If You’re Trying to Rebuild Your Life… This is the first step
In this motivational video, Brendon Burchard challenges the conventional notion of resilience as merely returning to a previous state after a setback. He argues that “getting back up” should instead be about moving onto an ascendant path—an upward‑sloping trajectory where each comeback is higher than the last. Burchard explains that returning to “square one” is merely a plateau and limits potential. He urges listeners to identify what originally propelled them forward, extract the hard‑won wisdom from past failures, and then set “obnoxious, big, hairy, crazy” goals that leverage that wisdom to achieve even greater outcomes. Throughout, he uses metaphors such as the “dip,” the “aspiration triangle,” and a “life ladder” to illustrate how growth, satisfaction, and fulfillment can be cultivated continuously rather than delayed. He also promotes his Growth Day app, describing it as a daily streak‑based system that combines habit tracking, journaling, and inspirational training to help users stay consistent in personal development. The talk concludes with a call to reject the myth that satisfaction leads to complacency, encouraging listeners to feel whole and grateful now while still striving for higher levels of meaning, purpose, and impact, lest they end their lives feeling unfulfilled.
Chapters
Getting back up should never be about getting back to square one, because getting back to square one is not your potential. Getting back to square one is your plateau. Getting back to where we were means we're always living a past self. It's not that inspiring to go back to square one. You're always setting the goal a little higher next time. How do you get back up in life? Like, how do you do it? Well, first you have to realize what got you up in the first place. Does that make sense? If you're gonna get back up, what got you up in the first place? See, when we talk about getting up, people are so focused often on like resilience. And that often, in terms of its actual definition, is getting back to something, right? To get back to where you're at when you failed. But I always tell people, I'm like, mm, that's not the goal. If you've seen me teach this, I taught it twice in Growth Day this year and on 3 different stages, my Ultra members will know this, metaphor I give because I think it's a difference maker for people's life. It's my favorite thing I taught in the last 12 months, is that most people's life kind of looks like this. I call it the dip. If you trained it with me before, I feel like you're going along fine, adversity strikes, you know, here you are, adversity strikes, you fall down, and then you work really hard to struggle to get back up. To here. That's the story of resilience in life. That's the story we've been sold. And I'm here to tell you, that's a crappy story. That's an awful story. That's a life of ups and downs and plateaus. Getting back up should never be about getting back to square one, because getting back to square one is not your potential. Getting back to square one is your plateau. 'Cause look, I don't care how good I get, if I just keep— here I am again, I'm just at the same point. And this is why people who had really hard lives never grew. Even if they got stronger, they got more wisdom, their only goal is to get back. That's the cheap out of resilience research, is not expecting more of people. Why? Because it feels rude to challenge somebody. Brendan, how can— dude, I'm down here, jerk. Of course I— listen, Brendan, I'm going through bankruptcy. Brendan, I'm sick. I just want to feel better. I just want to get back to where I was. And I'm like, "I know, but getting back to where we were means we're always living a past self. Getting back to where we were means we're always living a former glory day. Getting back to where we were is not personal growth. Even if we have to grow to get where we were, it's still where we were." It's supposed to be on an incline. It doesn't mean we don't have ups and downs. It means that we have ups and downs on an ascendant path. Does that make sense? An ascendant path. Yeah, it's okay. You do fall. But instead of saying, I want to get back to where I was, you're actually Aiming a little higher each time. Brendon, my business, it was doing $100,000 a year and then I went into bankruptcy. I'm at zero. I just want to get back to $100,000. I'm like, it's not going to motivate you that much. Just getting back to the past, it's not that motivating. Getting back to a glory day, not that motivating. We want to be on an ascendant path in life. Remember the center of your aspiration triangle? Was growth. You want to be on an ascendant path in life. It's the most important thing. The whole reason most people aren't resilient is because it's not that motivating. Growth, aspiration, ambition, something new and better. I don't want you to go back to your old life. I want you to build a new, better life. Does that make sense? If you don't have that mentality, I'm here to tell you that is why you don't tend to get back up. The number one reason people don't get back up, it's not that inspiring to go back to square one. But if I can say, okay, all right, last time you did $100,000. You know what? Let's set an obnoxious, big, hairy, crazy goal. What would it look like if this time now you have that wisdom and you have that lesson? Tell me all that wisdom, all that hard learning that you just developed, that strength you just developed in building a business of your own and then failing. And having to start over. You got all that wisdom. Tell me, with all that wisdom, how would you double it next time on this next path? How do you get $200,000? Walk me through all that wisdom. Let's build that. That's a different energy than, oh, let's get you back to square one. Now, I'm not here to say it's not important to get back to square one. I'm just here to say That's why you haven't sometimes before. Not inspiring enough. It's not activating the wisdom that you just learned the effin' hard way. Do you know how much you've learned the hard way? Getting back up should be easy by now, shouldn't it? I tell people all the time, what else do you have to go through for you to finally have some self-confidence? All that you've already survived? If you took all that struggle you've already been through and you gathered that up as wisdom, as wings, as strength, woof, you would take off, babe. It's that you're discounting the strength and staying in the shame. That's what resilience really is. Not back to square one. I want something better next time. There's a better way. There's an ascendant path. There's something more for me in life. That's your year. You can still win the championship. You can still win the game. You can still build the thing. You can still find love. You're not done. You're not going back. You're going forward. You're growing. Your next chapters read better than the last chapters. Your next chapters have more verbs, more vivid imagery, more beauty, more outstanding results. Your next chapters, that's how you get back up. Remember, I'm not setting my goal back to the same level. I'm actually setting the goal a little higher next time. You're always setting the goal a little higher next time. That is the ascendant path in life, not just for the sake of the goal. It's not about achievement. It's about aligning to the higher.
Hey, my friend, sun is going down behind me, and I just want to thank you for watching my YouTube channel. You know, so many of my subscribers are always asking me, Brendan, how do I go to another level of my life and stay consistent in my personal development and really get progress? You know, we all want to be more motivated, more productive, more confident. We want to be better leaders. We want to be better at our craft. But how do you do that on a consistent basis? Well, that's why I built Growth Day. It's an app that you can use that builds your personal growth streak, that every day you come in and you do a series of actions and you listen to some inspirational training and life strategies that advances your life. It's very hard to stay consistent in your life. I know sometimes you watch a YouTube video, you read a book here, you listen to a podcast there, but you're not developing your habits. You're not scoring yourself. You're not finding real progress. Insight that kind of wows you and opens up to, I say, the awe and the real agency that you have in life. So please go to Growth Day in the App Store. Just go to the App Store, go to Growth Day, or go to growthday.com and get Growth Day. I promise you, with your 7-day free trial, you'll go through Growth Day and in 7 days you'll be like totally, totally like feeling fired up, but also you'll find a new momentum because every day as you do your growth streak, you start to really discover what you're made of.
And we access different parts of your brain.
You're listing something inspirational, you're doing a checklist or doing a journal prompt that blows your mind. You're scoring your habits and reflecting on your day in ways you've never done before. We're basically taking all of personal development and putting it into a streak that you'll get like totally addicted to. You'll be addicted to that progress, that growth, that joy and energy that you deserve to feel every day. Go to growthday.com or go to the App Store and just download the Growth Day app. Start your 7-day free trial and let's level you up. Every day is a great day to grow, but you have to stay consistent to get real progress and to really change your life.
Go to growthday.com or go to the App Store and get the Growth Day app right now. It's about aligning to the upward spiral in life, not just ho-humming through the same thing. Does that make sense? That's what gives me the edge. The edge is I know there's an inclined path. That's why I have the edge. 'Cause I keep setting those goals higher and higher and higher. And so I don't plateau. Instead, I'm moving up. I know you got the idea. Powerful. Just draw it out. It's like, it's just like, am I this guy for the rest of my life, ups and downs? Or am I this person? The ascendant path. That's your destiny. That's your future. That's who you are. That's what brings you back. I think that we all have to have another level of a meaningful ladder in life. And this meaningful ladder is like leveling up with maturity in how we move through life. So we sense satisfaction and fulfillment. See, in our current culture, we've been taught to strive and push and work very hard, but it's been in this quote unquote delayed satisfaction, right? Delayed satisfaction. Well, you don't want to be satisfied because if you're satisfied, you'll get soft. If you're satisfied, you'll get complacent. Y'all heard that before? There's this myth, and this myth is that satisfaction equals complacency. You've heard that before? That's taught by ignorant people. That's all. And it became a popular myth. That's not true at all. I want you to hear the craziest, profound thing that will shift you forever. You can be incredibly satisfied with life I feel so satisfied and grateful to God for everything that has happened to me. You can tell yourself to be satisfied and still want more. I'm satisfied. I'm overjoyed. I'm shocked by all the good things that have happened in my life, even though I've had plenty of terrible things. I'm satisfied. I want you to be able to be satisfied in life And it's okay to still want more. I want you to be able to feel fulfilled now. I want you to be able to feel whole now. Isn't it crazy? We hope one day we've earned wholeness, satisfaction, fulfillment. Do you know how many people die without ever having felt a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, or meaning in life, even though they had it? They had good kids. They had a good job. They cared about other people. They made their mark, even if it was just the people around them and their neighbors. That you can walk your path in fulfillment and in wholeness, even as you are imperfect. If this never shifts in your heart, everything we've talked about are good tasks, good protocols. You've got your fancy card, your fancy iconography from what we've gone through here, and you don't get to enjoy it. Do you know how many hardworking hustlers I've met? They turn 30, 40, and 50, and they get there like, "I didn't even enjoy it." I go, "Yeah, 'cause you kept delaying satisfaction," right? The phrase is delayed gratification. Not delayed satisfaction. You ever thought about that? Delayed gratification means I can wait to have the thing, even though I wait it out or work for it. But I can be satisfied on the journey with life. I can feel a sense of meaning, fulfillment, completeness, wholeness, and harmony, even as there is chaos. If you are always depleted, in spirit or wholeness or meaning because you're thinking, "Well, I don't want to be satisfied because I'll get soft." Trust me, the greatest warriors are full of heart. The greatest parents are already full of love. The kids don't have to earn it because they got straight A's when they're 18. They're already satisfied with their children. It doesn't mean those little buggers need to get better. What it means is that I can live in satisfaction of life. What a gift these kids are. Oh my God. Oh my God. There was a day you dreamt of having the kids, but you're waiting for one day to be satisfied as a parent or whole as a parent or complete or perfect. Don't march through life not feeling. The joys of life, meaning in your life should ladder up, right? You had different rungs of life, right? You had different rungs of life. And if you didn't feel any sense— and I'm going to blend a lot of words, so just forgive it for a minute— if you didn't sense satisfaction, if you didn't sense fulfillment, if you didn't sense meaning, if you didn't sense purpose, if you didn't sense wholeness at each stage as you climbed in life, then when do you get it? So your next decade, your next decade, your next decade. Is it more achievements? Is it bigger team? Is it more money? Is it the next accolade? Is it the next award? Is it the next boyfriend, girlfriend, better spouse? Is it the bigger house? Do you see what happens? The meaning ladder becomes infinite dissatisfaction. That's what happens. That ladder will go up forever. What rung do you finally get to feel happy if not here, friends? If not this year? This is the year of your development. This is the year where we get to zoom in and go, hey, maybe I didn't sense satisfaction, fulfillment, meaning, purpose, or wholeness, but I'm here to tell you If not now, when? Think of all the things you're gonna have to stack up, and that ladder is gonna go up on an infinite suffer loop, an infinite dissatisfaction. Do you know why people become indifferent? Because they're not even satisfied ever. It's very easy to be indifferent if you've never been satisfied, 'cause you have nothing to care for. You've never felt whole. You never felt that harmony. And you're the only person who gives yourself this gift. This year, either you sense the meaning, fulfillment, magic, gratitude, graciousness, gift of life, or it's another year of dissatisfaction. Only you unlock that. You must give yourself that gift. You must develop yourself. My ultimate fear in life, the only failure I have in life, is that my tombstone would say, "Here lies a man who failed to develop himself to have the life he wanted." You know how to make that tombstone worth— worse? Here lies a dissatisfied man who failed to develop himself to experience the life he wanted.
