Short motivational YouTube video (Jan 4, 2013) in which Brendan gives three themes to make 2013 extraordinary: (1) Presence — be present with your space (attune senses), your internal state (check energy on a 0–10 scale frequently), and your relationships (fully engage); (2) Boldness — raise ambitions and take leaps rather than delaying; (3) Enthusiasm — maintain high emotional energy to outshine negativity and stay committed. Closes with a call to share personal goals and an encouragement to live fully and make a difference.
Chapters
Hey everybody, it's Brendan. And just a quick New Year's message. You know, I know this year is going to be the greatest year that we've all had, right? That's the ambition and the excitement to make each year better than last year. And I know a lot of people are trying to figure out, like, where their focus is going to be this year. And as a high performance coach, people are always asking me, you know, what should I be focused on? What should I do? How should I be thinking, how should I be approaching this year? And I recently did a live webcast on the topic and I just wanted to send out something else to the group and, and let you know my feelings there and maybe aim you a little bit this year. Just a quick video. So three simple ideas for you of what might make 2013 extraordinary and awesome for you. The first one is to be more present this year. You know, I'm sure your family and your friends, or maybe your spouse, your partner is sometimes asking for that, saying, hey, are you listening? Are you here? What's going on? Stop checking your text. And they really just want to experience you and being fully engaged and fully connected with them over time. But, you know, in presence, I want you to think of presence as in terms of like three spaces or three things. Like, I want you to be present first and foremost, more this year with your space. You know, we can all be more present and attuned to the energy around us, right? The connection with the space that we're in from the sounds and the sight and the experiences of how we feel and just around us. You know, it's so important to engage with our senses, with the world around us. Oftentimes we're going so fast we don't even see the things around us. You know, that's where the whole stop and smell the roses comes from. It's just like, chill out, like, notice what's around you, bring a new level of awareness and connection to your surrounding environment. It will make you feel more engaged. And we've proven with neuroscience and high performance studies over and over and over, the more engaged you feel, the more happy you feel. So engage the space around you. Second area of presence is to be more present with your own thoughts, feelings and emotions internally, to have a greater sense of yourself. This year, to check in with yourself, you know, 10 times throughout the day, I often ask myself this very simple question. What level am I in terms of a scale of 0 to 10 in terms of my energy and my physical vibrancy right now, in terms of like, how do I feel right now? Am I energized right now? Am I emotionally dead? You know, zero being dead. 10 being off the charts excited. And I get to choose where I need to be on that chart for any given experience I'm in. You know, if I'm going to sit down and influence somebody, could you imagine if I'm a level two? Like, I want to influence you? No, it's like, I gotta be charged, right? So I've got to find a greater level of energy and connection emotionally and physically with myself. But I'm always checking in throughout the day. I encourage you to do that as well. And the third area I want you to be more present in is your relationships with others. You know, we can't fake our presence, even though we try. You know, so many of us try. You know, we listen. Listen to somebody, and we're listening. Yeah, yeah, yeah, honey, okay, whatever. But you know what people can tell. You can tell if I'm here with you right now, fully engaged, or if I'm kind of like right here and halfway engaged. And it's not just the way I talk, it's the way I look at you and the way that we connect. And so I really want you to work on those three areas to make 2013 your best year. Work on sensing and feeling the area around you, your space. Sense and feel yourself internally about where you are emotionally and energetically, and sense and feel and connect with people at a different level. That alone would make this one of the greatest years. The second thing you might want to focus on is just being bold this year. You know, 2012, so many people were hiding out or holding up, waiting for the economy to turn or waiting for their turn or hoping this is going to go on. But, you know, we know how that story ends. All that doubt and delay ends up on a not so merry go round of regret later on in our lives. And so it's an opportunity for you to say, what is it that I want? And how can I leap forward in my life dramatically this year? You know, I love everybody who wants to focus on smart goals, right? Specific and measurable and blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what? But to the great leaders and legends of our time, they were advancing confidently, boldly in the directions of their dreams. As Thoreau would say, we want you to think about, how could you be more bold this year? Make this year your breakout year, the year you leveled your ambitions up so that you accomplished something extraordinary, so that you became the greatest you with no sense of sacrifice about it, no sense of guilt about it. But stepping into the boldest, greatest you what's your grand vision for this year? What are you going to bust out and make happen this year? Where are you going to have your breakthroughs in transformation, to be bold in your relationships, in your work, in your life again? It will energize and it will challenge you. And by challenging yourself, you're activating that human drive for challenge. And it does make you feel more alive. And then finally, more enthusiasm. You know, so much I've been saying this with charge and so much I work out there that the emotional energy some places around the world is flatlined, that people just, they're not even feeling engaged and connected and committed and excited about the future anymore. You know, this is the time of year to be excited about the full year and to carry that enthusiasm throughout the year that all the negative people around you, it's so bad that those people, that you dwarf them with your level of energy and excitement, encouragement for what the reality is that we are all blessed to be here, that we are all blessed to make our choices about who it is we are going to show up as today and what it is we are going to march forward to, to tomorrow. And you have the opportunity to show up more enthusiastic than anyone else around you. Whatever that is for you, authentically engaged in your passions and your commitment and your connection to the future, to tomorrow. That's going to make you stand out, that's going to make you more compelling, that's going to make you be someone that others want to be around. You know, this is the year of you being fully present, fully bold and fully enthusiastic and connected to tomorrow. I think if we can do that, then we can accomplish something extraordinary together. I know that's what I'm focusing on this year myself, personally. I know many of you have other things you want to focus on, from being more loving to being more bold, to being more courageous, to being more cleared, having more influence, to be more productive. Whatever it is for you, go ahead and post it below. I'd love to hear about what you're working on and what you're up to. Let's make this year extraordinary. Look forward to seeing you out there on any of my seminars or any of my speeches. Until then, go out every single day of this year. Live fully, love openly and make your difference today.
