Episode 93: Your mind is Your Enemy

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. And do you realize how much of your success, how much of your failure, how much of the torture that life gives you is all produced in your own mind? Is your mind is the one that just drives you crazy and makes you think of scenarios that don't happen, that won't happen, that don't exist. It's amazing what the mind does. Let me tell you some stories about what has happened and how we all can just never let this stuff happen again. One year ago, one year ago to last Friday, I said yes to speak, to be the keynote speaker at a conference in the Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine. And because this year, of course, because of COVID I wasn't able to fly out there. But for 1 year, I tortured myself mentally. Now I thought I was, you know, good for this, right? I could do this. I got a year, no problem. But for 1 year I thought about it, God, I'm going to this conference, I'm gonna speak at this conference, my God. 1 year thinking about this. It blew up so big in my mind, slowly over time, 'cause I had so much time to think about it. And I thought I had experience doing things like this, but it grew and it grew and it started eating at me. And as that, when that week finally came, you know, I actually, I never get nervous and I started getting worried, let's say nervous, punk out and be honest, because I've been thinking about it way too long. How often do we think about something for way too long and it just grows and it's nothing? You know, I do hundreds, hundreds of keynotes a year, and this just was another one, but had grown so much in my head that I was not eating my own dog food, and I realized that thoughts, our minds, we self-torture ourselves so much, even on the smallest things, and the things that we do all the time repetitively without thinking about it. If you think about it too damn long, it'll grow. The mind is the only thing preventing us from succeeding. The mind is the only thing preventing you from fulfilling your goals. I mean, there's literally no reason why you aren't the person who you want to be. You're not on the COVID of whatever, people aren't talking about you all the time. You're the only person stopping you. Your mind is the only hindrance. It's not other people's comments, it's not your boss, it's not your wife, it's not your husband, it's not your kids, it's not your family, it's not your mother, it's not your father. It is solely your mind. Do you understand me? It's your mind. Your mind is playing games. I don't understand. It's like I have a new relationship— not a new, I've had this reason for some time— but after this week, I realized that the mind is almost like, uh, this annoying counterperson to who I am. It's the insecure part of me. It's the part of me that's defensive. It's a part of me that's scared of everything. It's a part of me that's worried about everything. It's a pain in my butt. That's what it is. It truly, truly is. It's like the worst side of me. It's the antithesis of me. Your mind is the antithesis of you. Another story. That was Friday. So then on Sunday, I went for a bike ride, you know, on my Zwift bike connected to the internet thing, on a race with about 1,200 people. And yes, I've said it before and I will say it always, I suck on a bicycle. I cannot bike. I— yeah, my God. Oh my God, it was very hilly. We did over 1,000 meters of climbing, which is probably around 3,500 feet of climbing. It was a lot of climbing. And after an hour and 15 minutes of climbing, the race started. And after they just started, went straight to a climb, and we climbed for an hour and 15 minutes. When I told myself, when I get to the top of this mountain, I'm done. I'm quitting. The race still had a hell of a lot more to go. I said, I'm quitting. I can't do this anymore. My mind had convinced me to completely give up. I got to the top, started rolling down the other side, and I said, okay, let me just spin a little bit down this hill here and just get my legs going, you know, and then I'll quit in about 5, 2 or 3 minutes. I just got to get some blood in my legs. I'm in so much pain. And then I started feeling better and I never quit the race. I kept on going and I did the next mountain as well. And I finished the race 2 hours and 45 minutes later. I am nowhere near the shape to be pulling, doing a 2-hour and 45-minute bike race over 1,100 meters of climbing. It's way too early in my bike season. Irregardless, I didn't stop. And why didn't I stop? Because I realized in my freaking mind playing tricks with me, telling me to quit, telling me to be a quitter, telling me to take some easy-ass path, telling me to not do something, telling me not to push myself. How dare you let the mind tell you not to push you? Do you understand what I'm saying? Everything that is stopping you is your freaking mind. It's you. It's actually a part of you. It's your head. It's your thought process. It's all the things that your weakness is all put together, and it comes out, and it comes from you. And so many of us has pointed at other people because other people just— what all they're doing is they're accentuating, they're pointing out back to us, they're reflecting back to us our own weaknesses. Is all us. It's all us. It's all you. Your failures are your fault. Your mind is stopping you. I swear to you, with these two things, there are no coincidences. This last Friday Killing it. Over 1,000 people in Ukraine. My presentation went phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. Feedback from literally all over the world because it was online, people watching everywhere, you know, phenomenal. Some people probably hated it, but the feedback I got that was positive was— majority was great. And you know what? Why was I nervous? Why? So what? I was standing in a room thousands of kilometers away. Delivery to thousands of people, still did phenomenal. There was no reason to doubt it. Bike race, I'm not ready to do something like that. Hurt like hell. It took me full 24 hours, but I started to start walking normal again. Of course I could do it. Of course you could do anything. It's still your mind that's stopping you. Do you understand? Do you understand this? This, that's it. This is the key to life. Don't listen to yourself. That's it. You want to be successful? Don't listen to yourself. Don't listen to that thought in there. It's there to stop you. It's probably built in there, probably from back in the day before, you know, you stepped outside and a saber-toothed tiger bit off your head or something like that. But doesn't work today in this— today's world of social media, cloud computing, AI, and all this other stuff. It doesn't make any sense. In this world with all these technologies and tools that we have, it is the part of you that goes for it, that just dreams big and does. Don't just dream, do. And you will achieve and be more than you can ever have dreamt of. I promise you. Don't listen to your mind. Every time you get a thought that's like, "No, maybe I shouldn't," you should just stop for a moment and slap yourself. Because you're the only one holding you back. Do you understand? It's all on you. It's always been you. Everybody outside is just there for a ride to watch you. They're not there to stop you. They actually don't care about you, to be honest, because they got their own issues. So why don't you just kill it? Why don't you just focus on you? Why don't you just succeed? Why don't you, you know what, set a goal, achieve that goal today. In the next few hours, and then do it again the next day, and then again the next day, and the next day. And months from now, do you know where you're gonna be? Do you know how happy you're gonna be? That's it. That's the key. Don't listen to your mind. When you're pushing yourself and you're at that precipice and things are really hard and all that doubt kicks in, that's a part of the mind that I don't— that's your enemy. That's your kryptonite. That's when you throw that off the cliff and you keep on going. You got me? When you're right at that edge and you're pushing, and that's where you should be— you should be at that edge, you should be at that discomfort zone, you should be at that point of having doubt, you should be at that point of being worried, what if, and all that stuff— when you're there, take all that negativity, put it in a box, and kick it off the freaking cliff. And you go, now I got this. Now I'm alone. This is mine. Watch out. Understand? Do you understand? You got this. Look forward to all that doubt coming. Look forward to all that negativity from other people. Look for that negativity from within. Take all that shit together, put in a box, and throw it off the cliff. You got this. Nothing could stop you. Nothing can. I didn't die on Friday. I didn't embarrass myself in front of people from all over the world. I didn't die on the bike, even though I swear to God, I felt like I was going to die. I didn't die. It just was momentary pain. And I finished the race, and the thing came, you finish record time, blah blah blah. And then I have bliss for the rest of my life. I know I accomplished something that I was definitely not prepared to do. You can accomplish the same thing. Just push yourself out there, do something you're not prepared to do. Say yes to everything. 2021. Say yes to everything. Let all the doubt, let all the stuff come, put it in a box in your mind and kick the mind in that box right off a cliff. And you keep on going. As they say in Norway, "Strøppo." I love all of you. Go forth and spread beauty, light, and kick your mind to the curb. Get rid of that crap. When all that doubt comes in, get rid of it. You're it. You could do it. There's no doubt you could do it. You hear me? Nothing can stop you. Nothing. Dream big. And when you think you dream big enough, dream bigger. Nothing, absolutely nothing, no one, no how. You are unstoppable. Just ignore your mind.

I love you.

I'm your biggest fan. Take care of yourself. Be healthy. Spread love to everyone that you meet, that you talk to. Love in the form of a smile. Love in the form of respect. Love in the form of just look them in the eye and give them that look.

We—

none of us get enough of those looks, do we? I love you.

Take care.

Until next time. This is Thomas Anglero.

Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.