The Media Is Lying To You!

If you're focusing on all the crap and the shit that's happening out there, you can't be focusing on keeping the mindset, the heart set, and the instinctual set to be able to take inspired action, to navigate through what's happening in the world. I was just having a discussion with a good friend of mine this morning and we were talking about all of the different biases. You know, that regardless of what social media channel you like to be on, regardless of what TV or radio station you listen to regarding, regardless of what podcast you might listen to, or even shows like this might achieve even more show every Tuesday morning. Everybody's got a bias, right? Everybody's got this bias. And there's something known as confirmation bias. And confirmation bias is basically that we look for things to confirm our beliefs. Do you believe that? That we look to confirm things that confirm our beliefs and we find things that build upon what we already believe to be true. Is that accurate? I'm curious as to what are you doing? All right. To navigate through these crazy, challenging times because the media is hijacking our attention. And the media is brilliant at understanding how our fear center works, how our dopamine centers work, or our reward center in our brain, how to play this emotional roller coaster with human emotions. Technology, like artificial intelligence, every time you and I click on an article that we like, or we click on a post or a video or an image that we like, the artificial intelligence, not only is it keeping track of all of your behaviors and your propensities, but it then re feeds you more of that, thereby hijacking your brain. Remember what the media does, right? The media is there to hijack your brain into news cycles and story cycles. And they know that if they keep giving you what you want and if there's a lot of controversy, then we take more notice, right? So what are you doing right now to shield yourself? Because the media is lying to you. And what I mean by that is, chances are that the media that you are watching is lying to you. Let me explain. Before you get mad at me, let me explain. Most media channels, regardless of where it is around the world, right, they give you a myopic view based on their beliefs and their political views. There's not very much news out there anymore. There's opinions, and the opinions are covering one side or partial portion of the story. Do you agree with that? One of the things that I like to do. I'm going to give you a couple of tools, you know, for real, serious consideration. One of the things that I Like to do, Regardless of my natural propensity and my beliefs, I challenge myself to observe the other perspective, to understand what they're thinking, what they're saying, what their facts are. Because if you think about this, right, we have a human brain that becomes programmed and conditioned, right? And we are conditioned to find more of what we're conditioned to find. And so we reinforce neural pathways. And the way our brains work is we delete and distort all other information, and we claim that it's false. My beliefs are right. My biases. My beliefs are right. Why? That's to protect our identity, that's why, right? So when we take a look at the other side, right? When we take a look at the other side and we are able to expand our opinion, we're able to expand our awareness, and we don't play the game on the surface, right? A lot of people are playing the game on the surface, right? And they're just believing, well, why not challenge yourself, okay, to believe something else? Why not challenge yourself to see the other side without judgment, blame, shame, or guilt? Why not expand your horizon to be able to see more of the playing field than you're seeing right now? And I want you to remember something, okay? Pay close attention. You don't see with your eyes and you don't hear with your ears, right? You don't see with your eyes, and you don't hear with your ears. You see through your eyes, and you hear sound waves that are then converted into meanings in your brain based on all of your conditioning. And then everything else, all right, everything else is deleted or distorted. So how do you look at more? How do you become more aware of what's going on? And the answer, all right, is you challenge yourself to see the other side. As I mentioned, I was talking to a friend of mine this morning, and he is polar opposite to my beliefs about the world right now. My beliefs around the political situation, my beliefs actually not. My beliefs around the health system situation with coronavirus. He's politically and economically on a totally different plane than I am. And yet we challenge each other to see each other's points. So here is a question that I want to ask every one of you, and that is this. Do you believe. Let's start with a fundamental question. Do you believe that we are living in one of the most chaotic, uncertain times that we have ever, okay, lived in right now? Do you believe that as a fundamental truth, do you believe that as a fundamental truth, it's the most chaotic time we've lived in other than Maybe World War II, right? Where all hell broke loose, obviously. Do you believe that we live in one of the most chaotic times? Okay, so here is the question that, that I want to pose to you. Even in chaotic times, are there people who do better financially? Are there people that rise to the occasion, okay, of chaotic times and succeed even more? Are there people, okay, that end up because of the chaos, get into better shape? Are there people that because of the chaotic times, they actually build their relationships even deeper, even more meaningful? Is it true that even in chaotic times, people start businesses? Is it true that even in chaotic times, people leave their jobs and do something else that they've been wanting to do for a long time? Right. Is it true that that is what's happening? And if it is, then what determines whether somebody succeeds or doesn't in these chaotic, uncertain times? What do you think is true? What do you think is the difference that makes the difference? If it's true that there are people who are doing better even in chaotic times, is it possible that something's going on in their brains that may not be going on in others? Is it possible that whatever it is that you focus on, whatever it is that you give energy and attention to is what you bring about? Right? Is there always a positive to a negative? Like there is an up to a down and inside to an outside? Is that possible? So are opportunities here right now, even in the chaos? Right. Are there opportunities here right now, in the chaos? So if you're focusing on the chaos, you can't be focusing on the opportunities. If you're focusing on what might go wrong, you can't focus on how to make what you want go. Right? If you're focusing on the fear of failure, then you can't be focusing on the exhilaration of the win. If you're focusing on why you can't, then you can't be focusing on how you will, because you must, right? So here is the beautiful thing about your brain. There's something that I call as the razor's edge. And the razor's edge is that fine line, that razor, that differentiates the people who succeed versus the people who do not. That razor's edge is the person who can see the chaos and the uncertainty and the unpredictability and focus on what can I do about it, to be victorious instead of because of the chaos and uncertainty, I'm going to be a victim of it. The razor's edge is the person that says, I'll succeed no matter what is happening in the physical world, regardless whether it's health or political or technology or anything else. When we learn how to focus our attention units, every day when we wake up, we are. We wake up with, let's say, 10 attention units. If you're focusing on all the crap and the shit that's happening out there, you can't be focusing on keeping the mindset, the heart set and the instinctual set to be able to take inspired action, to navigate through what's happening in the world. And so the Razor's edge is really about learning how to master, manage your mindset and attention regardless of what's happening out there. Does that make sense? I remember When I was 19 years old, 40 years ago, 40 years ago, I got into real estate and it was June of 1980 and the interest rates were starting to get really high. And I didn't know that that when the interest rates are really high, a lot of people don't want to buy homes because the interest rates were high. And the interest rates back in the early 80s got to 21% in Canada. 21%. Now people now are getting mortgages in the United States for, you know, 2, 3%. We were at 21%. And nobody told me that you shouldn't be able to sell real estate in those crazy times at 21% interest rates. And so I was, I was going to work every single day making phone calls and making sales. And everybody's wondering, how are you making sales when everybody else is doing so poorly? I said, well, why are they doing poorly? I didn't know that you shouldn't do well when interest rates were 21%. So my beliefs, okay, were that I just had to make a lot of calls and I would find people to help them either buy a home or sell their home. And so what beliefs are holding you back right now? What beliefs do you have right now that are holding you back? Do you believe, right, that times are tough right now, so it's hard to make money? Do you believe that times are stressful right now, so it's really hard to exercise? Do you believe that it's tough right now so you shouldn't start your business? Do you believe that right now you shouldn't become a coach, you shouldn't write that book? Because fill in the blank and then you're going to have a story or reason or excuse to validate why you're not doing what you should be doing. So what are you focusing on right now? Just out of curiosity, are you focusing on how you will because you must and you choose to, or are you focusing on I can't because. And you have a reason or a story. Okay. Or an excuse. So what I want you to ask yourself, and you may want to take a sheet of paper and write this down. Number one, start off with what's the goal that I'd like to achieve in the Next, let's say 90 to 180 days? What's the goal or goals? No more than three that I'd like to achieve in the next 90 to 180 days. Okay? And so what's the goal? Next question that I want you to ask yourself is as am I committed or am I interested in achieving that one goal or two or three goals? Am I interested or am I committed to achieving that goal? Now, the difference between interested or committed is if you're interested, you're going to do what's convenient and easy. And if you're committed, you're going to do whatever it takes. You're going to upgrade your skills, your knowledge, your beliefs, your habits, your perspectives and your strategies, right? So if you're committed, you'll achieve it. If you're interested, you won't. What is going to be bigger? And here's a really, really powerful question for you. What is going to be bigger for you? Your vision and your goals or your stories, reasons and excuses? What's going to be bigger? Your vision and goals are your stories, reasons and excuses. Which one? You can have stories, reasons and excuses and you can have your goals, but you can't have them at the same time. So which one is it going to be for you? Because right now there are people that are achieving financial freedom, they're gaining more security, they're gaining a lot more confidence in themselves because they're focusing on how they can and how they will because they must. So are you in the must or are you in the excuse? Which zone are you in? You can only be focused on one or the two, one or the other. Right? Right. So do you have your goals in writing? Do you have your commitment level written out? Do you have your plan on how you are going to achieve those goals no matter what? If the answer is yes to some but no to others, then you may be using a little bit too much hope and prayer in your goal achievement process and you need a little bit more planning. Your brain, and my brain needs the what to achieve when I'm going to achieve it by why I'm going to achieve it, how I'm going to achieve it, and whose help do I need? What, why, when, who? How, what, why? When Who? How? That's when you get your brain to work together. If you're missing any of those pieces, then your focus is going to be very, very shaky. Does that make sense so far? Does that make sense? And so is the media lying to you? Yeah. If all you're doing is watching one part of the media, challenge yourself to look at all the media. But I also am going to make a couple of recommendations. Stop being on digital or on TV or on radio for as many hours as you are. If you are reinforcing all of the challenging patterns. Right. Stop focusing on the media so much. It is hijacking your brain. It's hijacking my brain as well. And so we wanna do is reclaim our power and then take our focus, energy and attention and put it towards our intentions, our goals, our vision, our dreams. And let's not allow the outside circumstances to control our thinking. It is so easy for us to get hooked and swayed into the media, into the reward center and the dopamine centers of our brain, being hit in the serotonin, the oxytocin of sharing it with everybody, that we have to take a step back and reclaim, okay, our attention units so that we can put them towards our intentions and our goals and dreams. They're going to have us being healthier, happier, more successful, achieving the life that we want to achieve versus being sucked down a rabbit hole. That can really challenge us immensely. And in times of change, we have to be in more control, not less control. When there's so much chaos, having, you know, being in the marketplace, we have to step back and gain more control. How many of you are focusing on writing down? And here's a little trick. Are you writing down the top three things you must get done every day? Are you writing down the top three things you must get done every day? So out of the 10, 20, 30, 40 things you need to get done, are you writing down the top three things you must get done every single day? And then are you checking those off and putting those into your calendar and getting those done? Here is something to consider. You have to focus on the critical few versus the trivial many. The critical few versus the trivial many. We all have, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 things to do every day, right? But not everything is going to move you further ahead towards achieving your goals and dreams. So I'm going to leave you with that. Hey, this is John. And if you liked that video, watch the next video because it is packed with things that you can do right now to achieve success way faster than ever. Before.