There are a variety of ideas and beliefs available to you. Sadly, you are mostly infected with them, and less often do you intentionally select those ideas and beliefs that will best serve you. The ideas you picked up along the way on your journey to where you are now may or may not be serving you. If they are not serving you, that is reason enough to evaluate other ideas and beliefs.
If you were to look at one part of your life where you are not generating the results you want—or need—you would invariably see a set of actions that are causing your poor results (even if the action that causes poor results is a lack of action). Behind those actions are beliefs that support the action, or lack thereof. For example, procrastination is an action that causes poor results, but the belief is that you can put off until tomorrow what you should do right now. The belief behind that belief is that you have plenty of time, even though all you have ever had or will ever have is the present moment in which to do anything.
Say you want better results. The first thing you might do is to go to the marketplace and explore new ideas and beliefs that may interest you and which might suit you better. Once you are in the marketplace, you must decide where to start your search for something better. There are two places one should almost always look, where there is success, and where there is something with which you disagree.
When Someone Has What You Want
If someone already has what you want, they have a set of beliefs and are taking a certain set of actions to produce the result you want. The fact that their ideas and beliefs and actions work for them doesn’t necessarily mean it is the one right answer, and it doesn’t mean that their way will necessarily be your way, but it’s worth exploring. There may also be people who have similar ideas and beliefs but have very different strategies and are taking different actions to produce the same result. Remember, this is a marketplace, and that means you are shopping.
One of the ways you accelerate your growth and development is by discovering what already works. You don’t always have to learn everything yourself, especially if the beliefs and methods to produce that result have been reverse-engineered for you.
If It Generates an Emotional Response
There is this spot at the very end of the marketplace where it is dimly lit and scary. From where you stand, it looks dangerous, and it may cause you to feel something like a cross between fear and revulsion. In this part of the marketplace, the ideas and beliefs and actions conflict with your beliefs, including some that are your most cherished and deeply-held beliefs. You don’t want to explore this part of the marketplace, because looking at any of these ideas might mean you have to give up what you already know and believe and prefer. And this is why you must venture into this part of the marketplace.
There are ideas and beliefs you don’t like that underlie the very outcomes you want. There are actions you refuse to take that others are using to produce the very results you seek. What you see that conflicts with what you believe is an opportunity for growth and development.
Seth Godin told me he doesn’t write as many books as he once did because his ALTmba produces better results faster. As a writer, I don’t like that, but I am sitting with it because there is a truth there worth considering.
If you want to become the version of yourself that comes after this one, you must be willing to let go of the things that will keep you solidly locked in place.
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