Have you heard about the pygmalion effect?
It simply means that we are a product of our beliefs.
If you think you have a chance to succeed, it will lead you to work hard, leading to little success. This increases your belief in your chances of success, leading to more hard work and more success, and the wheel starts turning on its own.
So that means that most of the time, your mindset is the first thing to fix when it comes to success. You must have heard this a thousand times. But then there is a catch. How do you get the wheel to start moving? How do you develop a success mindset?
Because in the beginning, you have no evidence of success. In fact, it is possible you have more evidence of failure than success. Everyone around you is either stuck in a terrible job paying peanuts or surviving. And you don’t want to survive, you want to thrive, be successful and live life on your own terms.
So how do you break out of the limiting beliefs and make it stick in your mind that you have a chance at success?
By being irrationally optimistic.
Human beings are irrational until it comes to finding reasons why they can’t succeed. Then rationality takes precedence. Your brain starts making up every reason why it is impossible.
Not being born in a first-world country.
Not having successful parents or relatives.
Your past failures
The bleak future the media tries to paint.
All these thoughts keep clouding your mind and making it twice as difficult to keep a healthy mindset about success.
But by being irrationally optimistic, you are basing your optimism of success on nothing.
It is easier said than done. But here are 3 ways to make it easier to believe in your success, even when it doesn’t logically make sense.
Read about other impossible success stories
There are more than enough stories of people who came from nothing and achieved success. And their stories are documented in books, videos, and podcasts. No better way to inspire yourself than to find out how other people like you overcame the insurmountable difficulties of their early lives and became successful. Some books I recommend include
- The Millionaire Fastlane
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
- Think and Grow Rich
- The Science of getting rich.
Your goal is to have a copy of the book or an audiobook if you prefer that. Always read and reread these books. And every time you get discouraged, get back to reading them again.
Focus on consistent small wins
Success is a skill. The more you win, the better you become at winning. Don’t focus on winning everything at once. It is almost impossible, and you get discouraged when it doesn’t happen. Small wins prove that you have what it takes also to win big.
And the amazing thing is that it follows a geometric progression. 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128. So even if you start from 1, you can get above 100 in 7 steps. However, to make this progression real, you must be consistent about the wins. You need to keep constantly working on getting better each day. Setting small goals and smashing them.
A note of warning: You may still experience failure after setting small goals, but don’t let that deter you. Learn immediately from your failures, and don’t get too comfortable once you win once. Keep stretching yourself. Set an incremental goal and keep increasing it to get geometric growth.
Reach out to other people like you
You have more chances of success if you have other people on the same journey as you. This group of people ensures you don’t slack and help you when you are stuck at a level. You should be slightly intimidated when you look at what they have accomplished, and it forces you to level up.
You may not have a physical group, but you can reach out to people online and follow their journey. Reach out to them to congratulate them if they post an achievement. To offer help when they need it. Don’t ask them to mentor you. Make yourself someone they will love to mentor. How do you do that? Keep posting your small wins and failures and what you learnt from the failure. Take the advice from Alex Hormozi.
Build shit
Talk about building shit
Do more shit and talk about it.
Rinse and repeat
Conclusion
Every success you achieve is a product of your mindset. And even though we don’t all start from the same place mentally, we can end up in the same place. Use the steps above to get irrationally optimistic and supercharge your success.
