Motivation Manifesto: Reclaim Your Agenda (Declaration 2of9)

Hey friends, it's Brandon. And this episode is part of a special 10 part series that I'm doing right here on the podcast exclusively where I'm going to release the major parts of my audiobook of my book, the Motivation Manifesto. Yes, I'm releasing 10 full chapters of the audiobook right here on the podcast. So, so make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast and you download these episodes. You'll see these episodes designated as Motivation Manifesto and then the chapter name. And here's the deal, these are only going to be posted until June 3rd. So I'm giving you 10 days to go through the entire Motivation Manifesto audiobook of the major declarations of the book. Anyway, I don't, I won't include like the introduction or forward or stuff like that. So just jumping right into the declarations that made the Motivation Manifesto so famous. The book spent 36 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list when it came out a decade ago. Why am I releasing such a huge.

Part of the audiobook right now?

Well, it literally was a decade ago. So this is the 10 year anniversary and I just wanted to say thank you and celebrate it with. Celebrate all your support. Frankly, you guys have been amazing to me in this last decade and that book kicked off such a magnificent part of my life. And I'll never forget the support you gave me, not only making it a major New York Times bestselling book, but just the love of that book around the world. It led to, you know, an interview with Oprah and doing courses with Oprah Winfrey Network. It led to some coaching, some of the best, best teams in the world. It was an extraordinary experience of my own and many. You know the story that initially the publisher turned down the book. I'd go find another publisher. And that journey alone was a reason to always fight for your art. With no further ado, we'll play this audiobook section of the Motivation Manifesto. If you'd like to get the book, you can still find it on Amazon and I encourage you to go there and get it as well because nothing like reading that book. But you'll hear me and my voice from 10 years ago reading this book. Please enjoy.

Declaration 2. We shall reclaim our agenda. The day is always his. Who works with serenity and great aims? Ralph Waldo Emerson. Human nature steers us towards self reliance and freedom. Nothing burns more fiercely in our soul than the desire to be ourselves and pursue our dreams. And so the great joys in life come when we are spontaneous and authentic each day while engaging in Activities that we care about and the great miseries of life come when too many days stack up where we are conforming and posing while doing things we have no passion for. In these truths we find a unit for measuring how our freedom is being expressed or not expressed. Our individual days. Did we spend today being ourselves, expressing our true voice and sincere feelings and innate power? Did we spend the vast majority of the day doing meaningful activities rather than being slave to distraction or useless endeavor? Life has a way of being easily torn from us. Day by day, we forget what we want and get distracted. We do what others tell us to do. We say yes to so many things that we end up with no time to do the things that matter to us. This is the reality of the masses. But freedom and greatness belong to those who master their day. They have an entirely different level of control over the agenda and direction of their life. Their days mean something to them because they know each day gathers force toward a particular destiny. It's as though they imagined themselves standing before their Creator at the end of their lives and having to answer his questions. Did you use the time I gifted you each day to be a purposeful being? Did you follow your own path and make your time count? How faithfully did you tend to the dream I sowed in your soul? It's as though they awoke each day knowing these questions would come. It's as though each morning they hurled a shining spear of purpose far into the fields of the future and then made their mission to to go pick it up and throw it once more forward. In their daily struggles to reach the goal, they were focused, unbending, diligent. If they ever felt lost, they had the presence of mind to stop and think. Am I on the right path? Am I moving forward to what I desire? If they found themselves sidetracked in the valley of despair and distraction, they knew to lift their head, to climb to a high vantage point, to see where their journey was leading them and if it was where they desired to go. To look for that shining spear and reorient themselves to it, to find once more the horizon line of their greater destiny. They carried on this way with stunning commitment. They had their own aim in life, and they awoke each day loyal to that cause and ablaze with passion for it. They never let up, despite the struggle and hardship, always thrusting their intent into the distance, always seeking it, always finding a way over or through any obstacle, until they ended up either in the land of their dreams or with the angels for having died trying. What they did not do was waste their days meandering about or marching under the banner of someone else's ambitions. Contrast their life agenda with the world's stragglers and complainers who are undirected, passionless and afraid of work. They fail to cast their intention into the world, or if they do, they allow themselves to be distracted rather than follow their desires to the end. They fail to peer above their immediate tasks to see where they are headed, preferring the illusionary sense of progress at having checked off some trifling task. They are too fearful or too lazy or too pulled by the clatter of other people's demands to chase their own dreams. They do not strive with real desire and discipline. They make excuse after excuse and tell story after story about why they cannot advance or scale the mountain. They feel no responsibility to fully activate their latent powers. They live unconsciously or in quiet denial, unable to face the truth that their own life agenda is strangely absent or insignificant, and so the mark of greatness will never be seared into their soul because they did not stay true and faithful to themselves or their mission. We are one or the other, the striver with the spear of purpose or the distracted straggler with the excuse which will be our reality. Shall we allow ourselves to be directionless in life, ripped from any purpose by the demands of others and all the distractions of the world? Or shall we finally get serious about the fact that our days will become weeks and weeks will become months, and months will become years and decades and a lifetime either won or lost, joyful or regretful, purposeful or squandered. Let us make this day the day we take back our life's agenda from the grips of conformity and distraction. Let us have our aim in life and and move toward it swiftly and diligently. Let us not forget that our simple efforts and daily triumphs can gather weight and motion to become an unstoppable force toward a focused and free life. We can design our life agendas so that our daily planner is no longer the object of resentment, but rather a thing of beauty, a stunning log of our enjoyment of life and progress toward freedom and transcendence. We can emancipate our schedules from meaningless tasks and in the process lift ourselves to higher standards and higher planes of joy and purpose. We can, through conscious design and vigilant protection of our time and agenda, take back our destiny and make each day artful and fulfilling. But to do so, we must take a long, unflinching look at our habit of giving our lives and agendas or over to others or to meaningless things. We have to say no more often. We have to focus more. We have to fight harder to safeguard our time and our dreams and our souls. Let us now get serious about our days and who we are becoming because of them. Let's get serious about the aim and enjoyment of a meaningful life. It is time to value the hour once more and refuse to give up our lives to the world's distractions and nonsense. And it is time to make our own way and get back our day. For this we declare, we shall reclaim our agenda. Stripped from our path. Few would know or admit if they lacked command of their overall life agenda. How could we tell what signs would indicate that we are off our unique path in life? There are stark realities and subtle hints. If there is a lack of true expression, enduring joy, vibrancy and satisfaction in life, then clearly our agenda has been compromised. For who would plan a life marked with conformity, boredom, fatigue, and dissatisfaction? If there is a constant shirking of one's dreams out of fear of failure, a suffering sadness in everyday life, or a consistent lack of progress toward one's own clear path, then clearly we are not in charge of our daily emotions and direction. We can further ask have I become so like others at work that I am not myself? Am I acting like someone else in order to please my parents or friends or lover? Do I believe things and behave in ways that are unexamined, causing me problems or not a true part of my soul? Do I feel the people around me have no idea who I am or why, what I want? Do I follow other people without true reflection on what I wanted? And that's why I have this job, or study this topic, or engage in this hobby, or feel trapped in this way of life? That is it. The ultimate tell. Feeling Trapped Should a person feel caged in any aspect of their life? It is an obvious reveal that they have not been owning their life agenda, but rather they have been suffering the chains of conformity. They have been catering to everyone else, slave to the prevailing ideas or expectations of others playing a game they never wanted to be a part of. The subtler sign is how we consistently feel about our lives. If we obtain everything we think we need, and every indication says life should be satisfying, yet something still feels off, then we know there is a problem. If someone asks, how are you? And we cannot feel a genuinely happy response immediately rise within us, what does that say? It says we are off our unique path in life. This is especially true if contemplating the question seriously. We find ourselves Replying with a mundane lie like, oh, well, I guess I'm fine. Fine is the calling card of conformity. Things are merely fine in life when passion has been slowly bled from our veins. Things are fine when we are bored stiff. Things are fine when we've done what they told us to do and we're sick and tired of it. Things are fine when we have been marching to the beat of someone else's song for too long. Things are fine when we are aching for more adventure, more. More passion, more intimacy, more creative expression, more contribution, more drive, more independence, more freedom, more life. In our days, if we are merely fine, we are not alive. Should we not be amazing, excited, thrilled, fantastic, phenomenal, beyond grateful? Another subtle sign of trouble is that we feel regularly silent about things that matter to us. If we want something but we do not ask for it, this means we'll likely accept whatever we are told to do or whatever shows up on life's door. We must ask, does the world have a sense of who I am? Do my family and friends know who I am and what I truly desire from life? Do my peers and leaders know what I truly want to learn, to work toward, to contribute? If we answer with a no, then clearly we are not being ourselves or speaking up for ourselves. Such silence reveals fear of rejection or an unhealthy level of need to fit in to what they want for us. In this conformist silence, there is nothingness, no sound of life, no pulsing and cracking and thunder of individuality. In such silence, the suffering settles in. Let us never forget that speaking up for ourselves and telling the world what we want and desire is a fundamental practice of a free life. The final, clear indication that someone's life agenda is not their own is constant lack of focus. It is that terrible and never ending distraction of the modern world that is stealing purpose and progress from our lives. It's becoming a defining hour of humanity where we either take back our attention or risk becoming emotionally addicted to our technology, to devices that somehow, though they have neither soul or intent, control us more than we control them. Humankind is fast becoming a slave to its own tools. Hours of the day seep away, checking in, updating and swiping. To what end? It's as if we are adrift in a digital stream we never consciously chose to wade into, and we are starting to drown. No sooner do we set out on a meaningful task than we feel compelled to look at something irrelevant. We barely make it through a single day without suffering browser blackout or app amnesia. Those long gaps in the day when we are lost in a long chain of clicks and swipes that steal our momentum and and leave no trace of real purpose or accomplishment. Yet so many people look effective, so busy with so many tasks, tracking everything unimportant to infinite degrees. In this age of the quantified self, we measure how many hours we slept, steps we took, calories we burned, pages we viewed. We document our every personal move in photos and videos, yet we know nothing about ourselves. We spend more time checking our stats than our souls. We mine our life experience for data, but not depth. We have all these numbers to improve, but no idea how to dial back the numbness. As much as we check in, we are checking out of our own lives and becoming voyeuristic, peering gate mouthed into the sordid details of other people's lives in order to feel connected or entertained. If we are to measure and monitor and improve anything, let it be our story, our character and our conduct. A mindfulness of who we are and how we are experiencing and relating with the world. Reclaiming our life agenda is about asking, am I proud of who I am and the person I am becoming? Am I happy with what I am doing and contributing to the world? Have I felt grateful for this day and its opportunities? And have I directed myself purposefully so that I can live my highest truth and serve my highest good? Let us check in on ourselves in these ways, for in the end, these are the only measures that matter. Our defining moment will come as we either continue to slide into the oblivion of the deep digital stream, clicking and swiping and drowning in distraction, or take a higher vantage point apart from all the noise and finally, after all this time, choose to refocus on what really matters in life. Let us boldly ask what it says about ourselves if we cannot pull back from our addiction to digital distractions. For it is an addiction we are no better off than the alcoholic who cannot avoid the bar, or the gambler, the casino. Those with the compulsion to constantly check in have lives like this. They awake each day and their first act is to review the messages left by others, always terrified that they may have missed something that someone else wanted on a whim just hours or minutes ago. Their second effort is to divide up their day based not on what they should accomplish in pursuit of their dreams, but rather on the hours they must spend responding to the needs and requests of others. They reply with equal frenzy and and devotion to one and all, to both influencers and idiots. Their addiction to meet others demands, making no distinction, giving no priority. All day. They are busy accomplishing nothing but responding to everything. There is no vision, only reaction, a self imposed terror that they are falling behind. Their aim in life, if we can call it that, is to get through it all, to catch up in a rat race that they should never have entered and will never win. This needn't be our fate. Should we have the courage to take back the responsibility of running our own lives and advancing once more toward meaningful goals every single day, no matter what, we must choose this day to finally be more intentional with what we want and what shall deserve our golden attention.

Hey, it's Brendan. Sorry to interrupt the audiobook here for you, but a quick reminder. Make sure you subscribe to the show and you download this episode or all the episodes in this 10 part series. Or frankly, just set it so that all of my episodes always download to your phone because this series goes away on June 3rd.

Okay?

Other than that, in this little mid roll spot, I'd love to tell you about our Ultra group. I'd love to see if maybe this is the time for you to become.

More ultra successful in your own life, in every area of your life.

And I always believe that to do that you've got to have a new level of performance edge. You've got to optimize your health, you've got to adopt some wealthy habits, and you've got to get around a higher caliber of network people who are striving and working really hard to achieve great things. If that sounds like something you're interested in, I'd love to invite you into Ultra. Just go to Ultra vip. That's literally the website just ultra dot vip. There's no other part of that website. Just go to Ultra VIP for the invitation to see if you're right for my private networking group Ultra vip.

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.

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Just go to progressmode.com clarity on what is meaningful? What will give us a sense that we are once more in command of our life's agenda? Clarity, Direction, Progress. We begin developing clarity about the current state of our life's agenda by realizing that all human experience is segmented into two meaningful activities and non meaningful activities. This forces a clear distinction when evaluating our days. Do I find what I am doing each day of my life meaningful? Is all this busy work in line with what I feel is my life's work? These are the questions of the self determined. Such questions make us re evaluate everything. Every task, responsibility and opportunity that is laid before us by the world must now be questioned as to whether or not it aligns with our goals, whether or not it enlivens us, whether or not it allows us to feel fulfilled. To those activities that come up short, we must be unblinking and once and for all release our belief that we must be doing them. Some will moan at this work. They will say, but I do not like my answers. You do not understand. I have to do this terrible job. My workday is not my choice. To those who believe this, only time and maturity will help them uncover the truth. Work, just like our emotions, is ultimately a choice. Whether or not we wield that power is up to us. If we don't like the work we are doing, we have three continue hating what we do, change our perspective and find meaning and joy in our current tasks, or quit the dispassionate work and and seek out what will make our soul sing. One would hope everyone would, at some point and as soon as responsibly possible, choose the last option. Do we have to quit every job we hate? No. Surely we could stay in any job and succeed. Greatness can be cultivated in the soil of any experience. But we all know that the seeds of greatness grow faster in the hearts of those who are doing work they love than in the bitter hearts of those enslaved by work they despise. Some give their entire lives away to work they dislike because they never have the resolve to ask, what if I were free and strong enough to go find something more engaging and fulfilling? What if the world isn't giving me what I want? Because based on all my distractions and lack of discipline toward a goal, it is simply unclear what I am asking for. In such bold questions, we unsettle ourselves and unleash a new kind of desire and strength within setting a direction. A written manifesto we must go further beyond evaluating our current life experience and becoming clear as to whether or not our day's efforts are meaningful to us. We must set a new and more proactive course for our lives. What will our mission be from this moment forward? What will be our plan of action? What steps must be taken? These questions are not a philosophical suggestion. We should sit down now, with pen in hand, and write out the focus and direction of our lives from now forward. Lacking our own declarations and directives in life, written down, reviewed, updated, lived from, we can only fall into the herd. We end up where they take us, where they want us, wherever the wind blows us, Regardless of our hopes and intent, such a life is not one we want. So now, in these magical moments of our lives bursting with fire and choice, let us sit and write. Let us take back our day tomorrow by scribing our dreams tonight. Let us ask, what am I really after in life? What do I truly want to create and contribute? What kind of person do I want to show the world each day? What types of persons shall I love and enjoy life with? What great cause will keep me going when I feel weak or distracted? What shall be my ultimate legacy? What steps must I take to begin and sustain these efforts? What will I orient my days to accomplishing this week, this month, this year? Yes, we must write these things down in what will be our own manifesto, our own written declaration of what our lives are to be about. Those who lack such a written document must stop fooling themselves and thinking they are in charge of their lives. For without such self direction, we are but sad vessels captained by conformity. Intentions and occasional musings about life are insufficient for keeping anyone from conforming or losing their days to distraction. There is a reason nations write out and follow their declarations, constitutions and laws. No matter how strong a society, no matter its intent or culture or popular will, without written directives, all is lost in the randomness of human behavior. That is why we must write, and that is why we must revisit our manifestos. And that is why we must act in alignment to the agenda we have set for ourselves. After all this writing is done, let us rise tomorrow and forge the day and week to begin moving toward and accomplishing these things. Let us fight for these things. Let us use the morning to remind ourselves what we are after and to write any specific goals for the day. Dedicating time in that first golden hour to planning out our schedule. That precious first hour must not be squandered, for our evening's dreams can easily be forgotten in daylight. We must use the virgin morning to shape a schedule that is hours before the world shoves its corrupt needs in our direction. Yes, rise in the morning and write some more. Who will I be today? What dreams will I chase? What will I create and accomplish? No matter what? Who will I give value, love or appreciation to? What will I do or experience that will help me feel fulfilled and grateful when I rest my head to pillow later tonight? This is called living intentionally and independently. This is how motivated persons live. This is manifesting a freer life. Everything else is wishing and hoping, a steady decline into mediocrity, the dead boring drumbeat of the reactive and unconscious life progress despite obligation. For some, this talk of taking back our lives will seem out of reach not because they question their potential, but rather because they feel obligated to subjugate it for others. They say, you don't understand. I have to meet the needs of everyone else. My day is not my choice because everyone around me must be loved and cared for. I must sacrifice my dreams and pursuit of meaningful things at the altar of love or obligation. I have to please everyone else so I cannot progress or have my own joys and freedom. Time, maturity, and that great revelation that is choice are also needed for such persons. No one around us can tear us from progressing toward our dreams. Believing otherwise is accepting the role of victim in life. Our day is ultimately our choice. And so what can be done? Must we leave everyone who needs us so that we can have the lives we desire? Perhaps the more mature choice is to learn new ways to protect our desires and dreams while fulfilling our chosen roles in life. We can be good mothers and still strive diligently each day toward our dreams. We can be good leaders who help others achieve more while still striving diligently toward our day's goals. In dealing with the needs of others while maintaining our life's agenda, we must learn the stunning power of no. There is no rule written anywhere that says we must say yes to every passing request that crosses our desks or or burns in our ears from a crying whiner. This is not to say we cannot be loving and responsible to those who need us and when it brings us joy. If loving and caring for specific people is exactly what we find meaningful, then we must do just that. Taking the girls to soccer is not a distraction if it brings meaning to our days. However, we must not allow the world's distractions, casual loiterers or or random opportunities to constantly rob us of our intended day. For most, not knowing how to say no is where their lives decline into a thicket of stress and unhappiness. These Individuals are easy to spot as they constantly take on the role a victim to the world's desires. Their life appears to be an industrial slog, ticking off the tasks handed to them by others. They may appear frazzled and frenetic, choked in the tightening clutch of deadlines they did not choose or plan. They often appear to be awaiting instruction and direction. Thus their schedule is really more holding pattern than action plan. They get stuck in life because they never rise above their timid desires to please others. Their only true effort is to fit into the wants and schedules of the world. And so there is no purposeful art or arc to their week, year, decade or life. Theirs is a groaning, grueling life under the weight of other people's control and expectations. We all face the eternal drama of balancing our personal needs and ambitions with those of the people we love, lead and serve. But we mustn't succumb to victimhood. Other people will always demand our time and attention and including people we love and care about. Our parents will want our ear more often than we want to give it. Our friends and neighbors will call on us for parties and meetings. We will have obligations from our church, political party and volunteer organizations. We'll have bosses who expect around the clock access and instant response. But how shall we respond to such requests? If we say yes to all of them, we will be buried. Our only choice is to say no and to say it often, to say it more than we like or anyone else likes. The only exceptions should be in the cases in which we find saying yes to be personally and socially meaningful and a part of our advance toward our ideal lives. Vigilance will be needed because there will always be those needy few who can smell our desire to please. They will attack like black ravens from the sky, diving again and again as they devour our lives piece by piece. This is the guy at the office who is constantly asking for another random favor. The former girlfriend, always calling with drama and in need of rescue. The entitled employee whom we helped once and now refuses to lift a finger to do real work. These people will keep coming at us and they do not care about our agenda or destiny. Their opportunism will plague us. Should we not be intentional in saying no and no and no. We must learn to reply artfully and often forcefully to those who are always saying, I'm so sorry to have to ask you for one more little favor. To them, let us reply, I can't help right now. I have plans that cannot wait or accommodate your sudden emergency in saying this. We need not apologize anymore. Then we need to apologize to the person who runs into our car when we had the right of way. We can be artful if we must. I do wish I could help, but unfortunately I am unable to get to your last minute request because my plate is full with long ago scheduled activities and projects that I have already committed to. How we handle the enemies of our own progress speaks to our character and independence. We are doomed to if we subordinate our day's agenda to their every request or crisis. In meeting their needs, which are usually false deadlines or urgencies created only by their lack of preparation or responsibility, we lose an irrecoverable hour that could have propelled our own life forward. For these reasons, we must reclaim our agenda with a forceful grip. We must look to the world's random pushy people, the countless needy people, the people not on our list of those we want to love, care for or attend to. It cannot be overstated. We must not fear saying no, I cannot help you now. And so let us decide that. We will not let other people's fire drills result in daily drills of us scratching off our dreams. The demands of the whimsically needy or the terminally ill prepared are not our issue. Their lives are not our responsibility. Owning this life truth is freeing. I am not in charge or responsible for the wrecks others have created in their lives. And I do not need to save everyone in my life. What can we expect for standing tough and true at the gates of our agenda? What happens when we say no? Most will understand and and over time, most will come to respect us and leave us alone. But let us not delude ourselves. There will be a small contingent of people who will become angry. They won't like our free will and independence. They will try to ridicule or guilt us. They may ask who the hell do you think you are? They may feel scorned and launch bitter campaigns to make us their pawns once more. To force or gently steer us back in their grasp, to deliver us back into their concept of how we should treat them. Many will argue that we owe them a permanent debt for their love and sacrifice. How dare you refuse me? How can you leave me on my own after I've done so much for you? How can you not grant me this one small thing? In the face of such wheedling, we mustn't compromise. Else we risk being pulled into an ever growing sticky web of demands. We shall discover that the more often we say no, the more likely people will find someone else to pester or they will become more self reliant in the vacuum of our constant availability. Yes, we will arouse antagonism, lose favor, break loyalties and imperil our popularity. It will happen more and more as we gain greater and greater will and freedom in life. So be it. No great person ever made history without having guilt thrown at them or suffering some backlash from those who didn't like or appreciate their independence, discipline or single mindedness. So let the petty ones complain. Let them tremble with silly anxiety or anger. After days and weeks and months of protecting our turf, refusing to give in to guilt or pressure, stating convincingly that we have our own dreams to chase, we will find that the demanding bullies and unaware idiots finally have left us alone. Then, liberated from the social oppression that is others distracting demands, we are free, liberated to create and design our own lives in the newly opened white space of time. The more we say no to demanding people, the more life opens up to pursue our passions and happiness and and to serve and spend time with those we love. But what shall be done when it is our loved ones who constantly need us or tear us from our path? Let us be patient with them, but let us be real. We must artfully deal with anyone who derails the day's mission, including family. For the most part, this simply means asking for our space during blocks of time. During the day, it is saying to our young boy, son, your mother needs the next two hours to focus on a very important project that means a lot to her. Please do not go into her office. Once this is said, it is only mature parenting that will prevent the boy from entering the room. We must stand our ground. We can train our children or our teammates that when our office door is closed, they should not enter unless in emergency. We can lovingly request that our spouse give us an hour each evening to to read or meditate or create art. We can say no to the parties, the gatherings, the formal functions that we feel so obligated to attend. There may be scowls and long faces at first, but over time people will realize we are persons of purpose and they will give us room, knowing that the more they respect our schedule, the more likely we will find and make the time to be with them. Our goal is not to become cold or unavailable. No, it is to protect our sanity, progress and freedom. It is worth repeating that we can and should give time and attention to those we love and lead when we desire to do so. Being good to those around us is right and responsible, but never at the cost of our own long term Sanity or dreams. Besides, is it not true that that by saying no more to what is wrong, we are left with more time to give loving attention to those close to us? Some ask, should we not compromise? Can there be no middle ground between our desires and the needs of those around us? Perhaps. But there is a difference between adding a few tasks onto the day's schedule to serve others and compromising our entire life agenda. When it comes to foregoing our true passions and path in life to please others, we must never compromise. Compromise means giving something away, something in exchange for another's willingness to do the same. But we shall not give an entire piece of our dream, nor a decade of our lives over to anyone. Yes, we can help and love others on our way to personal freedom. But we mustn't give away so much time that our our freedom itself is fully compromised. We can meet our real responsibilities and care for our loved ones, but our own progress must never falter or stop lest we become slave to the world. If in aiding others, we kill our own dreams, then it is merely our ego seeking to make a false martyr of ourselves. We must keep the big picture in mind. A million dreams have died because compromising souls repeated the lie of the week. I'm okay with putting off my needs and dream another few years because people need me. Shall we do nothing but reply to the needs of others all day until in the day's final hours, we retreat to our beds, exhausted by the madness, not one step closer to what we wanted in life so that we can sleep restlessly, only to awake once more in a world determined by others rather than by ourselves. No, let us not compromise our dreams or barter our destiny hour by hour. If we can see a dream in the distance, let us move toward it with real force, will and consistency. To do less is to let the dream weaken and die. We can support our loved ones for a while, stepping in, helping out. But that does not require us to bring our dreams to a full stop. Stop every day we can do something to advance our agenda. Perhaps it is also time to stop seeing others as obstacles to our dreams, but rather as collaborators. Have we sat down our loved ones and told them what we truly desire of life? And why? Have we asked our teams to help us brainstorm new ways to work together so that all our desires can be met? Are we engaging others enough so that they will be supportive and participative in our life's pursuits? Real progress often comes in our lives once we make people our allies in accomplishment. Great Reclamation each day we have a choice to go with the wants and whims of the world or to chart our own course. If we abandon self determination, we are left adrift in a chaotic sea and and the only things on the horizon are swells of boredom or suffering. And so our attitude each morning must be that this is our day no matter what. If we can start with that intention, if we develop clarity and write our own manifestos and plans and we execute them with heart and discipline. If we stick to it and fight it through and stay in charge, we suddenly find ourselves one day back at the helm. Happy, Motivated, alive.

Okay, it's Brendan, the modern day Brendon here, jumping back in. I hope you enjoyed this chapter of the Motivation Manifesto. If you did, yes, you can still find the book for sale on Amazon and I would encourage you to if.

You'Re not yet a member of Growth.

Day, maybe this is the day that you join. There's actually a 12 week adventure advanced Motivation course based on the Motivation Manifesto in Growth Day. It's unlocked for any of our Mastery members. How do you know if you're a Mastery member? Well, just go to growthday.com and get yourself signed up. If you're already in Growth Day, just go to the search bar and type in motivation manifesto and BAM. That 12 week course will pop up for you. Free. Just for being a Mastery Manifestation member.

In Growth Day again you can go.

To growthday.com and you'll find an entire course. 12 week online motivational course unlocked for all Growth Day Mastery members.

We'd love to have you in Growth.

Day if you're not already. Again you can just go to growthday.com I want to thank everyone for listening to this episode of the Motivation Manifesto audiobook. Again. Make sure you download this episode and all the episodes otherwise you'll lose these on June 3rd. This is a 10 day preview of 10 chapters of the Motivation Manifesto. My thanks for the 10th anniversary of the release of the Motivation Manifesto.