The Traits That Make You Strange Are The Gifts That Make You Special | Robin Sharma

Hi, it's Robin Sharma, author of the Leaderhead, no title, founder of the Titan Academy, and I am amped, super excited, blessed and grateful that you're here with me in this episode of the Mastery Sessions. Well, we have millions and millions of people listening to these, watching these podcast episodes that I produce and create with great love and respect from you from across the world every single month. And I just, again, I have to say I'm so grateful. I'm just loving recording this for you. I'm loving preparing these, and I've got a great team who brings a lot of sweat equity to these episodes so that we distribute and unlock some great value towards your personal mastery, your ascent to bravery, and you, in your own unique way, creating a life that makes history. Well, this episode is a deconstruction. I'm getting very well known. People are always asking me, robin, we love your deconstructions when you teach them at Personal Mastery Academy. Robin, we love your deconstructions in your podcast. We love your deconstructions when you work with us one on one. And a deconstruction is basically a shift from superficiality. You see, most people stuck in the majority, the 95%. It's not a judgment, it's just an observation. When you say, why are you healthy? Or what's your winning formula? Or what are the five best lessons of your life? Or what's the philosophy you bring to the leadership table? Or what does the next 100 years of your life look like? With some of my clients, we actually do a 100 year timeline and then we reverse engineer it to today and literally it's a reverse sequencing. I've learned this from some of the people I worked with in Silicon Valley. You start with your future 100 years and you reverse engineer and reverse sequence it to today so you know exactly what needs to happen. But all I'm suggesting to you is you talk to most people and you say, what's your favorite book? What needs to happen this year for this to be the single greatest year of your life? You ask them what happens on your best days to make you feel the fire, to make you have so much focus in a world of dramatic distraction, to help you out produce your industry peers. And they say, I don't know. Great question. And all I'm suggesting to you, with great love and respect, is one of the things about the 95%. A lot of them are complaining. They're making excuses. They want epic lives, but they're stuck in the group of the cult of superficiality. The top 5%, the Titans, the icons, the A players, the world builders, are very different.

They are not about superficiality. They are all about granularity. Literally. They have de seeded the lemon wedges. This is a metaphor that I teach, basically was at a. At a hotel in Luzerne, Switzerland. And I love fresh lemon tea. And when they brought the tray to me, I noticed that in the tray was two lemon halves or and someone in the kitchen had taken the time to de seed the lemon wedges, they actually de seeded them. And when I study F1 teams and I actually had the privilege to be right with the team at a recent F1, and what I realized is F1, almost like no other sport, is really about deseeding the lemon wedges. It was the smallest granular detail, the smallest calibration that could make the difference between a top one and a 10th place finish. I really want you to think about that. I really want you to think about F1. F1 is won or lost in milliseconds because each lap, if you get a little bit faster and you do it with consistency, because consistency is the mother of mastery. That is the difference between first place and not even placing. And so if you look at the top 5%, they are all about de seeding the lemon wedges. If you look at the top 5%, they're all about calibration. I read a great article about the CEO of Montclair, the apparel company, the fashion brand. His last name is Raffini. He's an Italian. And of course he's an Italian because they do things with quality. The food is great, the boots are great, the coffee is great. Quality is part of their way of being, as part of their mindset. Heart set, health set and soul set. And in the article he was asked, what's your favorite food? And he said, well, it's spaghetti pomodoro. And yes, it's very, very simple. It's just basil and, and pasta, spaghetti, it's pomodoro, the tomatoes, the tomato sauce, olive oil, and I think that's it. But he said, and here's the key word, it's the calibration of such simple ingredients, when brought together, creates that symphony of mastery. And so I really want you to think about leaving any form of superficiality in your understanding of your game, in your, your understanding of your sport, in your understanding of your industry, in your understanding of what makes peak vitality, in your understanding of productivity, in your understanding of gorgeous daily creativity, in your understanding about your ascent to humanity. And leave that 95% majority thinking and being, and rise up to the rare air of world class and really get good at granularity. And that's really what deconstructions are all about. You don't think, see things simply. You go, I just had an amazing day. Let me deconstruct it. I just met the love of my life and it was magical. Deconstruct why? I just was in Mauritius or Shanghai or Agra, India or Dubai or Tel Aviv or Stockholm or London or Barcelona and, like, he had an amazing meal. If you're in Barcelona, definitely go to Cal Chim, one of my favorite restaurants in the world, and talk to Santi, the owner. And he's a magician, He's a maestro. He's world class. I should start talking a lot about Santi over at Cal cim because I have been there a few times and it's in this simple village of Penadesk. And he just works his magic. He just produces poetry in the form of food. And all I'm saying is if you have one of these kinds of meals, and I know you have, you know, it's not about the expense, it's about the experience. Go back to your hotel room or maybe the next morning over your morning coffee, and just to throw this in, because I'm in a really expressive mood and I want to share and I want to give, and I'm just being real with you. Make sure you have some coffee in the morning. It's a great antioxidant. It's an awesome cognitive enhancer. And over your morning coffee, pull out your journal. And if you don't journal, why aren't you journaling? Please. You know about my journaling? I've been teaching it for two decades. Journal and deconstruct. So your thinking and your daily behavior becomes very granular, very calibrated. You know exactly what you're doing, just like the best of the best in the world. And people might misunderstand you and say, are you obsessive? Why do the details matter? And all you have to do is smile and say, because the details matter. And if you study Beyonce, study the great athletes, you study the great F1 drivers and teams, they do deceed the lemon wedges, they do calibrate the pomodoro. They get oad, that brain tattoo. I become really well known across the planet for an obsessive attention to detail. Oad. That's what makes the best hotels, the best entrepreneurs, the best teams, the market leaders, the best restaurants, the best hotels, the best cars, the best products. The best user experiences online. They are sweating the tiniest, seemingly innocuous, innocuous details to create, over time, a user experience that creates a global base of fanatical followers. So let me just share the brain tattoo I want to deconstruct. I've taken you on a little bit of a journey around deconstructions and the rise from superficiality to granularity. So. So let me focus on the brain tattoo, which has been so helpful. I just ran Personal Mastery Academy two weekends ago, and this. Some people said this brain tattoo sent shivers up their spines and created a shift within the room for them that led them to a revolution of transformation over the two days of this live event. And here's the brain Tattoo. The traits that make the. I'm gonna just slow it down. The traits that make you strange are the gifts that make you special. I'll repeat that again. The traits that make you strange are the gifts that make you special. This episode, this podcast, my work is about you. It's not about me. It's about me serving you, giving you value, reminding about your heroic instinct, reminding that you were born into genius. And we don't have the time right now to talk about the science behind this. These are not anecdotes, platitudes. Science. The work of Anders Ericsson, Sonja Lubomirsky, Heidi Grant Halvorson, the work of Angela Duckworth over at University of Pennsylvania, the work of people who are understanding transient hypofrontality. The work of neuroscience. You've probably been hearing a lot about the neuroscience of greatness that I've been teaching, you know, and that pharmacy of mastery. If you run the right routines, you release the dopamine and the cortisol and the norepinephrine and the oxytocin, and you release. Sorry, you release the cortisol, which is the fear hormone, and you release dopamine, which is the crush it inspirational neurotransmitter. And all I'm just trying to say is it's a great time to be alive. Why? Because science and neuroscience.

Psychoneuroimmunology and the data and research of elite performance is catching up with what the mystics and the philosophers, like Marcus Aurelius and the great pundits and the great holy books and the great wise books have been saying for thousands of years, you can live into genius. You can lean into greatness. You were born to do something special. Your brain is actually hardwired for genius. The phenomenon that I teach is called transient hypofrontality I talk a lot about freedom of distraction, my tight bubble of total focus, my 1991 rule that has helped so many people, including the billionaires I work with, the people who come to the Titan Summit every year, which is now one of the most famous events in the world for entrepreneurs, billionaires, world creators and history makers. And I only mention that to say I'm sharing science in these events. Science in my other podcast where I talk about the neuroscience, audacity, bravery, creativity and productivity. So the Brain Tattoo for you to think about today. And just remember there's a lot of science behind the idea that you have genius in you, you have power in you. You can bring on world class ideas that when implemented, change the world. You can get more done in a day than most people get done in a week if you learn how to protect your five precious assets, and that I teach at my live events, including mental focus, your physical energy, your daily willpower, and your time. So the Brain Tattoo for now in this episode is simply this. The traits that make you strange are the gifts that make you special. And so I know you're different because you wouldn't be here with me now if you didn't feel you're different. You probably don't fit in with most conversations. I sure don't fit in with with most conversations. I don't know a lot about most things that most people talk about because I don't participate in the majority. I don't participate in the news. I don't like to gossip. I like to encourage people versus diminish people. I like to be productive versus busy. I like to be creative versus complacent. I like to create value versus time, take from other people. I like to move into my present and future versus get stuck in the past. I like to be fast versus move too too too slow. I like to be a leader versus a victim. I like to believe in possibility versus get stuck in rational thinking because you know, instinct is so much more powerful than intellectual. And all I'm suggesting to you is simply this. It's the very things that make you different, that make you authentic. And if you don't fit in, I just want to share with you I've never fit in. And the very nature of anyone who's living a visionary life. And you are living a visionary life no matter what you're doing. Let's not get trapped in labels. Oh, I'm just a coder. I'm just a receptionist at a restaurant or or in an organization. I'm just a yoga teacher I'm just a gym manager. I'm just a chef in a restaurant. I'm just a teacher. People always say this when I interact with them on the social media. I'm just an entrepreneur. I'm just a student. No, you're not. I'm just a mom. I'm just a dad. No, you're not just. You're very special. There are no extra people on the planet today. And all I want to suggest to you is you wouldn't be here with me right now. You wouldn't be with me on this leadership and personal mastery adventure that we're on. You wouldn't be interested in the rituals and routines of the A players that I teach if you weren't different. I mean, most people really, they watch too much news, they talk too much gossip. They see the worst in people. It's the mindset of canned versus the mentality of possibility and can. And it just goes on and on. And so you're meant to be different because if you were ordinary and like most people, you'd be getting ordinary results. And there's a longing inside of you for legendary. And that's why we're having this time together in this episode. And I just want to say to you and validate for you and encourage you. Those things that other people might not get, those are your gifts.

You might be awkward. Awesome. You see the world through a different lens. Steve Wozniak, who was on my stage at the Titan Summit, Zurich, the co founder of Apple, one of the best people I've ever met. He would not have been able to create the Apple platforms and products that he created if he didn't see the world through a different set of eyes. Steve Jobs saw the world through a different set of eyes. Travis Kalnuk of Uber saw the world through a different set of eyes. You, Jeff Bezos of Amazon saw possibility. Let me have an online store that initially sells books. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Jean Michel Basquiat, Beethoven.

Michelangelo, who did the Sistine Chapel, and in Florence, David Jonas Salk, Tesla. We could just go on and on and on and on. These people were misunderstood because the nature of a genius is to not fit in. And so if you're not fitting into the majority and people are calling you weird and an oddball and a misfit and a kook. I want to say I love you because you're a kook. I love you because you're awkward. Because I'm awkward and I'm eccentric and. And I use A different languaging for a lot of people. And I have all these protocols that I run my life by like the tight bubble of total focus and the 202020 formula on the 60 minute student which will change your life. And I don't just drive to work and think about the past. I participate in Traffic University and I get and I do this thing I've been teaching for 20 plus years, the two massage protocol. And I run my weeks every Sunday night because I build out a blueprint for a beautiful weekend. It's called the weekly design system. And these are the things that I've been teaching to my highest level clients at Personal Mastery Academy and the Titan Summit. And people think initially it's strange because every disruptive idea is initially called kooky and flaky. What.

Mr. Wright Brothers, you're going to fly. What Mr. Henry Ford, you're not going to build a better horse carriage but you're going to come up with a car. What Mr. Richard Branson, you're going to put people on the moon. And Mr. Elon Musk. What Mr. Mandela, you're going to free your nation but you're still in prison. What Mother Teresa, you're going to help hungry people find personal freedom. And it just goes on and on. The history of humanity, the history of heroism is a ride and an ascent towards possibility in a world where most people really are about cant. They're about rational thinking, they're about victimhood versus leadership, they're about it's never been done, how can it be done? And so I just want to admire you and celebrate you with great love and respect. You know, protect the things that make you strange, protect your authenticity, protect the gifts that life has hardwired into you. They're not bad, they're awesome. Protect your differentness, protect your eccentricities and then find people just like you who get you. You know, if you don't vibe with the tribe then that that's not the person for you. One of the things I've done in my life that's really, really helped me is I basically released the energy vampires. I've basically let go with great love and respect of the dream stealers. And my entire life is pretty much this is not a science, it's an art. So it's not perfect but I've pretty much just got people around me, they get me, they get my eccentricities, they understand the science and the neuroscience, the elite performance research between all of the rituals that I run, how I structure my life and they get me and they celebrate me and they vibe with me and they energize with me. And we are all, you know, professionally, a bunch of leadership missionaries in hot pursuit of changing the world in our own unique way. And in my private life, I've got fun, loving, high integrity, high, high creativity, people who understand me and who lift me because I lift them. And we just have fun. And we're creative and we're passionate and we protect ourselves from the negativity that's out there. And you can do it, too. And I just want to say I love you and I hope this episode has been real and authentic and valuable, and I've touched on a lot of points, and we'll just keep the conversation going. So if this episode has been true to you and if it's inspired you and if it's given you great information, please help me, help me get these messages out there.

This podcast is being listened to or watched by many millions of people every single month. But I can do a lot better and I can get the message out there, but I can't do it alone. It's just me and a relatively small team. And so I need your help, and I'm asking for your help. I want you within the next 60 minutes to share this episode with three friends. Just do this, please. So together, the world shifts from hate to more love. The world shifts from more, from busyness to productivity. The world shifts from people who are going, I'm just ordinary. I'm not a hero. What Robin teaches is for the billionaires he works with and the Titans who come to his Titan summit and the people who can afford his online courses. And it just goes and on. You know, you can change the world or you can make excuses. You can't do both. And so please share this episode with three people over the next 60 minutes. So we get the messaging out there, so we plant the seeds. So we help more people. So we help people find freedom and more power. And that's not a fake power. It's a real power that lives in the seat of their hearts. Second thing, a lot of people are asking me, Robin, we're hearing so much about Robin Sharma Nation. We're hearing so much that you are now not only coaching the billionaires, not only coaching the Titans, the icons, the NFL players, the Major League Baseball players, the NBA superstars, companies like Starbucks, Toms Shoes, Nike, FedEx, Microsoft, IBM, organizations like NASA, Yale University. I've been doing this for 20 years. I'm going into my third decade to. And so people have been asking me for 20 years. Robin, can you create a program where you mentor us? And over the past few years it's really accelerated. Robin, can you teach us monthly online at a fraction of the cost of the Titan Summit or your elite coaching program, Iconx, which is a very small super elite coaching circle and now is the time. And that's what Robin Sharma Nation is. This is a magnificent coaching program where I will work with you and other people like you who want to make live legendary lives. You want to own your craft. You want to be the heavyweight champion of the world and what you do, but you also want to do it with style, with love, with humanity, with spirit. You want to have a great family life and you want to impact the world. You want to help the world be a better place. So you make your mark on the generations who are not only here, but who will come if that feels right with you to you. If you want me to be your mentor, if you want me to actually be your coach every month online and a fraction of my usual tuition fee, do the rest of your life an absolutely giant favor. Don't make any excuses. Just do this like the best do stuff. They don't just make excuses and put it off. Go over to robinsharmanation.com robinsharmannation.com I would love to help you. I'd love to serve you. I. I'd love to work with you every month and teach you times 100 what I've shared in this podcast episode. Just go over to robinsharmination.com and you'll get all the details. People are also asking Robin, how do we get into Personal Mastery Academy, my two day live event? So they're saying, tell us in the podcast because we don't get the information, we don't know the details. And the next thing we know, it's totally sold out. Personal Mastery Academy is my live event. It happens every single June live and it sells out. So if you want to get onto the waiting list, I'm just telling you the facts. You know, thousands of people get on the waiting list and it's very hard to get into. Just go over to personalmasteryacademy.com and you'll just read all the details. And if it's right for you, join us. And if it's not, hey, I love you, we're cool. And just consume the podcast episode. And then the final thing is I would love to see you on the social media and, and continue the conversation. If you're with me on Instagram, you can find me on Instagram and if you're with me on Facebook, you know, we've got millions and millions of people on my page on Facebook. I'm pushing videos, great content, brain tattoos, serious personal mastery poetry of sorts. If you want to really dial in your productivity to exponential get more done than most people get done in a week and a day, understand this philosophy. I've been teaching mindset, heart set, health set and soul set. Because a lot of people are saying Robin, wow, we've never heard those other three words. We've heard mindset, but we've never heard heart set. We've never heard health set, we've never heard soul set. I've been teaching this for a number of years. Mindset is only 25% of the personal mastery equation. If you want to learn these things, continue the conversation not only in future mastery sessions, but on the social media and I'd love to see you. Okay? So thanks for your time. Hope I've delivered value. Hope you're feeling fired up. Hope I've given you some real information as well too. Okay? Because you know this inspiration without execution and implementation is fool's gold. So get this done, get traction on your ambitions. So you start the rise to personal mastery, professional legendary ness. And so you go out there and have your impact on the world. Okay, love you a lot and I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Hi, this is Robin Sharma. I hope you received great value from this mastery session. If you'd like to receive potent training videos, blog posts, learning tools and information on my two live events, Personal Mastery Academy and my flagship four day experience, the Titan Summit, go ahead and Visit RobinSharmer.com SA.