The Power of Sharing Your Story

We go back to the car and Dad, I go, Dad's driving. I go around the car to get in. I hear the keys jangling and I kind of look up and he's just, he looks funny. So I'm like, are you all right? And I walk back over and his hands are shaking and he can't get the key in the door. He's so emotional and he kind of just falls in my arms and I hug my dad and I'm kind of holding him up. And this is my dad, my hero, you know, my strength. He's a Marine and first time as a man I'm supporting my dad. Hey, everybody, it's Brendon Burchard and I'm excited to share with you that we have started a new morning show called the Growth Day Morning Show. We stream live every weekday from 7:30am Pacific Standard Time to about 8:00am Pacific Standard Time on Instagram, Instagram Live and Facebook Live. So you can visit my Facebook page or my Instagram page if you'd like to watch these live trainings. What's special about it is I'm doing these morning day shows with Jamie Kern Lima. If you don't know Jamie, she is the, you know, that epic success story of somebody who, you know, went from waiting tables to having a dream to start a cosmetic beauty line to making stuff on her kitchen table, to ultimately building and scaling it cosmetics, which she sold to l' Oreal for over a billion dollars. So you get kind of mentorship from myself and literally someone who built a billion dollar company every single morning on my Instagram 7:30am Pacific Standard Time on weekdays with me and Jamie Kern Lima. And we had a conversation in one of the morning shows the other day about a really unique and beautiful story that I had in my life with my father that I've never actually shared on camera before. The team thought we should put it up here for you guys as this episode and I hope that you will enjoy it. What's cool about the morning show is I get emotional just thinking about it is just it offers that format for us to have a conversation every day and I hope you'll join us there. If you're new to my community and you have heard what we're doing with Growth Day, please Participate by visiting growthday.com Growth Day is my new brand and our new company, a new startup where we go live every single week with the world's best personal development teachers, helping you improve your life. Our thesis is every day is a good day to grow. You know Every day you can choose a new attitude. You can take a new action. Every day you can learn. Every day you can try to be your best. Every day you can get more focus, move towards your goals, be a better mom, parent, caregiver, leader, teammate. Every day it's a good day to grow, but you need that consistent motivation, you need that consistent learning, that consistent curiosity and confidence that, you know you're on the path to great personal development and self mastery. And that's why we started Growth Day. Growth Day. Teachers go live every single week for less than a dollar a day throughout the year. And it is unbelievably powerful. You get myself, Jamie Kern Lim. You get health coaches, you get personal finance coaches. It's unbelievable. Go to growthday.com and check it out. But with no further ado, we want to share this episode where I shared just a conversation that was really. Didn't know I was going to go there. And it was just about a moment I had with my dad that really helped me realize the blessings of life and also come and do a moment I would think of, like, maturity maybe. You know, I think of my whole career with you guys joining me throughout all these episodes over the years for now. You know, my first book came out 20 years ago. I think of all this, this journey we've had together. You know, we all have moments in our life when we, you know, learn, when we grow up, when we get a better mentality or develop more maturity. And this was certainly one that was impactful in my life, and I hope that you will enjoy it. You know, everything I always give advice for, and you all know I've been giving advice for a long time and I give a lot of it. So forgive me. You're really good. But everything I always come back to is this idea to have reverence for life. And let me tell you how that manifests in your question of sharing your story. I have reverence for life. What that means is I believe I'm put here for a reason. I believe that I'm guided. I personally believe in God. I believe that I have been given my life's journey as a gift. The good times, the hard times, the tragedies, the brain injuries, the broken body, the difficulties I faced in my life in every area from bankruptcy to making it to, you know, emotional turmoil, to all the things we all face as we're trying to live a good life, all that to me is a gift. I feel that life is a gift. I have reverence for life. And when you feel like you've been given a gift, when you can really take in that the first thing that you want to do is share, right? When you've been given too much, who has been given. We all say it has a lot of responsibility, but the truth is, if you really have that generous receiving spirit, when you can receive the gift of something from someone else or from your creator, you want to share that gift, you know, and so coming out of the holidays like we have, the way I think about it is my life. Your life is. It's a gift. Your journey has been a gift. Share the gift with others. How do you share the gift of your journey in your life's, you know, purpose, path, difficulties, vulnerabilities with other people? Story. You sit them down and you say, let me tell you this story. And you tell them about your elementary school or your childhood or your grandpa or your grandma or that teacher or that person who mentored you or that time when you were down in the dumps, but you rose out anyway. That is sharing the gift. The gift is your life. And the way you share the gift of your life is. Is only two ways. Story. Right? Communication. The ultimate human skill. Right? Communication or service. Doing something for others. The only way to take a gift is to either speak that gift or give the gift. And so the way I tell people, like, sit down and if it starts with journaling, write, what are some of the stories of the gifts of my life? What are some of the blessings? And don't write like, I'm thankful for the kids. No, write scenes. I talked this to our beach gang, right? Is the power of visualization of seeing scenes in your life. Instead of going, you know, writing a list of things you're thankful for, journal, write out the story of the scene that you saw. So instead of saying, I'm thankful for my dad, I would think, okay, I'm thankful for my dad. What's a moment, a scene? I can see in my memory of me and my dad that I'm thankful for that scene. That. That scene was given to me. Like, the creator directed that scene for me, and I was like, oh, that time when I got to take my dad to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, that was traveling. So a lot of people don't know this, but the. The Vietnam Memorial Wall travels around the country, goes to all the different states. And so there's the one in Washington, D.C. but they have a mobile one that's real life size, and they bring in, they set up in cities. My dad did three tours in Vietnam. And so when I was in college, one year, I came back in the summer, and he asked me to go to this thing. And I didn't know it was a big deal. It's okay. Whatever. So we go there, we drive, and as soon as we're there, you feel the weight. Because those who haven't seen. On the Vietnam Memorial wall, it's all the persons who passed away, their name carved in limestone or in granite, depending on which one is traveling. And so I. I'm there. My dad ended up bringing one of his medals, and he put it there, and. And he was just walking back and forth. I could feel the like, wow, this is a big moment. We go back to the car, and Dad. I go. Dad's driving. I go around the car to get in. I hear the keys jangling, and I kind of look up, and he's just. He looks funny. So I'm like, are you all right? And I walk back over, and his hands are shaking, and he can't get the key in the door. He's so emotional, and he kind of just falls in my arms, and I hug my dad, and I'm kind of holding him up. And this is my dad, my hero, you know, my. My strength, my. He's a Marine, and first time as a man I'm supporting my dad, and I. I'm so thankful I got to experience that, because I ended up. I drove home, and then we had a short conversation about it, and I went downstairs, I cried about it, and I was like, oh, my gosh, my dad. And I'm so happy that I got to experience my dad when I was growing up, when I was a man. It makes me so thankful. And so I can write on a piece of paper one day. I'm grateful for my dad, or I can journal about that scene. And when you journal about the scenes in your life, you realize the scenes are stories. Like, I just got to tell a story about my dad. My dad was a huge gift to me. He taught me, be yourself, do your best. Be honest. Treat people with respect. Take care of your family. Follow your dreams, be a good citizen. That's what my dad taught me. So I'm always telling stories of my dad to carry on his legacy. And your kids are going to tell stories about mom to carry on your legacy. And so if we can realize our stories are gifts, that was a gift that I got with my dad. And if I could journal about that or share that, then I carry on. Legacies. That's the human narrative. We carry on each other's legacies by telling stories. So you honor life by sharing your story. You honor life by recognizing those stories like that, that mean something to you and, and carry on people's values and stories and lives by sharing. And so I'm just encouraging everyone tap into the stories of your life. If you never sat down with a high performance journal or another journal to write down the beautiful scenes of your life and feel them and then tell a friend about them. Hey, let me tell you about my dad. And just say it. That's how people get to know you. And that's the beauty of life, Sam.