Paradigm Optimization

You can avoid the trap most people unknowingly fall into.

The fundamental paradigm you hold dictates the rest of your life.

People neuter their potential because of what they believe to be true. They impose limitations on themselves when they've never tested them.

It's insidious that humans are terrible at knowing their limitations and amazing at thinking they do. To test the thesis: guess what number of pushups you'll fail at, true failure where you couldn't do another rep even with a gun to your head.

The actual and guessed numbers will be quite different unless you train often and understand your body well. During the pushups you'll think you're about to fail then somehow you'll get another rep. The mind quits before the body.

This applies to physical and intellectual endeavors all the same.

The lesson is you don't know your limitations until you reach them. Any belief that imposes a limit on your ability is a baseless assumption. The only objective metric is evidence of your true limits, not beliefs.

The enemy:

Rationalize why you can’t achieve a goal you set.

Stop short and go back to the old environment you tried to escape.

Get angry at the world because it was impossible to succeed for you.

Reminisce on the good old days, and wonder where the years went.

Die.

How can you avoid this?

Understand the human tendency to rationalize. Understand people will take the easy or beneficial route for them (even at the expense of others) and rationalize a reason after the fact.

Once you understand this you'll recognize it in others and yourself (the latter is harder).

The foundational paradigm you hold will dictate your future. Your paradigm is the set of values, beliefs, and practices that establish your perspective on reality.

So what can you do about it?

Everything stems from your beliefs: values, practices, and thoughts.

The good news is your beliefs are malleable. The paradigms you operate under and the associated beliefs are the result of your sensory experiences. Your environment, relationships, and education are the primary influences.

All your beliefs are somewhere from loosely to strongly held.

Loosely held beliefs are ones you think are probably true but don't have a solid case for.

Strongly held beliefs are so embedded you don't even question them. You might not even be conscious of their presence because they are what you base everything else upon.

Despite beliefs being malleable it is much more work to change strongly held beliefs.

It's not what you don't know that gets you, it's what you don't know you don't know.

People will question every belief they hold except the ones they truly believe. The beliefs you don't question are the most influential to the outcomes you get. Be very careful.

There is a circular relationship between beliefs and thoughts. Your beliefs influence the thoughts you get, but your thoughts also influence belief.

There are 3 types of thoughts.

The first is conscious thought. It's deciding what to think about and the active internal monologue.

You have complete agency over your conscious thoughts.

Using the conscious mind you can reinforce the beliefs you want to hold by stating them and thinking through situations from their position. This will circularly affect the two other types of thoughts.

The two other types are generated thoughts.

Your mind is like a thought factory and there is a constant generation from the subconscious. The generated thoughts are often from the “lizard brain” meaning they're primal fight or flight insecurity-based thoughts. There are also positive thoughts which serve you and your personal development. There is a constant flow of thoughts from both these sides.

Your brain is not on your side. You can't trust your thoughts. Recognize when your “lizard brain” is speaking, and disregard it.

You can bring your brain towards your side using the practice of reinforcing positive and adaptive beliefs with the conscious mind. By employing this practice you will shift the thoughts that are generated by the subconscious and with time the belief cements itself.

Your lizard brain wants you to stay in bed, hit snooze, seek comfort, and avoid risk.

Listen to the positive thoughts when they arise, but understand most thoughts are often distractions from your goal.

Never let your conscious thoughts dwell on negativity and insecurity. This isn't to say you can decide to not have those thoughts, but the only time they should happen is when your subconscious generates them.

With the conscious mind don't go down the rabbit hole of any thoughts like this. Let them happen, observe them, and move on.

By using the conscious mind only for positive or neutral thoughts you’ll have negative thoughts a smaller percentage of the time. You can manage but not avoid them.

There is a spectrum beliefs exist on: from limiting beliefs to adaptive beliefs.

A limiting belief limits potential outcome or output in a certain area. For example, if you believe you're bad at math (which many do) you'll avoid math and inevitably get worse at it since you do it less. Limiting beliefs are a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Adaptive beliefs uncap the potential output or outcome that is possible. They promote success and make you more competitive. There is a famous clip of LeBron James in which he says: “Tired is only in the mind. I don't get tired.” These are adaptive beliefs he's stating. Even though you can measure tiredness in the body the beliefs serve him.

Consider how the placebo effect interacts with these beliefs. Both types of beliefs get manifested into reality in some form.

Dealing with limiting beliefs is a process of finding clarity. Discovering a limiting belief is the first and hardest step. The second step is looking for an adaptive belief to substitute the old one you broke.

A prerequisite to breaking limiting beliefs is to stop being so arrogant about the beliefs you hold. You're just a primate who had sensory experiences. Ego blinds from the truth.

One of the best questions to ask is “What problem are we solving?”. Answering this will give clarity. An adaptive belief is one that makes you most effective at solving the problem.

The identity and labels you put on yourself are extremely potent. Identity is what you believe to be true about yourself and you express it through labels.

Every aspect of your life is either anabolic or catabolic, it's either growing or shrinking. Entropy brings everything towards disorder. If you don't deliberately grow an area (such as an identity) you'll lose it.

Make an effort to be anabolic to the identities and disciplines you want to grow. Allow the negative aspects and identities in your life to atrophy.

Never speak a label you don't aspire to onto yourself. People do this all the time and reinforce the negative aspect of themselves they dislike. When you say “I'm bad with money” you affirm that identity and it influences your actions, thoughts, and how people treat you.

People treat you based on the traits you outwardly express. If you express that you are stupid people will treat you that way and reinforce that identity even more.

There are some common limiting beliefs and labels (identities) you want to avoid.

A common crippling belief is that intelligence isn't changeable. You are born and your genetics determine your intelligence. There are mountains of evidence you can (and should) look into that disprove this. If you believe you can't change intelligence you won't seek improvement in the areas you are stupid in.

The adaptive belief is a growth mindset. With work in any domain, you have the ability to improve over time.

Another belief that limits people is that making money is unethical. The premise is for one to gain another must lose. This is wrong because capitalism isn't zero-sum, it's a positive sum game. Capitalism is the only system in which both parties say thank you. When a car is sold one party gets disposable income and the other gets a car.

Now let's cover some adaptive beliefs and good paradigms to hold.

The goal of being happy is paradoxical. When you aim to be happy it implies it's outside yourself, so as long as you have the goal you can't achieve it. Happiness and pleasure are distinct. If you'd like to be happy the only way is through fulfillment. Fulfillment is when you are authentically pursuing your desires and expressing yourself.

The most important paradigm to live by is a long-term frame. The trait of delaying gratification is necessary for success in any area. Delayed gratification is choosing the option with the long-term payoff rather than a smaller short-term payoff.

Employ an infinite game mindset. There is no moment of winning business or fitness, the only way you win is to keep playing. If you don't quit you're winning.

Ideally, spend your time only on activities you'd commit to for the rest of your life.

Most people get what they deserve. What activities would you prescribe to somebody who wanted to achieve one of your goals? How would you make it inevitable for them to succeed after 10 years?

Extend the time horizons you think in. Give the outcome time, it's a crucial part of the equation. It took Warren Buffett from age 20 to 55 to get his first billion, and only ten more years to get the next 10 billion.

In summary: Reflect on your limiting beliefs. Strive to only hold adaptive beliefs which serve you. Shape your ideal identity. Think long-term and pursue authenticity.