Mind Over Matter

I believe in the concept of mind over matter. I'm not talking about telekinesis or ESP; I'll leave those topics to those more qualified than I to discuss. What I am talking about is what you believe in your mind, you create in your life. Before you label me a nut job and move on, please read on and see if you agree with me by the end of this post.

Why is it there can be two hotels in the same market where one is thriving and the other is struggling? Why is it there's one automotive repair shop that says they can't charge for diagnosing vehicles while another shop down the street that has customers regularly authorizing the shop up to three hundred dollars? Why is it a seventy-four-year-old woman can't swim but her kids' can?

All of these scenarios can be traced to what the person believes.

I was watching Hotel Impossible with my wife Brenda. Hotel Impossible is a show where the host, Anthony Melchiorri, goes and rescues failing hotels around the country. He does this by identifying their key issues and helping them overcome them. (Side note: shows like Hotel Impossible, Restaurant Impossible, Bar Rescue, and Kitchen Nightmares are great shows to watch because your business is in the hospitality industry too. You can learn a lot of lessons from these shows that you can apply to your business.) On this particular show, he was rescuing a hotel in California owned by an elderly woman that ran the hotel by herself. The place was falling apart and her reason for her minimalistic approach was that the economy was down in the area. Anthony goes on to show her that the last couple of years have been the best years in the hotel business ever.

I'm working with two automotive repair shops in the same market where one doesn't charge for diagnostics while the other has customers authorize them for up to three hundred dollars in diagnostics all day long. The first owner doesn't believe his customers will pay for diagnostics while the second shop sees the value that their expertise, experience, tooling, and other benefits the shop provides to their customer and confidently charges for diagnosis.

My Mom can't swim. In seventy-four years, she won't go into water that's any deeper than her waist. Yet she made sure that each of her six kids learned how to swim. The reason my mother can't swim is because she tells herself she can't and she believes it.

In each of these cases I've presented, there are two opposing views that are very real. Why? Because each person believes them to be first and then by the actions they take based on their beliefs makes it so in the real world. It isn't their markets or their customers; it's their beliefs that are driving their reality. This is why it is SO important to be aware of what you're saying to yourself. To fix your limiting beliefs, you only need to do three things:

• Identify. Anytime you hear yourself thinking or saying can't, never, or won't, stop right there and ask yourself why you're saying that. Your goal is to identify the limiting belief that you have. Maybe you're saying it because you've tried in the past a couple of times and you couldn't do it. Maybe someone you looked up to told you that you couldn't do it. Whatever the case, determine the underlying belief making you feel this way.
  
  
• Model. Now look around and see if anyone else has ever done what you want to do. If there is, then you can too! If there hasn't, why can't you be the first? Sure you couldn't do it before. All that means is you need additional resources or education so that you can. At one time people believed a man couldn't fly. Along come the Wright brothers and the rest is history. Your goal in this step is to push back on your belief. You do this because it's human nature to accept your beliefs as truths when in fact they're only perspectives or opinions.
  
  
• Act. The last thing to do is to take action. There's never been a sporting event that's been won from the stands. If you want to win, you have to be on the field and moving. Not just moving though because it's easy to mistake motion for movement. When you're watching a team on the field, every movement has a purpose that moves them closer to achieving their goal. Be the same way.

Question what you believe to be fact every day realizing they're nothing more than your perspective or opinion. Then you'll know that you're capable of achieving whatever you put your mind to and you'll show the world just how AMAZING you are!