Hey everybody! It’s Brendon Burchard founder of High Performance Academy and author of Life’s Golden Ticket, The Millionaire Messenger and The Charge. Welcome to this month’s High Performance Academy Monthly, where every single month, we revisit the High Performance Academy model and we go in depth in just teaching you 4 strategies, or tools or tips that you can use to become more of a high performer this month in whatever career in you’re in and whatever environment you’re in.
Look, we’re all trying to become high performers at what we do, where we can maintain a significant high level of performance over a period of time. We don’t just want peak performance, we want sustained performance. And the way to do that is to really master 4 key areas of our life, as we always talk about in this series and at the High Performance Academy, which is mastering your psychology, your physiology, your productivity, and your persuasive ability- the ability to persuade others, your persuasion skills, so that you can have the influence you have and need in life.
So, this whole model that we talk about in High Performance Academy, and here in High Performance Academy Monthly, is built, as always, as a reminder, on your ability to be present, right? It’s always something I’ll remind you every single month. Are you being present right now? And, it’s the question I’ll remind you every single month in this series, which is- are you, when you’re going throughout your day, are you asking the essential question, “What level am I right now in terms of my physical vibrancy and presence in this moment?”
I ask that question to myself, as many of you know, hundreds of times a day I’m sure consciously and unconsciously, because I’ve asked it now for 15 years. What level am I right now in terms of my physical vibrancy and presence in this moment? What level am I right now in terms of my physical vibrancy and presence?
And by asking that question, I’m able to marshal up the emotional and physical energy I need to be a high performer at whatever I’m doing- whether it’s creating this video for you, or sitting down and typing an email, or launching a new campaign in marketing, or about to get on stage in front of thousands of people.
My job is to be fully present in the moment, and people feel when you’re fully present in the moment. When you fade away, they feel it. If I’m talking to you, and I’m fully engaged like this and we’re here having this dialogue, there’s almost an energy that I can push and pull back when I’m present, but there’s a second if I’m talking to you where I go away, you totally feel it.
If I’m right here and engaged with you and then I go (pause)… you feel it, right? Obviously. And I don’t have to move with you, there’s not big dramatic movements- when someone goes away, you feel them go away. So, as a reminder in this monthly series that presence is the base of everything in high performance.
You have to be able to be in the moment, be present, and be engaged. If, by the way, you’re not a member of High Performance Academy Monthly already, go ahead and click the subscribe button below this video after you watch the video. You’ll be able to get training like this every single month delivered to your inbox so that you can maintain your own motivation, energy, engagement with life, and truly achieve the highest levels of you life, because you’re operating from the High Performance mindset that we talk about.
So, this month, our theme is control. So many people feel out of control with their life. I thought I’d start here with this conversation about putting you back in control of the driver’s seat of your life. But not control in the OCD manner of being obsessive about anything, rather a fluid level of control in which you have the competence and confidence you need to really live your life with reigns in hand; with the ability to direct the function and the fate of your life; being able to have the control to know that you can master your own mind, body, ability to get stuff done, and your own relationships with other people to influence them, to inspire them hopefully to do a grander good in the world.
So, how do you do all that? Well, in talking about control this month, we have just 4 simple tools and strategies to think through, as we do every single month. We’re always going to live in each of these boxes with High Performance Monthly, and we’ll always have a theme. This month, again, is on control. So, what do we need to control for you to have a psychology of a high performer?
What are the elements of your psychology that you can control so that you can have a greater sense of certainty and security in your life, but also what we always talk about in The Charge, which is your ability to be fully engaged, energetic and enthusiastic.
So, this month what we want to control in your psychology is what we call ‘mind fuel’ and this should be a very basic understanding I hope, for you, of how you’re thinking through your psychology and really cultivating the psychology of a high performer.
What is mind fuel? I think of mind fuel as a few things. First, mind fuel is positive information coming in. This is really basic, I’m going to go over it quickly, but you should already know and I hope you’re already on an information diet. An information diet is where you’re limiting the amount of negative information coming into your life, the amount of, like, scandalous news information, “Alert, alert, alert!” and all that crap you see on the evening news every night.
Limiting the amount of negativity coming into your life overall so that your psychology can maintain the right space and the clean, positive space in which all high performance comes from. If you’re in a negative, upset space it’s going to be very hard for you to perform at high levels over a sustained period of time. Our goal is to limit negative information coming into your life- not in terms of feedback, but news media, dumb magazines about celebrities and what their dog looks like or is dressed like for that new awards show- just stuff that has no real meaning, and no real positive value and engagement to your life.
I think that’s basic and you understand the importance of that already. You also understand the importance of getting around positive people and creating a social peer set that is empowering and inspiring to you; that you’re around people who raise your level already.
High performers are really good about that. They’re always seeking out and developing relationships with people that lift them up, not push them down- Booker T Washington’s great quote, “There’s two ways to exert strength- one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.” So, think about those in terms of your positivity, but let’s get a little more advanced here with High Performance Monthly.
Other things that you have to control in terms of mind fuel, are things that we’re learning about from neuroscientists. I’m a deep student in the study of neuroscience. I’m always keeping up with the latest trends, tools and knowledge that we’re learning from that field, and one of the things we continue to find out is what really engages the mind; what really lights up in our head and in our psychology; what releases those great dopamine hormones that make us feel connected.
The molecules of dopamine that drops into our mind, that makes us feel alive, engaged, enthusiastic and happy, that comes from continually introducing newness and novelty into our mind. One of the greatest mind fuels we can put into our psychology and our life, is newness, novelty, new things. Are you doing new experiences that are engaging your mind? Are you creating new experiences with your spouse, and with the people you work with, to generate that level of engagement with life?
What are you doing new right now in your life, on a continual basis? Interesting question, right? Maybe for you it’s as simple as going to a new restaurant every single time you have a date night with your sweetheart, trying to learn a new language, trying to develop a new skill, trying to develop something new.
For me, every 30 days, I take on a new personal development challenge. That, for me, engages me in a new effort every single month, and that newness is sparking my brain and my psychology to continually meet the world from a learning perspective and from a mastery perspective. Y
ou want to master your mind? Develop learning and mastery capabilities. The way to do that is taking new things into your life. Obviously, with that, comes challenge. We’ve learned so much from (?) who wrote this great book called Flow. The happiest moments of our life are when we’re challenged just beyond our current abilities or skills in an endeavor we find exciting or engaging.
It’s in being in that moment, or that ‘optimal experience’, as he calls it, that really makes our mind come to life, and makes our psychology feel much more buoyant. So, you want to take on new things, but you want to take on challenges too. And most people shrink from challenge- they don’t want to be pushed.
You’re challenged enough in your life right now. You’re probably challenged to keep up with me, as fast as I’m talking, but I’ll tell you what’s going to make the difference in your life- challenge. I can take a person who’s down and out, and claiming to be depressed, and just say, “You know what we need to do with you? We need to insert the right levels of newness and challenge into your life, and your psychology will switch.”
Most people who are having a midlife crisis, are really just in need of a grand new adventure, or challenge, to respark the best within them. What challenges are you facing in your life- the positive kind that you’re setting up? Not the challenges that life throws at you, but the challenges that you emanate from your self.
It’s our great saying from High Performance Academy- there’s two things that change your life, either something new comes into your life, or something new comes out of you. You want to change your psychology and hit the highest levels of performance? Then introduce new, challenging things into your life. Should make sense.
And the last piece about mind fuel is to understand that what’s really going to engage your psychology and your sense of enthusiasm for life, is you introducing new questions into your life that focus on optimism. Optimism is one of the most studied topics in all of psychology and what we know about optimism is that optimists actually take on more challenge in their lives than pessimists. Why? Because pessimists say, “Ugh! It’s so terrible, I can’t change it, it will always be that way, it’s out of my control and this is just going to last forever! This is horrible.” They don’t do anything, they just bitch and moan.
But people who are actually in charge in life, the high performers, those are the ones who look at things optimistically and say, “Yea, that’s a problem, but it can be handled. I can handle it, and we can change this thing.” So, we want to introduce a whole new level of optimism in your life.
Here’s just one simple tool for you to be able to do that. Every single morning, while you’re in the shower, here’s all I want you to do, just ask one question- and obviously through High Performance Monthly here, we’ll be giving you a lot of questions to ask yourself. Believe me, this is just one question.
You might get up to several questions in the show that you’re going to ask yourself through this series, but this first question I really want you to focus on. What in my life can, and should, I be enthusiastic about? What am I looking forward to in this day? Or what could I? What can I create in this day- just dream up right now, in the shower- that would make this day fun and engaging?
You just sit there and think of things to be optimistic about, or you do things to be engaged with that you just come with in the day. I might be in the shower thinking about this, like, “I’m just going to- it’s going to be random, but- when I go downtown this day, I’m just going to stop by a flower shop, pick up some flowers and take it over to my lady where she’s working, and I’m just going to deliver some great flowers to her with a big smile, and just light her up.
The thing I’m looking forward to this day, that I’m optimistic about, is lighting up my lady.” I might think about, “Today when I go in with my team, I’m going to purposely make them laugh harder than they’ve ever laughed. I don’t know how, but when I get there, I’m going to focus on making this meeting fun today. That’s what I’m enthusiastic about.” So, you’re creating enthusiasm and optimism in your life.
Not by chance, because something new came into your life, because a new question is coming out of you in life. You go, “What can I be optimistic about? What can I create in my life to be optimistic about?” That level of optimism, that you can create from that, will heighten and really significantly move the needle in terms of your happiness, your engagement, and obviously your enthusiasm about life.
This High Performance Monthly series is all about those things. What moves the needle the most for you every single month, related to this theme? In controlling your psychology, control that mind fuel- what positive is coming into you mind, the positive people that you’re around.
Make sure that you absolutely control that optimism that you can have. That ability to look forward to something that’s so important. But, be brave enough to introduce some new things into your life, and take on some new challenges as well. All of those things, just 4 simple things to control, but controlling them- being alert and aware to them; present with those ideas- will make you much more of high performer.
Next, in your physiology, what can you control to feel like to feel like more engaged in life? Well, I want you to control your motion and breath breaks. What do I mean? Our bodies get tired, and many of you, and many of us as a cultural society these days, especially in the western hemispheres, we’re sitting down behind a computer all friggin day long. That takes its toll on your physical body. That should make sense, the more physically drained you are, the more mentally drained you are.
We want these things to be so lit up for you- your mind and your body- so lit up, so engaged and energetic, and energized, that your ability to get stuff done and influence people is like that (snap), because when you’re at this level of presence, when you are at that plate where you generate the energy.
It’s one of my most famous quotes that you see on the blogs all the time with my name attached to, which is that, “The power plant doesn’t HAVE energy, it GENERATES energy.” Makes sense, right?
Physically, and psychologically, I should be wiped out right now. We’ve been in the studio all day shooting videos, we’ve been doing this, there’s plenty of reasons for me to be exhausted after an accident I had a couple of months ago that I’m still recovering from, but I don’t let that win. I generate the energy by my breath and my motion. You can do the same thing here.
What I want you to do is, several times throughout the day, I aim for at least once an hour, every single hour, no matter what I’m doing, I break from it and then I just move around. I go for a quick walk, or I literally just wander around- I’m moving around, I’m doing some Chi Gong, in my office, or I’m just patting down parts of my body, opening up my meridians of energy, I’m going just to get a glass of water, I’m stretching, every single hour.
I literally have, on my computer at my house, something that goes off for me every 45 minutes. And that 45 minutes, I get up away from the computer if I’m home, and I go get a big glass of water, I down the glass of water, and I stretch.
And if you’ve ever known me, or been with me personally in a small group, you’ll see me, I’m always like this- I’m always just rotating my hips. I’m talking and I’m rotating my hips as I’m with a group of people. And I’m someone’s talking to me, I’m shifting- not because I’m a shifty dude, because I’m always moving my energy around to keep it engaged, because when you’ve got to do this- when you’ve got to stand up and influence people, which I know as a high performer you have to do- you’ve got to move your body.
I need you to gesture more with your hands. Not because we need you to be a crazy communicator like me, but because the motion of moving around is circulating energy. And, we need you to breath. You need to take deep breaths in. Like that. Several times throughout the day.
We teach a series of doing that at High Performance Academy, that gets people literally- they’re like fired up and engaged. You need to do that multiple times a day. Do it in a way that’s appropriate for your physical health, but I don’t want you just breathing deep easily and yoga, and ommmm. No, I want you to actually breath deep like that to begin, but then I want you to breath more forcefully to generate a different level of engagement with your body, and yes I know some people won’t like that idea, and I understand the eastern philosophy sometimes of breathing longer and deeper. I do know that you need to do that, but I also want to peak your level of energy.
And, to peak your level of energy so it sustains now into high performance. We also need to get breath going at the level of… That’s a different level of forcefulness, and if you do that multiple times a day, every single hour that you moving around, you’re going to take a nice deep breath, and you’re going to take a breathing breath at that level of forcefulness, you will find a whole new level of energy in your body like you’ve never experienced before.
Pretty helpful so far, right? So, next, what are we going to do to control your productivity levels? What I want you to focus on is agenda reclamation- reclaiming your agenda. This is the number one thing that high performers have a challenge with, but when they overcome it, that’s what makes them the best performers in the world- world class is taking back control of their agenda. I’ll remind you of this throughout the series every single month because we all need that reminder. I don’t care how great of a performer you are in your life right now, you need to be hearing, “Reclaim your agenda. You got distracted. You’re running a million miles an hour in everyone else’s agendas. You’ve gotten off your path.”
I needed to hear that. I run an 8 figure a year business now, I have 5 extremely successful, profitable brands out there. I get to choose most every single day what my agenda is. And yet, I’m also at the whim of that inbox, just like everybody else is sometimes. That I just get distracted, I get sucked into the inbox. One of my other famous quotes is, “The inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system for other people’s agendas.” And so, you need to understand that every time you open that inbox, in this digital age where we’re driven by so much of our messaging back and forth through email, and social media, that it’s easy to get sucked into the wormhole of the online environment.
What I need you to do is really reclaim your agenda, and a simple tool to do that is below this video, you can download the High Performance Academy one page productivity planner. It’s just our one page productivity planner. It’s just a simple page that I’d like you to start your mornings with.
I don’t want you to go do a bunch of other things. Just take that tool, download it, print a bunch of them- every morning, before you go to your computer- do not go to your computer, don’t look at your phone, don’t get yourself sucked into other people’s agendas.
When you wake up, drink a nice big glass of water, and then another nice big glass of water. You’ve been sleeping for 6, 7, 8, 9 hours, so you are dehydrated. You need to drink some water.
Then, after you do that, as your beginning your day, and maybe you go work out, but when it’s time to start the day in terms of your work, sit down with the high performance academy planner. Sit down with that, work through that first, just as it directs you, where you really focus on thinking at a strategic level, “What are the big projects I’m working on? Who are the people I need to reach out to, and I’m waiting for a decision on them? And, what are the priorities and the things I need to do, this day, no matter what?”
Then, the way you start your day is you start with the people category. You go into your inbox, if you’re going to go in your inbox, and you reach out to the people that you need to reach out to. You look for the emails from the people you’re waiting for the decision on. If you don’t hear from them, you email them, say, “ I’m waiting to hear from you.” Then you close that inbox. Get outta there! And do all those priorities.
Once you’ve finished all those priorities, then go back in your inbox and see what other people’s agendas are, reply to those to the need in which you must do. Some people, if they’re customer service people, they need to be in there all day, they need to be in there a lot.
But, if you’re the owner of your business, you shouldn’t be spending very much time in your inbox every single day. You should be focusing on creating real value for your customers, your overall strategy, and the operational excellence of your business, and not be sucked into that inbox.
Remember, the tool is just a tool for communicating. It’s a tool that you control, and you must control it. And then, another idea about controlling your agenda, is just to look at your life on a continual basis, and I encourage you to do that this month and just look at the different areas of your life and say, “Is what I’m doing there really what I want to be doing? Am I really showing up in that part of my life with my own agenda?” I mean every part of your life, from what you’re wearing right now- if you think about what you’re wearing right now, is that on your agenda?
I know that sounds silly to say, but what I mean by that is when I think about your life’s agenda, I think about you showing up with your own consciously set goals and preferences and direction, in every area of your life. So yea, even as simple as what you’re wearing is really a reflection of who you fully are, who you want to be, what you want to demonstrate in life. That should be important to you.
Well, the same thing, when you’re showing up with your spouse, are you really showing up in the agenda of the best human being of who you are can be? Are you really showing up and thinking about your life and your family and directing that life and your family where you want it to go? Or, are you just responding to every single crazy cry of your child?
There’s some level in which you’ve got to take back the agenda of your life, and the control and the reigns of your life and direct this thing to where you want it to go, because everybody in the world is going to try to push you off into different directions, and I just wanted to be a nice monthly reminder to you saying, “Hey man. Hey lady. You have the opportunity to take back the control,” and to not try to be obsessively control, but make sure that your agenda in life, is being fulfilled so that when you get to the end of this big long meeting of ours called life, you look back to all of your interactions and all of your goals, and all of the things you tried to achieve and all the things you tried to be and say, “I was being fully me.
I was running my own race. I was willing to take the road less traveled to set up my own path, and I lived my life, not someone else’s life.” That is important. Never forget, at the end of your life, you will ask, “Did I live? Did I live fully and vibrantly? Did I live my life?” You will ask, “Did I love? Did I love openly and honestly and completely?” And, you will ask, “Did I matter? Did I make a difference?”
And the reality is, if you’re on other people’s agendas, you will never be able to live, love and matter at the full level at which you could if you just made a conscious choice today to take back your agenda, especially from the inbox monster, and control your life and your daily actions every single day. One last thing, persuasion.
This is really important. This is very simple, basic, and everybody forgets it. This importance of acknowledging, and appreciating the other person in any influence relationship. Sounds so incredibly basic to say you should acknowledge and appreciate people. But, do you know the number one reason people leave a job? They don’t feel appreciated. They don’t feel acknowledged for their hard work.
That’s world wide, by the way. The number one reason people are unsatisfied and leave their work- they don’t feel acknowledged, they don’t appreciated. Want to know something else? The number one reason people leave relationships, has nothing to do with how sexy you are, how good in bed you are, how rich you are, how much stuff you have, it has to do with do you adore, honor, and appreciate fully the person who sits in front of you and lays next to you every single night.
So, understanding that, when I think of persuasion, I don’t think of persuasion as the old style of, “I’m trying to persuade someone to do x for me.” I think of persuasion as an influence relationship. A relationship where I’m influencing the other, they’re influencing me. It’s a two-way street and together, we’re creating something remarkable together.
That’s the way I think of persuasion in general. So, what I want you to think about is in all relationships of your life- and I really mean that, in all of you relationships- are you really acknowledging and appreciating the other person when you’re speaking with them, when you’re talking with them, when you’re blessed to be in their company.
The way I think about other people is like, I’m so happy and honored to be around them, and I’m so thankful for what they give to my life, just being in my life, not happy by what I get from them, happy by what I receive from them just by them being there. And I focus so much on honoring people and acknowledging them, and appreciating them, from what I say to my staff and team members, to how much I pay them, to what I say to my wife, and how much I pay her- I’m teasing! But I really want you to think about, are you really honoring and appreciating your loved ones? When is the last time you sent out some thank you cards? When is the last time you picked up the phone and just said, “I just wanted to thank you for what you’ve been doing for me recently.
I don’t really have a reason to call, I just- I’ve been thinking about all the people I’m grateful for in my life, and you’re one of them. I know it’s kind of weird. I honor and I respect everything that you give to our organization,” or, “I honor and appreciate our friendship. I just wanted to say thank you, because I love you, because I care for you, because I see you, because I hear you, because I want us to have a great relationship.” Whatever it is for you.
This month, pick up the phone when you’ve finished this video. The greatest tool I can give you to high performance and creating great relationships is a piece of paper and a pen, and write down all of the people you should call, email, or send a thank you card to. Just really honor them and appreciate them.
Then, if you’re fortunate to be with your spouse, your lover, your partner, someone you’re dating, when they show up today and you see them for the first time after watching this video, light up! Get fully present with them. Give them a big hug. Adore them and just smother them with love and appreciation like, “What the hell happened to you?” And you’re like, “Nope. No reason. I was just thinking of you today.”
I think that will help move the needle for you, every single day. So, that’s this month’s High Performance Academy monthly. If you’re not a member, check out the information below, hit subscribe, join us. Every single month I send out a video just like this.
If you’re looking for the reminders that you need to become a high performer, I hope this video served you and I hope this series continues to serve you. We’d love to have you part of the series if you’re not already. Go ahead and click below and every single month, I’ll send you another new video just like this to keep you sustaining at the highest levels of performance, and frankly, at the highest levels of your own humanity.
You have the opportunity every single day to show up, to generate something new out of you, generate a level of energy in which you are so engaged, and enthusiastic, and just energized by life, that your life can feel fully charged every single day.
That’s what this series is about, that’s what my work in the world is all about, and I look forward to helping you with that every single time I have the blessing to come across your inbox, and every single time I have a blessing to talk to you just like this.
I look forward to seeing you next month, I look forward to seeing you out on the road if I happen to pass and cross paths with you. Until then, as ever, every single day, go out there, live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.
The program is a live 4-day event hosted by Brendon Burchard, the #1 bestselling author of Life’s Golden Ticket and the new book, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive.
If you don’t know Brendon Burchard, you may have heard of his very successful “Experts Academy Elite Coaching Program“, which is already in its third edition. I am an Experts Academy customer, you can read more about it my Experts Academy Review page. I can’t write a High Performance Academy review yet, but if this program is like his other “stuff”, then it will be outstanding and worth the investment.
