Ep 603 | Burnt Toast and the Power of “Good"

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I want to paint a, a simple scenario for you. You're, you're rushing out the door, you throw a, a slice of bread in the toaster, you get distracted, maybe you're gathering your things, whatever happens, you come back and that piece of bread is now more than just toast, it's actually burned. So, you're now delayed, you're irritated, you're starting your day off with that low-grade kind of hum of frustration. You throw another piece of bread in there, now you've toasted it, it's taken more time. That's the origin of the burnt toast theory. It's actually a, a modern, a modern mental model that's pretty simple, is pretty popular. And it basically goes like this. Maybe you burned your toast for a reason. Maybe that, that 90-second or 120-second delay actually kept you out of a car accident. Maybe it changed your timing just enough to meet the right person. Maybe it helped you dodge a, a bigger problem that you'll never know existed. Now, I'm not usually a big fan of this sort of thing because on the surface it just sounds like, to me, blind optimism. But I actually think maybe it's more than that. I think it's about training your mind to always default to toward usefulness, especially in the face of frustration. After learning of this burnt toast theory, and it was at the Eric Hatch Real Estate that I went to in the blooming metropolis of Fargo, North Dakota. Eric, thank you for having me. But I heard about this burnt toast theory from one of the speakers that Eric had on stage. And I love the concept and it really got me thinking about one of my favorite mindset tools of all time. Frankly, I hadn't thought about it in a little bit and I'm so glad it brought this back to me. And that was Jocko Willink and Jocko Willink's concept of good. Now, how does it relate to the burnt toast theory? Let's first unpack the burnt toast theory a little bit. Because the burnt toast theory is not about fate or the universe scripting your life. It's about reframing things. It's about reframing the small, annoying moments as maybe something that protected us or at least directed us, you know, in a slightly, slightly different way. For example, you didn't get the job. Okay, burnt toast. Or maybe you avoided some sort of toxic team. Or the client didn't sign. Okay, burnt toast, right? Or maybe that client would have drained your time and energy for the next year. Again, it's just a tool to help you move on faster and carry less emotional drag. Trust that forward is still the right direction, even if the road just created a detour. Now, enter Jocko Willink's concept of good. If you have not seen this video, Make sure you look it up on YouTube. Just type, type in Jocko Good and you will see the video that I think has like 14, 15 million views. I've probably watched it a million of those 15 million. I just really love it. It's a couple minutes long and it's a masterclass in my opinion on mental reprogramming. And Jocko's voice and his tonality certainly make it, at least for me, an even better video. But he talks about how, you know, you don't get the gear— remember, he's a military guy— you don't get the gear you wanted, good. If you didn't get the job you had hoped for, good. If you got injured, good. Because in every one of those scenarios, you learned and you adapted and you got better. Now, his video and his approach is not soft. It's certainly not passive. I would call it aggressive ownership of reality. I think Burnt Toast is more of this gentle reflection, but, but Good, Jaco's video Good, is a, is a kind of a fist in the chest. Yet again, very different approach. They're still pointing to the same truth, and that truth is that you don't control what happens, but you do control what you do with it. And I think we could apply this knowledge in life and in business. Let's get a little tactical, okay? Let's combine these two ideas. Number one, I think the immediate reaction should be good, just like Jocko teaches. When the setback hits, respond like Jocko. You didn't hit your sales target? Okay, good. You didn't get the speaking gig? Okay, good. A team member quit on you? Good. This is not, in my opinion, some sort of toxic positivity. I think it's just readiness, like this tactical readiness. You are rewiring your brain to not freeze or spiral, but instead to, to pivot. So the immediate reaction of, good, I welcome this challenge, something great is going to come from this, I think is a, is a great, great rewiring the brain. Now, if that's number one, I would say number two, there's a reflective reframe. And that's probably where Burnt Toast comes into play. When the dust settles, you look back through the lens of the burnt toast theory. For example, maybe you ask, what might have protected me? What, what might that have protected me from? Or what did I learn faster because of that loss? Or what did it make possible instead? I think this is where you're starting to kind of collect meaning. This is where you, you make peace with, with the process. Now, here's why I think all this matters. In the No Days Off spirit, in the No Days Off mindset, I think it's really easy to equate progress with control because we all like plans, we like execution, we like results. But life and business and leadership, they all, they all throw curveballs. They all have delays or rejections and disappointments. You don't need a perfect path. I think you need mental resilience and the ability to stay useful no matter what. So the combination of good in the moment and burnt toast in hindsight, I think it gives you exactly that. So I want you to pick a current frustration that you have, maybe something that did not go your way today or this week or this month. And then I want you— and I, I I'm really asking you to do this. It's awkward, but I want you to now say, "Good." I want you to say it out loud, "Good." Then I want you to ask, "What could I do now that I couldn't before?" All right, so pick a current frustration and say, "Good," out loud. Ask yourself, "What can I do now that I couldn't before because of this?" You know, whatever's going on. And then lastly, I want you to reframe it as burnt toast. I want you to ask, what could that setback have saved me from? What might it open up instead? I think you run through those 3 steps and you're no longer reacting. You're actually training. You're converting frustration into fuel. And I think that's what real mental toughness starts to really, you know, starts to look like. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.