Brandon survived a traumatic brain injury in 2011 and learned that purpose isn't a fixed destination but an ongoing process of change. He argues setbacks are gateways to growth, and shares practices like journaling and self-care to stay resilient through hardship.
Questions this video answers
2011
A wreck on a four-wheeler (ATV), which resulted in multiple injuries including a snapped wrist, broken ribs, hip injury, dislocated shoulder, and a traumatic brain injury/post-concussive syndrome.
Chapters
I had a major brain injury in 2011 and I didn't know what my life was going to be like. And I had two or three days after my diagnosis. I knew the next two or three years was going to be really difficult with a traumatic brain injury. And I was scared. I was freaked out. And I just remember laying in bed and I thought, well, either this is a challenging moment that opens up your next level of being Brandon, or this is a moment you quit. How are you going to look at it? Part of the problem is they believe that there's going to be one singular wow purpose for them and not realize our purpose has changed throughout our lives. As we all teach that, you know, your purpose and your mission, your sense of fulfillment, meaning shifts at different times of your life. It's different when you were a teenager than when you're a mom or a parent, than when you're a leader or a business owner. It just changes. But purpose is not a destination. Purpose is a flowering. Purpose is a flowering. What do you mean by that? Well, you know, as we're going through our lives, we're going to have a lot of metamorphosis. I don't know, is that plural? Can you even say that? But you know, there's that moment, those moments where we grow into something else, where we bloom from a situation, even if it's darkened soil, where we open up to a different style, approach, awareness, consciousness, where we open up our personality, where we open up our beliefs. And these are transformative moments in our lifetime. Right. And what I mean by purposes of flowering is you might be stuck right now and not realize that you being stuck is the gateway to the next level of your life. People who lack resilience bemoan the moment and they get stuck here and frustrated that they're stuck here and they don't understand their life is expanding. Even if right now my finances are stuck, even if right now the kids don't like me. Well, they're two. Give them time. You know, it's like. Or they're 18, give them a few years. It's like, listen, we get so narrowly focused now that we lose the connection that life is expanding. You know, this last year I've been telling all my audiences and my high end clients, I said, listen, last year was. And very really like the last two years was a sensation of constriction. We felt shut down. We felt we had to go in protection mode and some people are still living there and we forget that the whole universe is expanding, you know, that we are Our life is growing and flowering in front of us, and let's be curious about that blooming. Let's be excited to see where it goes, even when it's in difficulty. I had a major brain injury in 2011, and I didn't know what my life was going to be like. And I had two or three days after my diagnosis. I knew the next two or three years was going to be really difficult with a traumatic brain injury. And I was scared. I was writing a book, my career was going big. I had all these responsibilities, and I was freaked out. And I just remember laying in bed and I thought, well, either this is a challenging moment that opens up your next level of being Brandon, or this is the moment you quit. How are you going to look at it? You're going to quit because it's hard. We're going to say, maybe this very challenge was placed before me to make me better one day. Maybe I can't see that now, but maybe I'm supposed to grow into something more. I don't know what it is, but I have faith in that process. It's the same old tired metaphor that I know you know, but it is a beautiful metaphor from nature. When that caterpillar goes in that cocoon, there's that time of isolation, that of darkness, of uncertainty, of how things are going to turn out, of the difficulty of breaking free to that next level. But when that breaking free happens, it's like another being emerges, right? Another spirit. Right. That metamorphosis is transformational. And that caterpillar is this light, dancing, ethereal, gorgeous butterfly, when before it was kind of this slimy little thing inching along, which had its own beauty and challenges. But at some point, nature had the impulse to say, go within, take a minute, take a minute, meditate, sit in stillness and imagine what's next. Because we don't know when that cocoon will open out of our challenges, our difficulties. But if we are faithfully aware during those times, if we are faithful, this idea that there are our purpose, our future, it's flowering, that we will emerge lighter, better if we have that trust in nature, in time, in God, in universe and cosmos, in expansion, whatever your vibe is, when you can reconnect to that, you can get through the difficult moments. Because recognizing that life has challenge, struggle, suffering, difficulty, that's how I began this talk. We have to be aware of that. We have to acknowledge that. We have to be okay with that. And once we can say, yeah, sometimes life super sucks, it does. Guess what? That hurt, that pain that Struggle. That's an indicator light of now. That's not the roads ahead. I'm not going to drive my life because of that. It's that idea of like, well, let me look at it, let me talk about it, let me express about it, let me journal about it. Let's shed some light on this difficulty here because monsters fade with more light. Right? The darkness opens to light as we open up the door again versus closing our heart. Oh, right. You know what? I got to take care of my body and release some of this tension so that when that challenging moment comes up, I feel ready and loose and I'm not carrying all this hurt, pain, and stress. And we have to notice that we are blooming now. Even when it's difficult, even when it's the hardest time, even when we don't feel good, people always ask, how did you pull through that brain injury? I'm like, well, I just decided that I must. And I decided that that challenge was given to me to make me better. I didn't know if I would get better ever at that moment. I didn't know, would my brain heal? Would my body heal? For those who know the story, I had wrecked a four wheeler, an atv, and I snapped my wrist off, broke a couple ribs, threw out my hip, dislocated my shoulder, rattled my brain with a traumatic brain injury and a post concussive syndrome. Tough time. Tough two years. Brutal in many ways. And it was a moment where I could have quit or I could say, all right, I guess this is asking me to get better. This is a big challenge. How will I meet it from my best self? How I maintain my own energy? How will I reach out to people? How will I trust that even if I feel limited in this moment, that limitation, there's still a gate that is opening to the future. Even if I feel alone right now and it's dark, I'm telling you what, that cocoon is just building around me. If I stay open and trusting in nature and faith or God, and suddenly that cocoon opens up and I emerge as a different.
