How to Start Your Dream Even When You Fear Being Judged | Brendon Burchard's Advice in 70 Minutes

People say, Brendan, I'm scared to start my dream. I'm like, you're not scared to start your dream. You're embarrassed to be seen starting small. Big difference. It's not about the dream that's freaking you out. It's about how you're going to feel chasing the dream. It's about how you're going to be perceived chasing the dream. It's about how you fear at night it won't turn out the way you wanted. It's not about the dream. It's about how you're processing how it will feel chasing the dream. And once you figure that out, you see that you can rewire yourself. You can teach yourself to think differently about the journey and the process. Because look, no matter how small you start, start something that matters. Start something that brings your life back, you know. Start something that makes your heart feel full. Start something that does scare you. Allow that fear, allow that worry, allow that anxiety a little bit, because that's just saying you're growing, you're learning, you're changing, you're getting going. But let's be very clear, most people, what they're really scared about is being embarrassed. Well, I don't know, if I quit my job and I start this thing, what do my co-workers think when I do that? I don't know, if I start this, what are my What are my friends going to say when they see me playing small and not doing big things? Because every big project starts with small little tasks that don't look sexy. Oh, what's everyone going to think about me that I chose this route when the other thing was over here and that was a better choice? What people are scared about is being rejected or more being embarrassed. I tell people all the time, don't be embarrassed to start small. I think about when I started doing videos, you know, it wasn't— we're at 200 million video views now. I mean, tell you what, When I started, I was okay with the fact that it was like 10 people watched my videos. You know, 9 of them was my mom on different browsers probably hitting refresh to make me feel better about myself. You know, like I accepted the fact that starting small was part of the game. Instead of bemoaning that, I honored that process. I said, that is part of it. Being small in a big pond with big fish is part of the game. And only until you keep playing, keep moving, keep building, do you ever become one of the big fish. You have to be okay with being small small. And so if you start your channel or you start your thing and only 100 people watch it, hey, that's 100 people who heard your message. That's 100 people who you help. That's 100 people who you change your mindset for. That's 100 people who let you do your own thing and watch. And even if they were haters, at least you started penetrating their mind. Get in the game. Never be embarrassed about starting small or scrappy or crappy, because that's part of the journey. It's supposed to be that way. So don't fear it. Acknowledge that's I'm going to honor that. Let's go.

Think big, act small. Think big, have a big goal, big dreams, big desires, big mission, big, big vision.

You're going to change the world.

Think big.

Let's go.

We love that as entrepreneurs, right? Let's think big and change the world and act small in that you got to do something because the only thing you're missing is momentum. Where what most people do is if you're just thinking big and feel like you have to act big, from the start, then nothing ever ends up happening and that big goal dies within you. We are afraid of taking the first step. We are afraid of building momentum. We are afraid of people seeing us and nobody seeing us. I just finished this 7-day challenge in Built to Serve helping people become thought leaders, and people are afraid of people watching their content and what those people are going to say. And they're equally afraid of nobody watching their content. So you're afraid of somebody seeing what you're doing and judging you, and you're also afraid of people not seeing what you're doing and you're creating an obscurity. So you're afraid of being seen and not being seen at the exact same time. Is it any wonder why you're not creating? Is there any wonder why you're not making? Is there any wonder why you're stuck in just planning and strategizing and making the perfect thing happen before something ever happens? Is it ever any wonder why If you want to start a YouTube channel, you're still stuck on what the opening sentence is going to be and what microphone you're going to use and what camera and what lighting and what the background and how your hair is going to look and your wardrobe. Is there any wonder why you're still stuck on that instead of just creating? Because we're afraid. We're afraid of being seen and we're afraid of not being seen at the same time. And so we've convinced ourselves why we can't do something with, with, you know, rational, logical reasons that we believe. But really, you're just not making content. You're just not making progress. You're just not having the conversations you need to have. You're just not building the business that you should be building, right? Whatever the thing is, it's just at the end of the day, it's just fear. And the thing that's missing is momentum. How I encourage people to get through it is what I tell myself. I expect to suck at the beginning. Whatever you do, when it's your first time, expect to suck. Right? Just expect to suck at the start. Why do you think you're going to be amazing the first time you go and create something? You're not. It's going to suck. It's not going to be very good. Like, even objectively, it's not going to be very good, probably. But that's okay. It doesn't mean you suck as a person. I think it's amazing. I think the fact that you're willing to try is an inspiration. And so whenever you're first getting started off, when you have expectations and then you don't meet those expectations. And this gap, this is the gap that prevents you from taking further action. How many times have you tried to do something, you got started, you weren't getting results like you thought you would, and you just quit right away? How many times have you recorded a video, watched it back, were completely embarrassed by yourself, and then never posted it and never launched your channel? There's been people who I've done interviews with as their first guest on their podcast or YouTube show or Instagram, whatever, and then they never post it. They never posted because they are too embarrassed to even launch the show. And it was, it was even a decent interview, but the insecurities and the fears and the doubts creep in. And so they don't, they don't post it. They don't do anything about it. Where you just need to expect to suck at the beginning. Just expect to suck, expect it to be terrible. And that gives you the freedom to go off and create because like anything else, whatever it is you want to do, you want to be a YouTube creator, you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to be a coach, an author, a speaker, whatever it is that your business is. It's all doable. It's just a skill that you need to learn. There's a bunch of skills that you need to pick up and learn. And like any other skill, you can learn it. Of course you can learn it. You can pick up any skill, but you don't have the skill right now. And so don't overly judge yourself for not having the skill and not being good enough as a human being just because you don't have the skill set yet. Right? This isn't a, you're not good enough as a human. It's, you're not good enough at this specific skill set yet that when you can figure that thing out, and get the training, education, experience, then you can go and accomplish the goal, of course. But we overly judge ourselves and then we don't build momentum. One of my Movie Makers, uh, his name is Michael. He's an amazing human. He wanted to start making content, wanted to start making videos, wanted to start doing interviews, and he was, he was afraid of asking people to be on the show and him being the interviewer. He was fine being an interviewee when people were asking him questions, but he didn't want to be the interviewer and was afraid to ask people questions. And so we had a discussion and we came up with a concept where it was, um, his show called— his show is called Empowering Conversations with a Disabled Man. So he's disabled, he wants to help reduce the stigma around people with disabilities, he wants to have open conversations, he wants to help people who are disabled find hope and inspiration and power. And he also wants to educate able-bodied people to how to, how to help support, cherish their disabled friends or the community. And so we came up with the concept of Empowering Conversations with a Disabled Man. And he launched his first live interview where he was having the conversation, had a guest come on. And he was doing the interview, and it was the idea to action that made all the difference. Because he'd been thinking about doing a show and thinking about making content and, you know, being too afraid and being stuck in his head like all of us do, myself included. All of us do. And to his credit, the thing that I did not do at his stage in this career was he just went off and did it. He just— okay, you know what, here's an idea, I'm gonna do something about I'm gonna do something about it. I'm gonna get started. And he had his first one. I asked him how he did it. He said it was so much fun. It was so great. It was so amazing. And now he's scheduled the second one. He's gonna keep doing more. It's a great win in that it worked out. Now, if he keeps going on this show, you know, say he does 100 episodes of the show, he's gonna look back on his first video and realize, oh my gosh, I was so bad at the beginning, right? But look at the journey. Look at the growth. Same thing for you. Whatever you're starting off doing, and just expect to suck at the beginning. Expect to suck. Expect no results. Expect nobody to see it. Expect it to be terrible. And tomorrow you're going to keep going. You make it a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better. And when you look back on 10 days, 20 days, 50 days, 100 days, you'll come back and say, holy cow, I'm really getting better. Why? Because you developed a skill. You were, you were still the same awesome human. Now you're developing the skill set to actually get better at the thing that you want to do. Makes all the difference. The only thing you're missing is momentum. So just repeat yourself. Repeat to yourself, the only thing I'm missing is momentum. The only thing you're missing is momentum. You've got the heart, the care, the passion, the desire to serve, the vision, the just the soul to help. You've got all that. You know you can help. All you're missing is momentum. You're just not doing enough. And that's not, that's not a beatdown to say, judge yourself and you suck again as a person and you should be doing more. Don't do that. But take the time that you spend criticizing yourself and judging yourself for not being good enough and use that energy to then just go make something and expect to suck. So a couple things that helped me— that gives me the permission to start. So it's not a high bar. It's a— there is no bar. There is— the bar is so low that there is no bar, and that gives you permission to just start. And they create the momentum you're looking for. The other thing that I find really helps me is just trust that great ideas flow through you, whether, whether it's belief in self, whether it's belief in something higher, but just trust that good ideas flow through you, that if an idea comes to you for something you want to do, trust that it's a good idea. Trust that that is the right idea for you, that you should do it, that you should take action on it, and that it's going to serve. If you're in a positive mindset, right? If you're, if you're in a negative mindset, then then it's good to sleep on your ideas, right? If you're in a jealous mindset or hateful mindset or rageful mindset, then the ideas that come to you are probably not the right ideas for you. But if you're in a powering, empowering, inspiring, positive, optimistic mindset, then the ideas that come to you are the right ones for you. And just trust that those are the right ideas and do something on it. And shortcut your brain, because as soon as your brain takes over, it's gonna be like, oh, okay, but you don't know how to do this and that, and then here's another problem and more restrictions and You know, okay, so what happens? Default. Okay, let's go default to planning and researching, and we'll keep asking questions and we'll keep hemming and hawing. And then, you know, next week I'll do something. And then next week comes and you haven't done it yet, right? So when an idea comes to you, find the smallest possible way to get started on it today. Don't make it some big giant thing that now you need $1 million in venture capital and a huge team to accomplish. The only thing you're missing is momentum, right? So trust that great ideas flow through you. Great ideas flow through you. You're here to do so much more. And take that kernel of an idea and do something, whatever the smallest possible, simplest thing is, to just build some kind of momentum for it, to see how much did you love it. How much do you want to go back and do it without having the pressure on it having to be the perfect thing, the next big thing, the only thing that matters? Because that's what keeps you stuck, slow, knowing that you're capable of more but too afraid to act. Great ideas flow through you, and the only thing you're missing is momentum. Let's go. Also, to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video, I've designed a special free worksheet just for this video. The worksheet will highlight all of the lessons learned in this video, as well as pull out our 3 favorite learnings and quotes that will inspire you to actually do something. The worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results. If you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video, absolutely for free, There's a link in the description below. Go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business. I'll see you there.

You must establish the rhythm of the teams. You've got to establish the rhythm. And what that means is, let's say you're running an organization. The rhythm of the organization results in, in two, two ways I want you to think about it. There's an internal rhythm. The way that you meet, the way that you set goals, the, the, the rhythm of planning your quarter or your OKRs, your KPIs. It's all the internal rhythm of the things that you do to function and run the business, right? Then there's the external rhythm. That is your release rhythm. That is your launch rhythm. That's your marketing rhythm. That's the public-facing publicity rhythm. It's what the world sees. Of you. Now, those two rhythms are sometimes different. They're different organizationally, they're different in families, they're different in how you might run a new team versus an established team. But it's so important that you as a leader take that on the helm of like, oh, what does that need to look like? And you won't know, unfortunately, until you practice principle number one. People support what they create. I'll give you an example. In, in my company right now, we're, we're, we're added a, a whole bunch of new people and we're still trying to figure out, okay, what's this new rhythm gonna look like? And so the new team has to come in and, and see the rhythm we're doing now. And then we've gotta adjust and pivot to the new team to establish the norms. You all know this from storming, forming, and norming in team research experience. Well, our, our job is to figure out, okay, what should that rhythm be on across the company? Like your all-hands meetings and processes to what each team or each organizational unit does, or how you're gonna improve. Families have to do this too. So you're a parent. Okay. What's your family rhythm? What do you do Monday through Sundays? What are your rituals? What are those time slots that you're gonna repeat? You might have a rhythm that you have with your partner or spouse. You go out on date nights on Fridays, right? Or you might have a rhythm that you have with this child versus that child in order to create that connection with them. Everything has to be thought of in terms of a rhythm or a ritual or a patterned calendar slot in order for everyone to feel like, oh, we're moving in unison here. When leaders don't establish or work to establish with their teams or their culture or their families what the rhythm is going to be, everything feels random all the time. Everything feels like we're fighting fires, fighting, fighting. It always feels like we're fighting fires, we're in emergency mode, and we're going to burn out. And so I see this all the time, and it's the hardest part because you as a leader often don't know what the rhythm needs to be yet. It has to happen in motion, which is why it's so important to be a good listener. So many leaders come into new companies, and when they come into new companies— I recently, I think it was two quarters ago, helped a CEO transition into a company where they had 12,000 employees. And I got brought in by the board because he was in trouble. And so I got brought in his 360 evaluations from the whole team. He'd only been there like 6 months. Everyone hated the guy. And I couldn't, like, it took a while to figure out very likable, emotionally intelligent, fun, smart business person. And I'm like, what, what is going on? And what I found out was when he came into the company, he just, he said, well, this is, this has to be our rhythm. Here's our quarterly goals. This is our yearly goals. This is how we meet. And just imposed a rhythm on an existing team. They weren't ready for that. And so it was like a revolt. And for them, they got used to doing something. This whole thing changed everything. It was too fast. And if you're an organizational leader, you know that that's super hard. It always happens. Every company goes through it. Transitions in leadership are always difficult, always challenging. but your job is to be aware of that. And your job, if you're, if you're the person who has that vision decision, you have to work really hard to establish that normal rhythm, normal meeting cadence, normal way about trying to achieve a goal, normal way of managing a project, normal way of meeting a, a quarterly, you know, stretch. Like you, you have to establish that. and you're probably going to need help with it. This is a great distinction between where leadership and management diverge. Leaders work with managers to establish that people support what they create, to establish that rhythm. And often the leader doesn't actually manage the rhythm. They help set it up, they agree to it, they go. And then there's project managers, there's mid-level managers, there's other people who are going to make sure that that rhythm happens, right? Same thing might happen in your family. You might say, okay, we're all going to do this, but you might not be the person who always makes that thing happen. You might be like, you might have some support, you might have an assistant, you might assign the rhythm of the kids to the older kid, right? That you— that there's an assignment happening there, but you need to be aware of it and ensure that rhythm is happening with great energy. Number 1 is my friend hat, which is so important. This is where when I'm having a bad day, I always say, okay, if I was coaching my absolute dearest best friend in the world who just went through the same day, what would I suggest that they do next? Not how would I change their life, not some big highfalutin stuff. Like what would I suggest that person they do like literally next in that situation they're in? Would it be, you know what, you really need to call your mom. You know what, you need to call that person and apologize. You know what, you need to send that email. You know what you need to do is take this— But what would I tell my absolute best, most adored friend to do as their very next step? Not the whole plan, just what's one thing I would tell my absolute best, dearest friend? I ask myself this question probably 2, 3 times a week, right? 'Cause I'll get frustrated by something, something will piss me off, or I'll be bummed that something crashed and burned, I'll be like, okay, What would I, if my best friend just went through that exact same thing, what would I say they should do first? And of course, once I think of what they should do first, then the next step comes, and the next step, and the next step. Meaning, kind of coach and advise yourself from a third-party standpoint. I know you probably know you should do that, but here's the way that I make it stick. I write the letter. This means I sit down with a blank piece of paper and I write the letter to myself from the best friend's perspective. Dear Brendon, you're really ugly and stupid, but you're my best friend. So, buddy, here's what I recommend you do about the situation that you're in. Here's how I think you should think about it. Here's what I recommend that you should do. And I literally write the letter to myself from the perspective of my best friend. Does that make sense? That's what I call putting on my friend hat and I write the letter. Dear Brendon. And sometimes it's just, I write it, it's super short, it's on a little note card, I write like 10 sentences. Other times, man, I gotta dig deep and that thing becomes like a 4-page letter to myself. And we know from psychology, specifically dealing with therapy and trauma, that if you will write yourself a letter, it does significantly change your emotional well-being. And writing it from this perspective as a friend has, I have found, made my letters much more compassionate, much more thoughtful, much more positive. So I just put my friend hat on, I write myself a little letter. Dude, if you're angry all the time, you got to change how you look at the world. Yes, there's a lot in the news that can piss you off. Yes, there's a lot going on that causes outrage all day long on Twitter or social media somewhere. But if that's your sole focus, no wonder you're upset all the time. Lots of people are angry right now because of the news or something chaotic or terrible or something they don't agree with is happening in the world, but that's not new. There's always chaos, there's always turmoil, there's always bad things happen in the world. But if that's your focus, no wonder you're having that anxiety and that frustration and that anger all the time. You got to change both the your focus and how you're reacting to things when you do see it. So first, let's work on your focus. You know, are, as much as you're angry all the time, are you also noticing the beauty of this world? I mean, the odds that you're even alive and having your breath is something to connect to every single morning. To have reverence for your life in the morning, to wake up. You know, one of my late mentors was Wayne Dyer, an amazing, amazing teacher, and he always talked about how he woke up He rolled over, he put his feet on the ground, and he said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." He was grateful for his day, and he began that way. And I think so many people right now, they kind of roll up in bed and they're like, "Rah!" And they grab their freaking phone and they start going through the news and social media, and what are they cueing immediately? I'm cueing stress, chaos, turmoil, clickables, you know? It's like clickbait, clickbait, clickbait, clickbait. No wonder you're frustrated. You're activating your brain immediately right off the beginning of the day in all the turmoil of the world. Put the dang phone down, get up and think about what you're grateful for, about what you want to achieve and give and serve and create that day, about who needs you to be on your A-game that day so you can focus on that instead of like this in bed. That will change how you start your day. And then listen, a lot of people who are angry all the time They're also in outrage all the time because they're focusing on the problem all the time and they're bemoaning the problem. They're calling out the problem, complaining about the problem, judging, criticizing, getting upset all the time. A ton of people who stay in anger all the time are failing to be solution-based. That's what they're doing, right? They're just anger, anger, problem, problem, problem, problem, outrage, outrage, outrage. But listen, when you become a solution-based person, you say, okay, I actually want to do I'm going to do something about this problem, and you start taking positive steps to at least address it or to participate. Suddenly, that anger goes into a new fire, and that fire is called enthusiasm. It is easy to switch anger into enthusiasm when you become solution-based as a mindset. When you say, okay, I don't like this. Let me do something. Let me call somebody. Let me take this action. Let me write that letter. Let me send that email. Let me get my friends together. Let's go protest. Let's go get involved. Let's participate because participation turns anger often into enthusiasm. People say, "Brendon, I'm scared to start my dream." I'm like, "You're not scared to start your dream. You're embarrassed to be seen starting small." Big difference. It's not about the dream that's freaking you out. It's about how you're going to feel chasing the dream. It's about how you're going to be perceived chasing the dream. It's about how you fear at night it won't turn out the way you wanted. It's not about the dream, it's about how you're processing how it will feel chasing the dream. And once you figure that out, you see that you can rewire yourself. You can teach yourself to think differently about the journey and the process. Because look, you know, no matter how small you start, start something that matters. Start something that brings your life back, you know, start something that makes your heart feel full, start something that does scare you, allow that fear, allow that worry, allow that anxiety a little bit because that's just saying you're growing, you're learning, you're changing, you're getting going. But let's be very clear, most people, what they're really scared about is being embarrassed. Well, I don't know if I quit my job and I start this thing, what do my coworkers think when I do that? I don't know if I start this, what are my friends gonna say when they see me playing small and not doing big things because every big project starts with small little tasks that don't look sexy. Oh, what's everyone think about me that I chose this route when the other thing was over here and that was a better choice? What people are scared about is being rejected or more being embarrassed. I tell people all the time, don't be embarrassed to start small. I think about when I started doing videos, you know, it wasn't We're at 200 million video views now. I mean, tell you what, when I started, I was okay with the fact that it was like 10 people watching my videos, you know, 9 of them was my mom on different browsers probably hitting refresh to make me feel better about myself. You know, like I accepted the fact that starting small was part of the game. Instead of bemoaning that, I honored that process. I said, that is part of it. Being small in a big pond with big fish is part of the game. And only until you keep playing, keep moving, keep building, do you ever become one of the big fish. You have to be okay with being small. And so if you start your channel or you start your thing and only 100 people watch it, hey, that's 100 people who heard your message. That's 100 people who you help. That's 100 people who you change their mindset for. That's 100 people who let you do your own thing. And watch, and even if they were haters, at least you started penetrating their mind. Get in the game. Never be embarrassed about starting small or scrappy or crappy because that's part of the journey. It's supposed to be that way. So don't fear it. Acknowledge that's part of it. I'm gonna honor that. Let's go. I was a maybe 24, 25-year-old man, and I was a member of Kiwanis. And if you guys didn't know, Kiwanis is a It's kind of like Rotary or Lions Club. It's a nonprofit organization that's dedicated towards service in the community. And I was in Kiwanis and I was the youngest one, hands down, like in the room. We'd get together every single month on a Tuesday and we'd have lunch and we'd have a speaker in and then we'd talk about a volunteer project we were gonna do that month and that was kind of how it went in Kiwanis for me. And so, but in my room, I was 24, 25, in the room every Tuesday when we got together. Everyone else was older. I mean, they were like 50s and 60s and 70s older when I was 20. I was the youngest person in the room every single time. And I remember I was having a particularly challenging time because I was thinking about quitting my job, but I was scared because I didn't— I hadn't saved any money. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I just knew that the job wasn't the thing at the time, but I didn't know what it was. And so I was scared to make the leap. And I was just, I was kind of struggling with some existential stuff because, you know, it'd been 4 or 5 years I hadn't had a girlfriend. And it was just frustrating. I was like dating, but I wasn't able, I just wasn't making real connections when I was dating. And I was just unhappy. In that part of my life. I didn't know what I was doing with my career. I didn't have a significant relationship. I was like, oh man, I'm just kind of— I didn't feel good. And so I was having a really down day on that particular Tuesday. And I went in and I was sitting next to this guy and he was one of the— just one of the awesome Kiwanians that was there. And he was— I think he was probably 59, 60 years old. He was in banking, very successful, wealthy guy. Happy, happy, just, he was like a happy-go-lucky grandpa type, you know, just a good dude. And I'm just kind of listing off to him all these things that suck, you know? And he says, "Well, what are you doing about it?" And I said, "Well, you know, I, you know." And he says, "Well, I bet," and he said, "I bet I know what's going on. You're going home, you're probably watching too much TV, drinking too much beer and sitting alone too often, or you're going out and not having any fun and da da da." And we're just talking. My mode was, yeah, I kind of, I go inside, so I kind of pull away from people when I'm unhappy. And so I was like, yeah, I kind of pull away and I'm in my house. And he says, I know how to solve your problem. I said, oh, what is it? He goes, buy tickets. Buy tickets? What do you mean buy tickets? He goes, I want you to open up the paper. Remember the papers? So he says, I want you to open up the paper and he goes, I want you to see what's going on in your town and I want you to buy tickets to whatever's coming up the next 7 weekends. Is there a symphony coming to town? Buy tickets. Is there a ballet? Buy tickets. Is there an art museum? Buy tickets. Is there a concert? Buy tickets. And I said, what do you mean? He said, buy tickets. I want you to buy 1, 2, 3, 4 tickets, and I want you to take your friends, and I just want you to go. I want you to buy tickets and I want you to go. And I'm like, what the hell? Does this have to do with anything I'm even talking about? He goes, just buy the tickets and come back next month. Tell me about the tickets. And I'm like, no. And he literally pulls out his wallet and I'll never forget, he sets down 3 $100 bills and he goes, buy the tickets. Here's the money. And I'm like, what are you even— I was literally so frustrated. So long story short, I'll try to keep it shorter. But so I bought tickets. I got a symphony ticket. I got a— there was like a dance troupe in town or something weird. There's a Dave Matthews concert. And what else? There's one other thing. I can't remember what it was. Shoot. There's something. I bought the tickets. I went with 1 or 2 or 3 friends and went to them. And the second— I remember even— I remember the opening act for the Dave Matthews Band started and I was like, "Got it. Got it." Because sometimes when you're down and out, you got to get out and about. And so I was down and out, and he got me out and about. And then with your friends and you're socializing, and it's in a new environment, and things are happening, and my mind just started turning on again. I started getting all these ideas and these dreams that I don't know where they were. They weren't in my room. They weren't in my bed. These ideas and dreams, they weren't happening in my journal. The ideas and dreams, they weren't happening in my daily planner. It was like I was stuck there, so he moved me over here. Have you ever been like at a ballet or a symphony, an orchestra, and you're just sitting there and all of a sudden you feel amazing? Like the music hits you, this idea comes in, and you walk out and you feel amazing. Have you ever gone to a Broadway show, you went in and you were frustrated and freaked out because all the horrible New York traffic, and all of a sudden And then you laugh your ass off and you leave the Broadway show and you feel like a million dollars. And now no problem is gonna slow you down. That's buy tickets. Buy tickets to the seminar, buy tickets to the event, buy tickets to the art museum, the ballet, buy tickets. And I mean, if you're down and out and your life sucks right now, go buy tickets for the next 4 weeks. And I promise you're gonna be like, damn, Buy tickets. That changed my life. Changed my life too. And I've learned ever since then, like, if I'm down and out, it's like, buy tickets. What if your parents don't support you? What? Who cares if your team doesn't support you? Who cares if your friends think you're crazy? Who cares if nobody in this world sees your dream? It is not your parents or your professors or your peers or the world's job to support your dream. That's your dream. That dream was sowed into your heart. That dream was given to you to nurture, to protect, to fulfill. It's not somebody else's job. So if your parents don't like your idea, you don't have to live your life to please just your parents. If your friends think you're crazy, it's not your job to make all your friends think that you're sane. If your professors or the people in your community think, oh my gosh, you're just reckless and crazy and stupid, it's not your job to prove that you're smart to them. Your job is to fulfill that heart's desire. Your job is to fulfill that part of you that is begging you and pleading you to follow your dreams, to follow your heart, to create your thing. So first and foremost, don't think that it is everybody else's job to support you. It's not everybody else's job to cheer you on. To give you money, to invest in you, to pat you on the back every time you walk into your house at night and you did a good job. It's okay that other people have a different vision for themselves than you do. Just like you don't need to judge other people because you don't like their dreams, their desires, or the way they live their life or do their 9 to 5, then you shouldn't worry if they judge yours. And that's the first thing I always tell people is it is not other people's responsibility to support you or to believe in you. And I know that. You know, when I wrote my first book, no one believed me. I quit my 9-to-5 job and everyone goes, "You're so crazy to quit this job. Who are you to be a writer? You're a dumb kid." It's true, who was I to be a writer? But I didn't worry what other people thought or if their judgment was approval for me to go ahead. In my heart, I knew I wanted to write. I wanted to create. And that desire was what I listened to, not other people's judgments or opinions. And remember, most other people's opinions are completely uninformed opinions about you. You got to let go of those things that upset you 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago. If you're an adult and you're still angry and pissed about things that happened to you in high school, you need a therapist. And I say that with all sincerity and all respect. If you're having mental thoughts that are coming from a place that are literally based 5, 10, 20 years ago that you just didn't deal with yet, you need help dealing with it. And you need to get yourself a meditation practice or a therapist or into some kind of way that you're on a consistent basis letting things go. Here's what I do. Every Sunday I go, okay, what was I pissed about this last week? What really bothered me? Okay, I gotta let that go. 'Cause you can't keep charging into the next week angry from last week. You gotta let it go. You gotta find a clean slate for yourself so that your soul can expand and can be positive and can be ambitious and motivated and serving the next week. 'Cause listen, anger after anger after anger, hatred after hatred after hatred, criticism after criticism after criticism, rejection after rejection after rejection, outrage after outrage after outrage, It weighs you down. So you've got to change how much of that you're taking in, and you've got to make sure every single week you're doing some kind of like mental detox to let that stuff go. And instead of cultivating the anger, cultivate the gratitude, cultivate the enthusiasm, and you can change your life. People all say, well, Brendon, I lost my motivation. I'm like, you didn't lose your motivation. You forgot to show up in the morning look and think and feel what is it you are fighting for. See, you just show up and sometimes you check your inbox and you look on social media or you listen to that podcast or even you do your workout, but you're not thinking and obsessing, what is it I'm fighting for in my life right now? Or who is it I am fighting for? Because if you begin your day grounded in what you find to be purposeful, meaningful, important, fulfilling, and you say, what is it I'm fighting for? Why am I showing up? Why is it necessary that I deliver with excellence today? And you really emotionally get connected to something. That's the challenge. People are losing their motivation because they're not emotionally connected to anything outside of like the outrage on social media, outside of the outrage of the news. They're losing that fire inside that wants to build something, create something, deliver something. Overcome something. So now they're just focused on everybody else, and the real thing is they didn't lose their motivation, they got distracted. Two different things, right? If you're really connected with what you are doing and why you were doing it and who you are doing it for specifically, everything changes and you'll overcome even the distractions. I've written 6 books now. I have been surrounded by so many critics and so many judgments. You know, we have 200 million in video views on my videos online, guess what? A lot of the people were haters. But instead of seeing them and getting angry about it, I just see it and it's like, swipe. It doesn't affect me anymore. Part of maturity is getting to that point where you can see criticism and see hatred and not make it your own, not make it about your identity. To allow other people's opinions and judgments to live out there because they're not going to go away. You need to accept that. The criticisms, the judgments, the hatred, it's not going away. You'll probably only hear more of it as you grow, even as you get more fame or more people liking you or more people accepting you or you get promoted. People ultimately will support you as you get momentum, but people will still hate you. So if you don't deal with it now, if you don't make a switch switch in your mind that says, ah, either I'm going to limit my exposure to them or I'm going to change how I react to them, you will always be slave to other people's opinions and that is not a life of freedom that you want to live. The reason people are scared to start their dream is because they're seeing this big complex thing. I mean, they're looking out and it's this huge thing. They see the complexity of the final vision of the dream and so starting now is too overwhelming. They're not scared to start the dream. They're scared of the feeling of feeling overwhelmed. That's what they're scared of. So how do you deal with that? Stop thinking you have to have everything perfect and complete at the beginning. The finish line is 26 miles ahead. What matters now is step 1, 2, 3, 4, the first mile. You need to figure out what is the first mile towards your dream. Not what's the finish line look like. Of course, if you look at the finish line, it's intimidating. You look at somebody who already has the business you want, you look at somebody who already has the car and the dream, the house and the perfect life, and they've done it all already. There are 5, 10, 15, 20 years in front of you, and it seems so complex. You say, why should I even start? Look how far ahead they are. They had more miles, they put more miles in, but you can't compete with their miles. You got to start with your first step. Right here, right now, you go, okay, I'm going to be okay starting small. And instead of trying to, in day 1, have it all complete and take on all the complexity, I'm going to do 1 thing here, 3 goals today, 3 goals the next day, 3 goals the next day. And I'm going to get that momentum going because with that momentum comes more motivation. With that momentum, more learning. With that momentum, more progress. But it only begins if you're okay starting small and taking on little bites at your dream and not trying to eat the whole thing all at once because it will overwhelm you. We completed the world's largest study of high performers worldwide with data points of over 2 million people from 190 countries around the world. And when we polled and we found out who those high performers were, the people who had the longest-term success, there was no question at all that they tend to be focusing on on one person or maybe their team or maybe their financial situation. They were focused on like one or two things for the reason that they were doing things. And it wasn't like, I'm going to change the world. And they had some big, you know, esoteric dreamy kind of thing. They're like, you know what? I got to make the rent. You know what? I got to buy this new thing. You know what? I want to build this team. You know what? I want to build this business. You know what? I got to get my art out here. I'm fighting for that. But they were fighting for one specific thing, maybe two, but it was so specific. For me, it would be live, love, matter, and it'd be something around those truths. Like, because at the end of your life, what I found, uh, you know, it's hard to give perspective to this, but for 20 years I've been telling people to find those questions. And no matter what— and I don't know if you know this, but I volunteered in hospices for a decade. I've been with a lot of people in their last moments, weeks and months. I've been, I've been around a lot of that in my life because I wanted to see if what I experienced on that car was what other people experienced. In some ways it was. In some ways at the end, we all wanted to know, did I live and how that was and did I love and did I matter? I just knew that psychologically with familiarity, you know, the odds of decreasing anxiety is extremely high. So it's basically like running a simulation. Running that simulation, yeah, exactly, like a pilot. Running that simulation over and over and over. If you're a pilot and you run the simulation and it crashes 50 times, the first 10 you're mortified, the last 12 you're on the dials. I think just running the pattern over and over visually is really powerful. The world completely underestimates the power of visualization, completely misutilizes The human power of contemplation. You know, the number one thing I say to my high-performance clients is going through the motions is the death of high performance. High performers don't go through the motions. They contemplate it, they're intentional, they're thoughtful, they practice. They want it to go well. And the reason most people don't do that is 'cause the pressure. It puts a lot of pressure on yourself. But that's what makes people great. The truth is life will never be joyous unless you bring the joy. I really feel like that. So many people are waiting to have happiness and they're just, they're waiting to like, well, maybe when my boss loosens up, I'll loosen up. Or, you know, when, when, when, when she's vulnerable, I'll be vulnerable. Or it's like we're waiting for something. I'm like, it's not, your life will never be what it is going to be unless you bring that thing. You know, for me, I want to be, uh, I wanna be more bold in my life. That was one of my goals because I wasn't that, you know, I wasn't that guy who would just like go out and do the things I do now. So I made bold like, I was like, bold is an intention. I set it as an alarm on my phone. My alarm would go off 3 times a day and bold would pop up. And I conditioned myself over 7 years to be more bold, which is a big deal for me. Um, and because I wanted, I wanted that, I had to learn how to bring that. So whatever you want in life, you got to bring it. Camera was super awkward for me. And I was like, okay, but if I want to change the world, guess what is necessary? Communication skills. I'm going to have to learn that. I was not— I wasn't raised in a place. I was raised in Montana where men didn't really communicate except with looks, glances, and fists. So it was like if a guy lifted, it wasn't like we're gesturing. Where I'm from, if their hand came up, you're getting punched in the face, man. That was it. So I had to learn emotional intelligence. That's a skill. So communication, emotional intelligence. When I got into our business, I had to learn copywriting. I know what that was. Email marketing. I didn't know that. I had to learn coding. I don't— none of that I knew what it was, but I was always confident. And I think real confidence is your belief in your ability to figure things out. I believe in my ability to figure things out. Give me enough time, energy, resources, study, books, mentors. I will figure out— you want me to go to the moon? I'll figure it out. Even though I have no idea today, I can learn and get mentors. So that's a deep part of my life. High performers have that. We all have to have those things in our business or our brands or the things that we're being productive towards that push us, that challenge us. If you don't have 3 or 4 of those each year that are your form of business or productivity marathons, build them back in. Build in challenging expressions for yourself each year. Build them in. We all need our own marathon each year, whether that's a true running marathon, or for me, this is it for me. And I got 8 of these a year that I build in that make me sharp. I don't need to do them. The better use of my time would just be doing more videos on the internets, more social media. But this, this pushes me. This demands excellence from me. Having people in my life who I can, you know, when I'm on the road for X amount of time, or I'm dealing with a super hard client, or we're rolling out a leadership program to a Fortune 50 company, or, you know, I'm doing my first major deal with Oprah Winfrey Network, and I don't know what to do, I am so incredibly fast of asking people what to do. I'm also incredibly fast in sharing how I feel about it. Being like, oh, you know, I feel really awkward about this. You know, I'm unsure. You know, I'm having a lot of self-doubt. How would you deal with it? Like, I'm somebody who expresses his emotions all the time. My friggin' tagline is bring the joy. Like, everybody knows that. Why? Because I wanna make sure people know we're going to create this energy. 'Cause emotion is not something you have. It is something you generate. Emotion can be an impulse. But feelings is our interpretations of those impulses over a period of time. And I said, I wanna feel vibrancy, joy, love, connection, satisfaction, fulfillment in my life. So I'm gonna learn to generate those emotions. How do you learn to generate the emotions? You read psychology. How do you learn to generate the emotions? You try. Like, you're just like, I'm gonna go, we're gonna have date night tonight, I'm gonna make it a fun night. I'm going to make it a fun night. I'm going to do things to see, can I make people laugh? Can I make people turn their lights on? I think the challenge that you have when you're good is that you're good.

Yeah.

So you're like, I'm doing pretty good already. Yeah. It's easy. The better you get, the more expertise development you get, the easier it is to show up and go through the motions. Yeah. You don't have to prepare as much.

You don't have to practice as much.

You just get results. Whatever you're going to do is good enough. Yeah, but what happens with high performers, it eats at them because they know they got more in the tank and they're like, you know what, that was good, but I could have got another. And it's not that they're dissatisfied. We take on that myth in this book. High performers are not dissatisfied. So people who say never be satisfied, they got to look at why they're saying that because it's not true. Because high performers are satisfied. They're striving satisfied. Doesn't mean they're not striving for the next big thing, want to become better. But they're happy. High performers are happier than all of their peers. I mean, by significant, almost double digits. So it's really significant. Um, but I think for me, I need to constantly be reminding myself like, okay, what is the reason you need to perform really well right now? And I need to be more consistent about that question. Um, so I set up triggers in my life to do that, you know, um, from every time I stand in line. I have a line trigger, I have door triggers, I have phone triggers, you know. So when I stand in line, I always say, what level am I right now in terms of my presence and energy? Scale of 1 to 10. 1, I suck, I'm dead, I'm not even alive, not even feeling grateful, you know. 10, I'm like, I'm vibrant, I'm joyous, here I am. Um, and I rate myself consistently on that, and it just retouches me. Like, the need— I want to feel it's necessary to be grateful. I want to feel it's necessary to be great. I want to feel it's necessary to do my best. But you don't get that without reminders. So you got to set up alarms or triggers or some, you know, note cards around that, whatever it is it takes for you to have that. But I know for me, Raise, after the research, I didn't get how— I mean, I mean, you're talking from every athlete to every high CEO. This is what they did there. And I didn't find this. You'll see all the questions I asked them in the book. I really had to dial into their psyche. And when we found that, I was like, is that a thing that they'd really— that's— I mean, but they all do. I would say maybe not the most popular answer. I go to the fear. How are you going to look silly or stupid? You're not going to ask questions and you're going to end up in the wrong place. And people are like, why didn't you just ask? Like, follow the fear. If the fear says, I'm scared I'm going to look stupid, By asking questions, like, well, let's flip that, because if you don't ask questions, you're definitely going to look stupid. Those who learn to endure hardship, struggle, challenge, difficulty, pain, grief, vulnerability, failure, regret— that's one side of that coin. If you learn to do that, but you also know on the other side, learn to allow Joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, a sense of— now hold on, hold on, I have to stop you.

Allow, is that the word you want to commit to?

You said bring. I'm going to build. Okay, I'm building. You have to first allow it, because what most people do is, if on the other side of the coin it's super etched in, what happens is even when that impulse comes up though, I like this, oh no, I'm not supposed to like it, this is So you have a lot of people who are extremely talented at the top levels who they do endure the pain and they really like the pain and they will allow that all day long. They'll allow that now 'cause they'll tell their brain this is what's expected. But they also don't let themselves feel good when feeling good is there. This is a real big problem. I mean, if you study like psychoses, A lot of people who really struggle with addictions, eating disorders are super common, who even when they feel that sense of self-love or self-acceptance, oh, I'm not supposed to feel that. No, you really, there is an element to personal development where you have to allow the good feelings and not push them away because it's like, oh, I should, I don't deserve to feel that. 'Cause a huge part of the world is telling themselves, I don't yet deserve to feel happy. Even though happiness comes up, I shouldn't feel that yet. I'm gonna keep striving. It's not until I get the next $2 million, then I'll let myself feel happy, even though they had that good Monday. And so you have a lot of people who are striving in difficulty who also have not taught themselves the emotional side of what is called the most important movement in the history of the world in psychology called positive psychology, kicked off by Marty Seligman, a good friend of mine, Mihaly, did you send me high? Without that work of saying, no, no, we also have to allow ourselves and teach ourselves to flourish, feel satisfaction, feel joy. So I'm 100% with you, and I'm like, the rule is, that's one side of the coin, and the other rule is, make sure you teach yourself to generate the positive emotions. Because what happens is, if you don't teach yourself to generate the positive emotions as well, then what ends up happening is you burn out or you become a cliché of the person who had it all and never felt fulfilled. Think of your life as being a productively fulfilling life. That productivity is not a time management thing, it's a purpose thing. I don't think of time management when I think of productivity. I think of purpose. I think of who do I want to be? What do I want to contribute? What will be fulfilling for me? Because if you don't have something bigger than just blocks of time, which are important, but there's not something that we together are going towards where it's this set of dreams where there's personal meaning and there is social contribution, we won't go. The first lesson today in about sort of having patience for your dream is you have to work on it every single day for at least 30 minutes, or don't fool yourself that it's gonna happen. You know, we all hope that one day we'll get a bunch of free weekends or a month off or 3 months off, and that's when we'll finally start working towards our thing. You gotta do it every day. What that means, you research every day, you read every day, you study every day, you take a course every day, or you actually create everything on that thing every day. You're just working at it. Book authors, they write every day. Not all of them, but a lot of the greats wrote every single day, right? And it's just forcing ourselves to really be in the game. Now, not everybody writes every day, not everyone needs to create every day, Some people can just have a marvelous 18 days and they've written the greatest book of all time, but that rarely happens. It rarely happens. And those folks tend to be like masters or savants or geniuses. Regular folks, myself included, I gotta work every day towards my dreams. Every day I honed in something about this. And if you didn't know something about me, I do everything in this business, right? I'm shooting this video right now, but I mean, I picked the materials for this thing. I chose the fonts. I designed all the pages. I mean, I wrote the back cover, the front cover, the inside stuff. It's like I do the projects of my dreams. Let go of the baggage. You're never going to touch the full rim of your potential if you're weighted down by baggage from your elementary school years, your high school years, your college years, these last 4 years. Listen, the last chapters of the book, you gone through 'em, you finished 'em, you flipped the page, you got a new chapter here. And you have to be willing to break from the past to have the future you so desperately desire. You have to have the courage to allow yourself to honor the past as it was, to forgive those who need to be forgiven, to forgive yourself, and to acknowledge that everything led you to this point now. Everything. Those crappy times, those times when you were depressed, those times when you gave up on yourself, those times when someone else gave up on you, those times that you gave up on others, the times that you quit, the times that you failed, the times that you felt so small, you were embarrassed, those times don't live in this moment. And the more of those times that you cultivate in your mind and you ruminate on and you think and you self-talk on and you revisit in your mind, the more disempowering times from the past, hurtful times from the past, failures from the past that you keep running in your head, what that is doing is that is taking up the very free space necessary for the bold ideas to come in. It's taking up the space for the very needed white space for creativity to come in, for the dreams to come in, for the best you to speak through from. It's hard for you to live an authentic and true and vulnerable and real life if you're always speaking through your baggage, if you're always thinking through your baggage. And you guys know what I'm talking about. Everyone's got different baggage. Maybe your baggage is your divorce or that last job. They are not relevant today. And the only reason they're relevant today is if either you allow them to be relevant from those situations or those persons revisiting you, or you're running the same old story. You're running the same old excuses. Yeah, I can't do this because I suck at relationships. No, you sucked at relationships 10 years ago. Well, I can't do this because, you know, I failed. Yeah, 6 months ago. Today's a new day, homie. Like, you gotta access this day, dude. This day is fresh. This day is clean. This day woke up, showered, ready, prepped for you by the universe or spirit or God or luck or cosmos, whatever you wanna call it. This day says to you when you wake up in the morning, the day whispers to you, Do not fear me, for I have been brought here for you. You don't fear the day. That day has been brought here for you. You never know a person if you don't know their goals. And if you don't know their goals, you're never going to be a great friend. You'll never be their great lover, their great supporter, their great family member. And it's weird though, because most people actually don't know other people's goals. I'll ask family members, I say, "What's your sister's goals?" "You know, she wants to be a dancer." "Okay, what kind of dancer? When? What does she want to do with that career? Is it short-term? Is it long-term?" Like, you have to really get into people's goals to understand their heart. And so that's what I want you to do is if you want to be a great spouse to somebody, you got to reengage and say, "Hey, what do you want at this stage of your life?" Because I know what you used to want, then we had kids, but where are you at now? And you got to get in that conversation with your partner and say, hey, listen, I know we've been through a couple of weird months where we just haven't really felt each other out. It's like, let's just do some personal development. Like, what do you really want to do right now at this stage of your life? Because you have to understand, when I say this stage of your life, that's very specific. Meaning a lot of people's goals change and it changes like every 3 months, every year, every 3 years. So if you haven't had the conversation with the important people in your life recently about what your goals are and about what their goals are, then I'm telling you, you're just skimming at the surface. Because if you don't support other people's dreams, how can you ever have a deep relationship with them? And if you don't share your dreams and your heart and your desire with other people, how can they possibly help you meet that hunger? How can they possibly help you become the best version of of you if you haven't shared it. So you also have to be very honest with what's your real thoughts, what's your real feelings, what's your real dreams, what do you really want at this stage of your life with all the important people around you. It's one of my favorite things to do with high performers to say, okay, do all the people around you know what you really want right now? Are they clear on what your goals are? Are they clear about how they can support that or how much you want them to be involved in it? It's like a lot of people start their own business but they don't tell the other people around around them what that business is, what it requires, how they'd love their support. And so we all go it alone. And isn't going it alone the opposite of having healthy, supportive relationships? So first thing you gotta do if you want better relationships, get to know other people's goals. Many of you, you've been waiting to hire that first virtual assistant or that person to help you at the house so you can focus on your business, who can support you with the kids. Or somebody who can come in and help just clean the house. Some of you have been waiting to hire that manager, that COO, that CEO, and I'm here to tell you, do it. Set your quarter 1 goals of 2019 to hire the team that you need. Don't finish quarter 1 without the team that you need in place, trained, and going. For some of you, that might be 100 employees. Some of you, that's 10. I don't know what your situation is, but I'm here to tell you, hire sooner, higher, better. If you want to deal with self-doubt, you absolutely must start entering each day as more intentional of a human because the issue is one of the reasons we doubt ourselves is because we're just all over the place. You know, sometimes you're cool in this situation but you're dumb in that situation. Sometimes you don't do well here but you do well here and what happens is so many people, they're going through the motions or they're just showing up in life every single day and they're reacting and because they're always reacting, they don't have a character. They haven't determined, "Who am I really? Who am I gonna act like in this situation? Who I would behave like in this situation? How I'm gonna treat people in this situation?" Because they haven't shown up intentional enough and sought to live out that intention, they feel a lot of discord in life. Like they don't know who they are because they just keep showing up and reacting to what's what's there. But guess what? What's there is always different. The world is always changing, people are always changing, situations are always changing. So if all you're ever doing is showing up and reacting, I guess I'll just go through it and see how it goes, you're never forming an intentional character. So of course you doubt yourself because every situation is different and you can never have certainty in that. But you can have strength inside if from now on you wake up every day and you say, okay, I'm going to be these 3 words today, and you just set the words. You say, okay, I'm going to be fun, I'm going to be playful, I'm going to be kind. And that day you are fun, playful, and kind. And the next day you say, okay, I'm going to be patient today, I'm going to be thoughtful, and I'm going to be appreciative. And you're patient, thoughtful, and appreciative. You do that over and over and over again. Set an intention for who to be, be that. Set an intention, be that. Set an intention, be that. And you do that in more situations in your life and more days and more weeks and and more months and more years, and one day you wake up and you're like, you're confident in self because you know that you can direct your mind and your emotions and your body to be the person who you really want to be. The more often you do that, the more real genuine self-confidence will come into your life. The most important thing, I know this sounds so, so silly, but common sense is not always common practice, and that's why so many potentially great people fail to ever achieve their potential, and that's this. Listen, you have to get your visualization game down. Visualization, that means, listen, when I wake up, when I got a dream, I wake up in the morning, before I get out of bed, I close my eyes and I just see it happening a little bit. And I'll lay in bed and let my mind and my body stir up a little bit of excitement or sometimes even anxiety about seeing the actual thing that I want happen. That was for me at one part of my life, seeing myself on stages speaking and training to people. One part of my life, it was seeing my book come out and seeing it on the New York Times bestseller list or seeing it on the Amazon bestseller list. It was sometimes seeing myself coaching major celebrities or sitting side by side with an Oprah Winfrey or a Tony Robbins or a Larry King, all of which I've been able to do. It was because I visualized what I really wanted. But here's the thing. It's not just visualization, that's like the first part. It's also affect. We talk about high performance and in psychology about this thing called affect, which is basically feelings and emotions. I want you to allow yourself to literally not just kind of casually see it, like put yourself there and feel it and sense it and see it and feel it and drink it in, like really take in the ambiance, the circumstances, like really visualize and feel what you are seeing. That's so key. I mean, as silly as this is, I literally would lay there and I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna feel like, feel out the ideal thing in the morning, what questions would I ask to really get it going? I just start literally seeing myself at my desk in the morning, filling out the High Performance Planner, thinking about other people worldwide filling out at the same time as me. And knowing that I got this tribe of people on this path of trying to be their best with me, and imagining people coming up and just, oh my gosh, Brendon, you completely changed my morning. You completely changed my weekly routine. You completely changed my life 'cause I never tracked my habits before. I never assessed my balance every single week between family, friends, work, finances, adventure, learning, et cetera. Everything, every tool that we put in here, I could just imagine someone coming up and saying, Brendon, I really appreciate that part. And I literally just thought about it because I wanted it to feel like, you know, I was excited for the project. Otherwise, what? Look how easy it is to diminish anything in our lives. Well, it's just a book, it's just a planner, it's just a video, it's just a cosmetic line, it's just a beauty thing, it's just a that. Like, we all diminish our dreams. We make excuses and we make our dreams like, ah, we throw it away because we're scared to feel it. You know what I'm saying? It's easier to just throw it away, eh, it's no big deal, avoid it, no problem. And we mess up. I want you to feel it. Stop detaching from your dreams. Stop avoiding that anxious, scary feeling of thinking how hard it's gonna be and thinking how great it's gonna be, 'cause most people just, they don't even think about it 'cause it causes too much nerves. I'm like, dance in those nerves a little bit. Let them come up for you because that's fuel, man. Fuel. It's like Les Brown taught us, you gotta be hungry. You'll never be hungry if you don't visualize it, see it, feel it, and want it. I've always really worked extremely hard to maintain an incredible level of energy in my mental body, my— I'm sorry, in my, you know, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual being. Just trying to do everything I can from the way that I work out to what I consume to what I don't consume to how I rest to how I meditate to how I recover. Like everything in my life has always been about how do I bring the joy? And if I'm going to generate the energy I wanna create for you guys, how do I do that specifically? Well, I've always got these routines and everything else, but what happened this year, I was kind of had my health taken away a little bit. In mid-October, I got pneumonia and tonsillitis at the same time while I was on the road doing multiple 4-day and multiple 5-day events where I'm kind of the lead trainer, and that kicked my butt, and I'm still honestly recovering from it. I'm still feeling it. I'm still feeling it heading into the final part of this year. I'm still recovering. Don't worry, clean bill of health. Doctor's like, you're good to go. They're just, your body's gonna be recovering, you're gonna be tired for a while. And I made it 41, 42 years without feeling fatigue outside of times of injury. You know, I don't think I've ever had the flu. I don't really ever get sick. When I get sick, it's like sniffles. But this one was something, it just smacked me. I mean, I was down and out. It's why I feel like I'm way behind on my episodes for you all. It's why I feel like we're launching a few things in January that I'd hoped to launch in, you know, October. So, that, like, taking care of my health, is always been a priority. This year I learned what it feels like when it's gone. And many of you have been with me for a long time. That happened in 2011 when I had my brain injury and I snapped my wrist and my ribs and my hip. So I'm not, you know, new to pain. I'm not new to being sick. But this was the first time where I also, with the sickness, lost motivation. You know, where it was like, even when I had, like, when I was really sick in the past of my life, I would still like wake up in the day and I'd prime my mind, get excited about what's to come, and just go. This year, there was about the last 2 months, I really had to work on it. And there were plenty of days I was just like, ugh. Not 'cause I didn't love my life or I wasn't grateful or present. You've been there before. Like when you just, you physically feel terrible it is hard to get your mind right. A lot of people have self-doubt in their lives because they don't have clarity for what they want. A lot of people wander in a situation and they have a lot of self-doubt because they didn't sit down and plan it out. They didn't prepare. They didn't ask mentors or model others or do the research to figure out, okay, I should do A, B, C, D, and E. In other words, if you don't know the steps to success, of course you'll have more self-doubt. If you don't have the plan, if you don't have the map, if you don't know what you're doing, of course you're going to have more self-doubt. So part of it is just like decide to build a plan, even if you have to ask for help and say, hey guys, how would you do this? What would be your first step? What would be your second step? I'm always asking that. Even at this stage of my career, I'm still saying, hey guys, if you're going to launch this, how would you do it? If you're going to promote that, how would you do it? If you're going to create this thing, how would you do it? If you're going to build this team or build that business, what would you do? And I always try to get the map before I enter the woods so that I have the steps. I know the path. Because if you can remove the doubt about the path, you'll have more confidence in yourself.

Because you made it this far in the video, I want to celebrate you. Most people start and don't finish. Most people never actually follow through. Most people say they want something, but they don't ever do the work to actually get it. But you are different. You are special. Believe Nation, you made it here all the way to the end, and I love you. So as a special celebration, if you put a hashtag #believe down in the comments below on this video, I will showcase you and celebrate you somewhere on the screen in a future video because You are awesome. If you want another amazing Brendon Burchard video, check it out right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.