BREAKTHROUGH TIPS

RANDOM THOUGHTS, TIPS, VIEWPOINTS AND PHILOSOPHIES TO HELP YOU BREAKTHROUGH.

Let’s kick this right off with a tip, no introduction, right into a tip. Listen to 15 minutes of something inspirational everyday… It will feel like insulin for a diabetic. 

What does it take to create a breakthrough? 

We are living in a time where so many people are living in extreme stress and uncertainty. It used to be that we have a little fear and fear is something that is not so bad. You get afraid of something and it either comes true and you have to deal with it, or usually it doesn’t come true and it’s over. But stress….especially the continuous stress that we now live in is a feeling that never goes away for people. Or maybe it’s a feeling of uncertainty about their future. I think that today we have that more than ever because of the economy, because of where the world is today. The world is changing so rapidly…so the reason I built Evolve as an immersive community, and the reason I built Impact Coaching to be exercise based coaching, was because I believe that beliefs are a weak substitute for experience. I can tell you all day long what I think you are like, but if I get you to do something that shows who you really are it’s gonna transform you.

Transformation happens in a moment.

A breakthrough happens in a moment. What is a breakthrough…it is that moment in time when suddenly the impossible becomes possible. Not just intellectually but where you go and do something about it. People say it took me 10 or 20 years to make this change and I always say bullshit…. It took a moment. The minute you finally said…”I quit…” “Or it’s over.” “Or let’s do this” “Or let’s begin” or “I love you” or “I do”….transformation happens in a moment but most of us need life to take us through a process to get to that moment….that’s what we do….we speed us that process…we take decades and reduce it to 2.5 days.

Everyone here has had moments in their life of extreme stress. 

And if it hasn’t happened…it will. We are all going to go through a time where we lose a job, or a family member, or a home, or if not you then someone you love going through something terrible. Everyone will experience something like this…and probably more than once. The difference in our lives is not what happens to us but what we do with what happens or with those events. 

People that make it through extreme stress do 3 things. 

FAITH OR TRUST

If you get through extreme stress, everyone talks about PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, there is something else that people don’t talk about but that is just as true called PTGS Post Traumatic Growth Syndrome. Very few people study if….everyone focuses on PTSD. The difference is that some people get stressed out by an experience and it just shatters their life and they end up turned upside down. Other people have the same experience but are jolted by it. It’s the same experience but they get jolted into growing. Because when you make it through an extreme stress experience 3 things happen….

1. You really discover your inner strength. You discover what you are truly capable of, and it alters you life because you can never go back to asking for less from yourself. 
2. You get like….almost like an emotional immunity. It you had an injection of something so difficult into your life that you look at 99.9% of everything else you you are like “Give me a break”…you think that is gonna stop me? 
3. The last element that is useful if you can get through that extreme stress is you find out who your real relationships are. People talk about who their friends are…. Friends is a pretty loose term today especially with social media. But who are the people that stuck by you, who are the people that really cared about you… you find that out during times like this and it brings you closer together.

But the theme of this article is breakthroughs.

For me my breakthrough starts with….this is it. And there is always an element of trust that needs to happen….with someone else, with yourself….and you really don’t want to at that moment….but it needs to happen. Because in that place…the breakthrough seems impossible. You feel so bad that you don’t even want to hope for something better because you don’t want to be disappointed. We all have to find reasons to go through this….we need to tap into our power, and often we are willing to do way more for someone else then we would do for ourselves….maybe it’s your kids, your partner, your parents….but we must find that leverage. This might not always be true ….but it is usually the case initially. We all have to find some leverage….something that is gonna get us to breakthrough. 

In a breakthrough it is 80% mindset and 20% strategy….you need both. If you are headed east looking for a sunset….you are gonna be in trouble.

Sometimes a breakthrough can happen when we pay it forward. Life is not about me it’s about we.

Which emotions are home, and do you still want to live there? This might not seem that dramatic but it is the most dramatic thing in the world. Because when you are not happy with yourself….you are not happy. When you are in this space….it doesn’t matter what happens….it doesn’t matter how many people you help. How many successful people….loved people… have we seen who took their own life because they were so miserable inside. There are 2 worlds for us to master…this is where breakthroughs start. 

The outer world that we can influence (we cannot control it), but we can influence it. 

Then there is the inner world which is what creates everything in our lives. When you master that inner world the world transforms completely. I believe that breakthroughs come from 3 parts, but you may want to ask yourself right now….what do I want to breakthrough with? There are areas of everyone’s life where they are doing well (some of us are hard on ourselves and may not acknowledge it), but everyone has some area….maybe you are not doing well in your business but you have a great relationship with your kids. Maybe you are struggling with your kids, but you have a great intimate relationship. Maybe you are not taking care of your body or your finances. Everyone has areas where they are growing and areas where they are weaker. If there is an area you want to get a breakthrough in, where you want to transform it immediately… Then listen to me. All breakthroughs come in 3 forms.

STRATEGY

You either need a new strategy. Sometimes a strategy by itself can transform. IF you do the right thing at the wrong time then it is not going to work…BUT if you do the RIGHT THING at the RIGHT TIME… Sometimes people try to make money and they just have a lousy strategy. The strategy lets them save some money, and then they have to spend it. So sometimes the problem is strategy. But if you think about it…..most of the challenges we face…..there are strategies for these everywhere. For most of us our biggest problem isn’t not knowing a strategy. You can download a million books, you can get a coach, a trainer, there are businesses that would solve it….there is Google. There are a million ways to do it….the real problem is that people don’t even look for the strategy, or worse they find it but don’t use the strategy because they have a…

STORY

Your story is your Inner Most Dominating Thought (IMDT) The story is “I have tried everything.” “I am not enough”, “this will not happen for me.” That mindset….that IMDT… all the story is, is something you tell yourself because you are afraid to be disappointed…

You are afraid to fail. 

You are afraid to not look good to yourself and others. 

You are afraid of the pain. 

But when you shift that story you can transform your entire life. Sometimes your story is true!!! But it is not empowering you, so you need to find a new perspective. You need to write a new story, the comeback story… .Everyone’s story in life is either a warning or an example. You have to decide what your story is going to be. If your story isn’t inspiring then I promise you it’s a warning. The reason that it is hard to change the story is because we are running a bad….

EMOTIONAL STATE

That is the 3 pieces you need….a strategy, a better story and a better emotional state. The mental emotional state you are in….if you are feeling frustrated then you are likely on your way to a breakthrough, but if you are feeling depressed, overwhelmed….you are not going to find it. You have got to find a way to make the emotions you need happen. You can do this by working your body, training your mind, going to our seminars, online courses or podcasts, finding a mentor or coach who kicks your butt. We all need something that can put us in this strong emotional state. That’s what MJB does.

So we need those three things to go to that next level. You might need better strategies, or you might need a better story or a better emotional state. Ideally you will get all 3. If you have to choose one first though….the fastest is to transform your emotional and mental state. Because if you start there you will come up with a better story and you will find the answers to transform your life. Nobody can control how you react….no matter what they say or do….only you can control how you respond.

5 QUICK STEPS I TAKE TO CREATE A BREAKTHROUGH

Start everyday with a ritual that gets you started. I used to do this thing that was called the hour of power (Something Tony Robbins teaches) There were 2 shorter versions called 15 minutes to fulfilment or 30 minutes to thrive as well. But start this ritual…whether you go on a walk, or do a workout, or run…whatever it is. Something really simple…15, 30, 45….an hour if you can do it.

If you aren’t clear, or you haven’t got a plan or a strategy and you are just hoping your life is gonna transform… you know damn well it is not going to transform. Breakthroughs don’t come from hope…they come from intention…a plan, a strategy and follow through…and that doesn’t happen unless you are in the right mindset.

People tend to think that something happens to them and now “my life will be terrible forever, or I am going to do this thing and then my life will be perfect.” In reality life is a wave, in fact it is a series of waves. And you either ride the waves or you get crushed by them. The only way to ride the wave is to build up specific muscles and skills. Emotional, psychological, and spiritual muscles and skills, that allow you to say when “the waves” come I am gonna take that wave. As opposed to seeing the wave and thinking “Oh shit, what am I going to do.” It’s also knowing the strategy for how to ride the wave. It is the same combination of elements we have been discussing that makes the difference. If you are thinking what do I do… not to make that change, I’ll give you 5 little quick steps that are fairly common for everybody. 

I was thinking a little while ago about what really turned me around. I was in a position where I was reading all these books trying to turn myself around but I was in a pretty bad place. My wife and family were breaking up, I was literally sleeping at a friend’s house and some nightS in my car. A 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I was wearing clothes that didn’t fit because I was blowing myself up and couldn’t afford new ones. Scrapping enough money to buy a pizza from the grocery store. Everything in my life changed when I started doing just a few things.

1. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MIND. The first thing I did was I started to take control of my mind. If you want to know where to start, you need to challenge and condition your mind. You have to strengthen and condition your mind. That is number 1. There are lots of ways to do it. I am old enough, ancient enough to remember the time before the internet….so in those days if you wanted a book you couldn’t just download the thing or read it online….you had to go to the library or a bookstore. So for me I would convince my parents to buy me books or I would camp out at the library. So when I was in a dark place, it was easier with the internet, but I made a goal to, each day, read something that was going to make me believe I could get through this. So I started reading biographies, reading about the lives of these great human beings, and of course when you do that you discover something very quick…..and that is… YOU have no problems. The people you thought had this amazing life, and you read what they went through, and you realise that the reason they had muscle was because they had to push through extreme circumstances. Very few great men or women from any walk of life who haven’t gone through some horrific experiences. And when you reach about  one after another after another…you start to realise that you have no excuse for not making your life the way you want it…. And you become inspired. 

I also took another  early days habit (cassette tapes) and started listening to podcasts, long form YouTube videos. I started listening to these while I was working so that I could change my psychology, create these shifts, leverage these strategies….I mean I leveraged things. These little things allowed me to feed and strengthen my mind. 

If you don’t plant the good seeds then weeds grow automatically. You don’t have to worry about challenges showing up in your head. It’s the way the human brain works, it’s always looking for what’s wrong and its looking to protect you. Looking to make sure you survive. While this at one point may have been good for survival, most of us are beyond survival now, but the brain still runs that way. So if you don’t feed your mind every single day…something… read something. I told myself a long time ago, I am going to do one chapter a day. I would read during meals… and I am not talking about something online or an article…I mean a book. Someone’s life, a strategy, someone’s tools for improving life… and I have done that for many years. 

2. CONDITION AND TRAIN YOUR BODY: The second thing you have to do, if you want to transform your life, is condition and train your body. The body and the mind are totally connected. There is no way in hell that you are going to transform just by feeding your mind (at least not to your full potential). You must activate the body, because the number 1 thing that stops people is fear. That is really it…fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of being disappointed, fear of getting hurt. You think of anything that you really wanted to do and why you didn’t do it…. You can tell yourself a story, you didn’t have the education, the background or the time, or whatever the story….but the real thing is that you were afraid. All of us are, it’s part of the human condition. BUT fear is physical, so the only way to deal with it is physical. Trying to deal with it just in your mind is not enough. If you get yourself out there and you say for now on every morning I’m going to go out for 20 minutes, 15, 30….whatever and I am going to workout….sort sort. Whether it’s simply walking, and while I am doing it I am also feeding my mind by listening to something… that combination is irresistible. All of a sudden you get momentum. When you start getting that blood pumping through your veins and you start  to push yourself and do something intense, then that intensity shows up and you are in a different emotional state. 

STATE TRANSFORMATION = STORY TRANSFORMATION = STRATEGY TRANSFORMATION = LIFE TRANSFORMATION

So that is really what we want to do.

3. FIND A ROLE MODEL: Third thing is find a role model. You have to find someone that has gotten the results you want. I remember going. “I need to fix the relationship to get the relationship I want.” Most people are not shown how to pick their partner. Most people pick their partner based on chemistry or proximity. But really, you have to have a few relationships to know. Then you know what you really want and what you don’t want. 

I remember asking this guy who had the relationship I wanted, how he did it. He said he sat down and got crystal clear (after 10 years of pain)… “What do I really want in a relationship? What don’t I want?” So I started with that….and then I found out what else he was doing. I found out that he was doing things very differently from what I was doing. So this idea of finding a role model, find someone who is getting the result you want. 

Right now the economy is bad but it is not bad for everybody. There are people that are doing extremely well right now, I know because I have them in my Evolve Community. If you find someone like that and figure out what they are doing… then you can do the same thing and get the same result. We need a role model though so that we know it’s real. There are plenty of role models for what doesn’t work… they are all around you… that’s easy. So it is easy to give up and say that nobody has a great relationship. Most people are overweight, most people are broke. If I asked you right now, are most people around the world happy, fit, passionate in their relationships, alive with inspiration in their jobs and lives…. You know the answer is no!

There are the few that do versus the many who talk. I have spent the last 17 years studying the few who do. Figuring out what they do and putting it into a simple strategy that people can apply. Get a role model who can show you where you want to go, and model them directly if you have access or indirectly.

4. TAKE FOCUSED, DELIBERATE, MASSIVE ACTION: The fourth key….you need to take focused, deliberate, massive action. Your mind is strong, your body is strong, you have a role model, you know what to do and you’re still not doing it…. You just have to get yourself in gear, and that’s really about that emotional state thing we have been talking about. Focused, deliberate, massive action is the cure all….so you must do it. Without this, everything else is worthless….this whole investment won’t pay. BUT you won’t get to massive action unless you feed your mind, get your body strong, and get certainty through a role model if possible to be able to move forward.

5. FIND SOMEONE WORSE OFF THAN YOU AND HELP THEM: Finally the fifth key. You will feel your life is the most rich when you can find someone else who is where you are or worse off and help them. No matter how bad your situation is…there is someone else worse off, and if you want perspective, then the quickest way is to find someone else and help them. It will remind you of 2 things. 

1: Your life is really amazing. (No matter how tough it is). Two thirds of the planet lives on less than $2 a day. Our huge problem is someone else’s dream come true. If you can get that helping someone then you gain perspective. 

2: It will remind you that there is more to life than just getting what you want. Life is about what we are here to give. It is the law of giving and receiving. No one wants to be a taker… everyone feels more alive when we contribute beyond ourselves. That’s when gratitude really comes alive in us. When you go through any challenge, or achieve anything….body, mind, relationship, productivity, business, finance, spirit….you now have something you can give. Because you have really lived it.

Those are the five. Get your mind strong and condition it everyday. Get your body strong and condition it in some simple way everyday. Find a role model and plan for what you want (someone who has already achieved what you are trying to do). Take focused, deliberate, massive action and keep changing your approach. Because what you do may not work, so keep flexing. Find someone that is worse off than you and help them. Five simple steps and you can break through.

Remember….we as humans produce miracles. You can do anything you set your mind to. If there is one thing I know, it’s this…If you are going to succeed. When you are in that emotional state, or in that inspired place…you need to do something about it. How many times have you been inspired for a moment to do something and then you get caught up by your email, or social, or something at work and you go back to the old pattern. Life is about momentum so my belief is that when you are in an inspired place, where you are feeding your mind or you make a choice to do something, or improve something or transform something… the most important thing is that while you are in that place…do something that commits you to move forward. I have done that for 17 years….right now..who am I going to call? What am I going to book? What am I going to enrol in? Do I get a mentor? Do I get a coach? Do I buy a book? What am I going to do? Do I sit down right now and have a meeting to move this forward? Do I put on my shoes and start running? Momentum is powerful.

We get what we tolerate. If you stop tolerating things from yourself….well that is a great first step. Step two though is that once you are in that place… do something that will move you forward.

To doing the next thing and mastering it!

Mike Johnston

Co Founder & Architect of Evolve