Progress Mode with Brendon Burchard

Episode 6: "It’s All Habits"

Date: October 27, 2025
Host: Brendon Burchard

Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and tactical solo episode, Brendon Burchard wraps up Season 1 of "Progress Mode" by drilling down into the central theme that underpins all lasting success: habits. Brendon walks listeners through the critical importance of high performance habits—not just as abstract ideas, but as the strategic backbone for progress, fulfillment, and resilience. Drawing from stories in his own journey (from solo entrepreneur to best-selling author and global coach), and reflecting candidly on his struggles and breakthroughs, Brendon challenges listeners to move beyond "coasting" into intentional, measurable, and holistic growth. This episode blends motivational storytelling, research backdrops, and practical frameworks, culminating in actionable advice to design the next level of your life without sacrificing your well-being or relationships.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Hardest Step in Self-Improvement: Honest Self-Evaluation

• Brendon opens by emphasizing the discomfort and necessity of truly assessing if your actions matter and add value.
  • Quote: "The hardest and scariest thing in all of self improvement is self evaluation. To truly look at ourselves and say, how am I doing? Am I putting enough in this amazing?" (00:00)
  • Admits it's okay to not have done enough in the past, but urges listeners to get “wildly honest.”

2. The Nature of Progress: Vector, Rate, Valence, and Magnitude

• Progress is much more than moving forward: it has direction, speed, emotional positivity/negativity, and—crucially—magnitude (step changes, not just small increments).
  • "A magnitude of change would be like a blip or like a shift. What I call a step change in your life. How do you get there? That's really the topic of high performance." (02:45)

3. Brendon’s Career Turning Points & Time Management Wake-Up

• Shares how after his initial bestsellers and busy events, he faced operational overwhelm due to a tiny team and poor time strategy.
  • Reflects on losing hours to distraction and the staggering compound effect over years.
  • Quote: "If you lose two hours to distraction a day, that ends up being a hundred plus work days lost a year. Whoa." (07:12)
• Stresses the need for clarity on what only you can do—everything else should be deleted, delayed, or delegated.

4. A Call for Humility & Step-Level Ambition

• Even after big achievements, Brendon admits hitting a wall: "I have next level ambitions, but I don't have next level performance... I didn't have the competency, I didn't have the habits to be able to go to the next level." (09:54)
• Invites listeners to cultivate humility and self-awareness, confronting skill gaps as prerequisites for breakthroughs.

5. Rethinking Performance: Habits Over Personality or Strengths

• Outlines research journey for "High Performance Habits."
  • Interviewed 300+ high performers, partnered with UPenn & UCSB, dissected every theory.
  • Finds that neither personality nor just “doubling down on strengths” produces long-term excellence.
  • Quote: "People who focus obsessively on their strengths don't have that much greater performance over a period of time than other people. ... Sometimes we have to be honest about where we lack and fix the leak in the boat." (16:57)

6. The (Surprisingly Simple) Driver of Lasting Change: Habits

• Clear data: the #1 predictor of sustainable high performance is habits—both internal and external.
  • Personal Examples: Shares struggles with disorganization, double-booking, urgent but not important work, poor team scaling.
  • Quote: "You have your internal practices and you have external practices. These high performance habits were what I was researching. And I was researching it at a time I desperately needed it because I was failing at that organizational part." (22:35)

7. The Four Clarity Buckets for “Progress Mode”

Brendon breaks down the four areas for strategic self-clarity:

• 1. Who do you want to be?
  • Not just tomorrow, but in 5 years—what habits do you need now to become that person?
• 2. How do you want to be with others?
  • Analyses his own awkwardness with fame, people-pleasing nature, and learning to set boundaries.
  • "Who rode with you this far might not be the people who are going to ride with you at your next level." (37:17)
• 3. What new skills do you need?
  • Details need to evolve skillset (e.g., being interviewed, handling large crowds, storytelling).
• 4. What’s the next level of service/value you must deliver?
  • Duration isn't the driver—level of value is (e.g., from charging hourly to holding equity/advisory roles).
  • "A lot of people just hope that their consistent action will compound into the step change. That's very rare." (46:24)

8. Tactical Measurement: The Daily Habit Scorecard

• Introduces the scoring method from the High Performance Planner.
  • Internal habits: Clarity, Energy, Necessity.
  • External habits: Productivity, Influence, Courage.
  • Suggests: “If you don't score yourself in some way, you need to create a rubric... I'd love for you to measure habits.” (56:44)
  • Advocates for daily self-measurement, not just winging it.

9. Crisis as Litmus Test: COVID & Birth of Growth Day

• During Covid, observed that many paused all progress, waiting for better conditions.
  • "When crises hit or major challenges hit, do we stop progress mode and wait for better conditions? That was a big, like, aha to me..." (01:08:22)
• Pivoted to daily mindset coaching via the Growth Day app, evolving his identity from author/coach to software CEO.
• Core insight: Days of growth are directly tied to happiness and resilience.

10. Balancing Progress with Health and Relationships

• Success achieved at the cost of health and relationships is hollow; real high performance integrates all three.
  • Quote: "What most people do when they strive for the impossible, they make their relationships impossible. They make taking care of themselves impossible by not managing their time." (01:27:35)
• Urges listeners to design progress mode so you’re not just achieving but also aligned, healthy, connected.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | | --- | --- | --- | | 00:00 | "The hardest and scariest thing in all of self improvement is self evaluation." | Brendon Burchard | | 07:12 | "If you lose two hours to distraction a day, that ends up being a hundred plus work days lost a year. Whoa." | Brendon Burchard | | 09:54 | "I have next level ambitions, but I don't have next level performance." | Brendon Burchard | | 16:57 | "People who focus obsessively on their strengths don't have that much greater performance over a period of time than other people." | Brendon Burchard | | 22:35 | "These high performance habits were what I was researching. And I was researching it at a time I desperately needed it because I was failing at that organizational part." | Brendon Burchard | | 37:17 | "Who rode with you this far might not be the people who are going to ride with you at your next level." | Brendon Burchard | | 46:24 | "A lot of people just hope that their consistent action will compound into the step change. That's very rare." | Brendon Burchard | | 56:44 | "If you don't score yourself in some way, you need to create a rubric for measuring yourself and scoring yourself over a period of time." | Brendon Burchard | | 01:08:22 | "When crises hit or major challenges hit, do we stop progress mode and wait for better conditions?" | Brendon Burchard | | 01:27:35 | "What most people do when they strive for the impossible, they make their relationships impossible. They make taking care of themselves impossible by not managing their time." | Brendon Burchard |

Important Segments & Timestamps

• Self-Evaluation & Honest Check-In: 00:00 – 03:00
• Understanding Progress (Vector, Magnitude): 02:00 – 05:00
• Operational Overwhelm & Team Scaling: 05:00 – 13:00
• Humility & Admitting Gaps: 13:00 – 18:00
• Researching High Performance: 18:00 – 26:00
• Habits as Game Changer: 26:00 – 32:00
• Clarity Buckets (Self, Social, Skills, Service): 32:00 – 53:00
• Daily Habit Scorecard/Measurement: 53:00 – 59:30
• COVID, Growth Day & Evolution: 01:05:00 – 01:17:00
• Holistic Progress – Health, Relationships, Alignment: 01:23:00 – End

Action Steps & Frameworks

• Daily Habit Reflection & Scoring: Adopt a scorecard (Brendon's or your own) for Clarity, Energy, Necessity, Productivity, Influence, and Courage.
• Quarterly Self-Assessment: Ask: Who do I want to become? How should I relate to others? What skills do I need? What’s my next level of value/service?
• Anticipate, Don’t React: Don’t wait for crisis to make changes—design and plan the next step proactively.
• Balance Success: Reject grind-only culture; pursue achievement integrated with health and strong relationships.

Final Tone & Closing Thoughts

Brendon’s delivery is energizing, humble, celebratory, and at times confessional—balancing practical advice with stories of vulnerability and real-world adaptation. He closes Season 1 with gratitude and anticipation for higher levels of service, adventure, and learning in Season 2, reminding all:

"You want this future that you're going to land in. You want to be healthy. You want to be connected with other people. You want to be competent and capable. This is what happens when you have Progress mode switched on in the right way... You just got to stay in progress mode, baby." (01:32:30)

For deeper resources, self-assessment tools, and progress community:
ProgressMode.com