7 Mindsets of Success: What You Really Need to Do to Achieve Rapid, Top-Level Success
152
7 Mindsets of Success: What You Really Need to Do to Achieve Rapid, Top-Level Success
152Paperback
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781683503019 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 07/04/2017 |
| Pages: | 152 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Why Mindsets?
* * *
A few years ago, I picked up a book that claimed the secret to success hid just between it's covers. The book had a lot of great ideas and practical tools to help grow my business. By the time I finished the book, I was really fired up and excited about implementing all these success-building concepts.
A week went by, and I started trying the new techniques I learned from the book. They weren't working exactly how I had imagined, though. I grew less motivated. A month later, my life looked exactly as it had before I had picked up the success book in the first place. This is not that kind of book.
What is a Mindset?
A lot of books will help you change your actions for a short amount of time. What makes this book different is that it's not simply about the actions you take or new habits you make.
As I built my business from $0 to over $120 million in management, I discovered success is less about the external actions and daily tasks we take in our business (the interactions with prospects and clients, the outreach, planning, and closing we do) and more about the way we approach these tasks in the process. My hope with this book is that by avoiding tips and tricks that may help you obtain short-lived success, it will change your perspective to help you become more successful in the long term. In other words, focusing on changing your mindsets works because the way you think holds a lasting effect on your life.
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a mindset as an established set of attitudes or beliefs held by someone. A growing body of scientific research suggests that the beliefs you have about your identity and your environment can dramatically affect your actions and your results.
There was a recent experiment that exemplifies why our beliefs determine our behavior. Scientists placed a piranha on one side of a large fish tank and on the other side was a small bait fish. Between the two fish, the scientists placed a glass divider.
The hungry piranha saw the small bait fish and tried to eat it. Each time, slamming into the glass wall between them. He continued striking at the fish, but hit the glass every time. After a few hours, the piranha realized its efforts were futile and gave up.
Then the scientists removed the plexiglass partition, and both fish were able to swim freely. The piranha didn't move towards the other fish, even when the bait fish swam right in front of him. The piranha still believed he couldn't reach the other fish. The piranha grew more and more hungry, but never went near the other fish, and eventually starved to death.
What the piranha believed about his situation determined his actions. What you believe about yourself and your situation will also determine your action — or inaction.
Mindsets, in other words, are what keep us motivated, dictate our decisions, and determine our behavior.
In developing my own successful business, I have found that there are seven key mindsets that have shaped this journey to success. We will focus on the seven mindsets, because by changing your basic beliefs and attitudes about success, a higher quality, lasting, and meaningful level of success will follow.
It's Time to Change
I am asking you to change your mindsets. The top five most stressful life events according to Health Status are: death of a loved one, divorce, moving, major illness, and job loss. What do those all have in common? Change.
The idea of change often evokes stress, fear, and other negative emotions. Psychology Today says, "Change is hard." Resisting change makes sense because doing what you're familiar with is much more comfortable than doing something new.
We don't normally change our circumstances or business practices because they're going well. We change because something is either not working or because we know that there are better opportunities beyond our current situation.
This is true not only with physical change like moving or finding a new job, but also with emotional and mental change. When something isn't going well, your first reaction might be to change your external factors like your job, your house, your team members, or even your marriage. But what if, instead, you changed the way you viewed yourself? What if you changed the limiting beliefs you have about yourself? What if you changed your belief that nothing is going to get better and started to imagine a new future? How would a new set of beliefs affect your actions? And how would a new set of actions lead to better results?
You not only can change the way you think and what you believe about yourself, you need to if you want to experience the kind of success you dreamed about in the last chapter. What you believe about yourself, your current situation, and your skillset will set the bar for your future potential. But if you resist that change, if you don't believe change is possible, for yourself and your businesses, then you'll stagnate. Not only will you not reach any new goals, the success you currently have will start to erode, leaving you further and further behind each year.
"If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done," said Thomas Jefferson.
In other words, if you want a new level of success, you have to change. The kind of change I'm talking about in this book isn't a simple change like adding a few new habits or trying the latest hot sales tactic. What I'm talking about is revolutionizing the way your brain works. I'm talking about changing the way you think, the way you feel, the way you see the world. It's not going to be simple or easy. You will be challenged, pushed, and asked to try things — at which you might fail.
I've never reached a new level of success by doing what got me to the previous level. There was always something new that was necessary. I am constantly learning, improving and changing my practices, and growing in these mindsets. What you need to do before you go any further is believe that you really are capable of greater and better things, so that you can start doing them. Without embracing change, you will never be able to use any of these mindsets. And you will be like the piranha, fooled by the belief that you can't.
What It Really Takes
In the introduction of this book, I asked you, "Will you do what it takes?" I told you to keep reading if you wanted to go the distance to achieve your goals. But what does it really take?
After building a successful financial advising firm in just three years and becoming one of the youngest advisors to achieve the Chairman's Council (the top 2-3 percent of advisors in the nation working within the same broker dealer), I've found it takes more than the textbooks teach. In school, I was taught that success was about working hard and following all the rules, and that if you did it long enough, you would see results. I don't believe in just following those long held traditional habits. You can follow them, and they may work fairly well for you, but the results I've experienced in my business could never have been achieved under that model. The models we follow in business are influenced by how we see the world as a whole. There are two different ways people look at the world. The people with the first view take the world at face value. In other words, there is little room for change. These people believe that if they are not naturally good at math, they will never be good at math. They believe if they are not creative, they never will be creative. As a result, these people believe that who they are now is who they will always be. The people with the second view see the world as a place with endless possibilities. They believe that growth is constant and that they have the power to change their skills and abilities. These people believe that who you are is always changing, improving, and growing.
The difference in these beliefs can often be seen in the way these people approach difficult problems. People with the first view approach difficult problems with dread and fear. They often are the first to give up, or say something is "too hard." The people with the second view, on the other hand, will approach difficult problems eagerly and with expectations of finding new solutions.
As a child, I viewed the world and my circumstances as something I could always improve. In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, I searched for what I could change for the better. When I used this view in business, the results were better than anything I had experienced. I knew I was on to something.
As I started my own firm, I discovered not everyone sees the world in this way. Steve, whom we talked about in the introduction, thought that because his mother was a successful advisor, it would come naturally to him too. But as he went through training and began attempting to get his first clients, he struggled. When it didn't come naturally to him as he expected, he started to grow discouraged.
He told me, "I will never be where you are." Steve had a limited belief in his potential. He refused to believe he could grow as a person, and therefore, he would never have a chance to experience Rapid, Top Level Success.
Steve didn't realize success is not about doing the least work while gaining the maximum payoff. It's about reaching your full potential.
Full potential is the development of the possible into the actual.
To achieve Rapid, Top-Level Success, you need to believe where you are now is simply a starting point and that you are capable of far greater things. What it really takes to be successful is the desire to get better every day.
As we dive into these seven mindsets, I ask that you approach each one with this in mind: New concepts and ideas can often be discouraging, but when we approach each mindset as an opportunity for growth and betterment, we find the strength and motivation to dive in.
When Can You Change a Mindset?
While it's true I first adopted new mindsets while I was growing up, that's actually not the case for most people. My mindsets changed, for the most part, because they had to. When I was younger and wanted to play on the school basketball team, I had to work to be able to buy the equipment I needed. I learned that if I wanted something, I had to work hard to get it. This played into how I viewed becoming successful. But just because you don't develop these mindsets in your youth, doesn't mean you won't be successful.
You might believe that to be successful you need a master's degree or a large client list or ten years experience or a lot of money in savings. You might even think you need to be single, so you have uninterrupted time to develop yourself and grow your business.
Sure, having a master's degree and an existing client list is helpful, but they aren't necessary. Too often people allow themselves to use the situations they find themselves in as excuses to avoid change.
You can't let your situation stop you from going after what you want. There will always be reasons to put off making a change. Next year the kids will be in school. I need to wait until after I buy that car or take that trip.
Whether you're in your twenties, fresh out of school, or in your forties and contemplating switching careers, you can make a change. Your lack of experience, or lack of contacts is not what will limit your success.
Don't let your current situation shape your future. If you're not careful, you'll find yourself believing that because of your current circumstances it's too late for you.
Here's the question you need to be asking yourself instead:
What do you need to start a fire?
I walked around my office and asked some of my teammates this question. The first person answered, "A spark." Others said similar things, "matches, kindling, and wood." A few said things like "a blowtorch or a Duraflame log."
There are a lot of ways to start a fire. Any of those answers are partially right. But what absolute, essential, bare-minimum thing you need to start a fire?
Wood.
Would it be helpful to have matches? Yes. Would a spark and kindling make starting a fire easier? Absolutely. A blowtorch and duraflame? Definitely faster. But you can also take two sticks and start a fire with friction. You work with what you have.
The same is true for changing your mindsets and becoming successful. Realistically, there are an infinite number of different ways to create success in your life. But what is the essential, bare-minimum resource? Belief and determination.
In the previous section, we talked about the belief that you are capable of far greater things. While that belief is necessary, belief without action is worthless. You can believe you can start a fire, but that won't allow you to actually start the fire. But you cannot start the fire unless you believe you can. The belief combined with determination is essential. Using both together will allow you to accomplish any thing at any time.
Although some of my mindsets were formed and changed when I was young, about half the mindsets in this book I've learned and adopted as an adult. For example, it wasn't until I started working as a financial advisor that my view and mindset on perspective changed drastically. And it took getting married and having children to adopt the time balance mindset. We are constantly learning and growing, and if you are willing and determined to embrace these changes, you will be able to start the fire, and in turn become successful.
You can change at any age, in any situation.
How Do You See the World?
These mindsets will prepare you for Rapid, Top-Level Success by showing you what business practices you need to focus on, what you need to let go of, and how to manage it all.
Before we dive into the seven mindsets, go back and identify how you see the world. Do you see yourself like Steve, who never believed he had potential, let alone that he was capable of achieving it? Or do you want to improve yourself every day — improve your mindsets, your skills, your habits as you work toward success?
How you see yourself will directly affect your success. If you see yourself as someone who can't succeed, you won't. You need to begin to believe you can grow your business into exactly what you want it to become. Only after that will embracing and implementing these mindsets be possible.
Take a moment to visualize yourself in five years. First, visualize yourself if you stayed exactly where you are now, and continued doing the same things that you've always done.
Now visualize where you would be if you adopted the view that you can be constantly changing and growing. How different would these two people be? How much does the decision you make today impact your future?
Now that we have established what mindsets are and why we are using them, it's important that we recognize where we go from here. There is a gap between where we are now and where we want to be, but how do we reveal the gap and determine the next steps? In the next chapter, we'll talk about our future selves and the two questions we need to ask ourselves.
CHAPTER 2Mindset 1 Future Self
To simply want success is not going to help you achieve it. You need to stop and imagine who you want to be personally and professionally in five years. Then, you need to figure out how to get there.
* * *
The Future Self Mindset is the secret to getting refocused, to figuring out what you need to be doing right now to achieve your goals, and to get the motivation to actually go do it.
You've tried to increase your sales. You're doing what you're supposed to be doing. But you keep asking yourself, "Why aren't I experiencing the results?" You might even be growing tired of the whole mundane process: the tasks, phone calls, and emails you have to send to make even one sale. It's easy to feel aimless in the midst of your daily todo list.
Eventually, you'll feel tempted to stop doing those meaningless tasks, and you'll lose sight of where you were headed. You'll start waking up wondering why you go to work each day. I've been in this business long enough that I've watched this happen again and again.
I want it to stop happening. Over the last few years I've discovered a way to re-focus yourself and get motivated again. That's what Future Self is all about.
The Marshmallow Experiment
In the late 60's and early 70's, an experiment was done to test the concept of delayed gratification. The results of the experiment are an example of how the Future Self Mindset will set you up for success.
In the experiment, children were given a marshmallow and told they could either eat the marshmallow right then, or wait for a few minutes and get a second marshmallow.
It was a simple question: Would the kids prioritize momentary pleasure, or would they hold out for the chance to double the fun. Unsurprisingly, most of the kids tried to wait — two marshmallows are better than one, after all — but only a fraction could hold out long enough to get their second marshmallow.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "7 Mindsets of Success"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Sten Morgan.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Why Mindsets?,
Mindset 1 Future Self,
Mindset 2 Remove Your Safety Net,
Mindset 3 Perspective,
Mindset 4 Circumstances,
Mindset 5 Discomfort,
Mindset 6 Conflict,
Mindset 7 Time Balance,
Motivation Behind Success: Generosity,
Conclusion,
Promo Page,
About the Author,
Sources,
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