Workout: Learn to Leap

Anyone else out there, you had no idea what your career was, but you kind of bumbled into one. Or maybe you're in that transition phase right now. I know that one thing that unites all of us right now is we are in a moment of transition. Globally, we're in a moment of transition. Some of you are in a moment of transition because, you know, the kids left, or you're changing a job, or you're looking for this new opportunity. But globally, we're in this new moment of transition. And what's beautiful in moments of transition is we get to make new decisions for ourselves. And I was making decisions for myself, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I took a corporate job. It was a great job. Right out of college, got a great job. Moved from small town Montana to big city San Francisco, California, which was like, hugely. I mean, it was so big of a city, so expensive, I couldn't believe it. I got a job consulting, basically building, like, PowerPoint presentations and frameworks to teach executive stuff. I was so young and so dumb, you wouldn't believe it. I mean, I had no idea what I was doing. But, you know, I kept thinking about that car accident I'd had and how my life had been changing. And every time I told the big long story of the car accident, which I'll spare you today, but those insights that I'd learned about living and loving and mattering and how every night I go to bed and I ask, did I live today? Did I love today? Did I matter today? Because my car accident taught me that if you don't know the questions you're going to ask yourself at the end of your life, how you're going to evaluate yourself, how could you live purposefully each day? And I learned in my car accident, at the end of my life, I'll probably ask, did I live? Did I live well? Did I love? Did I love openly? Did I matter? Did I make a difference? So every night I asked, did I do that today? So I started living more intentionally. I tell my friends that, like, that's inspiring. You should tell me more about that. And then we'd have conversations about their life. And I found out, like, I was kind of like coaching them a little bit or giving them advice. I like doing that. And I was always reading these personal development books. I thought, you know what? Maybe I'll write a book one day. I don't know. I don't know how to write, but maybe I'll write a book one day. But you know what? Seven Years marched on of that corporate job. It was good, it was good. But in the back of my head, that transition mindset was building. It's time to do something that is more true to me. It's time to do something that is an expression of something that's inside that maybe people don't know, but it's a transition moment. You're in a transition moment, that's why you're here. I promise. And so I thought, okay, I'm going to make the leap. And I decided to leave my safe corporate job to become a full time writer to write my first book. And I did what most writers do. I promptly went broke. I was like, I had no idea. I just started spending all this money on all these things. I had no idea what was happening and I had no guidance, no direction, no courses. I didn't know what to do. The industry really did not exist other than, hey, go get an agent and hopefully get published. There was, the online marketing industry was barely emerging. You know, modern digital economy was still four or five years away. I mean, it was really like early. But I decided to write that book. The challenge is I went broke, I ran out of money, I couldn't get an agent, I couldn't find a publisher. And so it got worse and worse and worse. And I kept trying to write and fool myself. And I was going through a little imposter syndrome. Who am I to write? I mean, I'd read Hemingway, like, come on, what are you gonna do after that? So one day at. I'm just, I keep trying to write. I'm living now in my girlfriend's apartment. I couldn't afford my apartment in San Francisco anymore. I couldn't afford, in San Francisco, California. It's like $9, right? So I hadn't, I like, I just couldn't do anything. It was, it was bad. My then girlfriend was buying my groceries. I had to move in with her, give up my apartment. I had set up in her bedroom. Because the apartments in San Francisco are tiny if you're struggling. I mean, tiny tiny. And I had this little table like this that was my mom's fold out sewing room table from home. And I set it up, I put my laptop on it and it was a borrowed laptop. I had to return. And I was writing just every day or every night I was trying to write wasn't particularly honestly effective. I was struggling to be productive. And then one night I was kind of finding a little bit of groove and I was writing. And Denise, my then girlfriend, she came in and she Walked by my little desk, and she was trying not to disturb because I was like this. I don't know about you all, but when you get creative, it's like the rest of the world doesn't exist. And you're, like, in this flow, in this zone, and something true and beautiful for you, and you're just guided. And I just was, like, tapping along even though it sucked. But I was. I was in a flow, and at the same time, I was literally in that flow. I was, at that moment in my life going into bankruptcy. And the apartment was so small that basically I had that little table, but also the bed next to me. And I would set every day on all my stuff on the bed, My vision boards, my research papers, other books, all of my bills and invoices and credit card statements. And the bed during the day was like my extended desk. So I had this little desk to write on. Well, Denise comes in to go to bed, and she goes to not disturb my paper. So she goes to crawl under the covers and gets settled in bed. And I stopped typing at some point, and I kind of looked over, and I saw Denise, love of my life, sleeping under the weight of my bills. Literally, she was sleeping under the bills. She was trying not to disturb them. And I don't know what it was about that image, but it just went. And it just. Man, I don't know if you ever. If you've ever been in that place, but none of us want to be the cause of pain or lack in our family's lives. And I was. She was working so hard all day, buying my groceries, paying the rent, and here she is sleeping on my bills, and it just snapped something in my side of me. I'm like, ugh. You know, I've had this idea. I'm gonna be a writer. No, I'm gonna write. This book's getting done. You know, I haven't. I know there's this online marketing thing, and I need to learn how to make a webpage and, you know, take some payment on the Internet and do a video or write some sales copy. But I hadn't done it because I thought, well, I don't know how. And sometimes we go, well, I don't know how. So we don'. Begin not realizing. You don't get competence without beginning not realizing. The only reason you haven't started, it's not because the technical part about it, that's the story we tell ourselves. The truth is, we are fearful. And when we say, oh, I'm not afraid, but I go, okay. Maybe fear doesn't resonate with you, but I can tell you, human behavior, that's what I spent my last 25 years of my life studying deeply. And that is most of the time. We don't start something as because we're embarrassed to be seen starting small. We're embarrassed our friends will see us start as a new coach or as a writer. We're embarrassed that people at work will see that we started this thing on the side, discover our side passion or side hustle. We're embarrassed we'll put a website up and no one will come. We'll embarrass. We'll post our first video. It will suck. No one will like it. And we've all been through that. Because it's not technical. You can figure it out. It's awkward. It's always going to be awkward the first time you do something. Don't be so weirded out by that. But what I learned in that moment when I saw my ladies sleeping under my bills was I was not going to allow that to happen anymore. I was going to learn what must be learned to build abundance in my life. I was going to learn what must be learned to get to do my art every day with abundance, to share what I want to share with the world unfettered and not scared. That's why I decided it was a simple I'm going to do this.

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 during these times of chaos and negativity.

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