Devin Zander explains how negative thoughts and imagination become obstacles to growth. He argues your mind creates barriers that stop you from taking action on your goals, and offers ways to break through those mental blocks.
What's up, guys? Devin Zander here. And on today's episode, we'll be discussing how your mind is your greatest enemy. Hey, I'm Devin Zander, your host. This is the From Delivery Driver to CEO podcast where I share lessons, tales and stories of how I went from a high school dropout, you know, not meant to do anything great in life, and a Jimmy John's delivery driver slinging subs, you know, bringing people's doorstep to a CEO of an eight figure software and education company. So. So if you're interested in growing your business and going to the next level without spending tons of money on a degree or, you know, whatever, then keep listening. Now let's get into the show. So your mind is your greatest enemy. What does that mean? Now, first, let me preface like, yes, our mind is an invaluable asset. Without it, you know, we wouldn't have consciousness, we wouldn't have anything. But what is our greatest ally is also our greatest enemy. Now, have you ever heard the term that you often suffer more in imagination than in reality? Yes. I would bet that at least if you're from America, you've heard it before. And the whole idea is this, is that we're constantly making up scenarios in our head that will probably never happen. You know what I'm saying? So we always worry, like, oh, what are these awful things that could happen if I talk to that girl? Blah, blah, blah, right? Like, oh, she'll make fun of me, she'll hate me, she'll think I look stupid. And it's like, it's painful. It's actually painful to have these thoughts. And then the worst part about this is that sometimes we don't take action. We just stay stagnant because of these thoughts. And we never progress. And we do it in a lot of things. But here's the thing, right? Is the truth is that none of those things probably would have happened. Like, the worst thing that she could have said is, like, I'm not interested, right? And that's all. And it would have been fine. It wouldn't have been painful. But we created this extremely painful scenario in our mind of how awful something would be and it never was, you know, and it's like we're torturing ourselves for no reason. So having foresight, the ability to think ahead and think into the future, it's amazing. It is so good. But when we use it negatively, man, it is awful. And it will keep you from success. It will keep you from taking action. And then the worst part is that it literally Brings pain, It causes emotional discomfort. It causes emotional pain. If we think negative thoughts for no reason when we're just imagining the future. You know what I'm saying? So it can be very dangerous to think ahead while obviously we have to do it. We need to be in control of our thoughts. And I want you to think about this. The only time that we're really living is in this present moment, okay? I'm not living in the past. I'm not living in the future. I'm living in the now, right? And if I spend my time now in this present, worrying about something in the future, something that hasn't happened yet, I'm a slave to the future. I'm not free. My thoughts aren't free. I'm not free to live or do however I want because I'm a slave to this event in the future and my preconceived notions of how it might go, even though, to be honest, I have no fucking clue, right? So, I mean, a lot of the times we're scared, and this manifests in a lot of different ways. Sometimes people are scared to go to the doctor because they don't want to see the result. You know, like, what if I have cancer? What if I have this? What if I. Well, what if you don't? What if you're totally fine and then by going to the doctor, you would clear up all these awful negative thoughts that have been ruling your mind? I see it all the time in business, like, oh, what if I. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if I don't make any sense? What if this. Well, what if it works? What if you make a ton of money? What if customers love your products? What if you create a raving fan base of customers who. Whose lives are improved because you've created a good product that they love? Or if you're, let's just say, one of our customers at SCUP and you're selling jewelry products, right? What if your customers have these really loving, endearing moments where they share their first I love you or something like that? I mean, why do we go to the negative? Why do we let these negative emotions that haven't even happened that we're just imagining? Why do we let them affect us? Why do we let them stop us? Why do we let them slow us down? Why do we let them keep us from our goals and from achieving the life that we know that we deserve? Why we shouldn't. It doesn't make sense, does it? Why do we often suffer more than our imagination, than we do in reality. Because here's the thing. Let's say you do launch a business and you don't make a sale right away. It's not the end of the. It's not the end of the world. It's bound to happen. We have campaigns that don't work all the time. But you know what? We don't let us get it, let that get us down. We don't say, what if none of our products in the future ever work again? We'll never find. No, we know that that's not based in reality. These are not real thoughts. These are our brains going to negative plan as a survival instinct that we don't even need anymore because we've evolved so much. Like we used to have to worry about, like, oh, if we go over there, we might get killed by a tiger or a bear or some shit. Like, it's. It's not like that anymore. You know, we can't let that part of our brain dictate our decisions. We can't let it put us in emotional distress for no reason. We can't let it keep us from achieving our goals. So whenever you have those negative thoughts, whenever they start happening, remind yourself this is not based in reality. I don't know what's going to happen. Could be bad. And if it is bad, it's probably nowhere near as bad as your negative thoughts in your mind are going. But here's the important part is that it could be good, whatever it is, if it's talking to that girl, if it's going to the doctor, if it's doing the business, could be fucking amazing. But if you let your negative thoughts rule you and you let them keep you from taking action, you'll never know. And what's worse, a minor setback or a life of never knowing and being filled with regret because you chose to suffer more in your imagination than actually trying in reality and realizing it's not that bad. And if you keep at it, you'll get it. All right, so this is Devin. This is the From Delivery Driver to CEO podcast. Make sure you like, comment, subscribe, leave a five star review, baby, please, and make sure you tune in. I'm dropping episodes every Wednesday and Saturday morning, so make sure you subscribe so you see next week's episode. Thank you guys for listening and enjoy the rest of your day.
