Mindset. Beliefs.
I don't mean just your regular inferential beliefs (ie. "If X, then Y" or "Icecream isn't tasty"). Those are visible.
I'm referring to those interpretive beliefs that remain invisible because they are integrated as part of your identity and they form your very framework of interpretation and judgment. Whether these beliefs are positive or negative, whether they push you forward or hold you back, you simply do not know.
That Top Performers Don't Necessarily Know Why They're Successful And Therefore Can't Teach You...
If asked, a top performer will give a reason for their success, which, most likely is a rationalization, not the truth. The belief-system driving his/her success likely remains invisible to them, just as it is invisible to you. This is necessarily so, unless they have spent significant time introspecting and studying themselves.
For example, Neil Rackham in SPIN Selling noticed that empirically, the reasons great salespeople gave for their success, weren't actually correlated with success when transferred over to other salespeople. Instead, it was more accurate to watch great salespeople and empirically determine what behaviors led to success that way.
That's also why you get situations of great practitioners not being able to train others to be great.
Take soccer.
A great soccer player is often a terrible coach: Diego Maradona, John Barnes, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Neville, or Alan Shearer. These guys were fantastic players, but terrible managers.
The opposite is also true... people who never played professional soccer (or weren't successful), but who are/were fantastic coaches/managers: Gerard Houllier, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bill Struth, Arrigo Sacchi, Guy Roux, Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger.
That Mindset Is The Key To Success In Entrepreneurship Or Anything Else
That mindset and belief lies behind success is relatively evident. The decisions we make, the actions we take, and our perseverance are the cause of our successes (and failures). And these all emerge out of our belief systems - out of the way we think and process sense data (which we call "reality"). Where else could they emerge from?
Felix Dennis (whose success in entrepreneurship is unquestionable) states in How To Get Rich:
I am the type of person who is not satisfied merely to achieve something. I want to understand HOW I've achieved it. So I gradually take periods to introspect. Doing so has enabled me to figure out that my biggest successes came when I overcame one or more limiting beliefs. You should do the same, it's the beginning of identifying and correcting your limiting beliefs.
That Naive Realism Is Wrong: Mindset Is The Filter You Apply To "Reality"
Many people think that reality is just out there, and what we perceive is what objectively is out there. But this naive realism is deluded.
We do not come in contact with reality as blank slates. Information doesn't get delivered to consciousness as it exists out there... rather it is processed through belief-systems which are unconscious, and only then delivered to consciousness.
It's like this... sense-data gets processed by your invisible belief system and gets delivered to you as perception. If your perception sucks, you cannot change the external sense data, but you certainly can change your belief system, which will change your perception...
That Mindset Is Invisible, But Controls Your Life
We never "see" our mindset in action. Our perception is already processed through our mindset filter by the time we become conscious of it. We don't see how this gets done - the brain does it unconsciously.
So your results are the outcome of your mindset. And your mindset is invisible, largely unconscious. Therefore the cause of your results remains invisible to you. Identifying your limiting beliefs is the hardest work there is.
That You Can Change Your Mindset, And Therefore You Can Change Your Results
Not only must you identify your limiting beliefs, but you must replace them with positive beliefs. This is where reading books like The Millionaire Fastlane or Unscripted or Awaken The Giant Within, etc. helps.
I've struggled and overcome several debilitating issues with anxiety, depression and OCD. I've told my story briefly in this thread. I mentioned briefly how mindfulness helped me slow down and calm down, and how I was greatly helped by a psychologist that I ended up working with before deciding to quit. What I did not mention was that while mindfulness helped to relax and improve one's feelings, it was the talking with the therapist that slowly uncovered and changed beliefs, even though I didn't realise it at the time.
Here's an invisible, framework belief I had:
"Feeling scared means being under threat"
What this belief meant was that every time I felt anxiety, I would interpret it as being under immediate threat, and this would cause a panic attack.
It was also one of my OCD triggers. I felt afraid that I may have forgotten to close the gas. So I would go and check it. It was closed. But I still felt afraid. So the next thought popped up: maybe you didn't check correctly, or you turned it on without realising. You must check again.
The belief listed above was nowhere in the actual contents of my thoughts, but it was the invisible driving force. I felt the need to "check it again" because the fear wasn't gone, and by default, my mind interpreted fear as being under threat. By changing that belief, my reaction to fear also changed, and I no longer had to "check it again", even if I felt fear for awhile longer.
More importantly, the belief listed above remained invisible to me. It was simply a filter that I applied to interpret the world, without even knowing it. And it was controlling my life.
Affirmations, CBT, MBSR, NLP, Stoicism - these are all ways of changing your mindset and beliefs. If you're struggling and you're in some dark place, don't lose hope. But study mindset. It's the best thing you can do. It certainly was for me, and still is. Just like for you, my next BIG BREAKTHROUGH will come from identifying another limiting belief and changing it.
Understanding the above has helped me get my priorities straight for the next year. I'm glad I've spent this time to reflect. So take your time during the New Year to THINK DEEPLY about your life, reflect on your mindset, and change it for the better. As much as you can. I'm just going to slowly go through Unscripted now, and I'm sure my next big insights will come from there.
So... are YOU going to think about your mindset? Are YOU going to try to uncover limiting beliefs and shift gears into the fastlane? Even if you're already successful... it's time for you to shift gears and reach the NEXT LEVEL. Or are you going to keep going the same old way and ignore your mindset even after reading this thread?
I don't mean just your regular inferential beliefs (ie. "If X, then Y" or "Icecream isn't tasty"). Those are visible.
I'm referring to those interpretive beliefs that remain invisible because they are integrated as part of your identity and they form your very framework of interpretation and judgment. Whether these beliefs are positive or negative, whether they push you forward or hold you back, you simply do not know.
That Top Performers Don't Necessarily Know Why They're Successful And Therefore Can't Teach You...
If asked, a top performer will give a reason for their success, which, most likely is a rationalization, not the truth. The belief-system driving his/her success likely remains invisible to them, just as it is invisible to you. This is necessarily so, unless they have spent significant time introspecting and studying themselves.
For example, Neil Rackham in SPIN Selling noticed that empirically, the reasons great salespeople gave for their success, weren't actually correlated with success when transferred over to other salespeople. Instead, it was more accurate to watch great salespeople and empirically determine what behaviors led to success that way.
That's also why you get situations of great practitioners not being able to train others to be great.
Take soccer.
A great soccer player is often a terrible coach: Diego Maradona, John Barnes, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Neville, or Alan Shearer. These guys were fantastic players, but terrible managers.
The opposite is also true... people who never played professional soccer (or weren't successful), but who are/were fantastic coaches/managers: Gerard Houllier, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bill Struth, Arrigo Sacchi, Guy Roux, Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger.
That Mindset Is The Key To Success In Entrepreneurship Or Anything Else
That mindset and belief lies behind success is relatively evident. The decisions we make, the actions we take, and our perseverance are the cause of our successes (and failures). And these all emerge out of our belief systems - out of the way we think and process sense data (which we call "reality"). Where else could they emerge from?
Felix Dennis (whose success in entrepreneurship is unquestionable) states in How To Get Rich:
Truly. Do you believe in yourself? Do you? If you do not, and, worse still, if you believe you never can believe, then by all means go on reading this book. But take it from me, your only chance of getting rich will come from the lottery or inheritance. If you will not believe in yourself, then why should anyone else? Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible. It is as brutal and as black and white as that. If you take no other memory from this book, then take that single thought. It was worth a damn sight more than the price you paid for it, I assure you
I am the type of person who is not satisfied merely to achieve something. I want to understand HOW I've achieved it. So I gradually take periods to introspect. Doing so has enabled me to figure out that my biggest successes came when I overcame one or more limiting beliefs. You should do the same, it's the beginning of identifying and correcting your limiting beliefs.
That Naive Realism Is Wrong: Mindset Is The Filter You Apply To "Reality"
Many people think that reality is just out there, and what we perceive is what objectively is out there. But this naive realism is deluded.
We do not come in contact with reality as blank slates. Information doesn't get delivered to consciousness as it exists out there... rather it is processed through belief-systems which are unconscious, and only then delivered to consciousness.
It's like this... sense-data gets processed by your invisible belief system and gets delivered to you as perception. If your perception sucks, you cannot change the external sense data, but you certainly can change your belief system, which will change your perception...
That Mindset Is Invisible, But Controls Your Life
We never "see" our mindset in action. Our perception is already processed through our mindset filter by the time we become conscious of it. We don't see how this gets done - the brain does it unconsciously.
So your results are the outcome of your mindset. And your mindset is invisible, largely unconscious. Therefore the cause of your results remains invisible to you. Identifying your limiting beliefs is the hardest work there is.
That You Can Change Your Mindset, And Therefore You Can Change Your Results
Not only must you identify your limiting beliefs, but you must replace them with positive beliefs. This is where reading books like The Millionaire Fastlane or Unscripted or Awaken The Giant Within, etc. helps.
I've struggled and overcome several debilitating issues with anxiety, depression and OCD. I've told my story briefly in this thread. I mentioned briefly how mindfulness helped me slow down and calm down, and how I was greatly helped by a psychologist that I ended up working with before deciding to quit. What I did not mention was that while mindfulness helped to relax and improve one's feelings, it was the talking with the therapist that slowly uncovered and changed beliefs, even though I didn't realise it at the time.
Here's an invisible, framework belief I had:
"Feeling scared means being under threat"
What this belief meant was that every time I felt anxiety, I would interpret it as being under immediate threat, and this would cause a panic attack.
It was also one of my OCD triggers. I felt afraid that I may have forgotten to close the gas. So I would go and check it. It was closed. But I still felt afraid. So the next thought popped up: maybe you didn't check correctly, or you turned it on without realising. You must check again.
The belief listed above was nowhere in the actual contents of my thoughts, but it was the invisible driving force. I felt the need to "check it again" because the fear wasn't gone, and by default, my mind interpreted fear as being under threat. By changing that belief, my reaction to fear also changed, and I no longer had to "check it again", even if I felt fear for awhile longer.
More importantly, the belief listed above remained invisible to me. It was simply a filter that I applied to interpret the world, without even knowing it. And it was controlling my life.
Affirmations, CBT, MBSR, NLP, Stoicism - these are all ways of changing your mindset and beliefs. If you're struggling and you're in some dark place, don't lose hope. But study mindset. It's the best thing you can do. It certainly was for me, and still is. Just like for you, my next BIG BREAKTHROUGH will come from identifying another limiting belief and changing it.
Understanding the above has helped me get my priorities straight for the next year. I'm glad I've spent this time to reflect. So take your time during the New Year to THINK DEEPLY about your life, reflect on your mindset, and change it for the better. As much as you can. I'm just going to slowly go through Unscripted now, and I'm sure my next big insights will come from there.
So... are YOU going to think about your mindset? Are YOU going to try to uncover limiting beliefs and shift gears into the fastlane? Even if you're already successful... it's time for you to shift gears and reach the NEXT LEVEL. Or are you going to keep going the same old way and ignore your mindset even after reading this thread?
May we all shift gears into the FASTLANE in 2020 
More about mindset: Happiness and Freedom. Stoicism and Entrepreneurship, the Parallel.
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