9 Aug 2014 · 12 min
Brendon Burchard lays out five rules for personal growth: have a clear vision of who you want to become, believe you can figure things out, bring fun into every situation, balance patience with persistence, and practice love and respect for others. He emphasizes writing down your vision and viewing struggle as the path to competence.
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Welcome to the Charged Life. This is Brendan Burchard. Alright, let's go. The five rules of life. Number one, have vision for your life. You know, have a vision for who you want to become, the kind of person you want to become. You know, what are the qualities of the type of person you want, want to feel and be like in your life? And also vision for what is your dream, what's your goal, what's your desire? Where do you want to go? Where do you want your life to head? And what will you find meaningful at the end of your life when you look back and you say, wow, I've lived my life. These were the things I found meaningful. These were the things I'm happy about. This was what I have pride in. And having become this type of person, that these were the types of relationships I created. That's vision. You know, sitting down and thinking about what you want of life, what you want to contribute of life, what you want to experience of life. And that doesn't land on you. A lot of people would say, well, Brendan, I just don't have vision for myself. Well, vision doesn't land on you. It's not like you walk outside, I like to say of your house one day, and the piano of purpose falls on your head and suddenly everything's clear. Some people have that epiphany, some people have that awakening. But for most of us, it requires diligence and work. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and say, what's my vision for life? You know, what do I want my life to be like? Where do I want to live? What kind of work do I want to contribute to the world? What kind of relationships do I want to build? That just requires thought, brainstorming, and if you don't know the answers to that, that's okay. Experience the world some more. Go sample different parts of the world of your community. Ask other people how they discovered what they wanted in life. Just start this journey. Become a seeker of what your vision will be and the vision will suddenly start to coalesce and you'll figure these things out. But primary components of vision are who do you want to become? The type of person, I mean, write it down. Like, for me, the type of person I want to become is, and fill that out. That begins the vision for your life. It's all about the type of person you want to become. And living each and every single day into that person to become that person. You know, at some point in my life, I just, you know, I remember I want to Become more present because I wasn't. I wasn't able to get that awareness around me of other people, that awareness of my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions, to experience the full immensity and magic of the moment. I said, I have the vision to become a present person. So I had to discipline myself to tune in, to say, what am I paying attention to right now? What am I feeling? What am I sensing? Am I in this moment? Am I here with this person? Or am I checked out in a way I really had to do. That was a discipline to live into the vision of that type of person. It's just an example, and I hope that you'll develop your own vision for who you want to become. The second rule of life, which is just so critical, is to believe in your ability to figure things out. You know, to believe in your ability to figure things out. Some people just can't believe in themself their total self. I hope you get there. I hope you can believe in your total self. And that should be a mission too. But a rule is believe in your ability to figure things out. It allows you to wade into any unknown territory, any uncertainty, and say, you know what? I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I will figure it out. That is a life belief. We all must have the ability to know that with enough time, energy, focus, resources, even that over a period of time, we can develop the knowledge, the skill, the competency, the mastery of any area that we must succeed in with enough time, dedication, and effort, we can do it. And we must believe in our ability to figure things out. When the worst of life storms hit you to say, you know what? This is terrible right now. This challenge is awful. But I'll figure my way out of it. It might not be easy. There will be hardship, there will be struggle, there'll be frustration. Other people will be jerks, but I'll figure my way out of it. I will learn through this. I will develop through this. I will grow through this, but I will move through. There will be a better tomorrow. There will be something that I move and progress in my life towards this. Even if it's a slog, even if. Even if it's a struggle, honor that struggle. Be okay with that struggle. Because you know in your heart and your mind, you will figure it out. You will figure it out. And as you learn more from other people over a period of time, you'll gain that confidence. And guess what? As you figure things out, you develop competency. You develop your knowledge, your skill, your Ability, your talent, your mastery of life. And with competency comes confidence. You'll have more confidence in your life that will come from believing in yourself and your ability to figure it out enough times that you got it. The third rule of life is to have fun. No matter what. Chasing your dreams as you have that vision, you have that dream, you have that desire that you're going to have fun on this journey, even when it sucks, even when it's difficult, even when you're dealing with somebody you don't like, or a bad co worker or a bad boss, or a bad spouse, or a bad child. Just teasing, whatever you got, whatever you're dealing with, to say, you know what? I'm gonna bring the fun, I'm gonna bring the joy into this situation proactively. I'm not gonna wait for something to happen that I can have fun. I'm gonna bring the fun. I am the fun. I will show up. And whatever way, whatever way you enjoy life, whatever way that fun and that joy and that zest and that enthusiasm, sparks for you, make that happen. Bring that into the situation proactively. I go into the most tense situations in my business now sometimes. I mean, where literally major, major decisions are on my shoulders. Major leaders from Fortune 500 companies, sometimes billionaire clients literally are like, brendan, here's. I mean, they're so tense and you know, the stuff has hit the fan, the storm has landed, everyone's freaking out. I going to be the guy that walks in with a positive, buoyant, focused attitude. I'm going to be the one to bring the joy to that situation. I'm going to bring the light to that darkness. Even though sometimes I feel overwhelmed by that darkness of doubt or delay or distraction in my life, I'm going to move that aside and I'm going to show up because I have this rule, no matter what, I will have fun doing what I am doing, chasing my dreams. And that's allowed my life, I feel like, to allow, have a very uncommon charge because I just make that happen. It's not a luck, it is a discipline, right? A discipline of having fun, a desire to have fun and bring that into every single situation of my life. I hope you'll make that a rule of your life. I think the fourth rule of life is to be patient, but persistent at all. We do patient, you know, be cool that life might not be progressing as fast as it wants to be. Be cool that you're not getting ahead as fast as you want to get ahead. You know, give yourself the patience and the allowance to do a good job, it might take longer than you think it's going to take. A lot of people beat themselves up because they're in such a hurry. And I think from almost, you know, some of the worst components and the worst behaviors and vices of humankind and comes from hurry. Being in way too big of a hurry, wanting that immediate payoff, being entitled to having it right now without allowing that long journey of struggle. I'm cool with the struggle. I honor the struggle. I know it's going to be there. I'm patient. I know that my time, if I am disciplined, if I am focused on doing the things that are good for me, for others, for my business, for my life, for you guys, if I'm focused on, I know over a period of time, with enough patience, the success will come, the joy will come. Do you know how long I did these videos before I ever made it a career? Do you know how many stages I spoke on? And I just sucked, you know, I was allowing myself to learn that. To be a learner, you have to have patience with yourself. But the critical element is you have to be persistent. Even as you're patient, you're allowing time to take place as you're putting these things in. You're allowing the universe to align with your desires, with your dreams, with your focus. You are also not stopping that. You are persistent in your action as well as you are patient. Right? It's that peaceful warrior that you are working towards it. You are fighting, you are struggling, you are moving towards it. But at the exact same time, you're cool. You're accepting everything is right now and as it needs to be. And I'm continually taking action. That persistence of action and behavior is what gets you ahead. It has to be a rule of life if we're gonna have what we want. Because we can't just start something and stop it all the time. That's just distraction. We have to be persistent towards our dreams and patient with ourselves. Fifth rule, and I love this one. Love and respect others playing the same game. You know, we're all in this game of life. We're all doing the best that we can. And loving and respecting other people is critical not only to our happiness and our connection with the people that we care for. It is critical to our destiny. It is critical to our legacy. It is critical to our legend. You know, it is critical to our simple, everyday experience of the good parts of life, you know, to love other people. That's a rule for me. I take all this Divine energy of love around me. And I try and amplify and give it to people. That's why I see myself as just a big old vessel of good amplification of good vibes for human beings. You know, I think it's very critical that we respect other people. We tolerate that, you know what? They have their own life. It's just tolerance. It's about allowing people to have their own voice, Allowing people to have their own experience, allow them to follow their own intuition, Let them follow their own rules and be okay with it. Let them follow their own life and be okay with it. Accepting, understanding, empathetic, sympathetic, compassionate, kind to other people. That's the zest of life. It's that great grand connection that ultimately makes us feel as human beings, fulfilled because we loved and so love others. On your journey. Make it a practice, make it a discipline, make it an area of mastery where other people around you, they just always feel like you're so attentive to them that they feel adored and appreciated and they feel your affection and it's real, it's authentic, it's genuine. And they're like, wow, this person's something, you know, have that for other people, care about them so much that they love to be around you, that you attract them and that you feel fulfilled in giving that very thing that birthed you love. Hey everyone, it's Brendan. Did you like this episode? Be sure to subscribe to the next one and tell a friend about us. If you want free books and world class training on motivation and high performance, visit me@Brendon Burchard.com and enter your name and email for our newsletter list. Until next time, stay charged and go out there every day of your life and live fully, love openly and make your difference today.