SUMMARY

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[The following is the full transcript of this episode of The Brendon Show. Please note that this episode, like all TBS episodes, features Brendon speaking extemporaneously–he is unscripted and unedited. Filmed in one take, The Brendon Show has become one of the most viewed unscripted, direct-to-camera self-help series in the history of YouTube. It has also been the #1 Podcast in all of iTunes and is regularly in the top podcasts in Self-Help and Health categories around the globe. Subscribe to the free motivational podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.)

There are a hundred different performance variables in the literature that have been shown to lead to long-term success. But only six of them lead to long-term success and well-being — which means life satisfaction. If you will, happiness and positive relationships over the long- term, meaning you and I both know some people have success and then they’re jerks to everybody around them and they’re miserable inside, or they have success, but they burn themselves out completely without realizing you can have “success”.

But real success means you achieve your long-term goals. And while achieving your long-term goals, you maintain health and well-being and you maintain positive relationships in your community.

That’s high performance! That’s what we academically mean by the study of high performance habits.

1. Have The 1st Of The Month Be Your Growth Day

So the way that I do it here is, you want to know my famous Battle Board technique. Here’s how I think of winning the month. Winning the day. The hour, the year. OK, everything begins for me on the first of the month. The first of the month has always been my growth day. So that’s why we started calling this GrowthDay, right? The first of the month, every first of the month, always since I was 19-years-old, get probably like two hours of real deep reflection and personal development. That means for me journaling and planning. Journaling to capture where I am in my life, how do I feel about all these major areas of my life, my health, my relationships, my wealth, my career, my lifestyle, my adventure, my family, my friends? So I do what’s called the whole life assessment in the High Performance Planner. For those who have that, I basically journal on the High Performance Planner the whole life assessment that I do every first of the month. And I’ve been in that for years.

2. Decide Your Five Major Moves

And then I also look out at the moment and I ask myself some simple questions about this upcoming month. I ask, “What are my five major moves this month?” Meaning, what are the five major activities or initiatives? You might call them projects that I’m working towards and I’m moving forward. Those are going to be on the board, I’ve got to know that each month. Right, we call on the five moves, so I know my five moves for the month, so I start with that second plan which says, “OK, what’s my five major moves that I break down my five major moves?” So an activity, let’s say one of the major moves is: “write a book”. Right? That could be a major move. Well, one of the moves under that, what are the activities below that? You know, “contact agent”, right? “Three chapters do this type of research. And, you know, do these interviews.” Okay, cool.

3. Schedule Block Time

Then I make sure that whatever I just wrote down has listened block time. Block time, meaning whatever those five major moves like I do that there’s block time in the month, a block of time, meaning there is an hour dedicated to those subtasks of the activity. It’s blocked in the calendar. It’s protected at the beginning. The amount is locked in that calendar. Nothing moves the five major moves. Y’all hear me? I set those like anchors in the month. Everything else rotates around those, and is rescheduled around those. Those things are going to happen. It doesn’t matter. Those things are going to happen.

4. Communicate Your Calendar

So now I’ve taken the major things I should be working on, I’ve broken it down and it lands in the calendar. Now sit down with your spouse or sit down with your executive team or sit down with that right hand gal or guy that you have and go through the calendar.

I can guarantee your success based on how much you communicate your calendar. If no one knows what you are trying to do, then no one can be along for the ride to support you.

If no one knows the time in which you’re trying to protect, they can’t be your block-and-tackle person with you. So if you are striving alone in the dark all the time and not speaking to anybody, which is the lone genius metaphor that still exists in pop culture, but is completely antithetical to any real research in High Performance. Then you’ve got to realize, “Oh, I got to tell my spouse, my partner, this is what I am trying to do this month. Here are the major blocks. If you need to protect the time, this is what those blocks are for.” So that both listen, I’m assessing where my life is. I’m planning the month ahead and I’m communicating the month ahead. You do that on the first of the month. It’s a shift. It’s a huge shift, especially if you’re not currently doing that with discipline.

5. Sunday Growth Day

Then my next growth day, if you will, my next growth day will be on Sundays. Sundays I do a very similar process is shorter, but I look out on that calendar and that’s where I might reshuffle things or change things. By the way, I want you to all know I suck at planning. And I do this so that I still achieve my dreams. As you heard me say earlier, I keep my mornings free. I really protect my mornings. But still, on Sunday, I evaluate where I’m going, “Is this what I want? OK, is that where I’m going? Great. OK, cool.”

On a daily basis, let’s talk about that. Every single day, I have my morning routine. You got to have your morning routine. For me, I get up for 20 minutes, I basically, what do I do? I do a 60-minute morning routine. And I built my life to be able to do that. And so it usually has this combination of these things: 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes of reading personal development or leadership or history, 20 minutes with that High Performance Planner planning out the day, setting the intention, prioritizing and visualizing the day’s activities. Here’s what I mean by that.

So when I write up my planner for the day and I have a meeting or a presentation or a work effort in the morning, I already know that block of time. I close my eyes. I imagine that block of time. How would I do that with excellence? How would I do that with joy? What might trip me up or stress me out? And how would my highest self deal with that situation? So I look at every major thing I have to do that day, and I just close my eyes and I visualize it and think about those questions. In other words, that’s what a pro would call mental rehearsal. Visualizations. Good old-fashioned personal development.

Imagine it before you do it, and you’ll do it better.

Especially if you heard what I just shared, what might trip me up? What might stress me out? So as an example, today, I thought, you know, it might stress me out, trip me up if I don’t eat enough. I’d better make sure I’ve got food, I’ve got water, I’ve got everything handled. OK, great. Because when I don’t do that, problems arise after this many hours.

OK, cool. Got to make sure I do this health care. So I imagine that this morning. OK, I’ve got to get that mental visualization preparation every day. Every day. So that might sound like a lot, but it’s not.

6. Friday Finishers

The other secret, GrowthDay members, you know this, is “Friday finishers”. A Friday finisher, what does that mean? You should have it next to your computer or on a wall somewhere. A Friday finisher is your task list for the week. It means these things, it might be you might call your deliverables your task. It means these items are finished by the end of the day, Friday. Friday finishers. They’re non-negotiable as well. I have to finish this by the end of the week.

And by knowing my Friday finishers, I get to go on the weekend free. I don’t know about you, but I hate to get into a Saturday afternoon going, “Oh, I forgot I was supposed to do that thing.” How much stress we have. “Oh, I forgot, that’s supposed to be the thing.” It could have taken 20 minutes of planning.

And so I know that sounds like a lot and some of you will go, “Boy, that Brendon is a control freak!” No, remember, I’m walking around like an idiot half the morning. I’m not a control freak. Guess what?

As you’ve always heard, discipline gives you freedom. The more disciplined you are about the blocks of time in which meaningful processes, meaningful pursuits must happen. You protect them. You organize your mind and your day around those things and you move towards them.

I promise you will give you a different result. I promise you that will be a different result.