High performers need to consistently fill-up and fuel-up through daily rituals
On the journey of passion it’s ok to play someone else’s music until you figure out your own tune
Jairek Robbins is one of the world’s leading performance coaches for many reasons, aside form the fact that he has been coached since birth by the legendary Tony Robbins, Jairek has managed to step forward and create a name and a niche for himself to become a household name in performance coaching, he is the author of bestselling book “Live It!” and in this interview he shares his secrets to maintaining emotional rocket fuel.
He says “People who want to achieve high performance in their lives need to consistently fill-up and fuel-upand that’s exactly why you need to create daily rituals to help you do so”.
Commenting on advantages and disadvantages of being surrounded by mentors and coaches since birth he says, “everyone is surrounded by them but not everyone pays attention to it”
So if you are looking to get into the high performance game then this is the interview to watch, once you do share it and spread the love.
Live Passionately,
Moustafa Hamwi
The Passion Guy
PASSION SUNDAYS
Guest – Mr. Jairek Robbins
Moustafa Hamwi: Hello everyone and welcome back to Passion Sundays. The best way to end a week and to start another. It’s been said that, to be successful in life, you have to have coaches and mentors. Our guest today stands to be one of the most coached and mentored people on this planet and that’s why he is very successful. Jairek Robbins how are you?
Jairek Robbins: Very well.
Moustafa Hamwi: Pleasure to have you here
Jairek Robbins: Thank you very much.
Moustafa Hamwi: Very excited for this interview because the fact that you have been living all your life being coached and mentored and then you have carved a niche for yourself to help people ‘live it’ as you say, you must have a lot of passion in what you are doing.
Jairek Robbins: Sure.
Moustafa Hamwi: So tell us more about how important this passion is for you.
Jairek Robbins: Passion is really important. The term I use for passion in my life is “Emotional Rocket fuel”. And it’s the fuel, the passion that allows someone to stay consistent, to keep fueled up and filled up and the analogy I always use is, if you imagine like a soda can or can of pop; if you take that can, you open it up and let some of the pressure out and then you pour out most of it and you hand that can to a small child, they can dent it if not crush it with their bare hands. Now if you take the same can, you fill it all the way up with passion or emotional rocket fuel and then you do something to pressurize it against the worlds pressure, now the small child has no chance of crushing it and can hardly even dent it with his bare hands because it’s filled up, it’s fueled up, it’s pressurized with that passion and it’s in a position now to where it can withstand natural pressure life puts on it. So I think it’s the bulletproof strategy to create almost a force field around yourself to get through the challenges life is going to give you through your way. To get through the ups and downs, the lefts or rights, through the days we wake up and we ‘don’t feel like it’, if you are full, you are fueled, you are alive, that’s what causes you to feel like it. That’s what puts you in your strongest, most passionate state and drive your forward each day. So I think it is really the fuel behind everything someone does if used properly.
Moustafa Hamwi: Amazing! So, I loved the analogy you have used of the soda and the rocket fuel. We all run low along the way during the journey and then you know sometimes your rocket fuel and you sort of splashing all over the place and the energy is distracted. How do you find a way to keep that focused?
Jairek Robbins: You got to refuel consistently. So here is a challenge. If we are in a Formula One Race, let’s say Monaco Grand Prix. We get in our car; we fill up once. Right? This is, saying, what if you filled up once a week? Well the race isn’t even a week long and how many times they fill up? So, if you filled up one tank of fuel and you try to go race the Monaco Grand Prix, how many laps do you get before you are sitting on the side watching everyone pass you by in life because you are empty. You have got nothing left to give? That’s what most people do. Most people don’t even have any routine to fill up or fuel up in their day. Much less a consistent routine. So you have got to think about it. These Formula One Racing Teams, they have something called the Pit Stop. It’s a consistent routine that they are geared that in like 10 seconds or less they can refuel the car, change the tyre, scrape the bugs off the windshield, get it ready and get it back on the racetrack faster than you could blink your eyes. What’s your routine? You know what routine do the people need and how often do you need it? That’s the other thing, as a team they sit down every day and they practice and practice and practice to figure out, “Hey, I can go Twelve laps before I need a pit. I can go Eight laps before I need a pit. So they are constantly measuring and fine-tuning how far can they go, how fast can they do it, how quickly can they do it to be at the highest effectivity point of their life? I don’t know if that’s what, but I made that up.
Moustafa Hamwi: That is about my question is how often? Now you are saying it’s relevant to the person but there must be a bare minimum that you say if you are below that, you are not….
Jairek Robbins: Once a day.
Moustafa Hamwi: Once a day. And if you have to have a daily ritual….
Jairek Robbins: If you don’t have a daily ritual that fill up and fuel up, you are praying, hoping and just hoping at that point, but hope is not a strategy to success. You don’t hope it turns out well, you make it turn out well. And here is the key. You don’t even have a daily strategy; if you wake up empty that day, you are done. That’s like if you pull your car into the racetrack, you have spent million dollars on this car, it’s empty and you pay a guy to get in there and slam on a gas pedal and nothing happens…. it didn’t even turn on.
Moustafa Hamwi: Alright.
Jairek Robbins: So that’s the thing. You need a daily routine at least. I will say I have a morning routine and you want an evening routine.
Moustafa Hamwi: Even if it is short.
Jairek Robbins: Even if it’s short.
Moustafa Hamwi: Five minutes, Ten minutes, that’s fine.
Jairek Robbins: It doesn’t matter. Something to fuel you up. Everyone’s fueled up at different things. For some people it’s looking at a picture of their kids and family and that immediately fuels them up and sparks them. For other people, it’s mentally rehearsing their day, meditating to clear out all the junk from the day before. And that’s something I use. It’s in the morning, if you wake up and you have still got old grimy fuel from three days ago, you might need to meditate a little and like scrub the inside of your mind and emotions to get that stuff out so you can have some new fuel to built up within. So if you have been saying the same goals, the same vision and the same thing again and again, you might need something fresh and new like some new fuel, new high quality fuel to move you and inspire you and drive you forward. So that’s the thing. Everyone’s different. But you have got to work with an individual. That’s why I personally believe in one on one coaching and mentoring, because every person is different. I can put you in a group and tell you all to do something. At the same time, if I work with you I can figure out what fuels you. I can figure out you what slows you down. I can figure out what makes you tick. I can figure out how effective you are and just like one Formula One Race Car, I can sit there and fine-tune the pressure, the breaks, the shocks, the turn, the disks, the captain, everything. And the more I can fine tune that, the more effective we need you to be.
Moustafa Hamwi: Awesome. You have led me nicely to an interesting question. You mention that different people are fueled by different things. And a lot of time we do the pit-stops but we end up with the wrong results because we are not refueling with the right rocket fuel that means to us. And you have an interesting personal experience, again the advantage of you being surrounded with all the mentors and coaches throughout your life has an advantage.
Jairek Robbins: Here’s the thing. I will stop you right there. Everyone’s surrounded by him. Not everyone pays attention to the fact that they are there.
Moustafa Hamwi: Okay. Good.
Jairek Robbins: And here’s my belief. Although this is just a thought to interject. Every human being you cross paths with is a mentor or coach if you allow them to be.
Moustafa Hamwi: Hundred Percent. Hundred Percent. Agreed. I learned my best lessons from random people, from anybody I meet; a taxi driver, receptionist or security guy and I am open to learning. My question was on the downside of being surrounded by so many strong personalities around you. Within a region where a lot of people find themselves they are second generation, third generation business people, entrepreneurs and sometimes they are pressured to refuel at pit-stops that might not be meaningful to them. How would somebody be able to distinct that this is truly my passion or am I just being pushed and found myself here? How do you do that?
Jairek Robbins: So, here is the trick. I grew up and we have multiple family businesses existing on different sides of the family. So I grew up at a very very young age with a suit and tie, learning sales presenting with my grandmother and insurance. And I was like, “Okay. I could do that.” And I grew up working in sales you know I did little events with my mom selling handicrafts and different stuff. I also grew up around my dad who happens to be great at sales and training and coaching and speaking or doing things and so there’s lots of different options that were available. And for a while I chose to work with dad. And so I did lot of training within his company and he’s got 18, 19 companies now and they do like 6 billion a year in revenues altogether and they have thousands of employees. And so at any point, I am sure I can go, try to find the way to work with one of them and have a safe job. But here’s the God’s honest truth; one of the greatest gifts he ever gave me was his whole thing, he was like ‘go work somewhere else. Go do something else. Go try something else so that you can figure out who you really are’. If you can figure out if you have what it takes to succeed. You can figure out what you actually like doing. You can figure out what you are talented at, what you are not so great at, where you need to grow, where you need to learn and you can have a fair shot at no one knowing who you are and seeing how well you can actually perform. Because whether you want to say it or not if you are within a family business people treat you differently, they look at you differently, they have different expectations of you; good, bad or indifferent, they do. And so that ability was a great gift to give me. It was, “Go find yourself! Get out!” Now I did seven years ago. I broke off starting my company, happened to be in the same industry as one of his companies and I have been able to find myself. And in the beginning, it was a little very very similar to his cos that’s all I knew and it’s equal to learning to play a piano. Like you don’t start of by playing your own symphony. You start off by playing Beethoven, then Mozart, Bach and all these other guys. And eventually after so long, then you start to learn your music. So I always tell people, the first thing is there are three steps in figuring out your passion and purpose. Number One you got to figure out what works. And a lot of time that comes from modelling other people. So you see what someone else did and you try it. You see what they didn’t do and you don’t do that. You just learn from following what other people have done. After you figure out what works, you start to get reasonable or sizable results at that point you got to transition to what works for you? And this is where you start fine-tuning and adjusting, where you say, “Listen. I know this works for them but that doesn’t work for me. It’s not my style. It’s not my personality. If you notice, I wear jeans and shirt everywhere. That works for me. I am not a suit and tie person. I have learnt that over time.” Now there’s a stage of my life where I always had suit & tie because that were appropriate. And after so long, that doesn’t work for me. And I have to do what works for me and if it’s allowed here, great I’m welcome. And if it’s not allowed here, I probably won’t be invited back. It’s okay. It’s not my place. And I have learnt that. It’s not my place. And I have learned that so that authentic voice, that authentic piece of who you are and how you show up has to come through at some point. And once you figure out what works for you, the final step is how you automate it. How you make it seamless, effortless and just part of your habits and routines that continue to go again and again and again on autopilot every day in a great way. So something we talked about at a presentation earlier today was, 40 % of what we do every day is not a conscious choice or decision, it’s just an automatic habit we’ve built into our nervous system that’s continuing the cycle and repeat itself again and again. So how do you built the good, healthy, powerful and strong habits to allow them to continue to repeat and cycle in a great way. That’s the final step.
Moustafa Hamwi: Awesome. I love that. I think this is the best way we could have concluded three practical steps and I loved the fact that it’s okay to model at the beginning until you carve you niche out.
Jairek Robbins: I don’t know if anyone has picked up the piano and played a symphony from day one without having any help or assistance or trying to play someone else’s music first.
Moustafa Hamwi: Awesome. I love it. Let’s play someone else’s music until we can play our own choose. This is an amazing way.
Jairek Robbins: Don’t be a cover band your whole life!
Moustafa Hamwi: Love it! This is the best most practical idea about living passions. So thank you very much. This has been an amazing interview and live it up. Thank you very much.
Jairek Robbins: You are welcome. You too!
Together: PASSION!!
Moustafa Hamwi: What do you think? I would really love to hear your opinion. If you like to stay engaged subscribe to our social media channels. If you want even more valuable interviews and tips and tricks on how to live passionately then go to moustafahamwi.com and subscribe to our Passion Sundays newsletter. Until the next episode, live passionately.
