Your Limitations Are Imaginary
19 May 2022 · 23 min
Rob Dial argues that most limitations are self-imposed beliefs, not reality. He points to the sub-four-minute mile and moon landing as things once deemed impossible, and cites research showing 85% of worries never happen. He walks you through writing down your fears and questioning whether they're actually true.
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Instagram Teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them, plus time management tools and Instagram will continue adding built in safety features to help create age appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen Accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online@instagram.com teenaccounts. Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host Rob Dial and if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you want to receive text messages from me directly to your cell phone and you live inside of the United States or Canada, I'll send you motivational text messages. All you have to do is text me right now. 512-580-9305 once again, 512-58093 today I'm going to talk to you about how you are holding yourself back. And before we do that, I'm actually going to talk to you about a story that I think really shows and hammers home this point. Before 1954, it was thought in the entire world by medical professionals and by runners that it was physically impossible for for a human to run under four minutes in a mile. They were like, it's impossible. The human heart. Literally, doctors said the human heart would explode if somebody were to try to run a mile in under four minutes. They thought it was physically beyond human capabilities. And so what happened? Up until 1954, no human ever ran under a four minute mile. And then in 1954 this guy named Roger Bannister came out and ran it in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Just under 4 minutes and what did he do? He showed to the rest of the world, to the runners, to the doctors, to the physicians, all those people, that it was possible to run a mile in under four minutes. Now, mind you, before, literally days before he did it, people thought it was impossible. They thought the human heart would explode. But once people saw it was possible, they stopped limiting themselves. And so what happened? This is what's crazy. Within two years, over 300 people ran a mile in under four minutes. They had the ability the whole time. But the problem was that the common belief across the world and the medical experts said that it was not possible. And so what. What happened was people listened to somebody else, they listened to the rest of the world, and they mentally and physically hold themselves back from doing it. One person finally did it, and then because he did it, he was able to change the perspective around the entire world. And 300 people did it in under four minutes in the next two years. Think about that for a second. How many places in your life are you being held back because other people are saying, be realistic. That's not possible. There's no way that you can do that. How many places in your life are you holding yourself back because you're saying those things to yourself? You know, there was one time when human flight was, quote, unquote, impossible. It was impossible for humans to fly. We were only able to walk. And then the Wright brothers ended up proving them wrong. There was also a moment when going up into space and putting a man in space was impossible. And then in 1961, the Russians did that. They put the first man in space. And then what happened? More and more people started putting more and more countries started putting people in space. And then people said, oh, landing on the moon is impossible. And then in 1969, Neil Armstrong proved them wrong. So you've got to think about that for a second. You're telling me that in 1969, 1969, where there was basically no technology compared to today's technology, we were able to send a human and a rocket 238,900 miles away to something that is literally moving around Earth at 2,288 miles per hour and land on it safely and then take off and bring that person to Earth and you can't accomplish your dream. Are you really buying into that? Because you have to realize the idea of being realistic is ridiculous, because realistic is subjective. Anything can be realistic. But you've got to start becoming aware of how the people around you and yourself are limiting you from the life that you Want the way that they talk to you, the way that they act, the way that they are, but also the way that you talk to yourself, the way that you act, the way that you talk inside of your own head. All of those things need to be reassessed to figure out if it's actually propelling you towards a future that you want or not. And all of those things, from the Wright brothers to the four minute mile to Russia to Neil Armstrong, what do they all have in common? All of them at one point in time were impossible. They were impossible, which means never possible, basically, until they weren't. They were impossible until they were done. So you've got to start to ask yourself, what is holding you back from following the life that you really want? What are you telling yourself is not possible, impossible for you to do? Because once again, all of those things were impossible at one point in time. There's been a lot of things in your life that you thought were impossible for you until you've done before. What's the next thing that you're telling yourself is impossible, that you need to prove yourself wrong on? What limits are you placing on yourself that are completely false? And you gotta start asking yourself this, what is the true reason why you're holding yourself back? Because I had this conversation this morning. It's crazy because in life you either get what you want or you don't. That's it. There's no in between. It's black or white. You either get what you want or you don't. There's no gray in between. Why do so many people not get the life that they want? What is it? And it's kind of crazy because if you think about it, almost everybody knows what they need to do to be successful. Like to succeed at whatever it is somebody wants to do. They almost always know, like 99% of the time they know what they need to do, but they're just not doing it. So why are they not doing it? What is it that is holding somebody back? Is there a fear of failure that's holding you back? Is there a fear of success that's holding you back? Is there some sort of fear of the unknown, fear of uncertainty that's holding you back? Are you afraid of making a mistake? Are you afraid of disappointing someone or disappointing yourself? Are you making things up in your head that don't fully exist and they're not there? Are you taking the safe route because it's easier? Are your dreams so big that they're paralyzing you because you're thinking of all of the things that you have to do and you're planning and planning and playing and not taking any action, are you making up limitations? Are you making up excuses? Are you saying to yourself that you don't have enough time, that you don't have enough money, that you're too lazy, that you came from the wrong part of town, that you're the wrong skin color, that you're the wrong race, that you're the wrong gender, that you believe the wrong things? Are you saying all of those things to yourself? And none of those things have actually anything to do with the future that you're going to create. Because you have to realize that inside of you, inside of me, inside of every person you've ever met, we have near unlimited ability to create whatever it is we want to create, to do whatever it is we want to do. We have almost unlimited capability and ability inside of us. But we restrict our own potential because of limitations that we put on ourselves. We actually are the one throttling our lives. We have excuses that we make up of why we're not living our dreams, why we can't reach our dreams. We have limiting beliefs that we follow, we have fears that we listen to instead of taking action. So are you out there wanting to create the life that you want to and you're not actually creating it because of something that's in your way mentally? Because everything that you want, you can't create? I'm not here to just be like fucking rah rah, you can do it. High five. I believe in you. Motivational, blah blah blah. I'm actually telling you like I really truly do believe that every single person is just this 70 trillion cells of unlimited ability. But the central voice inside of your head that you're listening to is the thing that's holding you back. All of these BS limitation that you're holding onto are the things that are holding you back. You're not living your dreams because you're holding your back, not because somebody else. You're not creating the life that you want to because you're holding yourself back. But what is it that you're doing that's holding yourself back? Because you have to understand that all of the limitations that you're holding yourself back from are all false. But you're listening to them as if they are true. Teachers are deep into new units this time of year. IXL lets kids practice the exact skills they're learning in class. Helping lessons stick and boosting confidence. Heading toward the spring. IXL is an award winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning, whether they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and writing skills, or reviewing science concepts. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies from Pre K through 12th grade, with personalized, interactive content that adapts to the child's level and pace. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the United States. It's an easy way to support learning as the school year moves into its most important stretch. 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So startups, upstarts and established businesses alike can sell everywhere, synchronize their online and in person sales and effortlessly stay informed and scaling. Your business is a journey of endless possibility. So you can reach customers online and across social media networks with an ever growing suite of channel integrations and apps including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and more. Synchronize your online and in person sales Gain insights as you grow with detailed reporting and conversion rates, profit margins and beyond. More than a store, Shopify grows with you. This is possibility powered by Shopify so go to shopify.com dial all lowercase for a free 14 day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features. Grow your business with Shopify today. Go to shopify.com dial right now once again shopify.com dial so here's what we must do if we want to actually achieve the life that we want to. Here's what we got to do. You ready? We have to rise above our limitations. We have to identify what they are. We have to identify where our limitations are, and we have to start to rise above them. We have to break free from the fears that we have. We have to break free from the excuses that we have. When we tell ourselves it's impossible, we must immediately remind ourselves how and why it is possible. If we notice ourselves starting to doubt ourselves, we must immediately flip it to the reason why we will succeed. It comes down to you. And always, always, always, it is in your own head. It comes down to what you believe. And so you've got to ask yourself, what do you believe? Are you believing what you need to believe to create the life that you want to? Or are you believing something that's holding you back from creating the life that you want to? Because the only thing that's holding you back is yourself. You've got to stop blaming everything outside of you. It's not money. It's not your past. It's not your current circumstance in life, your situation that you're currently in. It's not the fact that you don't have a car or you don't have the right place that you grew up in, or you don't have the right circle of influence or whatever it is. It's you. You are the one holding yourself back. That's it. And so you've got to take out a pen and paper and you've actually got to start to ask yourself some questions. You've got to ask yourself the question, what are the limitations that I'm listening to? What are they. All of them. Write them all down. What is every single limitation that's holding you back? I want you to write down everything. If you need to. Pause me right now, pause me right now. What are all the limitations that you're holding yourself back from? That's the first one. Second one. What are the fears that you're listening to that are holding you back? What fears are you listening to that are holding yourself back? The crazy part about it, all of the fears and worries and everything that you have. According to psychologists, they did a study and found out that only about 85%, that 85% of what you worry about doesn't even actually happen in the first place. All of those fears, worries, all that stuff, they don't happen. Only 15% of what you worry about actually happens. So if you're spending a lot of your time worrying about those things, and you write down all of your fears and worries on a piece of paper, go ahead and cross out 85% of those because they're never going to happen in the first place. So if that's holding you back, can you identify that those are holding you back? And you start pushing yourself past them. What else? What are the limitations that you're holding yourself with? And then ask yourself this question. After you've identified all of them, you've got to ask yourself the question, how are these limitations false? How are all of these limitations that I'm looking at in this piece of paper false? If you say, oh, I'm afraid of failure and you look at it and you got to prove to yourself how it's false, that you won't fail, how the fear of failure is not going to happen, how the fear of success that you have, and you write them down, all of the things that are holding you back, all of your limiting beliefs, the worry of other people's opinions, and then you start to tell yourself how all of them are false. Because here's a real interesting thing about humans, is that our brain is hyper efficient. It is the most energy consuming organ that we have in our body by far. It only takes about 2% of your body weight, but takes about 20% of your energy every single day. Your brain does not want to waste any energy that it doesn't need to. And so if you can write down everything that's going on in your head and then tell yourself why all of it is bullshit, a lot of times your brain will just kind of start to slowly release all of these things because it's not going to focus on all these things that are just completely false anymore. And what you do is you write them down, all of the things that are holding you back. You write down all of the things that are the reasons why all of those are false. And then what you write down and you ask yourself this question is why am I going to succeed? Not what do I want to succeed, why am I going to succeed? Why is this going to work out? Because one of the things that we do is we tend to ask ourselves the wrong questions. We ask ourselves, oh, how will this business that I just started fail? And then your brain will just search for all the ways that you failed in the past and said, yep, if you look at all the ways you failed in your past, look at this, this Google search that I just did with you, these are all of your failures. This shows you why your new business is going to fail. Instead of saying why is this going to fail? How can I screw this up? Why am I not ready yet? Why is now not the right time? You ask yourself the question, why is this business going to succeed? Why am I going to succeed at whatever it is that I want to do? And you start to write down and find the reasons why you're going to succeed, why you're going to get the life that you want, versus why you are not going to succeed. You hear me say this almost every single episode. I feel like I'm like a broken freaking record. Most people focus on what they don't want instead of focusing on what they do want. And so what you've got to do, if you got to stop looking at your limiting beliefs and you got to start looking at, stop looking at your fears, get past all of them and start focusing on what it is that you do want, why you are going to succeed, and why you're going to create the life that you want to. There's no such thing as realistic. Be realistic is one of the worst pieces of advice you could ever get from anybody. If there's one thing in this world that I don't want you to be, it's realistic. Why? Because if you look at most of the world, most of those people are, quote, unquote, being realistic. But if you look at all the people who you look up to, all the people who have done something amazing in this world, all of the people who have stood out and left their name, that might still currently be alive or who have passed away 100, 200, 300, 500, 700, 2,000 years ago, whatever it is, they were not realistic people. You don't stand out in this world by being realistic. You stand out of this world by not being realistic, being unrealistic in every way possible. So if you want to do something great with your life, you've got to figure out why you're where you're holding yourself back, where your limiting beliefs are, where your fears are, where you're being quote, unquote, realistic. And you've got to go against all of those things, that is the way that you stand out. That is the way that you change your life. That is the way that you change your family's life. That is the way that you change people around you's lives. And that is the way that you create a life that is free from limitations. Because limitations are 100% optional. You don't have to partake in them if you don't want to. But you are the only person that can make that decision to get free of them. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in at robdial Junior R O B D I A L J R the only way this podcast grows is from you guys sharing it. And it's cool. We've become one of the top 100 podcasts in the entire world simply because you guys continue to share it over and over and over again. And I greatly, greatly appreciate you guys doing that because more and more lives are impacted every single time it is shared. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission. Make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day. Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking yourself stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics and managing it as one big juicy investment. Now that's pretty good. Learn more at fidelity.com baskets Investing involves risks including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services llc Member nyse, SIPC Instagram Teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them, plus time management tools and Instagram will continue adding built in safety features to help create age appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online@instagram.com teenaccounts.