Ep 687 | Brendon Burchard and the Power of Emotional Courage

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. Most people think that courage is all about facing danger, running into, say, a, a bu— a burning building, or or standing up to opposition or taking a big risk. However, I think that emotional courage is actually quite different. I know that Brendon Burchard, who we're going to talk about here in a moment, he thinks that emotional courage is quite a bit different because it's not about danger. It's more about discipline. See, Brendon, who is one of the best high-performance coaches out there and somebody that I've been fortunate to develop a relationship with over time. And, and recently just heard him speak on this particular topic of emotional courage. Brendon calls emotional courage the ability to move forward even when your emotions, doubts, and fears are screaming at you to stop. Every one of us has probably faced that moment. Where you've, you've set a big goal and you're chasing something important, but then your brain starts to negotiate. It starts negotiating by saying things like, or thinking things like, maybe I'll start tomorrow, or I don't feel like doing it today, or I've done enough. See, that's not logic. That's, that's emotion. And emotional courage is what separates the people who make excuses from the ones who actually make progress and take action. See, there's this negotiation trap. The hardest person that you're ever going to have to lead is probably yourself. So, when you start negotiating with yourself, you drift away from your focus, you drift away from your values. You know what matters, be it your health or your business or your family, but the emotional part of your brain wants comfort right now. It wants to be content. It wants to be complacent. That's what your brain is craving. And that negotiation that ends up happening, it's really a silent killer, a silent killer of momentum. It's how people with incredible massive potential, how they stall out. See, Brendon says that emotional courage is about refusing to bargain with weakness. Refusing to bargain with weakness. It's not about feeling brave per se, it's about acting brave even when you don't feel like it. Brendon gave us, in the presentation I saw him giving, he gave us 5 powerful ways to build that kind of emotional courage. I wanna run through 'em with you today. First, Brendon said, step 1, just get going. Just get going. What did he mean? What he meant was action has a tendency to destroy doubt. Every time you move, even a small step, you take power away from fear, from what's paralyzing you, and momentum breeds more motivation. So you don't wait to feel ready, you move and that feeling starts to follow. I think Brendon's point here was pretty simple. Emotion follows motion. Emotion follows motion. So, if you're stressed or stuck or overthinking, then just act. Just take action. Send the email, start the, the run, make the phone call. Small steps become confidence and confidence becomes courage. So, step 1 is just get going. Step 2, as Brendon explained, was Commit before you begin. Commit before you begin. See, Brendon teaches what he calls pre-decision courage. Before you start, ask yourself, am I truly committed to this? Am I truly committed to this? Because once you're in the thick of it, your emotions will want out. They'll want to eject. That's why you decide your commitment in advance. You make your decisions in peace so you can execute them when chaos ensues. If you, if you wait, I think, until the pressure starts to hit, and if you wait till that pressure hits to decide whether to keep going, you've probably already lost. Because emotional courage means your commitment was made long before the resistance arrived. Step 3 that Brendon gives us, fight emotion. With emotion. Fight emotion with emotion. Logic rarely beats emotion. If fear and fatigue are emotional, your counterpunch has to be emotional too. Let me explain. When you dread that next workout, let's say, or you dread that next difficult conversation, imagine how you'll feel after it's done. You'll probably feel proud or relieved, maybe stronger. And you got to let that future emotion pull you through the current one. As Brendon says, you can't think your way out of a feeling. You have to feel something stronger. So you fight fear with purpose, you fight doubt with pride, you fight hesitation with, with momentum. Step 4 that Brendon gave us: don't go alone. You want to build emotional courage? Don't go alone. Courage compounds when it's shared. So, Brendon oftentimes will emphasize the power of community when you're aiming to sustain high performance. When you do hard things alongside others, be it teammates or peers, accountability partners, the weight becomes manageable. Isolation amplifies fear, but connection begins to diffuse it. That's why the best athletes, the best entrepreneurs, the best leaders, they surround themselves with people who won't let them quit on their worst days. If you're chasing something difficult, stop trying to do it solo. Bring someone in because that courage, that courage can be contagious. So don't go at it alone. And then step 5, that, that Brennan shared. See who you'll become. See who you'll become. His final point, Brennan's final point, was probably the most important. When you hit resistance, stop thinking about the task and instead start thinking about the transformation. Ask yourself, who will I be on the other side of this? Will I be more disciplined, more focused, more confident? Every time you act with this degree of emotional courage, you're building a new identity. And that's, that's how Brendon would explain high performers grow, not just by hitting their goals, but by becoming stronger people throughout the pursuit itself. So, so let's pull all of this together now. Emotional courage is not going to be about one grand act. It's grand act. It's going to be about thousands of little ones, of small ones. It's showing up when no one's watching. It's doing what you said you'd do long after the excitement fades. And when you master emotional courage in the way that Brendon describes it, you stop being a victim of your feelings and you start negotiating with fear and start living by— I'm sorry, you stop negotiating with fear and you start living by conviction. As Brendon shared that day, courage is not the absence of fear. It's the decision that something else matters more. So, as we close up today, I want to remind you that this no days off mindset isn't about the grind 24/7. It's about doing things like we described here today, building emotional courage, the discipline to honor your commitments even when your feelings change, and getting better at that sort of thing each and every day. So, don't negotiate with yourself. Don't wait for motivation. You move because you said you'd move. And so, you just go do it. And that's what separates the pros from the amateurs. Emotional courage in motion. So, before your next challenge, I want you to ask, you know, variations of Brendan's 5 questions, right? Number 1, what's a small action I could take right now? Number 2, have I committed to this goal in advance? Number 3, how will I feel after I finish this next step? Number 4, who could I bring alongside me so I'm not alone? And then number 5, who will I become when I push through? Write those questions down. Replay that segment right there. Write those questions down. Review them daily. Because as I mentioned, emotional courage isn't going to be built in a single moment. It's going to be forged every time you refuse to negotiate with yourself. 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.