Living From The Inside Out

Darren Hardy said: 

“Your past doesn’t define you, it prepares you.”

And yet in every society in the world in any country, you will find that people are programmed to live from the outside in.

What I mean by that is they allow external events and third-party actions to cause them to act in certain, often predictable, ways. Often when this happens they are either remembering something from the past or imagining that what’s happening is putting their future happiness at stake and the primaeval ‘fight or flight’ response kicks in.

What many great thinkers and leaders have taught us is that: if we want to make the right choices and stay in control of our actions, so we get our desired results, we must learn to live from the ‘inside out’ rather than the ‘outside in’.

What do I mean by that?

Well, like most creatures, we have five senses - sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Those senses process the billions of pieces of information that are around us at any one time.

But, as human beings, we also possess higher faculties which no other animal, as far as we know, has. These faculties are perception, reason, imagination, memory, will and intuition.

Very few people have been taught how to use these higher faculties to create the life they want.

It’s not something that is taught in school… Though it really should be.

When we look at successful people, we generally assume that they have been blessed with some talent the rest of the population doesn’t have, because we lack the awareness of exactly what this person is doing that makes them seem so different and more capable than ordinary people.

But the reality is we all have these higher faculties and when we learn how to use them others will also start to view us as extraordinary individuals. Even though it isn’t really true - it’s just that you will have learned to tap into your higher faculties.

When you do encounter people who have achieved notable success in life - it’s likely that they are not aware they are using these faculties and they are not consciously aware that it is this that is responsible for their success.

They are what’s known as ‘unconscious competents’. 

They are successful but they don’t know why.

So just imagine, now you are aware of these faculties and how they can be used to shape your life, how powerful you can become if you strengthen them and then consciously apply them.

Just think about that for a minute and really let it really sink in. 

You now know why some people are successful and some people aren’t. You know that you have the power within you to achieve whatever you want and you know what you need to learn and practise to achieve it. 

Whether you apply that knowledge to get what you want is up to you. So, you should be honest with yourself: how much do you really want it?

Past Performance Does NOT Dictate Your Future.

Now cast your mind back to when you are a small child and no doubt you will often have heard things like:

"Do what I tell you!"

“Look what you’ve done now!”

“You’re so clumsy!”

“You’re no good at that are you.”

“Why do you always get that wrong?”

And on and on it goes.

The conditions or circumstances surrounding us begin to affect the way we think.

School report card reports supposedly tell us how bright and studious we are.

Later in life, we get bank statements that we think reflect how much we are worth. 

We get sales reports and performance appraisals at work. 

All of these are simply a record of the past or someone else opinion of how well you have done in the past.  

And it’s these sorts of records that end up controlling the direction our lives take. 

We act from the outside in. In other words, we let past events or past performance dictate our future results. But those results no longer exist… Except in our minds.

To use them to guide you in the future is like driving a car whilst constantly looking in the rearview mirror when you should be focused on what’s ahead.

And, if you do that well… guess what - you’re going to keep running into problems.

You must learn to not be affected by them as you move forward. You see, when people look at their past results those results register in their mind, and the results cause them to perceive the world in a certain way that then causes them to have certain expectations and act in a certain way. 

It's what you might call a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 But scientific research has shown that the results people get in life are largely determined by the view they have of themselves – their self-image.

If you stop allowing past performance to shape your self-image and you develop a more positive view of yourself, you will naturally get much better results.

That may sound unrealistic but many respected scientific studies have shown this to be true. 

Whether it’s school children, salespeople athletes or business people – it’s clear that a better self-image leads to a dramatic improvement on future results.

Conversely, a recent study revealed some staggering statistics about what happens to a person with a negative self-image: 

?? Creativity decreases 18%

?? Errors increase 30%

?? Illness is either more likely to start or be exacerbated 83%

?? Just three minutes of exposure to the news can increase negativity by 27%

A negative self-image is detrimental to yourself, others and your business!

Whereas having a positive self-image can massively increase your chances of success. 

For example in one experiment with school kids who were not performing well, the kids were actively encouraged and told by teachers that they were actually very good at subjects (even though they had been failing).

Shortly after their grades improved massively.

Why does it work?

People who score well on tests at school have confidence that they can do well. They go to class and start expecting to succeed. They become a successful person in their mind and success then naturally follows.

So you don’t have to let past results determine your future results. You just have to change your thoughts about yourself, improve your self-esteem and your upgrade your belief about what you are capable of.

The Difference Between Being Ordinary And Extraordinary

This is how it works: 

Most people see what’s going on outside (like a performance review) and react to it. 

Their thinking produces feelings.

Those feelings cause them to take certain actions and those actions produce their results

…same thoughts, same feelings and same results over and over again.

That is why the majority of people keep getting the same results year after year and struggle throughout their entire lives.

To be truly successful you need to stop permitting the outside world to control your mind.

You must become more of a neutral observer, like you are watching events on a big screen and don’t allow yourself to get caught up in it. You really don’t need to let it affect you.

This is how powerful successful, people operate: they observe events around them in a neutral fashion and do not react. 

Instead, they shift their perspective and look to find the positive in any situation. Then they think about what it is that they want to happen.

By thinking the right thoughts, it causes the right feelings, that then cause them to take the right actions and produce the results they want.

And the circle spirals upwards not downwards. Then they consciously observe the new results, adapt to them and immediately begin to think more thoughts that will create the necessary feelings and actions of how to improve further. 

It all starts with thinking…the thinking causes feelings…the feelings cause the actions…and the actions cause the results. Start to live from the inside out and see how quickly your results change.

If you would like education, help, advice and mentorship within a community of like-minded people to help you build a business and escape the rat race, why not join my online membership site: The Freedom Code. You can access a free trial membership on the link below:

www.freedomcode.co