Broken Dreams and Burritos

Welcome to the Charged Light. This is Brandon Burchard. You know, I used to live in this tiny apartment in San Francisco. And I mean tiny there. They call it a junior one bedroom, but the rest of the world would say it's a studio where they put the mattress in the closet. So my mattress was literally in the closet. It was a double sized bed and it took up the entire closet. There was no way to walk in the closet. It took up the entire closet. And so I'd sleep with all my clothes hanging above me. And there was this little window in there above the bed. And it was always just freezing in there because it had this big draft coming in. So I taped up by duct tape this towel over it. I'm from Montana. We use duct tape on everything, right. So it's this tiny little apartment. And I had a pretty good job. You know, I'd get up. At least the job paid for the apartment. I'd get up, I'd board the bus, I'd go downtown San Francisco. I'd work my job, you know, and everyone said it was a good job. But in my heart I always recognized that sometimes the busy work that we have isn't our life's work. And I was busy all the time. I was earning some money, but it wasn't my thing. I sensed inside there was something else I wanted to do. I want to do this. I want to be a writer and a trainer and share a message with the world that hopefully inspired or motivated people or moved them in some way. And that's all I really wanted to do. But I didn't know this could be a career at that time. And so I struggled for a pretty long time just to try and make ends meet. But then what ended up happening was I went for it. I quit everything that I was supposed to be doing and I just went for it. I mean, and just like everyone said exactly what they said happened, I quickly went bankrupt chasing my dream. And, you know, it's hard. I know maybe you're chasing something right now too, and you're limited on income or opportunity. We've all been there before and it's what we do with those times. You know, I remember I just want to be a writer. So, you know, I'd go down to this fancy schmancy sort of coffee shop and I'd sit there and I'd order my green tea and I'd watch all the people and I'd sit there to try and write and, you know, once in a while. But I didn't have Any discipline yet. And I guess, you know, it just got harder and harder and harder. But I really believed in what I was doing. Even as I went broke, even as I even had to give up that apartment and move into another apartment with some. You know, it was just like, it was so challenging. And I remember I used to go to this little burrito shop too, down the way. And it was like all I could afford was these cheap burritos. But I really loved to go in that place because these old guys ran the joint. And you could tell that they were always really into their work. I mean, they struggled for a hard day's work, even though they were just, you know, some nasty burritos. But that's all I could afford. I look back at that time with a lot of joy because it was that struggle and that hardship. I never let it limit me. You know, humanity only has two recurring characters in its narrative, and that's struggle and progress. You know, and a lot of us don't want the struggle, but if we want to throw out the struggle, we'll never have the progress. And we have to be okay. Like be okay with the fact that it's hard. If you're trying something new, be okay. It's going to be a struggle. And it might be a long slog for that, you know, when you knock on the door of opportunity, never be surprised that it is work who answers, right? It's gonna take challenge, it's gonna be difficult. But boy, I would tell you, I would come home at night from my job at the time when I had it, and then later on when I didn't have it no matter what, I'd stay up late at night just writing and writing and writing, trying to get my message out there, trying to figure out what I was doing. Bam. Just kept at it and at it and at it. Years later, there would be number one New York Times bestseller, number one Wall Street Journal best seller, number one on Amazons, number one Barnes & Nobles, I mean, huge best selling books all around the world. And have the opportunity to literally travel and meet everybody I ever wanted. U.S. presidents, you know, the most famous celebrities and entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the world. I loved it and everything turned out. But some people think it was just like people tell me all the time, well, Brendan, you came out of nowhere. I remind them, no, I came out of a small American town called work. You know, I believed in myself. I just kept working even when I had no reason to believe I would ever work out. And that's faith. That's the belief in oneself that despite who we are and what we're capable of today, maybe tomorrow we can become more and become more capable. And I just had that belief. I just decided to have it. I had no reason to have it. I just decided to have it. You know, not too long ago, a couple months ago in fact, I went back to San Francisco, since moved and found my dream home up in Portland, Oregon. And I got to go back. I remember going over to that fancy Smancy coffee shop. I thought it'd be cool to go and sit there and feel like what it felt like to become now a best selling author and having gotten to achieve my dreams and just go back to that place. And I went back and the cafe was closed. I looked through the windows, completely empty inside. And I don't know what the reason it was, but it made me actually feel sort of sad. They had closed down and I walked along the street though and there were just all these people just alive with ambition. You could see everyone on their own journey. I felt really connected to them because I knew what they were doing was in their own path, in their own time, meaningful. And I saw a lot of optimism in people's faces and it just felt good. I walked up the street, decided to see if that Burrito place was there. You know, the one where the old guys work so hard every day just to survive. And he was still open. It made me just think about the fact that, you know, sometimes it's just that hard work that keeps us going. Sometimes even if we're not perfect, if we don't have it all together, but we just believe and we struggle through and we will ourselves forward every single day. Then you know what? Not only do we survive, we thrive when others don't. Not only do we thrive, but we start to feel something better. We start to grow, we start to have something more magnificent in our lives than we ever imagined. I never imagined that I would be here today getting to do this as a career, getting to talk to so many people around the world, getting asked to do all the cool things I get to do. But I can tell you one thing. I never didn't believe that it could happen. I didn't imagine it. But I never had limits on what might happen for me. So don't limit yourself and your beliefs about what's possible because you never know. Once you struggle and once you work hard enough and you get mastery in certain areas, you have no idea what new fields of opportunities are going to open up for you. So I say keep struggling, my friend. The journey is always worth it. 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.