Michael J. Fox on being seen for who you truly are.
😀 Plus: Nike on doing the work, Ted Lasso on second chances and the power of lifetime habits.
Hola my friend!
Welcome to the 142nd consecutive edition of the newsletter.
Each week I share mindset secrets from remarkable people doing extraordinary things. I also share mindsets I uncovered that have helped me transform my body, business and life.
Here are the five that got my neurons excited this week.
Please steal shamelessly.
*****
On a personal note…
I’m still in Sudbury helping my dad get his house all packed up.
I mentioned last week that he sold his house on May 14th with a closing date of June 5th.
On paper, 22 days doesn’t sound like a lot of time to pack up a home, but it’s amazing how much you can get done when you just focus on what you can do “today.”
When you start stacking “todays” together — in our case it will be 18 — magic happens.
As a result, the house will be vacant by May 30th, with 6 days to spare.
*****
PS. I have used this same strategy to lose weight and keep it off. I designed 10 essential habits to do everyday. To date, I have stacked 1409 of those “todays” together to make weight loss magic happen.
To learn more about my weight loss journey and some of the people I have helped, click here.
If you would like to book a free call to learn more about how I can help you lose weight and keep it off for good, click here.
New to this newsletter? Consider subscribing my friend.
1/ On doing the work.
Some context.
Nike has created some historic ads. This one is no exception.
Principle at play.
Many of the problems we have are not the result of a lack of resources, but rather not doing the work with the resources we have.
Key takeaway.
This is a wonderful plug-and-play framework that can be applied to any area of life.
[Fill in the blank] works if you do.
Parenting works if you (and your partner) do.
An online course works if you do.
Exercise works if you do.
Eating healthy works if you do.
Discipline works if you do.
🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Anything will work if you do.2/ On being seen for who you truly are.
Why I love this.
It takes tremendous courage to be willing to be seen for who we truly are, warts and all.
Principle at play.
This is just my take on things, but if noble intent is our default setting for everything we do in life, then it makes it much easier to be willing to be seen for who we truly are. It doesn’t mean we always do the right thing, but we want to and we accept 100% responsibility when we don’t.
Exercise to try.
This is a Dean thing that you might want to try.
When people ask me who I am, I refuse to answer the question because I am biased and will only tell them the best things about myself — and that is not a true representation of who I really am.
Instead, I tell them to watch me when I don’t think I’m being watched. That will tell them exactly who I am.
🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Act with noble intent.3/ On second chances.
Details worth knowing.
I’m a huge fan of the TV show, Ted Lasso, who also happens to be the main character in this series. This beautiful line was spoken in Season 3, episode 10. The scene is about forgiveness and second chances. You can watch it here.
Principle at play.
We are conditioned to judge others by their mistakes, rather than by the character they reveal in owning and recovering from those mistakes.
A story of weakness.
When I was 22 I got caught shoplifting. I was devastated. I carried that shame for about 8 years, until my 6th year of teaching. That’s when I decided to own my mistake, pull the important life lessons from it and share it with my students whenever they experienced their moments of weakness.
🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Our character is forged in our response to our weakest moments. 4/ On your pain.
Details worth knowing.
I discovered this mindset when entrepreneur and speaker Jessie Itzler shared this story here.
Principle at play.
Our brain believes what we tell it.
Key takeaway.
The words we use to describe ourselves matter.
🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Don't say anything about yourself you don't want to be true.5/ On stopping.
Details worth knowing.
In 2019, I was in the midst of creating another weight loss scheme, when a question popped into my head. What was the common denominator of all my past weight loss failures? As I reflected on them all, and there were many, I realized there was one that ran through every failure. I stopped doing the things that brought me success. Moving forward I vowed to stop stopping.
Principle at play.
The law of cause and effect → When you remove the cause (you stop doing the thing that is getting results) you remove the effect (the result).
Key takeaway.
Move away from short-term habits (behaviours you do for a finite period of time) and invest in long-term habits (things you will do everyday for the rest of your life.)
🧠 Mindset worth stealing → Lifetime change requires lifetime habits.That is all for today.
See you next Sunday my friend.
And hey — keep being awesome.
Dean 🇨🇦