Ep 663 | The Preemptive Pitstop

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. Before we dive into, into, uh, today's topic, I want to talk about the individual that today's concept actually comes from, and that, that individual is a guy named Brendon Burchard. If you don't know Brendon, who he is, what he does, well, you probably should. Brendon is one of the world's most recognized high-performance coaches. Uh, he's a best-selling author, he's a speaker, he's an advisor to Fortune 500 executives, he coaches Olympians, he works with entrepreneurs. He is the guy that many of the world's top performers quietly call when they want to reach the next level without, without burning out. He's trained millions upon millions of people through his courses, New York, New York Times bestsellers like, uh, High Performance Habits and, uh, The Motivation Manifesto. And he's everywhere. He's everywhere. And I think he, he might be best known, at least initially in his career, for coaching and working with Oprah. I share all of this because today's concept or conversation is going to be around sustaining high performance. And there's no one better to turn to than Brendan when it comes to this particular topic. And that's because he's not really operating from a, from a theory perspective. He's drawing on decades of data and research and specifically experience in working with the best in the world. I think one of his most powerful ideas, and it's something I just heard him speak about the other day when we had Brendan speaking at one of our conferences, he talked around this idea, something he calls the preemptive pit stop. And I think it, it does a great job, this concept of the preemptive pit stop. It completely reframes, I think, how we think about rest, how we think about recovery, and, and ultimately how we create momentum. See, most people, most entrepreneurs that I know, we only stop when maybe we're burned out or, or we're broken, when the body gives out or the business hits a wall, or your mind might, might start to slow or even shut down. Brendan, however, noticed something. He noticed that the people who sustain greatness over decades, what they actually do is take planned, intentional breaks long before crisis even comes about. That's what he calls the preemptive pit stop. What he's talking about are scheduled pauses where you refuel your energy. Where you recalibrate your focus and where you really reset your state before, well before fatigue or frustration even show up. Brendan had a great analogy. He kind of compares it to Formula 1 racing. See, the best drivers, they don't wait for their gas tank to hit empty. They pit very strategically. They pit while that, while that car of theirs is, is still operating at full capacity and flying. They do this to make sure that the car and the crew could finish strong. As Brendan specifically stated, the pit stop is a preventative maintenance activity. The car probably didn't need the refuel right now, but it took, but it, but it took it so it could go even longer. See, I used to think for a very long, uh, period of my career that the only way to win was to outwork everybody, push harder, which meant longer hours and fewer breaks and just full throttle until the goal was hit. And there is an argument to be made there that outworking everyone leads to success. But what I've learned is that that mindset might only work for a, for a season. Because eventually, you're going to hit a wall. And I think for entrepreneurs, we have to take a step back and recognize this. Because when you do hit that wall, it's not just your energy that starts to suffer, it's your judgment, your relationships, and the creativity and innovation that you need to sustain and even create more success. I think that's why I love this preemptive pit stop concept. Why it hit me kind of hard. I think it's the actual discipline of recovery. Just like we have so much discipline around hard work and habit, there's this discipline of recovery that's necessary. Just like elite athletes schedule rest days into their training plans or even have offseason to take a break, high performers, um, need to build rest or should be building rest into their work rhythm— work rhythms as well. And that's not a sign of weakness, though many may think that it is based on our culture and the hustle society that we operate in. I don't think it's a weakness. I think it's competitive advantage if you do it right. See, the preemptive pit stop is not about necessarily taking time off. It's about taking control, control of your schedule and control over your future energy and momentum. High performers do not wait for burnout before they're forced to reset. They actually engineer this sort of rest into their systems. Brendan says that his greatest competitive advantage is that he resets every single hour. When I heard him say that, that was really interesting to hear. He resets every hour. Every 50 to 90 minutes or so, he stands up, he stretches, he breathes, And he asks, okay, what's my intention for the next block of time? I think it's simple, but it's really, really powerful because these small resets prevent these bigger breakdowns that we see all too often. I think when you think about— when you kind of go through the hierarchy, low performers, they rest when they're tired. Average performers rest when they're done. But when you study high performers like Brendan does, the high performers rest before they even need to. So, how do we go about maybe applying this, this concept in our respective worlds? I think we could break this into something that you could start to use right now, kind of this no days off version of what Brendan's preemptive pit stop framework might look like. I think number 1, we should all be considering these micro pit stops like Brendon described. Every, call it 60 to 90 minutes. Every 60 to 90 minutes, step away from your work for 2 or 3 minutes. Move your body, hydrate, breathe. For me, what that looks like a lot, and I'm here in Arizona where it's usually pretty sunny. When I want to take a micro pit stop, which I do, but I intend to do more intentionally after hearing Brendon speak, I go and stand outside. I just get some sun. And when I'm outside, maybe I stretch a little bit or maybe I put my feet in the grass. And I just take a couple minutes to just breathe and reset. And again, I've been rather unintentional with that. But having heard Brendon speak, I think I'm gonna incorporate it at least greater frequency throughout my day. So, step away for a couple minutes, move your body. And then maybe ask what matters most in this next block of work. So number 1, there's the micro pit stop. Number 2, there's this daily pit stop, which I think is the end-of-day reset. In other words, don't just end your day, actually close the loop. Note what worked, maybe what drained you, and what you'll do differently tomorrow. I think this turns the reflection, this exercise I'm talking around, into fuel for for the next day. So this end-of-day reset. And then number 3, I think there's a weekly pit stop. When I think weekly pit stop, what am I thinking about? I don't know, maybe take your Sunday and, and spend, I don't know, maybe 30 to 60 minutes reviewing your metrics, your, your business metrics, your fitness metrics, your relationship metrics. What's trending up? And what's drifting off course. See, I think this weekly pit stop, this performance audit of sorts, allows us to make adjustments versus being reactive when we feel a certain way. So every week, if we're assessing our scoreboard, we can make tweaks, we can make adjustments. And then lastly, number 4, I'd say there's this quarterly pit stop opportunity, which to me is kind of this 90-day strategic recalibration. Every quarter, take a step back from the day-to-day. What systems or commitments need a tune-up? To stick with the Formula 1 analogy, what's maybe slowing you down that you haven't noticed yet? So you've got these micro pit stops every 60 to 90 minutes. You have a daily pit stop that's your kind of end-of-day reset. The weekly pit stop where you're auditing your performance for the week. Based on metrics, and then the quarterly pit stop, which is more of a strategic recalibration where you're, where you're really analyzing your systems and your commitments that need some sort of change or tweak or recalibration or tune-up. These are the habits that separate those who maybe flash bright but then fade from those who sustain excellence for years, decades. So, your action item. I think this week I want you to schedule your first preemptive pit stop. Pick an area of your life, your business, your health, your relationships, and insert some sort of proactive reset before it's necessary. So, for example, in business, block an hour on a— call it a Friday afternoon to just assess your top priorities for next week. Just block some time, an hour, and just think about, okay, what happened this week? What's my priorities for next week? In fitness, take a rest or recovery day well before you feel you need it, right? Like, like if you've been pretty consistent in your fitness and you've been going hard, don't wait until you're tired and you're like, gosh, I got to rest today. Try to take a proactive day of recovery, of rest. Well before that. And in family life, just an idea, maybe, maybe plan a distraction-free dinner. The one, you know, one of those before you realize that all of your dinners have kind of been on autopilot and not meaningful for the family. Be very, very purposeful and have this distraction-free dinner. Phones are put away. It's calculated, be it, here's what we're doing, you know, we're eating dinner at this time. We know exactly what we're doing and we're going to have a conversation or we're going to be a lot more present than we've been. The truth is the no days off concept doesn't mean no rest. If you've been listening for a while, you know this. It means no days being had that don't have some sort of intentionality. I think your pit stop is not the pause that, that, that slows you down. It's the maintenance that, that lets you really kind of finish the race. I think just some things to think about. If you're not being proactive here, maybe there's an opportunity. That's all I have for you today on 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.