Rigid vs. Expansive Mindset

Hey guys, welcome back to the journey principles. In today's whiteboard lesson, we're going to cover a rigid thinking pattern or an expansive thinking pattern, the difference between both and how to make them work for you. So stay tuned.

Alright guys, so check this out. One of the first things that I ever learned that actually catapulted me towards my future was actually for my first mentor. And a lot of you guys have heard me mention him before. His name was Steve Myrick. The very first question he ever asked me was this. He said, what's the difference between a rich man and a poor man? And as a teenage kid with no better attitude than other than like willy nilly thinking, I said, well, duh, money. And he actually said, absolutely not. And almost slapping the back of my head, of all things, he was serious. He actually told me that the greatest difference between a rich man and a poor man in every area of life, not just financial, was the way they think. How was your thinking specifically? Either adding value to your life or potentially taking value from your life. You see, when he came to me for the first time, I actually dug into it and I discovered later on that I was what was known as a rigid thinker. I didn't actually have a lot of different things. And here's kind of what my early life was kind of shaped up like.

Okay guys, let's go ahead and dig into rigid thinking pattern or rigid mindset and discover if it adds value or subtracts value. Because as I mentioned earlier, that was where I started at and I wasn't getting a lot of progress. Let's find out why. Alright, first of all, I was consistently getting locked in analysis paralysis. In other words, I was thinking so much about where I could go or I wanted to go or why I wasn't going there, that I constantly stayed locked up in my head. And the more I stayed locked up in my head, it kept me from actually taking the action I needed to take. Right? Are you consistently locked up in your own head, locked up in your own thoughts? What would it be like to actually have more of a growth style thought process rather than just kind of being stuck? All right, here's another one.

Historically I only saw one way towards a solution. Okay, that one way towards the solution at the moment was just earn more money and earn it any way I could. What Steve was trying to teach me is not only do you can you earn money, but you can also learn techniques and ways in which to let money work for you. So now in this part of my life, even while I'm doing this video. I'm actually currently earning an income in a variety of my businesses, okay? Now in order to get there, we've got to change the way we think. And then originally I was focused on one direct path. A part time job, a part time. This, I gotta do this, I gotta hustle. What's my side? Hustle, right? And all of those things can help. But if it's the only focus and I'm only looking at one way to get to my destination, then inevitably what'll happen is I'll get locked in that one destination and I won't be able to take advantage of all the other opportunities that are coming my way and neither will you. All right, so let's look at the next one. All right? Stubborn towards ideas and concept. Okay, let me ask you something. I actually had this happen recently. So I was on an airplane flight, flying over to San Diego, California. And when I was flying there, I was actually on the airplane with someone sitting beside me, okay? Now this person was very interested in getting involved in real estate, okay? They were reading a real estate magazine. They were reading, it had a real estate book. They were doing tabulations, computations, and they were thinking about trying to make an ad. Not an ad, but a Excel spreadsheet, if you will, about the money requests they were going to make from the bank. Well, here's the problem with that, that leverage. Leverage, meaning the amount of money that we're going to borrow from the bank was far surpassing their ability to pay it. In other words, they were about to step into a real estate deal, okay, that they really couldn't afford to be in. Can you see how that might be a problem? Think about this. If they're stubborn towards other ideas, right? Then they're not going to be able to listen. So I actually gave them my two cents in this particular situation. Say, look, I own real estate. I put this amount of money down historically. I do my best not to finance anything. I do my best to have owner occupied properties and things of that nature. Well, the reason I do that is because I want to eliminate risk. What they were doing was they were increasing the risk, right? Well, if they're increasing the risk, the chances of them actually getting their return are slim to none. Now, you might think that, hey, I'm giving great advice they would listen to. I actually got kind of the opposite. No, I've been dealing with my investment banker all these years, all this kind of stuff. I said, well, if you don't mind me asking, what's your Net worth, right? And of course they shared it with net worth. I said, okay, well my net worth is a little bit better than that. And here's the path that I got there and they shut me down again, okay? Stubborn minded people refuse to listen. How stubborn are you being when someone is actually giving you real credible advice? The one thing that can kill your progress more than anything else in the world is your pride. Make sure you set your pride aside so you can actually make progress. Alright, next one. Seize the glass as half empty. Okay? These are the naysayers, right? These are people like I was now, not casting any blame, not casting any shame. These are people just like me back in the day, okay? Where there was only one way. And because of that I always looked at the glass half empty. I didn't think possibilities were actually possible. Well, if you don't think possibilities are possible and you think the world's going to fall in or Murphy's going to pop you in the face every time, how likely are you to take advantages of all the opportunities around you? Okay, that's a good one. So let's make sure we build on that. One thinks people are born with the potential. That was one of the greatest takeaways that I learned from Steve Meyrick when he asked me what the difference between a rich man and a poor man was. Right. He was helping me understand that my background, the places I had been, had nothing to do with my future. And it doesn't have anything to do with your future now. No matter where you're at financially or relationally or if you're in school or not in school, it doesn't matter. My highest degree of education is a ged. Okay? Your education doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be held back all your life. You see, I'm saying, right? So if you're looking at this.

All because someone has potential around you, maybe they're a little ahead of you. Does not mean you don't have the same potential or even better potential. You just have to keep working and keep going. Okay? Next thing gives up after the first failure.

I finally learned a long time ago that giving up after the first failure was never going to get me anywhere. Right. I used to take the time to actually plan a course of action. I would then try, I would then fail and I would then quit. Are you failing and then quitting? Well, if you're failing and then quitting, then how will you ever make progress? Here's what I've learned about that. There's no such thing as Failure, you either learn or you win. That simple. Every time you have a failure or make a mistake or something like that, if you take that little bit of learning from it and apply it to the next decision, you'll continue making progress, okay? But if you're constantly being focused on the mistakes you've made and the so called failures you've had, then you're never going to have the complete outlook, the confidence to actually try again. I'd like to encourage you, just as I had learned to do, to confidently try again, try again, try again, try again. Keep changing your approach until you get where you want to go. All right? Next one looks at failure as a limitation, kind of building off the same thing, right? All because you failed once doesn't mean you'll fail again. In fact, the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet all have had businesses that did not go their way, okay? All because what you see out of a successful entrepreneur is the things that we can do and the places we can go and the things that we build and we invest in. For every one win, we probably had anywhere from five to 10 business businesses that were not successful, okay? But we've learned to go with what we've learned so we can kind of keep moving forward. Same kind of concept, okay? Takes criticism as personal attacks.

That one you got to be really careful with, okay? Set your pride down. Set your pride down. Your pride is not going to do you, do you any good in building progress, okay? If someone gives you constructive criticism, whether or not they intentionally mean to wound you or not, then if you're able not to get wounded in the process and you can keep moving forward, you'll find yourself associating yourself with other people that can actually empower you, encourage you and keep you moving forward, rather than people that maybe kind of have that personal attack, that toxic stuff, that toxicity, if you will, okay? But when it comes down to personal attack, look, constructive criticism is not designed to be personal, okay? If I sit down with you at a table and you share with me what your hopes and dreams are, and I see three to four hurdles or roadblocks, right, that are clearly on paper, do I not owe it to you to tell you that, hey, look, here are your three roadblocks. Here are the things you're setting to the side. Here are the things that are holding you back, right? Well, if I tell you what those things are, right? That's my way of loving on you and serving you, right? But if you take them as personal attacks rather than actionable intel, well, there's A good chance you're not going to take the step you need to take to finally break free and make those roadblocks non existent. Okay? So when it comes down to rigid thinking, I want to caution you, okay? Don't focus on an analytical belief. Don't focus on just saying, hey, I only win when I make $10 million. I have a young man recently was talking to me about, hey, when am I going to get here? When am I going to get there? When am I going to get here? I'm like, dude, you're in your 20s, relax, right? As long as you're taking the steps day after day after day, you will become successful. Everything that you go after, okay? What I see more than anything else is people aren't willing to be patient, aren't willing to have delayed gratification, and aren't willing to learn what they need to learn in a skill set of wisdom and knowledge in order to make that winning stable. Anytime you win big financially, really, really quick, you need to be looking out for the chance of you're going to lose it really, really quick because your character has to be ready to handle that. Okay? All right? So I went back to Steve Meyrick. Now, Steve Meyrick told me this one thing. He also told me that you have to be willing to do today what others won't, so you can have tomorrow what others don't. Okay? Say that again. You have to be willing to do today what others won't, so you can have tomorrow what others don't. Okay? Now that is a loaded statement that has guarded my life. And it's one major principle, right? I realize there's a principle of sacrifice. I realize there's a principle of advancement. Okay? There's a price to be paid, so to speak. All right? Now what I also learned is when in that conversation he was helping me understand I had to pivot. My thinking had to pivot, my thinking had to pivot the way in which I thought. Okay, so let's check out something else. When it comes to the expansive minded thinker, all right?

Always looks for creative ways to overcome obstacles. I learned a long time ago there's no one way to overcome an obstacle. In fact, the more creative you are, the less you can actually, the more you actually raise your opportunity and the less you actually lower your risk. I'm sorry, the more you also lower your risk. Okay, so always be looking at expansive minded thinkers. Always looking for different ways to attack a different problem. Right? Don't be so isolated. Like, this is the only way. Right? I need to get my car payment caught up. Okay. So I got to go work a couple hours, extra hours at the job. All right, Maybe that's not the only way. Right? Maybe you can go and do a side project for someone in need and still earn the money you need to pay the car payment. Okay. All right. No's. There are many solutions to every problem. No's. They're highly collaborative. Okay? One of the biggest mistakes I made in building businesses is I thought only I could do it. I thought only I had the right decision. And to be honest, I was scared to let anybody know that I really didn't know what I was doing. Right. No one ever trained me to run a business, not deliberately. And the same probably goes for you. Never be the smartest person in the room. One of the reasons that all of my companies have been so successful and have grown to pretty large stages is because I hire people who are much better at things than I am. Okay? Now I've already told you guys publicly that I. Unfortunately, I have a little dyslexia and some little adhd. Okay? So if you factor that in, should I actually be doing my own editing? Heck no. Right? You're going to read what I write and think I'm an idiot. Right. Because I make mistakes. Right. What I did do is I hired a professional editor on our team and she back checks everything that I do. And she has a heart. She knows what I'm trying to accomplish, she knows what our team's trying to accomplish. And. And as a result, she actually takes the time to edit everything. Okay. The writing you see on the board. Right. Was actually not my writing. Why? Because I write like crap. Right. So if I was going to be writing something, you wouldn't be able to read it. Okay. So I have one of my team members come and help us out to kind of make sure this is. This is easy for you to see and easy for you to kind of look. Look at. Okay? Collaboration is the key. Having people who can backfill your blind spots is the key to moving forward with anything. Okay? So I always see the great relationships. The husband or the wife is always partnered up with somebody that has this different strength and a different blind spot. And they typically kind of work together with that. That scenario. Okay, next one. All right.

Obviously sees the glass mostly half full. In other words, what we're talking about here is we're talking about optimistic, okay. Whereas over here, we were talking about pessimistic.

Okay? Optimistic minded people tend to go further faster. Simple as that. Right? You can't make it any plainer than that. Alright, so they also are great listeners. Remember I told you before that they're highly collaborative?

Well, I can tell you that I was a little concerned when they started wanting me to go on camera just to talk to you guys. Whether it's this formula or face to face or Q and A or whatever. So much so that Connor from the podcast, if you haven't seen one of our podcasts, you need to check that out. He's awesome, by the way. Right? He pushed me this direction. He literally said, no, you don't understand. You've helped me. You've helped me change my life. If you want to be successful, meaning you want to help more people and you want to help transform a million lives, get your butt on camera. That simple. He says you're passionate. They'll pick up on it and they'll know that you're being authentic and they'll know you'll tell them the truth. So do that. So what did he do? He created a plan for us to do that and bring value to you guys for free. Right? So there's an example, okay? I had to listen and I had to be collaborative in order to listen, okay? That's a way to grow your mindset. Believes in potential developed, okay? Potential is developed over time. You're not necessarily born with it. Now, you may be born with a certain strength. Like Connor can sing. I cannot. All right? He's like a baby Bieber. Right? He can actually sing. I can't. Right? And I'm not saying that because I haven't tried. I just tried. And, well, let's just say that the dog ran away, okay? You see what I'm saying, right? But what I am good at is I am good at creative problem solving, creative thinking, because I've adopted the expansive mindset, okay? If I don't know it, I will go learn it. I taught myself how to build websites, okay? Those are specific things that are trainable and learnable. But if you don't believe there's potential to be developed, then you're never going to develop it. What I'm trying to tell you is you have both potential that is natural in gifts and talents and skills, and you also have potential that is not natural, but trainable. Okay? It's up to you to figure out which ones those are and really go after it. Because what's going to happen is you're going to find your passion smack dab in the middle. Okay? All right. Spirit of perseverance. I can't say enough about perseverance. Those that are truly successful are not successful because it came easy. They're truly successful because they kept going. Okay? Name one single hero in any of the movies that you watch that didn't have to go through a trial to get there. Name one. Batman. Superman. Aquaman. Right. Wolverine. Right. Any of these superheroes have to go through a trial. The reason those stories are so powerful, because they're so much more like life. Right? There will be a small price to be paid in order for you to have certain breakthroughs or certain levels of breakthrough. Like, for example, we had in the other whiteboard. We have the seven levels of life mastery. Okay? If you haven't seen that video, go ahead and check that one out, too. But here's what you need to know about that. Each one of the seven levels requires a certain level of breakthrough, and each of those seven levels of breakthrough creates a certain level of intensity all the way to emergence. That's what I mean by perseverance. If you don't persevere and you don't become relentless about your approach of what you're pursuing, then what's going to happen is right before you actually get the breakthrough, you're going to hit a brick wall and you're going to stop and fall away. That's the moment to keep going. I mean, to really keep going. Right? Make sure you're going at whatever you want to do with your life and your relationships and stuff. Make sure you're going after it like you mean it, like it's intentional. Right? Shut the TV off, put down the game controller. Read a book. Right? Remember, be willing to do today what others won't, so you can have tomorrow what others don't.

If you're following the tribe, you're probably going to end up following the tribe. All right, next one welcomes change. Now, I've learned that change is difficult for a lot of different people, okay? It comes in a variety of forms. There's one law that is consistent no matter what happens in the world, and that is that change is always going to come. And it's better to lean into consistent change than it is to resist it. Because only the people that resist change end up getting hurt. And I don't want you to get hurt. Not at all. In fact, I want you to be so successful that you inspire other people to follow your journey, okay? Which means you're going to have to move into change. I didn't really want to change when I first started talking to Steve Myrick, but everything he taught me changed. Everything, like he changed everything about my life.

That taught me a very valuable lesson. Right? And inside of all the core values of all the companies that I own, there is always one. Be teachable and maintain our spirituality and be changeable in the marketplace. Why? Because that's where innovation happens. How could you innovate a product, a service, or even your life if you're constantly resisting change? Take what you learn and keep growing, keep moving forward. Okay, last one sees failure as an opportunity. Man, if I could count the times that I've seen that stumble people and cause people to stay stuck and not move forward. They're so focused on their past that they can't move forward. What I want to invite you to do is to actually go to both the face to face lessons as well as the whiteboard lessons where we actually talk about how to overcome your past in detail. I think that will help you a lot because again, this is like 80% of the people we work with are so hung up on where they've been that they can't seem to focus on where they want to go. Okay. And if we're going to teach them how to change their mindset, we need to teach them how to focus on where they want to go and release where they've been. Right? Failure is only learning. You made a mistake, so what? Make a new decision.

Seriously. You made a mistake, so what? Move on. The only person getting hold by holding, the only person getting hurt by holding on to that grenade is you. You. And let's face it, you don't want to get hurt. You don't want to have like an emotional explosion inside your heart. Right? Release and go. All right, here's why. Here's a couple things. Did you know that when it comes to expansive minded thinkers, they make as upwards of 35 to 45%.

Less than expansive minded thinkers.

In income and opportunities. Studies have shown it. It's not me. 35 to 40% less.

Why? Because these people.

They capitalize on the many opportunities that come their way now. They don't just jump on it. There's some diligence there, there's some thought processes there. There's some things that they want to learn and look for opportunities and threats around it. Right? You see what I'm saying? But they capitalize on the opportunities because they're always looking to overcome the obstacles. They're always looking to look at creative problem solving. They're always looking at ways for collaborate. They're always looking for ways to be make sure that they're bringing different solutions and having other people doing that. They always are optimistic in the future. They have a level of faith over fear right? They believe in potential. Right. The belief that potential can be shaped. All these different things. It's pretty easy to see why these people are unstoppable.

And these people are stuck.

It's really easy to see.

Right? So here's to helping make you unstoppable by having you transition to the expansive minded thinker and we'll see you on the next video.

That's about all the time we have for today's whiteboard lesson. Hopefully that gave you some real value that you begin to put away right now. If you enjoyed today's video and you want to dig even deeper, I put together a free ebook called the Five Must have Principles for Personal Breakthrough. If your goal is to make change in any area of your life, these five principles are absolutely necessary if you want to make that progress lasting. You can access that by clicking the link in the description below this video. Alright, you're up.