Life's Golden Ticket - and How to Master Change

Welcome to the Charged Life. This is Brendan Burchard. Hey, my friend. It's Brendan. And welcome to a special edition series I'm going to be doing on how to master change. You know, we all want to live an extraordinary quality of life, what we call here the charged life. A life that is energized and enthusiastic and full, fully engaged. We want that, you know, that. That just. That passion, that joy, that flow, that magic that comes from showing up in full in our lives each day. And along with that, we all want something more. You know, we want to achieve remarkable things in our lives. We want to make a great difference. We want to have an extraordinary quality of life, high levels of abundance. We want to be amazing in our relationships. We wanted to have a career that we are passionate about, that we love, that we feel vibrant from. We want our health to be so great. And yet all of that requires us to keep changing and to keep growing. But for a lot of people, change equals pain. It's so difficult, you know, and they feel sometimes like they're trapped on this treadmill. They feel stuck, or what we often call the caged life. Trapped in other people's expectations, unsure of how to change, trapped by old beliefs, habits, difficulties that are preventing them from, in the current moment, enjoying life. And so this topic of mastering change becomes so important because everybody struggles with change. Look, if you feel like your life has been very similar for the last five years, even if you're happy, you're struggling with change. Because we all know there's always another level, there's another level of potential, that there's another level and another level of depth to our own happiness. But it requires us to change a mindset, change a belief, change a behavior, change a relationship, change a career, make some type of change. And that's why I want to do this for you. If you're not on my email list, you probably don't know, but this is all part of the the launch of my paperback version of life's golden ticket. It's a story about second chances. It's a story of inspiration. It's a story about redemption. It's a story about a guy who's had a difficult life and just doesn't even really know how difficult it is until his fiance disappears. She turns up 40 days later in a hospital bed talking about having experienced all these miracles at this abandoned amusement park. Everyone thinks she's crazy and injured, but as her last wish, she hands him an envelope and says, take this envelope to the gates of that amusement park and Find out what happened to me. And this begins his journey in trying to uncover what happened to her. And along the way, he learns why his life turned out the, the way it did. He. When he walks through the amusement park, it comes back magically to life. And he meets all these carnies and these people who knew what happened to her. And yet mysteriously, they all know everything about his life. And they become his instructors about life. And life's golden ticket that he ultimately discovers, as you will if you read the book, is that we all get second chances. Sometimes those second chances are, are hard learned and hard earned. And I think you know what I'm talking about. A lot of people right now need a second chance. They need a second chance because they let their health kind of fade. They need a second chance because they wrecked that relationship. They need a second chance because the career is good, but not exactly what they wanted. Need a second chance because they kind of trapped themselves in a business that they love when they started it, but now it became something they don't love. And so we all want to start anew. But to start anew requires change. And so what I thought I would do is bring this book to life, take on some of the concepts. Because Life's golden ticket is a parable. It's a story. It's like, you know, the Alchemist. It's a story about a person on a journey, an adventure to learn about themselves. And I've been so blessed with the extraordinary just interest of the book. From those of you who are on my email list, thank you so much. I appreciate it. If you haven't been on my email list, by the way, you've missed something huge and that is if you get Life's golden ticket on Amazon or Kindle this week, then what I'll do is I'll give you three awesome bonuses and all that is detailed out on lifesgoldenticket.com just go to lifesgoldenticket.com that's the book website. You'll see a video from me talking about all these bonuses we'll give if you support the book. It's my way of thanking my readers, my listeners, you guys, for supporting me and my work. When you get Life's golden ticket and you enter in your order number@lifesgoldenticket.com, you'll get a $29 online course called the Four Gates to Lasting Change. You get a new video on the five lessons I learned in writing and relaunching a best selling book. You'll get a webinar on the five productivity habits of the world's most successful people. You'll get all sorts of great stuff from me, just as thanks for supporting the book. If you've previously purchased Life's Golden Ticket, good news. This paperback edition is all new, and it includes finally, that magical envelope in the back of the book with the mysterious golden ticket. Can't tell you what's in the envelope. I can't tell you what's on the golden ticket. You won't know that until you get the paperback. But when you do, just make sure you go to life's goldenticket.com so buy it on Amazon. Go to lifesgolden ticket.com enter your order number and and I'll give you those free gifts as thanks. Today, what I'd like to do is talk about a portion of the book where this character is about to enter this amusement park where, again, he's going to learn a lot about his life. And they make him sign this agreement, what I call really the mandates of change. And it's basically what we all have to master if we're going to live an extraordinary quality of life. It's agreements we have to make to ourself and basically with change in order to successfully navigate it. And so these four ideas for you, they might help you. If you've been stuck with making change or you're ready to make a big change in your life and you're just a little unsure or a little scared, well, then this might help you, too. Might help you get in the right mindset to know that you can do this. So he signs this piece of paper, and it has four different agreements on it about change. I call it the four Mandates of Change. And I want to read them to you and then break it down and do a little training session with you here to help you get in the right mindset for change. The first thing he has to check off on this checklist is this statement. I agree to give up my dependency on my present experience and be open to new possibility. I agree to give up my dependency on my present experience and be open to new possibility. You know, one of the reasons people struggle so much with change is because they're addicted to now. They're stuck in today. Their beliefs have formed a boundary around them. It's kind of walled them off the way that we think we got comfortable with it. Because the real challenge and the real antagonist to change is comfort. See, we become. We develop an addiction or dependency on our current level of comfort. Even if where you're at in your life right now, you say, I'm not very comfortable. But if you're not changing, it's because really you are comfortable with the uncomfortable, if that makes sense. You got used to the way it is. And in three specific areas I noticed that people become very dependent on their life the way it is and they can't change that. First dependency most people have is they have a dependency on their level, their current level of skill. You know, it's hard to change because people say, well, I don't know how to and really change and being able to navigate change. Well, that's a skill, isn't it? It's a skill. And so what a lot of people struggle with is their skills. You know, I always say deep skills can lead to deep ruts. Because if you believe your competency, your knowledge, skills, abilities and talents are at, you know, level one, but you have a vision or dream for yourself that would take, would need knowledge, skills and abilities at a level 7 higher, then you, you give up on yourself. You say, well, you know, I can't do that. Yeah, sure, she can have all that success, but I don't know how to do that. And you stop. But successful people, they say, well, I don't know how to do that. So they put it on their agenda to learn it. And when I say they put on agenda, I don't mean casually, I mean they literally put on their calendar. They're like, okay, I, I'm gonna take this class, I'm gonna go to the seminar, I'm gonna download this book, I'm gonna read it this morning from 7 to 8am they have a learning agenda. They build themselves their own curriculum to rise above their current state so that they can achieve more. And I know that's why you're listening to this podcast, right? People listen to the. I think I have one of the most high achieving podcast audience ever. You guys are incredible. I mean, the results and the stories that you share on our Facebook page, which, believe it or not, now has 4.3 million fans and followers as of today, 4.3 million folks on our Facebook page. It's incredible. Thank you for that. That happens because the success stories, because of what you all are constantly achieving out there, and the number of people living fully charged lives, you have the ambition for this. And so I know sometimes it might sound like I'm preaching to the choir, especially in a session like this, but I also know that the challenge is often common sense, isn't common practice. And so over These next six months, what have you already designed to advance your skill set so that you can create, give, contribute, serve at that next level? When I ask that to even high performing executives in the, the Fortune 50 or some of our Olympic athletes or some of the people that we are blessed to work with, as you've seen on our pages, what's amazing is often they don't have it yet and that's the change they need to make. Start designing your own curriculum out of your comfort zones because right now if you don't have a learning journey sort of chart out in front of you, it just means you're comforter in your skill and you're like, well, I'm just good at this. And I, and I'll just keep doing that because I'm good at it. But it might, you know, a lot of people are really good at busy work, but it's not their life's work. And so they face this existential dilemma. Well, I have the skill to do this, but I don't really love it. And that's why I say, well, why haven't you left it or developed a new skill set that would allow you to contribute more? And that's where people often reply back with, you know, essentially what I call the, the gold in the handcuffs rebuttal. Well, you don't understand, Brendon. This, you know, it's difficult for me because this pays the bills and you know, I know I could go do that other thing but then I have to learn all these new things and you know, I'm just, this is okay. And so their skill set ends up, you know, keeping them in one lane and they're scared to change. And one of the easiest ways to help people change is making learning okay, telling them, look, if you're really going to succeed at the next level, no matter what you do, if that means succeeding in the next level is being a better wife to your husband, if that means being a better contributor at work, if that means being better with the kids, if that means being better in your health, you're going to have to develop some new skill sets for that. Whether that means you are going to have to cook better, eat better, whether that means you have to learn how to do new presentation, use a new system, a new software, a new app, whatever it is. There's another level of achievement for all of us out there in the charged life. We have to develop skills to get there. Don't make the future vision you have for yourself dependent on your current skill sets because you could have an extraordinary vision for yourself and you can grow into it. Another thing I see people very dependent on and why it's hard for them to change is, is they are dependent and comfortable with their current level of acceptance or belonging. I've been blessed to now train over a million people online through our online courses or video series. And through that process, obviously I get a lot of comments and I've read hundreds of thousands of student comments over my life now and over this last decade since I've been doing this full time. And you know what I've seen over and over? Well, you don't understand. My husband wouldn't like it if I tried that. Well, you don't get it. I got this boyfriend and he's a dud. Well, you don't understand. I've got these people around me who wouldn't understand that. You don't understand. There's negative people around me. And if I do something, they're mean to me. And so people stay in a box because they're comfortable with the current amount of acceptance around them. Because they think if I change, well, what would they say? If I change, they'll ridicule me. If I change, they won't understand. If I change, they'll reject me. And so they're guiding their future happiness, joy, fulfillment, creative work, contribution based on the level of yeses they're getting around the people around them right now. And I say, you know what maturity is? It's realizing that we don't have to belong. It's realizing we don't have to live the expectations of other people. It's realizing that, you know, what, if some people reject you for going for your dream, then maybe they weren't the right people to be there for you anyway. That it's okay, that a lot of people are gonna think you're an idiot. And I'm not even laughing when I say that. I'm laughing now. I think about how straight I said that because it's so true. It's like a lot of people think I'm a complete idiot. Brendon, you left your job 10 years ago. I left a very safe, comfortable corporate job to start this, to start writing books, to start training people, seminars, to start doing courses online. And everyone thought I was bananas. They're like, why would what? Back then, this wasn't really an industry as it is today. We call the experts industry. Back then it was just kind of, you know, there were a few gurus here and there, but no one thought of as a career choice. No one Thought of it as an industry. And so we started using that language with Experts Academy and teaching the world. No, this is actually, this is a career choice. People can do this full time, make an honest, great, contributing living doing it. It's not a get rich quick thing. This is art. This is a path. Just like a painter has a path. Well, so does a writer, a trainer, a speaker coach, an online trainer. It's like what we do. An online thought leader, a social media thought leader. That's a career choice. We're creating and curating content and ideas and perspectives that serve other people that we call the experts mission. It helps them improve their lives or achieve their goals. It's beautiful work. It's teaching in the modern era, it's contributing in the modern area. When, you know, in the new currency of the world is content. You know, the content creator, what we call the expert industry world. It's now well developed. Well, a decade ago when I was doing it, people were like, who are you? Who do you think you are? And there was a lot of rejection. And the truth is, I wasn't very good when I began. My first videos were awful if you ever saw them. I had no idea what I was doing. You know, I couldn't do what I do now. This podcast, like my YouTube show, are all extemporaneous. I don't use notes. I go off what I've learned about life. And I think that's why the show became so successful. In terms of the YouTube show, the this podcast here, and a lot of my work, people show up at our seminars and see me for four days, perform nine to 12 hours a day on stage without a single note. And they're like, how can you do that? It's because I've mastered my domains. I developed the skills that were necessary to serve at the level I wanted. And I continue to do that because experts are always students first. But I also got where I am today because I didn't worry about the haters. They weren't a blip on my radar. They're still there. And look, they're going to reject you when you start and then they'll reject you when you become successful. So either way, you'd better have an internal reason for why you want the changes in your life more than social acceptance. Because if you're guiding your life based on acceptance and belonging, you will always belong to the mediocre. You will always belong to the average, to the common set of expectation that is out there. And it'll be a difficult life. It will Be a very unfulfilling life because it won't be an individual life where you have your individual heart and soul in what you are doing. I think the third area I see that people have a deep dependency on or comfort with that hurts their ability to change and grow. One reason a lot of people don't change is because they have a set level of risk right now that they're cool with. They're comfortable with the level of risk they have right now. And change inherently brings uncertainty and uncertainty inevitably equals risk in the mind. Oh, I don't know that's a risk to try that. Well, Brenda, I have this big dream, you know, I want to put it out there, but gosh, I don't, you know, I want to start my own business. But sure is risky. And unfortunately some people never accept the fact that no, yeah, there's always going to be risk with change. But I think the ultimate risk is living an uncharged life, a non charged life, A life that you get the end and you go, gosh, I wish I really had done that. I wish I shoulda, coulda, woulda have that sense of at the end, I didn't do it because I was just uncomfortable with risk. Well, now you're about to die. You know, talk about a plunge into the ultimate unknown. You're about to die. Then you look back at your life and go, man, did I play it safe. I wish I was sitting here in a different position. And that happens for a lot of people and it's very unfortunate and it has to do with their risk tolerance in life. But here's the thing. If you have a large vision for your life, you must immediately accept the fact that there'll be more risk and be cool with it. Not gauge things risk by risk, moment by moment, but just go, you know what? There's always gonna be risk. Always. Not like, oh wow, that was risky. No, always. Every day, every moment. This next moment for you is risky because I don't know how it's gonna go. Are the words gonna come out right? Am I gonna do a good job for you? I wanna serve, am I? I want to be here. I want to be in a good place of mind and energy for you, but I don't know how it's going to go. But I dance with that risk, that uncertainty, that unknown. I flow into it and allow it to be. And that's why change comes so easily for me. People say, oh, it's so easy for you. And I say what? They say, well, you know, you just, you're so good at changing habits and beliefs in yourself and other people. And it's must be, you know, it's just so easy for you. And I say, oh no, it's not easy for me. It's just conditioned, that's all. I've done it enough, with enough consistency, persistence over a period of time. It's easy now. I mean, almost every change I face, whether it's changes I didn't want. If you read the Charge, my book called the charge, the 10 human drives that make you feel alive. You know my story. In 2011 I had an ATV accident and that was not a change I wanted. You know, snapped my wrist, threw out my hip, messed up my ribs, messed up my shoulder, got a brain concussion, had a post concussive syndrome for almost a year. It was a long road neurologically just to get back. And before that another decade. Well, yeah, almost a decade prior to that I had a car accident that shifted. Both these accidents weren't things I asked for, but I utilized them to become a stronger person. I hope so. Sometimes we have to look at the changes that are in our life that we didn't want and ask, what could I learn from that? What strength could I develop from that? What service could I have in the world? And now what is the right next action of integrity for me today? What's right for me? And for most people I tell them, you know what, if you really want to make major, if you're going for a big reward, if you're going for a big vision for yourself, you're going to have to put yourself out there and there's going to be risk. You're going to start that business. Yep. Tolerate the risk. You're going to walk up to that girl at the bar. Yep, that's a risk. Go. It's like one of those things. Most of the fears that we have in life that never really show up, they're just in our head and we over complicate the process of change. And ultimately the process of change usually looks like you sharing your voice or you walking up and asking for something, or you creating that thing and putting it in front of the world. Whether it's a proposal for a new business, a business plan, or whether it's a new video or a book or a post or something that's authentic from you, that you craft and create. It's about putting stuff out there and not worrying about, gee, will it be accepted? Gee, would this risk be too big? By the way, I'm not about just running into any Risk, stupid. I'm just saying don't fear it. Look at the risk, evaluate it from a place of intelligence and start making your moves. And never say it's too risky without having tried something. Because risk is to be assessed in action, not in your head. You don't know if it's a risk until you kind of edge yourself into it a little bit to know, oh, is this right for me? Is it not? Is this going to pan out? Is it not? It's about getting in the game. You know, I love the second part of this statement. Again, it began like this. I agree to give up my dependency on my present experience and be open to new possibility. Openness is one of the most studied traits in human psychology. A person who is more open to things learns better. A person who is more open to things grows faster in terms of their skill development. A person who is open to things to tends to be happier, tends to report higher levels of gratitude, also higher levels of curiosity. A person who is open tends to be better in conflict with other people because they're open to other perspectives. In this case, we're saying, be open to new possibility. That means if change is going to be something you master, you have to consistently be open to the fact maybe there's a bigger vision for you. Be open to the fact that maybe new people could come into your life that could change your life. Be open to the fact that there will be struggle, but you'll make it through because you've got the confidence that comes from the belief that you'll figure things out. Openness to me ultimately says, ah, I can figure this out. I can. I'm open to different ways of looking at it and learning and understanding things. But ultimately I. I know how to take it and do something with it that will be beneficial to my life. It's time to be open to the idea that there's more for you. So the character checks off that box. The next one he has to check off is, I agree. I love this one. I agree to give up my defense mechanisms and face the truth. The character in life's golden ticket really struggles with change. And one of the reasons he does that is one of the reasons most people do. They have a defense mechanism. A defense mechanism is when you are greeted with something that potentially could make you feel bad, small, wrong, negative in any way you defend. You make an excuse, or you give rationale for why, or you try to explain away the way you are and why you are. People have a tell a phrase. I can tell when someone's lost their personal power because they say something like, well, you just don't understand. You don't understand, Brendon, I've got. You don't understand, Brendon, I had this childhood. You don't understand, Brendon, I've got this child. You don't understand, Brendan, I got that job. You don't understand. My boss did this. You don't understand. They laid me off. You, you don't understand. They're like this. You don't understand. Over the tracks or that. You don't understand. I came from this side. You don't understand. These people don't like me. You don't understand. This negative thing happened to me. You don't understand is the clarion call of the disempowered because what they believe falsely is that their story is so incredibly unique. Now this sounds very judgmental, but let me pass. Pan it out for you a little bit. What happens is often in our life, our ego takes over and we forget that there's, you know, 7 billion people on the planet. Over 10,000 years of recorded human history. Somebody has been through what you've been through. Somebody's going through it right now. It feels incredibly unique to you because it's your unique perspective and moment in time in dealing with it. But there's some kind of magic to this idea of oneness to realize that we're all in this together. And in fact, people can understand. And in fact, the only reason the human species still exists today is because of understanding. As much as you think there's no understanding or tolerance in the world because of the media calling out every time, there is not. The reality is every single day about 7 billion people go through life just fine getting along with other people. There's lots of fights, there's lots of conflict, there's lots of wars. But those are also the majority of the outliers. The reality is people can understand your struggle because that's the only narrative that is common to all human species. Except for progress. The two human narratives are struggle and progress. That's all we know. That's been the story before you came along. It'll be the story after you came along. And I know this sounds very unemotional to say in some way or insensitive, but you have to realize what I do. You know, I'm a high performance coach and I've been blessed to work with extremely influential people. But I've also been blessed to work with people who had no influence at all, who struggled, who were at the end of their lives. I spent time in hospices and I can share with you that idea of you don't understand. That's just the ego taking over and defending versus being open to the reality people can understand. And matter of fact, those who usually say you don't understand, they're the ones who are in a very dangerous place of slippering and do that slippery, slippery slope that can ultimately lead to bitterness, that can ultimately lead to ultimate disempowerment and suicide. You know, because it's the suicidal persons you don't understand to the world and because they really believe no one else can understand, they take their own life. But sometimes those who are saying you don't understand, they're the very ones who need to raise their hand and say, I need some help. But you won't ask for help if you don't think anyone can understand. It's like a catch 22, right? So if you find yourself defending by making excuses to people, well, she made me do that, Brendan. No, she didn't make you do that. You have to own your own actions. Well, you don't understand. This happened to me over there. Actually, I can't understand and I'm sorry to share with you. Other people have had that health issue and they made it through okay with even a more positive mindset than you have right now. And that's not kind to say, but sometimes we all need to be checked because we get in our own little funk and we think that no one can understand us. And when we think that, we ultimately pull away versus engage the world. And that's the opposite of the fully charged life. I love the second part of this. I agree to give up my defense mechanisms and boy, you really need to read life's golden ticket to see this guy constantly try to make excuses and people not allow it. I really hope you'll read the book and share what you think with the book and make sure you get the bonuses@lifesgoldenticket.com but listen to the second part of this. I agree to give up my defense mechanisms and face the truth. Face the truth in every area. If you're going to make a change, you have to face the truth and not like, glance at it like, look at the hard fact of the truth. How's your health really? How fulfilled are you in your career, really? How loving, compassionate, vibrant, spectacular, sensual is your relationship really? How abundant is your lifestyle really? What's the emotional quality of your days, really? Sometimes we got to look at those things and face the truth at that Level we go, really, how is it now? Because if it sucks, then let's change it. If it's not good, then let's change it. If it's extraordinary, be so deeply grateful. Keep doing it. Don't lose the rhythm. Keep enjoying that, fulfilling that, experiencing that. But for a lot of people, change begins with facing a harsh truth. Wow, I got fat. I gotta change. Wow, I've been a total jerk to the people at work. I gotta change. Don't wait for something negative in your life to happen as a consequence. Too many people wait too late to change and then literally it's too late to change. Someone walks out on them, they get fired, they lose the opportunity because they just couldn't adapt. And we have to positively adapt if we're going to navigate life well. So what truth do you have to face right now? And you know, I would say the opposite of facing the truth is avoidance. And avoidance is great too because avoidance allows us to have comfort. Avoidance is the ultimate dependency. It's like, oh, avoidance, it feels good because I don't have to face the difficulty. So avoidance becomes a very simple and powerful short term strategy to avoid discomfort. But it also becomes a very simple and powerful way to ensure long term suffering. You know, avoidance will lead to a very, very negative path for people when it's in an area that's important to them. Avoid something in health, you're going to be in trouble. Avoid something in your relationship, you're going to be in trouble. Avoid something in your career, you're going to be in trouble. It always leads to trouble. So what do you need to face? The character in life's golden ticket is forced to evaluate parts of his life by other members of his life coming back in and asking him questions. And it's difficult. It's very difficult. And so I don't share this with some glib, hey, just do this. I'm like, hey, this is tough. But this is part of the mastering of change. You gotta let down those excuses, let down those you don't understands, let down all the reasons that your life is the way that it is and say, okay, regardless, all the reasons. What is in front of me? Am I cool with it or am I not cool with it? If I'm not cool with it, I can't blame the past anymore. What's the next right action of integrity for me? Now the third thing he checks off is I agree to give up my belief that change equals pain. So many people think change equals pain, but there must be a radical shift in your Mindset if you're ever going to continually succeed at progress, at positive adaption, and here's what it is. Change equals necessary. Change equals progress. Change equals growth. And there's another. There's something in your life you already know. I've been beating around the bush a little bit. There's something you got to change and you know it, but you haven't done it. Because in some way you think that's going to bring hardship or struggle. And here's what I have to say. It absolutely will. And thank God, because the struggle is going to make you stronger. The struggle is going to empower you to serve. The struggle is actually the very thing you've been waiting for. See, people think, well, I can't wait to stop dealing with the struggles of my life. I'm tired of being poor or fat or miserable or bad. You know, we all have that at points of our life. I'm tired of the struggle. But it is a new struggle, a higher quality of struggle that you choose that will make you better. Don't wish to be out of the struggle. Design a better quality of struggle. I tell people, if the only challenges you're facing in your life right now are the ones that life is throwing at you, then you are living a life of reaction, not a proactive, positive, charged life. See, the challenges that should be in front of us right now, the ultimate struggles in front of us right now should be ones we chose. You know, I work with a lot of high level athletes and look, their workouts, they're choosing to do workouts that are very difficult. I mean, very difficult. They could coast through, but they say, no, I want to be the best. So I'm going to devise this unbelievably difficult workout routine. You know that sometimes when I'm working with a client, they ask me to work out with them. I say, I don't know, man. And I say, I'm happy to, but, you know, you're an Olympian or a world class professional athlete, and I'll do a workout with them. I want to throw up. I mean, I can't even make it through half their workout. Their extraordinary qualities of physical skill and dominance in their area and what I realize they got there because they chose that struggle was gonna be okay. They said, yep, gonna be a difficult workout. What else can I add to it? Well, in some points of our life, look, if the only challenges you have are, well, my major difficulties are the bills. My major struggles are dealing with, you know, my spouse. My major struggles are dealing with My ex spouse. My major struggles are dealing with my health. If the only struggles you have are the one that world, the world gave you, you're not living a conscious enough life for the level of person who would listen to a podcast like this. This is in no judgment to other people. And this isn't in no judgment to you either. Because, hey, look, I don't know you, I don't know your mom, I don't know your background, I don't know your story. You could be a vampire for all I know. I don't know who is listening to this. You could be driving a car that you stole. And here I am playing in your car. I have no idea. All I do know is, is it someone who would purposefully hit go on the charged life is somebody who I can say this stuff to? I can push you harder than I would necessarily at a seminar or general speaking event. It's like, hey guys, look, set up some challenges in your life. It's gonna make you better. See, I've got difficulty in my life every day and people say, but you're so successful. I go, exactly. That's why I have a lot of difficulty in my life. And I don't want the difficulty ever go away. Once the difficulty goes away, the edge goes away. Once the challenge goes away, the charge goes away. Look, I mean, no goals, no growth, no struggle, no strength. We have to have those things in our life. So change to me equals character development. That's the way I look at it. Okay, this is gonna make me stronger. I don't know how it sucks right now, but what can I pull from it? It's just like, you know, I've shared with millions of people around the world about my car accident story when I was a 19 year old kid. And inevitably somebody comes up after I share it or somebody posts online. Well, Brennan, I had a car accident. It was even worse than yours, but nothing good came of it for me. And I always say, oh well, it was just a different choice. That difficulty, that challenge I faced in my life, I chose to do something with it. I chose to say, well, what could I learn from this? What could I pull from this negative experience that could make life positive for me in the long run? What new value could I elicit from the this experience that would make me a better human? Those types of questions pose to a difficult situation is where one person positively adapts and another one becomes the victim. Last statement that the character in life, school and ticket is forced to face, and that is this. I agree to Give up on my impulse, quit. I agree to give up my impulse to quit. It's a funny statement, but it's so powerful. When we first start changing, we want to quit that first week in the diet. We want to quit the second, the fourth workout in the new routine. It's not working. My biceps ain't any bigger. I quit. That new communication pattern, we've been taught by the counselor to practice with our wife or our husband. We try it for two weeks. It's not working. I quit. We want the immediate payoff today. And those who are constantly, constantly addicted to the immediate payoff become the hamsters of life. You know, it's so inevitable that somebody who has to have that quick payoff struggles over a lifetime. Not only have they proven that in psychology, we've proven it in high performance studies. And now it's just well known, you know, it's just that it's nothing new that successful people are more persistent than others, period. Hard stop. Proven over and over. They're not always as lucky as others. They're not always as smart as others. They're not as well educated as others. They just outlast. I look at my career, you know, I went to a lot of writers conferences to be able to learn how to publish a book. This is back in the day before. That was probably right when I wrote Life, School and Ticket. I wrote Life, School and ticket in 2003. I couldn't get the publisher for it until 2006. Book didn't come out till 2007. And I met so many authors along the way who said, I'm going to write a book. And some of them did and didn't do well and they quit. Well, if you don't know the story behind Life's Golden Ticket, when you buy the book and again, please go to life'sgoldenticket.com so you can get the right link and you can get the bonuses. One of the bonuses you're going to get from me is five lessons learned in writing and relaunching this book. Because when Life's Golden Ticket initially came out in 2007, it did good, but not my expectations of good. It didn't, quote, unquote, change my life. I thought it would and it did in the sense of I felt fulfilled and completed from the process. But in terms of the overall long term sales of the book, it didn't do what I wanted because nobody knew me. I was just starting. But that's always the author's journey. But so many other authors I Met. You know, they wrote that first book, didn't do what they wanted, and they said, ah, well, there's evidence of my insecurity right there. Didn't work, so I better quit. I'm gonna go get a job over here. I'm gonna do this. And I didn't. It didn't work for me either. I ultimately went bankrupt after launching that book. And you know what? I stayed with it because I realized it was a passion. Writing, teaching, talking about change. I knew from the few people who did read the book at the time, they were deeply moved by it. I said, there's something to this book. And the publisher believed it. Everybody believed it. And I thought, there's something here. But see, I didn't know marketing. It was harder back then. There were no podcasts like this. There were no, you know, YouTube and Facebook were just a year, a few years old. You know, there was no iPhone. I mean, the world was a different place. Communicating by social media, building a tribe, all that was so much more difficult. You basically had to be at the whim of the media to be able to get a book out there back then or go on a road tour with a bunch of books in the back of your car. Neither of which I really wanted to do. I didn't like the major media. To this day, I still, as you see, I don't do a lot of interviews. I don't grant a lot of interviews. And it's not because I'm some weird hermit, you know, though some people think I am. I just. I've chosen. I want to create content more than be interviewed. And so I'm constantly creating and teaching and creating and teaching. I share all this because as we're relaunching life's golden ticket now, we're doing it the way I wanted to do it originally. I couldn't get the publisher to do a few things back in the day, which included putting the envelope in the back of the book that has the golden ticket in it, which is central to the book. At the time, people could read the book and they could sort of. Because it's a book of fiction, it's a story, it's a parable. People at the end, they could kind of make up what they thought was on the golden ticket, but I wanted to give them the golden ticket, but it just cost a lot to put that in the book, so they wouldn't do it. Well, luckily, because of your support, here I am. And now they believe I have some influence and were willing to do it for us. So I'm happy they did that. I'm very thankful to our friends over at Harper one who believed in this book from day one a very long time ago. And now we're finally relaunching it the right way. I designed the COVID of the book. I hope you enjoy it. When you go to life'sgoldenticket.com you can see the book. I'm holding it up there, talking about the bonuses, talking about the power of second chances, essentially. And I hope you'll engage with this. I hope that you will pick up the book. Because what I'm gonna do now for the first time is over a series of days. I'm gonna be talking about this concept of. Of how do you make positive change? How do you master change? Today was really the entrance gate. You know, to get in the game of change, these things we talked about are needed. You got to give up your dependency on now because you got to be willing to face some struggle to change. You have to have a new possibility in mind for where you can go. You have to agree to give up your defense mechanisms and all the excuses and all the attachments to the past and. And just now face life for what it is now. And then ask, okay, if I want to change it, what's the next right action of integrity for me? We have to give up. We have to agree to give up that belief that change equals pain because change equals character development. Change equals growth. Change equals mastery. Change equals progress. Change equals an opportunity to be a better human being to those around me. And we have to agree to give up our impulse to quit. My life has been surrounded by lots of people who've been extraordinary who persisted, and lots of people who were kind, giving, good people, but they quit on their dreams too fast. When you know the success might have been one year later, two years later, even five years later, doesn't matter. It's that they were loving it. They were deeply passionate about it, and they quit. I'm all for, by the way, quitting those things that are wrong. Matter of fact, I don't believe. If you know it's wrong, quit it sooner than later, otherwise you'll regret it. But don't quit those things that you have an intuition to follow so quickly. Get in the game, stay in it. Try for a while, persist. If the first round doesn't go well, stay in it for the second round. If you love it, if you believe in it, if it's something that's important to you, it's always the truth that we learn from every human success story, they simply persisted. They adapted, they mastered change. They never mastered it to its point. It's done. But they were in the process of mastering it. I'm always trying to master this craft, master my art, master my work. I'll never get it. There's no attainment level where it's done. So it's this lifelong growth process and I love that process of change. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, do me a favor. Share it. As you know, we do no sponsorships or advertisements on my blog, on my YouTube show, on my podcast, anywhere, across multiple platforms with millions of fans and followers in which I could easily be receiving seven to eight figures a year, well over $10 million in sponsorships per year, easily. If I ask for it, we don't. Because we want to make the company and what I do about you, the students. So the only way we even exist is that enough of you share this type of stuff and then people do this. They'll go buy my book, maybe they'll enroll in online course, maybe they'll come to a seminar, maybe they'll join coaching one day and all that process allows me to self fund this. So you don't need to hear advertisements, it's just me talking about life. If you are enjoying it, share the podcast, help spread the word. Go to life's golden ticket.com you know that you can live a fully charged life and for being here today, I hope we gave you a little bit of charge. Look forward to talking with you next time, which again will be tomorrow because we'll continue this conversation about how to master chances. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the first big move in making positive change. The first big move in making positive change. So come back to the podcast tomorrow. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly and make your difference. Today.