The Charged Life

Secrets to an energized, engaged, and fulfilling life from #1 New York Times bestselling author Brendon Burchard

[brendonburchard]

Take Action In Your Life

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SUMMARY:

Are you stuck in analysis paralysis? Is there something you should be doing, but but you consistently find that you are not taking action? Here’s what to do:

Look Beyond Yourself and Serve. Stop worrying if you’re good enough,  ready enough, or getting everything perfect in order to start. Look beyond yourself and realize your taking action can help others - your family, your team, your business and community. Serve! The way to get out of your head is to get in motion serving other people. 

Clarify your vision and work backward. What does your ultimate outcome look like? What would you define as success? How will you know when you’ve reached your goal? Once you have that vision clear in your head, work backwards from that to define the process to accomplish it. You don’t have to know every step, just a step.

Accomplish 3 things every day. Just take three steps every day. If you don’t know where to start, try modeling others. What path did they follow? What are their habits? What do they seem to do every day or weekly?

Daily Practice. If something is important to you, it needs to become a constant in your life. You need discipline and the willingness to show up every day and work towards it. Put it in your calendar and do something every day. The momentum of that will teach you to stop stalling.   

Do that, and you’ll start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

Stream this episode below, listen on iTunes, or right-click here to download.

TRANSCRIPT

Analysis paralysis.

Why is it that sometimes you know what you should be doing but you just kind of keep reading about it or listening about it or going to seminars on it or reading books or blogs or posts or following people but you’re consuming all this information and not taking action?

And you keep thinking… “Why do I just I keep stewing on it, I keep thinking about it but I’m not doing anything towards it? What’s going on? Why am I spinning my wheels studying all the time and not taking real action?”

Let’s talk about that.

First and foremost, I’m going to say something that you’re not going to like but out of these four ideas I think this is the most important one, to kind of grab somebody and rattle them a little bit when they’ve been dreaming about something or thinking about something or studying it but not taking action.

And so, let me say it lightly but kind of directly, and that is: They’re selfish.

They’ve gotten into a place where all they’re thinking about is themselves in this process.

·      Do I know enough?

·      Am I good enough?

·      Am I ready?

·      What will people think of me?

·      Do I have the complete plan?

·      Have I taken out all the risks and all the unknowns?

·      Have I considered every angle from Sunday?

 They’ve done everything they could possibly do to control what is ultimately the uncontrollable.  But worse, they got their perspective too myopic. They’re just focused on themselves. 

To move someone forward, we have to have them have a greater connection with why they’re doing it. The reason a lot of people haven’t taken action is because they’re just so focused on themselves and they’re minimizing themselves… doubt, concern, fear, worry, hurt, they forgot to serve!

You wanna take more action? SERVE!

Think about: What is the outcome of when I do this, who is it gonna help?

How is it going to change their life? How is it going to shift society? How is it going to make that difference?

Connect with that again! 

You’ve got too much in your head and out of the outcome. You’ve gotta get your head back in the outcome because when you start attaching to the difference, to the real magic, and you know it’s going to help somebody, your brain goes “Hey dummy! Do something here, you gotta help some people.” 

And you’ll get off of that rotation of self concern. It is the self concern that is really fueling the analysis paralysis. 

We gotta get you back into service because you know what? Leaders do. You know what?

Those who are out there trying to serve the world, trying to make a difference, they do the difficult work even when they’re unsure, even when they’re unready, even when they don’t have all the information they need because it’s their job to help people. So they just get in the mix. Let me help you, I don’t know all the answers but let me try to help you over here.

They’re serving others and from that higher calling, that higher mission, that higher purpose, they’re ready to get in the game even if they don’t know exactly how the game works, even if they don’t know all the controllables. They just get in the game. Because they want to help.

So we gotta get that serving spirit back into your body and into your mind if you’re ever going to move beyond analysis paralysis. There’s a bigger game to play. There’s people waiting on you, who need your help. Get over your stuff and help them.

I think that will serve.

The second idea is to clarify: What is your vision and the process necessary for making that vision come true? Because sometimes analysis paralysis is that you just don’t feel competent or clear. It’s just like, you know you want to help people, but you aren’t exactly sure what you’re supposed to do or how to do it. So what I’d recommend is think about the ultimate outcome when someone’s life is changed, if that’s what you’re seeking to do, or a business is built or something is actually in motion happening. What’s that look like? I mean, in a detailed level, what is the ultimate outcome look like? In other words, how do you know when you’ve won? How do you know when you’re happy with it? It’s the success, it’s going well. How do you know? What conditions would have to be met? What would your day be like? What would the business be like? What would the impact be like? Really think about that and then work backwards from that.

Ok, If the outcome is “My business is running without me, but I find myself doing all this analysis paralysis, I don’t know what to do”, well the problem is there’s this disconnect. Business runs without you, you’re researching but there’s nothing happening in between because you’re not working backwards.

Let’s work backwards: Ok, business runs without me.

What does that mean? Well it means income is coming in.

Ok, where is the income coming from? Well it’s coming from automation and my team.

Ok, so I need to automate things and create a team.

Well, how do I do that? And you just keep working backwards to today.

And that’s what’s really important. Is if you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels it’s because you don’t have a clear plan and outcome. So sit down today, create that plan, create that outcome and start working it. All the way back to today.

What’s step one? A simple thing to do that, to help you with that is this next point. And that is just accomplish 3 things every single day to move forward to that outcome and plan. 3 things every day. That’s it.

It’s like, you say

-       “You know what? I’m still uncertain, I still don’t have all the variables.”

-       Great! What’s the 3 things you did today?

-       Uhhhh…

That’s where you get people. Just take 3 actions every single day and things will be great. A lot of people say “I don’t know what to do”, well that comes into now once you have the service in mind, you have the outcome and the process, sometimes you need to model other people.

What else is other people doing? And if you’re uninformed with that, it’s hard to know the path. Sometimes what you need to do, you need to go to a seminar or conference from somebody or a group of people who are doing the same thing you want to be doing. Sometimes that means getting a coach or a consultant who already has the path figured out and can serve you in that process. Sometimes that means as simple as just networking around town to figure out who else is kind of doing this who I can take out to lunch and ask them about their process. Sometimes just modeling others will give you that motivation because you’ll have more clarity and perspective to begin.

Then last piece… It has to become a daily practice for you. If there’s something that is important to you, a lot of the analysis paralysis is…. Stop blaming analysis ‘cause it’s really your brain is not the problem… it’s the discipline, it’s the willingness to show up every day and work towards something. That’s why I say those 3 goals, or accomplishing 3 things every day is really important, but I really want to fine tune this year for you and make sure you’re hearing me.

Every day.

That the problem with analysis paralysis is that it happens more often for us the less often we do things. Does that make sense? You get stuck more often when you’re not moving more often. I know it’s almost like you have to kind of think about that ‘cause there’s a little irony there, but the reality is that if you find yourself stopping and thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking it’s because you’re not in motion enough and we need to get you in motion again and the only way to get you in motion again is to make sure you have a daily habit that is keeping you moving forward to that thing you want to make happen. 

Look, the analysis paralysis, if it’s a mind game then I get it, then maybe you just have this problem that you’re constantly always in your head. The way to get out of your head is to get in motion serving other people.

Do that and you’ll start to experience what we call, The Charged Life!

[brendonburchard]

Finding Your Life’s Mission

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SUMMARY:

Few people report having one, singular life purpose. That’s a myth that grew out of the time in which we were trapped in the jobs of the tribe or village; you had to choose to be a baker or a blacksmith, and because you died young, in your 20s or 30s, you had to choose quickly. 

Today, there’s more opportunity, no borders, and longer life-spans. So you’ll have multiple purposes and missions throughout life. Here’s how to narrow them down to what matters:

Live the best quality of life that you can. This should be one of the main missions for us all, don’t you think? Make it a priority to grow and excel in your health, relationships, career, finances, spirituality, hobbies. Improve each of these areas and you’ll start to feel on purpose.

Follow your interests. Whatever you are deeply curious about is worth exploring. So, whether it’s design, photography, fashion, food, or coding, go down the wormhole. Explore your passions with enough verve and you will find what is right for you. 

Allow yourself to transition from one thing to another. To find your most meaningful mission, you’ll have to try a few out. Give yourself permission to move between jobs, careers, companies, and passionate pursuits. The only boundaries are boundaries of belief.

Serve! You can travel the world looking for some magnificent purpose, but after all the belly gazing the truth that always emerges is this: by serving others we feel more purposeful. So just look around you and ask, “How can I help?” In the spirit of service we will soar to our full potential.

Be bold, bounce around, try new things, discover what is important to you, and suddenly you’ll start to feel what we call The Charged Life!

Stream this episode below, listen on iTunes, or right-click here to download.

   Transcription

Let’s talk about your life’s mission, your life’s purpose. What you’re here to do.

If you know what that is, phenomenal. That’s incredible and congratulations because so few people will ever find that but I also want to rattle it a little bit if you think you know what it is and also make it okay if you don’t know what it is.

There is this big myth that all of us have to have this one narrowly defined mission on the planet. And I’m not sure that that’s so true. And if you track it back into the times of philosophy or you track it back into times of the more of the modern era, you start to see: It really started to emerge as a big conversation really around that time when people were supposed to be apprentices in little villages.

That time they’re really animated in the popular culture was when it was all about the industrial revolution. Figure out your niche, your skills, the thing that you were supposed to do and I don’t see that as relevant today where you have so many people who are doing multiple passion projects that they are:

·       Deeply engaged with,

·       They find meaningful,

·       They find fulfilling, and

·       They’re difficult to put on a business card as one thing.

I actually believe that as cultures continue to become more developed. As the worldwide global sort-of phenomenon happens of freelancers, of very flexible workplaces and work ideas that we will start to see more and more people getting away from this idea that they have to be one thing. You don’t have to be or do just one thing.

A lot of the great leaders, scientists, thought leaders of the past, they did lots of things; they had lots of goofy passions. Einstein didn’t just do one thing. He actually had an incredible diversity of interests. So did Leonardo da Vinci and so did Michelangelo, so does Bill Gates. Come on, it’s like very few people have just this one thing.

They might become known for one thing but as you see the more wealth someone gets, or the more influence they get, the more they tend to diverge out into multiple areas of interests that draw their passion, and it’s hard to just define what’s their one mission.

Today, with so many opportunities, I think it’s not about just one mission because you’re going to have lots of missions that you go on in your life. But rather, it’s about finding messages that are important to you. Things that you say, “I believe in that message and I’m going to support it in every way I can. And I believe in this over here too. I’m going to support it in every way that I can. And I believe in this project. And I’m going to support it in every way I can.”

It’s important to have a diversity of interest and missions in life, I believe. But to those who say, “No, you got to have this one thing. Brendon, I feel so lost and confused, I got to have a thing. What’s my thing?”

Well, here’s some ideas for you:

First and foremost, if you’re looking for one defined mission in your life, make it this: To live the best quality of life that you can. And what that means is it’s going to be not just focusing on one thing, it’s going to look at your overall life.

What do I mean by that?

- Well, when you think about your life, there’s so many areas of your life, right?

·       You’ve got your health.

·       You’ve got your relationships.

·       You’ve got your intimate relationships, if you have one.

·       You’ve got your finances.

·       You’ve got your spirituality and your practices.

·       You’ve got your hobbies.

·       You’ve got your ability to do something, to have a job or a career or a mission or a purpose.

·       You’ve got all these 7 or 8 major areas of your life.

I think that everyone’s missions should be, “How can I grow in each of those areas and live each of those areas by my own standards, by my own ambitions; contributing what I really desire in this area?”

·       How can I optimize my health?

·       How can I optimize what I do during the day?

·       How can I optimize my relationships?

It’s that idea that we can all grow and develop a greater level of self-mastery in all areas of our life. And I often tell people, if you start optimizing all the different areas of your life, the mission begins to emerge. Because what you’ll have to go through to improve each of those areas of your life will start connecting you with

·       New learning,

·       New ideas,

·       New mentors,

·       New role models.

And in that process, you’ll start to see more things because it’s hard to have a mission in life if you’ve never seen anything. So, what I always tell to high schoolers or college graduates or something, “Go out and see stuff. See that world. Go explore a little bit.”

It’s hard to say, “Well, here’s what I’m supposed to do if you’ve never seen anything.”

So, go try a bunch of different things.

I would say, “Also, follow your interests.”

If you’re deeply curious in your off-hours; you’re paying attention to photography or you find yourself always so fascinated by this one topic—whether it’s fashion or music or the arts, or whether it’s geeking out and coding on cool stuff. It’s like whatever it is that you’re just passionately interested in,

·       That interest might develop into a calling.

·       That interest might be worth exploring.

That interest … like go down the wormhole. Don’t be scared of it. You’ll be like, “Oh wow, I’m really, I’m interested in this for some reason. I wonder if I can do an internship on that. I wonder if I can get a job in that.” And really or do something to earn some revenue doing something like that.

Like really get passionate about your interests and as you do that, you’ll start to find out what’s really right for you. And sometimes, after doing something right for you long enough and being rewarded for it, you say, “This is my thing. This is what I’m supposed to do.”

I’m sure the last idea is that: If you can free yourself at this point in your life to allow yourself to transition from one thing to another, you’re more likely to find the mission. A lot of people never find the mission if that really exists because what ends up happening is they get stopped and blocked and stuck into doing one thing. And they’re scared to transition.

Those who tend to find their real mission; if you talk to them, they transition to a lot of different things. They had a lot of different interests and they weren’t scared to bounce from:

·       One job to another,

·       One career or company to another.

·       One passionate pursuit to another.

In other words, they tried a lot of things; they had a lot of resilience and a lot of self-reliance in trying new things and bouncing back from those things that didn’t work.

And so, if you just feel totally stuck in, “I just have no idea what I’m supposed to do”, then what you’re supposed to do is change.

If you’re at that place where you’re just like, “I am so confused about what I’m supposed to do”, you need to shift. You need to get into your heart, into your head, into your spirit and say, “What would be something that would draw my passion right now? What can I be really interested in?” And bounce. Go to that thing. Try that thing. Really get into it because, if you’re stuck, you’re never going to find it.

Oh, and bonus idea for you. If you don’t know what your mission is, you’ve pursued all your passions, you’ve gone down the wormhole of your interests, you’ve seen the world and you still don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing—a simple thing: Ask how you can help.

Sometimes we think we’re going to figure it out in some esoteric, amazing moment of “Woaaaa!  I found my calling or my passion.” You’re like a certain day, you’re going to walk out the door and the piano of purpose lands on you. It might not happen that way. You might not actually be able to figure out your mission or your purpose until you serve, until you help people.

So, on your personal journey, to try and figure out what you’re supposed to do, don’t forget to stop and ask others, “How can I help? Do you need anything?” Sometimes, in those moments of service and helping other people, we get our greatest levels of transformation and clarity.

I hope that serves you and I hope that you find a little piece of your own mission in this world whether it’s multiple missions, or it’s one message or multiple message, or it’s one grand unifying thing that enlivens you every day. Whatever it is, once you feel like you have tastes of those, once you know you have some of those, follow them, put your whole heart into it, go at it with full excitement and engagement, and you’ll start to have what we call, The Charged Life.

[brendonburchard]

4 Steps to Becoming a Role Model

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SUMMARY:

How to be a role model:

1. Be there fully for people. Be emotionally present and available to others. This is the opposite of looking at your phone or thinking of other things when people speak with you. Influencers are vibrantly present with those they meet and lead. Also, be there consistently for others - not just when it's convenient and transactional. Be steady and available for people over the long term and they look up to you.

2. Project positive energy. Find the good or positive intent and lesson in all experiences, even those that appear negative. Put a positive vibe out to others by seeing them and mentally saying and projecting, "I wish you joy, abundance, love and health." We look up to those who wish us well.

3. Help others discover their truths. Ask questions and get people thinking about what is important for them. Influencers teach us how to think by posing questions, helping us explore our thoughts and dreams, focusing on our stories and interpretations.

4. Just get it done. To make a difference in other people's lives, first you have to show them how you make a difference by being proactive. When people see you struggle, achieve your goals, and rise from adversity, they will be inspired by you.

The world needs to see you be the best of you. The world needs to see more people living the charged life! 

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#RoleModel

[brendonburchard]

Ode to Gratitude (and You)

Gratitude is appreciation that has finally struck the heart.

You begin with mindfulness to something beautiful or kind or fortunate.

It's a child's smile. The patience of your lover. A lucky opportunity. Some mercy you've been granted. A warm sun on your neck. How the Fall waves its wand turning the trees yellow and red.

You simply notice these things and reflect on them, and soon attention becomes appreciation. You are thankful.

You sense you are blessed. Or if that feels too self-concerned, that those things out there—your luck, your child, your lover, divine nature—those things are blessings one and all.

And they are. And you are.

But this is where most stop.

They notice a blessing, and they intellectually appreciate it.

But they go no deeper into the well of wonder.

They are too busy. The world is too full of tasks and obligations and distraction. So many other things to pay attention to, so many interests to scan next.

They notice much, feel little.

Yet the masters of this life slow time and brave greater feeling.

They let appreciation percolate.

They think about their blessings, wonder about them, talk about them, journal about them, demonstrate thanks and joy for them through prayer, tender conversations, acts of service.

They feel indebted to give as much as they are given and more.

Emotion springs forth. Tears flow. A desire to give thanks enlivens the troubled soul.

Spirit enters the room and suddenly appreciation flowers into the only emotion that makes life worthwhile: Gratitude.

And so let us ask,

“If I slowed down and noticed the blessings all around, would I be willing to allow such divine gifts into my heart now?”

On this day of Thanksgiving, I notice, appreciate, and feel you.

Your hope, your strength, your drive to live a charged life, to grow, to share your truth, to serve, to struggle with patience and honor and courage, never giving up, always continuing on with light in your eye—this I see, this I know, this I love you for.

I thank God that I am alive, that I have you in my community, that you and my family and team have believed in me and shared this mission with such fire and soul.

I think of you often, and so I march on with a grateful heart,

- Brendon

brendon.com

[brendonburchard]

When You Feel Lonely

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SUMMARY:

What happens when you feel apart and disconnected from others? What do you do when you feel enduring loneliness?

1. Get interested in others. Ask others questions and engage in their life. In being present with them, you'll feel more connected and so will they - soon they'll want to hang out more. Challenge yourself to reach out and bring your best self to social interactions. And no matter what, allow yourself to feel satisfied after each interaction, saying, "I did just fine. I tried and I'm getting better."

2. Plus-one your interactions. Bring just one more person out with you, for lunch, to the movies, etc. Ask your friend to bring another friend. Ask the couple you're going out with to bring one more couple. Enlarge your social sphere by adding just one person more and the odds increase that you'll find someone to connect with.

3. Be more explicit about what you want, need, dream of. We feel lonely because we don' think people understand - and they probably don't because we haven't authentically and consistently expressed ourselves and our real thoughts and dreams. Don't hope people understand, help them understand.

4. Be honest with yourself and others. Why are you dissatisfied? If you don't know the answer to that, get some help - a counselor or coach. Have real conversations with people about your feelings and needs.

The world doesn't see a lonely person and say, "Let's hang out." It takes the lonely person to have the courage to say, "Here I am. I want to engage again." 

Challenge yourself to serve more, to share your voice. to connect, to be satisfied, to cheer yourself on even in the times of darkness.

-

Like this? Please share. We are not alone.

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Get Brendon’s latest book free here.

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[brendonburchard]

5 Steps to More Balance in Life

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SUMMARY:

There’s always another level of balance and proficiency in managing your life. Here are five strategies to help you achieve it:

Decide why you need more balance and what it means to you. Why exactly do you want more balance in life? What exactly would that mean to you - can you describe in detail what it would be like and feel like? If you are unclear in these areas, it’s impossible to achieve more balance. Define what balance means to you and block and protect time in your life so you can achieve it. It’s not impossible. If you feel it is, then you have no chance. No goal, no growth, no balance.

Remove Distractions. Most people aren’t “out of balance,” they’re in distraction. Television, internet and social networks take away hours of their time, which adds to hours per week and years of life wasted. So, get rid of those things that aren't adding real value, depth or joy to your life. Free the time that you spend on distractions and what you get in return is time for opportunities, joy and balance. Getting back just one hour per day - which is easy - can change you life forever.

Say no. Be real and stop saying yes to everything. Every yes tacks on time to your life’s agenda, always taking away from something else. If you lose hours of your life pleasing people or responding to people’s false emergencies, then your life quickly falls out of balance. Imagine that all your yeses to others are like handing out hours to people that you can never get back. Learn to say no and do not apologize for it. Tell people that you already have plans, priorities and responsibilities that were long ago planned, and that suddenly saying yes to their every request would be irresponsible to others.

Hit your mark. There is something called Bleed Time—the amount of time that piles up because you went over on allocated time. When you say you’re going to spend an hour on the phone with someone, but you spend 75 minutes—there’s 15 minutes of bleed time. The more often you go too long on your meetings, promises or conversations, the more you lose time. Set a time and stick to it. That’s integrity and discipline, and that's how to get your life back.

Improve your health. If you want more balance in your life, then invest in your well-being. Sleep well and meditate so you can be more focused, efficient and effective during the day. If you feel more physically energized each day, you’ll have more power to stay focused, say no, and manage your time. 

Try all these things and suddenly a renewed sense of vitality will enter your days and you’ll start to experience The Charged Life.

Want more? Get Brendon’s high performance training here free.

Like this? Share it with your friends and help them get their lives back.

[brendonburchard]

3 Kinds of Friends and the Secret to Great Friendships

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SUMMARY:

Here, I share 3 types of friends:

Old Friends, who you had a great connection with once but you no longer need to feel guilty about not hanging out with. You had your time together in a specific part of your life - honor it but let it go. Before you get all worked up about this, read the excerpt below.

Maintenance Friends, who you keep in touch with once or a few times per year just to "maintain" the connection. Set these folks up on reminders in your calendar but don't feel so bad you don't connect more.

Growth Friends, who you will continually deepen relationships with today and in the future - these are great friends you want more time and adventure with. Watch video or read below to learn to cultivate these friends more!

Get this episode as a mp3/podcast free on iTunes. Get free motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

More on Friendship:

[Below is an excerpt from my book The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives that Make You Feel Alive. Get it free here.]

Activator #3: Find and cultivate “Growth Friends”

People worldwide report that their family and intimate relationships are the primary source of their feelings of connection and love. The secondary source comes from our friendships, so it’s worthwhile to think how you can activate greater friendships in your life.

To my continual surprise, most people don’t have a real grasp on how vital their friendships are to their overall mental health and happiness. In study after study, researchers from a variety of disciplines continually find that the quality of our immediate friendship-based relationships is one of the most important factors in determining our overall stability, mood, ambition, emotional range, growth, and satisfaction in life.

In our friendships, it’s useful to heed this warning: Be careful whom you surround yourself with. while that counsel seems like kitchen-table wisdom, you’d be surprised by who most people invite to their tables of friendship. You’d also be surprised how many people barely invite anyone to their tables. The average American has only one or two close friends. That’s unfortunate, but it does give us a ready clue to how they can immediately increase their life satisfaction.

Let’s take a look at your own peer group. Answer the following questions:

1. How many close, real friends do you have? (You alone can define “close” and “real” for yourself.)

2. How often do you see them in person?

3. How often do you speak with them? 4. On a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest amount possible, how well do these close friends really know you?

5. On a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest amount possible, how much do these close friends consistently encourage you to chase your dreams?

6. On a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest amount possible, how much do these close friends provide you with insight, information, and inspiration that challenge you to be a better person?

7. On a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest amount possible, how much fun do you have when you hang out with these close friends?

With these questions and your answers, you can clearly discover a lot about yourself and your immediate circle of friends. You can also gauge how supported, understood, connected, and enlivened you feel in your friendships. it’s hard to take on people’s friendships, but this is territory we must venture into together if we are to achieve a new level of living.

Without sugarcoating, here are the responses you’re going to need to live a fully Charged Life:

1. Four to twelve 2. You must see them, or at least one of them, in person every month. 3. You must speak to them, preferably several of them, every week or two at a minimum. If my suggestions here sound unattainable to you, as your coach, i must be blunt: your life is in very serious need of rethinking.

As a society, many of us spend more time picking the style and thread count of bedsheets we’ll use in our homes than picking our friends. By default, then, we have family, friends, coworkers, and peers who are thrust into our lives. we cannot always choose these people. But we can choose two things: how much time we give them, and how much energy we expend seeking to expand the circle and quality of such relationships.

The old adage is true: You can’t choose family, but you can choose friends. Now it’s time to take that to heart. strategically make the choice today to start surrounding yourself with remarkable friends who help lift your life to the level of energy and potential you know it has.

To help you do this, I’m going to ask you to make some tough choices about whom to spend your time with from now on. i’ll warn you in advance, doing so won’t be comfortable.

Let’s face it: there may be a few friends in your life who aren’t adding to the quality and desired direction in your life. it sounds like a horribly judgmental and selfish thing to say, I know. And while it seems to counter what i’ve said about connecting with others—that we must accept them and see them for the positive gifts they are— the truth is, we can develop deep relationships with only so many people in our lives. if that’s true, we have to face the fact that we’re better off spending our time with some people than with others. All those people we might be in a habit of calling or connecting with might not really be contributing to our life experiences and happiness. There are battery chargers and there are battery drainers, and there are those with no charge whatever—the “neutrals.” To live a fully Charged Life, we’ve got to get real about who those people are.

At High Performance Academy, one of my most controversial strategies is helping people do just that: get real about the people in their lives. specifically, i have people focus on categorizing their friendships and finding which friends in life they’re going to develop deeper relationships with. in doing so, people are forced to select those they will no longer spend as much time with.

That’s why the activity meets with so much indecision and resistance. But after it’s over, people continually share with me that it ends up being one of the most powerful strategies they put into their lives to feel more alive and connected. Because of those results, i’m sharing the strategy here with you, even if it brings temporary discomfort.

Let’s begin. in your journal or on a piece of paper, please write down the names of all the friends you’ve had in life, one name per line. This includes elementary school friends and those from high school, college, work, sports, and your hobbies.

Next, write a short description of (a) what about them made you choose them and like them as friends, and (b) why you are still, or are no longer, friends with them.

Inevitably, this exercise brings to mind many old friends we’ve forgotten about or fallen out of touch with. That’s okay. Part of the benefit of this activity may be to reengage with some old friends.

Now that you’ve got your list of friends, it’s time to categorize them into one of three buckets: old friends, maintenance friends, and growth friends.

Those in the first bucket, old friends, are just that: dated, stale. These are people who were once your friends in the past, whom you no longer wish to keep in contact with. importantly, though, you may decide to lump some of your current friends into this bucket. I say this because i imagine there are some friends in your current life whom you don’t really want to hang out with anymore and whom you don’t see having starring roles in your future. hard though it may be, at some point we must decide whom we keep on the stage of friendship in our lives. From now on, anyone you mark as “old friends” will be left where they belong, in the past. These will be people you appreciate in your mind and memories forever, but they simply won’t play important roles in your future. The second bucket is called “maintenance friends,” because these are the relationships you will now maintain for the rest of your life. 

Maintenance friends are those you’ve appreciated having in your life and still want to keep up with from time to time. These are the people to whom you still send holiday or birthday cards, letters, or emails a few times a year. Perhaps you call them randomly a few times a year just to “see how it’s going.” Please mark “maintenance friends” next to those who fit this description.

For far too many of us, maintenance friends become mental drags in our lives because every time we think of them, we say to ourselves, Gosh, I should really keep in better contact with this person. But let’s be honest—if you aren’t keeping in more regular contact with these folks, it’s because (a) you really don’t feel that close to them, (b) you simply don’t see them adding that much joy to your life, (c) you don’t see them in your future, or (d) you keep blaming not having enough time as the problem, when the real culprit is you just don’t highly prioritize these folks. if that’s true, it’s time to make the difficult decision once and for all to designate them as maintenance friends and be okay with just contacting them a few times a year to stay in touch. i view maintenance friends not as “bad friends” but simply as friends i’d like to say hello to now and then and see how they’re doing. I will always keep up with them, but I won’t focus on creating deeper levels of contact and friendship with them. 

So . . . from today forward, no more guilt about maintenance friends. keep in your mental file that they are maintenance friends, and take joy in the few times you contact them, like during birthdays and holidays.

This is not an exorcism or an excommunication. offending, brushing off, or dumping old friends and maintenance friends because they don’t meet some new criteria is not the message here. Many self-help authors make all-too-casual suggestions for you to ditch any negative people in your life, treating them as if they were of no more consequence than a side salad you didn’t order. To gain new things in life, you don’t have to burn bridges with the old, no matter how easy and convenient it might be.

Personally, I feel that too many people take their friends for granted, forget who their friends are, or never give enough of them- selves to their friendship circles to receive anything back. So by no means am I telling you to destroy any relationships you’ve built. The universe has likely placed each of your current friends in your path for reasons known or unknown to you. honor that and honor them, no matter what direction you decide to go in the future.

With all my clients, my first point of advice isn’t to dump their friends; it’s first to try to raise them up. I suggest you reengage your close friends and, by sharing your vision for a bigger future and by sheer role modeling and enthusiasm, you be the catalyst that raises the standards and quality of your friendships. remember, there are two things that change your life: either something new comes into your life, or something new comes out of you.

Before pushing old friends away, I encourage you to sit down with your friends and authentically and excitedly share—perhaps for the first time ever—your true thoughts, feelings, and ambitions in life and for your immediate and distant future. Friendships are really only built by sharing such things and by reliving stories and creating new stories together.

That said, I do understand that this effort will fail with some of your current friends. The tough call afterward is that for your future quality of life there will be people to whom you will need to limit your duration and frequency of exposure. The sad truth is, the world is full of bitter, complaining, finger-pointing energy vampires who suck all the joy and ambition out of life. Give them a shot at coming into the light, but if they won’t, steer as clear of them as you can.

Here’s the best strategy in this case: if you’re not getting the quality of friendship you need from one peer group, go build a new one and focus more of your time, energy, and sharing there. From now on, be on the lookout for remarkable people whose path the universe has allowed to intersect with yours. Notice them. Ask them to lunch. Keep in touch. Introduce them to other remarkable people. Have them share real thoughts, feelings, and ambitions in life. Get them together often for new adventures and experiences. This is the path to cultivating real relationships that keep your life engaging and satisfying.

Alas, the focal point of your life should now turn toward finding and cultivating what i call “growth friends.” As labeled, these are the people you are actively going to engage with, grow with, and energize your life with. To me, growth friends are those you talk to at least once a month, if not more. They’re the ones you go out with on the weekends or on big new adventures: trips to new cities or coun tries, weekend getaways. Growth friends are supremely important to your mental health and spiritual energy in life. These are the people who become your clƒosest confidants, your partners in adventure, the godparents of your children.

My goal for your growth-friend category is to get it up to a minimum of ten. obviously, friendships are about quality, not quantity, yet having more growth friends will add the increased novelty and connection needed to amp up your life. Many people tell me they already have ten close friends, but when i ask the following questions they realize they don’t:

is this a friend you’re excited to speak with every week or every month?

is this a friend you see being an important part of your exciting future?

is this a friend who would drop everything to come support you in crisis?

is this a friend you would drop everything for to support in crisis?

is this a friend you are excited to have know your family and friends now and in the future?

is this a friend who exposes you to new ideas and adventures?

is this a friend who is good for your long-term health?

is this a friend who makes you laugh a lot?

is this a friend who cares about your emotions, well-

being, and happiness?

is this a friend you can trust, no matter what, with anything?

is this a friend who introduces you to other quality people?

Positive answers to all these questions indicate that you have a growth friend.

If you think having ten growth friends is too many or too hard, I sympathize. But you’re blessed to walk the planet for, on average, sixty to eighty years. You can’t create just ten deep, lasting, energizing friendships? What else in life is it you’re so focused on creating?

Having a group of at least ten awesome friends should be in the top five goals of every human being. The zest, energy, and connection that comes with having great friends is incalculable and indescribable. every happy person i’ve ever met had deep connections with multiple friends. If you’re not already there, the time to begin is now. Fun, fulfilling friendships amplify your life energy—they’re one of the greatest ingredients to a fully Charged Life.

One last thought. The way to cultivate growth friends is to be one. role-model the types of relationships you want in life. You want love? Then be a supremely loving human being and you will find and feel love. You want real friendship? Be a passionately interested friend who brings novelty, joy, caring, adventure, and closeness to others.

As with all the things we desire in life, I believe we can have them. It simply takes focus and consistent effort. You deserve to have deep, caring, fully engaged relationships with those around you.

- Excerpted from The Charge by Brendon Burchard

Like this? Please share it with your growth friends! - Brendon

Join my 3.6MM fans on Facebook at FB.Brendon.com or watch my show at TV.Brendon.com.

[brendonburchard]

The Magic of Creative Expression

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SUMMARY:

Successful people are creative and consistent in how they express themselves. They are happier because they pursue things they are truly passionate about, seeking their goals in their own unique way without conforming or trying to be "appropriate."

Ask yourself these four types questions:

Creativity in Conversation: Am I truly being myself when I'm in conversations? Do I share my true thoughts, feelings, frustrations, dreams? Do I feel like the best of me when communicating with others? If not, how can I open myself up?

Space Creativity: Is where I live a reflection of who I really am? Have I designed or decorated my workspace to be uniquely my own? Could someone get a feel of who I am based on my space?

Creativity in Contributions: How creative was the last presentation or contribution I created or shared? You can't blame your boss or timelines for stealing your creativity. You need to have the will to create unique things. If you're being rejected for who you truly are or for the contributions you find creative and valuable, then that's just an indication you're in the wrong place or community. Don't risk silencing yourself simply to end up a cog. Bring your divine spark, your uniqueness and spirit, to your work.

Creativity in Legacy: Have I started working toward what will be my unique contributions to the world? Pursue your goals and dreams in your own way - it is your voice, contributions and relationships that will ultimately tell the world who you were. Be creative in leaving your legacy - that's how you feel fulfilled and experience The Charged Life!

Get this episode as a mp3/podcast free on iTunes. Get free motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start living fully creative and contributing lives! - Brendon

Join my 3.6MM fans on Facebook at FB.Brendon.com or watch my show at TV.Brendon.com.

[brendonburchard]

Positive Projection - The Ultimate People Skill

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SUMMARY:

How do you develop extraordinary people skills? Try a strategy called “Positive Projection,” which is about mindfully exuding positive energy toward others. Here’s how:

1. Honor Others’ Struggle. There is probably an area of your life where you are struggling, right? And you feel the people around you don’t understand, right? People around you don't know how hard you work and how much you have to deal with. Well, that feeling is exactly the feeling other people have, all the time! It is the same for everyone else. But we forget that. We don't see how much others struggle, which is why we forget to be kind and patient. If you want to be extraordinary with people, you have to honor their struggle. Keep in mind everyone is dealing with difficulty and you will be a more compassionate and supportive person, which is the kind of person everyone wants to be around. 2. Take Enthusiastic Interest. To practice positive projection, you must become fascinated with others. You demonstrate this by taking active and enthusiastic interest; you ask about their interests, desires, fears, and dreams. When you know others’ values and passions, it’s easier to be positive with them. When you know and champion others, you yourself become fascinating and interesting. 3. Don't Mirror Bad Energy. The mirror neurons in our brain make us want to mimic other people’s feelings and behaviors. That’s why you mirror the sadness or joy that you see in others. If you pick up on the overall energy of the masses, though, you will find that it is a dissipated and disgruntled energy, which in turn can make you feel stressed, judgmental and negative. Emotions and energy is contagious. Instead of being a reflection of the world around your, be someone who is willing the energy you want. Choose to generate positivity and give that gift to the world.

4. Send Well Wishes. When I pass by others, I often look at them and in my mind say, “I wish you joy, abundance, health and love.” They might not know what’s on my mind, but they can literally feel good intent coming from me and a positive aura being directed to them. Try it. Just send positive thoughts and well wishes to others. They will feel great around you. They will want to be near you because you are that person who spreads joy and love. They’ll feel your positive charge and, soon, you’ll start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get this episode as a mp3/podcast free on iTunes. Get free motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start sharing good mojo with others too! - Brendon

Join my 3.5MM fans on Facebook at FB.Brendon.com or watch my show at TV.Brendon.com.

[brendonburchard]

4 Monthly Goals (Or, How to Schedule Your Year)

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SUMMARY:

What does your calendar reveal about you? If I looked at your schedule next month, is it readily apparent what activities and goals you’ve created to further develop yourself? 

You calendar can change your life... if you'll use those 12 months as a strategic plan for becoming the best you can be. Every month, try setting four kinds of goals:

1. Skill development. What skills do you want to develop this month? Have you put those skills in your calendar with specific goals and milestones? What level of mastery are you at now, and what level do you want to be at next month and the month after? 

2. Health. Have you ever decided this will be the best year of health you've ever had? What are your fitness goals? Is that in your calendar, planned strategically? Do you have goals for how you’ll eat better, work out better, care better for your overall well-being? Put those in the calendar.

3. Fun & Relationships. What level of fun do you want to experience this year? Have you planned adventures and escapes? Have you scheduled time off or dedicated time to work on passion projects? Too many people forget to actually schedule downtime and fun time. Be sure to include your relationships in this one - how can you bring more joy to your relationships next month?

4. Monthly Challenges. Have you set goals for personal virtue development each month? Maybe next month is a total 30-day challenge to become a more patient? The next month is about confidence, and so on.

Your calendar reveals it all: How is next month going to continue to grow your joy, strengths, skills, passions, consciousness? If the answers are not already in your schedule then you’re not living as proactively as you could. Learn to use the calendar as your ally and soon you’ll be living what we call The Charged Life!

Get this episode as a podcast free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start scheduling their best life too. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

How to Raise Your Standards

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SUMMARY:

If you raise your standards in these 5 areas, you dramatically improve your life:

1. Health. Have you ever said, "This is going to be the year I get in the best health of my life"? If not, this is the year to do it. Improve your health and becoming happier and more energized and effective happens almost automatically. Raise your standards on how much sleep you get and how well you eat and take care of your body.

2. Focus. Distraction is stealing our lives. Get more focused on what you desire in this hour, this day, this life. Bring your awareness to this moment and what you want to be doing and experiencing now. That will help you be more conscious and more easily spot distractions.

3. Boldness. Where you are in life right now is a direct reflection of how bold you've been up to this point. How boldly do you share yourself, your ideas, your needs and dreams with the world? How courageous have you been to fight after you've fallen down. Demand of yourself to be more bold and you'll feel more confident and influential over time.

4. Joy. Do you expect that you're going to have fun today and in life? Better yet, do you demand of yourself to be the person who brings the joy, who has fun and helps others have fun no matter what? Joy is a choice not a happenstance blessing. Bring the joy!

5. Kindness. People are so driven and distracted that they've often lost the awareness to be kind to others. They might call themselves compassionate, but they are not kind. Kindness is compassion activated - you actually show you care through your actions.Raising your standard here will help you reach higher levels of happiness, service, and humanity.

Get this episode as a podcast free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start living their best life with you. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

The Power Of Expectation

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SUMMARY:

Three things to focus on so your expectations can have a positive impact on your life:

1. Set positive expectations for yourself.

Those who get ahead in life have positive expectations for themselves. They believe in their ability to figure things out no matter what happens or what opportunity they chase after in life. They understand that there will be struggle along your path but they choose to stay resilient and continue taking steps forward.

2. Have positive expectations for other people.

We expect what we constantly see, so beware of surrounding yourself with jerks or negative people and news. If you regularly watch garbage television or reading trashy blogs and magazines, then you will start to expect negative things from others. This is why it is so important to have a positive peer group.Your job is to go out and network and surround yourself with positive, visionary, supportive, nurturing people.

3. Have positive expectations for your life.

Expect that you will grow healthier, wiser and more kind. Trust that positive things will come your way, that all things have meaning and purpose, that tomorrow will be another great day or step in the right direction. Good things are coming, and when it feels as if they are not... remember this too shall pass so you can expect another sunrise tomorrow. 

Over time, what we expect to happen to us often does. So expect good things from yourself, from others, and from the world.  Having that positive expectation will help you experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start having more positive expectations for themselves, others and the world starting now. - Brendon 

[brendonburchard]

4 Steps to Restart A Bad Day

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SUMMARY:

When things fall apart and you’re having a bad day, do this:

1. Plan your productivity. Your day often gets derailed because you didn't start on the right track.  At the beginning of the day, plan the projects you want to move forward, the people you need to reach out to, and the main things you must complete. Get focused. When you do this, it’s easier to stay on the path of purpose, to brush off the distractions and dramas that don’t fit the day’s agenda, and to proactively contribute at high performance levels.

2. Take a reset break. If you find your day completely derailed, immediately stop everything and do one of two things: Either listen to your favorite music playlist and go for a 20 minute walk while breathing deeply…or… meditate with The Release Meditation Technique for 20 minutes. Then, sit with your journal and answer these questions: “What am I grateful for? What three things must I accomplish today? What is my reward if I accomplish those three things?” This will help you reset.

3. Get out of yourself and into service. Instead of obsessing about yourself, ask: “What could I do right now to give surprise, attention, gratitude, or appreciation to somebody around me?” Whether it’s writing a random thank you email, calling someone to say you love them, or joking around with a friend, getting outside yourself and in service to someone else helps you reboot the day. 4. Activate simple self-talk. When your day gets thrown off, sometimes the best thing you can do is close your eyes and say this to yourself: “Be patient. I’m okay. I have faith. I’m here to serve. Here we go.” You can repeat this until you feel calm.Life can get challenging, but just know: This too shall pass. You will get through it just as you have before. No matter what happens, you are still here, you can learn to reset your day and you can experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everyone, it's Brendon. 

Have you ever got in the middle of your day and things just fell apart and you're just like, "I need a restart"?

You just want to start the whole day over. You were thinking, "Things were kind of going good and now I'm derailed. I got distracted. I stopped doing whatever I was supposed to be doing. I had a bad interaction with somebody or a conflict and now I feel bad about myself or about the day."

And you just overall were frustrated with where you were at and you were struggling to restart. A lot of people don't have the resiliency to restart in the middle of the day and so they lose those last couple of hours or the rest of the entire day

To a bad mood,

To bad energy,

To bad productivity,

To being ineffective.

And because of that it's costing us great amounts of progress in our own personal lives and frankly as a country, a nation, an economy we struggle with it a lot. People have need to become more resilient. So, what can you do?

I got four ideas for you that might help today:

1. The first one is, if you find yourself getting derailed a lot in the middle of the day, we got to back up to beginning of the day and ask an essential question.

Did you know what you were really supposed to do today?

Because a lot of people don't. They just go to work and they check their inbox to see what the heck's going on in the world and then they start reacting, reacting, reacting, reacting, reacting.

All day it's reacting to other people's texts.

All day reacting to other people's needs.

All day reacting to other people's emails.

And they get in this reactive mode and all of a sudden, either

(A) they're done with that. They don't know what to do with themselves because they've trained themselves only to react. They can't be proactive, they can't be strategic. They don't even know how to think that way. So, they're just like, "Uhh, I don't know what to do with myself."

Or (B) they get in a situation where there is a lot more coming out of them and they get completely overwhelmed by it and they have no agenda. So there's nothing to be returning to. There's nothing to get a footing back on because they haven't lost their way, they just never had a way.

So, at the beginning of the day, the best way not to lose your way during the day is to know at the outs of the day

What are my key projects, my key priorities that I must work on today, must accomplish today?

Who are the key people I need to reach out to or I'm waiting on?

Who I can interact with or socialize with or collaborate or create with to move those projects and priorities forward?

So that no matter what; you know where you're going during the day. Not knowing your direction in the day and not knowing the main projects you're working towards in your life is what happens, what causes so much distraction in our life and drama.

Because you know, people who are on the path of purpose, they don't have time for drama or distraction. 

That stuff gets pushed to the side because they're busy crushing it every day. They're high performers. They're at that level. 

They just like, they've gotten past the drama, the distractions in life and:

They're contributing.

They're creating.

They're being proactive.

They're becoming the leaders, the artists, the people who are the influencers and the thought leaders of the day because they got over that other stuff.

2. I would say the second thing that we need to learn to do is a True Reset.

If you find yourself at 2 o'clock, the day is just completely derailed. You need to take time to give yourself a break and reset. And here's my favorite ways to do that.

If I need to reset, I realize the day's all gone to crap. I will immediately stop everything. If the day is gone to crap, don't stay in your inbox. Don't keep doing the same thing you're doing. Take a step away from it. Literally go outside, take a walk.

My favorite resets, I have two of them.

1) I go outside. 

I take my phone. I put on my favorite playlist of music and I don't think about anything at all. I just listen to the music and I walk for 20 minutes. When I come back to my desk, or I come back to the house or I come back to wherever I was, I sit down. I bust out my journal and I write three things.

Number one, I start writing everything I'm grateful for because I'm trying to take my mind off for the day.

So, that's why I listen to the music with no thoughts, just listen to the lyrics in the music. Breathing as I'm walking. Sit down. What am I grateful for?

Second, what three things must be accomplished today? Write those down.

Third, what's my reward if I accomplish those three things?

And for me, my reward is social so I say, "If I finish these three, as soon as I finish these three things, I get to call my best friend from school who I haven't seen in years. If I finish these three things, I get to call my lady. If I finish these three things, I get to get up, I get to go have some green tea and some chocolate."

Whatever it is for you, you need to have that reward. I write those down and it:

Re-engages me with the blessings of life,

Re-engages me with what I need to accomplish, and

Re-engages me with a simple reward.

That's my first favorite way to reset.

My second favorite way to reset is Meditation. 

To just stop everything, close my eyes. Do the Release Meditation Technique. If you haven't learned that before, you can learn it from me in YouTube. Just type in my name and release meditation technique. And I do that for 20 minutes.

When I open up my eyes, I stand, I stretch, I get some water, I come back and again I write those three things.

What I'm grateful for?

What three things must be accomplished today?

And ultimately, what's my reward for doing this?

That's a great way to reset.

3. I would say another one is to get outside of your head to stop thinking it all has to be you accomplishing everything for you and another great reset is to ask the simple question, "What can I do right now to give a surprise, some attention or some gratitude and appreciation to somebody around me?"

Could I go thank the receptionist, someone who I haven't talked to for a while?

Can I go pull a prank on a friend over here?

Can I call somebody and prank them and make a joke with them?

Can I call somebody randomly and say, "Thank you"?

Can I sit down, just write a random thank you email to somebody I haven't talked to for a while?

Can I shoot an iPhone video, sending love to a family or friend?

Get outside of myself and in service or surprise to somebody else helps me reboot the day because it gives me a social enthusiasm to engage with the day.

4. And I would say then the last thing is to activate some just simple self-talk.

I know that sounds very, sort of Personal Growth 101 but if the day is just gone all to hell, sometimes the best thing you can do is close your eyes and literally just talk to yourself.

I have this phrase I like to say. I like to close my eyes and say, "Be patient. I'm okay. I have faith. I'm here to serve. Here we go."

Just say that, over and over. "Be patient. I'm okay. I have faith. I'm here to serve. Here we go."

And I'll just repeat that, several times. I mean ten, fifteen, twenty times until I feel a calmness come over me, put myself back in a place of service, open my eyes and say, "Alright here we go." And I will get back at the day. 

Sometimes, you should simple self talk to reset yourself.

I hope these ideas serve you because I know how challenging life can get and as it does, just know this too shall pass. 

You'll get through it just like you've gotten through it before. I hope these strategies help you get through it in a more resilient, strong, productive, enthusiastic, grateful way because this day, no matter what, no matter what happens when the stuff hits the fan, when all goes to hell, you know what, you are still here.

You are still blessed with breath.

You are still blessed with this choice about what to make these next few moments.

It's a blessing. This life we have, this energy, this ability to live what we call The Charged Life. So, take it seriously. Find faith in it. Find joy in it. Reset that day because you can. And the more you learn to reset that day, the more you learn to experience what we call, The Charged Life.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can reset their bad days with ease starting now. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

How To Manage Projects With Excellence

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SUMMARY:

Life and work become extraordinarily stressful if you don’t manage your projects and priorities well. Here are five ways to manage projects with excellence:

1. Only do projects that matter:

The best way to complete a project well is not to ever begin it - If it doesn’t matter to you then don’t do it. Life is too short to be doing a lot of busy work that is not your life's work. When you start to say no more often and only take on real projects that you’re truly passionate about, it's much easier to be effective, enthusiastic and excellent.

2. Know your best role:

There's a big difference between being an individual contributor to a project and being the person responsible for the project. Be honest with yourself: Are you good at managing projects? Is it your natural ability? If not, be a contributor, not a manager.

3. Have a clear outcome:

Be absolutely clear about what the completed project looks like. What's the end game? What metrics measure success? What does the impact of the completed project look like? Having clarity about the vision you're after will ensure you avoid getting distracted or derailed.

4. Put a calendar in place:

A schedule isn't enough. To be effective you have to plan the deadlines, steps, completion dates, and people managing the project in detail. It's easy to get distracted without a clear purpose and deadlines, so put milestones in place and keep moving towards them.

5. Focus on distinction, excellence, and service:

To do a project well, ask yourself: "How can I do this project uniquely and differently? How do we wow people with excellence? How do we serve at the highest level?" When you refuse to be a cog, and instead resolve to be a standout creator, a quality contributor, and someone who leaves people feeling deeply served by every interaction, you will bring a new level of excellence to every project.

These strategies will help you add humanity, heart and purpose to your projects. You’ll feel more engaged, you will serve people better and you will start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everybody, it's Brendon. I love this question. "How do you manage projects so that you're happy with the outcome at the end?"

Maybe you're a leader of an organization and you're managing big projects all the time and you're trying to usher them forward so that you can not only make a great contribution but you can get a promotion and move up.

Or maybe you are an individual contributor, creator, artist and you have your own passionate projects that are commerce or not commerce and you're just trying to make them rocking. Or maybe you're just somebody who struggles to keep to a deadline, struggle with being effective as a human being in almost every area of your life.

What do you do in all of those circumstances?

I'm happy to take that question.

1. I think the first thing before you do any project is a very, very simple question. And that is, "Do you do truly have the desire to do it and do you feel like you can effectively do it well?"

And I'll share this with you because here's the deal. I think most people are doing projects they shouldn't be doing. As a high performance coach I've spent so much time consulting, advising, coaching Fortune 50 CEOs, extraordinary successful people from hundreds of industries around the world, multi-millionaires, people who are in the media all the time, people who have major responsibilities on their shoulders and half the time I work with them, it's about clearing the decks.

It's about, why did you even commit to doing this project it's not something you truly even care about?

“I felt obligated. I'm doing it as a favor. Well I'm doing it because I think it might pay off one day.”

And there's no real passion there. And the best way to do a project well is to not do it if it doesn't matter to you. Just stop, just say no. Reject the projects that come your way that don't really engage you because look, life is too short for you to be spending your time doing things you don't care about.

I think one of the number 1 reasons people get so frustrated with their lives and feel a lack of engagement is because they're doing a lot of busy work but that busy work is not their life's work.

And so, they're off-path, they're off-purpose. And no wonder they can't complete projects because those project's they're doing they really cultivate no passion, no creativity. There's no real deep desire there and because that's not there they don't do them.

And now you feel guilty because you're not effective. No, it's not that you're not effective; it's that you're being ineffective at doing the wrong things.

Once you're doing the right things it's much easier to be

Effective,

Passionate,

Engaged,

Enthusiastic,

Excellent at those things.

So, number 1: Is it a project that you even give a damn about?

If not, get out or give somebody else the opportunity to manage it.

2. Which brings me really to my second point, should you be the person even if you are passionate about it and you do love it and you want to be involved, should you be the person managing the project?

See there's a big difference between being an individual contributor to a project and being the person who is responsible for it, who manages it.

I've learned in a lot of ways in my life, I shouldn't be the manager. I don't like doing all that big coordination. I don't like the details, the tasks, the work plans. I want to be engaged, I want to contribute but I don't want to manage the whole enterprise.

So, I find people to do those things. Even if I'm advising a startup, let me come in there, add my unique values and contributions, kick butt for you but I don't want to be the person who's the COO of that startup. Does that make sense?

So, you got to be honest with yourself.

Are you good at managing projects?

Do you draw joy from it?

Is it your natural ability, your talent?

Have you developed those skills?

Is that something you want?

And if not, learn to be a key contributor not the person who must manage it; totally vital, absolutely important.

3. The third thing I say to do well in projects is if you are managing or you are contributing, the third thing is absolute clarity on what is the real outcome of this project?

I mean what's the end game at the very, if this was done completely and perfectly, how would we know it was a success?

What elements would be there?

What impact would it make?

What metrics would be measuring success?

You really need to have a vision for the project when it is complete.

How do you know when you cross the finish line?

How do you know when you pass that part where it feels like a struggle and it sucks to hitting your first milestone and you're really on your way?

If you don't have a vision for the project, it's pretty likely you're going to get distracted and derailed.

4. Next piece is to, as you're thinking about this project and you want to do it well, you got to have the calendar in place.

You have to have real deadlines, real steps, real completion dates, real people managing the parts of the project that matter. I mean, it's that detailed stuff that most people forget. And I know you're probably better than that. "I got it Brendon. I've got a schedule."

When I work with people it's like, "No, you really need to plan things out to a very finite detail." Not to be a perfectionist, but to be able to kind of know all the moving parts.

Who's involved and when?

Who owns what piece, is contributing what thing?

Who is ultimately responsible to keep this thing on track?

What has to happen by what date or everybody dies?

You have to have real clarity into that and most people don't. So they're kind of moving towards something but there is no real milestone. There is no real thing that they're trying to accomplish.

And that's why they keep feeling like they're distracted all the time because it's easy to be distracted when you don't have clear purpose and deadlines.

5. Last piece: Got to do a project well focus on these three things.

Number 1 is Distinction.

How can you do that project different than anybody else in the world would?

What's that unique strength, talent, ability, team, perspective, system, tool, thing that you will bring to the project that makes it different, fun, unique, significant? 

Because if you're just going through the same motions you did, you're going to do this project exactly you've done a hundred projects before.

Guess what? You're going to be bored with it. You're not going to bring any magic to it. It's not going to make a difference or really grow. It's just going to be another thing. You are ultimately being a cog, not a creator, not a contributor.

And so, you've got to get out of that idea that you're going to do everything exactly the same and find what's unique that we could do here to make this thing magic?

Second: How do we do it with excellence?

I mean how do we WOW people with this thing?

How do we bring a degree of excellence, keeping everything tight and pristine and perfect like the things we actually…how do we make it really, truly stand out with excellence? Where people are impressed with the quality of it:

The quality of the thinking.

The quality of the experience.

The quality of the interaction.

And then third: How do we do it at the highest level of service?

So that the people that the project is intended to help or support or benefit, that they really are served. That every interaction point they have with it, they're like, "Wow, I feel like I've been taken care of."

That you're thinking through their emotions, their feelings, their impressions all along the way of this project as it's delivered or ultimately completed. Because at the end of the day, every project has a purpose and that purpose always involves people.

To help people,

Support people,

Serve people,

Impress people,

Deliver some kind of service or promise to the people.

So be thinking about the people. 

Think about the service not just in terms of customer service but service, humanity, heart, purpose, reason, the stuff that we all get engaged in, the things that intangible things that make projects worthwhile in the first place.

If you can look at projects through these lenses and do a greater job in all these areas in one way or another, you'll start to have this feeling that, "You know, I've got a, I've got a manage on this now. I've got a control on this. These things are turning out much better than they have before."

Frankly, you'll enjoy doing the projects more often. They'll engage you. They'll serve people better. You'll start to have more effect and impact. You'll start to inspire people more. You'll start to experience what we call, The Charged Life.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start managing their projects with excellence and greater engagement starting now. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

How To Take Care of Yourself and Others

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SUMMARY:

How do you balance taking care of yourself and others without sacrificing your dreams or suffering burning out? Here are four strategies:

1. Focus on your circle of influence:

With all the texts, emails and requests you get every day, it can feel like you have to reply to everybody. But you don’t. Instead, be incredibly clear about who are the people in your life you most deeply care for and those who need your greatest amount of quality time, service or leadership. These are the priorities in your circle of influence and you should give those people the most focused attention. Learn to say no to anyone not inside your circle, at least at first until you know you won’t overcommit yourself at the cost of your circle and yourself. Don’t let random people or their false emergencies knock you off path from serving those you’ve already committed to.

2. Stop micromanaging and start empowering:

You don't have to do everything for others. People don't need to be micromanaged. When you switch your mindset from needing to take care of everybody and every little thing for them, to empowering others to take care of themselves, you get massive amounts of time back and a renewed sense of control and aliveness in your own life. If you choose to help people, as quickly as possible set them up to win without you. That must be your strategy from the outset.

3. Automate more:

Outsource or automate things that don't matter, bring you joy, need your unique focus and attention. The tiny things you *think* you have to do can usually be automated or handled by others or modern tools, apps and systems. Once you set up the little things to run automatically, you save time and can return to what matters most.

4. Give people quality time: 

What people want from us isn't all our time; they want the time they have with us to matter. They want their interactions with us to be authentic, energized, heartfelt. When you're with people, make sure you give them quality time. Giving someone just twenty minutes of full attention and energy is worth four hours of half-hearted attention. Make the time you have with others count.

When you put these strategies into place, you create a deeper connection with those who matter most (including you) and you start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everyone, it's Brendon and in this episode we're going to take on one of the most common questions I get asked all the time which is, "How do you manage it all and take care of yourself while taking care of other people?"

Because I'm sure you've got family or team or other people that you care for and love, and you want to

support them and

champion them,

empower them,

take care of them,

be a good mom,

a good dad,

a good leader

but also take care of yourself so you don't burn yourself out trying to help everybody and sometimes sacrifice your dreams at the cost of supporting everybody else around you.

How do you make that balance between taking care of yourself and others?

Well that's such a great question.

It comes from the spirit and the heart of just saying, "I really love other people and I also love my own life and how do I just deal with that?"

Sometimes, you hear a lot of frustration or stress with that and I hope that this episode just helps a little bit, break that down.

1. I think the first thing we all have to get used to in this modern era is the reality that we don't have to take care of everybody.

Today, with everyone

Pushing in your inbox,

Pushing on your text,

Pushing in your voice message,

Pushing into you 24/7 all day long.

With requests, requests, requests, emails, emails, emails, we feel like we have to get to everybody and we apply to everybody and the reality is we don't.

You need to identify the circle of people who you deeply need to care for, support, mentor, champion on and realize that everything else that hit you from other areas:

Those are people who are doing marketing.

Those are people who are not in your true circle of influence.

Those are people who just want, want, want, want.

And it is not your job to reply to everybody in the world.

And sometimes, you are spending so much time replying and serving and helping the people who, it's not that they don't matter but they are not your key priorities. They are not the people who deserve your most focused attention.

And just by, stop feeling like you need to solve everybody's problem and fight fires for everybody over here. By learning to say "No" or frankly learning to ignore those who are outside your circle of influence, it gives you more time for yourself and for others who do matter, who are the highest level of priority.

I really believe that most people, they're not lacking time to serve themselves and take care of other people at the same time. They're giving away all their time doing things that are frankly distractions and not that important.

The average American today as an example, watches 4 hours of television per day.  It's like okay and maybe your drug isn't television. Maybe you're clicking or feeling distracted or directionless throughout the day.

Well that time could be applied to taking care of yourself and other people. And I think we all need to get a better accounting of where we're really spending our time because if we could get just a little bit more of that pie of time back, we could dole it out in more fulfilling ways.

2. I think the other thing that we have to learn to realize is that—other people in our lives don't need us to support and take care of them the way we feel like they do.

We feel like often because we're caretakers, we're leaders, we're managers, we love those. We feel like we have to do everything for them.

Our mindset needs to switch from, "I need to take care of everybody" to "I need to equip and empower everybody to take care of themselves."

You don't have to cook the kids lunch every day. They can be taught to get their own lunch. I'm not talking about handing them a gun and making them go shoot their own cows. I'm taking about like, look a kid can be taught to make a sandwich.

Empower them to handle their own stuff. And I don't mean just your children. I mean your team. Your team doesn't need to be micromanaged. Let them run with the ball.

Learn to equip and empower people versus take care of them and all of a sudden you're getting hours and hours and hours,

Time back for you to follow your own dreams.

Time back for you to sleep.

Time back for you to take a bigger picture of the world.

For you find your own sense of creativity and contribution again versus micro managing every little element of your day.

Stop micro managing; start empowering. And you'll see a sudden huge shift in everything in your life.

3. I think another thing is we have to learn the difference between doing the small things that matter and outsourcing the things that don't.

We all think we have to remember, "Oh gosh I got 50 birthday cards to write this month." You know that? There are services that do that. That once a year you can, just one time ever you can go in and type everyone's birthday and it will remember to send a card out to them and you never have to touch and deal with it again. Awesome! Do that.

Except may be the hand-written notes you want to write to people you really, really, really care for. Guess what? You can do that in advance too. All of these things that we think are just sucking at our time; these little tiny things that we feel like we have to do. Usually, we can automate those.

How can you automate the correspondence or the things that you feel like must be accomplished?

Automate it and step out of the way so you don't have to do it again.

Sometimes that takes advanced planning, using the apps and the tools that are available to us today. But once you set it up, you can forget it and you can return to time that matters.

4. Which really leads me in my last point here—people think that they have to take care of everybody and they have to be there all the time. And I think the reality is what people want from us isn't necessarily our full time. What they really want is to make sure that that time they have with us matters.

That it's felt.

That it's real.

That it's authentic and

Spontaneous and

Alive.

That you are there.

When you are there with people make that quality time. It's not about quantity, giving every hour of your day to everybody. It's about when you do give that time—be present, be fully aware and alive, vital, attentive, conscious in those moments and give people what they really want.

Your joy

Your positivity

Your champing

Your support

Your cheerleading

Give people a positive experience emotively and energetically in the little amount of time you have with them. And look, they'll take twenty minutes of you being in an incredible space, fully attentive versus you an hour at lunch sort of chatting with them and checking your phone the whole time.

When you realize when you do have that time with people to make it vital, to make it really count as if this was your last time with them. If you really gave them full energy, full awareness, full conscious—you vitally there in the moment with them. If you can learn to teach yourself to do that when you are with them; it's okay, they don't use much time and then you get more time back with yourself.

Then in your time with yourself if you learn to avoid the distractions and the belief that you got to serve everybody.

Learn to focus on, "What is it I really want right now" versus kind of bumbling through, trying everything, accepting everything, doing everything.

What do I want really?

What do I want to experience?

If you're more clear about what you really want to experience. About what you want then taking care of yourself becomes optimized.

You don't have to sit there and wonder all day, "Well I guess I'm not sure what to do with myself". It's like, "No, I'm clear about what I want in my free time."

And now in my free time, I know I need rest.

In my free time, I know I love to read a book and get creative.

In my free time, I love to journal or browse music.

And you find what to do in your free time and you do it well. Then you feel effective in your own life.

And now with all these other things you feel effective in managing, equipping and empowering, serving, being present with other people.

Suddenly, you start to feel like a renewed sense like you are handling it all: Because you got rid of the distractions. Because you focused on those who did matter. Because you gave those who did matter what they really wanted: You fully present.

Because in your off time you realized what was necessary for you to recharge and take care of yourself. You had clarity on that and you executed. You did it. You start to feel this new energy about life. You start to experience what we call, The Charged Life.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can balance taking care of themselves and others without sacrificing their dreams or burning themselves out starting now. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

How To Get More Sleep

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Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes.

SUMMARY:

If you think you can get by on 4-6 hours of sleep, know this: 50 years of sleep science has proven that lack of 7-8 hours of sleep is one of the worst things you can do for your mood, health, brain, and relationships. Here are five ways to get more sleep:

1. Start with 45 more minutes:

Take the pressure off yourself and just get 45-50 more minutes of sleep starting tonight. To make this super simple, go to bed 45 minutes earlier than you usually do. It might not seem like much, but this little bit of extra sleep will help start a new habit that could change your life.

2. Rest more during the day:

It’s ironic: find moments of rest and peace throughout the day and you’ll sleep better at night. That’s why meditators sleep better: they've learned to manage their mind and slow life down during the day. So try meditating 20 minutes a day. If you’ve never tried meditation, try my Release Meditation Technique, which I've taught over a million people. If meditation isn't your thing, then take a nap or go for a peaceful walk for 20 minutes, focusing on your breath with each step.

3. Stop drugging yourself:

A lot of people can't sleep because they're drinking caffeine, eating sugar and whacking out their system with white carbs all day long. To sleep better, avoid putting your hormones and digestion on a roller coaster. No caffeine after 3pm, and work hard to dramatically limit how much sugar and white carbs you consume.

4. Wind down:

About one hour before you go to sleep, dim the lights in your house and turn off all the screens and technology. No browsing or social media or email in that last hour. Do some light reading or plan your day by journaling. This is the way to naturally drift off to sleep coolly and calmly. Remember: no tech before bed.

5. Practice gratitude:

When you get into bed, calm your mind and emotions by focusing on taking 10 deep breaths and then asking yourself, "What am I grateful for in my life?" A happy heart rests well. 

You deserve to get more sleep but you must make it a practice. With more sleep, you have greater creativity, decreased stress, and higher levels of engagement and enthusiasm throughout the day. You start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get motivation and high performance training from Brendon here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everybody, it's Brendon and in this video let's talk about you finally getting some more sleep.

I've always been a big proponent of pushing this topic on people very strongly because we've known for a very long time—only about 50 years of real research—that if you're not getting enough sleep:

Your cognitive abilities throughout the day go down.

Your creativity goes down.

Your stress goes up.

Your bad decision making goes up.

And your ability to handle conflict or life challenges and be resilient and happy and positive all goes to sh**

So…

What do you do?

How do you get more sleep?

How do you finally manage this part of your life?

Because look, we all have a lot of expectations, a lot of demands in our lives and so at some point we start believing the hype out there that, "Oh hey, you can get by on you know 3 – 4 hours of sleep. Don't worry about it. Just sleep a little less. Get up a little earlier."

And we start telling ourselves this big lie that we can get away with less sleep. Even though we have 50 years of science saying we can't.

Especially today, there's this popular myth that, " You can take sleep for two hours, rest, take a nap for 30 minutes here and there. Or sleep for four hours and nap and meditate throughout the day to catch up."

The reality is we know that's not possible for the vast majority of people.

People say, "But Brendon, the navy seals can do it." I'm like, "Yes, but you're not a navy seal and they hate it and they call it hell-week when they do that, okay?"

Most normal, average, must perform, must be awesome, care about your high performance and have to be smart people throughout the day really must sleep 7 to 8 hours a night.

So, if you're not getting that on a consistent basis, what can you do?

Well first and foremost, if you're not getting that much, don't all of a sudden take this pressure on yourself about sleep. In a sense of saying, "Well gosh, I'm only sleeping 4 hours of sleep, I better figure out my 8 hours." I was like, "Calm down dude, here's how I want you to start."

1. Just get 45 to 50 minutes more sleep tomorrow, tonight, this week then you usually do.

Every night just knock out another 45 to 50 minutes.

How do you do that?

Go to bed 45 to 50 minutes earlier than you usually do. That's all. Just start with that and if that picks you up that fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth hour of sleep, ROCK ON!

If you have no problem sleeping 8 hours regularly throughout every single night then go watch one of my other videos. But for those who have that challenge, you're just not getting that 8 hours of sleep on a consistent basis, here's the first counter intuitive thing that you can do.

2. It's going to sound weird so let me walk you through it—rest more during the day.

One of the reasons people don't sleep enough and can't fall asleep is because their keyed up all day. They're building this momentum, this tension, this stress all day. And then at night, they get in bed and they're like, "Whooohooo." They're like totally wacked out on a roller coaster and they cannot bring the adrenalin down.

You need to teach your body to have the ability to recover.

And actually if you recover throughout the day, it's easier to put yourself to sleep at night.

It's almost counter intuitive. So how do you do that?

Well, we know for example that people who meditate sleep better at night because they've learned that ability to manage their mind, slow it down, to chill out.

So try this if you've never tried it before—meditate every single day for about 20 minutes. Just find a time during the day to meditate. To sit down, close your eyes. If you've never watched my video on YouTube called “The Release Meditation Technique,” give that a try. I've taught over a million people now how to do the release meditation technique.

It's very simple you close your eyes and you repeat the word, "Release” to yourself over and over and over. When other thoughts come up, you just return to the mantra of release and that's all you do. Eyes closed, repeating release for 20 minutes; super simple, incredibly effective.

And if you're someone who's like, "Dude, I don't want to try meditation. I tried it, I don't like it. I didn't release. I don't like it."

That's cool.

Then go for a walk for 20 minutes during the day without your phone, without your phone, without anybody with you, by yourself. Don't speak. Try not to think too much. Just wander for 20 minutes outside. Just walk around. Have 20 minutes of silence, no stress, no screens, breathing with each step. Just think about your breath and walking for 20 minutes. Try that.

Now if you really want to go advance, do all that I mentioned. Either walk or meditate twice per day for 20 minutes.

It's going to teach your body to have a rhythm and to slow down. And you'll find, you start sleeping better at night. You won't even know why. Well I'm telling you why but I'll tell you, it's that simple and that straight forward.

You must find your time throughout the day

To have a few moments,

To wind down,

To chill out,

To meditate,

To rest,

To relax.

It will help you relax better at night.

3. The second thing that you can do is stop drugging yourself.

A lot of people can't sleep because they're having caffeine at 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 o'clock at night and their body is all keyed up and its hormones and your processing, your digestive system are out of whack.

Drugs include caffeine, include sugar, include white carbs; include all those things that are whacking your system out, especially, after that 3 o'clock hour in the afternoon.

You think, "Oh gosh, it's fine if I have some coffee at 6 o'clock at night because I've done that for years and I can still sleep okay once in a while."

It's not okay.

You need to knock off the caffeine. Knock off the sugars. And knock off that high white flour sort of starch carbohydrates after five o'clock, just don't do it because it's whacking out your system and your sleep.

So, a lot of reasons you feel fine, you don't feel full. You're like, "I don't understand. I ate hours ago. I should go to sleep fine."

Your body really does need its time to wind down, okay. It really does need it.

4. Which leads us to the third point—wind down.

>In that hour to ninety minutes prior to sleep, dim the lights in your house. Don't look at any screens anymore. That means no TV and no handhelds. You're not Twittering and Facebooking and doing all the other things on your phone. And I really mean no texting either.

Just stop in that last hour.

That means if you want to read a book, go ahead read a book. Don't read like magazines with dozens and dozens of pictures to start dropping dopamine in the back of your brain stem. Just read one thing, read one article or one book or journal and plan your day with no noise, no TV.

I know you might have the kids and they might be loud and everything else but then turn the TV out for yourself. And you're like, "But Brendon, I got to fall asleep with the TV." No you don't you just taught yourself to.

Trust me, thousands and thousands of years of human history passed with no television. They slept just fine. I'm sure if you have ever gone camping or been in the great outdoors you're like, "Wow I sleep amazing."

It's because you're not watching television, I hope. Now people, they're in the camp grounds watching their iPads.

You got to turn it off. Dim the lights, no screens, no sounds or stimulation. Just chill the last hour and allow you to kind of glide yourself into bed, calm, cool. You'll sleep like a champ.

5. Last thing number 4 very simple—when you go to bed, your thoughts, you got to get them under control.

The way to do it is be in a place of gratitude.

Just say, "Thank you." That's it. When you get into bed just say thank you to your god, to your creator, to yourself, to the world, to the cosmos, whatever your personal faith or beliefs are. Just go, when you think about the ending, if you think about the ending is just be grateful.

Just think about all the things you're grateful for in your life.

Don't think about all the things you need to do tomorrow. That's going to whack you out. Just think about the things that you're genuinely grateful for in life because you know what, a happy heart rests well.

So, if you can just be happy and grateful for:

The things that you do have in life.

The person or the choices you've had in your life.

The blessings that are all around us all the time.

The good things that have gone on in your life.

Think about those things, it'll help you fall to sleep much more peacefully and easily.

You'll drift out just fine. Set your alarm for 8 hours later before you go to bed so you know you're going to get that time and try to do it. If you wake up early, just lie in bed thinking about all the things you're grateful for in life. Maybe some of the things you have to do as you wake up to slowly wake yourself up.

Don't wake up and immediately check your screens. That sets the anchor and it trains your brain. Got to get up, got to handle, got to handle!!!

And that's why you're waking up too early, often and kind of freaked out and you can't stop. Because you're actually conditioning your brain to get up and check all these things. Don't do that.

When you wake up instead have a morning ritual that doesn't include checking into everything. Check into yourself. Think about your thoughts. Maybe stretch your body. Do your exercise, your workout. Then plan the day and get at it.

If you keep these things in mind, if you actually practice them, you'll start to have a whole new experience with sleep.

You'll feel better about it. It'll be less pressure about it. You'll sleep great, you'll wake up great. You'll start to feel more energized, more engaged with your life, more enthusiastic because you actually for the first time feel rested, clear, ready to tackle on the day. You'll get to experience what we call, The Charged Life.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can start getting more sleep starting now. - Brendon

[brendonburchard]

How Brendon Does Social Media

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SUMMARY:

I’m always asked about my approach to social media. Here are five simple ideas that have helped me reach and impact millions of people everyday:

1. Read every day:

Within the first hour of waking up, I read something inspiring or instructive about life. I read a lot of biographies, a lot of philosophy and psychology, a lot of quote books and poetry too. To be a thought leader, you simply must train yourself to read because it helps you think bigger and constantly broaden your mindset and perspective. By reading more you become more informed and creative. And more than anything else it's that perspective and creative thinking that causes people to follow you.

2. Create something unique every day:

It's in the act of creation that genius comes out. Genius is not the genesis of creativity; creative expression is the mother of genius. If you want a following, you must create something every day - not just to feed the monster but more importantly to find and hone your art, your voice, your growth and soul. You must become prolific, and to accomplish that you must become more disciplined in scheduling and sticking to real blocks of time to create. 

3.  Create things to be multipurpose:

If you’ve created content, you should leverage it by putting it everywhere, in different formats. And then you should put all that on a consistent rotation of reposting. For example, when I record a video, I will use that video to create quotes, transcripts, podcasts, blog posts, and more. This grows my following in lots of different mediums.

4. Stay consistent:

Sometimes people gain sudden success, but usually people who have big followings have been working at it every day for a long time. True artists and creators have their following come from their work, endurance and consistency. You can’t just start this and hope it takes off. You have to push and create and love it for years. This isn’t my busywork, it’s my life’s work.

5. Do this with heart:

In whatever you do, be the most caring and positive thought leader in your space. If your art isn't real and your heart isn't in your work, you won't be motivated or excited and you will burn out your soul trying to keep up. At the base of everything you do, you need to have heart. If people can tell that you genuinely care, and you keep demonstrating that with creative content that continues to serve them and showcase your heart, then you will be followed.

These five ideas will transform your work into art and will give you not just a bigger following, but a new level of energy, engagement, enthusiasm. You will have what we call The Charged Life!

Get the mp3/podcast of this episode free on iTunes. Get marketing training from Brendon here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey guys, it's Brendon. In this episode, I'm going to take on one of your biggest questions that I get which is, "Brendon, tell us how you do your social media?"

And honestly, I don't think I have ever shot a video just on this little piece of it here because usually it's not my focus. I teach all the marketing stuff and everything that I do in the professional world in terms of writing books or doing online courses or teaching seminars or online marketing in terms of sharing content and getting paid for it. That's all through a program I do called Experts Academy. You can look it up.

Most Experts Academy graduates are the legends and leaders today in the Thought Leadership field. From New York Times best-selling authors to major bloggers, YouTubers, huge guys doing online marketing and launches.

But I usually don't emphasis a whole lot about social media but let me just share a little bit about it today to give context. I'm going to give you four quick ideas of some simple things you can do to get better at it and ultimately, hopefully, get a little more following behind what you're doing because I'm sure you're trying to share something with the world that you find beautiful or impactful or important or meaningful. If you aren't there's your problem. So, I hope you're starting there.

But couple of simple ideas:

1. Number 1: Is to get a big following you have to read every day.

I wake up in the morning personally and I read. I read inspiring things. I'll read some Emerson. I'll read a lot of philosophy about life. I'll read some narratives or biographies of people who inspire me.

I get my mind in the morning whether it's on poetry or philosophy or political figure, something that inspires me to be thinking in a bigger way, that's what I do every day. I think that your following ultimately comes from how big your thinking is.

You know if you're just micro-managing and living in one little world as much as they want to teach you to be a niche marketer.

No, we want you to be a thought leader. There's a big difference.

Are you a niche marketer or are you a thought leader?

And I choose thought leadership and I think it's valuable. I think it's important for you to be broadening:

Your own mindset.

Your own philosophy.

About life or business, or career or whatever your topic is and be broadening that by reading more in that area because reading more will make you more creative.

You already know, readers are leaders, leaders are readers and so you got to be reading things that digest in your mind that oddly, suddenly will come out in a creative thought or a creative act and it shows creative thoughts and acts get you followed online.

I never imagined where we'd be today as I'm shooting this video we've got, what, 3 million followers on Facebook alone. That's just on my personal branded page. I own a bunch of other Facebook pages that collectively have over 8 million likes. So, I have about 10 million likes out there running for us today and that all came from this perspective about creativity. You’ve got to have it.

We got more followers today than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Richard Branson. I mean, this is no joke and that just comes because I do it every day. I think that it's really important, that leads us to,

2. Number 2: You need to create something unique every day.

Why?

Because creators are the people who are followed and so that could be for you today. You're just walking around and you create something. You take a picture of something, you design it, you put a good quote on it. Or maybe you just, you see something beautiful, you take a snap of that and talk about it. Or maybe you just write a post, something every day and it's not for the followership.

I don't create something every day for you guys even though it might appear that way. I do it also for my own personal development.

It's in the act of creating the genius comes out almost by accident. You don't sit down and go, "I'm going to have a genius out today". It's not how this works.

You sit down and you create and it's in the moments of creation that suddenly things come out that later on are defined as genius. But read everything you can about great writers in history and you'll see the same story again and again and again.

They didn't wait for inspiration to strike. They sat down at a certain time and they had discipline to do it every day and by being in that space that the great words came out.

Same thing with the great filmmaker—they're getting out there. They're on production. 

You might turn this video off here today but I guarantee as soon as you turn it off, I'm out there thinking, creating, coming up with the next thing and it's in that constant motion of creation that you will become prolific enough to then not only be able to create on-demand but to create that followership because followership comes from being prolific.

You got to do something every day to keep your personal growth going to keep in the space. 

Now, it doesn't mean you have to post every day. That might not be your thing. But you could create something every day and store it up and then release it but it's from that content library that you will build your following. I know you know this but I think it's one things that made us different.

3. I would say another thing is that you want to create things to be multi-purpose.

From this video, we might pull a couple of quotes that I said, put them on some images, post it all over.

I might use the audio of this video and post that on my podcast. 

I might take the transcripts from all this and post that as a full blog post across multiple things whether at my Huffington Post blog or my personal blog or at my LinkedIn blog.

I post it all over the place from this one thing, from this one episode that we're doing. I'll put it out in lots of different chunks and pieces all over the place and so I'm really only doing one action but from that one action we pull a lot of content to be used in different places and instead of having a single-use episode.

Like if I just shot this and posted it wherever you're watching it. By putting at all these other places, it's multi-purpose, multi-use and that starts building a followership in lots of different mediums.

I know you get that but the challenge is a lot of people won't do it consistent enough.

I do these shows at least every week and by doing this show every week, it gives us things to multi-purpose all week. You see? We're drawing from it.

People are like, "How do you create this stuff every day?"

I'm not necessarily. Like on my Facebook I'll post 4 times a day. It's not, I'm not always creating it original each time, all four times. Maybe one new thing is original each day and the other three are re-purposed from something else I did weeks ago, months ago, somewhere else like that.

I'm building up that library and yes I do 100% of all my posts on Facebook so if you've seen my post on Facebook that's me. I created that, I shaped that, I uploaded that. No one has access to my Facebook page to go and post something. I do that.

Now I'm developing as I'm building up and getting more and more followership around the world, I'm having other people who are going back into my content now and building new cards and building new things for me because I built it once, someone can go back and build it again and maybe change the picture, change the image, change the font and we'll put those up. I think that's been giving us a lot of growth behind that as well.

I think another part about it is just staying at it.

I don't know if you're just meeting me now but I've been doing a weekly email out to my email list since 2006, every week. So, if you look at them people who are the most followed they're usually the most prolific. Now, there's some people who come on, bam they make a big splash and they got lucky. They have their 15 minutes and they're amazing and they got tens of millions and that's awesome.

But you look at people who have a big following they've been working at it, even the musicians.

You look at the Lady Gagas and the Katy Perrys. I mean, they've been busting their ass for a long time. Now, it seems like they have this sudden success, but they've been working every day. Like true artists, true creators they were doing it before the following. The following came from their creativity and their work and their endurance, their consistency not the other way around.

It's not like they got a big following and they're like, "Oh I better work now." It's like no, they've been working and now they're getting rewarded for it. So, you got to stay consistent and by staying consistent you get better.

I do all my videos, zero notes, no teleprompter, no script, we just go. We got a plane flying over I'm sure you can hear. I just go and that comes from the ability of just doing it over and over and over and over again. You got to stay consistent and be there.

4. Last piece and I know these are so basic but I hope it's serving you in some way is: Do this with heart.

You can't survive doing this if your art isn't real, if your heart isn't in the work because:

You won't get up in the morning and be motivated for it.

You won't be excited about it.

You have to have at the base of all that you're posting. If people can tell that you care, you'll be followed.

If people can tell that you care about values and humanity and the philosophy of living a good life and taking care of other people, respecting other people, you'll be followed.

You could become a caustic hater and may be you will gather a couple of people but you're never going to get millions of people and if you do, you'll burn out your soul because nobody wants to live a life where they're just criticizing and being a jerk.

Be the positive thought leader in whatever you do.

Be the most caring.

Be the most consistent.

Be the person who shows up.

And if you'll just show up every day with intension to capture:

One unique moment,

One unique lesson,

One unique story,

One unique quote,

One unique picture,

One unique video.

Whatever it is for you and your favorite medium; capture one thing every single day. You'll be fully energized with your life because life won't just be work anymore—it's art.

Now you find a new level of energy and engagement and enthusiasm. You'll have what we call, The Charged Life.

Like this? Please share it with your friends so that your loved ones can gain not only a bigger following, but a new level of energy, engagement, enthusiasm starting now. - Brendon