How to Reprogram Your Mind with One Word
Dean Graziosi explains how to reprogram your mind by replacing "you can't" with "I must" or "I will." He uses Matthew McConaughey's "Green Lights" metaphor and his own story of a guidance counselor telling him he'd never succeed to show how setbacks become fuel for action.
Chapters
Sometime in your life, maybe multiple times, someone told you you can't, or that's not for you, or it's not the right time, or that's for other people. How many times have you missed out on the man or the woman you're supposed to be because someone unqualified told you you should? I wrote this in my book, the Underdog Advantage, but I thought it was really important now, and it's the power of you can't. I really want you to hear, hear this, because this is stuff I've already taught you or you've probably already heard, but I want to give you some catchphrases. I want to give you some catchphrases that you go, oh, I get that, right? Anybody here listen to Matthew McConaughey's book Green Lights, raise your hand if you did. Such a good book. Oh, my God. And he. I don't know if you listen to it, but he's like, you know, he's an actor and he's a storyteller, and he's one crazy dude and way crazier than you thought. And really a good dude, like, because he's evolved and he grew good family, man, all that stuff. But the whole point, the name of the book is Green Lights, and his whole point, the green light, is in life, when things go sideways. And this didn't happen, someone let you down, right? The Tony Robbins happens for us, not to us. A lot of times when it was something that went totally sideways or he gets stuck with a foster family that is absolutely insane in Australia, and he can't leave for a year, and he's going crazy. All these things that he thought were, like, the end of his life, a red light, when he looked back, they were actually a green light. Wow. That gave me the gift to understand this. It gave me the ability to act, gave me the ability to understand that trouble with my dad made me a better human here, that trouble with my mom made me a better husband. Right? And all those things. And he just. He anchored that. When something's going sideways, in most cases, it's a green light. And throughout the book, I'm not going to try to pretend to talk like Matthew McConaughey, but through the book, you know, he gets to a point, and all of a sudden he goes green light. And now in my head, the reason I'm sharing this, because I want to talk about the power of you can't, is I love little things like that because you're going through a tough time, you're like, damn, why is this happening? And all of a sudden your brain goes green light. You're like, oh, all right. Just like that green light phrase. I want you to think of you can't as a new trigger of like, oh, yes, I can. You see, I've embodied that. When you think, hey, I'm going to launch my knowledge industry, my self education, I'm going to launch my course, my coaching program, my high ticket offer. I'm going to launch my next level online business during a recession. And people in your family are going to go, ooh, you can't do that. Friends are going to say, oh, you can't do that. Now some of you are going to say, you can't do it during this presidency, or you can't do it over the last presidency, or you can't do it over the next one. And then what happens is your inner self doubt. If you guys ever read Millionaire Success Habits, I call it, the inner villain will say, you can't do this. You've tried before. You're too old, too young. You don't understand technology, you're an introvert. All these things happen. And that voice goes, you can't, you can't. And here's what's so sad. The majority of the world go, yeah, maybe I can't. But what I've trained myself to do, it's why I wrote it in that book and why I'm going to give you this little thing today, is when that voice comes in your ear or someone says it to you, or it comes from inside, you can't means I must, right? When I look back, God, I was so lucky because I didn't have a lot of mentors when I was younger, but I remember family and friends telling me, I can't. And I remember thinking in my head, they're right, I don't have money. Not that smart. I've never done this before, but who the heck? No way. I must now, right? My 12th grade yearbook, my saying was like, no one knows me now, but you'll hear me someday. And it was that same philosophy. I don't know where I got it from. Maybe it was watching my mom struggle and I wanted to take care of her, but I just remember everybody saying, you're not that smart if you're not going to college, if you're not doing this, if you don't have money. It takes money to make money. My guidance counselor, literally, and maybe you guys can appreciate someone who said this in your life. At one point, my guidance counselor literally told me, not exaggerating I'm not making this up that I should go if I wasn't going to college, that. That I should go to the only factory in our town and start with a minimum wage job packing plastic bags in boxes. They were a plastic bag company. And she said you might be able to work your way up through that. Thanks, Ms. Canoza. I'm glad you saw my potential. We've all been there. It's like, really. It was like college. Ah. Oh, the dumb guy. Ooh. You know, go pack. Minimum wage. Maybe you could be a line manager someday. I mean, literally. Come on. But the reason I'm saying this is because, Eddie, somewhere someone told you. Can we just say it like it is? Sometime in your life, maybe multiple times, someone told you you can't, or that's not for you, or it's not the right time, or that's for other people and you didn't do it. I could get emotional. I don't know what. Maybe because I'm not feeling good today. I could literally cry. I'm not kidding. Because how many times have you missed out on the man or the woman you're supposed to be because someone unqualified told you you should? And the only reason I think I get emotional is because I was a millimeter away from not being this guy. I was a millimeter away from believing what everybody told me. You don't have great grades. You don't have money. You're not going to college. You should just be happy with the life that someone else deals with you or dealt you. Bullshit. Bullshit. Hear me right now. This is not just about me. I'm not trying to tell my stories to impress you. I'm saying it because I want to get inside your heart. Do not believe I can't, or you can't, or that inner voice or that so called imposter syndrome bullshit. Call it out. They make statues of crazy people. Not the ones that are realistic. Screw realistic. Who's realistic in whose eyes? Be unrealistic, be unreasonable, be unwilling to settle because you're meant for more. And you know you are. You wouldn't be a part of my family. You'd be online right now writing shit reviews on somebody else. Like, oh, yeah, you're a dreamer, right? Like, that's not who you are. You're here because you're an optimist. But we have some. We have some adversity in front of us with this shift, and I just want to empower you more. We could thrive through these next three years. And when we thrive, we can bring along the people we love and as many people as we want. Maybe it's a time you donate more to your church than you ever have in your life. Or you sponsor families that can't make it, or just sponsor people who are just going to go in the toilet with their mindset. Right? So the power of you can't. When you hear you can't for the rest of your life think about I must and I will.
