, even if some people, and I've been there before, after my car accident, after my brain injury, my ATV accident, in 2011, where I was eating healthy, I was working out, but I was really struggling because my brain was compromised. And so supplementation can really save you. If you, like, crashed and burned in 2017, but you felt like you were doing everything, make sure you go see, you know, your healthcare professional. Make sure you go see that doctor. Sit down with that nutritionist. Definitely sit down with nutritionist to see if you're eating something that you shouldn't be eating or if you're lacking some of the basics. I mean, so many people are so deficient in some of the basics, whether it's a B complex or whether it is magnesium or whether it is, you know, something that could help them optimize their type of brain or the way that they need to think and perform. I'm a very, very, very big believer that most people need supplementation because of the lifestyles that we live today, the food choices that most people make, and the amount of tremendous stress. I mean, sometimes you just gotta. I've had to tell like 20 people this year. I'm like, dude, you just need some adrenal support. You're stressed out. Go to the store, look for some adrenal support. Take something. Yes, consult your healthcare provider and everything else like that. But you can go out and get some gaia herbs and something that says there was revealing. My Montanas herbs. Apparently it's herbs I've learned. Go get some supplements that can support you. My God, you don't have to struggle so much. Get legal ones. Duh. I'm not talking about that kind of supplementation, Lance. I'm talking about supplements that can support you in your nutritional needs, that are helpful to the lifestyle that you're living. It's so huge for me. I have to take nootropics. For me, some brain enhancement that helps with blood flow and oxygenation, helps me with my focus and my memory because of my brain injury helps me. It's just some basic stuff that if when I'm off of those or I don't take the right levels or I forget them, man, I struggle. I struggle. And it doesn't have to be so hard. So make sure if you're going to optimize health this year, you just get your supplement game down. You know, a lot of people come to my seminars and, you know, we do eight events a year and some of them, you know, 2,000 people, and they're just like, how do you have that much energy? I'm like, I'm conditioning every part of my body, my mind, for weeks before the event to be able to serve at that level. And while I'm at that event, I am absolutely making sure I am replenishing myself. I'm making sure I'm having enough electrolytes, I'm making sure I'm getting enough magnesium, I'm making sure that every night I'm taking care of myself in every possible way that I can sleep great when I wake up, I'm doing the right things. So for example, I don't take caffeine at my events, so I don't have ups and down yo yo emotion, like all these supplement and food and, and nutrition and workout and movement choices that I make to have the energy that I desire. It's huge. Number six, Partners make it all happen, so get them. Okay? Partners make it all happen, so get them. And I mean partners in a broad usage here, whether it's, you know, your relationship with your significant other, your, your spouse, your lover, your partner, whatever you want to call them, or it's partners in business, whether you have a real equity partner or you have investor partners or you have promotional partners that you can't do it yourself. You know, in my relationship, if you guys have been, you know, listening to podcasts, you know, this was a crazy, crazy year. My wife sold her exercise studios. We moved our house, we moved my studio, we moved my office. While all those moves were going on, she was selling her business. I was on a multi city tour. I was letting some team members go. I was building a company over on the side. I was building another company. So building three companies on the side that were supporting my overall mission. I was, you know, creating other promotional partnerships with, you know, Success magazine or Oprah Winfrey Network or growth.com, thrive market. I mean, it was just like I was so much going on. But these partners helped me reach so many more millions of people. And my wife allowed me to do so many of the crazy things I needed to do. Having a supportive spouse is one of my secret weapons. And I know you guys have heard me talk about this before, but it's huge. You know, Denise inspired my work in many ways. She kept me going when no one believed me. She bought my groceries when I was broke. She cheered me on when no one else on the planet thought I had any chance. She was there for me and was still. The summer when I lost my grandmother, when the computer crashed, when craziness was ensuing in every possible realm, she was solid and I was solid with her. And that helps having other partners who can pick up some of the Slack when you're not fully capable is huge. And I mean that in the business realm too with your teams. For me, I've got other partners who helped me run like growth.com, you know, Ethan and Dean and shout out to the entire growth team, help share the message so far beyond what I'm capable of just on my own. And it's important. I think too many people right now have gotten bought into this hustle and grind, you're the single captain of everything that you do message because a lot of the social media influencers today, they did do it themselves and so they love to espouse that it's just you and you'll do everything on yourself. But if you ever heard me teach before, I actually don't even believe in the concept of self made millionaire. I've personally actually not ever met a self made millionaire, at least who had any humility. Because you know, if someone was really self made or someone reached that millionaire level, you know what they had a grandparent or a teacher or somebody who opened up a door or somebody who cheered them on or even if they had, all the odds were against them and nobody ever helped them. They had some mentor who maybe was a distant mentor or you know what I tell self made people who argue with me on this and no, no, I'm a self made millionaire. Brennan, you don't understand. I've been through all this. I'm like, well, you know what buddy, how about you just take the self made moniker off of the shoulders because for a moment you can realize that people made you a millionaire, that your customers made you, that your buyers made you. And so I'm all about realizing that other people support us. You've heard me talk before. I'm just a small ripple effect of Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale and Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn and Jack Canfield and Marianne Williamson and Debbie Ford and Louise Hay and Wayne Dyer and Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra. Like I'm just, I'm like a student of theirs and just one more person in tens of thousands of people in the line of this industry who work every day to try to inspire some people. And so, you know, I'm just another teacher out of millions and millions of teachers in the world. So I realized that I'm just one person. I'm just another one person of something, of other people doing it. And if I really want to reach lots of people, I need support, I need help. And so many people didn't ask for help in 2017. They struggled, they got mad, they got down on themselves, they got depressed. They blamed the world without ever asking the world for real help, without ever being consistent. What I tell people all the time is maybe the universe isn't giving you exactly what you wanted because based on all of your distractions or silence, it's simply unsure what you are asking for. And I think the real asks in life are those asks to say, could you help me achieve my vision in a bigger way? Would you want to be a part of something? Would you like to team up on me, Team up with me to do something? I think your partnerships could be that secret sort of gate that opens an entire new field of opportunity that you never dreamed of. Number seven, realize you're a little blue dot. This is if you've heard the concept of a blue dot, shout out to Carl Sagan, you know, when they had launched a satellite into space. Long story short, I'm not going to go on. You guys know I'm a kind of a science dork. But Carl Sagan convinced them to turn a camera back towards our neck of the woods in the universe, and they took a picture and became well known as the Little Blue dot, because the Earth is just this little dot in this galaxy. And it is a humbling photograph to realize how small we all are. And while we are, you know, powerful, amazing human creatures, we also have to recognize that we're just a blip in the universe. And I think that is a good thing to help continue reminding us to be humble. This is a year to me that so many people really believe that everybody else was stupid. Oh, that side of the aisle is stupid. Oh, he's stupid, she's stupid. They're dumb. Like the judgment of others. Everybody was calling each other ignorant all year long, and it was just like, especially in our political landscape. And. And I understand that impulse, but I don't condone the words because we're all ignorant. We're all uninformed in other people's lives. We're all not aware of other people's intentions. Life stories, situations, and all the assumptions that we make about people can really hurt. I'm sure you've been hurt before because someone assumed that you were dumb or incompetent or unable. Somebody put you down before. Don't forget that. So don't ever put somebody else down. We're all just trying to figure out our way through. You know, in my space here, I focus so much on psychology, and I focus so much on specifically performance psychology and performance behavior. I'm interested in understanding how people actually think and do what they do at the highest levels. Well, a lot of people don't study that. That's not a lot of people's things. So when someone proposes, well, I think people are like this, you know, 40 parts of my brain might say, well, actually, let me tell you about this study, though, that's not true. I want to get in an argument with them. But there's a reason that they believe that to be true, and their experience led them to believing that that is true. We can never forget that. People's choices. Maybe we don't like them or people's background, maybe we didn't have the same shape who they are. And there is a reason for what most people do, even if it's unconscious. And I really believe that in 2018, we all need more patience with each other. We need to ask a lot more questions. I think about my great failures in 2017. I would say one of them is that oftentimes in the craziness of what was going on in business and life, sometimes I made assumptions about people that I care about what they wanted or what they needed or what they were saying to me. And I found myself in 2017, a little bit defensive sometimes. Do you know what I mean? Like, when you are working so hard and you care about a lot of other people and someone says something and you think that they're questioning you and you get an edge towards you, you, like I got an edge with some people, I felt like I was defending myself. And the only reason you're defending yourself is you're assuming that the other person is attacking you. And sometimes other people are just sharing their perspective. They're not attacking you. And I really feel like this year those lines got blurred because of our political arena, and rightfully so. It's very understandable. But I think what we're seeing is a lot of people, they're making a lot of assumptions about other people. So everyone's attacking each other without asking questions. And it doesn't lead to collaboration. It doesn't lead to insight. It certainly does not lead to peace. We got to do a better job in this regard. And so I just say, realize you're a little blue dot. That we're, each of us is just one small speck of the human experience. There's a lot of other specs running around who have their own human experience. You know, just this little blue dot. Everyone's a little blue dot. Everyone's just got their own place in the universe. Honor them. Honor the place that they are now in your life. There's a reason. Maybe they don't need to stay in your orbit. But while they're passing by, be kind. Number eight, Honor life events. Honor them. You know, I think too many people in the strive for big things sort of speed by important life things. Ah, I don't have time to go to their wedding. I don't have time to take any time off. You know what? I don't have time to deal with this person's sickness. And we forget that, you know, life has cycles. I lost grandma, but I also officiated a wedding. I was plenty of nights up till 2, 3 in the morning, working. I also took a lot of time off for the holidays. That's why you guys haven't heard a lot from me. I went out to Thanksgiving to be with my sister and her family on the East Coast. My whole family went out there for Thanksgiving. It was super awesome. Thank you, sis. I then took my wife to New York City. She had never been to New York in the holidays. And if you haven't been there, I hope that someday in your life that you choose to go. Because New York City in December is magic. Absolutely magic. She never experienced all the lights and the holiday magic. So we went and did that and we caught a couple shows, went out with a few friends. Probably a highlight, was just walking the city with my girl, you know, just enjoying it, eating out. We went to Springsteen on Broadway. Bruce Springsteen on Broadway. One of the great experiences. And I remember just sitting there watching him thinking, you know what? I'm so glad that we took these random, this random week off to come to New York and enjoy it, you know, because there's a. I was thinking there's a million things I could be doing right now, but this is it. To be present with where you're at. I always love that phrase. But I also think be purposeful with where you're at, then be present in that situation. You know what I'm saying? Like, too many people. I think, yeah, yeah, you can be mindful doing lots of things, but. But position yourself in places where mindfulness really pays off. I hope that makes sense. And I think a lot of people just need to honor the life events. Hey, look, sometimes you got to take the time off to go to the wedding. You got to go be with. Like, for me, in 2009, I had to stop the business and go out and be with my dad in his last weeks as he was passing away from leukemia. Didn't want to do it, but neither did dad want to die. You know, it's just that sometimes life says, hey, slow it down, take a breather, man. Give some attention to these important people or things in your life right now and just honor those things. I really think that we've lost the rhythm of life right now as a culture, at least here in the United States, we've lost the rhythm. There is a loss of spirit that happens when you lose the rhythm. And so what we are doing is we're all, you know, bulls in China shops. We're all crashing forward, busting through walls, achieving great things, running up and climbing mountains without asking, is this mountain worth climbing? We're just going forward, forward, forward, forward. Hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, consume, consume, consume, consume, consume. That we've lost the rhythm, man. That, you know what? There's a rhythm of life. And so to honor life events, sometimes we got to reconnect with what's important. Simple ways of doing that. Make the choice to spend time with important people in your life. Make the choice to go spend some more time in nature so you find rhythm and peace and grounding again. Number nine, minimize social media and news. You already know you need to do this, but you haven't set up the disciplines. So just do it, my friend. I know everybody I talk to, this is a big goal for them. They're like, I just. I look at my phone too much. I'm like, why? What is it about this thing that you've gotten addicted to but recognize it as addiction and knock it off? I do the same thing, right? I do simple things like just to become normal. I don't carry my phone into the bathroom. No more so simple. If I'm in a car with somebody, I don't look at my phone unless it's for Google Maps. It's just being in the car with the person. It's time together. I And you say, well, yeah, yeah, you burn. You can do that, Brendan. You know, I can't. You. I couldn't do that. I'm so much busy. I'm like, okay, maybe you are. Maybe you do serve millions of people every single day. And you run a, you know, consistent eight figure business every single year with team all around the country and expectations from coaching clients all around the world, and everybody watches your every move. Maybe you're in that same category. And if you are, then it's even more important that you keep your sanity. And social media is. Is such a distraction for people as much as I use it as a tool when I do social media, there's times for that, that I allow for that, that I set for that. When I do email, I set times for that. That's when I do that. Being constantly pulled into the vortex of other people's agendas or clickbait is stealing away some of the greatest creative resources we've ever had. Now, notice I'm not saying cut it all out. I'm saying have a time for it and limit it. I think that's really important for people and I hope that you'll follow suit in this one in setting some type of New Year's resolution to get your eyes off the screens a little bit more. Especially social media. That's only. I think social media is really great to use as a research tool to see what's working so that you can spread your own message. But I think as a consumption tool, it's very dangerous because you've got tens of thousands of employees in companies around the world who spend all day thinking about the psychology to get you to click the psychology to get you to consume. They're not in the education space, they're in the attention space. All they want is your attention, so they're willing to do anything to get it, including compromising some basic values. Right? My audience would be seven times bigger if I just dropped the F word in every video that I do. I have no question about it. I know it's true. I'm not going to compromise that value. Other people who just so casually swear or flippantly treat other people poorly or diminish other people online, I don't diminish other people. I don't swear. I don't break my compromise. I don't break my values. And it's not that I'm perfect every single time, believe me. I hope you hear there's plenty of messes over here, but there's a lot of things I don't do that I could do in sales, in marketing, in trying to get attention that I just, I just don't think that that is going to lead to me being the best of who I am or inspiring other people to be best of who they are. It's easy to be flippant online and swear and get lots of attention. But what's the ultimate legacy of that? And it's not like I'm a goody two shoes and I don't ever say, you know, swear words. It's just a matter of realizing you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish without doing those things. That's the thing people say. Well, Brendan, I have to Swear because it breaks people's patterns and it makes them pay attention. I'm like, if you haven't figured out another way to break people's patterns and get attention than swearing, you're still junior varsity level in this game. There's other ways to inspire people to be their best than either, you know, speaking down to them or swearing at them or telling a flippant story. There's just other ways. And once you learn those other ways, then you can take pride in your mastery and realize that you've done a good job building a greater tool set. I've got the same ninja knives. I can pull out. I don't need to and choose not to. And I think that what we're seeing on social media is a lot of people are using all of those simple tricks and those dirty tricks to influence people and get the attention and get the views and likes, but they're not spreading a message or they've gotten away from spreading the message that was true to them at the very beginning. And in that pool, I do not want to swim. And so I just say, minimize your social media. Use it, research it, use it as a tool to further yourself. But there's other ways to entertain yourself that are much, much more life enhancing than scrolling for 20 minutes every time you have, you know, 20 minutes. I think a lot of people are losing hours and weeks and days of their life on the screen when they could be doing other things. 10. Make the decision, determine the feeling that's forward and go. There's a lot of folks who fail to make the important decisions of their life even when they already know the answer. And I struggle with this, my friends struggle with this. So many people struggle with this. And I'm hearing it over and over again. It's like, if you want to do something in 2018, make the decision and don't say, well, what if? And start living backwards into 2017, live forward into 2018 and say, okay, this is the decision. How do I mitigate those concerns of what if? And what do I need to set up and do on a consistent basis to make myself extraordinary so that this decision turns out well? Make decision. Work hard to make the decision turn out well. Make the decision. Work hard to make the decision turn out well. Make the decision, my friend. Work hard to make the decision turn out well. There's a lot that you want to do in 2018, so do it. Lean forward into that decision. And once you make the decision, don't be like, oh my gosh, and start double checking and don't stop questioning yourself. Make the decision and live forward from the decision. That's how you'll own your 2018. Last thought I'd like to share with you before I go to bed. You know, it's a little after 11:30 on Saturday, December 30th here, so I got one more day I'm going to spend mostly with my lady heading into 2018, and I just want to share a thought from Daniel Hudson Burnham. If you don't know Burnham's story, he was one of the original. I guess you call him like an urban planner now. Today, urban planners are very common. I think he kind of invented the concept, in some ways of thinking more holistically about cities and the structure of them and the structure of buildings and how they should work. And he was a big proponent of open spaces and parks and community planning. And, you know, he was in the late 1800s, early 1900s, he if you ever been in New York City and you saw the famous Flatiron Building, that was a Burnham building. But he said this. Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work. I love that. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work. Dream big, my friend, no matter what happened in 2017, have your own 10 list of things that you learned and that you will carry forward. Those were my list of 10 things that I've learned and I want to get better at them and carry them forward. In many of them, I didn't do a good job. I know exactly why I didn't do a good job and I know how to do a better job. But no matter what, I'm going to carry those lessons forward. Because year after year after year after year, carrying my list of forward of 10 things and 10 things and 10 things and 10 Things and 10 Things, I've gotten better and better and better and better. I feel happier and happier and happier, more competent and more competent and competent. And my career has grown and grown and grown only because I'm carrying the lessons forward. Make sure that you do that. So make your list. Use this as your own inspiration. Say, well, what's my 10? If I was gonna do a podcast or maybe you should do your podcast, wrapping up the year if you haven't already, or do your post or do your thing. But what were the 10 things that you learned? Carry those things forward, but do not, no matter what those things were. Because sometimes people learn lessons that they didn't wanna learn. Negative things. No matter what you learned, aim High in 2018. Your future is not tied down by the past. You can start again, believe again, work again, strive again. Make 2018 extraordinary. My friends say this is the year I'm going to High Performance. I'm going to sustain it. I'm going to be diligent about my own mindset, my own habits, my own contributions and relationships in the world. This is a great time. If you need some inspiration in that, listen to the last couple podcasts. I played a lot of High Performance Habits the audiobook. You can still get the book out there online somewhere. And please also join me on New Year's on January 1st from noon to 4 Pacific Standard Time. It's me live. Four hours of training on how to 10x your achievements in 2018. We're gonna go right into how do you make it a year that is vibrant and strategic and focused and disciplined and fulfilling? That's with me and that's with all of my High Performance Monthly members. Hope you're a monthly member by now. If you're not, just go to brendan.com forward/monthly and you'll be able to see that. You'll be able to join us for that New year's live cast that is brendan.com forward/monthly. Hope you enjoyed this rambling late night episode. My friends, it's an honor to serve you and to speak with you. I can't wait to see you out on the road sometime in 2018. Whether it's high Performance Academy or Experts Academy or any of my other events on the road with our partners, our friends. The amount of time that I'm spending out just talking and meeting with you guys, I love it, love it, love it, love it. I'm grateful for 2017. Looking forward to 2018 with a very, very big, focused, abundant mindset. I hope that you will seek each and every single day of 2018 to always live fully, love openly and make your difference every single day. Sam.