My Learnings And Takeaways
Brendon Burchard is the world’s leading High Performance Coach and has several best selling books, with the High Performance Habits being the latest.
I just finished listening to a rather long 1 hour podcast by Brendon Burchard, and want to share what’s the biggest takeaways that you can apply in 2021 and beyond.
While making money is a key focus, it’s just a means to an end. How we go through everyday life is one of the key things to focus on.
How we handle life and any situation is how we handle EVERYTHING, including money and finances.
That being said, here goes:
1. KEEP PERSPECTIVE
It is a tough year.
People lost a lot – jobs, loved ones, hope and themselves.
With all the politics happening with the US elections, people are fighting more than ever. It got even worse with the Capitol Hill incident.
But remember we are still one human race in the end.
Another big takeaway is to live in gratitude.
Be grateful that we are still alive as it is not guaranteed that we may wake up tomorrow.
If you think you had it bad, a lot of other people had it so much worse
It is a blessing that 2020 did not take our life, and that we are still alive and able to breathe.
Even if 2020 was not the year that you hoped for, then you have the ability to shape it to what you want in 2021.
Even if you may not have the strength at times, you still made it.
You won the best lottery – To be ALIVE!
2. CHANGE ILLUMINATES CHARACTER
The greatest growth is how you dealt with this year.
- Who showed up?
- What can you and should you do better in 2021 to live in that potential in your soul?
- How would you bring that to life?
A lot of people with privilege act beneath themselves – treat people poorly, be rude to family and friends, and take the easy way out by being angry and screaming at others.
The important thing is to have a role model mindset.
If you went through a victim mindset, you would have a much different 2020 experience than someone with a role model mindset.
Someone with a role model mindset is living life having a standard, and setting a standard for other people because everyone is watching – family, friends, fans, people.
Ask this question during your Sunday reviews, “Are you proud of how you showed up this week?”
After that, journal it down.
At any time, ask yourself how do you adopt a role model mindset at this moment.
But remember, you are not perfect. It’s ok to be a mess, to have fear, to be sad, depressed, anxiety at times.
It is just normal human emotions.
However you still must demand more from yourself, because sometimes to get life energy back is to demand more of ourselves again.
Don’t allow yourself to take an extra 3 days of pity party or addictions, turn away from the difficulty of the day, and to quit the day to have a Netflix day.
However, it is ok if you do that once in awhile.
BUT if it is impeding your progress in life, your sense of joy and happiness, your capability to serve and lead, then it is time to set the role model mindset and say, ‘I am going to set a higher standard for myself NOW.’
Remember we are blessed to be here. While we are here, let’s do something we are proud of.
Lets’ make our lives matter.
Live fully, love openly, and make a difference.
Your thoughts become your mindset, and becomes your guiding force for your behaviour
It shapes your character, then it shapes your contribution, and then everything you will ever know.
If you didn’t like this year, then rewrite the script for the new year.
3. JUDGE LESS, FEEL BETTER
With elections happening this year, the hatred and assumptions were a tragedy on an equal level as the pandemic.
We lost the connection among the living because of judgement.
Social media makes us judge more.
The more you do that, the more it takes away from you.
The more you compare with others, it takes away from you too.
Live a life where you don’t judge others harshly, and you don’t allow others’ assumptions about you and judgement against you to infiltrate your heart, your beliefs, and your optimism.
Judgement can be good- when you call something bad. When things are not good, we have to do better and address this problem.
Brendon was pushing for influencers to talk about the George Floyd incident, not because of the political aspect but that it is more of a humanity thing.
However he received a lot of backlash of whether he handled it the situation the right way.
He actually don’t have a judgement whether the people criticizing him are right or wrong, but he knows that he has to judge himself and whether he speak up for other people.
This is a fundamental question of high performers.
Courage is to speak up for your thoughts and beliefs. At the end of the day, you can only do what you believe and judge yourself on that.
Meet people with compassion and understanding.
Judging is dangerous because you are judging a moment in time, vs character and potential, tiny viewpoint vs a huge perspective.
At the end of the day, the more you try to control other people’s world view and get them to see your way, the more you are judging.
The alternative is to let people have their own opinion and perspective. Do what you can to influence, but respect them.
Judge less, feel better.
4. FAMILY AND HEALTH ARE NUMBER 1
The pandemic reminded us of health heavily. Being quarantined and locked down reminded us to care and love for family.
We also take better care of our health, strengthen our well being and wellness.
And it’s because of the pandemic, everyone was scared to get sick or die.
You either live in fear or you live in commitment, to improve these things.
You live in sadness about family, or you reach out and talk to them more.
Energy (mental, physical and spiritual) is an important thing.
How you bring it into your family and how you protect, cultivate and grow your own health.
If you didn’t do it well this year, don’t hope for next year but do it for 2021.
Brendon shared about a challenge he issued for a long time:
If you never chose to make a year the best year for your health as an adult, to eat well, to sleep well, move well, take care of yourself, best shape ever, then make that this coming year.
Health and family is number one, and your family needs you healthy.
5. CONFIDENCE MATTERS
How confident were you in 2020?
The confidence is the belief of figuring things out. For entrepreneurs, it was a very rough year as everything turned around.
For Brendon, he did 8 live events per year for the past decade. It went down all the way to 0, and had to completely pivot and change.
While everyone was fearful, he took the time to just figure it out.
“Give me enough time, energy, effort and leverage in the world, and I will move the world.” (A very familiar quote by Archimedes)
Believe in your things to figure it out.
You may not be the best learner, but be committed to learn.
If you are not the smartest person, commit to getting around smart people and asking things.
It doesn’t mean you lack insecurity or lack uncertainty. But you need to have confidence to figure things out.
High performers are always looking to be better, and to figure it out with that belief.
Have confidence to improve your life in 2021, and make it better.
6. BUILD WHILE OTHERS WAIT
Many people around March or April 2020 would go, ‘let’s wait and see how things turn out.’
However if you wait out too long, it would be a disaster.
Brendon realises he needed a plan to adapt, and that he needed to adapt fast or else it will be a disaster.
This is also a great opportunity when everyone is sitting on the sidelines, that’s when you get to rush ahead.
When everyone is pausing and waiting and worrying, your consistent actions will take you miles beyond the competition.
When things are down, the opportunity to invest is there. Get into the game.
Did you strengthen your family with new routines, practices and habits to bring them closer?
A lot of people waited the whole year with Netflix and consuming content. They did not create on the ‘down’.
When things are down, it is time to create.
7. LEADERS SHOW UP
In times of hardship, real character show up and real leaders show up. Because leaders answer the call to serve.
They show up more consistently when it is time to step up.
The people who showed up in 2020:
- Healthcare, frontline workers- they demonstrated their commitment and oath in times of real difficulty and that was a challenge. It brought burnout, fatigue, sorrow sadness, and then they show up again. (Thank you for those in the service.)
- Educators and teachers – figuring out how to serve on zoom and online, showing up when everything was closed down. To all parents who homeschool and help them. They showed up. Your kids will remember you for that, they will get it years later.
If you show up again and again, you will be appreciated.
People may not see it and may be blind to your efforts, but the appreciation will come eventually.
Don’t let other people’s judgement slow you down to serve, you don’t lead for praise as that is the ego of youth.
You lead because you have that servant leadership and to show up for people.
8. TAP INTO OUR KNOWING
Tap into something deeper.
Many people try to get instructions, input and signals from other people.
The signals of the world.
What inside is a depth of what to do and who to be, and then they are miserable and angry.
Seeking outwardly things and input is important, but the real magic is summoning what is within.
Knowing is renewal.
When you know the depth of who you are, and you summon it everyday and authentic and vibrant ways, and allow the freedom of being to show up.
That’s when joy and right decision shoes up.
Everything will click eventually.
Stop worrying about the right signals and noise of the outer world.
Tap into yourself and find the freedom within.
Summon that over and over again and do your thing and to be authentic.
9. LEARN TO RELEASE STRESS
Release meditation technique.
Meditation can be a way to help release the tension and stress, especially with the stress of the year.
Take your MEDSS – Meditation, Exercise, Diets, Sleep and Supplements.
Morning routines, and focusing on the mindset. Journalling.
Lots of stress comes from being scattered.
Release tension, set intention.
A lot of bad days are when you don’t release the stress and anxiety. Holding onto them justifying the stress can cause a lot of pain.
10. ASK FOR HELP
If you were sad, ask for help.
If you didn’t know what to do for your business, ask for help.
Our culture is terrible at learning, as it trains us to learn alone and not ask for help as it is seen as a sign of weakness.
Instead of starting from scratch, ask yourself what is the best practice here and how to model it.
Someone has already figured it out, call them, learn from them.
Casually reach out, or join masterminds.
Share with your spouse, family and friends.
Always communicate where you need help, and ask if others whether they need help.
Leaders encourage others to ask help as well, while asking help themselves.
You may have gone through this year with willpower alone, but you are not alone on this planet.
Reach out and learn from others, share with others, ask for help.
If this year was miserable for you, it correlates how much you reached out.
Brendon shared the story when he was suicidal when it was much younger 25 years back.
When people ask him how he did so much, all he did was ask for help.
When he recognise himself as a young man who couldn’t figure it out, and he had to ask people to deal with depression, make it through the day, motivation, make money, build a team, learn to community, learn to love, to serve.
He saw and asked for help in history, books, community leaders, his faith, people around him, and his audience.
If you want to take a listen to the podcast, here you go:
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