The Power of Social Accountability
20 Jul 2022 · 11 min
In this episode of the Brendon Show, Brendon Burchard explains why social accountability is a critical driver of personal growth and health. He argues that the people we surround ourselves with shape our expectations, habits, and mental models, and that being around emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy peers dramatically raises the odds of disciplined, purposeful action. Brendon shares personal anecdotes—how his wife Denise introduced him to kale and healthier habits—and describes how immersing himself in a community of health‑focused friends, conferences, and social media has transformed his own wellbeing. He emphasizes that we can’t choose our biology or family, but we can deliberately select our peers and the inspirational figures we follow. The episode repeatedly stresses the importance of working out with friends, hiring trainers, and cultivating vulnerable, honest relationships that support vulnerability and mental health. Brendon also addresses the misconception that perfectionism is inherently harmful, reframing it as the desire for growth that can be pursued healthily when paired with grace and social support. Throughout, he promotes his Growth Day platform as an all‑in‑one personal‑development app that offers live coaching, habit tracking, and a supportive community. The episode concludes with multiple calls to action: share the episode with three friends, engage on Instagram, join the Growth Day community, journal an energetic vision, and continuously challenge oneself in fitness, mindset, and personal development.
Chapters
Hello my friends.
I'm Brendon Burchard, host of the Brendon show and founder of growthday.com and I'm honored to be your high performance coach today. I believe that every day we can be inspired. We can live with intention and purpose. We can bring the joy and honor the struggles of each day to push ourselves to grow, to serve, to be a role model, to lead extraordinary lives. I believe that every day is a great day to grow. That's why I started my company, growthday.com it's an online personal growth platform where you can get me and the world's best personal development teachers live coaching you every week. Sharing our wisdom, keeping you motivated and accountable, encouraging you to find the aliveness and the connection and meaning of life that we're all after. If you're not a member yet, please go sign up@growthday.com and join our huge worldwide community of achievers. For less than a dollar a day, you get the world's best teachers live every week. And look, you've probably known for a long time that you needed some expert guidance, an inspired community and life changing tools. So please, your breakthrough awaits you@growthday.com now let's get to today's episode. My friends, please listen closely. Maybe you take some notes so you remember these insights of personal growth and share this episode with three of your friends because we all have to share more positive messages in the world today. So share this with three friends just like you who are committed to their personal growth. And also be sure to tag me or DM me on Instagram. Rendon Burchard, Join our million plus community there on Instagram so I can say hi. Thanks again for listening.
Now let's begin. Social accountability. Social media accountability. Having other people around you who are healthy is as important as quote unquote, biological luck. It's true.
The people around you really do shape your expectations and how you show up in the world.
And in this category more than anything else, if the people around you tend to be healthy, whether that is emotionally healthy, mentally healthy, physically healthy, your odds go way up. Especially the odds of conscientious discipline and design. Your ability to surround yourself with people who are in a good place is one of the great gifts of our life. We are social animals. A lot of what we do in life is mimetic, meaning we kind of copy what we see of others. We set expectations on ourselves of what we see of others. A lot of our behaviors, our habits, our mental models are really a fact of sociology and when you understand that the people you surround yourself with, you talk with, you look at, you work out with, you're around, you're healthier. I am a greatly healthier person in my life because of my wife. And for most men out there, or those who are partners in couples where one other partner is healthier than the other, that's one of the greatest gifts of all time. You know, I'm a way healthier person. I don't think I knew what kale was until I met Denise.
What's kale?
What you talking about? Like, I had. I had no idea. No idea. Broccoli. What? Why? Why? Wait, that's. How come it's dark like that? I mean, there no cheese on it. I had no idea. So that was important for me to learn a lot about. And all of my friends in the health and wellness category, like, being around them all the time and seeing their posts and their Instagrams, or being at conferences and studying their work or going to conferences that are about health, surrounding myself in an ecosystem has made me healthier. It really has. If you look at where I grew up to where I am now, I mean, it's totally different. Peer set, and that was by design. You might not get to choose your biology or all your family, but you get to choose your peers and your friends and the inspirations who you follow or learn from. Especially in this category of health. Once you have that energetic vision, I promise you'll surround yourself with better people. Social accountability. Work out with friends, Get a trainer. They expect you to show up, so you show up. Social accountability. Surround yourself with people who expect you to do well, who expect you to take care of yourself, who are empathetic when you're struggling because they themselves are empathetic. People who struggle too. Right? Having vulnerable, honest, open, truthful, transparent humans around us who enable us and allow us to be vulnerable, to share our hurts, our pains, our. Our shames, our sadness, increases, our mental health.
Hey, it's Brandon jumping back in here again. Are you looking to go to the next level in your life right now? The next level of joy, abundance, success? Then you already know that you need to journal about your lessons learned in your life. You gotta track your moods and your habits. You have to learn from the best personal development coaches and teachers in the world. And you gotta stay inspired and accountable so that you can be more focused, disciplined, joyous, and keep growing. That's what the Growth Day app is going to help you to do, my friend. It's the world's first all in One personal development app. It has all of the tools you need, all the coaching and the community.
That you need to level up, to.
Progress every week, to track your breakthroughs, and to keep growing in every area of your life consistently over the long term. So go start your transformation right now@growthday.com or just download the Growth Day app.
On your phone right now.
Every day. You can keep improving every day. We are here for you. And every day is truly a great day to grow together. So let's make self improvement a way of life. Let's make that self improvement stick. Go to growthday.com right now.
When you're around people who push down.
Emotion, who push down thinking, who push.
Down your ability to be vulnerable, we tend to be in less health, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all of it. When you are pushed down all the time, don't talk about that. Oh, don't admit that. Oh, don't let anyone know that when you're around that. That is poisonous to your health. And we as a society still do it. It's tragic how often we try to silence people who are struggling and how often we silence ourselves when we're struggling, when the very healing was gifted to us by sociology, by other people. That impulse to reach out and talk to somebody needs to be honored. And it is really often the jet fuel of personal development. Right? We can do so much personal development, but I always say self development is often social development. As we develop ourselves, we're better to others. As we work with others, we become better ourselves. So that social accountability in our health is important. Another big idea, and I'll end with this one. Today, just challenge yourself. Just challenge yourself. Challenge yourself at the gym next time. Challenge yourself when you're on the road next time to go a little bit further. Challenge yourself to get a little faster. Challenge yourself to be a little more mobile or flexible. Challenge yourself to stay a little longer in that yoga pose. Challenge yourself to reset your mindset after you get angry or hurt or down. If you're not challenging yourself, who is? I know people say, but Brendan, isn't perfectionism such a problematic thing in mental health? I'm like, totally, Totally. That is a super thin slice. The reality is perfectionism isn't the problem. The problem is people think they should be perfect. But perfecting ourselves, growing into our full potential, expecting a lot of ourselves, that can be done in healthy ways. Especially when you consider all the things we've talked about today. It's okay to challenge yourself again. Last time you might have challenged yourself. Maybe you got down on yourself this time. As you challenge yourself, allow the grace. Do it with social accountability. Have an energetic vision. Recalibrate. Find what feels good for you and stick to that. You can figure out a way to feel better. You can figure out a way to get healthier. It's going to be on your own path in your own way. No one can tell you all the.
Right ways to do that.
You'll probably need support. You'll probably take months and months and months and years and years and years to figure it out. And often you'll fall off the wagon. You'll do a terrible thing. You'll make a bad choice, but you'll recalibrate and you'll keep getting better. Because you and I both know that every day is a great day to grow. I want to thank you all for this incredible session today on Health. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you'll share it with family and friends if it supported you. Just go tell people what we're doing here at Growth Day. Like holy. They're having an entire month of conversations about health, about mental health, emotional health, physical health right here in Growth Day. We'll be live every single week with you guys as always on our Wednesday wisdoms. So tune back in, watch the replays, make a commitment. Journal today about your energy vision. Please do that. Please stay on path. Please take care of yourself. Please be kind to yourself. Please practice self respect and self love. You deserve a vibrant and energetic life. Do your work to move towards that, to align with that, to honor that impulse and know that you don't have to do it alone. We're all doing it together. We're all figuring out together. We're all on this journey together. That's why we always say every day is a great day to grow together.
Okay, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Brendon Show. Tell some people about this episode. It's on each of us to spread positivity and empowerment and during these times of chaos and negativity.
Right?
So I'm asking you to be the dealer of hope and personal growth and education in your tribe. So take a screenshot right now and share the screenshot and this link to this episode with three of your friends today. Post it on social media. Use the hashtag growthday. That's growthday because that's the name of my company and we're always giving away prizes to our community. If you'd like to help me personally, then please rate and review the podcasts on Apple Podcasts. Give us some stars cheer us on.
Leave a review.
Because believe it or not, that stuff actually really does help. And I read all of them. So my last thought for today Please remember you are stronger than you think and the future holds good things for you. Tomorrow can be an inspired day. Every new morning is a second chance. Every every day is a great day to grow. We're thankful to have you here in the Growth Day community, so be sure to go deeper with us@growthday.com. Sam.