Maintaining Progress Mode Through TBI and Incongruence

Key Quotes

"the pain that you are going through they don't know how hurt you are how sad you are how challenged you are they don't know your story of drama or trauma so they expect the same from you not knowing or you expect a lot of yourself trying to avoid those pains and the reality is progress mode can be really hard when no one knows the struggle you're really going through"

Brendon Burchard explains that external expectations often fail to account for personal struggles, highlighting the difficulty of maintaining progress when one's internal challenges are unseen by others. This underscores the internal nature of the "progress mode" he advocates for, suggesting that resilience is often tested in isolation.

"When no one believes, you still gotta stay in progress mode."

Burchard emphasizes the necessity of perseverance even when facing a lack of external validation or belief. This quote encapsulates the core message of the episode: maintaining forward momentum is crucial, regardless of whether others support or understand the journey.

"I was writing a book about how to feel fully alive and activated and I'm out in the woods and and and and and I'm just in this home by myself and I'm writing one night and I'm just not feeling it I mean how do you write a motivational book when you don't feel motivated how do you write a book about dopamine when you feel like there's none how do you talk about you know having made choices that make you feel alive but sometimes things are burning out but here's the thing it wasn't that I was being incongruent or not walking my talk"

Burchard describes a period of personal struggle where he felt a disconnect between the content of his book, which was about feeling alive, and his own internal state of low motivation. He asserts that this disconnect was not due to hypocrisy but rather an underlying issue he was experiencing.

"I remember reading this just obscure thing that happened to mention that a lot of people who have a brain injury or something is wrong they're having a like a something in their body is not working their mind is like disordered something is seriously wrong one of the tells of that is that language starts getting wrong like if you've ever if you've ever had a family member who had dementia or alzheimer's as an example one of the first tells of dementia and alzheimer's happens to be language we always think it's just memory but it's actually their language they start missing words or they start trailing off language is impaired when your brain gets impaired"

Burchard shares a crucial insight from his reading that connected language difficulties with brain impairment, drawing parallels to conditions like dementia. This observation became a key piece of evidence in his self-diagnosis of a potential issue affecting his own cognitive functions.

"I want you to all hear this if your sense of aliveness has been down then please keep studying keep learning but do the habits that really matter get the book learn the mental conditioning tricks learn how to take care of yourself this is a time in your life the progress mode really matters you're entering a new era you're entering the next stage it really does matter and there's there's something about life that is supposed to be felt and magical and exciting and we can lose that when our health is away or something bad happens"

Burchard encourages listeners to prioritize their well-being and adopt beneficial habits to regain their sense of aliveness, especially during challenging times. He emphasizes that maintaining "progress mode" is essential for navigating new phases of life and rediscovering the magic and excitement that can be lost due to health issues or adverse events.

"The charged life the truly lived life is not a routine existence in some quaint picturesque village of perfection safety and certainty no the life living is out there in the wooded wilds of the unknown on the craggy battlefields that test our wits and wills in the daily fights with our own demons it is found during the long onward slog through the storms and strife when we hear only the whispers and taunts of foes and opponents stronger than we on the ground where we are knocked sprawling and forced to face our own weaknesses and on the mountaintops that we reach only because we pitted our every ounce of virtue strength character and courage to keep climbing no matter the slings and arrows flung at our backs or the barriers thrown up before us"

Burchard describes a "charged life" not as one of comfort and predictability, but as an adventurous journey through challenges and adversity. He posits that true living is found in confronting difficulties, battling internal demons, and persevering through hardship to reach personal triumphs.