911. "Be humble in preparation and arrogant in performance." Featuring Brian Levenson's "Shift Your Mind."

Arrogance is a necessary ingredient for success. So too is humbleness. So, when should you be arrogant and when should you be humble? 

If you seem to be stuck or in a stalemate, it's probably because you've flipped the order of when to be arrogant and when to be humble. 

Today, I'm rocking out of Brian Levenson's excellent book, "Shift Your Mind," and will help you flip it back around and get you headed in the right direction again. 

Transcript

1:30

All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it in today's random reading. Random reading is something that I do every morning. What I do is, I will pull a book off the shelf. And do just that random reading. So instead of powering through a book cover to cover. Every morning is a fresh book. So you can read a book in a day. Doesn't mean you read the entire book, but you just make it digestible. Set your timer 10 to 20 minutes. Pick a section that most resonates with you out of the book. Uh, from the table of contents and read that one chapter and see how you can both a, interpret it by writing it, which is what I'm about to share with you now, how I interpret things. And then also, how can I live this today too? So this is kinda my primer for the day, and I would urge you to take a similar approach to this. I'm telling you it's, it's just a total game changer for you. Um, so today's random reading is shift your mind by Brian Levenson. Nine mental shifts to thrive in preparation and performance are really like Brian. He's got a great podcast as well. Here's a couple of blurbs from Jesse. Itzler. Uh, John Gordon and Daniel pink. Uh, so that just tells you what kind of book this actually is. So I've read the book a couple of times. Uh, but it's been a couple of years since I read it. So I, it just jumped out at me. Uh, this morning, when I opened up the table of contents, I immediately gravitated toward humble and arrogant. Which is shift number one, there were some other ones that was curious about my, which one out of the table of contents is just really. Pulling at me. And it was humble and arrogant. When should you be humble? And when should you be arrogant? And that's what we're going to talk about today, because believe it or not both or needed. Humbleness. Be humble is, you know, it's, it's widespread, it's widely adopted, accepted by everyone. Everybody says that you should be humble, but. Levinson makes the case that you should also be arrogant as well. So when to be humble, when to be arrogant, And Levinson writes that you should be. Humble in preparation. An arrogant. in performance. Humble in preparation. Arrogant and performance. And so that's what we're going to unpack. And how this relates to you. So let's start with the arrogant part. Arrogance has such. A bad rap. And I get it because nobody likes an arrogant person. But we do appreciate. An arrogant performer. All right. So let me, let me prove it to you. Imagine if Jay Z. Kanye. Beyonce. Michael Jordan. Tiger woods. Kobi. I mean, just think about any elite performer from, from anywhere. Imagine. If they weren't arrogant when they performed. You wouldn't gravitate or have an appreciation for what they do. So there's an arrogance about them. They command a presence. They command the stage. And it's not that you take this arrogance in the sense that you're the greatest ever it's that you're the greatest in this moment. And the only way that you can be the greatest in this moment. Is to be humble in preparation. So going back to the arrogance apart first. Every rapper alive says they're the greatest rapper. They're the goat. Of course they believe that they believe that because they worked their ass off to get to where they are. So they are the greatest in the moment. You need that arrogance when you were performing. Whether it be that you're in sales. You're in real estate. You're an entrepreneur, whatever it is. We appreciate someone who is arrogant. Arrogant means that you take control. It means that you command a presence. That's what arrogance is. But you can't just be arrogant just to be arrogant. You've got to earn your arrogance through humble preparation. You got to have them both. The humble preparation it's the offline hours. It's where you're coachable. Where you're moldable, you have an insatiable appetite. About learning more. Because, you know, there's more out there that you don't know, then you do know. So you have this insatiable anger. And curiosity. And creativity. To stretch every single day. Preparing. Putting in the reps. Analyzing adjusting. So that way, when it comes time for the spotlight, That when you step on stage. You're the best there is. Because you're the best in the moment. Because you've earned your way. They're humble in preparation. Arrogant and performance. And dude, I'm telling you, when you do this. It's a whole nother level for you. That arrogance is needed. In the performance. Cause let me tell you what's going to happen. There are things that are going to go wrong. There are going to be miscues. There are going to be blow ups, backfires. They're going to be things that you did not even prepare for, but because you were humble in preparation. You prepared, you stretched. You were coachable, you looked for all kinds of different blind sides. You did all of these things. In the offline hours. So that way. You're ready. For anything. And so you just make the necessary adjustments. You need that arrogance. So when the blow ups happen, you don't blow up. You don't melt down. You don't lose your composure. You don't snap. You don't give up. No. This is what makes people so tenacious, indomitable. Is because they were humble and preparation. They don't think they have it all figured out. They don't think they have the cat by the tail. They don't think they're the second coming. They're preparing. They're very humble in that. But then when it's time to step on stage and the lights are up. It's game on. Because they've earned their arrogance and so when miscues and misfires and blow ups and possible embarrassing moments come up. They don't seem to be phased by it. It's almost like an alter ego. And so they just, they just embrace it. And the master the performance. That's what you need. I can tell you this every time I've had a slick spot, every time I've been in the slump. Let me tell you why you're in the slump. because you've been the other way around arrogant in preparation. And humble in performance. So in the offline hours, you're not coachable, all you're doing is defending and explaining your situation. It's not your fault. You're pointing the finger at everybody. You're pointing the finger at the economy. You're pointing the finger at the customers. You're pointing the finger at whatever the landscape you're pointing, the finger, it, whatever administration. All you're doing is defending and explaining yet not owning. And so you become arrogant. in preparation and humble and performance because you're closed off and not teachable. Nobody can tell you anything you can't handle critiques or criticism. You can step on stage confidently, but you melt immediately.'cause you're like in your mind because you're arrogant and preparation, humble and performance. The minute you get hit with a blow up. What do you do? You instantly revert back to victim mode. Oh my God. Here I go again. It's gotta be the other way around. So I would challenge you right now. Like if you're in a slump, it's probably because initially when you first started. You were humble in preparation yet arrogant and performance. And now what you've done is you think you, you got it all figured out. You think, you know, what's best. You're going to tell everybody what they need to do. You're quick to point the finger. You're quick to defend and blame. And criticize. Yeah, you can't take it on yourself. And so you flip things around and so you're now you're arrogant and preparation. And humble and performance, and that's a recipe for disaster. So this message serves. Two-fold. Number one. If, if you've been just kind of like limping along. I don't think you're quite there yet. You're the best there is up to this moment. There's more, there's no performer out there that thinks that. They don't have to learn anymore. They understand the masterful performers realize that in the offline hours, I got to learn more, but right now I'm going to give you all I got and then some see when you are arrogant in performance. Arrogance simply means to exaggerate. Your current situation. That means that because you've been humble in preparation. Because you've earned your arrogance. Now you can exaggerate your skills beyond. What you've already prepared for. But you're exaggerating that. You're maximizing the opportunity. You're making belief. You take your current belief and you make more because you're stretching it out there. And at the end of the performance. Because you've made. Incremental gains in your performances through the countless countless reps. Then in the offline hours, you take that new made belief. You analyze it, you adjust, you prepare humbly. You you're coachable. And then you're ready for the next performance. And then you're arrogant. Again, light comes on. Exaggeration. You're the best ever in this moment, because you've earned your way there. If you've been kind of limping along thinking that, well, I'm not, I'm not quite stop comparing yourself to someone who's already been doing this 10 years. They didn't come out that way. They earned their spot. You've got to earn yours. So you are the best. There is the best person. That you can help is the person you once were help those people. And as you make these incremental gains Through humble preparation and arrogant performance. Then this becomes this perpetual cycle. You're humbly learning. You're preparing you're coachable. Boom. Bring it. Then back, humble, analyze, adjust. Boom, arrogant again, analyze, adjust, see how this thing goes on and on and on as to what you do. And so you've got enough in the tank to get started. This is my first point is humbly prepare. But it's not. It's not a a semester. This is a lifestyle. This is a lifetime. Agreement that you have commitment that you have with yourself. I'm arrogant. When I get on the mic, I'm arrogant in performance. Because I've been humble in preparation. This is. I've done over a thousand videos. And so I've earned my arrogance, not in a bad way. I don't think I'm the best. I believe I bring the best message there is right now. It's the best I've got. And offline. I'll learn some more. And if I go back and listen to some of my older episodes, I see how much of incrementally grown. So what you want. And so you've got enough to get started professionally creatively, personally. Humble in preparation, spiritual life, financial life. Relationships. Fitness. Dude, you can use this in everything. Be humble in preparation. But when you get in that weight room, When you take on that interview. When you meet that new person. You're arrogant in performance. Not that you're an arrogant person, but there's, you're arrogant and performance. You've earned your way. You've cut out all the toxic things in your life. You're not the person you once were. You're continuously building your work in progress, not regress. So you're doing these things. You've earned that. And then offline. It's rinse and repeat. So I say that in the first part get started. The second point is if you've been doing this for awhile, But now you've reached this plateau. It's because you've probably slipped into being dyslexic instead of being humble in preparation, arrogant, in performance. You were now. Arrogant in preparation. And humble and performance. And so you think you're God's gift to man. You think everybody should. Wash your feet. So you have this arrogant nature about you. Instead of this arrogant performance. We want that next level. When we see you. We want to know. That unshakable belief and that confidence. I want that. I don't want you to crumble under fire. I understand things may pop up. But I have the trust and belief as a watch, you perform you're like dude, this guy's unflappable. You got to earn your way there. All right. So you got enough to get started. Number one, number two is if you fell into a slump, you've probably gotten arrogant in your preparation. Relax, flip it around. Get that preparation back going again. Recenter yourself. And damn it. When the lights come on. Perform arrogantly. All right. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough peace.