How can I counteract the belief that I can't get ahead financially?
The limiting belief that you can't get ahead financially is really just debilitating. It causes you to take action, basically. There is a concept in psychology called learned helplessness and, an example of that is: if you've ever been to the zoo, you've probably seen the elephant. If you've seen the elephant, you may have noticed how they're secured. It's really, really strange how these huge, huge elephants - some of them weigh thirteen, fourteen thousand pounds - you would think that they would have these huge chains around their legs or around their necks, but they don't. They're actually secured by a thin, little rope around their legs. You've got to ask yourself this: How is that possible? How are these huge elephants not able to just walk away? It's learned helplessness. When they were baby elephants, they had these huge chains around their legs and as a baby they were struggling, trying to get free, trying to break out, but they couldn't. The chains were too big for them. They learned that, if there's something around their leg, they can't get away. As they grow up, the zookeepers replace the big chains with thin rope and the elephant doesn't know any better. Unfortunately, this is how we get a mindset that a we just can't get ahead. "Regardless of what I do, regardless of where I am, I'm just kind of stuck. I can't get ahead." So, how do we counteract that? Well, the first thing is that huge fantastic goal. Set them across all of your life zones. What that does is it starts to get you to think a little bit differently. Rather than, "My life is just going to be like this forever, I can't do anything about it," all of a sudden, you start thinking, "I'd really like to do this. I'd really like to achieve that." Just by doing that exercise, your mind starts thinking differently. You think about what can happen, what is possible, rather than, "I can't do anything."
