How to Make Better Decisions with Ed Mylett

You got to make decisions based on the ambitions you have for the future. Operate in motion towards that, not from what you are now or were, because you can learn, baby. You can grow, you can get better.

Today we're going to talk about something coming to this new year as you begin the new year that all of us need to be thinking more about, which is how do you make decisions? How do you know which shot to call? Whether that's family, business, money? Making decisions is what we're going to talk about today. So, brother, great to have you here.

Such an honor. I love this. Let's go.

Let's go, baby.

I love being on this show. Every time we finish the show, thousands of listeners say, oh my, that's an unbelievable episode. The high performance, the tactics, the strategies, but also just Ed's energy. You know, when we get together, it's like the room fills. I love it.

It's so true, brother. And by the way, we both know that it's not my energy, it's your energy combined with mine. And that's one of the things I want to ask you. Like, I've decided in my life to make different business decisions. And one of them was I've decided in 2024 I was going to be a part of growth day and, and this amazing environment that you've created. And, and I had to have some strategic things I to make the decision. So let me ask you this just to start out. When you make decisions, how much of it is gut instinct? Do you rely on instinct, intuition, your gut, or are you a little bit more, we'll call it cerebral, less heart, more cerebral. Where it's facts, data, figures. When you decide to make a conclusion and make and call a shot, how do you usually make your decisions?

Yeah, I think there's, there's almost two right there. There's strategy and there's performance. So I'll talk performance. First performance is listen before the performance or in the moment when you have to do something, you're less cerebral and you're tapping back into what you already know. Your flow, your preparation, your practice. So I would say in the moment, don't overanalyze, don't over decide, don't get stuck on overwhelmed. I could do all these things. No, no, you've already prepared, you've already practiced. Don't be in the moment. Win the game, make the decision. You know, you're in the conversation with your team, you already kind of know what to do there. If it's a longer term thing. Now we're talking Strategy, Yeah. Now I'm much more of a chess player. I gotta take a moment and not over commit myself. By the way, everybody listening closely, one of the great decisions of your life is not to over commit yourself. If you're going to make a decision this year, make the decision not to over commit yourself. So if it's strategic, I'm going to go, okay, let me take a step back, let me play some chess. Because I don't want to make the number one mistake in decision making, especially this time of year, which is over commit myself into a million things. I want to narrow myself strategically, and that just takes more thought and logic.

You and I were literally just talking about this before we went on camera about the different things that we're both involved with. And you're like, brother, I'm just basically involved in four things I've decided. I've got four things in my life that I'm running from a business standpoint. And what you just said is something really true. I think last year I made the mistake of over committing. And then we've all got these things on our calendar, our agenda. We're like, I kind of hope that cancels. I can't believe I agreed to do this. I'm saying we all have those things. But for me, I'll say, you know, I always like to learn from mistakes, right? Success leaves clues. We're all both learners, we're both curious people. You know, I have, as I've gotten older, become less impulsive when I make decisions. But when I was younger, I had this notion, I used to really believe that, man, if I just make a decision and I execute with ferocity, I'm going to win either way, right? I'll just win. And I still have, at some extent I believe that this notion of growing up right and wrong, which there are right and wrong things ethically and morally in life. But a lot of times you can over deliberate on a decision because you're like, I don't want to make the wrong one, I don't make the wrong one. But there's been a lot of times in my life where both would have worked. Both would work if I just executed the decision with a degree of certainty and ferocity, frankly, aggressiveness, where I'm going to make either one work. And for me, that's taken the pressure off me a lot in my life where like, not every decision is like, this one's going to work and that one won't. What I want to do is take the path of the most bliss, the Most joy, the most profitability, the best way to scale. But I think this notion of right and wrong, meaning good and bad, sort of paralyzes people to decide anything and then they just stay in this loop, this pattern of the way they live their life because they're afraid to get outside of it because they might make the wrong decision. You agree with that?

A hundred percent. And I think it's so important because people will delay on a decision as long as they can because then they can stay in the comfort of what they know.

Yes.

And so I always tell people there's no two week plus decisions except two things, Meaning every decision that you could possibly fathom in your entire life can be made in under two weeks. So if you're like, oh, I just haven't decided to write a book, okay. That doesn't take two weeks to decide you're going to write a book. Like, there's almost no decision that takes longer than two weeks. Two decisions take longer than two weeks. Number one, who to marry. Please, please don't do the Vegas marriage thing. They never turn out okay.

Very rarely.

You need more time in relationships, for sure. Number two, when to quit a job. Not if to quit a job. When to quit a job.

So true.

You want to quit a job. The if that decision, you can make that today day when usually you need to kind of play that chess out because it might take six months of financial planning, you know, sitting down with the budget, talking with family, looking out there, getting yourself ready. But outside of literally marriage and when to quit a job, every possible decision in your life can be made in this next two weeks. And I just say make it, force it. I literally, if I have a decision I have to make, it goes on a little post it note and it goes up on my little computer here, like literally right off, off screen here. And I force myself to look at the decision every day because it'll just, it'll tear me up inside until I make it.

Very good, though.

What most people do is they pretend they don't have to make the decision. They don't look at it anymore.

Yeah. One of the biggest compliments that I get, and I don't get a lot, but from people that know me well, is that I am a very decisive person.

Yes.

I've built the muscle of decisiveness. And the reason is, is I think that indicates a level of, that I have, that I can make something work or that God's going to bless the decisions that I make. But I, I have a really hard time. I don't know very many mega successful or happy people who are not decisive people, meaning they built the muscle. It's habitual now to call shots to make decisions. There's nothing worse than working for a leader who's indecisive or flinches or doesn't know or constantly needs more information. They've got almost like a perfectionist mentality about making the decision as opposed to just believing you have the tools and abilities to get into a room. Like for one thing, I really believe strongly is that most of the things that I've accomplished in my life or I've had happen were me deciding to move into a room in a space that maybe I wasn't completely prepared for, but I had the belief and ability. I will figure it out once I get in that room. But I got to get in the room, I got to get in the space. And you think about someone like Henry Ford who built this incredible company, built Ford Motor Company, right? Or Steve Jobs who built Apple. Those companies don't even resemble what they initially were built to become. Imagine if Henry Ford thought Brennan in the beginning, he's gonna build Ford Motor Company and someone started feeding him all the objections of why he shouldn't decide. Someone said to him, hey Mr. Ford, you know, someone has to fix all these cars and there are no mechanics and shops because there are no friggin cars, right? Or where are you going to get all the tires from? Or who's going to do these repairs? Or what about all the fuel? What about this? What about when there's emissions issues? What about someday? If you'd have thought through every single thing and someday there's going to be an environmental issue, an electric power, you'd never get started. But what happens is you make a decision based on the data in front of you, a little bit of gut instinct, you call a shot and you begin to execute, even though you know you're not completely prepared. I think most successful people, they're preparation freaks. You and I are both crazy about our preparation, but ironically on the other side of it, I don't need this threshold of knowing everything to take action. And people that are less successful or less happy, they have too high of a standard or threshold of what they think they need to know to be ready to take action. Yes, Steve Jobs with Apple it started out as a board company. Steve Wozniak's become a friend. He's come into arete with Andy and I in our coaching group and I asked him, did you ever think this is going to turn out this way? Of course not. We were trying to create a board company. He didn't know that the Internet was going to take off. And they're being maxed. They figured it out as they went. But they made decisions strategically in the beginning to start in jobs garage and start a company and get it going. Do you. Do you agree with that? Like, I think sometimes there's this nuance between you got to be prepared, the separations and the preparation, yet at the same time knowing you're not going to know everything. To call the best shot and make the best decision.

I agree with that. Complete. Well, first, I agree that you're incredible at being decisive.

Thank you.

You're incredible being decisive because you've run the reps. You had so much discernment because you were decisive that your decisions get better. And I always tell people, if. If you want to make terrible decisions for your life, don't make any. It's like what people do, they don't make any decisions. So now every decision is terrible because they have no practice. It's like if you go on a football field and you go to throw the football, you suck. But the more you throw the football, the better that you get.

Yes.

Being great at decisions as reps. So get in the game of making real decisions for your life. Adopt what, you know, psychologists would call that action bias, which you have. Ed, I've seen, he's like, you just make the decision. Okay, I'm gonna go in. And it's very much like, you know, even Jeff Bezos talks about. It's like you need to have maybe 60 to 70% of the information you think you need, then make the decision that's really good. You're never gonna have 100%. And what people do is they make the mistake of having what I just called the wrong payoff window. They don't make the decision because they think the payoff has to be tomorrow, immediacy, or the payoff has to be complete. Like, I get it all tomorrow. So they want all of it tomorrow, all the change tomorrow, and they want it to be complete and perfect. Instead, what you have to do is actually the payoff window of any decision. It's the second you make it, and then it's as you build it long term. You got to get in motion. Like you said. It's like you're going to figure it out. Confidence is actually your belief in your ability to figure things out.

So true. I think there's another element to this that's sort of insidious that I want to talk about with you for a minute. Then we'll talk a little bit about like investing and deciding when to start a business, when not to, when to shut one down. But I think a lot of people think, and I want everyone to hear this, have you actually really made a decision? In other words, they think they've made a decision, but what they've actually done is sort of enhance the negotiation with themselves. Meaning the idea of decision is to decide which is to cut off other options. So like you use marriage as an example. A lot of people say I've decided to get married, but yet the minute they're married, it's very conditional. They're in and out. They could be in, they couldn't be out. They decided to start a business, but really they haven't because it's still conditional on the price they're going to pay. Most people spend most of their time wasting their energy negotiating the price tag of things. What's it going to cost me? Is this worth it? Is it this. I'm going to have to give up this to do it. And that's a poverty mentality. It's a scarcity mentality. I know this because when I was poor, when I would go into a store, I wouldn't decide to get what I wanted. What would I do? I would flip price tags over. What's it going to cost me? What's it going to cost me? What's it going to cost me? I wasn't, I was doing things that I thought I could afford, not that I really wanted. And if the price was too high, I wouldn't get it right. And so I think a lot of people run their life that way. They run it with a poverty scarcity mentality, meaning they think they made a decision to start a business. But the truth is you may even quit your job. You may really be. But you haven't really decided to run your business. It's still conditional. And there's a point where you'll just give in and relent. There's a point where you'll sell your dreams up the river. There's a point where it's just too difficult. So that's not a real decision or maybe something in your relate it's not a real decision. Like it too easily you get back out of it. You're still negotiating the price, which to me is indicative of someone who's not decided. I think if you're listening to this or watching it and you're involved in a business or your, or your job or a Relationship, or it's a fitness program you're on, but you're still negotiating in your head the price you're paying. Should I. You have not decided, and that means you are not decisive. You think you made a decision, but what you've really made is sort of like an optional choice. You're trying, you're sticking.

Yeah, you're like, nickel, and you're like, nickel. And you think you're nickeling and diming the terms of some deal or decision, but what you're actually nickeling and diming is your time. You're nickeling and diming time.

Right.

It's like all this stuff that you're doing to figure out every little thing or to save a little bit money here on this little thing. It's like you're actually just wasting time. Make the decision like you're. You're. You're giving away bits and pieces and the real value of time. And that's the real ultimate problem with decision making is like, you don't. You don't get back that time where you ruminated about it for years. Regret is almost always. I didn't take action soon enough.

Yes. Yeah, I think it's. Here's the thing about you. I'll give a secret inside scoop about Brendan to all of you. When this dude does anything, he is all in. I mean, all in. So, I mean, we're talking about Growth Day. All in. You get to an event. All in. A speech, all in. A call, a podcast like this. All in. His marriage. All in. We do an event like the Beach Gang. All in. And there's something where the universe conforms to people who are all in. It bends to your will when you're all into something. And that's why this notion of if you actually really decided to get fit this year, I mean, like, really decided, it's not negotiable. You're not going back. You're depleting none of your energy on whether you made the right decision at all. You're in it. Or your relationship. Right. Or your business or your finances. Like you stopped all negotiation. There is a power to the will of a human connected to their higher power, their God. Who says, I am all in on this? Look at it this way. Your faith, whatever you believe in, your faith. Brendan and I are both Christians, but whatever your faith is, okay. Do you think your God's halfway in on you? Halfway in on your salvation? Halfway in on the fact that you were born for a reason? Half that. That, by the way, when you misstep or make a mistake, they're out on you. That's not how it works.

So the.

The relationship you value the most in your life, the one thing you know if you have strong faith, is that God, in our case Jesus, is so in on you, it's non negotiable. One that brings comfort, strength, safety, et cetera. And in business, especially in business, when you're with a leader who's all in, it creates safety in that company, it creates safety in that environment. When you see them waffle, they're afraid they're going to give in, they're going to renegotiate their commitment to you. Or this in a relationship, the minute you threaten a divorce in a relationship, the relationship is never exactly the same again. It can still be a beautiful relationship. But the truth is, once that line is crossed, and that's now a possibility, doesn't mean it's right or wrong that you've done it. It's just not the same anymore because that commitment has been by. It's not all in. And that's okay. Even if you're not all in. There should be probably things in a relationship that are conditional, right? So understand that. But what I am saying is once you've made that statement, it's different. And there are certain things, you know, someone does something to you repeatedly, you know, that relationship may not be for you. So there's nothing wrong necessarily with threatening a relationship, but once it's threatened, it's not the same again. And so the all in aspect means you've decided. And I think if you're not all in, it's not a real decision. You agree?

So powerful. You hit on. I want to listen to that riff like 10 more times so everyone listening, like just rewind. Hit that 30 second rewind button. That was so good. Everything you said, I think is so true. I'm reminded two stories. One is I got to work with Paulo Coelho.

Oh, wow.

Wrote a book called the Alchemist.

It's so good.

Changed my life. He has a line in there. I'm not going to say it exactly right because we're off the cuff, but it was something, a fact of. You know, when you have a dream and you decide to go for it, the whole universe conspires with you to make that happen. It's a real commitment. It's like the energy flow. God goes, oh, that's where you want to go. Let me align with that. It's just like.

It's a. It's a.

It's a force of Both decision and will. But there's an energy that comes along with it when it's all in. Like you said, I love that phrase, and I just think that it's so powerful. I remember reading that book and underlining that line, and I thought, you know what? This book just changed my life. I'd love to meet this person one day. I don't know. Ten years go by, I'm in my studio, and I had one phone. Remember the old phones? You plug it in the wall, you, phone rings in my studio, pick up the phone. Hello, Brandon? Yeah, this is Brandon. Brandon, Brandon, Brandon Broussard. I said, yes, this is Apollo Coelho.

And I go, hey.

I go, what? And what happened is my publisher had given him my contact because he was launching a new book, and he wanted some help with it and saw what I was doing in the US with these big book launches, and I got to fly out and spend some time with him at his home. And we did.

Wow, wow, wow.

Oh, yeah. I brought out, by the way, what was an early version of Breach Gang, our mastermind. We brought them out. So David Bach and Jeff Walker and a couple of. We brought him out. We had a day with Paolo. It was amazing. I spent another day and a half with him, and then we did a bunch of interviews and things for his book. I shared the story because he was one of my heroes, and I really wanted to meet him. When I went to sit down with him, one thing that blew my mind. We have four hours to work. Genius works in four hours. You have to commit to this time, and in this amount of time, we're going to really go now. I didn't know his real intention, intensity about it, and I kind of forgot about it. I thought it was going to be there the whole day. At the end of four hours, he stands up. It's like, that's it. That's what we had. You know, he put out those little cookies and a little tea. It was the end of the day, and it ushers me out of the house. And it really taught me the power of, like, really committing to time and to your craft and being all in on it.

Yeah.

Across the world, we got four hours to be all in on this section. And it really. It changed me forever because I just think a lot of people, even in their own craft, they're so lackadaisical. They don't. I'm deciding in this four hours, I'm going to crush it.

Yes.

Instead, they wander through the four hours, opening 40 tabs.

Yes.

They get nothing Done. He was all in on his craft and his time.

Do you think the four hour thing was his belief? Which, by the way, I tend to have some agreeance to that you. The sustainability of all in, in certain increments is a window of time. And then you do need to breathe and recuperate and rest and recalibrate. Do you think that's why it was four hours?

I think so, yeah. Because he believed you could do two of those blocks a day. So we do that. Then you'd go away. Then you'd have, you know, dinner and another working session.

Yeah.

And. But I think that his ultimate. The thing that blew my. The decision and the genius was we're going to decide to work really hard for four hours. How often do we do that in the modern era? Instead we go, I go to work, I'm gonna work hard all day. And. And the truth is you're distracted half the day. To decide to be all in on a block of time is one of the great high performance lessons I've ever learned. That's how decisive people get a lot done. They are making decisions to really go at something for blocks of time. And I think you can't separate great decision making or action without talking about time blocking. I think the other thing hit me so hard when you were talking about you made the decision you're all in on it is the emotional freedom everyone listening can have if you learn to own the decisions you've already made. I don't know if you were there or if you already left at our last event in Ultra, but a guy stood up at Ultra and he was struggling. He's like, I used to be so driven. I was so focused. And I asked what happened and he'd just recently broken up with a girlfriend. They were together for a while, thought the one they broke up, it was kind of tearing at him a little bit. And now he was kind of lost his confidence and his edge. And I said, well, who made the decision for the breakup? He says, well, I did. I said, okay, and now you're struggling. How long ago was this? It was weeks ago. And what was happening for him is his emotions were still unsettled about a decision he made. He can't take back. It's done. And I think a lot of people live with all this weight of decisions they made and it was the right decision, but they never owned it. If he owned that decision, that's the decision. This is not the right person. Then he can freely and joyfully go after new people. When he made that decision, even though it hurts and even though it's sad, there's a time for that. But when you're weeks and months later, it's about, oh, I'm not living now free because I made the right decision. So we have to learn to own the past decisions. A lot of people, their confidence is so low because they're still mad at themselves about a decision they made when they were 17 years old. They're still beating themselves up about a decision they made about their first business. They're on the third one.

You're right.

Part of living freely is owning the decisions. Okay, I owned it. I'm responsible. I'm complete.

I'm full.

I'm good with that. Because here's the psychological trick. If you hate yourself for decisions you made in the past, no wonder you're not making any now. 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 because I have a resource for you related to this episode and I have an upcoming meetup with my private group, Ultra. If you've ever liked to be in a private group with me where I help you get more progress towards your passion projects or to build your business or your brand in a bigger way, just go to progressmo.com click on private group to apply to see you can get into Ultra and we can take it to the next level by getting in person and meeting up virtually once a month online as well. Just go to progress mode.com every time.

You and I get together on the show every month, I know you know I get the same message you do. Thousands of people like this is just fire every single month when these two guys get together, particularly today, because what you just said is past regret. Beating oneself up, losing confidence and faith in oneself, looking in the rearview mirror of previous decisions is exactly why people don't make decisions to this day. Another thing you said that's really true. You said freedom. I think there's a misnomer that when you make a total commitment to something that you lose freedom. And I think the absolute contrary is true. I think a total commitment to a business creates freedom because now you can be laser focused and obsessed in that environment. I think a total commitment in a relationship, you haven't lost your freedom, you've gained the freedom because now you're not constantly looking around and navigating all of the time. That's bondage. Bondage is having a million different options and different things. In life. And the reason decision making is so important is we're in a world today where the options appear to be so vast and so much more than they used to be. Take someone who's dating, they went on a great date, you know, last night and. But they're on an app. And before, if that would be, maybe I'll make an investment in that relationship. Now, before they even get back on their phone, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They've got nine more options. So it's not really a commitment. And in business, there's all these different things. This coach, this guru, this idea, this software, this make a decision that will create the freedom. The lack of freedom is all these options. Options do not give you freedom. Now, I know that, you know, you want to. You know, certain countries limit our ability to do things. I get that. Having choice and free will is not what I'm discussing. What I'm saying is the lack of total commitment to something is a lack of freedom. There's something freeing. And the reason that matters so much is because you said this earlier too. I think most people underestimate the amount of focus, the amount of obsession that it takes to be great at something to get incredible. The laser focus and by the way, with the brakes. But you got lots of options. There's this adage of all millionaires have multiple streams of income. That's a fact. That's not true. So what most people hear when they say that is they go, well, I got to have nine different businesses. No, you don't. Nine different businesses. When you're starting out as a startup, you're going to be broke because you have. It depletes your focus. You gotta decide on one. Here's the truth. Most people became millionaires in one business. And then when they became a millionaire, then they diversified and have six or seven or eight multiple streams of income. So it's a fact. That's not true if I'm full speed and if I was trying to be an NFL quarterback. And so were you, but you also played golf, soccer, polo, and you were a competitive swimmer. And I'm trying to play quarterback. Voltage. I'm gonna kick your butt. Because I'm laser obsessed, focused on getting great at something. And you've depleted yours through too many options. So options are a killer of decision making and they're a killer of freedom. I believe this very strongly and I know you do too. You've got all kinds of streams of income now, but on your climb, you got great at something, right? You got a great at Something, then you diversify. True.

That's exactly true. Yep, that's exactly true. I think one way to look at it for people is if you have a high level of distractions in your business. The problem is all your decision making is going all across of them. You're not making any bold moves. And so most people who build wealth, they made a bold decision. They went all in on something, they built it up. I also think that's just a good rule of thumb is, hey, if you feel like you have a lot of distractions, I promise you're making less decisions. You really are. The distractions is a symptom of less decision making. When I'm super distracted, it means I didn't decide, did I? I didn't focus, I didn't choose. I'm just. I have all these distractions. So I think people have to learn. Like, no, no, you gotta really choose. You gotta narrow, you gotta focus. That's so important, which I know everyone knows. But I think you're exact. I think you really nailed something earlier Ed about there's so many choices.

Yes.

I mean, I think about. I'm glad in my life I chose two or three mentors. You know, you and I both were moved by work of Wayne Dyer.

Yes.

I was like, there's. I went to the bookshelves, there's hundreds of books. I said, I'm gonna buy all his.

Yep, that's what I did.

Yeah, it's like, it's like I didn't chose, I didn't try to follow 70 people. I was like, I'm gonna follow you and I'm really gonna go deep with them. And I think having a mentor is a decision. Not trying to have everybody, but just pick that one and. And spend a year with them. You know, we obviously, you and I have that with our Ultra members. It's like spend deep time with somebody. It's just different. I also want to say this. If distractions are a indicator or symptom of fewer decisions, I want to say something too. So is mental fatigue. If you are wiped out, you are burned out. Your brain is just exhausted. You don't even have any creativity or drive anymore. I guarantee it's because you're not being decisive. It's adding up all those distractions, all those parallel efforts, all those. It's like if you want greater peace of mind, it is being more decisive so you can focus on fewer things and really cultivate them and build them and see them through versus being torn apart in a hundred different ways. And a lot of people mentally are torn apart in a hundred different ways right now. They're so distracted and they have so many open lines of opportunity and things, their brain is exhausted all the time. So they're not doing any of them well. Just like your metaphor of being the quarterback and focusing on that versus 12 other sports.

You're right. I have, we all have that friend. You guys know that friend you have. Like, they just seem to have it figured out. You have that friend. You're like, you know that one. It's like, gosh, man, they just win. Like, they make smart decisions, you know, and you're almost like, if I just copied them, my life would be better. Of course that's not true. But you know, think about that one person you have. You're like, man, it's just. They got it going. They just, they call the right. They seem to know stuff other people don't seem to know. You know how y' all have that person. Okay, you know the person I'm talking about? Totally.

I think of you that way personally.

Well, that's who I think of. I think of you all the time.

Like, I don't know how Ed does it.

I am not just saying this so that we're both compliment each other. I was leading to that person's you for me. He just seems to, I don't know, you always feel like they got inside info, you know what I mean? Like, they just know stuff other people don't. I appreciate you saying that that person's me for you, but truly, Brendan, you're that person for me. And I think you're an incredible decision maker, which is why when we started to discuss what we were going to cover today, I really immediately gravitated to this topic. So I'm curious, like, for you, when you make decisions business wise, Brennan's just. You guys, he's just, he's remarkable. Okay, so are there any criteria for you? Like if you're going to invest in something versus not invest? Do you bet on the jockey or the horse? You know, is it, is it cerebral? Are there any other, like tactical things that when you're making a decision is part of your process and decision making for you? Because you are. I mean, this, I mean, we all have lots of very successful friends, but when I think of that person, I think of you who I think this person. Like, if I'm making an important decision, frankly, you guys, at this stage in my life, I think I'd call Brendan and say, hey man, I'm about to make this decision. What do you think? Probably that person I would call is Brendan. I don't even. I wouldn't even all amend. Probably he is that person that I would call. So thank you.

Voice text. The first thought would be, I got a voice text.

Ed, I appreciate that. I mean, I really do.

I want to hear your, your answer on that too.

Okay, Go ahead. You first.

I'll keep mine, Montana, simple for everybody. But this will be, I promise, if everybody listening, if you would write what I'm about to share with you down. It's an equation that I use. And I mean literally, it's an equation because if I don't, I'm lost. It's an equation and an acronym. So here's what it is. The terms of any deal, the terms of any opportunity, meaning what it takes to do the thing, has to be less than what we would consider the output, right? So the input has to be less than the output. But watch this. Let me take the terms into an acronym. So terms stands for time, energy, resources, money, and the one everyone messes up with when they're thinking about decisions, sanity. So if you write down terms T, E, R, M, S, time, energy, resource, money, and sanity. So whatever opportunity is, first I look at that, I go, okay, what's my time? How much of my energy, what level of my resources or my team? Any money. And how much of my sanity has to go into this? That has to be less than what I get out. And what I'm focusing on on the out is first, return on investment, roi. Everyone knows that one, right? Does it pay out? Does it, does it equal out? Return on investment plus fv, which stands for future value. I mean, I don't, I don't want just a return on investment. What's the future value of that opportunity, the future value of that business? The future value of what could be there in that relationship or that opportunity, plus personal growth, like, will I grow doing it, plus lifestyle. Does my lifestyle get better over time or worse? So on one side, I know I don't have a visual, but you can all see I'm. If you're watching this video, I'm literally telling him this. I'm not looking at anything. I've done this so many times in my head. So I'll summarize it. I have an opportunity to come up first. I go, okay, how much time, energy, resource, money, insanity terms have to go in this thing. I need to make sure that that is less than the roi plus the future value, plus the personal growth I feel, plus the lifestyle that will improve if that's not true, if I got to put more time, energy, resource money, insanity, and I don't get a good roi, future value, growth or lifestyle, it's a no. And it's the easiest no ever. If I didn't have that equation, I would be screwed because I'm a people pleaser.

You are, so am I. I would.

Be like yes, yes, yes and yes. But I never, and Ed knows this by me, I never say yes that quickly except for once. I'm all in. Like our partnership, what we do with Growth Day and Ultra, I'm like all in, but in almost every area, when someone comes to me or something, I go, that sounds fascinating. Let me think about that.

Yeah. And then also add to that because I think that's so good. I don't like adding to things that don't need any more additions. But what I, what I will say for me as one energy thing we share in common so dramatically, I really evaluate what energy is this going to require from me? What will I be left with and what energetically will I get back from it? And energy is my number one currency in my life. And by the way, part of, part of energy can come from actual currency. I can gain a lot of energy from having a lot of money from something too. So that is an energetic addition for me if it's financially rewarding. The other two things I always ask myself is do these things, this decision, if I make it, does it align with my values and, or my mission and my cause? And so when I say values, I don't just mean ethically or morally, although I do mean that. But there are things I value in my life now, like bliss, like peace, like harmony, like ecstasy and intensity and passion. And so I'll ask myself, does this, if I do this, does it give me more of what I value or does it contradict what I value? Morally and ethically is one thing, if it violates that, the decision is something I shouldn't do. We all know that that's our intuition that says this is wrong. Right? I shouldn't do this. But it's more than that. I value certain emotions and states of being and I want to know whether or not this decision ultimately long term will deliver on giving me these things. And then there are certain things that are non negotiables for me that I no longer want to feel. And is this is going to deliver to me things that I don't value, I mean, that I really want to avoid. Is this going to contribute to my anx, this is going to contribute to a high level of anger or frustration for me, then I don't want to do it at this stage. And so I'm not saying that you shouldn't do things that don't cause you stress or consternation or confusion because you should, because you should chase difficult things. I'm painting a distinction here. But does it align with my values long term? The other thing is, does it align with my mission or my cause or my crusade? And this I'm talking about whether I decide to go to dinner with a couple on another Friday night. If these are folks that I'm going to go, do they, do they align with my values? Do they align? If I go to dinner with these people, they're going to give me more of the bliss and peace and ecstasy that I want, the joy that I want, the passion that I want. Am I going to get those things if I'm associating with them or go to this dinner? Or does it take it from me and then does it align with my mission? And part of my mission is to contribute to the lives of other people, to give them more bliss and happiness, more joy, hopefully more confidence, more peace, more faith. So I put it through that filter and it makes things more clear for me when they're blurry. And so when I'm on the fence, especially you know how you all have those things, you're like, this one I clearly should do, this is a no brainer, or this one I definitely shouldn't do. Those are easy decisions, right? It's the ones where you're on the fence, it's in the middle, it's a little murky and gray, which means you don't see clearly. It's a vision issue. When I ask myself about things I value and my values and my mission and cause and crusade for my life, it clarifies my vision when I'm making a decision. And here's the other thing. I've accepted everybody. I'm going to make a few bad ones and that's okay. In other words, at the end of this conversation, you're hearing from both of us. I've already factored in, I don't know, 15, 20%, 25% of the things I decide aren't going to work out the way I thought they would. I may be wrong about them. It's okay because I don't have a lot of regret about decisions I make. If I've gone through the processes that we've discussed here today and the patterns I have factored into my life. I'm 52. I've made a lot of bad decisions. I've made a few really stupid ones too. But some of the decisions I've made, they just didn't work out. They were for the right reasons. But timing changed, the person changed. I misjudged something. Circumstances you could call the perfect play in football. I just watched it this weekend wide open. It was this last weekend. The Chiefs had this amazing play. All of you saw with if you watch football. It was a pass to Kelsey at the end of the game. And then he reversed passes the ball back to this guy I think named Tony who scores a touchdown. It was like this amazing play. I probably have the players names wrong. They're going to win a very close game. And the referee threw a flag and it negated the entire play. And guess why? The receiver who ended up scoring lined up offsides. His foot was a foot too far offsides. Now does that mean the coach made the wrong decision to call the play? No. Does that mean Mahomes the quarterback threw it to the wrong guy? No. They did everything right. But sometimes circumstances are just going to dictate not everything works out. That's why we have faith, right? That's why we live another day. That's why every day is so valuable. So the last element for me, and then I'll let you finish yours, Brennan is I'm okay knowing going in I can have the perfect formula and system. And in 2024, 2025, hopefully 2055, if I'm still here. Some of the things I decide aren't going to work out the way I think they will. However, I believe there's a grand plan for my life and some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. To quote Garth Brooks. Right. It's a lot of the things that doors have closed for me have opened up. Other ones Jamie Kern Lima talks about sometimes God's rejection is God's perfection or protection, your protection. And so I'm okay knowing it gets me in the overall direction. I'm supposed to be moving towards my true north. And that's okay. And it should be okay for all of you guys. So I'll let you have the final word on decisions, brother, because today's been so valuable for me. So I've decided to let you go last. So what would you add?

I don't know that is so valuable for people to hear, especially evaluating against your values and your mission. I think that really resonates and I think that, that by doing that is how you maintain your sanity in life. That's how you maintain your character. That's how you maintain that sense of integrity with your soul. Because if it just, you know, if you make those terms, equations and you don't consider sanity, that happens when you stray from who you really are. It hurts later on, but when you get it right, it's just, it's game changing. You feel like you're on purpose, you're on path. And when you're on purpose, you allow a lot of messages. When you're on purpose, you allow a lot of, you know, difficulty because you know that's, that's what it's hard. It's hard to live purposefully. It's hard to make big decisions. So you have to give yourself that grace. And that's what people do. They, they have the bias of action and they know they're going to pivot and move and weave and bob as they're moving in direction. Because most decision making is direction making. And you know you're going to move in that direction and you're going to get hit seven ways from this car and that car and this person, this thing and everything, and you're going to get bounced around a lot, but you're moving swiftly in a direction you will find in bob and weave. Just like, you know, a football player makes that decision of what that play is, or that fighter makes that decision of what the strategy is. They're going to move with that, but they're going to move with the opponent, they're going to move with life. And so I think that's important is like just knowing most decision making is direction making. And when you do that in the direction of your purpose, you almost always end up in better places. And then my last thing well, parted with this. Be attentive to whether or not you're making decisions based on your current circumstances or your old circumstances or the peer group around you. Is the decision you're making based on circumstances or community that you had or you have, or are you making decisions based on the future you want to build? Most people are operating based on their current competencies, what they know, what their current skill set is and the job. If you want to have an extraordinary life, you want to become, quote, unquote, ultra successful, like we talk about in ultra is you got to make decisions based on the ambitions you have for the future, operate in motion towards that, not from what you are now or were, because you can learn, baby, you can grow, you can get better. And so make ambitious decisions because you can grow into the person in that direction you're traveling in.

Very good. That's really good. Make decisions with some ambition because you can grow into that person. Yes, one of those. Like he said earlier, go back and repeat that one to yourself and really give yourself some chance to ponder what that means. Because most of us are making decisions at our current level of awareness, and that's their limitation. And that why, that's why our life repeats itself, because we're making out of our current level of awareness without factoring in our own ambitions and capacity to grow.