In this episode of The Daily Mastery Podcast, Robin Sharma shares a valuable insight on the leadership mindset. 

One insight read in a single book could take your work and personal life to a whole new level. To earn more/have more/love more/be more, it’s mission-critical to read. Daily. Passionately.

You may find it odd that a teacher of Leadership and Elite-Performance in business is speaking of self-love. Yet it’s only once you learn to love yourself that you can love your visions and love your craft and give your heart to the development of your team and operate in full on service to your clients—and in the hot chase of a better world. 

All fortune begins within—with you loving who you are, embracing your talents, taking really great care of you by avoiding toxic influences, ensuring that you are well treated by others and nurturing your body through exercise, exposure to nature, a healthy diet, sunlight and lots of deep rest. 

This dramatic, tragic, messy and stormy period will—eventually—pass. And the insecurity will transform into our collective creativity while the volatility will become a most sensational serenity.And you know my brain tattoo around the concept: All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.I pray you will leverage this season to reaccess the bigness, honour, kindness and strength that I know is you at your best.  It’s the best time I’ve ever known to build your most exceptional you. And to upgrade your skills. And to lead your field.

It’s not so common to make the link between peak physicality and epic creativity, productivity and leadership. Yet, the more great health you have, the better your brain will perform and the more energy stamina you’ll have to bring on the fire of your finest talents. And, the supercool thing is that, as you do, you’ll automatically inspire the rest of us to do the same in our own lives. 

Too many people talk too good a talk these days. Tons of empty promises. Tons of hyperbole. Tons of lofty statements that never amount to anything. Leaders are different. They talk less and do more.So make a commitment today to be impeccable with your word. And be a person of action. Someone who is all about generating results. Because getting great things done speaks for itself.

Getting great at being a great human being involves being fully present.Presence is rare these days - and a phenomenal gift to give those who intersect your days.Being fully present and genuinely engaged (versus checking messages or rehearsing your answer) as you hear the speaker makes the other person feel important, understood and safe with you. This accelerates trust massively. And trust is the bedrock of a great relationship, whether at the workplace or within your home life.

When you get out into “the wild” (I love to do a one hour nature walk at the end of my work day but the wilderness for you could be a quiet room in your home or running through your neighborhood), your brain waves slow down from beta to alpha.When this happens–amid solitude–the part of your brain responsible for self-criticism, mental chatter and constant worry shuts down. This silencing of the prefrontal cortex happens temporarily and is known to neuroscientists as Transient Hypofrontality.With the prefrontal cortex temporarily quiet and your monkey mind on a little vacation, you enter the Flow State. Elite athletes know this as “the zone” and it’s the place where all great performance begins. In Flow, your neurochemistry is altered. Dopamine (the neurochemical of inspiration) gets released. Anandamide (the neurochemical of bliss) shows up. And serotonin (the neurochemical of pleasure) kicks in.With what I call “A Pharmacy for Mastery” in place, you get your best ideas. Your creativity makes explosive gains. You begin to see around corners. And solve problems that few humans ever get to solve. 

Good research confirms that what makes the best athletes the best in the world is not what they do in their sport but how effectively they recover. For example, it was the rituals that star tennis players did in between points that made them stars. What made the Russian weightlifters so undefeatable was their “work-rest ratios”.So, set a timer for 60 minutes and during those intervals, turn off your technology, shut your door and dive—with massive intensity—into the project that matters. Then, recover with a pristine break like walking, listening to music or reading. Just try this protocol for a month and witness the gains.