07/09/2021
SUCCESS AND LASTING CHANGE IS FOUR LAYERS DEEP
In this post I'm going to share with you how you can go from getting inconsistent results to easily hitting your next big goal without:
⛔ Trying out another tactic, strategy or even a shiny object.
✅ But actually by changing yourself and your identity from the very core.
I want to be very respectful of your time and share with you what I’ve discovered so far and how you can make this internal change so that you are not stuck trying to attain your personal (or business) goals.
I want this post to be truly transformative for you so that you don’t have to feel like it’s a grind everyday, but actually break through with whatever goals you are pursuing.
It’s going to take about 10m to read, but if you're serious about getting results I want you to stick around to the very end of this post.
So what is identity shifting and why is truly responsible for all our actions, successes and failures?
Before I explain that, I want you to understand that people in general have two big limitations.
First of all they believe that ‘mindset stuff’ is BS:
They think to get results it's all about their actions, tactics and strategies.
What they don't see is that without the right ‘internal foundations’ the right tactics and strategies don't really matter.
Just like the saying goes “wherever you go, there you are.”
The second huge limiting belief is that if they've tried mindset stuff before, then likely they've only got temporary results because it was applied at the wrong level (more on that soon):
They may have tried a morning/night routine or meditation and they've tried it out for a month and felt good, but were never able to sustain their results.
There’s another huge reason for that, which I will share with you right now.
So let's get right into why these two things are happening and why you see temporary results happen, and you can't see permanent results.
What I'm going to be talking about, is the multiple ‘layers’ which you've got to ‘transcend’ in order to make this permanent shift.
There are 4 main layers that are stacked one on top of each other:
✅ LAYER #1 - ACTIONS
The most outer surface level, is the actions layer which is all about what you do.
It starts off with “I want to get better results, so what tactic can I try?... what next shiny object could get me there?”, etc etc.
All of these involve doing surface level actions.
Then after some trying, you might consider that it’s a mindset problem.
“What meditation can I do... what visualization... what affirmation can I do…”
Notice all this time the whole focus is on doing...
You're trying to do something in order to get a result, which is futile because it makes you stay stuck at the most surface level, which is the actions layer.
A level below that is what influences the actions which are your emotions and your thoughts...
✅ LAYER #2 - EMOTIONS & THOUGHTS
Think about it this way...
Whatever you think and feel you’re going to experience.
So for example if you're getting discouraging results, and you’re not able to control your thoughts and emotions…
Then most of the time, the negative results will create negative thoughts and emotions.
The problem with this, is that you end up unconsciously internalizing these negative feelings, which then alter your behaviour.
For example if you're dealing with customers, they will sense your distressed negative state, which will repel them as they sense the lack of confidence.
So your emotions and your thoughts influence your actions.
But most people just focus on the emotions and thoughts and not what causes these emotions and thoughts…
This is where the belief comes in…
✅ LAYER #3 - BELIEF
There are certain sets of beliefs that you hope to be true that influence these emotions and thoughts, which in turn influence the actions you take.
So to give you an example, if you believe that you're not good at something and you’re not ‘worthy’ of it…
Then that's going to influence the emotions and thoughts that you have, and it's going to influence the actions that you have.
The biggest problem however is that most people try to change at this belief level.
When they do change their beliefs, their emotions, thoughts and the actions change, but over time this is where the temporary results come in.
Changing your beliefs isn't enough.
It's all about your self-conception and your self-image.
Which brings it down to the identity…
✅ LAYER #4 - IDENTITY
Your identity and what you believe to be true about yourself and who you function as in this world ultimately influences your beliefs…
Which in turn influences the emotions and thoughts that you have…
Which in turn finally influences the actions that you take.
All of these, determine the results that you get.
The results are actually a ‘by product’.
Out of all of these 4 layers, people fail to change at the identity level.
That's why over time their beliefs don't really stack up... because their identity ultimately stays the same.
So if your identity dictates that you're not worthy of your goal, then it doesn't matter what you believe and what you do in the lower levels, because your belief about yourself is going to override all of those.
Perhaps not immediately, but it’s the strongest force to be reckoned with.
This is why when people trying the ‘next thing’ for mindset... never make an identity realization shift.
They never make that paradigm shift that is a requirement for their results to change long term.
⛔️ They keep doing different things hoping it would stick, but since their self-image stays the same, they keep getting the same results.
✅ This is why when you're completely aligned correctly at the identity level, you'll see that the right opportunities, tactics, strategies, techniques and whatever else you need will inevitably come your way.
NOW I'M GOING TO EXPLAIN EXACTLY HOW YOU CAN DO THAT, WHICH INVOLVES 3 STAGES…
✅ STAGE 1 - SURVIVAL
The biggest problem here is usually internal inconsistencies which reflect out externally.
At this stage, you’re more likely motivated by fear than by the actual desire of wanting personal success, or success for your clients if you're a business owner.
During this stage the focus is usually more on avoiding failure then wanting success.
For example, entrepreneurs might want clients because they want to avoid not being able to pay their bills and not being able to sustain themselves.
So they operate from a place of scarcity.
Think about it this way: anytime you want something in your life, it always begins from a place of resistance and fear.
Most people at this stage stay stuck because they act out of fear and keep focusing on and affirming to themselves the negative things which are happening to them.
This gets them into a deeper negative feedback cycle.
This used to happen to me all the time btw.
At this stage, even if you do manage to get good results, the focus predominantly remains on negative things which are happening to you.
To solve this, you have to look internally.
The keys that really helped me break out of this is...
Key #1: Clarity
What do I mean by this?
Most people think they know what they want, but…
You have only intellectual clarity.
Not emotional clarity.
Your mind knows what it wants, BUT you don't really feel the draw towards it (you’re not pulled in that direction).
Your draw is more towards avoiding that failure which keeps you in the failure cycle.
You want results because you want to avoid failure.
So emotionally you're focused on something else.
You’re not in complete alignment...
Your heart and your mind aren't in complete alignment.
You can't see the vision clearly.
Because of that, there's a disjunct that happens and the right opportunities don't even start to show up for you.
An exercise you can do right now to get emotional and intellectual clarity, is asking yourself:
> What it is you want.
> Why it is you want it.
> And who it is you need to become to achieve it.
Once the what, why and who are clear, the ‘how’ and the ‘when’ will present themselves.
Once you get into the ‘right place’ internally you will stop resisting opportunities that are already right under your nose and act on them, since you’re now correctly aligned yourself with them.
When you get very clear, an interesting phenomenon happens…
There is what's called the reticular activating system in your subconscious mind.
Right now it's likely aligned to the wrong thing and that's why you're not achieving your goals (or experiencing a lot of resistance getting there)..
When you get enough clarity, both intellectually and emotionally towards what you want…
The reticular activating system shifts in your subconscious mind.
When this shift occurs, it starts to filter out all the right things you need to succeed from your environment.
You effectively become more resourceful (which is truly the ultimate resource).
While when you keep focusing on what you don't have, it goes ahead and filters out these things for you..
Truth is, life doesn't care about what you want and what you don't want…
It only focuses on the content, not the nature of your focus.
It doesn't care about what you want and what you want to eliminate…
It just cares about the content you’re focusing on.
If you say “I want to eliminate x” it's going to help you move towards x.
If you say “I want to get x” it's going to help you move towards x.
That's how you can use clarity to go from getting inconsistent results to making solid progress.
Now I want to share with you the second stage…
✅ STAGE 2 - COMFORT & LIMITING BELIEFS
The two biggest obstacles you’ll find at this stage are comfort and limiting beliefs.
Once you reach a certain point with your goal…
Without carefully raising the bar further, you can very quickly fall into the comfort zone.
This can trigger procrastination, as the comfort can keep you putting things off that are needed to keep you moving forward towards your bigger vision.
The second thing likely holding you back at this stage is limiting beliefs, which make you feel uncomfortable moving forward, despite you wanting it.
Now I want to share with you the three keys that will help you move forward...
Key #1: Assumption & Confirmation
What you need to do is step into this ‘new v2.0 identity’ that I mentioned above.
You first need to assume that you already are the new identity, and then crucially look for proof to confirm the change.
The reason why most people fail with affirmations, positive reinforcements and positive self-talk, is because they don't focus on proof.
Without proof the belief will never be there...
You (the brain) will never believe it.
So this is how you bridge the gap between your new v2.0 identity and the belief, and really consolidate them together..
First you assume that you already are worthy of your end goal.
Then go out there and present yourself to the world as your new self even if you might not fully believe it at first.
Crucially, as you do this, look for proof as confirmation.
Become consciously biased and selectively filter out only things which support your new identity,
This then begins to override the reticular activating system mentioned in stage 1.
So you simply look for proof.
Once you find that proof, it solidifies itself as the supporting evidence starts to mount up.
This is how you increase your self-belief... by assuming first and then confirming it with evidence.
But before you go out and this...
You've got to understand the key difference between faith and belief, which brings me to the next key…
Key #2: Faith vs. Belief
Most people try to persist only on belief…
But if you only go on belief and what you already know, you'll never be able to innovate and break through..
To give you an example, Roger Bannister ran the first ever four minute mile at a time when everyone else thought it was impossible.
This broke the commonly perceived limiting belief that our human physiology simply couldn’t support such a feat...
And within months, dozens of other people around the world started running a mile under 4 minutes.
So that goes to show that people will only do things if they first believe it is true, not what they actually are capable of.
So how do you become the first person to destroy the belief barrier that's holding you back?
You persist in having faith in the achievement of your end goal right from the onset.
If you don't persist on faith and you just assume it will happen anyways if you simply keep taking action... the belief will never come, and neither will the result.
Belief to the brain literally means ‘I have proof and so this is doable’.
You can see the conundrum you enter if you don’t have 100% faith to begin with.
Key #3: Standards
We already mentioned that people tend to procrastinate because there isn’t a good enough reason to move forward.
If you don’t have a good enough reason to achieve better results you’ll get very comfortable.
So you have to raise your standards if you find yourself in this situation.
In truth, you will never outperform your internal standards.
And if you have a range, like say helping between 50 and 100 people a month, then you will almost always invariably drop to the lowest standard you’re willing to accept…
That's what you’ll settle for.
Once you raise your standards however, you will be able to come up to that new level very quickly.
This is because the brain is like a servo mechanism in a heat seeking missile…
Once it’s locked onto that heat signature, it will track it until it hits that target no matter what.
Finally, I want to share with you the final stage…
✅ STAGE 3 - COORDINATION
As you raise your standards, every time you make a goal to get to that next level, you're hit with the inevitable grace period where life ‘tests’ your own internal conviction.
As you reach for higher goals, you will get inevitable fluctuations in results, some will be new record highs…
But most often you will also get a dip as your performance temporarily drops.
Think of it as a test life gives you to truly test your conviction and dedication to move forward.
Sort of like asking if your conviction is going to be unshaken regardless of what the external situation is, or you’re going to fold be reactive…
The biggest problem at this stage is self-sabotage, which is in the form of you getting in your own way.
The way out of that is through coordination.
What happens is that anytime you put a goal on a high pedestal, you automatically resist it because you give it so much meaning.
When you do that, this is what you subconsciously say “there's the goal high up on the pedestal, and it should remain on the pedestal.”
It’s like “I don't really want it... I simply want to want it”
At this stage you still want to want this goal because it seems so shiny and out of reach.
And strangely enough, a lot of people actually like to keep it out of reach, as it makes it seem more special.
But by doing this you raise its importance…
And when you raise its importance, you create an imbalance (a conflict if you will).
Anytime you put your goals on a high pedestal, you’ll always resist it because subconsciously you don't identify as an equal with your goal.
Subconsciously you believe you are not worthy of that goal.
This creates the imbalance, which is not easy to overcome with sheer willpower.
You end up creating an internal fight within yourself…
Because a part of you wants it…
But a part of you only wants to want it, and it actually wants it to stay there so that you can keep feeling that emotion of desire wanting it.
So the key to overcoming this is understanding coordination.
As you push and get closer to your big goal, there’s two key things you must do to ensure correct coordination…
Key #1: Eliminate Importance
You need to eliminate the excess importance that you artificially projected on your goal by placing it onto a pedestal.
Make it an equal… a part of who you already are.
Key #2: Accept Failure As A Possibility
I’m sure this is counterintuitive to anything you've heard so far...
But envisioning the failure scenario and accepting it as once possible outcome, allows you to no longer resist the failure scenario.
Remember you move towards whatever it is you focus on…
So if you keep focusing on the possibility of failure, your focus will move you towards that scenario.
It’s like when people lose control of their car… even though they don't want to hit the concrete wall… drivers who keep staring at it inevitably end up hitting it… this because the same principle is at play here.
You get what you focus on (consciously or subconsciously).
So when you envision the possibility of failure and accept it, this causes a ‘release effect’.
Now it doesn't matter whether or not you succeed or fail... you can now move towards your goal with pure intention rather than desire.
Once you are able to reduce importance and envision a failure scenario as one possibility, you can then break through and reach the goal you’re striving for.
In fact if you do it right, you’ll probably overshoot your target.
LET'S DO A QUICK RECAP OF EVERYTHING WE'VE LEARNED
Essentially we discussed the identity shifting model and how you can change your internal world to attract the right opportunities, instead of endlessly chasing them.
Instead of looking from a wrong place of ‘being’ at the next shiny object, you get into the right place of ‘being’ first which then naturally attracts the results you want.
By doing this, you can get phenomenal results without seemingly doing anything different externally.
It allows you to come from a different place of ‘being’...
And because you show up differently, the results are also different.
This is what most unfortunately people and entrepreneurs don't understand…
And because of that, they ultimately stay stuck and never make that break through.
They simply are not definite within themselves about who they truly are...
And because of that, this ‘indefiniteness’ shows up in the results that they're getting.
I know it’s been a bit of a long one, but if you understand and successfully apply the above, you will be pleasantly surprised at just how fast you can hit your next target.
Now there's a limitation at this point, because all these things that I’ve discussed are not a ‘one size fits all’.
Without feedback, we can’t go in depth based on your personal situation where you're at and what we could use to help you get up to that next level.
Because of that, what I'm doing right now is offering a free consultation call where we will diagnose your situation together and see if we can work closer together and help you get a permanent solution, rather than a quick overnight fix.
This isn't something that is a quick fix, as we first need to ‘undo you’ which can happen in a very simple manner, but it isn’t necessarily easy to do on your own.
This consultation is for those who don't complain about their situations but are looking for solutions and will implement these solutions proactively to help you get to that next level.
If that sounds like you, then you can contact me click to schedule your free consultation with me using this link:
https://www.resultsmastery.io/schedule
There's gonna be a short survey that you can fill out as we don't take calls with just anyone, as we don't even offer a place to everyone and are quite selective to make sure it’s a good fit.
You have to be serious about your internal transformation and about taking your life to the next level.
If that sounds like you, go ahead and book the call.
You can also read more such posts as well as access free training on our website:
https://www.resultsmastery.io
Thanks for reading this post and I hope it was helpful.
That's all for now,
Alex Burdyga, PhD | Founder of ResultsMastery™
07/09/2021
07/09/2021