Is your mindset the problem? Expert advice on Time, Money, and Freedom

You’ve heard the mantras. You’ve seen inspired moments from athletes, entrepreneurs, and stories of personal triumph.?

This conversation between CEO, author, and coach Ray Higdon and host Joseph Jaffe hits on points that take you way beyond quick-fix motivation.

The must-see episode of the Joseph Jaffe Is Not Famous Show, challenges core beliefs that you didn’t even know you have, and teaches you how to actually shift your view of the world.

?These takeaways are life lessons that everyone should take to heart — or rather, mind.

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1.??You’re playing the victim, you just don’t know it

?It’s easier to swallow the idea that you could if only *blank* were different. In fact, this familiar mindset tends to become the default over time — a crutch; an excuse.

“The only way [you] fail, is if we get out of our own way,” Jaffe says. “That scarcity mindset, that victim mindset — we know that needs to be replaced with an abundance mindset.”

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2.??90% of our thoughts are the same as yesterday’s?

“You’re in this rut of feeling and thinking the same thing everyday, but you’re not aware of it,” says Higdon.

?The question, then, is how you get out of thinking the same thoughts everyday and cultivate an awareness around those thoughts.

“Allowing 100-percent reliance on your senses to define your reality is just not the smartest way,” adds Higdon.

The key, he notes, is to take inventory of your life and see where you are in relation to your goals and expectations.

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3.??See things the way you wish they were before they are

?What does it mean to rely on your senses? It means building a strong mindset that’s independent of your external environment.

One example Higdon looks to as inspiration is from the life of philosopher and author Victor Frankl. Frankl — who was a prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust — has a famous quote of how he views his life experiences:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

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4.??Manifestation works, it just takes work

Manifestation is not the casual request for money and happiness that it’s often portrayed as in pop culture. It’s a mindset practice and tool that can be applied towards many areas of life.

Higdon has proven this in business time and time again, though he reinforced it in himself when taking ballroom dance classes with his wife — which he was terrible at.

“I started on a nightly basis just taking two minutes, a minute and just kind of seeing myself as a good dancer. What would that look like? How would I feel? What would people say to me?”

Six months later he and his wife won a ballroom dance competition. No added practice or coaching. Simply a shift in mindset.

Manifestation, in this way, is really cultivating the belief that you can be a certain person; that you can achieve a goal.

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5.??Be defiant.

?“We’re focused on those one or two points of imperfections to get to that point of perfection…as opposed to being able to really push on our strengths,” Jaffe points out.

Focusing on those imperfections instead of driving forward strengths often inhibits people to be “great.”

Higdon puts forward the concept of being defiant as a tool — or rule — for people to follow as they go through life.

?“What is something I don’t want to do, but I know it would help grow me? That way of thinking has helped me grow in a lot of areas,” says Higdon.

“The person afraid of falling off a mountain just won’t ever climb it.”

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6.??Money and happiness are two different equations

As the saying goes: “money doesn’t buy happiness.”

For Higdon, “it’s not an either or scenario. They’re just not equal.”

“You can have a lot of money and be happy. You can not have a lot of money and be happy.”

Of course, having money has its benefits. The key though, is not attaching self-fulfillment to making money. Higdon notes that when you do that, you put yourself into a cycle of basing your happiness on making more money or achieving the next goal.

?“Why are we linking them?” asks Jaffe. “They’re causality not correlation.”

“Don’t conflate or confuse the two. Focus on them and realize that one is not necessarily an influencer or a variable that affects the other.”

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Final Word

?Of course, all of the above only comes to life from a person’s willingness to act and be persistent. As Jaffe emphasizes in his Seated Soliloquy: “The only way we fail is if we get in our own way.”

?Success comes down to the people, he says, and whether or not they can get out of their own way.

One way to do so is to keep learning and being inspired, so be sure to subscribe to Jaffe’s channel to for more empowering, thought-provoking content.