Brendon Burchard: The World’s Most Successful People Have 6 Surprising Habits In Common

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. Now, if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to be a high performer in your life, today’s guest is going to show you how. Brendon Burchard is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and USA Today best-selling author and the world’s leading high performance coach. Tens of millions of people have watched his videos and completed his training courses.

Brendon is also the star and executive producer of the online YouTube show, The Charged Life, and the podcast of the same name, which debuted at number one on iTunes. His latest book is called High-Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way.

Brendon!

What?

It’s so good to have you here!

Thank you. This is so pretty up here. I can’t believe how awesome it is.

I know. But this is like – this is fun, because this is actually the second time that you’re on the show. But last time we did this, we did Skype-o-rama.

Yes. And yours cut out like halfway through.

Of course it did.

But I loved it because you still aired it, so you had my face there. And I’m at home. I wasn’t sure – I don't think I knew it was a Skype interview. And I had this shirt and it was open like, my hair was like over here.

You were great. We had so much fun.

I wish you’d told me – I’m gonna block out my face, Brendon. I would’ve been like, “Oh, dude. Block out mine. This is great.”

That was called technical difficulties.

Yes.

Anyway, my point being I’m so happy that we’re doing this right now.

Thank you.

First of all, I need to congratulate you. So your sixth book. Right? High Performance Habits.

Sixth. Yes.

This is a great beast.

It’s a beast.

But I want to congratulate you because it’s fantastic.

Thank you.

So talk to me about why. What inspired this book and why now?

Uh, yeah. I mean, every one of my books have been completely different. You know, one’s Life’s Golden Tickets, like this parable. It’s a story. The Charge was based on some neuroscience. The last one, Motivation Manifesto, was like philosophy, you know, injected with like warrior-ism.

But this one I said, “you know what I want to do is I actually want to empirically test whether what I believe leads to high performance is true or not.” Because I think at some point with our platforms, you know, we can all share what we know from our life experience, and that’s really incredible and it’s valuable. It’s important what we do. And then I have to think we have to at some point say, “but is it true and are there nuances that research would prove out?”

And so this became the world’s largest study ever on high performance. Last three years of my life, a full academic team … and all we did is survey, interview, survey, interview, run the data. Survey, interview, survey, interview, run the data. Largest ever not even comparable by over 100,000 people is what we did. And what we teased out was that there’s only six habits that actually empirically can be proven lead to high performance. That’s – high performance just means long-term success.

Yup. Sustainable.

Sustained long-term success, which is huge. But so I’ve been teaching high performance academy for eight, nine years. And the good thing about doing research is there were some things I taught, they were wrong. And there are some things I taught, there was just so much nuance to it, now I can teach it better.

And also I think a lot of people want to know in personal development, is any of this provable? I think that’s why positive psychology is so important. And we had researches from University of Pennsylvania helping us with this. So they just want to know is this – is it real?

Yeah.

And we teased out over 21 different habits, and then we asked, can it be replicable? Meaning are high performers who are doing this, are they just freaking amazing?

Yup.

Or can you practice that? Then we said is it actually effective across domains, meaning is this – would this prove out true for an athlete versus an assistant versus, you know, a barista versus the CEO in Fortune 50? Which it did.

Then we asked is it something that’s trainable? Like can we empirically prove it can – you can take somebody here over to here in a couple of weeks on this particular item? And we ran all the research and it came down to these six high performers in the book. Or, high performance habits in the book. And I’m super excited about it, because it’s done. It was three years and it nearly killed me.

I remember our texts back and forth while you were creating this, but I – you did a phenomenal job. But let’s – I want to tag onto something that you mentioned. It was actually my next question, but it weaves in nicely with what you discovered.

I was curious throughout this journey, was there anything that surprised you? And one thing that you mentioned, you’re like, “hey. There were some things that I thought were in the ‘yes’ column” that you discovered based on the research are not. So I’m curious if you can tell us a little bit about what surprised you and what…

It was three years of surprises. I mean, the ah-ha’s I had going through this journey were so great, but it was difficult. You know, it made me – I mean, I was away from family and friends. I didn't get to see you. It’s been – I mean, you mentioned our last interview. I’ve basically been doing research since then. I mean, it’s just been really, really intense.

But the learnings kept me going even though I didn't get to see family and friends as much, because I was just – every day was, “Oh, what? Oh, that’s a thing?” And, for example, big ones. Big biases I had that were wrong, and you’re not gonna like this one and no one’s going to like it. But creativity is not strongly correlated with high performance. I would have … three years, I would argue. I mean, I would’ve been – I would have passionately argued against it, because I’m a creative.

Yeah.

This is my life. I write, I train, I speak. That’s what – I would’ve argued forever. I’ve designed all the covers of my books.

Yeah.

I mean, I dork out about design. I design all my webpages. I’m – I believe that creativity must give the edge, and it does give an edge in certain circumstances, for sure. But I interviewed a Fortune 50 CTO, chief technology officer. Unbelievably high-performing people. Their stock is off the roof. And what he said, he goes, “Brendon, I’m not a creative person. My team isn’t particularly creative.” But long-term success matters just as much about execution and consistency and showing up as the creative edge. The creative edge might get you in the game. Because, remember, high performance is long-term success. We’re not studying initial success. It’s very – initial success, you know, grit, creativity, originality. All these things, very important. The spark, the get you in the game, for sure. But even Jim Rohn said, you know, “motivation gets you in the game, habits keep you there.”

And creativity as a habit – the spark that might be called original creativity, it might only happen for us every two to three years. So that’s not sufficient. We’ve got to show up on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. Execution is more important as an example. So we talk about the kinds of creativity that actually matter, but it’s not strongly correlated almost across all industries. And I would have completely argued with that.

Another one, you know, we tend to think – I would have thought the older you get the more likely it is you’re a high performer, because wisdom.

Yeah.

There’s a lot of old, lazy people.

Yup.

You know?

Stuck in their ways. Doing the same thing that they’ve been doing day in and day out.

Yeah. So I think there's a lot of demographic things I would have – I would have assumed certain countries. We did – this includes research from 195 countries. We wanted this to be global and we wanted the largest one ever. And I would’ve thought certain countries, you know, we all have like, you know, I buy lots of cool Scandinavian furniture. That doesn't quite necessarily mean anything. Right? We make these assumptions about things, and so we dispel a lot of it.

And the good news is, all six habits are things everyone can do. They’re not innate, they’re not like “you’re lucky and born with that.” And everything that we learned that, you know, when people have an excuse they say, well, “I’m too young.” Or they say...

“I’m too old.”

“Or I’m from this demographic, I’m from that town.” None of that matters. And we proved it. We said these are the only things that matter. And that’s what excites me about it is because I can now share these little nuances and people go, “Oh, that’s what matters and that will help me get ahead.”

Yeah. And it levels the playing field for all of us. And I feel like that’s one of the other things I really appreciate about the book.

You know, you wrote that “achievement is not the problem, alignment is.” Can we talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. I wish it was my line. It was one of my clients. She’s – I mean, she manages over 10,000 people. Like, she has 10,000 direct reports. She’s just an unbelievable achiever. And when I started working with her, I mean, just like a lot of people, their struggles aren’t “can I make a goal list and a checklist” and, you know, “can I get things done.” Because people get stuff done all the time, but our busy work isn’t always our life’s work.

And so you have to learn that we have to find that thing that we can align to. And a lot of people, they’re achieving themselves into the wrong thing. They put the ladder against the wrong building. They just haven’t really figured out what’s important to them.

And, most importantly, alignment also includes harmony in your life. Because a lot of people achieve and achieve in their career, and then they’re divorced. People achieve and achieve and achieve, and they’re fat and they didn't take care of themselves, and they know it. And it sounds horrible to say it, but they know it. And so you have to figure out like, “okay, how can we align ourselves to something that we really care about?” And not align like sometimes on a Monday or a Tuesday, or not just in our career but really get our relationships, our health, our career all in alignment to help us become in high performing. Because high performing isn’t just achievement for achievement’s sake.

Right.

What we found in that study is high performers also value well-being more than almost any other demographics that we’ve ever measured. And you and I know that, but it’s actually the second habit in here is the ability to generate energy. And that’s mental, physical, and emotional energy. And we can talk about the nuances in all of that.

Yeah, that’s actually some place I want to go next, but I don't want to cut you off because you’re on a train.

Yeah. No, that’s it. I mean, it’s so important. And so when we say alignment we don't just mean choosing the right thing. We mean generally creating some kind of harmonious alignment in your life. I don't use, you know, I wouldn’t say that in the book, but that, you know, that’s really what it is.

It really is, because, you know, in thinking about how each of us define success, it’s such a unique thing. But those components of health and your family and how you feel every day and the meaningfulness of it, it has to be there.

So I say for people watching, if you’re in this place where you’re – you really feel like you’re struggling but you’re like, “Damn, I’m working so hard,” I would say what she said to me. You know, “achievement is not the problem, alignment is.” Once we got her aligned, I mean, her life came back. I mean, literally this person felt like their life was a waste, like they had spent 20 years doing something that wasn’t the right thing. And there’s a lot of guilt and shame and frustration there.

And but I’m like you’re a badass, but she didn't feel right because she wasn’t in alignment. As soon as we got her in alignment, I mean, literally weeks, she changed. I mean, you would have thought she had, you know, some Renaissance of the mind. And it wasn’t that many things. Just sometimes you’re actually not off by, you know, 50 feet like you think you are. You’re off by like four or five degrees. And if we can align your relationships, your career, and your health back into the right angle for you, you come back to life.

Yeah. It’s huge. One of the distinctions I loved in the book was about emotions and feelings and how you parsed through that. And your framework, and I’ll paraphrase here so feel free to correct, emotions are instinctual. Like they often just appear. Right? Where feelings relate to our interpretation and we can better influence them. I’d love you to talk a little bit about that, because I think it’s a really important distinction, especially as it’s related to energy and this idea of high performance.

Yes. One of the major, major keys we found, the first high performing habit, is seek clarity. And what we found is one of the practices that high performers do is they define the feeling they’re after. And so when we had explained that and later talk about in the energy chapter, we had to differentiate between feelings and emotions. And they are different. Emotions tend to be – they’re the same.

Yeah.

Like we – they’re physical, they’re almost always automatic, even though in the brain is creating associations as often happen, for us they just kinda…

Emotion comes up.

Yeah. You’re watching a movie and you’re sad. And you’re like, “Oh, my gosh,” you know? “I’m crying.” You didn't even have the tissues ready, you’re just like – you know? But feelings are usually interpretations that we make of what that emotion was and how it sticks and the meaning we give to it. And the example I used – you know I like to give, and I don't remember if it’s in the book or not, honestly. Because here’s what’s happened, this book is 400 pages. It was 1,481 when I finished.

Ooh, baby! You edited down!

Yes. And it was 1,481 good. Complete. It was like awesome.

Yes.

But I was like that’s gonna freak people out. So we’re publishing a bunch in academic journals later, and I just stripped it down to 400 pages so it’s more readable and fun and learnable. So I can’t remember if this one actually made it in there, but the example I like to give is if you and I go to a haunted house.

Yeah. Which I love.

I love them. I love them. And they scare me to crap, but if you and I walk around, you know, you walk around the walls in a haunted house, someone jumps out at you. You and I are both gonna jump.

Yes.

We are emotionally going to experience fright immediately. It’s gonna be there. Right? But I might be freaked out for the next five minutes, and you might be laughing. Why? It’s the meaning and feeling that we’ve defined it as. That’s fine for everybody.

Here’s the issue that people have and you have to be careful about when we start talking about energy, because emotional energy is real. And that is, look, if at 6 – we go to a haunted house at, you know, 5 PM in the afternoon. If at 9 PM now you’re in your house, you’re alone, but you're completely safe, and you still feel scared, that’s not the haunted house’s problem. That is the way that you are defining and working through your own emotions. You had the emotion of terror and fear and you're still experiencing that feeling? That’s a mental job, not an emotional job.

So your job is to go, “Wow, I’m at my house. I’ve lived here for 10 years. I’ve never been threatened in this house. This is a safe place. I’ve got to redefine the feeling I’m gonna experience.” And I work with one – an Olympic sprinter, gold medalist Olympic sprinter, as a client. And this person’s huge breakthrough in getting better and going from literally one Olympics before not medaling at all to now gold. I said, “What made – like, what was the thing?”

Yeah.

And one of the things they said to me was I learned to define the feeling. And I said, “What do you mean by that?” And he basically said, you know, “if – if there’s a bunch of us at the starting blocks and we’re all in perfect poise and perfect condition, the one to bet on is the one that says, ‘This is the way I want to feel in this race right now. I know my emotions are going crazy, like my heart’s beating, I can hear everybody, I’m waiting for that shot blast, I can see my goal. I know how important this is’ and all these – like their emotions are there. But that person is defining the feeling. ‘I’m going to feel centered now. I’m going to get myself in the zone now.’” Even though the anxiety is – the emotion of anxiety is there for all Olympic-level competitors, all of them. But they define that emotion as a feeling that helps give them a performance edge, and I think that’s important too. You know, Bruce Springsteen says if he’s ever backstage and doesn't feel like nerves, he’s gonna hang it up.

Yeah.

But that’s anxiety, he’s just defining it differently.

Yeah. There’s so much power in that, and I think it’s such a great lesson. That’s why I loved it in the book. It’s like we all have those experiences. You know, sometimes we’ll be shooting MarieTV and I can feel – like I’ll tell the crew all the time, you know, when we go on I’m like, “Oh, I’m feeling nervous.” But it is – for me, nervousness, I associate it with excitement. I associate it with “we’re about to do something amazing.” There’s aliveness, there’s energy, there’s all this great stuff coming through. But I loved that distinction. I never heard anyone quite make it the way that you did, and I really appreciated that because I feel like it gives us a chance to take some of our power back.

Yes.

Where, hey, the emotion comes up whether it is fear, it’s sadness, it’s anger, but then, okay. What about the long term? How are you going to then help yourself interpret it and then walk back into the world in a way that’s going to allow you to perform at a high level?

Yeah. Another related habit, third habit, is to basically raise necessity. It’s a fancy way of saying high performers perform better because they feel like they must do it.

Yes.

And there’s this interchange between their identity and what they value, believe, and feel are important. And then an external demand for them to do better. And what happens is they say – their identity says, “I really care about excellence. I have high standards. I want to do a good job here. This is important to me. I love this,” and then it connects with external demand. Need to do a good job. There is a deadline. “I feel a social duty or a spirit or calling.”

People are depending on me.

Yes, “people are depending on me.” And when those two come together right in the middle, that’s necessity. We would call it performance necessity. It’s like “I need to do a good job here and I’m motivated by that, not scared by that.” It’s a perfect little connection. There’s a whole chapter on it in the book. And what often happens for people is that emotional thing we’re talking about earlier, like that Olympian. That Olympian, that emotion, that anxiety is – they’re using that to raise their necessity to do better. They’re like “I’m going to use this feeling I have and transform it to do better.”

Yes.

Even though everyone else would identify that same emotion as I’m scared, they’re gonna say “this feeling is going to make me focus. This feeling that I want to have right now, I’m gonna, you know, put my a-game on.” And it’s so cool, because all the high performers I interviewed, over 300, literally verified high performers. We used objective measures whether they were highest performing in their company or whether they’d filled out the high performance indicator. And we have this assessment now that can basically show these – you're probably a high performer if you score in these areas in these six different habits. And interviewed over 300 of them, and every one of them at some point in the interview – and these are structured, academic interviews, so they’re way less fun than this. Sorry for everyone who I interviewed but, boy, it’s just different.

And what I found out was every one of them talked about that at some point. Taking what they were experiencing and transforming it into something that gave them performance edge. Whether it’s an artist readying themselves to touch the canvas. Like there’s a thing that says, “I want to be a great artist. I want to do a great job.” And that self talk is leveling up our necessity.

Lots of people have amazing strengths, but they don't get off the couch because they don't feel it’s necessary to win, necessary to succeed, necessary to serve. And high performers feel like “it is necessary that I show up today, I do a good job, I help others.” Sometimes some answer it in a spiritual realm. “They say I feel called to do this. I feel it is my mission. I feel God is giving me these gifts, and I don't wanna waste that.”

And that for them is a very spiritual, emotional connection to “it’s necessary for me to kick some butt, do well, deliver.” Other people, they’ve really got to mentally get themselves in that. I’m a little in between. I have to say things to myself before I walk into a situation to make me better. Like before I came through those doors, like you have a bathroom out there, and I went in the bathroom and I do a little self talk to myself. And I bounce in place and I take 10 deep breaths. And I’m talking to myself so that I’m just – I’m ready.

Yeah. I thought there’s a great distinction there too. Another little tip from the book that I think is very useful. You found that when you talk to yourself in the third person versus the you, can you explain that a little bit?

Yeah. A research study in psychology found out that both second person and third person makes you more – makes yourself talk more powerfully. So if you’re gonna do affirmations you wouldn’t just say, “I want to do this. I want to do this.” You want to do what we call in the book self coaching where you would say, you know, in my case, “Brendon. It’s important you do a good job here today because you usually don't do interviews. And you really love Marie and you want to do a good job for her and her people. And this is a book you worked on for three years and it’s important it does well. And, Brendon, don't forget you’re so lucky you get to do this, brother. So just enjoy the process. You’re so lucky, Brendon.” That’s a different level of going, “I’m lucky. I’m lucky.” Right? It is.

“I’m Brendon. I’m great.”

Yes. Another one I do every morning in the shower, assuming I take a shower. But every morning in the shower…

Because we all don't every day. No we do not.

It doesn't happen.

It does not happen.

I told you like 24 hours ago I was sitting in a bar in the woods at a friend’s house. But the second thing I ask myself in the shower every morning is, “what might happen today that could trip me up? And how are you going to bring your best self to that, Brendon?” I say that every morning in the shower to myself and it just helps me anticipate. You know, something’s gonna go wrong during the day.

Absolutely.

And if I already know – like this morning's was, “okay. You’re in I think what we” – I’d guess north Manhattan? Where I’m staying, would you call it north?

You’re uptown.

I’m uptown.

And you’re coming to – let’s just call it downtown.

Okay. So I’m, okay, that’s going to be 45 minutes. It’s a hot, summer day. I’m gonna get hot and I know when I’m hot sometimes I get impatient and I get stressed. And I don't want to feel that. “So just pay attention to how you’re feeling on your way down to the interview with Marie, Brendon. And really just engage. Pay attention. Be present with New York and really enjoy that you’re here.”

I know that sounds completely crazy, but every high-performing athlete does it. Every salesperson does it. I mean at a high level. Every person I interview who are at what we call the top 15% of all high performers, they all self talk. And most of them, we found, were doing it in second and third person. Which is amazing.

I love it.

Yeah.

I think it’s so fun.

Yeah. Little things. Yeah. So if you already talk to yourself and you say your name to yourself, you’re not crazy. You’re probably high performing.

Well, I do talk to myself and I do call myself Marie. So I’m gonna raise my hand and get into that group.

I want to talk about another takeaway from the book I think is so practical and that our audience is going to love. And I love this, and we’ve done this together when you and I hang out. It’s about managing transitions. And when you’re moving from one project to the next or you’re ending your work day and then you’re going back into quote unquote family life or whatever that transition is, I thought you have a really effective way to help people maximize and almost amplify their energy so they don't come away feeling depleted every day. Because I feel like we’ve both been there. Right?

We’ve done the way where you are putting out your best and you are absolutely focused and your heart’s in it and your soul’s in it, but then you reach the end of the day and you’re like, “I’m done.” Yes.

You’re done.

So tell me about transitions.

Yeah. Transitions takes place in the chapter of generate energy, and also – maybe it’s in productivity too. And it has this – it’s just this conversation that if you’re go, go, go, go, go all the time, you’re depleting energy all day and you don't know it. And lots of people think to get more energy or be more productive, they have to radically change their life. “I’d better work out an extra 60 minutes in the morning.”

It’s like, actually, let me teach you the mastery of managing transitions. When you go from one activity to another I want to teach you this simple thing, and that is release tension, set intention. Very simple.

Let me give an example, because it really helps. If you’re doing email and, you know, that takes one part of your psyche and brain to do a lot of email, and now you’re going to go create that keynote or that PowerPoint presentation that you want to be flowing and visual and beautiful. Very different things. What most people do is they’ll do their email and then they’ll work a little on the presentation. And then the notification will go over here and they’ll go back to the email, and they’re multitasking.

Yes.

And they’re wrecking not only their measurable creativity, but their long-term performance. And so what you have to do is when you finish the email, stop it. Okay? Maybe go get some water, come back, or whatever – even if you don't, all I want you to do, push away from your chair for a minute, close your eyes, repeat the word “release” with the goal of releasing tension in your body. And repeat the word release to yourself several times over and over like a mantra. Okay? Just repeat. It could be 60 seconds, it can be one minute, it can be two minutes. Whatever you want to do.

Just do it until you feel like your body and your mind release a little bit. Then before you open your eyes, set an intention. Say, “okay, Brendon. You’re going to work on this keynote now. Your intention is to make something that grabs them right at the beginning, and then make it really move fast, and make it visual, and make sure that it builds emotionally throughout the thing so when you make a call to action at the end, bam.” And then open my eyes, now work on presentation. I’m clean and free from the previous activity.

Yes.

And people will feel an unbelievable amount of energetic just power come back from there. I interviewed – or, I’ve worked with a major founder in the startup Silicon Valley world flew me down at 3 AM – I guess it was a little after midnight on a private jet. It was – he was having a lot of trouble. Just exhausted. Literally depleted.

You know, this person is incredibly well valued in his company. Lots of employees, everyone knows who the person would be, but miserable. Just go, go, go, go, go, go. And I said, well – and one of his major things was he was wrecking his relationship with his wife and his chidren. Not because he was maybe just overworking. He would just carry a lot of the work into his house.

Yup.

So what I said, I said “I want you to pull up to your house after the day of working. Don't get out of the car. Pull up to the house, just close your eyes, repeat the mantra release to yourself maybe for five minutes. And then before you open your eyes, set the intention. How do you want to be with your wife when you enter the house? What kind of dad do you want to be to your daughter? Set that intention. Open up your eyes. Now go in as a different man.” And it changed his life. His email to me is in the book.

I read it. It’s fantastic.

It just works. That means just release tension, set intention. It’s just – your transitions are where most people’s bleeding out their energy, and they don't know. And if we can just get you four or five times of transition really well throughout the day, you finish your day like “I feel amazing.”

Yes.

And we didn't caffeinate you, we didn't do anything. We just changed how you approach your work.

So brilliant. I love it.

Thank you.

I want to talk now about a really interesting section in the book about anti-practices, some of the problems that come. Because I think one of the challenges in our culture – and, you know, you and I I think share a lot of values in this sense. You know, we love to have fun, right, and love to take trips and be with our family and goof around and laugh a lot, but there’s this pervasiveness of like grind, grind, grind, hustle, hustle, hustle. And I know we talked a little bit about that, but one of the things that you wrote in the section about anti-practices about the things that can go wrong is the part about “being satisfied doesn't mean settling.”

And I feel like there is this mistaken notion out there that you have to be dissatisfied if you’re going to be an achiever, a high performer, if you’re going to just want to achieve all that you can in this life. And, again, we share the same philosophy. It’s like, “no. You can absolutely be satisfied … AND”

Yes. And it’s important that you are.

Yes.

And we can measurely prove it. High performers are not dissatisfied strivers. They're not. They’re happy. High performers are happier than their peers. We all believe that to get to the top it’s gonna be lonely at the top, and we all believe you have to grind and kill yourself to get there, and that’s completely wrong. And the data proves that worldwide, which is I think just overcoming a lot of people’s biases about how you work today. Because right now, especially today, you know, grind on social media is so popular.

Or hustle.

Or hustle. And it – by the way, none of the top 15% of high performers worldwide identify with those words. They literally don't. We asked them. We did a whole keyword analysis. This was actually pretty cool. And high performers explicitly say – these are the three driving feelings. If we said there was a high performance state, it’s driven from these three things. Number one, full engagement. Number two, joy.

Yes!

And number three, confidence.

Yes.

That’s what they relate with. Okay? That’s where it’s coming from. It’s a joyous journey, not a dissatisfied one. And I had this conversation in the book, because – I kind of maybe frame it this way. Each of these chapters opens with a vignette of somebody I worked with or a situation that I was in that demonstrated high performance.

And in this particular situation I’m walking on a stage. Thousands of people after a very famous musician was out there, and was telling the audience that that person’s secret to success – remember, thousands of people. Their secret to – that whole speech, their secret to success was never settle. Never settle. Nothing is enough. Never settle and never be satisfied. Never be satisfied. Always demand more. And I’m like “oh. My second slide, which is gonna be on Jumbotrons in like 80 point text was ‘strive satisfied.’” I’m like, “oh, I’m gonna have to dispel this for all these thousands of people.” I was totally freaked out.

Yeah.

And – but what I had to explain to people was not only the data, but it’s this. If you’re never satisfied, I mean, is it true that life is precious? If it’s true that life is precious and you could be gone tomorrow, do you really want to think, “You know what? I just never felt fulfilled. I never allowed myself to have a moment of credit. I never allowed myself to have a moment of peace. I never allowed myself to look at that and say good job.” That’s not the way to live life. I think just at a spiritual level it’s a bad move. And this book doesn't really go into a lot of that. It’s more about the science and the heart stuff.

But I think it’s really important that people realize your job is to strive satisfied. And if you strive satisfied more often, you will be more of a high performer. And if you never give yourself credit, you’re always beating up on yourself, you’re always thinking “that’s not perfect enough,” then what’s gonna happen? Dissatisfied people burn out and they quit more often than satisfied strivers.

So take joy in the moment, engage with what you’re doing, allow credit and satisfaction and joy to come in. You can always be improving.

Of course.

But be proving – be improving joyfully.

Yes.

And if you’re improving joyfully, then you’re learning, you feel curious, you feel engaged, the joy is there. You’ll get more confident because you’re like “I’m going to learn through this anyway. This is gonna be great.” Because, you know, this – this thing is all over social media right now. Like grind, work, whatever. And I’m like it’s just – it’s popular, and I see why that happens, and I see why it’s catchy. It’s just not scientifically valid.

Yeah. And it’s not sustainable.

Not sustainable.

Anyone who's done it, they all hit a wall real fast.

And anyone who’s ever been married to that or dated that or engaged with that, you’re just like can you just calm down and enjoy it for four seconds?

Yeah.

Yeah know, I think it’s really important right now. People should want to have a high level of joy and happiness in their life. But they cannot – they cannot wait for it. I always say, you know, the power plant doesn't have energy, it generates energy. I mean, technically it transforms energy from one medium to another, and we can do the same thing. You know, you don't have happiness. You have to generate the happiness. You don't have joy. You generate joy. And when you learn to take control of your power and your energy in that way, then life becomes so much more fulfilling and so much more fun. And it doesn't become fake or forced. Because you know what’s fake and forced? This all day.

Yeah.

That’s not your natural state.

Yeah.

I mean, and here’s how you know. Take a person – I just got back from a big vacation with my lady, and we were down on the beach. Take any person, put them on a beach for a while, and they’re not like grr. Your natural state is “like this is beautiful. This is great.” There’s awe, there’s inspiration, there is joy there. Tap back into that and you’ll be more of a high performer.

I love it. Brendon, I’m so happy to have you as a friend and just congratulations again on this and all of your incredible work, and thank you for coming today.

Thank you. This is a joy for me to be here with you, so thank you.

Now Brendon and I would love to hear from you. We talked about so many good things today, but what’s the one single biggest insight that you’re taking away from today’s conversation and, most importantly, how can you put that into action right now? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Now, as always, the richest conversations happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com, so head on over there and leave a comment now. And once you’re there, be sure to subscribe to our email list and become an MF Insider. You’ll get instant access to an audio I created called How To Get Anything You Want, plus you’ll get some exclusive content and special giveaways and some personal updates from me that I just don't share anywhere else.

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You’ll get used to this, Anthony. This is how I roll. You’re like, “Got it!”

I’m feeling it!

Yes. Haters. Haters, delete, trash.