Mind Shift: It Doesn’t Take a Genius to Think Like One

THE REASON for writing Mind Shift is to destroy our internal limitations. Erwin Raphael McManus begins by reflecting on a statement he once heard, “Some people are simply structured for failure.” Based on our thoughts, we are structured or wired to behave within certain frequencies. If we think in toxic ways, we will get toxic outcomes. It takes a mind shift to move from where we are to where we want to be. “If my mind can be structured for failure, then it can also be structured for success.” It’s a choice.

Most of us not only avoid near-death experiences, we avoid near-life experiences as well. We almost risk for love. We almost pursue our dreams. We almost overcome our fears. We almost live the life we long: for. We almost make the decision that would have changed everything. And then we get to the end of our lives and realize that we were so close. We were always just one choice away.

“Every time you want to elevate your level of execution, performance, or effectiveness, it will require a mind shift.” McManus offers twelve mind shifts we can address to create the mental architecture for success.

Mind Shift #1: It’s All About People

Life is not about things. The quickest way to regret is to place things and experiences over relationships. “If we don’t know what really matters, we will spend our lives accumulating the very things that do not matter—discarding the things that matter most.” We can become so focused on our goals that “the people in our life may quickly go out of focus.”

Mind Shift #2: You Don’t Need an Audience

You don’t need an audience to reveal your greatness. “Greatness is always grown in private. You don’t need an audience to prepare for the biggest moments of your life. Commit to greatness when you have no audience. Discipline yourself and prepare yourself to be the best at what you do. Live as if today you may be given the greatest opportunity of your life. Be ready to step up when the call comes.”

Mind Shift #3: You Can’t Take Everyone with You

Not everyone shares your vision and is prepared to carry it forward. Two key leadership ideas:

Leaders create clarity, raise standards, and call people to more. By definition, this creates a dividing line. Great leaders are not afraid to define what it means to be on their team, organization, or movement. They know their vision isn’t for everyone, and they recognize those with a shared vision. Great leaders also know that great teams form when there is a sifting process.

A leader, you cannot make decisions based on who you have. You have to make decisions based on who you serve.

Mind Shift #4: They Won’t Get It Until You Do It

You are the proof of the legitimacy of your vision. Get on with it. “If You are playing it safe, you are playing to lose. The full measure of your gifts, and talents, and potential, and life, cannot be actualized if you are not willing to step into risk. You must choose between acceptance and uniqueness. If you’re addicted to affirmation, you will become a reflection of yourself rather than the genuine version of you.”

Mind Shift #5: You Are Your Own Ceiling

You can blame others or take responsibility for your life. When your brain is telling you that some external factor is holding you back, you give up your power to change your circumstances. “The questions we should be asking ourselves are: Where is it my responsibility? Where did I fail? What could I have done differently? You don’t want to internalize failure, but you absolutely want to internalize responsibility. Where does your thinking need to change?”

Mind Shift #6: Talent Is a Hallucinogen

We bet on talent, overlook character, and underestimate grit.

For talent to translate into success, it must be forged in the pressure cooker of adversity and centered by character. No matter how talented you are, you will eventually come to the end of your talent. When you come to the end of your talent, you discover the depth of your character.

Mind Shift #7: No One Knows What They Are Doing

Starting is more important than knowing. You learn as you go. “When you are living with the delusion that you know everything needed in order to succeed, you have a huge blind spot, and you are less likely to learn the skills and knowledge that are crucial for your success. When you know you don’t know, you are perfectly postured for learning.”

Mind Shift #8: Bitterness, and Other Poisons That Will Kill You

McManus says that one of the hardest people to help is a bitter person. “When someone is discouraged, you can call out their strengths and tell them all the ways you admire them. When someone is grieving, you can love them and be present in their grief. But when someone is bitter, they are rarely open to the process required to find healing.”

Bitterness is a choice, and it hardens your heart. “The reality is that when you are bitter, you are no longer in your own story.” Optimism is a choice—a discipline. “We must choose positive emotions, while negative emotions seem to choose us. It takes discipline to see the good when things are going bad. It takes discipline to see beauty in the midst of tragedy. It takes discipline to see the best in people when they let us down.”

Mind Shift #9: You Find What You Are

Everything has a frequency and if you get stuck in the wrong frequency you will attract the wrong people into your life. “The best assessment of who you are is not who you say you are, but who you are convinced others are. Here is the mind shift: You will find in the world what you bring to the world.”

Love has a frequency. Hope has a frequency. Faith has a frequency. Courage has a frequency. Integrity has frequency. Compassion has a frequency. Generosity has a frequency. When you choose to live in these frequencies, you are drawn to those who are like-minded, and they are drawn to you.

Mind Shift #10 Be Average (At Almost Everything)

We are not good at everything. Learn to say no. “The average in my life is not who l am. It is who l am not. Be good at something, but with the same level of intention, choose to be average at a lot of things.”

Mind Shift #11: Success Weighs More Than Failure

Success doesn’t make you a better person; it just amplifies what you already are. Success has a price tag. “While money, fame, and the trappings of success can be extraordinary outcomes of a life well lived, they make for terrible objectives. Your life purpose must be bigger than simply becoming famous, rich, or powerful. If these are the fuel of your life, you will always be running on empty. You will achieve everything you’ve ever wanted and still feel as if you have nothing. You must live for more. There is no level of success that will give meaning to your life. If you do not already have meaning in your life, all that you attain in life will have no meaning.”

Mind Shift #12: There Is No Such Thing as Too Much of a Good Thing

Make room for things that make you better. “Be ruthless in eliminating everything that is not a reflection of your best self.” Be extravagant with hope. “You cannot break a person who refuses to give up on hope. Hope is the magic behind optimism.”

You can’t be too forgiving. “The idea that I should be forgiven without limits is incredibly appealing to me. The idea that I should forgive others without limit is not as palatable. Relationships will only last as long as the forgiveness flows.”

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:35 PM
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