🟢 Impossible ➔ Exceptionally unlikely ➔ Normal
The fastest way to upgrade your beliefs about what you can accomplish
(3.5 min read)
Do you know the kind of person who enjoys running or lifting weights?
I’d love to be that way someday, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Playing pickup basketball (when I can find a game) is how I try to stay in shape.
If too many days pass without me playing (if I worry that I might be getting too out of shape), then sometimes I force myself to go on a run and do some other exercises.
So, occasionally I’ll do 30 pushups.
I don’t enjoy it.
It’s hard.
And not as fun as basketball. 🏀
Then recently I learned about a Harvard study of firefighters.
Researchers found a correlation between heart health and the ability to do 40 pushups in a row.
I was curious whether I could do it.
I thought I could only do 30, but I did 40 on my first try!1
Why do I mention this seemingly irrelevant side story?
Because it reminded me how much our beliefs create limits on ourselves.
Your beliefs (about what something means and about what is possible) matter in all areas of your life.
Your fitness.
Your business.
Your relationships.
Your design of your entire lifestyle.
Let’s look at what happened.
This fact had quickly entered my brain:
One convenient measure of your health is whether you can complete a certain minimum number of pushups.
Immediately my brain converted the fact into a new idea with tremendous meaning:
Your ability to stay alive and thrive and be around for the people you love can be (somewhat) predicted by a test that you can do daily, starting right now.
Wham. Powerful thought, right?
I shudder to think about letting my loved ones down.
Fueled with new motivation,
I did 133% of what I thought I was capable of.
And that’s not the only impact that the new thought had.
I have reset my standard going forward.
I can see myself doing 40 pushups a day for the rest of my life (as I now have been in recent days).
🙌 Do you want to get featured in a future issue? Let me know.
Let’s relate this story to your life as a solopreneur and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and ideas.
There are at least 3 ways you’ll benefit from being in a community of solopreneurs designing a lifestyle that is appealing to you.
The right peers:
🟢 Shatter your limiting beliefs about what is possible
🟢 Offer new perspectives and meaning
🟢 Clarify what NOT to do
They shatter your limiting beliefs about what is possible
In my previous posts, I wrote about earning up to $41,000/month by enrolling clients into group coaching at $5k each.
You know what made this possible?
Seeing others do it.
I had surrounded myself with people demonstrating not only that this was possible but also how to do it.
My mind felt so expanded.
My beliefs went from:
Impossible ➔ Exceptionally unlikely ➔ Normal
If you have “I can’t do it” playing on loop in your mind, an easy first step towards “I CAN do it and I HAVE done it” is:
“Look at all these other people like me doing it!”
They offer new perspectives and meaning
Although you’ll learn more from seeing someone operate than merely having them tell you (theoretically) what works, it’s not the only way that you can learn from role models.
Sometimes they can offer a simple insight.
A new interpretation of facts.
An angle you hadn’t considered.
An idea that you were blind to because of your position.
By definition, the ONLY way to get this kind of help is from outside.
They clarify what NOT to do
A surprising way that you’ll benefit from being in a group of peers trying to achieve a similar lifestyle:
You can more easily see their mistakes than you can see your own.
Whether you’re looking at someone’s social media posts, their website, or you hear how they talk about their business in conversation, you’ll sometimes think:
“I’ll be sure not to do it THAT way.”
Your emotional or logical reaction to those experiences is invaluable.
You refine your strategy and your tactics iteratively, adjusting based on new learnings from those interactions.
You can’t read a label from inside the bottle, right?
Sometimes you’re blind to mistakes you’re making (or might be about to make).
But then when you see someone else make them, you understand.
In other words:
We benefit from witnessing peers who are trying to accomplish something similar.
Even when their plans fail.
The results from their experiments can inform your future decisions.
You might be thinking:
“But I can learn from anyone that I see. I don’t need to be in a group with them.”
Although that’s true:
A) Being included in a group of peers causes you to pay more attention
and
B) They’ll likely be open to answering questions, so you can dig in and understand more than just the surface lesson.
I’m doing a good job talking myself into finding another group coaching program to enroll into! 😆
I've already invested $45k in courses and coaching programs after college.
From an ROI perspective, it actually makes way more sense than the years at college. And it's obviously way more effective than books.
I haven't invested in myself recently, and I can feel that I'm overdue.
I'd be making better progress if I had. It's still always nerve-wracking though.
🕙 What we learned in recent posts:
🟢 Lessons from earning $41K/month online
🟢 How we earned $5K per client without offering 1:1 services
🟢 The gross thought that helps me every day
👀 Caught my eye this week:
What an amazing story by
:
🔜 Coming up (Tuesday’s post):
I’m so excited to introduce you to the first friend I made on Substack.
Someone interesting, inspiring, and supportive. Someone you’ll want to know.
💬 Conversation starter:
What group programs have you enjoyed?
How do you think about when to join one?
How do you find which is right for you?
Any recommendations for me?
Reply or leave a comment!
I’ll be so excited to write back to you.
And if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this email.
Send me a quick message — I reply to every email ❤️
It’s really 31 and 41, which I mention not because the extra “1” is significant but because I’m curious if I’m a huge weirdo:
I find it more motivating to count backwards (like a rocket launch countdown) instead of forwards.
And then I’d feel weird ending on “1”, so I always throw in an extra rep and end on “0”. 🙃
Thank you so much for the shoutout here and for the inspiration to keep doing my push ups - great article!
I’m one of those weirdos who loves lifting weights ☺️ Totally agree about shifting perspectives, when it comes to building online income it’s invaluable hearing from folks who’ve had success after starting where I am now.