In this YouTube video Brendon Burchard argues that people don’t actually lose motivation; they lose focus on what they are truly fighting for. He distinguishes between motivation (the emotional fire) and focus (the clarity of purpose). Burchard stresses that to sustain motivation you must start each day emotionally connected to a specific, meaningful purpose—whether it’s family, a business, art, or a team. He cites a massive study of 2 million high‑performers across 190 countries, showing that long‑term success correlates with concentrating on one or two concrete goals rather than vague, lofty visions. He shares his own back‑story of being broke and using a clear purpose (providing for his future with his girlfriend) to stay driven. Practical tactics include: (1) a morning ritual of asking “What am I fighting for today?” and visualizing the importance of the day’s work; (2) blocking out all distractions (email, social media) to specific time windows; (3) setting three non‑negotiable tasks each day that align with the purpose, completing them before any reactive work. He explains that busy‑work without purpose creates a sense of momentum loss, leading to feelings of sadness and demotivation. By re‑establishing purpose‑driven focus and daily momentum, motivation naturally returns.
Chapters
Man, you didn't lose your motivation. You lost your focus on what you're fighting for. Two completely different things. People all say, well, Brendan, I lost my motivation. I'm like, you didn't lose your motivation. You forgot to show up in the morning, look and think and feel. What is it you are fighting for? See, you just show up, and sometimes you check your inbox and you look on social media or you listen that podcast or even you do your workout, but you're not fighting, thinking and obsessing. What is it I'm fighting for in my life right now? Or who is it I am fighting for? Because if you begin your day grounded in what you find to be purposeful, meaningful, important, fulfilling, and you say, what is it I'm fighting for? Why am I showing up? Why is it necessary that I deliver with excellence today? And you really emotionally get connected to something. That's the challenge. People are losing their motivation because they're not emotionally connected to anything outside of, like, the outrage on social media, outside of the outrage of the news. They're losing that fire inside that wants to build something, create something, deliver something, overcome something. So now they're just focused on everybody else. And the real thing is, they didn't lose their motivation. They got distracted. Two different things, right? If you're really connected with what you are doing and why you were doing it and who you are doing for specifically, and everything changes and you'll overcome even the distractions, you know? We completed the world's largest study of high performers worldwide, with data points of over 2 million people from 190 countries around the world. And when we polled and we found out who those high performers were, the people who had the longest term success, there was no question at all that they tend to be focusing on one person or maybe their team or maybe their financial situation. They were focused on like one or two things for the reason that they were doing things. And it wasn't like, I'm gonna change the world. And they had some big, you know, esoteric, dreamy kind of thing. They're like, you know what? I got to make the rent. You know what? I got to buy this new thing. You know what? I want to build this team. You know what? I want to build this business. You know what? I got to get my art out here. I'm fighting for that. But they were fighting for one specific thing, maybe two, but it was so specific. And they were starting their day connecting with that thing. You know, many of you all know my story. When I started as a writer, and an online trainer, totally broke, totally busted, living in my girlfriend's apartment, had nothing. And I had to look at her every day and remind myself, I'm fighting for our future here. Because there were plenty of days I was down on myself, plenty of days I didn't feel like it. It doesn't matter if you feel like it. Look, if you don't feel like it, then it's your job to make yourself feel like it. If you don't feel like it, it's your job to fire yourself up. If you don't feel like it, it's time to sit and think, okay, what is important to me? What really can I connect to and feel in my heart is important for me to go and do. Because you deserve to do something important with your day, but you'll never do it if you keep starting your day in so much distraction and consuming everybody else's will and desires and opinions and judgments. You've got to start that day so anchored to what is important that motivation isn't even an issue the rest of the day. And that's what I do every morning. I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about what is the thing I'm so passionate about right now? And it's not like every day I'm like, yay, here we go. It's like, I got to really think about it, because, you know, otherwise, the tasks, the other activities, the things I'm supposed to do come in. But I got to go. What am I fighting for? For real? What's important for me now? Why do I need to deliver with excellence? Well, because you know what? I care about my family, my future. I care about my students. I. I care about showing my excellence. I care about my art. So here we go. And I get deeply and emotionally connected to what I am doing in the morning. Right off the bat, that changes everything. Second, I avoid distractions completely. I mean, I literally avoid almost all distractions. Even though I'm gonna go do email, email isn't something I check into once in a while throughout the day. I'm not standing in line checking into Instagram once in a while. That's not what I'm doing. If I'm going to do social media, there's a time that I've blocked. That's when social media is going to happen. If I'm going to do email, I've blocked that time. That's when that's going to happen. Otherwise, I'm focusing on the major activities that are moving my life forward. One reason people lack Motivation is because they lack momentum toward the things that they matter. It's not that they're not getting things done. I mean, you look at them, they got plenty of busy work in their life. You know, look at all the busy work they got. They're actually accomplishing a ton of things. They're doing a ton of things. They looked at 500 posts today, answered 100 emails, kicked out 50 slides, created 20 things, had 10 phone calls. They're busy, but often they're busy doing work that means nothing to them. They're busy reacting, not creating. And so they're losing that sense of momentum overall towards things that are fulfilling to them. And because they're losing that now, they get even more bogged down distractions. They don't feel good. I don't feel like I'm getting momentum in my life. I feel sad. I'm not doing anything with my life. So let me check in what everybody else is doing in their life on Instagram right now. I'm here to tell you, if you want motivation in your life, get momentum again. Set three goals you're going to do every single day. So start your day. Get connected and fired up. That thing that you are fighting for, who are you fighting for? What is needed from you today? Really connect with that, feel it, allow it to come into your body. And then ask yourself, what must happen today? What are the three things that must happen today? And do those first, Knock those out, focus on those before you do the phone calls, before you do the tweets, before you answer the things, before you look on Instagram, before you browse. Get done. What is important for the day. That momentum will fire you up. And then you'll start taking on better and bigger and more appropriate and right and motivating projects for yourself. But versus just becoming a consumer, you want more motivation. Create new things that move your life forward, whatever that is. If that's a pitch, a presentation, a phone call, an idea to your colleagues at work, something that you're gonna propose to the world, whatever you're going to do, it is necessary to get connected in the morning. Set those goals, knock them out of the way, that momentum will bring the fire back in. You didn't lose your motivation, you lose your focus on what matters the most. It.
