THE ED MYLETT SHOW - What Nobody Told You About Losing Drive
Episode Date: June 26, 2025Are you protecting the lead—or playing to win? In this conversation, I sit down with my brother, Brendon Burchard, and we hit on something that every single one of us wrestles with at some point: h...ow to reignite that competitive fire when it starts to flicker. Maybe you’ve achieved some success—you got that promotion, built a business, or hit a financial goal—and suddenly you realize, I’m playing not to lose instead of playing to win. That’s a dangerous place to be, and Brendon and I break down exactly why it happens and how to flip the switch back on. We get real about what it means to measure up—not against others, but against your own capacity. That’s what separates those who keep rising from those who stall out. We talk about how greats like LeBron James keep their edge and how you can apply that same mindset. It’s not about the external competition anymore—it’s about expanding who you are and setting your own standard. And that, my friends, is where true fulfillment lives. Brendon and I also share the practical steps that have kept us driven—like setting up new challenges on purpose, so you’re not just reacting to life but directing it. If you’re coasting right now, if you’ve been going through the motions, this episode will remind you to swing for the fences. Key takeaways from this episode: Why success can actually zap your drive—and how to get it back The danger of playing not to lose instead of playing to win How to shift from competing against others to competing against your own potential The secret power of setting your own challenges to fuel your momentum Why surrounding yourself with the right people can reignite your ambition Let’s stop settling. Let’s take that big swing. Let’s chase those God-sized dreams together. Max out. And hey—if you want to experience this energy in person, come join us in Napa this July or in Scottsdale this fall. Go to growthday.com/Ed and grab your spot while you still can. 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈 → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ➡️ INSTAGRAM ➡️FACEBOOK ➡️ LINKEDIN ➡️ X ➡️ WEBSITE Get my exclusive Monday Motivation training in GrowthDay, the world’s #1 app for advanced mindset and personal development. Visit https://growthday.com/ed. This show is sponsored by GrowthDay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive and the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge?
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Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Burchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down, growthday.com forward slash ed.
So if you want to be more productive, by the way the way he's asked me I post videos in there every single
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This is The Admirement Show.
All right, welcome back to the show everybody.
So honored again, as I do every single month. I have my dear friend Brendan Bouchard.
These are some of our most downloaded podcasts when you guys get to hear
he and I kind of go back and forth on topics you guys suggest we talk about. This week is one that I'm so glad actually
Brendan suggested this of all the submissions. This would be the one we cover this week. And so here's what we're gonna talk about this week.
I think you're gonna love it. If you've lost your fighting spirit or for lack of a better term, your competitive spirit,
your drive, we're going to talk today about why maybe you've lost that little bit and how to get
it back, how to access it, how to tap into it again, that competitive fighting spirit, that drive,
that thing that moves you, that gets you up in the morning, that gets you after it in your life.
Talk about why you lost it and how to get it back this week with someone that's
just, he's just my favorite dude to do this with, which is Brendan Bouchard.
So welcome back to the show, brother.
Thank you, brother.
I'm so excited about this, especially as I propose this to you.
I was excited because you actually work with real fighters and you also work
with people who, you know, everybody who struggles with that moment of why don't
I want it as much anymore or why don't I want to fight or why I used to want to get promoted,
earn more, reach out more, do more things.
And all of a sudden I feel like pessimistic.
I feel like I'm lost.
I feel like I just, I don't want to be in the hunt anymore.
And people don't know when they lose that drive, what's happening.
And sometimes we call that fighting spirit.
And I think it's so relevant because everyone knows
you're so good at actually working with athletes
on this as well, that I thought the metaphors
would be profound for all of us.
Well, I got to tell you, the first thing I think
of when I do that is like, you know the hardest people
to work with in fighting or in any sport
are world champions. They're the hardest people to work with in, in fighting or in any sport are a world champions.
They're the hardest because it's, it's one thing to, and this is just true of life.
So your championship could be, you got married, your championship could be, you
got promoted at work and then what, or you've got a certain amount of savings
and then what, so it's metaphorical in terms of most people's lives, but in with
fighters, it's, it's a literal championship.
Right. And one of the difficult things about it is they are competing like crazy to get to that championship belt and almost with every single one of them, once they're there, a little bit of
that edge is lost.
It's rare to repeat as a champion.
In fact, in the UFC, the heavyweight division, I'll get this wrong.
I am wrong about this number, but I'm not off by much.
I think the maximum repeat heavyweight champion in the UFC ever is like four or
five repeat championships, meaning they, they held the title four or five fights.
It usually switches hands right now.
John Jones is that guy, but prior to him was like the belt would change hands
with every two or three fights because guys couldn't repeat. And I think Jones is that guy. But prior to him was like, the belt would change hands with every two or three
fights because guys couldn't repeat.
And I think they lose that edge because they got somewhere.
And I think one of the reasons is, is that, you know, you, uh, dreamed of
getting to a place all of your life.
And then whether you get there or not, there's two types of people.
There's the people that get there.
Okay.
They win their metaphorical championship.
And then they're like, I never really thought to look forward from here right right and and or maybe it wasn't
everything I thought it would be I thought I'd arrive I thought everything would be perfect I
thought I'd have no more problems anymore and so there's this like I don't think it's it's what it
what I was cracked up to be and then there's this large group of people that I think lose their drive
bro over this I think there are literally millions of people right now going, you know, I
thought I'd be further ahead by now.
I thought I'd be happier.
I thought I'd have more money.
I thought I'd have a better relationship.
I thought I'd be promoted further.
I thought I'd have already started my business.
I thought I would have already written the book.
And to me, oftentimes comparison is the thief of joy, but you've talked a lot of times about why comparing
is actually an okay thing too.
But what is unhealthy is to compare yourself
to a previous time in your life
or a place you thought you would be.
And I think a lot of people that get to the championship level
are like, I thought it would be better than this.
And then the people that don't care get there,
they haven't made the promotion,
they haven't made the money they thought, they're not as well known as they'd like to be.
They go, I thought I'd be further ahead by now.
Both of these thoughts don't serve us.
Do you see that with people that you coach that
they're just sort of, they're telling themselves
a story that doesn't serve their next level of drive.
Maybe I'm off on that, but that's one of the
things I've experienced in coaching people.
Yeah.
I love, I want to listen to that like five more times
because you really tapped into that.
And there is a big difference between people,
as you said, who are like world champions
and those who might be just starting.
And that level of drive is different.
You know, at the beginning,
you're just fighting to survive. Like it's literally the beginning, you're just fighting to survive.
Like it's literally just survival.
You're just fighting to survive.
Then in the middle, you're kind of fighting to dominate.
You just kind of want to win
and usually want to win over somebody.
And then at the top, now you've already done that.
You've already dominating.
And now you've already done that. You've already dominating.
And now you're fighting yourself
and you're fighting maybe what you mentioned,
sometimes disappointment.
Because you got there and it's not what you thought.
Or you got there and your PRs aren't going up
as high as they used to in the middle.
You had a lot of progress at the beginning. You had a lot of progress at the beginning.
You had a lot of progress in the middle,
but now it's farther in between.
Even world champions often in different sports,
they might be competing on a different rhythm.
They might be in a place where they're not experiencing
those really quick fights,
because now they're getting paid
while your fights are further out as an example.
Or maybe they're that, you know,
the team that gets the buy because of the wins.
And so you don't feel like you're in it as much,
but I think that the thing I learned
about the world champion versus the beginner,
and when I say world champion,
I want everyone to recognize
Ed works with way more world champions than I do.
I work with high performers across lots of industries,
but Ed's another level when it comes to sports
and athleticism, because I mean, look at him versus me.
Okay.
So we can do, when I do work at that level,
and especially with the high performers, like the CEO, like,
let's talk about those guys. The big thing that I see, Ed, that knocks them out of that fighting
spirit, that knocks them out of that competitive edge, is that they've never learned to try to
measure up against themselves. It's a mind warp. You spend your whole life trying to measure up against themselves. It's a mind warp. You spend your whole life trying to
measure up against the kids in school, get better grades. You try to measure up against
your sister, your brother, your mother. You try to measure up to your parents, your professors
expectations. You try to measure up in that first hiring class against the other people
who got the job. You try to measure up against your peers
to get promoted above them.
Or you try to measure up against this fighter,
against this person in golf, against this person in chess.
And then when you get to the top and you look around
and you know you've out-measured them,
you've out-performed them,
now the only measurement is the one you give yourself.
And it short circuits people.
They're just like, they don't know how people don't know how to measure up against themselves
against their future potential.
They use other people at the barometer.
And it's interesting because we know in happiness
studies using other people as the barometer
makes you miserable. Compares studies, using other people as the barometer makes you miserable, compares comparing yourself to
other people can make you very unhappy,
except in competition where it's required to
be attenuated to the skill gap to get better.
But then when your skill is extreme, you're
the number one, you're the top, you're the
CEO and no one's, you don't have to measure up against them.
Now you're measuring up against yourself.
People freak out, they shut down, they get disappointed,
they get self-judgmental, the criticism goes up,
they feel lost, they don't have a singular aim anymore.
They are successful, so now not only are they
more self-critical because they don't know
how to measure up for themselves,
but now they don't even have a frame of reference.
So now they start doing 50 other things at the same time.
Now they're distracted, disappointed,
and a little bit like frazzled
because I don't know how to measure anything anymore.
I don't that make sense for you.
Oh, big time.
I think the difference is when you're starting
or you're new and you're climbing, you're playing to win.
So not only are you competing against these other people
you're also playing to win for most people is why I admire you so much once
they get a little bit of success whether they win that championship belt or they
make a hundred thousand dollars a year or now they've got some money saved or
they bought out then they start to play a little bit not to lose and there's no
way to go through your life playing not to lose, to be in protection mode.
You can't be great trying to protect the lead.
There's so many sports teams that have blown leads trying to protect the lead.
And a lot of you, to some extent, you're just not as hungry as you were because you're trying
to protect the lead a little bit.
That's part of it.
The other part of it is you're exactly right.
At some point, if you're going to be great, you have to accept you're
competing against your own capacity, not that of other people.
And so that's the little game.
The little game is I'm going to beat Dan, I'm going to beat Sparky.
I'm going to beat Sarah.
I'm going to beat them.
And that's a healthy thing.
But I was reading an article today about LeBron James.
There's this great debate.
Who's the greatest basketball player ever.
I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan.
I don't even think it's close, but I have a lot of admiration for LeBron James. There's this great debate who's the greatest basketball player ever. I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan. I don't even think it's close but I have a lot of
admiration for LeBron James. Well last year,
Luka Doncic got traded to the Lakers. He's one of the greatest players in
basketball right now. It was a shocking trade and one of the reasons the team
that traded him, say they traded him, was he didn't train very hard. He comes in out
of shape. He gets hurt a lot. He's overweight. Now this is a great player, probably a better player than
LeBron James currently is because LeBron's 40 years old, but LeBron's still
a great player. And so Doncic at some point got to the NBA and became a great
player by trying to beat everybody else. Then when he became one of the top
players, he didn't know what to do with himself. And I just read an article
today. They are interviewing Luka Doncic, who's evidently already dropped like 30 pounds since the off
season started. And they're like, what's it like to play with LeBron James? Listen to what he said,
Brendan. Now LeBron James is arguably the greatest player ever or the second greatest player,
whatever your list is, he's in the top 10, right? 40 years old, he's a billionaire,
a billionaire with a B, very wealthy man.
One of the most well-known people in the world, won a bunch of NBA championships,
is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the league.
And Donchit says, the first day I get there, LeBron James got to the game 10 hours before the game.
He goes, I never seen anything this like in my life. I've been in the NBA all these years.
This guy's at the games 10 hours before the game. He goes, I've never seen anything this like in my life. I've been in the NBA all these years. This guy's at the games 10 hours before the game. He goes, he said, when I got to the game, LeBron was done with his
workout and then was doing his mental prep for the game. At some point, LeBron
James stopped trying to beat the second best player in the league and he set his
own standard. He's competing against his own capacity. That's
why he's a historic all-time great. You want to get your drive back, start looking at what
your capacity is. You know why you've lost some of your competitive drive? You don't even remember
why you were doing it in the first place. And if you can tap back into why and say, listen,
I'm competing against, like, why do I still work? People ask me that all the time. I'm 54 years old. It is currently as we're recording this,
8.22 in the evening my time.
I started the day at 6 a.m. with my first meeting.
Why am I still doing this?
I'm not competing against some other entrepreneur
or some other influencer.
I'm addicted to the expansion of my being.
I'm fascinated to see who I can become
in the process of challenging myself. So for fascinated to see who I can become in the process of challenging
myself. So for me, it's more about the challenge of who I'm becoming, the man I'm capable of
becoming, the insights I'll have, what I'll learn, how I'll expand my being as I continue to chase.
And I think you have to have something to chase. I think we're born to hunt. I do in life. I think
you have something you're after. But like, let's look at you. Same thing. Extraordinarily, you're extraordinarily
wealthy man. You're very well known. You've got rich friendships. You're back
from a dream trip with a bunch of buddy of yours. You have all... Why are you...
You have massive drive. You're building multiple companies. Growth day right now
is exploding, right? Like you've been involved in other exits already.
Like why have you not lost your competitive edge
or have you before and had to get it back?
I think I lost it early in my life in such a great way.
I know your audience knows, a lot of people listening
know I had a car accident when I was a young kid.
Yes.
And I lost, I was in martial arts when I was a young kid.
And then I got in the wrong relationship, ran with the wrong crew,
started doubting myself, became depressed, suicidal, lost all of it.
And then I had this car accident that hit me hard enough in the head to make me
realize how life is extremely short, like extremely short.
And in that time, I had my first spiritual experience of kind of feeling like God gave me a second chance.
And I felt like when I got that second chance,
oh, I'm going to earn the second chance.
You and I've talked a lot about this
and you've got an amazing talk on this.
I know people have seen it.
It's like when you, when you, when you feel like life
is a blessing, you want to do what Ed's talking about.
You want to see yourself manifest and become in the way that you are. And you want to be in a blessing, you want to do what Ed's talking about.
You want to see yourself manifest
and become in the fullest powers that you have.
You want to unlock, you want to live this life.
And to me, it's just about this idea
that not only is life a blessing,
but that you've actually been given way bigger powers
than you're aware of.
Push them.
Follow that ascendant path in life of those challenges.
Because see, the drive, it will go away mentally
unless you make sure you set up the path to have challenges.
I tell people all the time, Ed,
if the only challenges you face in your life right now
currently are the challenges that life threw at you,
then you are not yet living a conscious life.
You are living a reactive life.
But the conscious life would be the life
that you set up that upgrade.
You set up that next level.
You set up that challenge.
And what happens for a lot of people is you get.
Affluent as you get more comfortable, as you get in
rhythm with the kids or the family or whatever, you kind of forget to set up
challenges anymore in sport, challenges are set up for you.
That's the bracket, right?
The bracket, like literally the system is set up for your challenges.
That's the bracket, right? The bracket, like literally the system is set up for your challenges.
That's the bracket.
In life, you'd better set up some type of step stair system that the circumstance or the challenge will keep lifting you up.
Otherwise you'll start playing the game of going through the motions.
That's when you know, you're about to lose your edge.
When you go, you know, last couple of years, I just been going through the motions. That's when you know, you're about to lose your edge. When you go, you know, last couple of years, I just
been going through the motions.
You'd better get into your personal development.
You better set up some challenges.
The second, you know, you just been going through
the motions, it's almost too easy.
It's your job to set up that next challenge.
And so that's what made the difference for me was one
appreciating life and realizing it's short.
Yeah. Realizing I've been given like potentials
that I'd never manifested, but also realizing,
Hey kid, you're the only person who's gonna set up
this system in life to challenge yourself.
Everyone else let me coast right into suicidal ideation ed.
Wow.
They all did. Most people don't care about us. let me coast right into suicidal ideation, Ed. Wow. Wow.
They all did.
Most people don't care about us.
And it's scary to say that to the humans,
but very few people are ever in your life
going to care about your growth.
Very few people.
I think God makes that call.
I think you might be blessed.
I'm blessed.
I watch Ed, I learn from Ed, and I'm like,
man, that dude, he calls, you know,
Ed gets me going to have friendships that keep you challenged and aspiring is so
important because I really believe most people don't care about your growth.
And it's awful to say that it's awful to say that I wish it wasn't true, but I surrounded myself with people who really care about growth.
And I know that's one reason Ed and I are such close friends.
We're still in the game.
We're still in the hunt.
We still want to push.
We want to see what we can do.
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I'm gonna share a story with everybody and with you. I think you know this story maybe, but there's
motivational people. These are people that play to your motives. Hey and with you. I think you know this story maybe but there's motivational people
These are people to play to your motives. Hey, if you do this, you're gonna get a carrot You're gonna get an award. You're gonna get a trophy
You're gonna get a this motivation is very good and it's an awesome thing you and I have both motivational type people
The next level is inspirational inspirational. They tap into something a little deeper. They tap into your spirit
Inspiration is to be in spirit. I know you know this
but then You got to have people
around you that are aspirational. And these are the people you aspire to be more like in a particular
area. And one of the roles you play in my life is you motivate me, but you inspire me more often.
Like when I see you making the effort you make or performing on stage or our private conversations and how you've checked in on me, you know, during difficult times, the way you care for
your mom, you inspire me.
How hard you work on yourself.
But you are a level beyond that.
And I have other people too, not a lot, you're right, very few, that are aspirational.
In particular areas of their life,
I want to be more like them.
I can't help but be tapping into my competitive
spirit when that takes place, my drive and my
ambition, because it's infectious.
It's contagious.
If the people around you aren't inspired,
aren't motivated, you're going to catch it.
It's contagious.
It's a disease you'll catch.
If they are inspirational, if they are motivational, and if you have a few that are aspirational, you will also catch that that's contagious.
And I'll give you an example.
I think there's, here's the truth.
To get, to move in your life, there's really
two things that move us.
And you know this to gain pleasure or avoid pain.
Now that you could call it tap into the light
side or your dream or tap into what Tim Grover
calls the dark side.
And I'm going to prove you wrong.
You say, I'm going to prove you wrong. You say, I'm what Tim Grover calls the dark side and I'm going to prove you wrong.
You said I can't do this.
Both are good.
I don't think tapping into the dark side
all the time is a very healthy thing.
Always trying to prove people wrong, always coming from a place of prove, prove it.
But I do think it's great leverage.
And I'll give you an example of it.
I have been in relatively
good shape almost all of my adult life after age 30
I wasn't before. People think is that because you wanna be strong or fast or
have presence or
whatever is there some you know
material reason you do it. I'm sure there is. Ego reason, I'm sure there's a little bit.
Here's the reason. My uncle died when he was 48 years old and I was at his funeral and I just had this premonition
that I should get my heart checked. I was very young still. I was late 20s and so on the way back
I saw on a flight there was literally this heart scan, new scan, they're common now, they're CT scans for plaque in your arteries.
And I said, uh, I'm going to go get the scan done.
So I went and got the scan and the doctor, I think I'm here today saved my life
because he understood tapping into avoiding pain.
It's a healthy thing.
Listen to this, Brendan, you do the scan and then you go away for an hour or two.
You come back and they give you, they tell you what's in the scan.
That's how they used to do it.
So I did the scan.
I literally, I'm not kidding you.
I left there.
I went and had a burrito at lunch.
This is no joke.
And I come back in, there's three people in the lobby.
This doctor was brilliant.
What do most doctors do?
Hey, here's your scan.
Here's the, here's the medication.
Thanks for coming in.
Great.
And I would have gone on with my life.
He knew I got to get leverage on this dude.
He needs to change quick.
I'm going to tap into the dark side.
Right.
And the light side to some extent.
So he walks into the lobby brand, then he looks at the chart and he goes,
I'm looking for Edward Mylett.
And he knew my last name was Mylett.
And he looks up from his glasses.
There's three of us.
There's two women in me in the room.
I'm clearly the Edward in the room.
Right.
But he's, he's already doing that to me.
And he goes, I go, that's me, sir. I'm Ed Mylett. And he goes, watch
this first thing he does. He goes, wow. And he looks down at the chart and he looks at
me and he looks at the chart. And I said, sir, he says, I can't believe these arteries
are in that young a body. He goes I went, He goes, follow me.
And we walked in silence back into this little office
and we sit down and he watched this.
He goes, Hey, Ed, are you married?
I said, yes, sir.
He said, okay.
He said, kids.
I said, yeah, I got a little boy, girl in a way.
He says, that's awesome.
He goes, let me ask you a question.
Do you want to be at your daughter's wedding and walk her down the aisle?
Or are you okay if that's another man? He hasn't opened the file yet. I said, what sir?
He goes, and your son, like, do you want to be there when he graduates high school and be the
father that hugs him or will that be another man? Cause he goes, by the way, that same man will
probably be living in that mansion. I hear you have with that beautiful wife of yours too.
And he goes, um, because the road you're heading down,
some other man is walking your daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, just so you know, you
won't be there.
And I said, what's in there?
And he goes, I want you to listen to me very closely, son.
If you don't do what I'm going to tell you to do,
another man's going to be in that house of yours with
your family and he's going to walk your daughter down
the aisle on her wedding day.
The one thing you don't do is tell a dad that right.
And he says, man, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you to do, another man's going to be in that house of yours with your family. And he's going to walk your daughter down the
aisle on her wedding day.
The one thing you don't do is tell a dad that,
right?
And he says, but if you do what I tell you in here,
I believe we can get you to that day.
And let me tell you something, let me tell you
something, then he gave me the prescription.
That's how you get leverage.
That's actually how you sell also.
I have to tell you something.
Here we are 30 years later.
And when I'm on the road and it's, I get in at two 30 cause flights are delayed and I got to be up at six and I go, I'm not going to the gym in the morning.
You know what happens?
Bella's wedding.
Mm hmm.
Bella's wedding.
Day like today, had to get up extra early.
Bella's wedding.
What's got me in the gym and the reason I've stayed pretty fit all my life
is that day and Bella's wedding. When I want
to eat really bad, I've eaten bad in my life but when I'm doing that man it's
Bella's wedding and so it is stuck with me. It's burned into me. Just like Tom
Brady who was a six round draft pick, he would won four Super Bowls, didn't matter
he was a six round draft pick, five Super Bowls, six Super Bowls, seven
Super Bowls. He wore that chip on his shoulder.
That's leveraging the dark side.
If you've lost your edge, you either need to do something to gain pleasure
in the dream and the vision, or you need to tap into that pain that you want to avoid.
And the greatest pain you could give me in my life would be not there
for my little girl's wedding day.
I'm going to be there.
I know where it's going to be.
I don't know who it's gonna be with,
but I know I'm gonna be there
and I wanna be the guy on her arm, nobody else.
That's why I've gotten in the gym.
So guess what?
I don't have to have motivation.
I don't have to have motivation, right?
I've got a big reason and I will never forget that reason.
I think if you've lost your edge,
you forgot your reasons or you need new ones.
Give me an example with you where it's the light or the dark side, the pain or the pleasure,
and if you even agree with that.
Yeah, I think that, woof, that story,
I feel like you've told me that maybe backstage
or somewhere and it shuts me down,
because I think of how hard I see you as a friend
work and it gets to me really emotionally because, uh, I know how true that is for
you and how you do care for yourself because of your family and you do care for
yourself because you want to help people.
And, you know, so in one way you're avoiding this catastrophic thought.
And in another, you're also like, you know, I want to be fit and capable and able to not
only be with my family, but to serve the world the way that you do, because it takes
a tremendous amount of energy to do what you do.
And I think a lot of people, when they think
about pain and pleasure, you know, we're, we're,
we're doing things for one of those reasons.
I just like, I like to pull those into like energy.
And it's like, oh, you're doing things for energy.
Whether how you tap in that energy, where it comes from, whether it's a push or it's a pull or it's like, oh, you're doing things for energy. Whether how you tap in that energy, where it comes from,
whether it's a push or it's a pull or it's a call up,
there's some kind of energetic thing
that you are accessing or activating
for something that is important in your life.
And the most important thing is what Ed is talking about
is those reasons.
And I'm just calling it, what is
important? What is really important? Whatever that is, fight for it, which most people have,
but then when they lose the fight, they don't know why. Most often, for me personally, it's because
there was so much success or pleasure at it that I stopped doing the one thing that really mattered, which was enduring the pain of
organizing your life around a thing, right?
Brady organized his life around a thing.
It was very painful, cost him probably a relationship.
You've maybe read about it in the news.
It's like the pain of organizing your life around what is important is discipline.
That's what that is. The pain of organizing your life, activating yourself around something that
is important, even when you don't want to. And I think that what happens is when people lose their
drive, whether it's pain or pleasure, ultimately what happened is they stopped organizing their life around the thing. You used to run one business, you built
that one business, you crushed that one business, and then you made some money.
And now you look at your organization, well, actually you have 17 prospecting
calls over here of what to invest in. And now you're going to networking things
with wealthy people. And now you're suddenly there's 30 hours less a week on the thing.
Before you had a thing, you were mastering it,
you were building it, you were manifesting it,
you were organizing life around the thing.
Now you're not organized around anything.
There's pleasures over here, there's pains over here,
you took this on, you took that,
and what we end up doing is we take on so much.
We're organized around no unifying theme, no unifying aim.
And now we've lost the ascendant path.
We are instead dispersed.
Our energy is dispersed.
Now listen, everyone, if your energy is dispersed,
are you shocked that you lack now
lacking the energy that we call drive? That's a great point. The more I am dissipated,
lacking alignment or lacking organization or unify unification around just a few important things.
The more I don't have a drive.
It's like when you go into a company
and you're consulting them and they've got 60 goals
and everyone has lots of goals.
They're very excited.
Every time it's time to set their OKRs or their KPIs
or their yearly goals, everyone's super excited.
Two months later, two weeks later, no energy.
Why?
It's too much stuff.
Give me something singular to hunt, to fight for,
and to organize my life around.
And I'm just here to tell people,
if you don't feel drive, I'm here to say,
you're probably not organizing your life around anything.
You're dissipating your energy.
So it doesn't feel like you're in any fight.
It feels like you're in 17 different swimming pools at once.
There's the other group here I just wanna talk to as well.
That's like the group that I started with,
which is I thought I'd be further along.
I'm living in disappointment
and I feel like that's zapping my drive.
And one of the things I would say to those of you
that are in that state is I really believe
you're exactly where you're supposed to be right now.
And the only place you can come from is where you are.
And you need an obsession. You need to become obsessed with something. And it's not unhealthy if it's an obsession that gets you the things that you want in your life.
We've talked a million times about how obsessions become our possessions. And if right now you have
no obsessions, you're not in possession of a dream of somewhere
you want to go, of something you want to accomplish, of somewhere you want to be, something you want to
feel. You're growing or dying in your life, you're metaphorically and literally dying if you're just
sitting around, you are and I would challenge you if you're looking for an edge, I just don't know
what it is. I'll give you two places to look. Okay, let me give you the first place.
Other people. Let me tell you what I mean by that. I think you will do more because you're a giving
person. See, selfish people, they usually have real big inspiration level, by the way, in drive
because they don't care what they have to do to get it. They'll violate rules, they'll violate norms,
they don't care if they hurt someone else in getting there
They're gonna get theirs and they don't believe in the law of reciprocity very rarely. We find an unmotivated selfish person
These are people that they're gonna take
But many of you aren't that type of person. You're a giver
you're a giver you care and
Because of that you won't do anything for yourself
And I could spend all day here telling you that you have to have self-confidence, and you've got to move up, and you've got to change
your identity. These are all things we've covered on the show a million times. If we set all that
aside, who would you be doing it for? Is it for God? Is it for your daughter? Is it for your family?
Is it for your mom? Is it for an ancestor that sacrificed for you to be here? Is it somebody
that immigrated to this country so you even have a shot that you owe? Who is it for? And I think if you
look for inspiration, it'll be who or what, and what is your dream? And both of those
are the places to look.
And for me, I have to be really honest with you, I've had so many of the what's that
right now in my life, the things that move me are the who's. I want to do something for
people, and I'll pick groups of people or specific people,
and I'll do anything to help those people.
When I don't want to do this podcast, I honestly can tell you your messages to me, your DMs,
when I meet you out in public and you tell me the difference it's made and I see it on
your face and it happens almost every time I go out.
It just refuels me and reminds me as to why I do this. And a lot of
you don't have that luxury of being reminded, so you've got to remind yourself. Who was it? Was it
to retire your mom? Was it to make sure you could care for your dad? Was it to make your siblings
proud of you? Was it someone that's passed away who believed in you and you want to prove them
right? Or maybe it's that dark side where there's this person that's, oh, you're not going to amount
to anything, you're not going to do it.
People from come from where we come from. Don't make those kinds of dreams happen.
Be realistic. It's, it's who either to prove wrong or right. And then it's what,
and what is your dream?
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But I want to tap into one last thing with you because I would say that you
are this energy thing you just said. I would say you're you have
the make sure I say what I believe. I think I can say clearly that you have
the most beautiful energy consistently of anybody that I know. Like just your
energy is just you it is never that I see you without bringing big beautiful
energy. Loving, kind, inspirational, but candid,
he can be tough by the way you guys, he can be direct. This is not a pushover, right?
His kindness is not weakness. But I think since I've known you, I've never caught you
on a day, a moment where you're not bringing massively infectious, beautiful, big energy.
And I'd like to know, like seriously, as your friend, like, what is that?
That's, that's, that's the ultimate of lacking.
It's the antithesis of what we're talking about. You do have drive, you do have competitive spirit.
You are a fighter.
So just about you don't be humble.
Let's finish with that.
Like, what is it in you?
Do you think, I know you had the car experience,
but there's more to it than that.
What is it?
Yeah.
Well, thank you for the compliment, brother.
That means the world.
It's true.
I mean, really,
because we've been through so much as friends
and on stages and I know a lot of people listening.
If you've had that friend where you go through
like life together, health things, stage things,
business things, like when you start mixing all things,
you go together as friends
and you get to experience that together,
it means a lot when you're still respecting
and admire each other.
I feel that for you, brother.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Yep. Thank you.
By the way, we've been even in the concerts.
We even danced together at two concerts. There's more to it than we're willing to share. Go ahead.
Well, you know, we've been in each other's homes and backstages and just family. It's a lot of stuff.
Well, first, it is a spiritual connection for me. I feel like God left me here for a reason.
And I grew up with a lot of violence.
I grew up with a lot of people who were very harsh,
very mean, very physical.
And growing up in an old depressed Irish mining town,
there was a lot of violence.
And you had some point in your brain as an adult,
you kind of switch into,
am I really gonna guide things
by a negative energy or positive energy?
You start saying, am I aware of my impact on other people?
Because it doesn't mean I don't have bad days.
Ed's seen me on bad days.
I get down, I can get frustrated,
I can have a lot of internal emotion.
But we have to also be mature adults,
so like my internal emotions don't have to project onto other people.
I can have a really bad day
and not have to throw it at somebody.
I can feel really awful inside
and still show that vulnerability
without making somebody else have to empathize
and feel bad for me.
And so I think it's like ownership of our own emotions
is one of the great unlocks in life. So I'm just very
intentional of like, okay, when Ed comes to see me backstage,
you know, I got to make sure my energy is good for him, he's
going to go on stage. Even if all hell might have broke loose
the production team or with what's happening outside, we had
to kick somebody out or some crazy thing happened to our event.
Like I still, I got to meet the speaker
and give the energy in which they need to serve,
not the energy that I feel.
And I think that's just being responsible to other people.
I think it's a role model mindset of saying,
I want to demonstrate a certain energy to the world
because I don't like the energy
that the world often lives in.
I'm not gonna perpetuate the negativity, the hate,
the criticism, the judgment, the disparagement.
And instead I'm gonna choose the opposite.
And I'm gonna be very conscious that my feelings
aren't gonna pull me into how the world operates.
Instead, I'm gonna ask intentionally,
how do I wanna make somebody feel? And Ed's for everyone, it's a little unfair. Ed's met my mom. My mom is like that.
So I get it from an appreciation of life in those ways. I don't want to feel negative and bad and perpetuate that.
But also I have great role models. Man, when you're around awesome people, you just learn to bring joy.
You learn to want to feel good as you work hard.
I was around people who were having so much fun working hard.
I wasn't around the people who are just like grit, grind, hate it, fight, you know,
everyone who kind of succeeded around me, we all feel stupid lucky.
We're all kind of like, wow, can you believe there are a bunch of kids from
Montana and we became this and we did this?
So we're kind of, we're, we're in the awe part of life.
It's like, I can't even believe, like when you're in awe of what goodness has
happened in your life, you want to perpetuate that.
Um, I'll also say one other thing that, uh that I really will need your help
on bringing this metaphor out,
because I don't understand what I'm about to say in real life,
but I know you will know the metaphor.
If you have lost the hunt, if you lost the drive,
and I want you to hear what Ed said about obsession,
like focus on something.
I want to give one last parting thought on this.
I also want you to teach yourself and to challenge yourself obsession, like focus on something. I want to give one last parting thought on this.
I also want you to teach yourself and to challenge yourself to take big swings again.
I need a big swing. I need a big swing. In my world, if you've ever heard my coaching, we call this wax and whales. And I'll give you the example. When you're a salesperson,
when you first start out in sales,
you're competitive, you're driven.
You just wanna get that $100 sale,
that $500, that thousand, that 10,000.
And it's exciting when you're getting these sales, right?
Okay, you're getting the sales,
but then in your mind, you're like,
someday I'm gonna get that $10,000 sale, baby. And you get all fired, someday I'm gonna get that $10,000 sale, baby.
And you get all fired up.
I'm gonna get that $10,000 sale.
And you just get so excited, $10,000 sale.
And then you get that whale.
Like, wow, you got the whale.
It is like, it is, that is the drive,
the sense of achievement that you did that.
You did that.
That's the whale.
Go for that bigger deal.
Go for that bigger thing again.
You need something on the dartboard, young man.
You lie.
Like you're going after a hundred dollar things.
Know what?
You lost your drive
because you're going after a hundred dollar things anymore.
You gotta be the person to give yourself the $10,000.
Challenge.
Very good.
That's the whale.
The whack side, this is the part I need your help on.
Uh, you all know Ed played real baseball.
So this, I'm going to embarrass myself a little bit.
Okay.
But if I'm a baseball player and you know, I'm lining up and I'm just, you know, I, I'm, I'm trying to protect my scores.
I'm trying to measure up to other people.
I'm hitting, you know, base hits all day long. You know, I'm, I'm doing my scores. I'm trying to measure up to other people. I'm hitting, you know, base hits all day long.
You know, I'm, I'm doing my thing, but once in a while, if I don't unleash,
if I don't go for a big swing, I'll lose the love of the sport.
It'll be gone.
If you don't once in a while, just tell yourself to smack a homer.
Yeah.
I love it.
Look at you.
I'm telling you what, you're'll lose the love of the game.
Do you know how many CVOs I've worked with
who haven't taken a swing in 17 quarters
and everyone respects them and they're at the country club
and they flew me over on their helicopter.
I'm for real.
Like I work with these guys and guess what?
And like they haven't taken a swing.
They haven't hit a homer.
They haven't tried and they're miserable.
They're dying in it.
They have every reason to be happy.
They lost the drive cause they need a big swing, man.
Uh, I don't know.
You can round out that metaphor and you can close it with that.
Cause I don't know.
It's so good.
It's you're making me think of there's all these metaphors, but really it's
just going deep every once in a while.
You got to go deep.
And the fact of the matter is, you know what what there's this great saying in baseball but it was
I think it was Bull Durham you know people love the long ball man and every once in a while you
got to have a god-sized dream you got to you got to go deep you got to go big fly you have to do
that you got to take a big swing you know at some point you got to take a big cut you're going to
get up to bat at some point you got to do that big cut. You're going to get up to bat at some point. You got to do that.
And I got to tell you, you said something I just want to tap into
because it's really great.
I've never heard this before, but just because you're an experiencing,
you're experiencing an emotion doesn't mean you need to transfer that
same emotion to another person.
That's the height of emotional maturity to me.
Typically speaking, when we're feeling angry, we transfer anger to somebody.
If we're feeling anxiety or fear, we give it to somebody.
It's almost like we think as humans,
if I give it to another person,
maybe I'll have less of it myself.
And so when we feel slighted, right, or put down,
oftentimes what do we kind of do?
We get a little bit short or angry with other people.
That is one of your great traits, is that it really, what you give other people
isn't conditional on what you're experiencing yourself.
And most people, the gift of energy or the emotion they give away is completely
conditional on how they feel themselves.
And that's not an emotionally mature person, nor is it a giving person.
That's a selfish person.
And I
think to some extent, most of my life, when I'm feeling good, I'm going to help you feel good.
When I'm not feeling so good, you're probably not going to feel so good. And that's the emotional
immaturity. And so that is a huge thing. And that energy gives you the reserves to be able to see
the pitches coming your way to hit that big shot. It really is like this energy that you're talking about gives you clarity. You could take that big swing, but you'll be able to see the pitches coming your way to hit that big shot. It really is like this energy that you're talking about gives you clarity.
You could take that big swing, but you'll be able to see the ball clearly.
And when you're in the right energetic state, as you said, you see more clearly.
And, and what what's happened for most of you is complexity is the enemy of execution.
You're just not clear.
As you said, pick one thing, make it a big thing and get after it.
And all the little things start to fall into place.
Last thing I'll say everybody.
Momentum's a big deal.
And if you could just start generating momentum, momentum is a force that can
overcome most obstacles, even lack of ability when you get momentum.
You know, every year in the postseason, it's usually not the best team
that wins the NHL Stanley Cup.
You know who it is?
It's the team with the hottest goaltender with momentum.
In baseball, in the postseason, to win the World Series, very rarely is it the best team
in the regular season.
You know who it is?
It's the team that's got the hottest pitching staff that has momentum or the hot bats.
Momentum wins.
Right now in the NBA, when we're recording this, this will come out probably afterwards,
but the NBA finals is the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma city Thunder.
The Thunder was the best team in the league, but the Pacers weren't the
Pacers beat the Celtics who won the championship last year.
And so it's not always the best or most talented that win.
It's the people or the teams with momentum.
And so what we've talked about today is a way of generating that momentum.
And all of a sudden you get your swagger back, you get your groove back a little
bit, you remember the rhythm of success.
You're like, ah, I like this dance.
I like how this feels.
I like this sound right now.
You just add a rhythm.
You got to get back in rhythm and that momentum will give it to you.
Anyway, what an extraordinary conversation, dude.
I mean, this every time we talk, I'm like,
dude, like, I'd be better if we just did this daily.
Me too.
I look forward to it so much.
I mean, it's like, I know everyone listening,
you guys have checked out Growth Day
and Ed's, Ed does a Monday motivation.
Last Monday, yours reset my whole brain.
I just was like, I was just in the wrong place
and I listened to it.
So in some way I get you, you know,
in the app once in a while, it reset me.
So-
Well, not only can you be in the app, you guys,
if you go to growthday.com forward slash Ed,
not only can you be in the app,
but you can get to an event with he and I.
Like it's the craziest deal ever.
Like if you'd like to see this happen in person and sit in the room with us, go to
growthday.com forward slash ed, go do that.
We'd be great to meet those that are watching the podcast and these rooms are,
you know, they're, they get sold out really quickly.
So if they're, you know, you get an opportunity to go, I would highly recommend it.
We're doing one in July and Napa and we're going to do another one in the fall as
well.
Where are we in the fall?
Scottsdale. Scottsdale. And that in when? Is that October? That's November I
believe. Okay. And you're right it might be October. I have to check the date. Go to
growthday.com forward slash ed you guys. Share today's episode and go chase your
God-sized dreams. Let's go let's hit it let's hit a big fly. Let's go deep. All
right. God bless you.
This is the Ed Mylan Show. Let's hit a big fly. Let's go deep. Alright? God bless you.