How to Reach A Higher Level of Excellence

When you are over committed, you can't over deliver. So you need to protect what's on your plate. You need to be a zealot about what you say yes to, about how you plan your day. Because the more you tip over an over commitment, which many people are, they don't set their boundaries or they say yes or no at the wrong time, and all of a sudden they're so overwhelmed. If you're overwhelmed and you're over committed, how can you over deliver? How can you reach a higher level of excellence in all you do? Excellence in your relationships, excellence in your career, excellence in your personal life. It's a tough one, right? Because we all want to play our A game. We all want to be our best. But sometimes we get tired, we lose clarity, we burn out. Other people around us don't understand us. Other people around us aren't playing at the same level of excellence. And it can be frustrating. I get it. That's why you're here. Today we're gonna talk about the five things you can do to dramatically increase your ability to deliver excellence. These are like the values of excellence. When I work with the world's top performers in any areas, they're always doing these five things. I mean, almost never are they doing it completely consciously. And almost never, though, do they fail to do these five things. You're going to want to get a journal and you're going to want to be thinking about your life right now. I honor you for being here. Because you know what? In personal development, look, it's so easy to take personal development casually, but what makes personal development really work is when you do the self analysis. When you hear a topic, even if it's common sense, but you really ask, am I doing that? Am I showing up as my best? Am I being consistent about that? Those are the times, the real breakthroughs, the real transformations. And frankly, the huge progress comes. So I know I'm sort of talking to the choir today. Double high five. I wish I could be there, hug you, cheer you on. I respect the fact that you care about your personal and professional development because tens of thousands of people have the opportunity to be here. But you're here, so I honor you. This is a worldwide community of people who really want to be their best. And you and I both know there's a lot of people in your circle and in your life who don't have the same values of excellence as you. So this is going to be a really important session to help you realize how do you maintain your edge and keep Delivering with excellence and keep living an extraordinary life. But also, how might you kind of cart along some people? I hope you're listening for two things. You're listening for what's true for you. Do that self analysis, challenge yourself, be honest. But also be listening through that lens of a leader. You know, how can you use these concepts or these values or these strategies that I'm giving you every single month from, like the absolute best people in the world? How do you use that to inspire your community? Whether that's your three kids or that's your coworkers, or that's the people who you lead and serve every single day online. I always want you to wear those two hats. How. How does this apply to me? And challenge yourself. And how could it apply to others? And challenge them too. Because the quintessential value of all of high performance, including excellence, is challenge. The willingness to want that positive growth. The willingness to be open to the fact that sometimes you suck, sometimes you do a good job, sometimes there's a lot to learn. Sometimes you just have to go to another level. We'll be talking about that now. I know you hear my voice a little strained today, y'.

All.

I gotta work to deliver with excellence, too. Especially today. I mean, my gosh, if you saw my schedule, I'm home right now for about 36 hours, and it's the only 36. Some hours I think I've been home in like a month or something. It's crazy. I've been on the road out there trying to deliver with excellence. And some of the concepts I'll talk about today aren't just, you know, you know, I guess, you know, esoteric ideas about excellence. They're like, this is how you survive, you know, because if you're not thinking the right way, you will exhaust yourself. And exhaustion is all is like, exhaustion is often the enemy of excellence, isn't it? That's why high performance, when we talk about it, it's not always just like, get stuff done. It's maintain your well being, my friend. Check in on yourself, take care of yourself, make sure you're healthy, you're happy, you've got those high performance practices in play. Because if you're not taking care of your energy and your overall health and wellness, it's hard. And I feel that today because I was hanging out with my two nephews this weekend and, you know, kids are little petri dishes of germs. And I think it's not my voice just compromised. I think I've got cold right now. So I've got to deliver with excellence for you. And sometimes living with excellence, you gotta kinda like level up. And I'd love to give you that metaphor today, is that really excellence doesn't allow you to just go through the motions, doesn't allow you to coast. And many of you, because you're so good you can coast. I mean, isn't it true you're already the person who's a little more excellence driven than your family or your people you work with? You've already got a little bit more edge to you. And the challenge is, though, because you're good, often it prevents you from being excellent because you can go through the motions, right? But sometimes when you're at deadline or something's really important or you gotta win the day or you're sick, you show up better, right? Michael Jordan, game six with the flu. Let's go. You know what I'm talking about. Sometimes when you're compromised, that's the time the fire comes out because you will it and it's necessary, right? That's the way I looked at today. I woke up. Trust me, I woke up today. My neck was all jacked up from travel. My throat sounded funny, and I couldn't tell if I was sick or what was happening. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, today's gonna be brutal. Okay, and how are you gonna deliver with excellence? What do you need to do in this first hour to get your mind and your body right? What do you need to do, Brendon, to level up so you can deliver at your best? You gotta ask that every day, right? How do you level up so you feel your best? That to me is the quintessential metaphor and demand of ourselves to be extraordinary, right? Because if you just go through the motions or you do what you're comfortable with, the excellence demands a little bit of edge. Excellence demands you push beyond what's easy or what's your natural strength or what you just could do and get away with and says, no, no, no, what's that next level? For me, that's real excellence over the long term. And I wanted to start with that expectation right off the bat. Like, you need to have that thinking coming in today, plus you need to be doing the self analysis. Because today, as usual, I'll challenge you. I'll cajole you, I'll tease you. I'll share my own struggles and challenges along the way because it is not easy leading a worldwide community of high performers. The other day I was in an airport and someone came up to me and said, brendan, you look rough. Well, thank you very much. And I said, well, I just finished a four day seminar. He says, oh, okay. Well, you do those all the time. I said, yeah, but I finished a four day seminar. I went and opened two new businesses, flew to another four day seminar, and all these were across the country. And I was delivering the seminar mostly by myself. And people are like, how are you doing that? A huge piece of it comes from the mentality we're going to talk about today. The simple things that you can do to make sure you are setting yourself up for excellence. Not exhaustion, for excellence, not mediocre, for excellence. Something you can have pride about, something you can feel good about inside. I know many of you are perfectionists and that's not the conversation today. Excellence is not the same as perfectionists.

Right?

I think anyone who really believes themselves to be a perfectionist tends to be really hurting themselves. They are hurting themselves because that mentality that it has to be perfect, while they take a lot of pride in it, it actually ends up compromising their health and their relationships where excellence. I'd rather you say I'm a person of excellence, then I'm a perfectionist. Because usually those who are perfectionists, they have to ultimately compromise. They have to compromise their health, they have to compromise their relationships, they have to compromise their timelines. Because most perfectionists are operating off of fear. They're offering based on, well, if I do that and it's not perfect, there's rejection, there's ruin, there's regret, where excellence is getting stuff done. There's a momentum to excellence that is lacking in perfectionists. Right? A perfectionist might get something done, but they get one thing done each year and person of excellence gets six things done. And as equal progress and equal breakthroughs. So I know some of you are like, mm, this is me. I'm a fractionist. I'm like, no, no. Actually, I think it might be really important that you listen and tune in today because we might be able to add some value that helps you reimagine who you are and what you are capable of. Because, listen, if you don't have the momentum in your life you want right now, your mindset and your behaviors might be preventing you from delivering your best. If you don't sense a real momentum, like there's some kind of movement.

At.

Base, there's something going on. You feel like that tremor of excitement inside because something big is coming up. It's because maybe you've been fighting and reacting and you've Been in the trenches. But excellence kind of requires you to look above the trenches and have some vision once in a while. Which leads me to my very first point. Bust out your journals, get ready for your notes and get ready to ask yourself some serious questions. Five things today about excellence. These are the five values that really allow you to, to be a person of excellence, but deliver excellence socially or in your contributions. So the first value of excellence is this. You have to play the long game. You have to play the long game. Now I know it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that. But listen, if you don't have the momentum you want in your life right now, you haven't been playing the long game. If you've been too stressed or too burned out or too, or you've over committed yourself, you're not playing the long game. If your health sucks, not playing the long game. If you're wrecking relationships, not playing the long game. If you don't have a vibrant, amazing community of peers around you, supporting your dream, cheering you on, not playing the long game. Because playing the long game does not just take what shows up, it architects the future. Oh, write it down. Playing the long game doesn't take what just shows up. It's architecting the future. And I think a lot of people live mediocre versus excellent lives because they weren't playing the long game. They weren't thinking like, okay, three years out, how do I scale? Three years out, how do I stand out? Three years out, how do I have success unparalleled, paralleled in this industry? Because you know, and I both know, many of you are here because you're in transition and something new is coming along and you're trying something new. You got a new hobby, a new way to make money, a new way to serve. And sometimes in that transition you go into survival mode. Survival mode is not the same as the excellence mentality, is it? Right. Survival mode is let me take what's here. Let's let me do the bare minimum to survive versus think strategically and play the long game. Now I said a few things that I think are really important. Like let's take that big old thing called burnout. Most people, when they've been become burned out, it didn't happen immediately, it happened bit by bit by bit. I talked with my coaches this morning about that. It's like when someone's in burnout, don't think it was one big project that tipped them over the edge. It was little decisions, bit by bit by bit by bit by Bit where they gave away their time, they gave away their freedom, they over committed, they didn't say yes, they didn't say no, they didn't sort of like lay out the turf, they didn't set their boundaries. And over a period of time, they burned out. The problem, which I think you all know, is that if you're a high performer, you can survive on burnout for a long time. A lot of burnouts, you know, they're operating at a high level of efficiency. I mean, they're burned out, but they can go six, seven months at that. And they don't take the time to step back and recharge throughout the day, not once in a while on a vacation throughout the day. They're not using transitions to recharge like we talk about in the book. They're not using those moments to like reset, recharge, go at it again. And they don't do that because they believe they're invincible. They can't see all these decisions adding up to exhaustion, adding up to burnout, adding up to running out. And I know that because as you hear my voice, I have a cold right now. I started getting my mind right, getting things organized, really dialing in my own projects what my deliverables were. Looking forward, thinking through things, pushing things off, changing the landscape, rethinking this, stopping that, like always looking out a few months is part of excellence, isn't it? Otherwise you can deliver excellence once and then you crash and burn. And many of you know this, your success has been up and down. And really, if you look to the peaks and the valleys, the peaks and the valleys weren't successes. The peaks and the valleys were crashes. And that's how you know a person of excellence. Did they have this rhythm, this scale, this. Even if there were some like lower points, were those rhythms of excellence or was it, boom, launch that thing, Crash, boom, do that thing, great, crash. And it was just up, down and it was just crash, crash, crash, crash. A lot of people I can look over the last 10 years, I'm like, your last 10 years wasn't defined by momentum or excellence. Your last 10 years was, was defined by like survival. It was defined by like luck. It was defined by crashes and burns and oh my God, you must be so tired. And you're like, yes, Brandon, I am. And that's why this is important conversation today. If you know you're a person of excellence and if it's true, I would not see a rhythm of crashing and burning. I would not see a rhythm of burns and Busts burning out, failures and exhaustion. And it's really hard because I know, trust me, like, there's so many nights I'm like, oh my God, if I just stay awake for four more hours, I can get these projects done. And you know what? And then I'm a complete idiot. 72 hours later, I know it will catch up with me. Those who play the long game don't compromise in the short game because they know it catches up later. And that catch up is a devil, it is a bear, it is a beast. It knocks you down. And what happens is you, oh, compromised three hours here. But then because that compromised three hours here, you're knocked off your feet three days over here. So if you'd taken the three hours to recharge, you wouldn't be worthless for three days in the middle of the week. So I know that some of this is common sense, but it's my job to show up and make you do the self analysis and challenge you every single month, man. How's your stress been, gals? How's that burnout been? Have you been steady in delivering excellence or have you been steady in barely making it? Two different things. And so I value you being here because, listen, it's true for me too. When I got sick, I literally stepped back and thought, hmm, okay, have I been failing to do what I know I need to do in my high performance habits? Have I been failing to recharge during those transitions? Have I been failing to protect my plate? Have I been failing to say yes or no at the right things? Have been failing to look the long way? For me, I really feel like I failed to play the long game a little bit. Only in the sense of I went a little too long in playing the long game. Let me give you the example here. So sometimes you're just like, oh my gosh, I compromised here. And then three days later, I'm a complete mess. Right? I want you to have steady rhythm. That's what we call high performance. That ability to have long term success while maintaining your well being and your health. My friends, you so deserve that. And many of you got to teach your families that and your teams that. And I mean, I looked at Jess, who's running this amazing thing, which she always does. Yesterday I said, hey, stop texting and email me on the weekends. Take the time off. I love you. Take care of yourself. And I mean that for my team, I'm always busting. I said, if you burn out, it's your fault. You're not planning and delegating enough. You got to think through things. We got a team here, we got other people here. Like, it's easy to burn out when it's solo and it's you. But listen to this. If it's solo in you, it's more important that you don't burn out. Isn't it true? We think, well, it's just me, but. So it's all on my shoulders. I have all the responsibilities in the world. So I better just hustle and I better grind and I better be 24 7. No, that's when you got to protect yourself even more. That's when you got to play the long game even more so that you can sustain. That's the mistake we often make. Well, it's just me. I better double down. I better SWAT team this. I better not sleep. That's the times. No, no, no, don't do that. Really play the long game. But I mentioned I made a mistake. And my mistake was, I think it was about almost four years ago now. I decided I was going to release a certain product. And I said, okay, I am going to do the world's best of this certain product. And I started playing the long game. I said, okay, which quarter will I release this on? And I literally knew it was probably going to take about two and a half years to release it. And so I knew I was playing the long game, but I made a mistake. Listen to this. If you are playing the long game and you want to deliver with excellence, you must have your monthly and your quarterly goals still attached to that long game thing. Ah, I'm so good at monthly and quarterly goals for the year. But your long game will be compromised if you don't have the monthly and quarterly goals figured out for the long game. I knew it was about two and a half years. So what I did is, yeah, I had it set up every month. I'd kind of look at it. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's coming, isn't it? Easy to say, I'll do that later. So you don't prepare, you don't finish, you don't tie up the loose ends. And then when the thing's supposed to come out, you gotta crash and burn that 30, 60, or 90 days before. I always share, you know, my. My most, you know, vulnerable and true stuff with you guys. I have this thing with my wife. My wife said I am never allowed to say, in 90 days, honey. She's like, never say that phrase to me ever again. Cause I'm like, oh, honey, in 90 days, it'll be great. I'll be home more. It'll calm down. She's like, you said that for, like, 10 years, jerky. So I am not allowed to say 90 days around my wife at all. I don't know if any of that's true for any of you, but it is like, brendan, do not bring up 90 days. Because it's usually that 90 days. If you have to crush it for 90 days, you probably failed to strategically play the long game. And I have to own that myself. If I'm honest with myself, which I'm asking you to be, I should have accelerated things in the spring to avoid the full intensity of what has come upon me. Can you be honest about that with.

Some of your projects?

Because that's where this happens. Like, the shift into the excellent mindset often comes with knowing where you compromise and where you have failed in your projects to plan sufficiently far enough. And I know I'm with a bunch of personal development people, and they're like.

Brendan, don't say fail.

I'm like, no. Sometimes you have to acknowledge a fail, a fail. I failed in the spring to accelerate and delegate. Even though I'm okay, and even though I planned to be this intense, which I did, I knew it was coming up. I trained all summer. I knew it was coming. I still. If I'm honest, I can say, you know it in the spring, Boom. If I had popped off these three things in delegation, if I would accelerate this one thing, if I've got that decision four weeks early, if I sent that one email. And I think that that willingness to look at what we do that way is what makes us more excellent.

Like, I feel like in my career.

I become more excellent with each year because I'm willing to be honest with the projects or those times when I get crushed.

So I'm asking you to do the.

Same thing right now. Like, we're here. So why don't you take a beat and think about this year? Where did you fail to plan out far enough? Where did you fail to play the long game? If you're honest, like, write it down in your journal. Like, where did you fail to play the long game this year? Be honest. I think that is a hugely important thing to be honest about several times throughout the year. I mean, because what happens is it's easy for all of you to get in this crazy momentum where you're like, oh, that was fine. I did the best that I could, and I hate doing this because I love you guys, but you asked me to be your high Performance coach and high performance coaches challenge people. And when someone says, brendan, I'm doing the best that I can, I have to ask, okay, where could you have leveled up in the months previous so that your best of what you can be doing right now could be more sufficient? That's a tough one. Right? But that's why I get paid the big dollars to work with people at the high levels in coaching and why we built the number one coaching program in the world with certified high performance coach, because we're willing to go there with people. It's like, brent, I'm doing the best I can. I agree. And I'm not discount. Like, lots of you have so much crap going in your life. Someone got sick, the kids are graduating, you moved to this. You're trying that new thing, and you are juggling so many things. You seriously deserve a virtual hug right now. And I love you. But if you're that person who's always saying, who's always saying, I'm doing the best I can, I'm doing the best I can, then as a coach, I would ultimately have to ask, great. I acknowledge it, and trust me, I believe it's true. So let me ask this. Where in the past several months could you have thought more strategically so that you're doing your best right now could be more sufficient and sane? Because sometimes your best right now is not enough. And if you're honest, sometimes you got to go, I'm not doing good enough for my family. I'm not doing good enough for my team. I'm not doing good enough for my family.

And the.

And I know, being the personal development guy, people hate when I talk like this. They're like, geez, Brendan, you know, where's the dancing bears? Could we have some balloons, please? But I'm also like, high performance is like, getting real and calling a fail a fail, Calling the struggle the struggle, honoring it, acknowledging it and going, you know what, man? I want next year to be a better one. And if you want to be a better one, you gotta do the self analysis. Where did you fail to play the long game this year? Like, I got a whole sheet. I was journaling about this last night, and I probably went like, six, seven pages.

Where did I fail to play the.

Long game this year? And by the way, can you do this without beating yourself up? Totally. Like, as I was writing it, I was like, geez, Brennan. And I was just, like, laughing at myself. You don't have to hate yourself. You don't have to make yourself a failure. But is There. Failure of strategic thinking.

Sometimes, yeah, that's just a behavior.

It's a mindset. You're not a failure. But sometimes your strategic thinking failed to show up. And I had six pages. I didn't get mad at myself. I didn't go to bed depressed. I didn't feel bad about my progress. I just acknowledged that and go, huh, that's something right there. I really want to work on. Better really think through that. I better check that out. I really, really better think about that. And I hope that this is helping you all as you're thinking through your own year. This time of year, everyone's wondering how next year is going to go. And I'm like, well, and now, like, do the work. Did you play the long game? So for me, I had the long game in mind, but I. If I'm honest, in the spring, I didn't sufficiently plan and delegate. If that's true for you. If you're noticing anywhere, you are not playing the long game, Can I ask you a question? What's the five things you need to get done this month to ensure that you are setting up next year for success? Notice I'm not saying what do you need to get done by the end of this year? We've had that conversation. Now my question is, what do you need to set up in these next 30, 60 days? That's strategic thinking.

It doesn't mean you need to do.

All of the things, but you should be thinking that far out. I know so many people who I'm like, it's the fall.

They're not even thinking about the new.

Year because they're in survival mode. And they're in survival mode because they didn't strategically think. Oh, he said it. So I hope this is serving you all and you're doing a little analysis. Number one, value of excellence is playing the long game. You get that right, everything changes. Okay. Number two, the second value of delivering and living a life of excellence is to geek out on the details. On the details. This is where perfectionists are now Rejoicing.

Yes. Yay, that's me.

I love the details. I love you for that. I want you to go to an unbelievable degree of excellence in the details that matter. Oh, snap. I want you to geek out on the details that matter. I can't tell you how many people claim that they're perfectionists, but they geek out on things that don't matter. At least a perfectionist would say, these are the things that move the needle. These matter most. Let me perfect these in motion. Other Things aren't as important. You got to geek on the things that really matter. And sometimes they matter to you, and sometimes they matter to the end game or to the brand or the perception or to your team. But you must know what matters.

So if you and I went to.

Lunch right now and I said, hey, show me what are the major things that you are geeking out on right now, Just like, walk me through those, would you? And if you are struggling to figure that out, I know you're not in the right mindset of excellence. And again, I say this with respect because we're all so busy. But those who are really excellent driven, they know the details that they got to be paying attention to. Like, they're geeking on them 24 7. And it's hard because there's so many things you could geek out. There's so many things you could pay attention to. Like, if you're going to perfect something, perfect something that matters, matters to the end user, whether that's you or the customer or the team or the service. And that's what's really important. You have to know what those are. Let me give an example of times I've done it really good and times I've done it really bad. Because I struggle with this one too, right? Oh, my gosh. I love the details. And if you don't know something about me, something that I am really proud of is I cover the details. Like, I am a stickler for the details. Like, before we began this thing, I didn't like one of the leaves over here. I was like, turn that leaf around. If you've seen my stuff, I designed all my book covers. If you've seen my stuff, I designed the exact, like this type of red versus 40 other types of red. Like, I have done like an unbelievable dork level of detail in my career. Sometimes it didn't matter and sometimes it did. Let me get a great, like, famous example of one that didn't matter. I hope you all read Motivation Manifesto, if you have. Thank you. If you've read this, by the way, and you haven't left a review on Amazon for either of these, I would love you to pieces and pieces and pieces. If you would leave me reviews on Amazon, because I suck at asking that. So my team says, okay, back to this little guy. Many of you know I had a multimillion dollar deal where this book was wrapped up, Motivation Manifesto. And when I turned it in, the publisher said it was crap and they hated it and they turned it down, made me pay the money Back. And it was a really horrible, horrible time. And scary because I had spent three years on this project to the most minute of details to every word. There's no fat in this book to trim out. It's. I mean, it's like almost every sentence could go on a wall as a quote card or as a frame. I worked on it, like, to make sure it was just so precise. Took out all the junk word. Just like went so hard at getting this exactly perfect. And the writing, man, you got to geek out on the, like, the details, right? The sentences. Like, like what? The rhythm, the writing, all that. Really geeked out on that, right? Geeked out on the color of the gold on the front. That's really important. It's what the world sees, right? I geeked out on, like, how it felt because people are going to hold this thing for 6, 10, 15 hours depending on how fast they read. Geeked out on all of that. Geeked out on the ribbon because they're going to use that ribbon. Like that matters. But I also. If you didn't hear the story of this, I studied revolutionist writing and revolutionist rhetoric for like a year before I even started writing the book. So I could get the pentameter of how people talked in times of revolution. Because I wanted this to feel like this. So if you ever read this book, that's not how I talk, it's not how I sound.

But.

And some people love that.

Some people hate it.

The publisher hated it. But I really studied, like the founding fathers of the United States or, you know, leaders in other countries, men and women throughout time, who helped spark revolution, this call for personal freedom. And I went way deep into the rhetoric to really get it. And that all mattered. But I went so deep, it was like. I remember one day I spent. I'm not kidding, okay? I gotta be honest with you guys. I spent three days researching to find out what this font would be, the chapter head title. Three days to find this font. Because this font, remember, I was studying revolutionist writers and leaders, okay? And the founding sort of fathers of the United States, as they call them. I don't like that language, whatever they call them. I went back and researched for three days to find out what was the first font that Benjamin Franklin used in his first print shop in Philadelphia. That was a horrible use of three days. No one cares. No one cares. I know that. And once in a while, someone say, that's a neat font, Brendan. And I'm like, oh, thank you. And it was three days I could have spent doing Videos for the book that matter. It was three days I could have spent talking with team, delegating, preparing. It was three days of editing I could have done right. The needle movers are the things you need to geek out on.

Geek out on the details that matter.

And challenge yourself with a simple daily question. Write it down. Is what I am focusing on right now? Is what I am focusing on right now relevant, needed? And a needle mover? Is it relevant to what I'm doing right now? Is it really important? Is it something that's going to move the needle? Or am I just doing dumb stuff? I mean, I know people. I'm not kidding you. Who will spend an hour to get.

The right filter from seven different apps.

On a photo for their Instagram stories. It's there for 24 hours.

I'm like, what is wrong with you, girl?

You got a world to change. How about instead of an hour on that filter, you knock out seven amazing videos? Why can't we do that? That's the difference. You got to start busting yourself. You want to go to another level, next level excellence. You got to start doing an audit of your time. Here's how I do it. I'm somebody who's very aware of the clock during my day, even when I'm taking time off, even when I'm screwing around in my weird Brendan Nutty professor kind of way.

I'm.

I am very aware at the top of every hour. It's just something that I have on my phone at the top of hour. Usually I have it bing or go off or something I like to use at the top of the hour as my time to reset. So many of you know, I like to take 50 minute breaks. That 50 minute break usually comes at the top of the hour. And then it might take 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes and then I'll reset, but I'll reset to try to get to the top of the hour. And for me, just the top of the hour is a great time to go. Okay, what am I doing right now? And believe me, being an influencer like many of you guys are, I gotta be good about that because you know what? Some days I'm like 17 layers deep in blue links looking up stupid stuff, and I'm like, oh my God, this has nothing to do with what has to be accomplished this week. So practice your high performance habits. Make sure you read that chapter on productivity and go back to pqo Prolific quality output. You gotta return to that, guys, over and over and over, right? I know we gotta bust on Ourselves. And I know that you're here and you're like, brendan, this is really motivating. You're busting on me all day long. But that's why we're here. This high performance experience we're creating takes some self analysis, right? And I'm being honest with you, where I screwed up that attention to that headline, which 99.9999% of the million plus readers this book have no idea about and do not care. That was a mistake. Okay? Some details that really matter, though are like my sales videos. If you've ever seen a sales video from me, especially like the longer ones, I think about that, I'll spend a day, two, sometimes three days, just thinking through it, talking through it, writing notes through it, practicing, trying. Because the details that bring you revenue, those matter, than the details that don't bring you revenue. Can I get an amen for some business owners out there? Right? The details that bring you the revenue, those are the needle movers. You gotta pay attention to that. We like to pay attention to the numbers that make us feel good. And sometimes we miss the numbers that really matter. And so even yesterday, I was sitting down with my team, I'm like, this is all great, but where's this number? Because this is the number that actually tells us if we're really profitable or if we're kind of dogging it. And we didn't have that number yet because we focused on the first numbers, but not the numbers that move the needle. You follow? You got to know your numbers that move the needle in your business. Can I get an amen? Business owners. Omg. Look at all the things we could focus on. I need you to focus back on your revenue drivers. Get detailed to that. Also, if you own a business, I want you to get geeky on the details that matter, which is the life cycle of communication to your customers, meaning the customer journey. Like, are you geeking out about the details of the customer journey or are you like. Like most online marketers who just sell something and they don't think about the conversation afterwards. And for me personally, I've had ups and downs in that in my career, if I'm honest with you. There's been times when I was so under the water. I just set everything up. I wanted to deliver with excellence, got the thing delivered, excellent. But I didn't nail the communication follow through. And I own that. I had to get better at that. I was like, okay, Brendan, you gotta get better at this. Own it, man. Own it. Own the fact of the matter that you gotta level up in certain areas. Are you sufficiently focused on the details that are bringing you revenue, that are bringing you connection with the audience, that are bringing the real growth to the business? I have a friend who, you know, in the last, I'd probably say three years, really started focusing on social media. This person had an unbelievable process for sales. Like, I mean, this person was like making regular, year after year, millions and millions and millions of dollars. Had a team of like maybe 12, 13 men and women who were their salesperson. This person focused on those 12 or 13 people for years and just got that sewed out in millions and millions and millions and millions, then got addicted to social media and started spending all this time creating great content, building fans and followers and focused on those, all those little details, all those little lever. And did I, by the way, did an awesome job at that. And the revenue of those 12 started going down. And I said, man, what's it really about? Is it about the fans and the followers or about the customers? And I'm not trying to create a false dichotomy here, but sometimes in our mind we need to know the difference of what moves the needle for our life, for your spouse, for the lifestyle you want. My friend, you got to get honest. You got to know if what you've been focused on is the right thing and you got to geek on the details. I think any great product today is about the details. Anything. It's about how it looks, how it feels, the customer journey, engaging with it. I hope this helps you and inspires you. For those who have a team, you've got to teach them to be terrified, to miss the details. That's it. And I know that's not language people like, right? They're like, oh, Brennan, you know, don't scare your team. Or I'm like, no. Every high performing team I've ever worked with, they really swept the details. They were joyous at work, they loved work. They weren't in a, you know, psychologically unsafe environment, but they were scared to miss the details because they really cared about the output that went to the customers because they knew that mattered. Like, I'm totally okay with being a little terrified not to do a good job for the details that matter. So I want you, if you're a leader, to always be focused on the details with your team, right? Always be like, the little details, every little thing that you can teach them to hone in, help them do that, because that will help you ultimately be recognized in the marketplace as someone who sweats the Details. Because most of your competitors are just surviving. And once you know that most of your competitors are just surviving and they're not thinking about the needle movers and obsessing about those, you win. Look at Apple's. Its entire longevity, that obsession about the details, the look and the feel, created the largest organization ever at the time. Look at Amazon. I mean, Jeff Bezos is just insane about the details and built the largest, you know, basically what really reinvented all of commerce, you know, in the world. So it might be something worth focusing on. Okay, number three, the third value of excellence is to over deliver. Now, I know you already know that one, so hang out with me because I think if you've got some distinctions already, I'll give you some distinctions on this one too. Over deliver. How do you know how to do that? I get asked that all the time. But here's the reality. Most people can't over deliver because they're not managing projects well. And they don't know really. They're like not sticking to their word. So they're completely over committed. Right. The enemy of over delivering is over commitment. Oh, snap. When you are over committed, you can't over deliver. So you need to protect what's on your plate. You need to be a zealot about what you say yes to, about how you plan your day. Because the more you tip over an over commitment, which many people are, they don't set their boundaries or they say yes or no at the wrong time and all of a sudden they're so overwhelmed. If you're overwhelmed and you're over committed, how can you over deliver? You can't do it. So we're gonna talk about how to over deliver. But let's first get you locked in and clear about how to deliver your projects well first. So we've got a best of session. I'm gonna play for you on projects. Is that right, Jess? Okay, so we got a How to do Projects with excellence training video I've done. We're gonna roll for you here. We'll play this best of training that really helps you. Cause some of you just suck at projects. It's not that you're not a great person. It's not even that perfectionism is getting in your way. You just suck at projects. And this might help, especially this time of year, to make sure you deliver your projects with excellence. So we'll do that. We'll come back, get some more distinctions on over delivering. Roll that paint.

Hey, everybody, it's Brendan. I love this question. How do you Manage projects so that.

You'Re happy with the outcome at the end.

You know, maybe you're a leader of an organization and you're managing big projects all the time and you're trying to usher them forward so that you can.

Not only make a great contribution, but.

You can get a promotion and move up. Or maybe you're an individual contributor, creator, artist, and you have your own passionate projects that are commerce or not commerce, and you're just trying to make them rocking. Or maybe you're just somebody who struggles to keep to a deadline, struggle with being effective as a human being in.

Almost every area of your life.

What do you do in all of those circumstances? I'm happy to take that question. I think the first thing before you do any project is a very, very simple question, and that is, do you truly have the desire to do it and do you feel like you can effectively do it? Well, and I'll share this with you because here's the deal. I think most people are doing projects.

They shouldn't be doing.

As a high performance coach, I've spent so much time consulting, advising, coaching Fortune 50 CEOs, extraordinary, successful people from hundreds of industries around the world, multimillionaires, people who are in the media all the time, people who have major responsibilities on their shoulders. And half the time I work with them.

It's about clearing the decks.

It's about, why did you even commit to doing this project? It's not something you truly even care about. Well, I felt obligated. I'm doing it as a favorite. Well, I'm doing it because I think it might pay off one day. And there's no real passion there. And the best way to do a project well is to not do it. If it doesn't matter to you, just stop. Just say no. Reject the projects that come your way, that don't really engage you. Because look, life is too short for you to be spending your time doing things you don't care about. I mean, I think that one of the number one reasons people get so frustrated with their lives and feel a lack of engagement is because they're doing a lot of busy work. But that busy work is not their life's work. And so they're off path, they're off purpose. And no wonder they can't complete projects, because those projects that they're doing, they really cultivate no passion, no creativity, there's no real deep desire there. And because that's not there, they don't do them.

And now you feel guilty because you're not effective?

No, it's not that you're not effective. It's that you're being ineffective at doing the wrong things. Once you're doing the right things, it's much easier to be effective. Passionate, engaged, enthusiastic, excellent at those things. So, number one, is it a project that you even give a damn about? If not, get out or give somebody else the opportunity to manage it. Which brings me really to my second point. Should you be the person, even if you are passionate about it and you do love and you want to be involved, should you be the person managing the project? See, there's a big difference between being an individual contributor to a project and being the person who's responsible for it, who manages it. See, I've learned a lot of ways in my life I shouldn't be the manager. I don't like doing all that big coordination. I don't like the details, the tasks, the work plans. I want to be engaged, I want to contribute. But I don't want to manage the whole enterprise. So I find people to do those things. Even if I'm advising a startup, let me come in there, add my unique values and contributions. Kick butt for you. But I don't want to be the person who's the COO of that startup. Does that make sense? So you got to be honest with yourself. Are you good at managing projects? Do you draw joy from it? Is it your natural ability, your talent? Have you developed those skills? Is that something you want? And if not, learn to be a key contributor, not the person who must manage it. Totally vital. Absolutely important. The third thing I'd say to do well in projects is if you are managing or you are contributing. The third thing is absolute clarity on what is the real outcome of this project. I mean, what's the end game at the very. If this was done completely and perfectly, how would we know it was a success? What elements would be there? What impact would it make? What metrics would be measuring success?

Like, you really need to have a.

Vision for the project complete. How do you know when you cross the finish line? How do you know when you pass that part where it feels like a struggle and it sucks to hitting your first milestone and you're really on your way. If you don't have a vision for the project is pretty likely you're going to get distracted and derailed. Next piece is to as you're, as you're thinking about this project and you want to do it well, you got to have the calendar in place. You have to have real deadlines, real Steps, real completion dates, real people managing the parts of the project that matter. I mean, it's that detailed stuff that most people forget. And I know you're probably better than that. And you.

Yeah, I got it, Brenda.

I've got a schedule.

When I work with people, it's like.

No, you really need to plan things out to a very finite detail. Not to be a perfectionist, but to be able to kind of know all the moving parts, who's involved and when. Who owns what piece, is contributing, what thing, who is ultimately responsible to keep this thing on track, what. What has to happen by what date, or everybody dies. You know, you have to have real clarity into that, and most people don't. So they're kind of moving towards something, but there's no real milestone. There's no real things that they're trying to accomplish. And that's why they keep feeling like they're distracted all the time, because it's easy to be distracted when you don't have clear purpose and deadlines. Last piece, going to do a project well, focus on these three things. Number one is distinction. How can you do that project different than anybody else in the world would? What's that unique strength, talent, ability, team perspective, system, tool thing that you will bring to the project that makes it different, fun, unique, significant. Because if you're just going through the same motions you did, you're going to do this project. Exactly. You've done 100 projects before.

Guess what?

You're going to be bored with it. You're not going to bring any magic to it. It's not going to make a difference or really grow. It's just going to be another thing. You are ultimately being a cog, not a creator, not a contributor. And so you got to get out of that idea that you're going to do everything exactly the same and find what's unique that we could do here to make this thing magic? Second, how do we do it with excellence?

I mean, how do we wow people with this thing?

How do we bring a degree of excellence, keeping everything tight and pristine and perfect, like the things we actually like? How do we make it really, truly stand out? With excellence, where people are impressed with the quality of it, the quality of the thinking, the quality of the experience.

Quality of the interaction?

And then third, how do we do it at the highest level of service so that the people that the project is intended to help or support or benefit, that they really are served that every interaction point they have with it.

They'Re like, wow, I feel like I've.

Been taken care of that you're thinking through their emotions, their feelings, their impressions all along the way of this project as it's delivered or ultimately completed. Because at the end of the day, every project has a purpose and that purpose always involves people. To help people, support people, serve people, impress people, deliver some kind of service or promise to the people. So be thinking about the people. Think about the service. Not just in terms of customer service, but service, humanity, heart, purpose, reason, the stuff that we all get and engage in. The things, the intangible things that make projects worthwhile in the first place. If you can look at projects through these lenses and do a greater job in all these areas in one way or another, you'll start to have this feeling that, you know, I've got to manage on this now. I've got to control on this. These things are turning out much better than they have before.

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 all right.

Y', all, I hope you took some notes on that project stuff because so many people can't over deliver because they're over committed or not completing projects with excellence. I hope that helps you think it through. Okay, let's get back in it. Okay, number four, the fourth value of excellence is to empower others. We often make excellence about us. And you think about those first couple items, right? Play the long game, geek out on the details, over deliver. That's often we're thinking about ourself, how we show up, what we do, what we contribute individually. But here's what those who achieve the top level excellence is. Along the way, they're building leaders that allow them more time to geek out on the things that matter. They're empowering others listen in every area that they touch, even if it's their unique contributions. Like right now, life's a good example about this right now that I'm trying to do a better job in this. Like I'm empowering my team to do many things that I love to do, many things that I've been known to do, many things that I've done for 10 years at the top levels. I'm teaching them, empowering them, handing my phone. You do it even though they're not ready, even though they haven't done it before, even though I take great joy in that. I'm empowering others now so that as I have other projects, as I take on more things, I have more time that I can at any given time say, you take this so I can focus here. In other words, those who strive with real excellence are basically at the same time as they're striving so hard, empowering others so that they have more white space to focus strategically, more white space to focus on things that matter. More white space to deal with the ohs of life. When somebody gets sick or they're overburdened or they didn't make the mistake of saying yes when they should have said no, that they're building the tribe or the team or the capabilities of those around them so they can step away when they don't do that just, I mean their life is constant stress. And if you are under constant stress, how are you going to deliver with excellence over the long term? You'll burn out. You'll start hating the journey versus bringing the joy. And I know you know this. I just had a great conversation with a woman I really admire who she was telling me, we were talking about her and parenting. I said, how are you such like an amazing parent? And she laughed. She's like, no, I was a terrible parent for about 12 years. I said, what does that mean? And she said, well I. She had two kids. She said I felt like I had to do everything for my kids. And I mean I did everything for them all the time. And I said to her, oh, you weren't empowering them to think for themselves, right? She goes, no, no, no, Brendan, I did a good job with them. Like they're healthy adults, they're smart, they're self reliant. I said, well, I don't get it. Where did you fail to empower them then? She goes, no, no, I failed to empower my husband. And I was like, oh snap. She goes, I took it upon myself. I didn't, I didn't like teach him how to do things even though he didn't like it. I didn't ask, I didn't command. I didn't empower my husband to be an equally good parent as I was. So when I got overburdened and I was in it alone and it wasn't his fault, I didn't empower him to be as good a parent as I did. And I have to own that. And I was like, that's some unbelievable level of self awareness. I was like, that's strong. Because how many people would just blame, how many would say, well, they don't help me? Well, the question is, did you empower them to help you? Well, they don't understand. Did you empower them to understand and to take it? Like, we don't often do that. And it's something that I also have struggled with in my life because I love all the moving parts of everything I do. But I've had to learn like, okay, empower others way, way before you would ever need them to help you. Empower others in every single area that you can so that if you stepped away, everything still ran. Because if you can do that, what ends up happening is you'll find your true art, you'll find your true areas of emphasis. And most importantly, you make the others around you feel like they're contributing to your journey versus being a, you know, a spectator. Some of you, your family and your friends and even some of your team, they're really spectators on your journey. And you're amazing. You're the high performer, you're more successful, you do more work, maybe you make more, and you've made a lot of fans and spectators. But your life and your journey will be the ripple effect of you only. And empowering others is like, you know, yeah, you can jump into a lake and make so much of a ripple, but if 100 people jump in that lake at the same time with you, you shake that thing. And I think it's really important for us to realize that those who are striving with excellence are empowering others as they strive. Not when they complete, not when they get time. So stop telling yourself that. Well, I'll teach them when I have time. I'll teach them when this happens. They're never going to be ready and you're never going to be ready. So schedule it. Like right now. The greatest gift everyone could give yourself is to schedule that situation or those sit downs where you empower more people to do stuff, even if you're not ready. I mean, I just sat, what was it, last week or the week before, I don't know, last month and sat down with two folks on social media. I said, here's my Instagram. They had never ran an account that big. They had never created posts on a page like that. It's like, go. They're totally not ready. I wasn't ready either. But you've got to empower others sooner than you think. And so many of you are waiting so long. And I'm telling you, because you're waiting so long to empower others, you're not able to play the long game because you're always in crisis mode. If you're in crisis mode all the time, you're. You can't possibly play the long game intelligently because you haven't empowered others. You don't get to geek out on the details that really matter. You're doing everything because you didn't empower others. You can't really over deliver. You just crash and burn over the finish line with just enough. Not great. And I know every time I bring this up, people say, well, Brendan, you don't understand. I don't have a team yet. I'm like, so go get your very first free intern. Go get your very first virtual assistant. Go get your very first team member. Go get that very first person who will partner with you or go on the journey. Stop waiting. The longer you wait to empower others, the more you will be drowning in mediocrity, in busyness, in stress, in, in overwhelm. I mean, it's so important. And I know you think, yeah, yeah, this doesn't, you know, it doesn't apply to me or, yeah, that's easy for other people. Listen, even people with huge teams and huge resources fail at this one. You know, recently in the news, some of you saw Elon Musk and his like, some huge failings and I'll share with you. And some wins. Certainly I'm not, I'm not judging Elon here, but I'm going to be a teaching point that was really important because I don't know if you saw it, but Richard Branson, who has been a billionaire a pretty long time and a very successful guy with over 300 companies who gave advice to Elon, and here's what he said. He says, delegate more and get some sleep, man. That was it. And here's a guy who has unlimited resources and people, Elon, but he's not leveraging them. And so the number one advice he got from one of the highest performers of all time, Richard Branson, was like, delegate more. That's the same as empowering others. It's about giving people autonomy. It's about giving people the decision making authority that they need. It's about giving people everything we talk about in this right here. If you guys not have read the Student Leadership Guide, it's written for students. But the good news is most people's reading level is really sixth to ninth grade, so it works out perfect. But I hope you've read this book, and if you haven't, I think you'll be pretty surprised by how important it is and all the different tactics you have to empower other people sooner than later. I think the issue with this one is that we often get trapped in situations where we're empowering others. Okay, with that. One last piece on excellence. The fifth value of excellence is to show the process. What happens often when we're trying to make something awesome is we kind of do it in the, like, behind the scenes, in the dark. We try to do our genius and our things and then show someone the perfect thing. But excellence is made when people realize how much work you put into something. And they're never gonna realize how much work you put into something until you start showing them the process. Whether that means on social media, you document your journey. Hey, I have this idea. Here's the different things that we tried. Here's what we're working on. Here's how it came out. Or if it means you get your team involved and say, hey, here's how I'm thinking about this. How would you think about it? If people can't participate in the process, they can't give you feedback. If you ain't getting any feedback, you aren't delivering with the utmost excellence. You're delivering your best, but not what could be the best. So invite people into your process so you get better. Invite people into your process so they appreciate what you're doing better and they recognize the excellence. Like, when I tell people about this stupid font that I know didn't matter. But let me come back to that. When I tell people about this font and how hard we worked on that, people read the book differently. Like, ooh, he cared about every word. He cared about this font and these two lines. He obsessed about the distance between these two lines. I never thought about the distance between those lines, but that is actually excellent and perfect spacing, I have to admit. And suddenly people appreciate the excellence you deliver. My audience appreciates the excellence because I'm telling them. I'm like, here's what I did here. Here's how hard I worked on this. My team appreciates it because I get, would you guys do A or B, involve other people so they Appreciate your work. That's why sometimes your spouse doesn't appreciate all the work you're doing. They don't give what you do. You're not showing their process involving them. Remember your high performance training, that sometimes the most important thing to realize is people support what they create or involved in. If they weren't involved in or never saw the process, how could they fully appreciate the magic of what you are delivering to the world? Open yourself up. Show people in your messy process, not just what you think is done, and everything will become more excellent. You got it?

Yeah.

And I have one extra bonus idea to share with you. The sixth value of excellence when we come back.

Hey, it's Brendan. And have you ever wondered why sometimes you don't stick to your word? You know, you break commitments, you show up late, you don't deliver what you promised, or because of all that, somebody gets mad at you and you find yourself backpedaling or feeling like you're not.

Living in integrity or people tell you you're not.

Why is it so hard to stick to our word? And what can you do in your life to make sure that you're more committed to things? So you don't break your word, so you deliver what you promise. Show up when you're supposed to show up and all of that. That's the topic of today's episode. Episode. Now, let's first and foremost jump into these four ideas for you.

How to stick to your word.

I think it'll really help, number one, just stop committing to things that you don't have passion for. You know, if someone's asking you to do something and you're like, yeah, okay, I'll do it. And then the time comes up and you feel so obligated and you're like, why did I agree to this? It's because you didn't have passion to it in the first place. You said yes of an obligation, not out of a passion.

And now you're paying for it.

And I tell people all the time, look, you don't have to obligate yourself to other people. And soon as you realize that you find greater degree of freedom in your life, start committing to only those things where you feel a passion, a calling, a real desire to serve. I tell people all the time, and it's not super popular when I say it, but I think it's accurate. It's not your job to save everybody. It's not your job to solve all the train wrecks in other people's lives so you don't have to Say, yes, I'll handle that for you. Because they messed up. It's really important that if you say yes to somebody, it's because you want to otherwise defer it and say, like, you know what? Somebody else could do that.

You know what?

That's not for me. Learning to turn down opportunities sometimes, even if they're good, will help you better.

Stick to your word.

I think too many people, they break their word not because, you know, they're not good people, but because what they do is they take on too much. They fill their plate with all of these commitments from all these people. And then they realize as they fill their plate with so many commitments to other people, they can't even go towards the things that they want in their life. They can't even handle their own responsibilities, let alone trying to solve other people's stuff. So be wary of committing yourself to other people to solve their problems or to projects that you aren't passionate about. Because if you can focus on that learning to say no, then later on, you won't have to say sorry. Okay, Number two, big idea. Always respect other people's time, energy, efforts. As much as you respect and want to protect your own, your time is not more valuable than other people's.

You know, it took me a long.

Time to realize that, especially as I started building a team and a big company, a big organization.

You know, some of you were with.

Us last week when we had 2,000 people at high Performance Academy live our lives, training in San Diego. You know, I've been blessed to reach a lot of people. And sometimes it's easy to believe, oh, wait, I gotta be there to be the guy on camera. And I forget that other people's time is as valuable. I know we're all guilty of that, and then sometimes we have to apologize for it. So what I'm here to say to you is, remember, everybody has a story.

Everybody has a to do list that day. Everybody has a priority.

You canceling on other people so nonchalantly is not a positive character trait. I know that's hard to say, but I was lucky. People told me that early on in my career, and it meant a lot to me. I was like, okay, I got to respect other people's time here. But what's happened is we're in a culture right now where so many people, because they're comfortable breaking their own commitments, they allow other people to break their other commitments. Nobody's setting any standards. And now we're all so used to it because, right, it's so easy to.

Cancel on somebody, you just pick up.

Your phone, sorry, can't make it. And we're so used to doing that so casually through text that we don't see the damage on the other side.

You know what?

Somebody canceled their meeting to talk to you. Somebody could have been spending that time with their daughter, their spouse, their lover, their team. Somebody else could have been working on their dream project while you work on your dream project and cancel on them. Always respect other people's time as much.

As you respect your own.

Protect other people's time. Don't ask for favors if you don't really need it. Don't say you'll be there when you won't. And I know it's hard, things do come up. But you know what if you're always saying, well, I'm sorry these things came up, and you're always making excuses at some point, you're not owning your life and you're not being responsible for your.

Day and your schedule over a period of time.

Sure, yes, things do come up sometimes. But if you consistently finding yourself texting people, you know, fibs. Well, this came up, sorry. Then it's time to revisit how much.

You respect other people's time.

I think this really matters today. I'm sure a lot of people have blown you off in the last weeks, months, years. You didn't appreciate it, so why do it to somebody else? Respect other people's times. Third, big idea, and I love this one.

Know your payoff.

Sometimes we say yes to a lot of things even though they're good ideas, but we forget what our payoff is, why we said yes to it. So now we cancel and we don't follow through with our word because we forget to remind ourselves about our why. Why did we commit to that? Oh, right, we could see this payoff over there. It totally makes sense. So before I ever cancel something on anybody, I always go, why did I.

Commit to it in the first place?

What was the payoff? And I remind myself of what I felt like I was either going to.

Get from that situation or give from that situation, right?

From that selfish point of view of like, why did I say yes? But also the service point of view. Like, I'm sure there was a reason that I felt like I could serve this situation or this person. That's why I said yes. So always be aware before you commit to something, what's the tangible takeaway? Why are you doing it?

And once you've committed and before you cancel anything, say number one, okay, did.

I commit to this for the right reasons? Number two, am I respecting their time? Number three. Omg. Why should I still do this? What's the payoff for my character? Why should I still do this? What's the payoff for them? Why should I still do this? What's the payoff for my legacy? In other words, convince yourself. Why not to cancel by reconnecting with what you could get or what you could give?

Fourth.

Big idea. This is huge. And you know this from the retail world. Hey, look, you break it, you buy it. Take this into your own commitments. If you break the meeting, if you break your word, if you don't deliver when you said you were going to.

You don't show up. When you do, then you buy back their favorite. What do I mean by that?

You send them something. You send them either a very kind audio message, voice message, very kind email. You send them something in the mail. If you missed a big meeting, you send them apologies, you show them some flowers. I mean, I know this sounds silly.

But you need to repair the damage.

You're not taking into account how much damage is happening in other people's lives when you steal their time away. And over a period of time, you steal a person's time 1, 2, 3, 4 times.

You know what?

At some point they're going to say, fool me once, you know, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

And they're going to go, I don't feel good about this person anymore. You need to repair the damage. You break it, you buy it. You got to buy back your character.

Your reputation, your integrity with an act.

Of kindness to an act of generosity, an act of attrition. Just saying. You know what? I'm really sorry about this. I feel ridiculous. I know I said I only was only going to deliver this, but here's the thing. I promised I delivered, and I'm going to deliver this extra thing for you, so. Meaning go beyond what you committed to now.

You know, if you said you were.

Only going to give him 30 minutes, you missed the 30 minutes. Say, hey, I want to make up the time. Could I give you 60 minutes? Or hey, hey, I was going to deliver this, you know, presentation. Could I give you an extra report that might help something? I really feel bad for having missed our meeting. This is the way that you don't just, you know, maintain your reputation. This is the way you be a good person. Because when you mess up, be more generous. Write it down. When you mess up, be more generous. You break it, you buy it. And that will help get some favor back. It will help you feel better about yourself. Because so many people are wandering around with a lot of guilt because they break their word all the time. Those who are breaking the word all the time and don't feel any guilt. What's wrong with you?

No, I'm teasing.

You know, you should at least take that standpoint and going, I should do better for other people than stealing their time or wasting their time or breaking my word. Because I know you care about your integrity. If you read my book the Charge.

You know that the third human drive is congruence.

That idea of being congruent in our own actions and our own mind, of the best of who we can be. We all want to be extraordinary people. Don't sell away that opportunity to be.

Extraordinary by breaking your word and doing.

These little things that don't deliver when you promise you deliver. Don't show up when you promised. I know you know all that this but sometimes common sense isn't common practice. And that's why I'm here to remind you of these four things. Keep your word, my friend. Other people's times are worth it and your integrity is worth it.

Okay, I hope that you're going to stick to your word a little bit. You got some value out of these. Best of the videos, the sixth value of excellence, which I love. And it's kind of two parts. The first part, if you've been to hpa, you know how important this is. You've got. If you want to deliver excellence to the world, you have to own your dream. It's what we talked about earlier. If your days and tasks all feel like just to dos and administration, but you're not connected to the dream, then you won't stay disciplined. If you're not connected to the dream, you won't work hard when it's required. If you're not connected to the dream, you won't be resilient through those times that you get knocked down. When you're connected to the dream, you get back up. It's huge. You've got to own that dream. So every day, every morning, reconnect with your goals. Reconnect with that bigger vision. Sit there and visualize your dreams happening every day. Every day. Because what happens is we fall off our A game when we fall off our belief, when we forget to focus and remember why we're doing it all anyway. You've got to take that dream and make it so part of you and allow it to feel.

Even if that dream just means like.

Generally succeed more or make more money or be happier. Even if it's broad, that's okay. But you gotta feel it and you gotta ask for it and dream of it and pray about it every day. Otherwise it's just not gonna be part of your life. And what will happen is when your dream is not part of your life, you go down 50 other rabbit holes of distraction, right? If you don't own your dream, you're susceptible to any distraction. Put that on your frigerators, people. If you don't own your dream, you're susceptible to any distraction. But once you own that dream, man, you know your path, man. You stay on your path, man, you focus on what matters and everything changes. So the first part of this is own your dream and pick your competition. If you think about the world's most excellent brands that have been celebrated the most, they always had a little bit of an enemy sheet. They had the competitors, they wanted to be better than somebody, right? Every great competitor in the history of sports wanted to be better than somebody and better than their previous record, but they always had somebody, right? You had to have obstacles and teams. Like if Apple didn't have Microsoft, if there wasn't a little bit of this there, we wouldn't have these huge breakthroughs, right? If, if Nike didn't have Adidas, Nike wouldn't be Nike, right? You've got to have like this competitors. You just, it's not that you're trying to beat them or kill them. I hate that mentality and I hate those, that language of like kill or crush your competitors. Like for me, most of the competitors I have in this industry are really good buddies, they're friends. I've mentored half of my competition. I teach them everything I know. I love them. I don't have an aggressive standpoint to them, but I let their work be a benchmark for my striving. I let their results be a goal. I let their breakthroughs spur me on to work harder. So I think it's really valuable and healthy to have competition. People that you're paying attention to who.

You do want to excel in front of who you do, want to over.

Deliver who you do, make you focus over the long game. That's fun because you know what, excellence can be gamified when there's competition. And so if you can gamify it by knowing what other people are doing, like I'm going to do a little better. Like those two products I have coming out I told you about, one of them is a planner. I know it's the best planner in the world. Because I bought all of them. I completely ripped them apart and studied what worked about them. I got the psychology of why they were building, what they were building, what stuck, what helped people, what didn't. I built assessments that we charged thousands of dollars for. I put them in the planners and because most planners are just, you know, worthless. They haven't even validated. So I just went. I went way over the competition on purpose. And then I charged the same price as the competition just to mess them up. And I thought that was so fun and I didn't. It's not because I'm like trying to.

Be better than them. It's because I want to deliver a.

Product that I know is the most excellent. And just striving for that made me think about it different. Like my impulse would have created good. That knowing competition and striving to do it better made something that was excellent. I hope you enjoyed this session of High Performance Monthly. I give a huge shout out and a celebration to everybody. So I celebrate you. Stay on the path of high performance. Deepen your motivation, Practice your high performance practices. Because listen, this next year, let's all live that high performance experience even more. You can do it. These are simple things. Put them back into your life and things will change. Until next time, my friends. Go out there every single day of your life. Remember to look at things through that lens of a high performer. And as always, live fully, love openly, and hey, go make a difference this week, my friend. Thanks for being here.