beben-eleben:

#1 The belief that success is left to a special few

Some people seem to have this concept that people who end up really successful, healthy, and happy, are just the lucky few.

When you ask them how Mozart, Tiger woods, or top sports athletes are born, they’ll tell you something like “Oh it’s just their genetics, they were born that way.”

Say you have the goal of wanting to go from 50 pounds overweight, to fitness model.  There are numerous dramatic stories like this on the internet.

But what if your mind is constantly telling you “Oh those people are just unique. They are the 1% who have willpower and discipline like no other human being.”

Chances are you won’t even do anything, right? You won’t get started.

Now what if I told you that I met someone who achieved the goal you want to achieve. And what if that person told me “Nope, I wasn’t born special, I just learned what I had to do, and spent 1-2 hours every day for two years doing it.”

Suddenly your mind expands and you begin to wonder: “Hmm, if an ordinary person can do it, maybe I can too.”

In fact, there have been numerous books on the subject, such as Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers From Everyone Else and The Talent Code.

The conclusions of both books?

In the vast majority of cases, talent is created and forged every day, not born.  This is as true for Mozart as it is for Tiger woods.

My point is this: it’s important to know that the people who succeed at changing their health, building a business, or improving their personal life are not special – they just take committed action.

#2 Thinking that your life, and thus your success, health and relationships are all outside of your control

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from The Alchemist and goes something along the lines of this:

The greatest lie in the world is that, at some point, your life is run by factors out of your control.

You can always change.

It’s sort of like another saying: you can’t control what happens to you in life, but you can control your response.

This is extremely apparent today, where people are losing their jobs left and right. The vast majority of people end up complaining and saying, “There was nothing I could do.”  Really? Nothing?

You couldn’t have been pro-actively meeting people, or bringing new ideas to the table, or taking on larger responsibilities to make yourself more indispensible?

The same is true of your health:  some people act as if they are powerless to the food industry, or can’t fight their genetics.

“Oh, heart disease and cancer run in my family.”  And apparently that’s all the justification we need to go eat junk food every day.

There are two ways to look at your health.

• The first sounds a lot like this: “Oh, everything causes Cancer these days! Forget it, I’m just going to eat what I want.”
• The second sounds like this: “My health is a priority and I’m going to do whatever it takes to figure out how to get healthy.”

You could read hours worth of success stories, of people who successfully reversed their genetic predispositions to obesity, heart disease, or cancer.

Just look at Jack Lalanne – one of the most famous health icons of the 21st century. Lalanne’s dad died young from a heart attack, but Lalanne lived to be 96 years old – and if you saw videos of him in his 90’s, he looked to be about 75.

The more you believe that you are incapable of change, the less likely you are actually going to take the action you need to improve your life.

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