Develop a Destiny Mindset

Brendan argues that people have lost a sense of destiny, the belief that their life matters and connects to something larger. He suggests a daily practice: start each morning by expanding your vision, thinking about your future legacy, and reconnecting to purpose.
Chapters
You know why? A lot of people are miserable right now, don't feel fulfilled, even though they're doing good work. They got pulled into the mud the last two years. That's what happened. They were feeling good, they're doing good works, but they got pulled into the mud, into the vitriol, into the negativity, into the pessimism, into the tribalism, into us versus them. And they'd lost the connection with that higher humanity. That is destiny. And I hope you'll think about that. I really believe one reason many people lack that sense of meaning is because they don't have what I would call a destiny mindset. A destiny mindset. I know it's a weird word, and a lot of people don't like when I use the word destiny, and they get all worked up about it. But let me try to work it backwards for you. A destiny mindset means that you see your life as consequential, that you believe that you matter because you are fulfilling a certain type of destiny, that there's a future for you. Whether that's. You call it legacy or destiny or life vision, or you just believe that maybe there's a higher power that's calling you, but you sense that there's this future space for you in which you get to have a meaningful life. I know that might sound very broad, but the truth is, if we don't have that future pull, if we don't sense that what we are doing matters in the future, that something is pulling us along to a greater future, that our lives themselves are meaningful as humans, right? Not that we do it at an individual level where we have to say, well, I'm Brendan and my life's gonna be super consequential. It's like, no, as human beings. It's a life philosophy, isn't it? It's how you think of humanity. Does humanity matter or not? I mean, that's the entire question at the end of the day of philosophy is what is the meaning of human life and how do we live it? Well, when you read philosophy, that's what this is. The central premises of all of it is, does it matter? How should we think about life? How should we think about living it? Well? And that philo, that philosophy of how we think about it is philosophy itself. How do we think about this important topic of meaning of life? Well, so many people have never just decided that, you know what we matter. Your life matters, my life matters. Those people you hate out on the Internet, their life matters. That what happens is we get so Myopic into our own world of, okay, is the little thing I'm doing today. Does that matter? There's my, you know, this one thing I did, does that make me feel fulfilled and complete as a person? And we lack an overall life philosophy. An overall life philosophy that we have defined our lives and the context of humanity as meaningful. I know this might be too academic for some people, and that's why I use the word or the phrase a destiny mindset. If you have lost that feeling that says, I have an opportunity to make a difference while I am here, you've lost that connection with what I'm calling a destiny mindset. A destiny mindset. And I know some people will take a destiny mindset that's like, oh, you know, I got to see myself on a cover of a magazine. I'm like, I know lots of people on covers of magazines who don't feel a sense of meaning or fulfillment in their life. It's not an external thing. It's an internal or intrinsic thing that I just feel called. I feel that my life is leading to something important. I feel honored or privileged or grateful that I can make a difference in the future. And that make a difference in the future thing is a overall life philosophy that is connected to destiny. And I hope you start thinking about that. Because you know what? Sometimes you wake up in the frigging morning and you pull this thing out, don't you? You pull out your phone in the morning and what do you do? You start scrolling through everybody else's stuff, everybody else's agenda, everybody else's life, and you get trapped into the myopic, looking at that comment and getting sad or upset about it. You get trapped in the small things of life. The tasks, the emails, the responses. And all of a sudden you've been pulled into this tiny little myopic to do list part of your life, and you forgot the being part of your life. You want to feel more meaning in your life. Start your day with that destiny mindset. Can you show me somewhere, something that you look at every day that opens up your mind and reminds you to get out of that little myopic brain that we all have that's just focused right here. Because if you never look to the bigger vision of life, it's hard to ever feel a deep sense of meaning or fulfillment. That's a larger life philosophy, isn't it? It's a very different approach to mindset where most people in the morning, they're giving away their mindset to their phone and not thinking about life. You want to feel more meaning and fulfillment in your life, Think about life more. Read some philosophy. Read some great biographies of people who did great things. Expand your vision. And soon as you expand your vision, there's a different sense of, I would say, emotion and motion in life. Expand that vision again. Open up that ambition again. Now, most people don't do that because, well, you don't understand, Brendan. I. I got disappointed. I failed. They don't believe in me. I'm like. And if you let every disappointment or failure or discourager out there pull at your life philosophy and where you're going in the future, if you forget that you are destined for greatness by God, or you are destined for goodness by a higher power, or if you don't believe in any of that, if you forgot the connection to your own future in which you want abundance and joy and amazing, amazing things for your family, well, then we got pulled into the mud, didn't we? You know why? A lot of people are miserable right now, don't feel fulfilled, even though they're doing good work. They got pulled into the mud the last two years. That's what happened. They were feeling good, they're doing good works, but they got pulled into the mud, into the vitriol, into the negativity, into the pessimism, into the tribalism, into us versus them, into. And they'd lost the connection with that higher humanity. That is destiny. And I hope you'll think about that. All right. Okay. So what if I lost that, Brendan? Well, let's begin with a simple mental habit and practice every day. Start your day with thinking of bigger ambition, a bigger dream, a bigger goal, something beyond yourself, a destiny that could serve other people and make a difference, even if you don't know what it is right now. I didn't know what it was for 20 years of my life. I had no clue, but I knew it was there. I was like, I'll find it. I'll create it. I'll work myself into it. So I'm not asking anyone to hurry. I'm just asking to set your intention in the morning, to remind yourself of you're building something great. Even if you're just starting, even if you feel piled into the ground from the last two years, it's time to reconnect with a greater future and a destiny for yourself. And until that happens, it's hard to find meaning in the small things. If we can't find a meaning for our life, that something beautiful will happen for you in your future. I think that is number one, Sam.










