Why do I keep failing? This is a question that's plagued me my whole life - I couldn't seem to break out of my old habits no matter how many books I read, talks I listened to, or events I attended.
According to Tom Bilyeu, founder of $1b company Quest Nutrition - only 2% make it. But why? Why is that all the answers are there (all for free if you look hard enough), but so few of us make it?
I have found something profound that works for me, which I think may be the missing key about the mind. I have managed to turn my life around and am now on a life long journey to prove that anyone can be successful.
Why Do I Keep Failing?
"You become what you think"
-Earl Nightingale
A father of positive thinking, Earl Nightingale had a revelation that came to him after reading many books and scriptures - an eternal Truth, that you become what you think you are.
All the self help books allude to it. All successful people allude to it. All of humanities greatest accomplishments are thanks to it.
It all comes down to the mind.
Therefore the reason why I fail is because of my mind own mind and the way that I think.
If I Keep Failing, is it Something I Can Change?
From listening to countless podcasts and reading countless books, I've noticed the a pattern of conclusions:
1) You either have it or you don't (born with it)
OR
2) You can change your mind (with force, willpower, or some kind of strategy or set of principles)
Both are partially true, but if they were entirely true, shouldn't there be much less than 98% of us failing given how big the self help industry is?
Tom Bilyeu, a self made multi millionaire and founder of a billion dollar business, was discussing on one of his latest podcasts the formula for success.
Like many others, he is giving it to you, all there - for free. So OK, I should just be able to start doing what he says and be able to succeed - easy!
But.....
It's not so easy, is it?
I'm constantly battling against my own mind and my own thoughts and all of my old habits and failures!
He has mentored many people and taught them his process and found that only 2% were able to implement it and make it, and he couldn't understand why.
Eventually he found that youth had the highest rate of success because their minds were the most malleable.
Why Are Youth Easier to Teach Success to and What Does This Tell Us About the Mind?
The reason why youth are more malleable is because their minds are less clouded with ideas about themselves.
Plastic Surgeon and author Maxwell Maltz of Psycho-Cybernetics wondered why some people after surgery had the same self image while others were completely transformed, and lead him on to a journey into discovering why.
"The 'self-image' is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self-image and you change the personality and the behavior."
Maxwell Maltz
He concluded that it all came down to the mind and the image of the "self" one has in their mind.
He gives various methods in his book, and while they are powerful and can change certain, if they truly worked for everyone his book would be a worldwide sensation and every person on the planet would have a copy and learn it in school!
This is not to say the methods don't work - it's to say that the thoughts themselves will also determine whether those methods can be adopted by the mind or not.
The mind shapes our reality, and it's based on an accumulation of the past, the habits and mind traits we inherited from our parents and ancestors and our body. So the more our mind is programmed with these 3 factors, the deeper into our "false self" we go - in other words the false reality we have conjured in our mind.
What this means is, if I have failed once, I am more likely to fail twice. If I fail twice, I am more likely to fail a third time. And when I have failed enough, it becomes "who I am" - because I am living inside of my mind.
This is why youth can learn these methods better, because their minds can more easily be programmed for success (many will still fail based on their already developed "false self" image).
But if you're no longer a youth (like myself) - what hope is there for us?
Why Willpower and Self Help Isn't Enough
There's 1000's of books and countless hours of self help, principles, talks, lectures, etc from people telling you how their mind is programmed and how you can program your mind for success.
But still, why can only 2% apply them?
Youth don't have the baggage of the years of failures in their mind. So their minds are cleaner and have space.
Because we are like lifeless robots, living according to the programming of the life we have lived, we need to somehow change that programming.
So then wouldn't it make sense to remove the false programming first, and then build a new one after it's been cleaned?
The Secret to the Mind and How People Can Change
I am in the failed 98%, and it took radical self awareness to admit that.
I will put my hand up and humbly admit that I am a failure. I'm a hedonist, a glutton, a blamer, negative minded, overly emotional, short tempered, lazy and socially awkward.
Or at least I was.
I used to think very highly of myself and had a lot of pride, pretending to be something I wasn't. It was all just a mask for my inferiority. It was all part of my "self image".
But through serendipitous circumstances and a miracle method, I have been able to clean out my old habits and old "self" (he programming) and build a new self through discarding meditation.
By discarding the contents of my mind through meditation and seeing that I was the way I was because of my past, I was able to change my mind and gradually build good habits of success without being held back by my mind!
And the beauty is, is that this meditation is universally applicable - meaning anyone, any age can do it. And once you do it, then you can shape your mind towards success.
My mind now has space and freedom from that "old self" that was holding me back and sabotaging my progress and I have become the "True Self".
I can do anything I put my mind to with the knowing that it simply takes time and effort.
Perhaps one day it will lead to what people refer to as success.
Conclusion
Tom Bilyeu is right. You can change! But, if your "old self" of the past is too strong, you'll never be able to defeat it with will power alone. Your programming will hold you back forever. He knows this but he doesn't know the solution except to help youth.
But the solution, I believe which can apply to everyone, is to discard that old and self through meditation, free your mind, and then you can change into anything you want to be and find your own success.
Then you can achieve anything you put your mind to :)