🟢 “Impossible” transformations I needed to experience for myself

Helpful stories about paradigm shifts

(4 min read)

This was supposed to be a person being deceived by a thin façade of a fancy building, but my AI prompts didn’t work well enough.

“If it sounds too good to be true, then it ______ ______.”

Fill in the blank.

Most of us were raised by our parents (or society at large) to finish that sentence with:

“Then it probably is!”

People say it as a warning.

They want to help you avoid getting fooled.

In my late 20s, it finally dawned on me to question that common “wisdom”.

I realized:

If you go through life honoring a heuristic that says “Remarkable outcomes are nearly impossible,” you will seriously limit your enjoyment.

I had been dismissing exceptional claims as impossible and not worthy of a fair look.

Maybe this version of the advice would be more helpful:

“If something sounds too good to be true, it is MOST deserving of examination.”

Prioritize exploring that possibility.

Curiosity and positivity ≠ doubt, skepticism, foolishness, naïveté

I started trying that out.

Here are 2 examples where my life dramatically improved:

1️⃣ I cured 31 symptoms with my mind

In my 20s, I had a devastating soccer injury that wrecked my leg and required 2 surgeries and lots of rehab.

Instead of recovering, my body deteriorated; I felt like I was 95.

I developed 31 symptoms:

• carpal tunnel syndrome

• debilitating back pain

• headaches

• hemorrhoids

• eye twitch

• tendinitis

• bursitis

• and many more.

I was living on the couch and peeing in a bottle.

From appointment to appointment, we desperately searched for answers.

Surgeons, osteopaths, physical therapists, and other health professionals could not figure out the cause.

It felt like my life (and my partner Katie’s) were ruined.

Katie found a blog post claiming that I could cure all the symptoms by reading a particular book. No drugs, no exercises, no surgery, nothing.

It worked!

Western medicine is often oblivious.

I am SOOO thankful for that blog post and the book.

Are you holding yourself back based on what you assume to be possible?

Maybe I had to hit rock-bottom before I was open-minded enough.

Still, isn’t it fascinating how few people believe this kind of story (from me and countless people like me)?

Something about our culture almost guarantees blindness to it.¹

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2️⃣ I reduced my workweek 50% and kept the same salary and was allowed to work from home (far before the pandemic made this common).

Do you know anyone who claims to not work very hard, yet their job or business rewards them far more than you’d expect?

I assumed hard work and long hours would always be required.

But I started noticing… that’s not always true.

There are people who go to the beach and surf in the middle of a workday and earn plenty more than I ever did.

What matters is finding alignment. Reducing resistance.

Not wasting energy where you’re not appreciated enough.

Those examples are rare, though, right?

So we grow up never feeling entitled to find such a “click”.

But don’t unconsciously dismiss when you see someone enjoying an arrangement that feels inconceivably delightful.

Instead, dig in.

See if you can take even a baby step in that direction.

Sometimes you can do it with little to no risk.

I got the courage up to have some conversations with my boss.

It blew my mind what we were able to agree on.

I very nearly never had that conversation.

But it was life-changing, so I’m glad I took the chance!

(I no longer work at that company or have a salary at all, but I still keep in mind the lesson.)

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The Happiness Advantage

Come to think of it, this outstanding TED talk by Shawn Achor at Harvard came out in 2011.

Maybe it helped spark my new thinking back then!

Achor said:

We’re creating ‘the cult of the average’ with science.

If I asked a question like, “How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?”, scientists change the question to “How fast does the average child learn how to read in that classroom?”

[Instead of focusing on the positive outliers, we as a society tend to settle and] tailor the class towards the average.

From my previous newsletter issues, you know that I want to enjoy exceptional results (excellent relationships, comforts, fulfillment) but WITHOUT striving so hard all the time.

I’m tired of that.

Which is why Achor’s presentation stuck out to me. He said:

I found that most companies and schools follow a formula for success, which is this:

‘If I work harder, I'll be more successful.

And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier.’

That undergirds most of our parenting and managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior.

And the problem is it’s scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons.

Every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like.

You got good grades; now you have to get better grades.

You got into a good school, and after you get into a better one, you got a good job.

Now you have to get a better job.

You hit your sales target; we’re going to change it.

And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there.

We’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon, as a society.

And that’s because we think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier.

But our brains work in the opposite order.

If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral, or stressed.

Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise.

In fact, we’ve found that every single business outcome improves.

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How does this all relate to the mission of my newsletter?

1. I want to focus on happiness (fulfillment, meaning, relationships, etc).
   
   

   Productivity and profit matter much less and may even be emergent properties that could follow automatically.
   

2. When someone experiences a paradigm shift (unlearns long-held beliefs), their life can drastically improve quickly.
   
   I love helping people adopt empowering new beliefs! ⭐
   
   Creating a whole community of people doing this for each other is even more exciting.
   
   (Please share with your friends!)
   

3. I want to continually remind myself:
   
   Define your own version of success. Don’t unconsciously adopt others’.
   
   Don’t settle for a life that doesn’t match what you want.
   
   Seek inspiring role models who have experienced bits and pieces of what you’re aiming for, even if their results feel astonishing.
   
   Maybe I can be an example for others someday.

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🕙 What we learned in recent posts:

🟢 To never have to work a day in your life

🟢 Life’s forbidden pleasures

🟢 Exponential Growth From 0 📈

🟢 The power of slow, power of long, and power of 3 little lines

🟢 [See all posts]

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👀 Caught my eye this week:

Speaking of “too good to be true”, how amazing will this be if this new company delivers on these promises?

https://propheticai.co/

A non-invasive neural device to stabilize and induce lucid dreaming.

The Halo stands as the most advanced neurotechnology wearable, crafted to facilitate exploration of the subconscious mind. This wearable leverages a state-of-the-art neurostimulation system, replicating the neural activation patterns typical of natural lucid dreaming.

With it, we will pursue the answers to life's biggest questions.

Have you ever had lucid dreams? They’re incredible. I definitely want more.

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📣 If you have a Substack account:

Want to be featured on my landing page for free?

You can visit /publish/settings/recommendations and search for “Ryan Walsh” and recommend me.

Write a blurb there. A link to your publication will be featured on my signup page.

I’d really appreciate it! Thanks! 😁

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💬 Question for you:

When have you assumed something was impossible but then learned it was possible?

I’d LOVE to hear about your paradigm shift! Those surprises are the most helpful to learn.

Reply or leave a comment!

I’ll be so excited to write back to you.

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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 ❤️

1. 😆 HA, funny side story that I just remembered.

These experiences were so life-changing that they inspired me to start a business called Mind Over Pain.

I found my first clients using Facebook. But I soon got banned from Facebook.

I ended up shutting down the business.

Yet another example of the world resisting the truth sometimes.