Fueling Growth with Inspiration and Encouragement

I always tell people, like, well, you need inspiration a lot. You need inspiration more than you think. It doesn't mean you can't show up and do the work if you don't feel the inspiration. Right. That's called discipline. Just do the thing. But at the same time, it's like, if you can summon it and you can summon it more often, it's magical. I'd like to talk about that topic of inspiration today. I really believe most people truly miss out on feeling inspired in this lifetime. And it's not because they're not appreciative. It's not because, you know, they're not good people. It's because they've never decided how they want to be inspired. And then condition the habits that ensure that that happened over and over and over again. You know, I feel the same thing about any emotional quality or sort of personality trait, if you will, that we want to experience in our life, that we can build those. You want to be a confident person. Okay. You have to decide what that. What does that mean to you? How would that feel? How can you develop some of that? How can you develop that over and over and over again as a habit until one day that's just who you become? I think inspiration is very similar. So here's four ideas for today. Number one, where do you get your inspiration? When push comes to shove and you need to be inspired, you need to feel that energy, that creativity, that motivation, or just that hope? Where do you get it? Do you know? Where do you turn to for inspiration? Who do you turn to for inspiration? I think this is so critical. So critical. And when we don't know that, when we don't have that answer, then in those moments in which we are not feeling it, we don't have anywhere to turn to. And suddenly what do we do? Well, I don't feel it, so I guess what I'll do is browse the Internet, scroll through social media. In other words, we choose worse habits because we just don't know where to get the very thing we want or how to create the very thing that we want. So where do you get it? I think that's so important, and that's different for everybody. Some people, you know, when they're just not feeling it, they get inspiration from thinking about the future of their children. Some people, they get it by looking to a mentor, a hero, right? Who do they look to? They might have a grandparent, someone who's alive with them now or passed. And they just think about their legacy, and they just think about, okay, there's some inspiration there. Maybe they do find somebody on social media. They're like, I gotta see what that person's up to, because that person inspires me with their attitude. I'm agnostic about where you're gonna get it. Maybe you get it from God, universe, luck. I don't know where you get it, but you better know where you get it, my friend. Listen, striver, you got a lot to do in this world. You gotta stay inspired. You got to know, where do you turn to for me, you know, where do I turn to for inspiration? I mean, some simple things, some silly things. I mean, sometimes when I just need some, like, an emotional charge of inspiration, I will literally go on YouTube and look up old, like, American Idol contestants in their first, you know, their first tryout, or what do they call it? Their audition. And just seeing that, you know, impossible story of somebody who everyone doesn't really think is going to do something, and then they're soaring on stage minutes later, that gets me fired up. I feel an emotional access point. I also, as many of you know, on a daily basis as part of my morning routine, I tend to read out loud a spiritual text or a inspirational passage from some spiritual text I'm studying, or some from poetry or some great personal development passages that I love. And I'll just read them out loud, literally just vocalize them, project them, as if I was on a stage. And all of a sudden I feel a different kind of energy come into my life. Sometimes I just think about my dad, who, many of you know, I lost in 2009 to acute myeloid leukemia and that whole process of losing him. And also the legacy of the values he taught me, be yourself, be honest, do your best. Treat people with respect, Take care of your family, Be a good citizen, Follow your dreams. So I think about the people who impacted me and their values and the hardships they faced. I think about what they went through, and I want to fight for them and live a good day because of them. The second idea is to know when you need inspiration. And I always tell people, like, well, you need inspiration a lot. You need inspiration more than you think. It doesn't mean you can't show up and do the work if you don't feel the inspiration. Right? That's called discipline. Just do the thing. But at the same time, it's like, if you can summon it and you can summon it more often, it's magical. That's why I had that morning routine, to summon up that vocal use of speaking and Projecting these amazing words by other people that inspire me. I know I need that boost in the morning. I know for me, as an example, I need inspiration right around 2 o' clock every day. So I tend to do a release meditation technique, which you can look up on YouTube if you haven't seen it before, the release meditation technique. And I just do that for 20 minutes and then I think about my intention to serve. And so it's literally a morning thing and a 2pm thing. I'm that specific. Okay. That's when I need it. And I'm going to develop that as a routine. I'm going to do that on a consistent basis. So I'm firing it then. Because remember, just like any other energy or emotion you want, you can summon these things. I don't hope that I get inspired. I do all the things that are critical to create that result in my body, in my mind. And yes, some people are like, well, that feels like forcing. I'm like, yeah, I have to force it sometimes. You know, it's not like every single day on when I was traveling, doing eight huge seminars a year and all these keynotes, dozens throughout the year on the biggest stages in the world. Being the motivational guy, there were sometimes backstage, I didn't feel like it, but I knew I had a moment to serve and I had to summit. I had to tap into it, I had to align with it, I had to allow it. I had to ask Grace to enter. I had to hope and pray and meditate in order to feel it more. There's times when you got to serve. Hey, you had a long day, but now you got to go in to your kid's bedroom and you got to teach them some math, how you show up, your energetic state during that time, they associate with you and homework. So, yeah, sometimes we gotta summon the energy. It's okay, we gotta do it. So when do you need inspiration? Some people need inspiration, you know, before that meeting. Some people need it before they write. Some people need it before those things. I'm always, you know, there's this whole genre in personal developments, like, well, don't worry about inspiration. You, you know, if you don't have it, keep doing it anyway. I'm like, well, yes, and summon it. Figure out how to tap into it, how to create it. So when do you need inspiration? I'm always thoughtful about that. Do I feel inspired to do my best work right now? Oh, I don't. Okay, well, I'm gonna do my work right now. Doesn't mean stop. It means okay, I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna get in the groove. I'm gonna start getting in the groove. I'm gonna start finding my place. It's kind of like going to the gym. I'm not inspired to work out when I go to the gym. But, you know, by that second set, I've got the blood flowing, the music's pumping. I'm seeing other people working out. I'm starting to feel it a little bit. Okay, hey, here we go. I'm getting in motion and summoning, creating or tapping into that feeling as I go. Third, I think it's important. So much of inspiration is really not something you get from others. It's not something you get from a routine. So much inspiration in life actually comes from what's called creative expression. Many of you know I wrote a book called the charge, activating the 10 human drives that make you feel alive. It was my first book based on my neuroscience studies. And while we made a popular literature book out of it, it was a book that was very much grounded in academic literature and research in neuroscience. And one of the things that we know lights your brain up and drops that dopamine hit for you, makes you feel amazing, is creative expression. And as we creatively express ourselves, we report feeling more inspiration. It is a consistency thing. The more the artist paints, the more inspired they feel to paint. Getting in motion, doing something. But creative is so important to your long term inspiration. So maybe you used to dance, maybe you used to draw, maybe you used to write, maybe you used to sing, maybe you used to just take a Saturday and doodle or read. Maybe you used to have some kind of creative expression that really made you feel alive. And it's time to revisit that thing more often and suddenly, wow, inspiration is here more often. Creative expression, oh, so important. And what I love about that is creative expression leads to inspiration. You don't have to wait for the inspiration to creatively express. Do the thing, feel the feeling. Fourth last idea. I don't know of a more powerful, magical and guaranteed way to get inspiration in your life than through contribution, giving, volunteering, be of service to others, and suddenly the spirit enters. Suddenly it's a different game. Now I know that people have said, well, that's easy for you, Brennan. You literally spend every day trying to change people's lives and help them improve their behavior, achieve their dreams faster. That's easy for you to say. Not everyone contributes. I'm like, oh, no, everyone contributes. They just don't acknowledge it or don't have the intention for it, but it's there. We're all contributing and sometimes we get inspiration when we recognize it. When we recognize it, oh, I did a good job today. I helped somebody today. I'm trying today. It's not about having everyone else understand you and cheer you on. It's about just going, yeah, I recognize I'm doing something good in the world and I think that's so critical. The fastest way I've ever found to find inspiration is through volunteering. When you get out into the world and you get around areas of need, humans in need, and you serve, or that's, you know, you volunteer at a soup kitchen, you build them a house, you teach them a class, you help them deal with a health issue, a family issue, a personal issue. When you truly volunteer from your spirit with no expectations other than just to do the act of human goodness, I promise inspiration will be in your life way more to this day. I've never found a more powerful tool than finding great inspiration than volunteering. I hope you'll think about it. If you don't have a volunteer practice, that might be why the inspiration isn't at the top levels. It could be for you, just an idea. It's not about changing everything in our lives, but it's always about considering how do I improve. And today you made self improvement a way of life. Just start writing out. What are the conditions that make you feel inspired? What routines can you start to feel inspired? What does inspiration mean to you? How can you cultivate it more? And how might you be able to give it to others once in a while? So do the work and watch. You'll feel inspired along the way because as we do growth, we realize, wow, every day I can feel inspired because every day is a great day to grow.

Hey guys, it's Brandon. I'm jumping in here real quick. First, I want to make sure you've gone to progressmode.com to join the newsletter.

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Really believe the world needs so much of this right now. I have been sharing this really strong since, gosh, the middle of the first year of the pandemic. And that was just. We have to be those who choose optimism. We have to be those who choose to. To demonstrate our humanity and our connection with others by recognizing that it's a rough road for many, that it is part of the human story, that we all struggle and that we have to empathize with one another. But we must go above empathy and also encourage. Lots of people care for others, and lots of people have lots of empathy, but they have that empathy in silence. They watch others from afar and, oh, it's such a bummer she's going through that. But they never step up to help, to encourage her, to support her through encouragement. Is the active service part of love, of empathy? Empathy is a feeling. Encouragement is an action. And I really believe that that's critical to recognize. For those of you who are attempting to be role models to your family, your friends, your community, it's important to realize that we set a tone, an example that, as Booker T. Washington taught us, there's two ways to exert strength. One is pushing down, the other is lifting up. Encouragement is about lifting others up. So four ideas for you today. Striver number one. I believe the heart of all encouragement is sharing with others that the future holds good things for them. I know if you've been in my community at any time in the last, I guess, 20 years since my first book came out, 15 years since I've been online and teaching, and that is, I've always said, you are stronger than you think and the future holds good things for you. I must say that every single day in some capacity over 15 years to somebody, and I think that is so incredibly important. It's central to my message and my belief in that. Most people, sometimes they need that reminder that they're stronger than they think, that no matter what they're struggling with what they're going through, that they have the capacity within them to be resilient, within them, to get up, within them to start again. They have a capacity within themselves to choose to keep fighting, to keep going, to keep pulling themselves up. They have a capacity to ask for help. They have a capacity to get better. And it is in that potential, that remarkable human potential that is our full capacities and powers within that we sometimes need to tap back into. And we forget. We lose perspective, we get down on ourselves, we feel discouragement, the opposite of encouraged. And suddenly we stop, we halt, we feel Sad. We judge ourselves and we get in this downward spiral of self judgment, doubt, delay and fear. And sometimes someone has to just check our perspective, remind us that we're stronger than we think. And importantly, let us know that that next horizon line is still hopeful. That that next place, that next day, that next chapter of our lives still has something for us, that things can get better, that we can get better. That in this world of personal development, those two fundamentals that Rousseau wrote about so long ago, that we have that free will and liberty and we have that capacity for self improvement. It is what I've always felt deeply in my heart. People need because that encouragement, it's not, you know, cotton candy, self help. That encouragement is a soul deep recognition that life can be difficult for one another, that each of us has dark days and dark nights and dark weeks and dark valleys and dark seasons. And that it is part of the human psyche to really get down on ourselves and, and that it is often because we are social animals, somebody else can inspire that light, inspire that lift, inspire us to change. So who needs your encouragement today? Who could use a note of appreciation, a simple gift, a call, a text, an audio? Who needs you to see them or hear them today? I know so many people who don't recognize the need of encouragement from their kids, from their spouse. There is not a person you're going to interact with today, whether it's in real life or through zoom or a phone call, who wouldn't appreciate some encouragement in that call. You're thinking, no, no, Brendan, you don't understand my testy teenager. They don't want to hear anything positive from me. Yeah, they'll appreciate it. They might not right now. They might be in that rebellious stage. They might not hear it. You might be talking with your spouse and they're in a bad mood or the team doesn't get it or something is going on. But trust me, after a pattern of encouraging others later on they will say, that person helped me a lot. That person changed my life. I'm here to tell you, growth day as a community, as a striver, be that person for somebody. Second idea of our encouragement today is humility. To have the humble nature of a servant leader that realizes you don't just, you know, stand at the sidelines and cheer people on, but you walk the path with them. To have the humility to get down on bended knee with those who you are in fight with, to pray, to hope, to strive together, to have the humility to know that you're not the expert of all things. You're not the captain of all ships. You're not the perfect picture that we must be careful about casting stones from our glass houses. We must recognize that we're not above other people. That real encouragement, you know it when it's from someone else because they bring it to you as if they were a brother or a sister on the path of life together. You know, I am a student of history, as you know, and one of my favorite encouragers of all time, of course, is Martin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And his humility in speaking to the world as if we were all brothers and sisters was something that the world took note of and inspires even to this day, that it was I have a dream. But the context and the actual verbiage was about we, us together changing something. And I think it's important to realize that through all the great works of any revolutionist, any great leader, any great movement maker, there was a humility. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, there's a humility there even in some great wartime leaders, if you will, people who are celebrated for their grit and their, you know, their blood, sweat, toil. As a Churchill as example, had humility in the finer moments in which humanity was expressed. Their doubts, their fears, their concerns, their common hope for the future of humankind. I really believe that what happens is sometimes we get so successful we forget to encourage others. We're so supported by others and it's easy to get that honestly that narcissistic or that superior view that we are, you know, quote, unquote, better than others. And oh, let's judge them. Oh, we'll judge that person. She's not, you know, this, he's not that. And we judge others as somehow lesser intelligent or lesser than ourselves. And when we do that, we poison our own humanity and our own future. That the humility of recognition in others without judgment is what opens up your heart to real service and real encouragement that can be felt. Third idea is encouragement is a lot of times listening and recommending, not necessarily answering. And what I mean by that is many of you know, I make my real life as and my higher income as a coach. And I'm a certified high performance coach. And as a high performance coach, what I do with most of my clients is really listen and then help them generate their own options, help them on their process of discovery to attune to what would be right in their life, what their next right actions of integrity would be through the process of dialogue and understanding that there's questions that one can ask to help others lift to higher levels in whatever area of their life. A higher level is a mom, a caregiver, a leader, a contributor, an artist, an athlete. That when you pose the right questions because you've listened well, then it opens up gates of awareness that they have, not that you came with the answers. 9 out of 10 sessions I've gone into in my life over 15 years, full time as a life coach and then a high performance coach, I have easily, easily known that I don't have the answers. That is a process of collaboration and conversation. That the right next step or the next opening of clarity happens. It happens together. When the spirit in which we are having conversation is an encouraging one for people to share, to be vulnerable, to think of crazy wild ideas, to dream without judgment. That a lot of that encouragement is holding the space for a person to grow into, for holding the conversation for a person to sense that it's allowed for them to express themselves. And that's really important. And I really believe if you are drawn to that type of ideal, then you're called to be a leader or a person of influence or a coach. And for those who are interested in becoming a high performance coach, by the way, we have our annual certification coming up for certified high performance coaches. You can just go to growthday.comchpc that's growthday.comchpc that stands for Certified High Performance Coaching. Growthday.comchpc But the idea is whether you become a coach with us or you're coaching somewhere else, or you're leading somewhere else, or you're just being that role model in your family, hold space for others to feel encouraged and to have the conversations about their life that are vulnerable and future oriented. Last big idea for you today, and that is encouragement, is about appreciation, acknowledgement. And the best way to do that is through shout outs to just recognize others in public. Recognize members of your team on a team call. Recognize others when you have a good meeting with them. Recognize others when they clean the house well, you know, make their bed, when they are nice to their sister, when they do something kind or moral or thoughtful. Give them a shot of appreciation. Let them know that you appreciate that, that you recognize that, validate that behavior. And as importantly, recognize during these times in which there's so much division and distraction that a simple shout out with the voice text can change someone's life. As many of you know, one of the recommended habits I suggest to everybody every day is to send five encouraging texts to people you love or lead. And for me, I always Send those as audio texts. Every single day, I send about 5 of those to friends or family and they're just quick little, you know, one to three minutes of encouragement telling them that I love them, telling them I'm cheering them on that day, telling them I'm thinking about them, telling them that they're in my heart or I'm praying for them, whatever it is, I just feel like it's a powerful action to demonstrate that encouragement not once in a while on their birthday, not once in a while during the holidays. But no, every day, send five pieces of encouragement to an individual, not just on the Internet, not just to your followers, but to your actual family and friends or those you are blessed to lead or serve with. I think that's really a powerful, powerful thing. If you don't encourage yourself, if you don't fill up your cup, if you don't recognize, care for, and draw worth from who you are, it's hard to connect to the humanity that reminds you to do that for others as well. And I really believe right now in this world, we all got to get a little more mindful with our ourselves and we got a little get more inspired in how we intend to relate with others. Try it right now. Send five texts to your friends or family or someone you love or serve with and cheer them on to have a great weekend. I think if you can do that, you can remember that every day you have a chance to be a role model, an inspiration, a positive force of goodness in this world because every day is a great day to grow.