John Assaraf breaks down how stories you tell yourself, like "I'm too old" or "I don't have time," block your success. A survey of over 90,000 people shows these internal narratives shape what you can see and solve. He walks through how to identify and drop the ones holding you back.
Chapters
Hey, this is John Assraut. I've been doing a series around what holds people back from really achieving success. And we surveyed over 90,000 people. And in the last couple of videos, we talked about fears and we talked about excuses that people have. The other thing that kept coming up over and over and over again is what I call the stories and excuses that people give themselves. And so things like, I don't have enough time. I'm too old. I've tried that before. I don't have the money, I don't have the knowledge, I don't have the experience, I don't have the connections. What I want you to do for just a minute, just for fun, is fill in the blank on this. The reason I'm not currently earning three to five times more income than than I am right now is what's your story? And the reason I asked you to do that, to fill in the blank, is because whatever story you've got in here, what you may not understand is that your brain is responsible not just to keep you alive and keep all the organs functioning in your body, but whatever story or excuse you have mentally causes your brain to see things in the physical world that match up with that story. So if you tell yourself a story that you don't have enough time, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough resources, you don't have enough connections, you don't have enough education, whatever your story is that you're telling yourself, whether you're aware of it or you're not, your brain is going to look for evidence in the physical world to make your story true. So what I want you to understand is that your stories are real for you, as my stories are real for myself. However, are your stories and excuses serving you? Because the way that your brain works and my brain works is that as soon as we have a goal or a vision for what we want to achieve, our brain looks for references in our memory banks to see whether that's viable or not viable, possible or not possible. And if you have a bunch of references, stories, one story after another, or experiences from the past that may have been negative or may have not given you the results you want, you're going to have the story and the excuse to prevent you and stop you from really taking action and activating the genius part of your brain, specifically what we call the left prefrontal cortex. That is the part of your brain that has the ability to uncover new strategies, new tactics, new techniques, new ways. It's the part of the brain that brilliant scientists and inventors use to come up with solutions to think nobody has solutions for to be able to build the tallest skyscrapers in the world in three months instead of 10 or 12 years. To be able to do feats like jumping off the top of Mount Everest. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe she can achieve. However, if your stories and excuses are in the way, you're going to block yourself from some of the greatest achievements that you're capable of achieving. So my question for you is, which part of you is going to win? The stories and the excuses, the doubts and the fears? Or are you going to learn the skill necessary to identify your stories that are holding you back, learning how to release them so they don't hold you hostage? And finally taking action and doing what you can do and should do to double, triple, quintuple your income and live the lifestyle you were meant to live. I want you to imagine for just a moment, you, without your stories or excuses. Who would you be? What would you do? What would you contribute to other people on this beautiful blue planet?
