Re-reading the book “Everything Is Figureoutable” by Marie Forleo, I was reminded of the massive influence our beliefs have in our everyday lives.

You’ve probably heard that 95% of the things we do and think are unconscious. This means that we’re operating on autopilot and playing out some predetermined script for the majority of the day.

What is that unconscious script?

Our beliefs.

The reason we rely so heavily on our subconscious mind is because we don’t have the capacity to think through everything that happens. If we had to pause and make a decision on absolutely everything that needs to happen, we wouldn’t get anything done and it’d be impossible to live a productive and sustainable life.

That’s when we tap into our unconscious mind to make decisions for us, and solve problems for us, without requiring conscious and effortful thought. Functionally what’s happening is the unconscious mind is pulling from past lessons and experiences to fill in the blanks for us in a way that keeps us as safe as possible.

In other words, our mind forms beliefs about who we are, and how we believe the world to be, which the unconscious mind uses to address everyday situations.

Literally everything we think and do passes through this filter. It’s an ever present influence that shapes our choices, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts.

With that understanding, that’s why I thought Marie Forleo’s quote about beliefs was so spot on. She said “Like a track running underneath a train, our beliefs determine where we go and how we get there.”

What’s at the root of this quote? If we want to change our lives, we must change our beliefs. If we want to go in a different direction we need to adjust the way the train tracks are taking us, or else we’ll keep reproducing the same results over and over again.

To make this actionable, there are two things I’d like you to consider. First is to get curious about your beliefs. If you feel a certain way that you don’t like, ask yourself what might have caused you to feel that way. If you feel yourself procrastinating or sabotaging your best intentions, reflect on what pre-existing belief might be creating the resistance.

Then second is actually changing your beliefs. Something Forleo explains in the book is that our beliefs are a choice. It’s in our power to control what we want to believe. My favorite way of replacing an old limiting belief with a new empowering belief is through consistent action, allowing your behavior to create the evidence your unconscious mind needs to update your belief system.

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I firmly believe that the quality of our life is simply a reflection of the quality of the questions we ask ourselves. This stands true in our personal life to gain self-awareness, in business to better maximize an opportunity, and in conversation when strengthening our relationships with others.

The reason that matters is because our minds immediately go to work to respond to the questions we’re asked. So if we ask a good question, we come up with really good responses that then drive our decision making and behavior.

So let me ask you a good question: If you had no fear, what would you do?

Fear is one of the greatest limiting factors in our lives. It keeps us from even considering doing the things that would be healthiest for us, make us feel most fulfilled and alive, and bring us the most joy. Fear is an evolutionary protection system to keep us out of danger but these days it gets in the way more often than it helps.

But let’s think beyond that - If you had no fear, what would you do? Would you change the dynamics in a relationship? Would you quit your job and go full-time on a passion project? Would you move towns and go somewhere you’ve always wanted to live? 

And don't limit your thinking to only consider things that you know you’d succeed with. It’s the uncertainty of success that is causing the fear in the first place, if there were certainty there wouldn’t be fear. So allow yourself to dream big.

Let me answer the question for myself as an example. If I had no fear, I would get way more aggressive in the way I try to grow this podcast. But I have a fear of making bad financial decisions and investing in the wrong things. And I fear that I would be viewed as disrespectful, salesy, or pushy if I forcefully tried to get my podcast in front of new people without them expressing an interest.

See what that question opened up for me? More self-awareness on what I want and what’s holding me back from getting it, and now I can do the work to overcome it.

So let me ask you the question again - I want you to really sit with it, and answer it for yourself.

If you had no fear, what would you do?

I wanted to present a new perspective that might cause something to click for you. You’ve probably heard before that “we need to see failures as lessons”, and “pressure makes diamonds”. Ryan Holiday even wrote a book called “The Obstacle Is The Way” detailing how we’re best served to have a mindset that encourages us to attack our challenges head on.

This all exists counter to our natural relationship with challenges, which is perceived discomfort and strain. A less energetically demanding and easier life is one where we don’t have any problems or setbacks.

But what if ‘the challenge’ is what life’s all about?

There’s something inherent to us that feels validated by overcoming obstacles. Our deepest joy comes from proving ourselves against our circumstances. Tom Bilyeu with Impact Theory agrees. He says that fulfillment is “working hard at something to achieve a positive result.” Without the challenge, nothing hard is required of you and you won’t tap into the depth of fulfillment that life has to offer.

Think about any great story. The bigger the challenge someone is facing, the better the story. Superheroes are revered because of the actions they take against powerful villains. The most epic comebacks in sports history come from overcoming a huge deficit when everything was on the line. In other words, the most meaningful things we do are born from defeating enormous challenges.

To live a life that’s worthwhile - that gets you brimming with pride, where you feel deeply connected to a sense of purpose and the people in your life, where you feel like your skills and talents are making a unique contribution to the world - you need to have a challenge! It’s on the other side of testing what you’re made of where you find out everything you are.

Which leads me to our two perspectives:

First, if you’re experiencing immense challenge and hardship in your life, you’re being incubated for greatness. Whether you’re choosing it or not you’re being prepared to maximize your contribution to the world in whatever form it ends up taking. So throw yourself into the challenge, figure it out and discover the power of who it molds you into as a result.

Second, if you’re comfortable and not challenging yourself, maybe this is a reason to try something new. It’s comfortable being comfortable, I get it. But If you allow yourself to stay in that space you’ll never leave, and you’ll only experience a fraction of the fulfillment you’d otherwise feel if you put yourself out there more. So go out and choose a challenge that’s worthwhile and let it strengthen you!

Challenges are good. We want to have challenges. It’s in the face of challenges that we tap into the depth of who we are, the inspiration we haven't been able to access, and the joy that comes from applying yourself toward doing something you didn’t think could be done.

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Ready for a challenge? Stop being unmotivated and too busy for your self-growth and start creating the healthy lifestyle you deserve! Install the ⁠Super Habits System⁠ in just 5 minutes a day for 21 days to unlock your next level of daily productivity and performance.

As the season changes I was thinking about how dynamic and ever changing everything is. With a background in the sciences, it reminded me of some of the things that I learned that I’m going to dust off and apply here.

You’ve probably heard about the concept of ‘equilibrium’. This is when things settle at a certain level, which is the natural state of the system. What’s fascinating though is how active equilibrium is - it’s not something that is reached and stays that way, it’s actively maintained.

In chemistry, when something like a chemical reaction has reached equilibrium, it means that it has reached its overall balance. This means that the number of reactants becoming products is just about equal to the number of products undoing themselves to become reactants again. That’s why viewing equilibrium so statically neglects what is actually happening. At equilibrium, a chemical reaction continues on forever back and forth, undoing and redoing the reaction in a very active and dynamic way.

This is just like the concept of balance. Balance is not a permanent static position. Balance is a dynamic position where opposite forces offset each other to maintain balance. This applies for balancing physically on a bike and balancing priorities in your schedule.

The reality is everything around us rests in a constant state of motion, balance and equilibrium. Many people are afraid to incorporate changes because it will offset the balance. Or further, people fear that making adjustments to their current state will lead to settling into a new equilibrium where they’re even worse off.

But if there’s something you don’t like about your current balance, and you’ve grown to tolerate it, you’re choosing to be a victim to your circumstances. Instead what you can do is take ownership of your equilibrium, change the design of how things work, and observe where that leads you (knowing that you can just undo it or do something else whenever you want).

“Life is dynamic, don’t be afraid to change it up.” Our balance is constantly being negotiated anyway, so might as well take control of it so that you get to shape what it looks like. 

I’m Brian Ford, and to shift your equilibrium and design your life in a way that is proven to work for hundreds of people, the Super Habits System 21 Day Challenge does exactly that.

One of the greatest limiting factors to doing all of the things we want to do is our personal capacity. No one is immune to this. We are all constrained by the same factors of time, energy, and focus. This is why it’s so important for us to have our priorities straight, so that we don’t neglect the things that are most important to us because we’ve run out of capacity.

How do you know when you’re at capacity? It’s when the idea of taking anything else on seems overwhelming or impossible. When you already have so much that you’re juggling, and things are starting to slip through the cracks because you can’t manage all of your current commitments. Living at capacity or beyond is stressful because you fail to do things with the same amount of quality as you’d like to, and you see the consequences of it.

However, while we do each have a personal capacity, that's not to say we can’t change the extent of it. We absolutely can manage all of our current commitments by doing the same things in less time, with less energy, and with less distraction.

How? 

Efficiency and leverage.

When you do things more efficiently it means you’re putting in less resources to achieve the same output. Every time you get more efficient you accumulate leverage, allowing you to do more with less.

One of the easiest ways to create leverage and efficiencies is by building systems. A system is a routine way of doing things to create a very specific outcome. So if you want to create a better outcome with less effort, a system can help you to achieve that.

Examples include: Systems for decision making so that you can say ‘no’ to things that stretch you too far. Systems of prioritization so that you can manage your time as effectively as possible. Systems of self-care habits so that you can be consistent in doing the things that put you in a peak state. 

In fact, I’d argue that when we’re at capacity it’s just an indicator that we’ve reached the limit of our current systems. Everything in our life runs on systems whether you know what they are or not, and when you upgrade your systems, you upgrade your capacity and start to do more with less.

There’s one, most fundamental system to your self-improvement that you didn’t realize was at capacity, and it’s likely keeping you at a plateau of getting the same results no matter what you try. It could explain why you’re not as consistent with your exercise as you’d like to be, getting more distracted on social media than you’d like to admit, and not having the depth of conversations and connection with others that you desire.

And you can upgrade that system, in just 21 days, by installing the Super Habits System. Click here to learn what the super habits are and master them in just 3 weeks!

I was speaking to a friend of mine, David Williamson, a wonderful southern gentleman who let me in on some regional vernacular. In the South when someone is about to do something, they say they’re “fixin’ to”. For example “I’m fixin’ to go to the grocery store, do you need anything?” or “I don’t have time to talk, I’m fixin’ to leave for work.”

It’s a funny expression and when you take a big personal development step back from it, there’s something we can all learn from it.

How often do we find ourselves saying that we’re “fixin’ to” change different areas of our life? I’m fixin’ to start waking up earlier in the morning and getting a workout in. I’m fixin’ to make my relationships a priority once work dies down. I’m fixin’ to start reading more but right now I’m just so tired at the end of the day.

A form of self-sabotage is procrastination. We literally are being held back from the lives we want to have because we’re delaying ourselves from doing the things we need to do to advance. We’re fixin’ to step up to the next level but our excuses and rationalizations are getting in the way.

There’s a seduction to it too. When we’re fixin’ to, it means that we genuinely believe we’re on the verge of doing it. We want to, we’re about to, we’re fully aware that we’re not doing it yet but we’re not concerned by it because we believe things are very soon going to change.

But as long as you’re “fixin’ to” do something, it means it hasn’t been done yet, and it keeps getting pushed off to tomorrow, next week, next month, or never. And we don’t necessarily see in the moment today how far things can get postponed, and the implications of what that means for our lives.

So let’s fix this “fixin’ to” mindset with imperfect action.

What can you do today to start carving out that new, elevated normal for yourself? Sure you want to start going to the gym multiple times a week - Can you put your first time going on your schedule right now and tell someone that’s what you're doing? You want to start putting more into your relationships, is there a single, small act of kindness or thoughtfulness you can do today that kicks off more to come?

When you do that, you shift the intention to change into real tangible action, and that’s when your life improves in real and tangible ways.

If you don’t know what that first action could be today to make this shift, may I recommend one? Register for the Super Habits System 21 Day Challenge where your daily behaviors shift simply because you have a new structure and environment that sets you up for success.

When I read the book “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and heard about how dominoes work, it absolutely blew me away. Something that many people do for fun is line up a bunch of dominoes, knock over the first one, and watch the momentum build as the energy passes from one domino to the next. It’s a great lesson to see how just one action can lead to a cascade of results.

But in the example I’m referencing, it goes another level. Not only do dominoes cascade, but their energy has the potential to multiply. When knocked over and spaced properly, any given domino has the ability to knock over another domino that is 1.5x its size. This means that a standard two inch tall domino can knock over a 3 inch tall domino.

Now this is where the magic happens. Given this ratio of one domino knocking over the next domino that is 1.5x its size, the 8th domino in the chain is 3 feet tall, the 18th domino is the size of the leaning tower of Pisa, the 23rd domino is the size of the Eiffel Tower, the 31st domino is taller than Mount Everest, and the 57th domino is almost as tall as the distance to the moon.

Now why does this matter?

It’s because we have the same outsized potential in our lives and growth, and it requires a few of the same criteria. 

First, we need to have a good plan so that our effort produces a specific result. We also need to know where to start, what is the first domino that we have the ability to knock down right now. 

And then we need consistency. It’s not the 2nd, 3rd, or even 10th domino that creates the outstanding, unbelievably massive result in your life. You need to keep at it consistently so that you get to the oversized results you are looking for.

This is the compound effect in action. It’s “the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices”. The power we need to achieve whatever we want is already within us. Our task is to figure out what those choices are for us and commit ourselves to them relentlessly.

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Ready to become ridiculously consistent, take your daily output to elite levels, and live a life that other people have a hard time keeping up with? Install the ⁠Super Habits System⁠ in just 5 minutes a day for 21 days to unlock your next level of daily productivity and performance.