Striving in Chaos: Ep 1: Mindset & Daily Routines

Hey, my friends, it's Brendan. And welcome to a special episode of the Brendon Show. In this episode, I am starting a new series I'm calling Striving in Chaos. I know that, you know, we all desperately want our lives to continue moving forward, even though some of us are locked down, but some of us are locked down, but we're still fired up. You know, we still want to lead and serve and contribute and do our art and make our difference and run our businesses and be great to our family and our friends and. And those that we love. And yet that's even more challenging than ever because all of the uncertainty and all of the fear and all of these unknowns that drive all this endless speculation and you logging in 500 times a day with your phone just to check on the news or social media what's going on, I know that can be all very distressing, overwhelming, creating stress and anxiety. So this series on the Brendan show podcast, where I'll be posting ideas, strategies, hopefully inspiration that will keep you going, that will keep you centered and strong even amid this storm. It will help you find and access a greater confidence and focus and clarity, even when it's difficult. Because right now, we're all making grand choices about how we show up in the world. And listen, we can't judge how anyone ever copes, but we can always recognize healthy habits. We can't judge whether or not someone wants to spend all day on a specific day on Netflix, but we can gauge where that person becomes happy over time. We can not say, hey, you shouldn't, you know, be so down to anybody. But the truth is, we've all felt it and we've all been discouraged. And so we have to be compassionate. And my question is, ultimately, how do we a cope but also progress? Because you can do the both. And so often we think is like, these are binary. Like, either you're coping or getting stuff done. And I'm like, well, no, that's not how it really works. Like, coping can be incredibly active. You know, that we can deal with trauma, grief, sadness, anxiety, you know, fear. And we can still be happy and productive and centered and good to our siblings and kids and those that we lead and serve. True. And so I'm going to hold you at a high level of standard in this series because what I believe right now is you don't need from me placating. You don't need me to be just the encourager. Hey, we'll all be fine. We'll all get through and it's okay. That you're so down and it's okay. Like all the it's okay messaging, A, I believe it, but B, I believe it's out there enough for you. What I don't believe is out there is a message that has edge, that has demand on each of us to still lead and show up. Because I believe in months and certainly a year from now, we will look back to this time and either we will be proud of how we showed up for our families and those that we led and that we served, or that we will think, gosh, what was wrong with me? You know, why didn't I try? Or why didn't I, you know, adjust or learn or experiment? And why didn't I get my mojo faster? Because, listen, everybody has been knocked down, locked up, you know, sent home. Like, everybody's had an experience that's been very displacing of what we know to be our comforts or our regular routines. And when that happens, we must grasp and build healthy routines. No matter whether we're home or work or whether we got the job or we don't have the job, it still rests upon each of us to be disciplined in how we show up and thoughtful. And I'm the person who's not going to say, hey, you know, it's okay if you want to spend the next eight weeks, you know, just watching television. That's not me. I'm not going to like, hey, listen, if you blew off a weekend because you were overwhelmed, because maybe I can understand that, and maybe I'm like, okay, cool. But on a week by week, by week by week, if it carries on weeks and months, then I'm the person saying, hey, that's a mental health issue. Please seek therapy. Please seek professional guidance. And if therapy or professional guidance in this way or that way isn't for you, then let me be your coach to demand something higher from you as well. Because I believe the most important thing right now that we can all do the hardest thing, and that is to adopt the role model mindset. The mindset that says, you know what? I'm going to be a role model through this. So, A, I can be proud. When I look back, I say, you know what? I was a role model and I really showed up when it was tough. And B, because you know what? The kids are watching because the community is watching, because the world is watching us right now. And how we show up right now, man, it matters more than ever. So I'm gonna be that guy who's gonna demand a high standard from You. And if that's not your vibe, pause, quit, bail, don't listen, I'm okay with that. But for those who are here willing to say, you know what? Yeah, let me summon some strength and willpower and fire right now. Because if we don't do it now, when will we do it? If we all stop striving when it gets difficult or scary or uncertain, what does that say about our real values and our real capabilities? I say we march on. I say we continue on. I say we adapt and we develop new strengths. We skill up. We got to do whatever we got to do. But we recognize that the first major domino to major life change is to say, I expect something from myself again. I expect something from myself again. I demand something from myself again. Let me challenge myself. Let me learn, Let me scale up, let me grow. But this is my time. I'm gonna shift into a different gear. I'm gonna face these things. I'm engaged these things. I'm gonna own these things. I'm gonna work through these things. That big domino in our life that falls is that role model mindset, that when we decide to be a role model, we summon something different from ourselves. We get stronger. We care about how we treat people. Role models are kind. They are compassionate. They are thoughtful. They are collaborative. They are this crisis when everyone else wants to go home, hole up, hide, distract themselves in show after show after show, not consider themselves, not consider their lives, and not be disciplined enough to get better and stronger right now when it really matters. Because if you don't get better and stronger right now when it really matters, then months from now, you'll be so behind the curve and so incapable of dealing with the new world that you'll be left behind. And no one likes when I say that. And I understand it's not popular. But again, I'm not here to be popular. I'm here to demand something from you because I believe in you. I'm here to demand something from you because I know you. If you've been on my community, on my YouTube show, here on the Brendon show podcast, you know deeply. You know deeply in my heart. I believe in your capability of transforming your life, of changing your life, of improving other people's lives. I believe in your capability to live fully, to love openly, to make a difference. I believe in your willingness to try and get up over and over and over again when you have so many reasons to quit, especially right now. So I thought I would begin this very first episode with that reminder to adopt the role Model mindset to expect something from yourself and to recognize a year from now you will be proud of how you engaged this moment of crisis because that really showed you your character, your strength, your willpower and your desire to serve others. Now I'm gonna start this first episode, forgive me. I'm gonna do a little bit of reading and a little bit of references of what I have here because I wanna answer the question I've gotten asked the most. And that question is Brendon, like, what are your routines right now to stay healthy, to stay sane, to stay productive, to stay when it's so easy not to be. And here's the truth. I am like right now, I am just deploying with greater discipline the same exact habits that have made me successful over the last two decades of my life. And when I say successful, I don't mean look at me, I mean I've been happy, I've been engaged, I've been creative, I've been productive. I love my family, my wife, the people around me. I've lived the best life possible that I can live by following some very simple basics. I want to tell you about them. I'm going to tell you about my entire daily routine for the first time really ever at this comprehensive level. And I hope this enjoys, helps you in whatever way craft your own. Because right now when the world has gone into uncertainty, you need to have a rock solid routine about who you are and how you show up. Here is how I do it. I wake up in the morning, I lie in bed and meditate for five minutes. I, I do the release meditation technique which is I close my eyes, I repeat the word release to myself several times for about five minutes. Just release, release, release. It's my mantra. Just to release any tension in my mind or in my body and just kind of just like zone, just find, find a place of release and freedom at the beginning of the day, just for five minutes. Then I get up, I immediately drink 20 full ounces of water, I refill that thing and I'm going to drink that next 20 ounces of water in the next half hour. Easily. What I do after that first just get up, drink some water, is I immediately hit the floor and I do anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes of mobility work on my body or yoga or calisthenics, stretching. Basically I'm just opening up my body. I'm just stretching out and being very mindful of my breath for 10 or 20 minutes as I'm moving on the floor, doing some vinyasa flows and yoga to open up my body, open up my radiance, just get awoken up to my body. Then I spend 20 minutes reading. And for me, I read either spiritual texts, psychology texts, self improvement texts, or philosophy texts. Those are the main things I read in terms of books, right? It's almost always spirituality, philosophy, psychology, or some type of self help self improvement. For 20 minutes minimum, I just sit and I read. Then I get up and for 20 minutes I then plan with my high performance planner, which I know most of you guys have, or I hope you do, the High Performance Planner. Because the reason I do that for 20 minutes is because there's all these 10 prompts in the morning section to help me anticipate my day and create a strong mindset, create sort of a healthy way to look at the day. I ask myself questions. If you don't have the high Performance Planner, I ask questions like, one thing I can get excited about today is if one word would describe the person I need to be today. It would be this. Somebody who needs me today to show up. A situation that might stress me out or trip me up could be this situation today. And the way I'll deal with it is this way. Somebody I could surprise with a note of appreciation, a gift, gratitude, something beautiful. I'll talk about one action I could do today to demonstrate some excellence. I'll talk about a bold action I could take. And I'll think about the big projects I have in mind. Then I'll fill out my goals. I'll figure out the tasks that must happen today. I'll detail the people I need to reach out to this day. And then I'll look at whatever I need to do that day. I'll maybe have my planner or my calendar for my phone or my computer. And I'll write it down. I'll always write it down. And I'll look at what are the major tasks and activities through the hours of the day. And then when I do, people are like, that takes you 20 minutes. I'm like, no, honestly, filling out my planner might take five to seven minutes in the morning. But then what I do is I look at each of those things and I ask myself, how can I do that thing with excellence? Like today? I knew I was going to film this for you. And I said, okay, right before. I'm going to make sure I move my body. I'm going to get my mind ready. I'm going to be alert and really serve with gratitude and with fire for people when most people just want to be placated I'm going to challenge people. And what I do is I visualize the whole day. Every meeting, every conversation, just walk it through what would make that successful and excellent and be of value. And I just think about that. So it's like a visualization. Basically for 20 minutes I'm planning the day, I'm visualizing the day. Those are huge. Then what else? I work my mission every day. I'm aware of what are, what is my mission and what are the major things that I need to do to move that mission forward again. I've detailed that in my planner and those are the things that I do. And people always say, well, how do you work, Brendon? Well, I practice what we've taught the whole world. Now if you ever heard the phrase block time, that was something that we really pioneered, at least at a scientific level. What that means, it means I work in 50 minute blocks of time. At the end of that 50 minutes, so if my butt hits a chair, I sit on my phone, 50 minutes. At the end of that 50 minutes, alarm goes off, I stand up and I do this thing called release tension set intention. What that means is 50 minutes. I get up, I just close my eyes and to release tension from my body, I close my eyes to release the tension from eye strain. I'll stand in place. I'll kind of bounce in place. Taking 10 deep breaths. Standing up. Okay, take 10 deep breaths doing that. I might do some body movements or qigong or yoga or something like that. I'll get another whole drink, a whole drink, an entire glass of water again. And then when I come back to my workstation, I'll set intention. What is my intention for the next 50 minutes? What is, what must be done in the next 50 minutes? So I get clarity on the next 50 minutes of time. And that is like game changing for me. People ask, okay, what else do you do in the mornings? I will tend to take a walk in the morning if I feel I need to do that. And no matter what, I take two walks every single day, either morning or afternoon and then one at night, preferably after dinner to just like settle myself down to just like move my body around, get outside in the dark and just feel like that that evening. Come on me. So I'm ready for bed. People ask about meals all the time or supplements. My meals are every morning. I have a shake in the morning. What goes in that shake is usually 25 to 30 grams of plant based protein. Then I put in avocado chia seeds, I put in blueberries I put in spinach or kale, I put in almond butter. I put in anything there I'm missing. Coconut milk. I think that's it. Every morning have that. Then I take two of my Optimized. I hope you guys all have that. Optimize is a supplement for focus and energy, mental focus and energy. It's what gives me kind of a creative edge. It helps me focus for hours at a time without like a buzz and jitters from like caffeine type of thing. So I take two with my, with my morning shake and I take two with my afternoon lunch. And you can get optimized. It's called HPX Optimized. I'll put it in the show notes here for you. HPX Optimized. It's helped me with my daily mental focus and energy. Lunch for me is usually late. It's like two to three. I got a plate of greens and protein. So it's usually just like some spinach or kale or some you know, leftover roasted vegetables that my wife has made. And then it's usually like you know, fish or chicken. And then sometimes, you know, if it's crazy, I'll have a sandwich with some kind of plant based protein in it, something like that. Dinner for me is usually around 7 or 8 o'. Clock. It's always some veggies, most often fish that my wife loves to make, some butternut squash or some quinoa or sweet potato or something like that. Very basic, simple meals. My cheat meals are like a steak sandwich, you know, something usually bread, you know, or my, my wife Denise makes this amazing pizza from like cauliflower crust or something crazy. I don't know. What else do I do during the day? I text five people. A voice text every single day. So I pick up my phone and I send them a voice message and all it is is encouraging them, showing appreciation, showing gratitude. And I always reach out to five people every single day to stay connected in the world. Especially when I'm locked at home. That's hugely important. People ask about my workouts. I do five workouts per week. Usually they're all the same. They're like, they're same format. They're five to 10 minutes of active cardio, then maybe about two to five minutes of stretching. Then I usually do three sets of some kind of heavy lifting. That's more like a complex functional list. Like I might do something like, you know, squat thrusters, push ups, lunges and abs. So four types of activities. Squat, thruster, push ups, lunges, abs. That's four exercises and I'll do three sets of those pretty much till exhaustion each time. And that's basically it. If I don't work out super hard, I don't feel like it. I might go for a walk, I might go for a bike or a swim. Five times per week, which is what I learned from high performance habits. My book, the world's largest study of high performers, found out that they were like whatever. It was 40% more likely to work out five times per week. I'm like, all right, I was probably at 3 or 4. I'll kick it up. What else? I meditate once per day, a full 20 minute session. Usually for me about 4:30 in the afternoon, I'll do a 20 minute full release meditation technique. Again, just closing my eyes. I'll usually lay down for that meditation. Lay down, close my eyes, repeat the word release over and over and over. I'll set a timer for 20 minutes. Half the time I fall asleep and have a nice little nap as part of that, which re energizes me for a productive evening. Other practices. I say no to pretty much everything. I'm always saying no when you're first starting your career to get any momentum, yeses are really good. When you develop rhythm, when you develop an understanding what you need to be prolific at, when you understand your mission, then everything else that doesn't align with that becomes no's. So I say no a ton. That helps me. I keep a very tight circle of friends, so I'm not, can we hop on a phone? Can we do this or that? Nope. It's like I've got my friends, I've got my mission, I've got my family and my industry peers. I don't go outside of that too often. See if Denise isn't around, you know, for lunch or my family's not around. What I will often do for lunch is I'll eat whatever I have for lunch, which usually greens and some kind of, you know, meat or plant protein. And then what I'll do is I'll watch a TED Talk or I'll watch an online course or I'll watch a masterclass or I will watch, you know, if I need some inspiration, like those best of like American Idol, you know, scenes where somebody comes out, you don't expect anything of them and then they soar and I get all emotional. I'm like crying in my sand, which is beautiful. This is a real key one. I drastically limit my social media and news consumption. And when I say drastically, I mean I'll do it twice per day in only 15 minutes each time. That's it. I only spend 30 minutes on news and social media per day. In terms of consuming it, obviously I create for you guys, but I mean like consuming it, that's it. And usually what I do is I'll look once in the morning after my first major 50 minute block of time, I might look at that point. So I've already worked, you know, I've got up, I've moved, I've read, I've planned, I've worked for 50 minutes or an hour, got something really good done. And then I'll just check into social media, my voicemail, my text or, or the news, and I limit it. I set a timer, 15 minutes, that's it. Then at night I'll do the same thing. Usually for me, just before dinner, I'll look again for 15 minutes and then it's dinner and the rest of the night I'm out. I don't look at it. And people like, what about people, you know, asking about emergencies and stuff like that? I'm like, I've trained people to realize I'm not their emergency provider. Don't go to me. You know, it's like, well, what about a family text and stuff? I'm like, they're cool if I text them tomorrow. I mean, if someone emergency needs to get ahold of me, I'll hear it from Denise or I'll see it on my phone. Usually before, you know, maybe an hour before bed, I'll check just for texts or voice messages, but not social media or news. So again, social media News Limited to two 15 minute blocks each day. That keeps me sane for sleep. What do I do? I practice the three, two, one sleep routine I've taught you all. Three, two, one sleep. What is that? Well, it means that three hours before bed, I do not eat anything. Two hours before bed, I do not work. One hour before bed, I have no screen time, no social media, no television. And that helps me wind down at night. I set my room temperature in our bedroom at 67 to 68 degrees so it's chillier, which helps a lot. And before I get into bed, I do another round of just stretches. And I also lay on the floor for a bit so my back can kind of realign after a long day. And I crawl into bed and none of your business. After that, everyone asks how Denise and I stay healthy and happy and in love. Well, every 90 days we disappear from the world for, you know, four to seven days together. So basically every quarter we go away for four to seven days together. Sometimes, you know, twice per year, we'll take a longer vacation. That's really important. It keeps us fresh. I told you, I take two walks per day. Denise is almost always on those walks with me, so we take a ton of walking together. What do I do every single day for work? I do a couple things. One, I create four new pieces of content every day for 14 years. So all those quotes you see from me on Facebook or on Instagram, that's me. I write four new quotes every single day. Sometimes you might see a recycled quote that I might post because it's relevant, or my team might post, but I still create four new quotes every day. Why? Because I'm a writer, and writers need to be writing. So maybe I'm not writing a whole book, but I'll write a thoughtful quote and post every single day. I also, during the course of the week, will always create a video like this for my YouTube channel. And I'll post a YouTube longer format similar to this on YouTube. I think that's important. What else do I do? Well, I just surround myself with awesome people. You know, Iron Sharpens Iron Friends. Sharpens Friends Team Sharpens Team. So I keep around high performers around me. So I only hire high performers. You know, I hire great people to be around me, to support me so I can do my mission and my work. And I would say that number, you know, one, two, and three things I do that bring, like, happiness and fulfillment and striving to my life is, one, I adopt the role model mindset. I demand a lot for myself. Two, though, I bring the joy. I'm always trying to bring joy in any situation or any experience I'm doing. And it's a dominant mental frame for me. It's not just a mindset. It's a dominant mental frame. It's like everything is seen through. How can I add joy or summon joy in this experience? Number three, I honor the struggle that when it's difficult, when it's hard, I meet that with honor. I face it, I recognize it. I try to be strong or courageous through it, or just respectful of the fact that God or the universe put this in front of me. So let me accept it, let me face it, let me allow it, let me trust and have faith that whatever the struggle or difficulty is, it was meant to make me better. It was meant to happen at this time in my life, even if I'll never understand exactly what that is. When I go to bed at night, right before I go to Bed. I ask three questions. Did I live today? Did I love today? Did I matter today? And the truth is it's not always yes to those. And I go, okay, well, I'll do better tomorrow. So I don't get hard on myself. I'm not mean to myself. I just go, could have done better. And the next day I go about it with that intention to live, love and matter. And that's been my life for almost 25 years. It's crazy. So that's kind of what I'm thinking about. And I just want to give you guys a good, you know, sense of jolt of goodness today, as I call it. So I'm going to ask you, you know, let's all keep that role model mindset. Let's keep a positive attitude. Let's serve as role models through what's going to be a wild and crazy year. Let's all be thankful for those who are on the front lines, who are supplying us, who are taking care of us in the hospitals, who are still out there working amid this crazy pandemic. Let's be really thoughtful and grateful and compassionate in caring for those who are taking, who are caring for us. Let's also make sure that we are consuming things that are positive and empowering right now versus divisive and you know, controversial or you know, something that is like, you know, in any way conspiracy theory stuff like, you know what? No, let's face the day. Let's be positive, let's be self reliant, let's take care of each other, let's serve each other. Because you know what, it's going to be a long haul. This is going to be a long struggle, a long difficult time. And so let's each of us take decide how we are going to show up in this. I hope by sharing my routine it helps you understand a little bit about myself. I know there's more in there. You know, they're not exactly like how much time I spend with family or Denise or something like that. But you know, those things might change during the day of where family is and what's going on. But those things I shared today, those are my rock solid. Those have been a part of my life, those have served me for so long that I hope it helps you, inspires you a little bit. I'm going to be here for you in this new series called Striving in Chaos. I hope you will listen to every single episode. They will be on the Brendon show podcast so please make sure you subscribe the Brendon show podcast. It's available Spotify, it's available itunes, it's available Google Play, it's available Stitcher. Anywhere you listen to your podcasts, that's where you want to be with the Brendon show podcast for this new series, striving in Chaos. I'm going to be here with you through this time, through this uncertainty, to help you develop strength, to help you find your center, and to help you lead and serve as role models. I hope this message found you well. I'm wishing you your family, safety, security, strength, optimism, wellness and health through these times. I'll talk to you soon. Love you guys.