6 THINGS I WISH I’D LEARNED AT 20

It’s Robin Sharma author of the five am club and I am absolutely delighted that you’ve made the time to be here with me in this episode of the mastery sessions this episode is called six things I wish I’d learned when I was 20 and I’m gonna get right into the first one the first thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 is that you can play with toxic people or you can live at world class you can’t do both it’s very easy for very good people to suffer from a lack of creativity and productivity because they’re surrounded by energy vampires dream stealers and negative naysayers and what I’ve learned over the years is simply this one of the most powerful ways that you can live a rare air life whether it’s in terms of your productivity or poor performance or in terms of your prosperity or in terms of your happiness and sense of peace is delete the people who steal your joy I’ll repeat that again because I believe it’s so important for you delete the people who steal your joy in the five am club there’s a model that has been absolutely transformational to people across the planet and it’s called joy as a GPS there are three elements that will help you dramatically improve not only your success and your performance but also your levels of inner joy and one of those three things that I teach in the book is the people who steal your joy in other words you can do a list in your journal later today or right after this episode right down in the first column on the left-hand side of the page who in my life is stealing or diminishing my joy and then in the right-hand column write down who are the people in my life who elevate my joy and then have the wisdom and bravery to start removing and releasing the people in your life who are bringing you down and then I always get this message a lot or this question a lot well what if it’s my mother what if it’s my best friend what I’d simply say to you people come into our lives for reasons seasons or lifetimes and one of the ways you can tell a victim in action is they give away their power to other people you have a lot more power than you may be exercising and awareness and you have the power to let go of people even if it’s a family member or you could say it’s going to be selective association rather than talking to them every day I’m gonna speak with them once a week or see them once a month or you can never see them again you can see them less often it might be in between but you have the power to do what feels right to you the larger point is simply this the first thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 is you can be around energy vampires or you can change the world you don’t get to do both the second thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 is that everything that happens to you is for your growth a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul so the ego might be saying oh that was terrible that was a tragedy that was a difficult meeting that was a hard moment that’s just your ego chattering and your ego is really the voice of your fear you want to become much more aware not if your ego but of your higher self you’re that primal genius that native hero that leat lurks at your core under the layers of fear doubt and disbelief and the more you start to get to know your bravest strongest truest self and the more you stand in your true power versus your fake power the more you’re going to realize everything that happens to you whether it’s been a tragedy a subtle adversity is for your growth therefore it’s all good you know what I’d offer to you simply this don’t be a resentment collector it’s a term maybe you’ve never heard from me before or be not a resentment collector a lot of people what they do is it’s all about being positive it’s all about everything being in the sunshine well that’s not really a true life as a matter of fact if you want to be a legendary leader you’ve got to go through a lot of suffering you’ve got to be knocked down and then be willing to continue you’re gonna be laughed at and you’re gonna be ridiculed you’re gonna face self-doubt you’re gonna be exhausted at times you’re going to face all sorts of challenges if you want to get to your Mount Everest and if you’re listening to the ego as well as the dominant messaging of our culture which is everything needs to be happy and sunshine and puppies and roses and rainbows and butterflies then you’re gonna miss one of the key insights I wish I learned at 20 which is everything that happens to you is good everything that happens to you is for your growth everything that happens to you is designed to help you burn away your ego and build more fluency and intimacy with your authenticity what do I mean by that I really think it’s the sometimes of suffering that make you great we all as we go through life have our Robben Island seasons and I’m encouraging you in this episode to develop an appreciation of not only adversity but maybe even a love of tragedy and you might say at that point Robin you’ve gone too far and I would simply say imagine how brave you will be if you are detached from all outcomes whether it’s a tragedy whether it’s a victory you still feel joyful powerful and peaceful that is where the Legends play that is the place you want to get to detachment literally you let everything go one of the things I also wish that and this is not one of the six but I wish when I was 20 I’d learned the power of letting go letting go of trivialities letting go of you know things that are not really that big but point number two is really this you want to remember that everything that happens to you is for your growth and if it’s for your growth and and if the the difficult things make you stronger wiser more relatable more authentic more loving tougher more creative well then that’s good why would you resist it why not befriend it the third thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 years old this is not going to surprise you when you own your morning you’ll elevate your life I wish when I was 20 years old someone had taught me that early rising is an absolute GameChanger why because if you learn how to start your days well your days will unfold gloriously consistently when you start your days before sunrise you have a gargantuan competitive advantage there’s no crowds people are nicer people are more open there’s no traffic on the streets you can actually think one of the lines in the five am Club is tranquility is the new luxury when you start your day well you have the time I call it the victory hour in the book you from 5 o’clock to 6 o’clock you get to run the 20–20–20 formula which I teach in the 5 M Club so let me simply say for now you have the time to work on yourself you have the time to to work on your heart set to develop your mindset to exercise whether it’s doing planks or running on a treadmill or maybe it’s souls like I don’t know but you get to work on your heart set you get the time early rising to work on your soul set or you can connect with your cause and connect with your mission and detect your values and build yourself into that hero and brave warrior so that when you go out in the world at 6 a.m. and you feel fundamentally different you’re full of true power you’re full of clarity on what you need to achieve during the day you’ve got this intimacy with who you truly are so you can stand steadfast the turbulence that everyday might bring you have more energy you have more joyfulness you’re connected with this piece I mean piece is really important to leadership an exponential productivity when you are peaceful grounded focused versus diffused and scattered there’s a term called digital dementia you know a lot of us are suffering from digital dementia because of all the devices and technology we’re not focused and grounded so of course we’re not going to be and our creative and productive best so the third thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 years old is the the value of wiring in the lifetime habit of rising before the Sun I was in India on a book tour two months ago and I learned a lot of people came up to me and they said Robin this is our philosophy this is why the great sages and the great mystics and the great poets and the great thinkers got up before the Sun this is why Mahatma Gandhi got up before the Sun it is a time of incredible peace in the air there is a magic before sunrise and what I was told in India on this book tour was that that’s why people meditate at 5:00 a.m. because the mind has rested through the night so it’s more pure and available for new learning and growth the heart is more open at 5:00 a.m. so you can do that deep heart set work to release the lower toxic emotions and to optimize your gratitude joyfulness inner majesty and so i wish i knew that at 20 now I did I learned it mmm towards my late 20s so you know I didn’t miss out on it mostly but I’ll share one thing with you joining the five am club and rising before sunrise and running the 20–20–20 formula is absolutely transformational hi it’s Robin Sharma and I really hope you’re enjoying this episode of the mastery sessions I’m absolutely delighted that people from across the planet are getting such great results from what I’m doing in the mastery sessions well for a long time we’ve received so many requests from advertisers to put their ads on the mastery sessions and I have resisted doing so and yet what I wanted to do very quickly is are for you two resources that I absolutely know will create some marvelous shifts and elevations and results in your performance and in your personal life the first is my book the 5 a.m. Club if you have not read it you really need to know it’s one of the best-selling books on the planet right now for a reason it is transforming the lives of everyday heroes and people who want to make their ascent to world-class definitely read the 5 a.m. Club you are gonna find it a very special book for your rise to world class secondly for years people have been asking me Robin we want you to be our mentor Robin we want you to be our coach we want to learn what you’ve talked to the billionaire’s and the NBA superstars and the other professional athletes and the film icons and the titans of industry really quickly all you need to do if you’re interested in me becoming your mentor head over to the circle of Legends calm the circle of Legends calm I’ve created a world-class digital mentoring program where I will work with you each month to help you make your leap and your ascent to absolute world-class ok now back to the episode and this brings me to the fourth thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 which is there is a difference between being busy being busy and genuine productivity please don’t confuse movement with getting real things done as a matter of fact the billionaires that I coach and the titans of industry that I advise they all have one thing in common they really don’t work super hard they are much more interested in quality work than busy work we live in a world where a lot of people are running around being busy being busy they’re doing too many meetings they’re available every phone call they’re always checking their technology they never get lost they’re always there they’re masters of yes versus magicians of no and so their lives become very complicated and yet the true superstars that I’ve worked with they’re much less interested in complexity and they’re much more invested in simplicity they do a few things in their professional life staggeringly well they build a great team they structure a great lifestyle so they have time to mountain biking they have time to view their family and they have time to read and they have time to go to museums and all of those other things that make you more creative and more productive in business so the fourth thing I’ve learned that I wish I’d learned when I was 20 years old is please don’t mistake being busy with being productive my encouragement is be a purist versus a generalist fifth thing I wish I’d learned when I was 20 years old is this that it doesn’t matter what other people are doing all that matters is who you’re becoming and how far you’ve traveled so I understand a lot of us haven’t heard mentality I understand that in this world of ours especially with social media we are suffering from an addiction to comparison it makes me think of what Theodore Roosevelt once set once said he said comparison is the thief of joy I’ll repeat that again because it’s such a valuable idea to me at least Tedric Teddy Roosevelt said comparison is the thief of joy and real leadership is not about fall and real leadership is not about followership it’s about leadership in other words you can follow the crowd do what everyone’s doing think the majority thinking operate the way everyone is operating or you can run your own race trust your instinct be authentic speak with your own voice pursue your own ambitions and be your own woman or man but you can’t do both and yes when you don’t follow the crowd and when it doesn’t matter to you what others are thinking and doing you’re gonna be a freak I’d simply offer you an insight hopefully to put a smile on your face which is everyone seems normal until you get to know them and so yes the outside might call you a freak or weird or eccentric but what’s more powerful than being true to yourself Shakespeare said it really well he said to thine own self be true and as I suggested I wish I’d known when I was 20 years old forget about what other people are doing and how they’re thinking forget about how they’re living you know the majority of people are full of exhaustion and the majority of people are addicted to distraction and many people are depleted and disappointed and many people have resigned themselves to average so why would you follow what most people are doing as a matter of fact I think a great formula for world class is look at what most people are doing and go in the opposite direction and all that really matters is who are
you becoming and how far you’ve traveled as human beings it’s really easy to beat ourselves up because we’re not at our mountaintop well that’s the journey and process of world class it’s a lifetime pursuit and you want to make the time to celebrate how far you’ve come in terms of your personal growth in terms of your craft in terms of your impact on other people and in person and in terms of the lifestyle that you’ve created and the sixth and final thing I wish I learned when I was 20 years old is that the most loving person in the room wins so one of the dominant beliefs in our society is that to be brave and courageous and successful you’ve in many ways you need to work relentlessly you need to push aggressively you need to thump your chest you need to express bravado and that if you are loving civil punctual polite sincere caring you’re a weakling and what I want to share with you having worked with many of the most successful people on the planet and many of the great enterprises whether it’s General Electric or Starbucks or Microsoft or IBM young presidents organization Oh IBM Watson it just goes on Nike I want to offer you this the best of the best understand that when you take care of the relationship the money takes care of itself the best of the best understands that the business of business is truly connecting with other human beings and so the most loving person and I really wish I knew this at 20 being loving and being open and caring about other people and being absolutely obsessed about helpfulness to other people by delivering extreme amounts of value to them is not only the right thing to do it not only uplifts your joy not only grows your self-confidence and makes you feel good when your head hits the pillow every night it’s an amazing business strategy because then you develop these evangelists for your brand and these fanatical followers for your products because few things are as powerful as being in the presence of someone who genuinely cares especially right now being in the presence of someone who genuinely cares so there’s a city I visit and when I visit there’s this food court and in the food court there’s this place that does this incredible Mediterranean chicken and I just love the food when I go to this city and when I go to this food court it’s healthy and it’s absolutely delicious the only thing is this when the boss is there he hardly gives you any chicken and when the boss is there you hardly get any salad and when the boss is there you’ll hardly get any hummus what’s my point he’s not coming from being the most loving person in the room the most generous person in the room I think he’s coming from a place of scarcities no judgment whatsoever I’m not in a position to judge anyone I’m just reporting I think he’s coming from scarcity and yet if he was coming from generosity and love and caring and just felt like I was told people feel at hotels and in taxi cabs in India that the guest is God that’s what they say in India I learned that in talking to a taxi driver in India and also in a number of hotels in India one in New Delhi on the recent February trip someone who was helping me out said I said like where are you getting all this from you this joy you care so much he said well we believe guests are gods and so if this person at the Mediterranean restaurant was more loving and more generous and remembered that the customer has a lot of choice where they can go and when you are generous people keep on coming back I think he’d be even more successful so thank you for being here with me in this mastery session I hope it’s been helpful if you want to go a lot deeper in my philosophy as well as my methodologies on advanced creativity exponential performance genuine leadership and if you really want to live a life that is world-class not only being successful but also soulful then I really encourage you to read my book the 5 a.m. Club it’s currently one of the best-selling books on the planet right now at the end of the book you also get a 66 day digital mentoring program details are at the end of the book and the book is just transforming people across the planet so why wouldn’t you invest in it I’d also love to share with you when you invest in your copy a portion of my royalties goes to help children suffering from leprosy so you not only get your transformation and learn how the best in the world begin their days and live their days you’re also helping a child is in real need so you can feel good about that and if you’d like to go even deeper and want me to be your mentor because the great athletes all have coaches for a reason you really can’t do it alone it’ll cost you a lot more to try to figure out how the best in the world build great companies or how the great performers do it or how the most successful people think feel operate and live you could spend a lifetime trying to figure it out so if you’d like me to mentor you and help you accelerate your success and help you handcraft a world-class life and help you express your primal genius and your native heroism if that is of interest to you that I’d love to help you do it head over to the circle of Legends com the circle of Legends com that is my world-class online monthly mentoring program and you’ll have a look at all the details over there and finally I really hope this episode has been valuable to you if it has been valuable I would love for you to share it with three friends within the next 24 hours the teacher learns the most so by sharing this episode with three friends and talking about what you’ve learned you’re not only going to deepen and integrate the learning so it becomes more sticky for you you’re gonna lift up your three friends so they rise with you and wouldn’t that be a brilliant thing so I wish you all green lights and thanks so much for being with me.