one minute blog: power brokers

This is the One Minute Blog (OMB). Just 486 words of Grade-A, all organic, brain food for your weekend.

Here’s a fun question: who’s the most important voice in your life? 

a) Your parents? – they raise you, 18 years. That’s a huge chunk. But the time spent with parents drops suddenly after that.

b) Your teachers? – sure, you get a few good ones…but no. Not most important.

c) Your friends? – friends are pretty influential. Look at any group of friends. They talk the same, walk the same, dress the same, and converge on similar life goals. 

But I think the answer is D) None of the above. 

The most important voice in your life is the one that no one else hears. 

It’s the voice in your head. 

You see - in the movie of your life, the voice in your head is the director. It tells you what to say, where to stand, when to shut up, and what this story means. And we all know - that voice never stops. 

Studies show that humans have up to ~60k thoughts per day. 80% of those thoughts skew negative, and 95% are repetitive. 

^^ These are our factory settings. But like a good toy, you can change the factory settings to be what you want.

Tim Ferriss once told me: “I read a book in a bunk bed when I was 17, and it changed my life”

Which book? Mental Toughness Training For Sports - by Dr. Jim Loehr.

The book has a simple concept: “The power broker in your life is the voice that no one ever hears. It is the master storyteller, and the stories we tell ourselves are our reality”.

Yep - The stories we tell ourselves are our reality.

I’ll give you an example. When I launched my podcast, I hoped it would be a hit.

So I pushed “publish” and waited…and waited some more. I kept waiting, because nothing happened. No text messages. No tweets. Not even a bad review. Just ignored. Nothing, nada, zilch.

So I clicked “play” and listened to the first minute myself. “Ew. Is that what I sound like? Why am I saying ‘like’ so many times? This sucks. I hope nobody hears this.”

The voice in my head was spewing nonsense. We’ve all felt this. Think back to the last time you tried something new.

The voice can give you two messages:

Which story is true? Whichever one you believe.

The smarter you are, the harder it is to accept what I’m saying. Smart people think there’s some objective ‘truth’.

But as Elon says, “Physics is the law. Everything else is a suggestion”.

Everything in your life is neutral. It’s the meaning we put ON it that gives it a positive or negative spin.

Next time you hear the tiny voice in your head - try to pause and ask it to come up with other stories. What else is on the menu? What else could be true? And then pick the story that serves you.

As Garry Tan recently said on MFM: “the key to life is realizing that it’s all made up… but you get to make it up”.

-Uncle Shaan

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