Hello Aluxers and welcome back to this week’s Sunday Motivational Video
and today we’ll be breaking down your mindset!
Your mindset is made up of all the established beliefs and attitudes you default to internally!
A change in mindset is one of the hardest things to achieve, mostly because you spent
your entire life up to this point drilling into your brain the -most often- false beliefs
your parents, your community or your friends have told you are true.
This doesn’t mean that if you repeat this mantra 3 times in the morning you’ll suddenly
get rich, get the partner of your dreams and your life will be abundant.
You’re not gonna attract things into your life just by sending your desires out into
the universe. That’s bullshit and you know it!
A change in mindset only works if it’s backed by a change in actions!
If not, you’re just a person who lies to themselves and knows it.
Sorry to be this blunt, but if we’re gonna talk “mindset”, we have to do it right!
Number 1: From “I have to do this” to “I get to do this”
Personally, this was the click that changed it for us.
Going about it from a perspective of gratitude and empathy has been a big attitude shift.
You get to do what you do for a living. This is a privilege. You get to work on this project.
The more honest you are with yourself the more you realise just how easy you actually
have it and you still find reasons to complain about it.
If you feel like your life is hard, ZOOM OUT!
That thing you’re supposed to do that you’ve been putting off because you’re lazy…
you get to do that and life will change for the better if you do.
Once you start doing it from this perspective, you’ll find it wasn’t actually as hard
as you made it out to be.
Number 2: From “Life is hard” to “Life can be easy and exciting”
Our parents instilled in us this idea that life is hard and you need to work hard if
you want to make something of yourself.
For them, all they had to do was to take the punches long enough, put up with the hard work
and they got their reward.
It’s only half right. Take the discipline for your parents, but focus it on exponential growth.
If hard work was all it took to be successful, the richest people in the world would be oil rig workers!
Whatever it is that you do for a living, there’s a smarter and easy way for you to do it.
Somebody figured it out already and you need to find them and see how they did it.
Here’s what people get wrong the most: It’s supposed to be hard in the beginning,
but if it’s still hard after a while, you’re doing it wrong!
This applies to everything in your life. The moment you begin changing the way you
do things, life gets easier and more exciting than ever before.
Number 3: From “I will never..” to “How can I..”
This is one of those declaration beliefs people guide their lives on: “I will never be rich”,
“I could never afford that”, “I will never get that part”.
Well.. you won’t and that’s the truth.
You wanna know what the biggest asymmetric upside in life is?
Take action, when everyone else does not.
Just freaking show up to the audition. Just sent the email.
Just put the first foot in front of the other. It will get you closer to the goal.
The problem with thinking in definite ways, is that it doesn’t leave room for movement.
If you’ve already established that something is not gonna happen, then there’s no interest
to even try.
The moment you switch to the “How can I make this happen” attitude, things suddenly
open up to identifying a plan that could make it a reality.
Average people have wishes, Successful people have plans!
Start planning!
Number 4: From “I need to know everything” to “I just need to start”
This is why most people never do anything.
They say: “it isn’t the right time…”, “I never got around to do it” or “If
only the opportunity would present itself”.
The truth is, they’re waiting for some external force to align all the planets for them,
turn all the traffic lights green and if possible, drive them to their destination.
Only 3% of the population takes action on their goals, everyone else chooses to settle for mediocrity.
The biggest difference between those who win and everyone else, is that the first ones
chose to play the game in the first place!
Number 5: From “Wanting something” to “Figuring out WHY you want something”
You know Simon’s Sinek’s ted talk on WHY, we won’t get into that, it might be a good
time to rewatch it after this video.
We call this the “RULE OF 3 WHYs Minimum”. Here’s how it goes:
At the core of everything you do there’s a deep reason. Here’s how the process to finding it works.
Let’s say you want a Ferrari, so you ask yourself “Why do I want a ferrari?”
Answer: “Because I want to feel successful!”
2nd why: “Why do I want to feel successful?”
Answer: “Because I want people to see how well I’m doing”
3rd why: “Why do I want people to know how well I’m doing?”
Last answer: “Because deep down I’m looking for the approval of others in order to make
myself feel good”
Holy crap… you see, from the 3rd WHY forward, shit’s getting real..
You can of course go deeper than that, as most therapists will gladly help you uncover more.
The more time you spend questioning the reasons why you want things, the more you get to know
yourself and what actually drives you.
Knowing why you want anything is a game-changer in terms of life strategy. It completely changes
the way you go about your goals and it alters your decision-making process in the best possible
way. It works wonders on an individual level.
Do this exercise yourself and see where you end up by the 5th WHY.
If you’re smart, you can flip this and use it for your business. If you haven’t read
Sinek’s Start with WHY book, we strongly recommend you do, there’s a link to it in the description.
It’s even better as an audiobook. Matter of fact, if you go to alux.com/freebook and
sign up today, you can get Start with WHY as an audiobook for free thanks to our friends at Audible,
you are kind enough to support our community!
That’s free knowledge, go to alux.com/freebook and get it!
Number 6: From “Everything is fixed” to “Everything is negotiable or flexible”
If we’ve learned anything in these past few decades is that
Life is as you make it to be!
The problem with people thinking destiny is pre-written, is that it takes away all the
fun in being alive. It also shifts the responsibility from the individual onto the universe.
Think about it; you can send an email today and quit your job and your entire life will
take a complete turn.
At any moment, your life can radically change if you decide to do it.
It’s scary isn’t it? To know just how powerful you are and how you can alter reality
at your whim.
Reality is negotiable! Has been a fundamental mental model for us,
so we negotiated our way into an incredible life.
Negotiate money, negotiate life, negotiate love, negotiate everything. Fight for the
things you want and don’t settle for the first thing the world will put in front of you.
When people close a door on you, you can still get them to open it and let you in!
That’s what doors are for!
Give them a reason to open that door for you! It’s up to you to negotiate it!
Number 7: From “Another Obstacle” to “Another challenge to see if I really want it”
Building our companies we were under a tremendous amount of stress - we still are,
but at least now it’s willingly.
Everytime something bad happened or an obstacle kept us from moving forward we used to think
that this is it, we’re done, there’s just too much difficulty for us to overcome it…
But then we realized everyone else who’s trying to build something goes through similar processes.
This is a challenge to see if you really want it or you’re just a pretender!
Obstacles are life’s way of figuring out who deserves the reward at the end
and who doesn't!
You’re out there building and have hit a roadblock, so you have to make a decision:
Do you really want it or are you ready to call it quits?
Because if you really want it, you’ll find a way to solve this, if not, you’ll use
this obstacle as an excuse on why things didn’t work out.
Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional!
You determine how this story ends, because it’s your story! Choose wisely!
Number 8: From “Things happen to me” to “I make things happen”
A big mindset shift is when you switch from a victim mentality to a master-of-the-universe mentality.
As long as you take ownership of what happens in your life you will be golden.
You are responsible for everything happening in your life!
If you want different outcomes, you have to take different actions!
Be accountable, take risks under your own name so that everyone knows what’s happening
to you is by choice.
People like Grant Cardone, David Goggins, Jocko Willink and every other motivational
speaker out there have entire libraries yelling at you about this, so we’ll leave it to them.
Number 9: Instead of defaulting to “NO”, ASK and wait for the answer
This one was fascinating for us to discover.
For some reason, our entire generation defaults to NO.
Maybe it’s because of the way we were all brought up: parents didn’t have much so
we didn’t ask for much.. Deep down we knew the answer was already NO.
Fast forward in life and this behavior is plaguing an entire generation of now-adults
whose minds still default to NO as an answer to things they want.
Here’s where the game has changed for us: Don’t be the person who says NO to yourself,
ask and let them say it!
You’ll find that AT LEAST HALF THE TIME, the answer will be a surprising YES.
If you just realized your brain defaults to NO, hit the like button so we know it’s
not just us.
So roll that dice in your favor.
Ask for a raise, ask her on a date, apply to that awesome job in Italy… do the thing
your brain tells you it won’t work out and stop defaulting to NO. It’s free and quite
literally, life-changing!
Number 10: From “I wish things were different” to “what’s one small thing I can do today”
We want you to repeat after us: I am what I do every day!
Let’s do that again: I am what I do every day!
It will hit you like a bag of bricks when you realize that everything you have in your
life right now is the result of your daily actions.
There have been hundreds of books released in the past 5 years about daily habits and
the impact they have on your life, because people just now realize how mechanical we
are in our behavior.
Find that one small thing that gets you the slightest percentage closer to your ideal scenario.
You want that back pain to go away?
Maybe get up 5 minutes earlier and do 5 minutes worth of stretches. That’s it.
Do it right now as you’re watching this. Then do it tomorrow. It’s freaking 5 minutes…
there’s no way not to do it.
Add it to your daily behaviour and it won’t be long until you notice the improvements.
We’ve read all the habits books out there and they’re basically reiterating the same
idea over and over again.
Focus on one thing only, start small, do it consistently and see what happens.
If we were to recommend one out of the bunch, we’d probably go with Atomic Habits.
If you don’t want to buy it, use the alux.com/freebook option and if this is your first time signing
up to audible you’ll get it for free. It’s a nice listen and you’ll get the gist of
habit formation.
Number 11: From “Sunk Cost” to “Let’s start over”
This is a big one for most people: “I’m overly invested in this thing,
it’s too late for me now.”
Do you have any idea how many people are in their second year at med school or law school
and realize they hate it and don’t actually want to this for the rest of their lives?
The numbers are staggering! Do they quit? NOPE! They push miserably forward in a profession
that they despise - just because someone in their inner-circle pointed them that way
- when they really wanted to pursue art.
Aubrey de Graf put it perfectly: Don’t cling to a mistake just because you
spent a lot of time making it!
This idea of sunken cost is present throughout society and the outcome is unfulfilled individuals
in situations that they were too chicken to change and now are angry and miserable.
Do you think the person yelling at you from behind the counter at the DMV is living their best life?
Of course not!
This wasn’t their dream, they wanted to be a veterinarian and work with horses, but
somebody offered them the stability of the job and now they hate it and taking that hate
out on you!
Do it now, check yourself! What are you doing right now just because you’ve sunk too much
time, money and energy into?
Number 12: From “This needs to be Perfect” to “This needs to be done”
Just get it done! There comes a point where a 1% improvement in the quality will require
substantial resources.
Your goal in life is to find that sweet spot where something is good enough to get the
job done for the phase you find yourself in.
A common misunderstanding is that life is set in stone and once you release something
out into the world you can not improve upon it. This mindset shift worked incredibly well
in the early days of ALUX and we still use it to this day.
We stole the entire concept from the start-up culture in Silicon Valley.
It’s called BUILD IN PUBLIC
Our initial videos weren’t as well edited as they are today.. And our future videos
will be better edited than they are now. The same applies to our website, to our branding
and the app that we’ll soon launch.
The first version that gets released won’t be the final one. Install this as an alternate
belief and your entire timeline changes.
Number 13: From “Let me blend in” to “I will be the best at this”
This is the biggest difference in mindset between the very best and their peers.
Jordan, Kobe, LeBron all had this inner drive of standing out, of going much beyond what
is required of them.
That’s how legends are born.
But pay attention, because the moment you stand out, you become a much easier target
for everyone else to focus on.
They’ll come after you for not falling in-line with the crowd.
But what is the alternative? Going through life a faceless person, indistinguishable
from the rest?
If the game of Tetris taught us anything it is that when you try to fit in you disappear!
Number 14: From “It’s either YES or NO” to “There’s always a creative option”
Why does life have to be binary? It’s sure as hell ain’t black and white, so why does
everything have to be so duplicit?! It ain’t! But most people don’t know it.
Their basic programming is the equivalent of an IF function.
The problem is when the THIS isn’t a perfect match. So they disregard the entire thing.
You’ll see this every time you have to work with the government. Their system allows for
only one way to get things done, as inefficient as it may be.
We’ve seen this over and over again in business as well. You’ll see it in the folks who go:
Take it or Leave it, thinking it’s a strong negotiation tactic.
Well.. if I leave it, none of us get what we want… so there has to be a creative way
to structure this - and there always is - it’s just that it’s gonna take a little effort.
Ask yourself what is the actual important thing you want to achieve and what would be
the easiest way for the other side to accommodate it.
The creative way might work better, cost less and be easier to implement for the both of you!
Number 15: From “It’s Impossible” to “If they did it, so can I”
How can you say something is impossible when other people have done it?
How can the sky be the limit when there are footprints on the moon?
You hide behind the idea of impossibility. You only look at the outcome and ignore the process.
Wanna know why so few people are rich and successful? Because the poor try to emulate
the result, not the process!
If you want to be successful don’t buy a Ferrari knowing it’s gonna cripple you financially for life.
Instead, figure out how to build a business that buys you the Ferrari instead.
If someone else went there, then there’s a path to getting there!
Find out how they did it and try to emulate the process yourself. Do the same actions
for long enough and you will get the same results!
Life is predictable in the best possible way!
You’re living in the most abundant period in history!
The next 5 years are going to be filled with incredible opportunities in all sectors of
life and you’re smart enough to be part of this change.
Equip yourself with these changes in mindset and get yourself in position to run when that door opens!
Out of these 15, Which of these mindset shifts has had the biggest impact in your life?
Be part of the community and answer in the comments!
As for those of you… haha.. You already know what’s about to happen, don’t you?!
Bonus: Don’t allow disturbances in your airspace for 6 months
This is about you, your future and the future of your family.
You need to be focused.
You need to know precisely where you’re going.
You need to build your own trajectory to follow!
There’s a lot of noise in your orbit, a lot of shining objects, a lot of people sending
your their energy and radiowaves..
For a brief period of time, put them all on hold. Put everything on hold. Turn the blinds
on. Laser-like focus.
What can you achieve if you really - and we mean REALLY - put all your efforts into it.
What if you locked yourself in a room for 6 months and only pursued that 1 goal that
could change all the remaining years in your life?
What if you came out after these 6 months with a body of work that would stand the test
of time?
6 months. That’s all it takes. 6 months of dedication, of hard work and focus.
You can’t allow anyone in your airspace, because even the slightest impact could deviate
you from your course.
Here’s why you can’t allow deviations. Let us tell you a story:
Experts in air navigation have a rule of thumb known as the 1 in 60 rule.
It states that for every 1 degree a plane veers off its course, it misses its target
destination by 1 mile for every 60 miles you fly.
This means that the further you travel, the further you are from your destination.
If you’re off course by just one degree, after one step, you’ll miss your target
by half a centimeter or 0.2 inches. Doesn’t sound like much right But…
After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet. Not huge, but noticeable.
After a mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet. One degree is starting to make a difference.
If you veer off course by 1 degree flying around the equator, you’ll land almost 500
miles - that’s 800 kilometers - off target!
Moral of the story: get your shit together, focus on what needs to happen in the next
6 months and do whatever the hell you can to make it happen.
The trade off is simple: eat shit for 6 months so you can eat caviar or whatever you want
for the rest of your life.
Your choice!
If you pick the caviar, write it down below! We’ll drop by and say hello to everyone
who writes the word caviar in the comments! Thank you for being a true Aluxer!