The 3 I's of Personal Alignment
23 Nov 2023 · 14 min
In this podcast episode Brendon Burchard outlines a framework he calls the "3 I's"—Identity, Intention, and Initiative—as the core levers for personal and organizational success. He argues that reclaiming a strong sense of identity and self‑esteem is the foundation for effective leadership, urging listeners to consciously define who they need to become in the present moment rather than clinging to past roles. Burchard then shifts to the power of intention, contrasting purposeful, chosen focus with the default reactive mode that drains time and energy (especially via digital distraction). He cites Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention as a model for setting daily purpose. Finally, he stresses initiative: translating intention into bold, decisive action to counter the natural decay that occurs when people wait or react. Throughout, he weaves personal anecdotes, market observations, and vivid metaphors (e.g., the extra‑mile traffic analogy) to illustrate how leaders can breathe esteem into their teams, overcome distraction, and build momentum for growth.
Chapters
Get your identity back and if you didn't know what it was, summon it, find it. What's the identity required to win now? What's the identity required to win now? We're talking about the three eyes. I want you to write this down and see if this is true for you and see if this could help with the organization and those that you serve. Here's the three I's. The first I is identity. Identity. Identity. Identity. Identity. Who am I? When you walk in this room? I am a participant. I am an attendee. I am disheartened. I am. We all know in personal development that phrase I am is so powerful. I know you already know that, but how you been filling that in the last couple months and years? What's the story and I can share with you? I think I've talked to well over 100 partners in the last five months, let's call it body partners. I've spent in irresponsible amount of time and energy and effort trying to understand, talk with leadership, talk with the partner advisory board, talk with other people, my neighbors and friends who I know use the products trying to gauge and I'm here to tell you the health esteem message that embody is so important. And if you're going to change the world, you got to find that esteem for your own self and the organization anymore, for yourself and the organization. You gotta have so much esteem for yourself and for your downline, so much respect for yourself and worth for yourself and for your people who you serve. If you don't give that to your team, if you're not breathing esteem into the people you're serving, that's why they're disengaged. They're seeing you. I'm kinda body. That's what they're seeing. They're just watching all day long, like, I mean, do you want to hang out with me if I'm walking around like this? No. But identity is a tricky thing because it's so terrifying to say I'm all in. That is always a changing point. It's always a changing point. Some of you who are religious or have faith, right? Whatever faith that you chose, once you chose that, right. Once you chose that, something shifted. There was a different time, a different element, a different strength of who you were. Right? That's why they say even in most spiritual traditions there's some type of. When you choose God or you choose a spirituality, it's like being born again. It's like a different identity, a different way of experiencing life. I'm not here to sell you on that proposition. I know not everybody has faith or is religious or believes in a God. It's a very convenient and true metaphor, though, that at some point, when you accept something, you take something in. There's something that happens internally. And right now, when the world is changing, we push everything out because we're protecting. We don't accept things. We don't take things in. We don't integrate our wins. Some of you have been winning, but because you weren't winning at the same level you were in 2021 or 2018 or 2017, you're not pulling in any wins. You're not integrating the win into your identity. So you feel weaker today than you felt two years ago or three years ago with losing the context. That so does every other. Have you watched the market? The whole market tanked. Interest rates went way up. It's a disaster out there. So if you're not winning 20 times at the level you won 20 years ago, the context is different. The job is taking the identity. Take in the win. You're the leaders here. That's gotta set in. Leaders don't wait. Leaders aren't waiting for 50 new tools or resources. They get resourceful. You walk in a room like, I just want you to give yourself the gift. And I know this is. I'm not trying to placate. I want you to walk strong at this event. Not because Bodi needs you to. Cause you need you to. Your kids need you to. When it gets hard, it's like, you gotta show up in the gym. Go. I'm gonna get at it today. There has to be an attitude you walk into your home gym with, right? And I know it's hard. Cause I know you can walk in there. You're trying to find the remote, you turn it on. You're like, ugh. There's 50 different programs, like. And it takes you 15 minutes of your workout to choose which trainer you're gonna work out with that day. And you're just like, ugh. And then it's like 10 minutes until energizer actually hits your heart. And then you're ready to go. It's like, don't walk into the meeting with your neighbor to sell her with that energy. You gotta walk in, back into your strength. You gotta walk back into your strength, into. You've won more than you think you have. You're in the room. Turn to the person's left, right, shake her and say, you're in the room. Good Lord, you're in the room. I have A goal of finishing this by the end. I don't know what's gonna happen, though. I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna have to do some burpees with y' all. Identity. Hey, get your identity back. And if you didn't know what it was, summon it. Find it. What's the identity required to win now? What's the identity required to win now? Who do I have to become to win now? Not what was I, like three years ago in that last town, that last relationship, that last situation, that last context? Doesn't matter anymore. Blank slate. New chapter. If this moment. I'm telling you, if this moment in this hotel, the next 72 hours isn't a new moment for you, don't think it'll be a new moment for Bodi. That leads me to this one. Intention. Intention. What are our intentions? Our world is just absolutely being sucked into reaction, into drama, into. Into everybody else's agenda. Everyone's trying to. You all know. Everyone's trying to steal you. Do you all know that? Let me tell you something. The second that these guys made the announcement about me joining with Bodi, the second there was a press release that they put out, they put that press release that day. That day I got six, seven or eight figure offers. The day, Brendan, you're gonna go do that for. Why won't you do it? You spoke at our convention. No, Come over here. We're. We'll match it, we'll beat it. We got you. I go, you ain't got me. I did 21 day fit. I did insanity. I did T90. You ain't got me. You ain't got me. You know what I had this morning? The cafe flavored shakeology. You ain't got me. It's already in my gut today. You can't take me. But everyone's trying to take you. Everyone's trying to take you. Everyone's trying to take you. Everyone's trying to take you. Everyone's trying to take you. They want you. They want all your people, they want all your money, they want all your time. They want all the things that you've already. They want you. They're trying to take you. And if you're like, no. No one's calling me with those offers, Brendan. Guess what? Every day as you scroll through that, those smart engineers in Silicon Valley, they're taking you. They're stealing your time, they're stealing your energy, they're stealing your focus. I'll talk about this tomorrow. Most Americans spending two hours a day. Scrolling, scrolling. Not creating, not building, business. Scrolling. Rips my heart out. Rips my heart out. That's two hours away from family. That's two hours away from creativity. It's two hours away from you earning. It's like two hours a day. You've got to get into the power of intention. If you haven't read that book, by the way, read it from Wayne Dyer, one of my mentors, great friends in life. I got to tour Europe with Wayne Dyer. Could you imagine one of my great. I don't know if you all know Wayne. You all know Wayne. Oh, my God. Read the Power of Intention. I had the blessing. I wrote the forward of his last book. And just like, oh, my God. Just this idea that we can lead the day with real intention about how do I want to feel? What kind of parent do I want to be? What kind of business do I want to build? This is everything I wake up with. This intention, this energy I'm in, this is not being created for you on stage. I chose this energy. When my eyes opened today, who knows what I'm talking about? I chose. I'm gonna feel this day. This day is not gonna be some blind response to everybody trying to steal my focus, my time, my energy. No, this day's my day. This day's my day. I know how I'm gonna show up today. I know I'm gonna come here and some people are gonna grab me in the hallway and go, brendan, it's so terrible. I'm like, yeah, it is. There's wars, there's people struggling all over the world. Yeah. Every day it's bad. Some days it's as simple as you get the wrong coffee you ordered. Some days you realize there's a lot of terror and awful things in the world. Guess what? What's your intention, babe? That's what I'm interested in. Not how are you reacting to everything. When you move into a place of intention, you move an organization. If you're on your heels, waiting for everything, your organization dies because they get stolen into the reaction. You're not losing your downline. They're being stolen into the reaction. You gotta get em back into intention with you. That's everything. These three I's determine your whole life, your identity, your intentionative, your intention. Oh, boy. Hard one for Montanan, eh? Neh she Tih vuh. That look right? Yeah. Initiative. Yeah. Okay, good. Three I's. Identity, intention, initiative. I can tell you you can have the power of the secret and the law of Attraction. But if you don't match it with action and bold action, nothing happens. There's a level of courage and initiative. Many of you and I understand the human impulse in change is to stand back, protect and wait. But see, for most of us, that made sense. When we're getting threatened, when we're, you know, being chased on the savannah by the cybertooth, whatever animals those were that used to eat humans. I don't even know what that. That's such a bad metaphor for you. The real threat is mental. Your real warrior day feeling vibe is at the computer, is on social media, is in your phone. You can't just sit back waiting because then you become reactive. This room. Listen. How many of you would love for your stock price to moon? How many would you love for everything in this company to crush? How many would love for your downline to double? Who would love that? Is that gonna happen if you sit back and wait? The longer you wait to initiate change. Change, the more everything dies. That's just business. That's not body. That's not you. It's not your products. That's the law of the universe. It's called decay. In change, things are either built up or they decay. That's the only two choices. So you've got to step in and initiate again. You're going to choose your feeling again. You're gonna take initiative again. You're understand, it's your intentions. You can't be ripped away. You have to own your dream. Everybody say, I own my dream. That's either true for you or you're like this. You gotta decide today. This moment in this room has to be different. Tomorrow has to be different. When you talk to your downlines and your friends and your teams, it's gotta come from a different identity, a different thing that's beyond the hardship, the ultra mindset. Beyond. You gotta go beyond. That's so important. You gotta go beyond just kind of showing up halfway in the workout. You gotta go beyond it. Some of you know I got to coach a lady named Paula Abdul, the famous singer and dancer and coach. And when she was on American Idol, we were working together and she had this great phrase she was always saying. She says, the wonderful thing is there's no traffic beyond the extra mile. When you go the extra mile, the traffic fades away and you're cruising. Now you're flying. It's less hard because you went through the traffic. You went the extra mile. I know it's easy to complain when you're in traffic. You're in traffic right now. And you can complain, you can be upset, or you can go, no, no, no. We're gonna reset at this event, this day in Phoenix. We're just gonna reset our brain. We're stepping back into an identity, knowing we're already in the room. We're already here. Now. It's about a different intention, a different set of initiatives, and owning this dream in a different way. Because you can build it. You can build it independent of what everybody else is saying, because you have to. That's why you have an independent business. You're the CEO. You're in charge. You're the one who's gonna build, build this. My blessing of being here this day and tomorrow with you is we get to build it together.