Mindset over matter
And why "just do it" is terrible advice.
When I was younger I never really understood what self help gurus meant when they said that ‘mindset is everything’. I thought they were saying that all it takes to make dreams happen is to scrawl ‘you are amazing’ in red lipstick on a mirror, cross your fingers and hope your wishes come true.
I thought the evangelical Tony-Robbins-of-the-world were charlatans, and that instead of selling strategies for wishful thinking they should have been encouraging people to take action at all costs. They should have been encouraging people to ‘just do it’.
In my mind, action mattered. Mindset didn’t.
But when I entered self employment five years ago, I got a crash course in the importance of mindset and soon realised that the advice ‘just do it!’ was hollow, simplistic and reductive. As the stakes and my potential fall from grace got higher, the harder it became to push myself. Fear crept in. Doubt emerged. Self-judgement made itself known.
As I jumped into bigger ponds and sat at larger tables, I was forced to zoom out and it became evident pretty quickly that taking action isn’t as simple as ‘just doing it’ like I’d previously thought. Action doesn’t happen in a vacuum; many external forces are at play.
Big Change is hard and there are often a million reasons not to make a move. Perhaps you want to push yourself but don’t know how. Perhaps you’re scared. You may tell yourself you don’t have enough time or money or anything valuable to give, or that you’re not smart enough or experienced enough. You might be paralysed by the perceived judgements of others or simply not able to believe that a good outcome is possible for you.
This whirlpool of doubt directly influences our ability to ‘just do it’, and in fact it’s our beliefs and thoughts that dictate what comes next. Mindset precedes action. It primes us to step forward or to stay still.
Like everyone, my outer world is a direct reflection of my inner one, and if my beliefs are disempowering - like ‘it’s not possible’ or ‘opportunities are scarce’ or ‘my friends will think I’ve lost the plot’ - then this churning undercurrent pulls me deep down into stagnant despair.
But when my beliefs are tentatively hopeful - like ‘it might be possible’ or ‘there could be opportunities around the corner’ - then everything changes.
Going from point A to point B is a long road and at times it can feel impossible to take action when your brain and mind are working against you. But if I’ve learned anything during this 35 years on the planet it’s to switch my focus from self-judgement to curiosity, and change my dialogue from ‘I bet nothing good will happen’ to ‘I wonder what will happen’. I try my best to believe in the possibility of a great outcome, not the probability of it. I choose to recognise that others have done what I’m trying to do, ipso facto it can be done.
The self help gurus I so loathed in my early twenties don’t sell wishful thinking, they encourage positively primed action. They know that mindset comes first, and that before you find the courage to ‘just do it’ you must find the courage to believe it. You must find the courage to recognise when your internal monologue is working against you, rather than for you. Courage to reach for what’s possible when you can’t grasp probable. Courage to look in a mirror covered in scrawling red lipstick and say that you believe you can do it, despite no proof. That you will do it, despite the risks. That you are doing it, despite the fear.
That it’s done.
🎙️ Fascinating insights about mindset from my recent portfolio career discovery research…
How my natural bias to action took a hit when I quit my job and became a founder [1:55]
A quick overview of my research [4:50]
How some people see a portfolio career as a loss of status, and others see it as aspirational [6:00]
How some people are paralysed by what their friends think, others couldn’t care less [8:41]
A scarcity mindset in of my mentees was directly impacting their ability to find work, despite taking action relentlessly to make sales [11:54]
Mindset impacts how we take action, not just if we take it [14:48]
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Just do it has always been hard for me, as I tend to overthink nearly every decision. The just try mentality allows for failure, which is exactly what my overthinking is trying to mitigate. When replacing just do it with just try, it tends to quiet the overthinking, and that's when things actually get done!
Informative