Develop Your Intention

Most people are just going through the motions in their careers, in their industries and their professions. They show up, they do the work. It doesn't mean they're not hard working, but they don't have a deliberate practice of getting better and better and better. Meaning they're not getting step changes of improvement over a period of time. And that's why they get stuck. As an example this time of year, so many people are going to go to the gym and they're going to go to the gym. They're going to have, listen, they're going to have the intention get healthy. They're going to have the behavior go to gym. They're going to go to the gym every Monday and Thursday. So they've got a habit, but they don't develop a practice of actually getting better in the gym. First, intention. I want to change. I want to live a good life. I'm going to figure out how. I didn't know how. I was just sad, very desperate and very hurt young man. And that's what turned me to personal development, to self improvement, to self help, later to psychology, later to philosophy, later to neuroscience, later to high performance studies. That was my arc. I just said, I got to figure this out for myself. I got to figure this out for myself. And then later I was able to transform and in every area of my life because the simple model beginning with the conscious choice, the decision, the intention. I'll give you an example. I know this. I don't want to be too philosophical about it. Philosophical, philosophical. Philosophical. Sounds good. Okay. I wanted to make sure. Okay, I got to figure this out. I'll give you a great example. I get asked this every time I do this about communication. This not natural for me at the beginning. The first time I turned on a video camera was a painful day. I still remember because you ever try anyone ever done video where the first time you turn it on you're so awkward and awful. It's just terrible. It's like you think, how could I be any worse? Because I bought a flip video camera. Some of you might remember how old this, a little flip video camera. I duct taped it to a box. I pressed record, I went there and I sat and was like, hi, I'm Brendon Burchard. It doesn't sound right. Hi, I'm Brendon Burchard. No, hi, I'm Brendan Burchard. I couldn't. I was like, you're doing video and you can't even introduce yourself. You do like 30 takes to introduce yourself and you're like, this is awful. I was awkward in front of people. I wanted to speak at that stage in my life, but I was very, very, very embarrassed and shy to talk to people. Even though outwardly people thought I was a happy go lucky kid, internally, I was super insecure. And I wanted to be a leader, though, and I wanted to communicate. And especially after my car accident, I got very clear, if I'm going to matter, if I'm going to make a difference in what I feel is the impulse or the direction or the calling of my life, I need to learn how to talk. I know that sounds so simple, but I know we have some introverts out there who understand what I'm saying. It's like we have to learn how to talk and express ourselves. And because we have the internal stuff going on, But I didn't know how to take it out of here and put it out there. You know, we're 37 minutes in. I haven't looked at a note yet because I've been able over the years to have that intention. And I took that intention, and then I made a behavior. I said to myself, okay, every opportunity I have to speak, I will take. I remember I was in school back then, so I just, hey, oh, we get to share our report. Okay, my behavior is going to be. I'm going to try to give the best speech I can in class. And I made a complete fool of myself in front of my classmates trying to talk, but I was trusting in the process, and I just thought, that's part of it. And that behavior became a habit. I always raised my hand to speak up. I just started making a habit. I'll raise my hand to speak up, and if there's a chance to speak, I'll take it. Then became a practice. Okay, I started shooting videos, and I forced myself to shoot a video almost every day. And then I'd watch it, and I'd be like, oh, it's still hard. Don't worry, it's still hard. Watching a video of myself, it's just like, especially me. Have you ever tried to get a thumbnail of me? It's impossible. Like, you know, my poor team. But it became a practice. Every day, just teaching, talking, sharing. And now today, I can do nine hours on stage straight through. I can share 15 to 20 different models for human behavior change, for motivation, for confidence, for great relationships, for productivity. I can go hours and hours, 3, 4, 5 days with almost no notes because it's a second nature. Now, that intention to become a good communicator the raising of a hand, the trying every time, the repetition, but not just doing it a lot. Looking at it and asking, how can I perfect that? Getting feedback from others, how could I have done better? What else could I have tried there? That's what a practice is. A practice requires feedback, doesn't it? You can do yoga in your house, but if you go to a class with an expert teacher and they adjust you to that's more perfecting practice, what we call a deliberate practice, you're getting the feedback that's making you better. So trust me, millions of people have given me feedback and I'm sorry, after millions of people giving me feedback, this is as good as it gets. I'm sorry, I'm still working on it, but now it's just who I am. I'm this annoying all the time. It's just you learn to be yourself and to do your thing. This is my thing. But notice it began with intention. I want to be a better communicator. So what's your intention this year for what skill sets you need to develop that's really related to that mission and that career part of Most people are just going through the motions in their careers, in their industries and their professions. They show up, they do the work. It doesn't mean they're not hardworking, but they don't have a deliberate practice of getting better and better and better. Meaning they're not getting step changes of improvement over a period of time. And that's why they get stuck as an example this time of year, so many people are going to go to the gym and they're going to go to the gym. They're going to have listen, they're going to have the intention get healthy, they're going to have the behavior go to gym. They're going to go to the gym every Monday and Thursday. So they've got a habit. But they don't develop a practice of actually getting better in the gym, better with their form, better with their, better with measuring what they're doing, understanding their sets, tracking their weights and actually improving. That's where you see a person at the beginning of the year for three months, they go to the gym. And you know what? That's a great intention, great behavior and great habit. But because there's no deliberate practice in improvement, what happens? Well, one person who goes to the gym for three months versus another person with a deliberate practice. The person at the end of the three months, everyone goes, must be her genetics, you know. And you start telling yourself this story about why people are getting ahead better and faster and differently than you, that they're blessed in some crazy way when usually nine out of 10 times, they had a more deliberate practice. They were getting feedback, and they were adjusting ever so slightly along the way, they were perfecting that practice. And so every day, it was a compounding effect of perfecting that practice, where a period of time, it's like, whoa, in three months, they've got some abs showing, and in three months, you're still forcing yourself to get to the gym. That is the difference of this model. And it doesn't mean. Notice there's no judgment in it. Notice. I'm not talking about personalities. What we're talking about is, is intentions, behaviors, habits, and practices. That's what we're talking about.