How To Make Tough Decisions

Foreign. Hey, my friends, it's Brendon Burchard and welcome to the Brendan Show. This is a podcast about helping you reach high performance in your life, in every area of your life. It's about staying more motivated, more confident, more disciplined and on purpose. You know, the high performance experience is really about feeling more vibrant, more connected, more excellent, more fulfilled in your life. But it's also challenging you because you and I both know it's difficult to reach those levels of high performance without support, without ongoing commitment and dedication to your own personal development. So welcome to our HPX community. Thank you for joining us here on the Brendon Show. I'm super pumped for today's episode. Before we begin, I want to let you know that we have specials right now on our HPX nutrition line. If you didn't know it, I rolled out three specific products to help you with your performance. These are three specific supplements that will really give you the edge. Now, don't worry, I'm not starting an MLM or a downline. I'm not asking you to promote any of my products. And frankly, just like you, there's a lot of different companies and a lot of different products that I love and I enjoy and I'm not trying to compete with. It was specifically, I could not find three world class supplements that specifically helped me in these areas. So we've got HPX Optimize, which is a mental focus and energy product for your brain health. Then we've got Essentials, which is a functional multivitamin which we've basically enhanced for longevity, for joint health and for vitality and digestion. But what we did, instead of like making a multivitamin where they sprinkled a million different things in there that actually have no effect, we put in dosages here that you'll be amazed by. And then finally we've got HPX Organic Boost, which is the energy drink mix that I take because it's 100% organization organic. It's actually delicious too, I have to tell you that. So go check it out. Hpxwellness.com, everything you need to know is right there. And if you've ever wanted to know how to reach the high performance experience in terms of your biology and physiology, these products can really support you. Go to hpxwellness.com and without further ado, onto today's episode.

People in productivity always ask the first question. They say, well, Brendan, how do I evaluate things? Because I'm a productive person. But you know, what happens to me is I keep getting Distracted or I keep. I don't know which one to do. I've got two good options. I'm not sure which one to do. So first, if you have that dilemma a lot in your life, right? Two good options, then there's a simple recommendation I have for you. I There's a theorist, a writer, and a trainer named Rushworth Kidder. Kidder, like K I D D E R Kidder, who wrote a great book called How Good People Make Tough Decisions. And he taught that, you know, there's really only four difficult decisions. Because almost all the time, look, if there's a good decision, a bad decision, that's easy. If, you know, we all know good and bad decisions, that's the easy ones to make. The difficult decisions are when there's good versus good and you gotta choose between two good options. Which ones do you choose? He teaches a value framework for about how to decide that by teaching you, basically you gotta consider there's choices that are individual versus community, right? The stuff about you that you want to do versus maybe your family or your team. He talks about justice versus mercy, short term versus long term, talks about value and lots of other different frameworks. Read the book. But it really inspired me to go, oh, I got to come up with my own framework. How am I going to decide between two good options? And I want you to develop your own as well. I'll share with you my shorthand. I got two frameworks that help me every single time. They're like back and napkins, things I can do. That really helped me decide between two different things because I get offers all the time, as you can imagine. I'm like. It can be overwhelming. And so here's how I do it. The first one's my sort of simple and famous equation. It looks like this. This is my magical shorthand that helps me so much. The terms of any deal, the terms of any deal has to be less than ROI plus FV plus L plus pd. Okay, next up, just check it if you're here. It's a super simple one. Okay, I got option A or option B. I'm going to run them both through this equation. And whichever one wins is the one I'm most likely to choose. And if they're really close, I'll run them through the second framework I'm going to show you. So the first one is easy. Time, energy, resources, money. This means the terms of any deal have to be less than. So in other words, what I put into something, whatever I put into something has to be less than. What I think I'm going to get out. How many follow? Very utilitarian, right? Very utilitarian value here. If I'm going to put a bunch of stuff in, I better get more out, okay? And what I found is if I have a deal and I'm going to put a bunch of time into it, or energy, or resources or money, I better get more out of it. But what my magical thing was, was the S. This is the one no one ever thinks about. And everyone screws up and they make a lot of decisions. A lot of utilitarian minded people, very logical, very logical, strategic people make decisions based on time, energy, resources, money. And they forgot the S in the equation. And you have two think about every bad decision you ever chose versus something else. He said, I wish I wouldn't have done that. You just did not consider this thing called sanity. How much time, energy, resources, money and sanity am I gonna have to put into this thing? And I really gotta think about that. Cause how many of you ever did a deal with something where it literally you had to work with someone who drove you insane? Like I've turned down major television shows cause I met the producer teams and I was like no. Great money, great output, but the input of my own sanity, it would have driven me crazy. Entrepreneurs make this mistake especially all the time. You don't think about how much craziness is gonna go into something. You just get attracted to the time, energy, resources, money. You're not thinking about the lifestyle or the community or other things that could really shape how sane it is. Right. That's one thing I'm proud about with what we do with CHPC is like we make this a very sane, calming, comforting community. We step by step. It, it's not scary because I think a lot of other people, it's just easy to get attracted to things that drive you insane. And I think it's important for you all to care about your sane so you can bring the yes. Ok. So whatever time, energy, resource, money, insanity I put into something has to be this is less than sign. I learned that in math once has to be less than what I get out of it. In terms of roi, you know what that means? Return on investment. So this is a straight one to one. Whatever I put into it, I better get that out in investment, I better get that out. It better save me some time, build my energy, build my resources or my money or I don't want to do it. That's straight up return on investment. And then FV is where most people Fail to have strategy. FE stands for future value. Never do anything just for roi. This is where they wreck kids in business school. They wreck them because we're still teaching straight up balance sheet mentality the world. That's why our relationships are wrecked. Because we're trying to have a balance sheet scorecard with our spouse. We're trying to equate things out with our spouses. How's that working for you? And so we start ruining our relationships because we are trying to get that balance sheet just even. And in real life, we want future value built into deals. I want you, if you're gonna do something, I want you to be able to look out and say, wow, that's gonna benefit me in 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, 4 year, 5 year. Like, I can see how that moving that piece right now, that's gonna be a building block that's gonna serve me later on. And if you can't see that, whatever deal you're doing as a stepping stone, don't do the deal. And especially don't get trapped in the idea of thinking whatever deal you're gonna do is a final stepping stone. Cause a lot of people, especially when you're starting, you're like, that deal will change my life. That's it. That's all I need. I'll. That means your short term survival thinking, not strategic growth thinking. When you start thinking about future value, you make very different decisions. Very, very different decisions. It makes you write different books, it makes you build different programs. It changes the way you sell. It changes the products that you build in your company. You got to go back to future value thinking, including every little thing that you do. If you hire people, don't hire people to fill in a short term need. Hire future value players, right? Don't go out with somebody just because they're just there. Date future value people. Don't have short term friends just because you need to lean on somebody who's a complainer. Create friendships with future value people. Your job is to always be honoring and protecting and standing at the gates as guard and champion of your future. Everyone raise your right hand, say, my future matters. My future matters. So I have to be strategic. So I have to be strategic. The way to be productive is to be more strategic. The way to be productive is to do the things that add future value. You got to look past the short term, go for the long term plays, and the long term value will change your life.

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Then if entrepreneurs typically suck at sanity in their evaluations, then on the other side, they always fail on the big link lifestyle, they'll take the deal. Cause it's good time, it's energy, it's making a lot of money. It's not too crazy, it's not too crazy. I can handle it. But they're not thinking on the other side. Boy, if I say yes to that, that means I'm gonna be working 28 more hours a week. Who's ever said yes to something that made you work 20 or 30 or 40 more hours a week and you didn't anticipate it? Yeah, I've been there too. And listen, is that related to your productivity? Yes or no? Yes or no? Yeah. When you make decisions and you're not looking at the future value or thinking lifestyle, no wonder your short term productivity is wrecked because you said yes or jumped into something that wasn't your thing. It wasn't of your character, it wasn't who you are, it wasn't the lifestyle you wanted to be, it wasn't who you wanted to become. And that's because you didn't take into account personal development either. You didn't think, does this grow me? Does this make me be who I want to be? Some of your phones are going off right now reminding you of the words you want to live into. Is that happening for anybody right now? That's called keeping in mind the future. You too. The personal development is the deal. What you are doing going to help you grow into the best you. You can't keep saying yes or keep evaluating things and like, well, that sounds good just because it's good. Does it serve who you want to become? Write it down. Does this serve who I want to become? Not just what I need. Does this serve who I want to become? Not just what I need? Too many people who didn't do a good overview in psychology love to talk about just your immediate needs, your short term human needs, your short term psychological needs, and they act like you're just a reptile and you're just responding and you're a big bundle of preferences and, you know, you're a reactive, unconscious person. I hope that you have seen throughout the weekend you can be more conscious about your life. Is it true? Yes.

Yeah.

And I think you guys have been demonstrating that the whole weekend. So give yourselves a round of applause. You've been doing it. You've been doing it. And sometimes we do have to sacrifice whatever we sense our needs to be in the short term. No matter how we prioritize those needs. No matter how, no matter how we can justify. Don't you understand, honey? I need these things. You don't understand, guys, we need to accomplish these things. Because sometimes driving your life based on your needs isn't the way to advance your life. Sometimes we have to ask, what would I do if I was interested in who I will become here versus just what I need? That is Maslow's ultimate promise. Wasn't it study like psychology 101. There's a difference between basic human needs and ultimately what you would call actualization. The ability to become and realize your greatest potentials. And sometimes your potentials are way higher order than any possible current human need. So you must ask, does this deal, does this decision support who I want to become, not just what I need? Because think about how that applies in your relationships. You know what? I'm lonely. Here's this dude. I guess he'll fulfill the need right now. I ain't got no body. He is in fact some body. And you feel that short term need without thinking about the woman you want to become, Without thinking about the future value that that woman deserves, without considering the power that that woman is going to create and shape and move in this earth. And this guy going to be someone who chains you down. Yeah, he fits your certainty. Maybe there's some personal experience in the room. I don't know. Once in a while. I'm talking to everybody, but I'm talking to you. Same thing in business. You say, you know what? Oh my gosh, we're struggling on cash flow. You know what, let's start this new product line because that's going to be popular to fill this bleeding hole in the company. Oh my gosh, let's start this thing.

Let's do it.

Because everyone else is doing it. Seems to work. Let's do that. Fill that short term need without thinking strategically. Wow. Where do we need to position ourselves? What game do we want to play? What audience do we really want to be Involved in what higher caliber do I want to be? And we don't do that. So we make short term decisions that don't make any sense at the cost of a long term decision that could put us in play in a better position. It's why I say for me personally, one of the biggest decisions I ever made was joining Masterminds personally. Because I was like I need to put myself in play at a higher order group than where I would playing at the time. That was my understanding of my needs, where I'm at and what I'm spending money on versus where I wanted to go. That may be true for some of you in this room, but either way I need you to get the distinction and principle here. You need to make better decisions based on who you want to become, the lifestyle you want to enjoy, the future value you could get, not just roi. Those who are making decisions based on just their human needs are often not looking over the fence to that thing called the future. You gotta be much more further thinking in your lifetime than just what you currently value, than what you currently believe in, than what you currently like, prefer or unconsciously react to. You got to be strategic and thoughtful because life is so play the game well, don't play the game based on the needs or the values that established in your life because of your childhood or what you decided even last month or last year. We got to reevaluate so often as humans because why so many opportunities come to us. So many opportunities. And you know when you get overwhelmed, when you start saying yes to opportunities based on your needs because how many of you feel like you are an unending deep well of need? Anyone? Think about it, we are as humans, I mean we need so much. I mean even when we get stuff, we still complain about it, right? You get to drive up to Starbucks and get a $7 Macchiato Shakyati Latte thingies and you complain you don't get it in four seconds. You know, it's like we, we, we have so many of our, our basic needs and even needs no one could ever like. We complain when our phone doesn't work fast enough. You know, we're complaining like oh, autocorrect, autocorrect, some kind of algorithm invented by some genius somewhere, went across space and time, landed in your little box and guessed what you were about to write. And you're mad at the phone. Like we are never going to be satisfied based on our needs because we can invent needs all the time. You need an evaluative tool to use going forward in the big decisions of your life. All right.

Hey, it's Brendan. I hope you enjoyed that episode and I hope it helped you reach another level of high performance in your life, whether it's just a shift in your mindset or shift in your habits or a shift in your intention for the day. I really honor you for listening to the Brendon show, and I'm just deeply thankful. So could you do me a favor? Could you just go onto itunes or Apple podcasts and rate and review this episode or any of our episodes? And also while you're there to help me, just download the last five episodes too, onto your phone because, you know, Apple really cares about the downloads and the rating and reviews, and I've never really asked for that in six years of podcasting. And finally my friends convinced me to ask you to do that for me. I've never asked anything with my podcast community ever, but I'd really, really appreciate if you could do that. Also, if you would like some more in depth training, please don't forget that every single month I go live for two hours and teach new and original personal development research new frameworks to my entire virtual community in our HPX coaching program. And you can just go to hpxcoaching.com that's hpxcoaching.com to learn all about the different options there. But listen, I'm live two hours every single month with literally thousands of high achievers from around the world who tune in to get these new frameworks for reaching high performance in their life. Sometimes we talk about relationships. Sometimes we talk about breaking bad habits. Sometimes we talk about achieving another level of confidence or discipline or goal attainment. But we are there every single month and I'd love for you to join us. Just go to hpxcoaching.com to see all of your options and really join us. Dedicate yourself to personal mastery. Dedicate yourself to this journey. Not just once in a while with an episode here or there or a book there, but literally a program that could change your Life. It's called HPX Coaching and you can go to hpxcoaching.com until next time, my friends, Please remember, every single day you can choose to be average or ordinary or just kind of go through the motions. Or you can be more intentional, more disciplined, more excellence driven what you do, because you know you need to serve those you love and those that you lead, you can choose to be extraordinary. So my friends, go out there today and be extraordinary. Sam.