This is Why You Can't Make Things Happen

Summary

Learning how to leverage your beliefs (and resolve cognitive dissonances in your favor) is a crucial habit that all top performers have. In this video, I share a personal story that proves how there's little you can't achieve in life or business if you master the Territory you operate in by updating the Maps your harbor in your mind.

Transcript

In August 2012, my then girlfriend was awarded a scholarship to go to Shanghai and learn Chinese. At that time, I was in my final year of my architectural studies, and there was absolutely no way that I could move to Shanghai and graduate, I had to choose between her and my future. On a whim, I booked a flight to Shanghai in August to try my luck and find a silver lining. Here's what happened.

[INTRO] Hey, I'm the Leon Castillo founder of Selfmastered a high performance training company that helps entrepreneurs scale their businesses by solving their solid bottling their own performance, which transformed the unproductive, overwhelming and focus entrepreneurs into laser focused business athletes that can achieve in one day, what they previously achieved in one week.

So today's video is not about my love life, obviously, but about making things happen. And before I tell you how the story ends, let's discuss how do beliefs affect our work, because if you want to win in life, if you want to get the outcomes you deserve, you need to frequently update your belief system, even if all beliefs are wrong, especially because all beliefs are wrong.

So there's a mental model called the map is not the territory in refers to the difference between reality which is the territory and how we interpret it, which is the map and since reality has an infinite level of detail, and oftentimes, we do not really understand how reality works, because we don't have the cognitive abilities as a human species to analyze it, then we end up creating belief systems like maps that all false to a certain extent. And that applies to politics, to economics, to religion, to every single belief system that we have created as human beings, our goal is to be less wrong is to be more rational.

But oftentimes, we just can't, because we don't have the ability to do so. But why does this matter to you, as a small entrepreneur willing to create a very successful business? Well, because you need to have this front and center at all times, if you want to drive effective behavior if you want to get the goals that you're chasing. And the best way to do this is by being super mindful that the belief systems that you hold in your head are wrong, all of them are wrong, and you need to update it as much as possible. But the goal should not be to get as close to the territory as possible.

That's possible, the goal should be to have the most empowering map available at all times for you see, because since all beliefs are wrong, why wouldn't we create the beliefs that lead us faster to the goal that we are pursuing, we all have our thoughts, our emotions, our experiences, our understanding, or judgments about reality, and all of them are wrong. And when confronted with reality, what happens when we have a belief that contrary is where we are rationally able to understand is called cognitive dissonance. And this can be very dangerous or very good for you.

Because if for example, you think that life is a very dark place, that it is meaningless, that this was not much you can do to live a meaningful and happy life, then you will start creating maps of the underlying reality that reflect that belief system, and you will end up being miserable. But on the other hand, you think that life is an adventure that you can find meaning that happiness is something you build every single day and your businesses decide to succeed, you will create maps that use the underlying reality to your own betterment.

You're going to resolve that cognitive dissonance to your own favor, and you will eventually achieve what you want. Because remember, all beliefs are wrong. So our responsibility is to create those that empower us. It all boils down to what Henry Ford said that whether you think you can or that you can't you are right in psychology is called a self fulfilling prophecy that can dry behavior, in essence is that your expectations affect your outcome and leads me back to the video we have on the theory of reflexivity by George Soros, our understanding of reality would affect the outcomes that reality provides for us there's a one to one relationship about something we do and what do we think about those things that we do? So you have the responsibility to create the map that better uses the territory to your own betterment.

And now before I tell you, how did I resolve the problem that I had in China, please like, subscribe and hit the bell because we are releasing a few $1,000 worth of courses to the subscribers that are subscribed with the notification bell on and I don't want you to miss on that.

Well, here's what happened when I got to Tongji University after having booked that flight from Spain and went to China and I went to the campus. This was the fifth of August I think in 2012. And I got There was nobody around. There were no classes at the time, there wasn't a middle of August. So I had to roam around for a few hours trying to find someone who could speak English, I really wanted to ask in the university if there was some sort of chance that I could go study my final year in China, and I couldn't find anybody, because they were all on holidays.

And in August, until in one of the towers of the compass, I find someone who gave me a mysterious email, it was not even a tone email, it was a Gmail with a lot of letters and numbers, and she told me send an email here, they will reply to you. So I came back to Spain with just one email, the first thing I did was send an email as say, introducing myself saying my situation that I wanted to finish my studies in tone G that I was not aware of any program between my university Madrid and university in tangi.

But maybe there were some sort of way of making this work. I didn't mention my girlfriend, of course, but the point stands, I wanted to do something that has never been done before the reality told me that just not possible. But I had to firm believe the map in my head said there had to be a way and lo and behold, a couple of months later, when I had abandoned all hope, when nobody had replied me for a couple of months, I received an email from the Vice Dean of international relations in my own university in Madrid, telling me that somebody had forwarded him the email that I had sent to the Chinese University in August.

So this man yourself, this is in October, and telling me that for the first time in history of university, they wanted to create a scholarship that I may be interested in applying. And I applied, and I got that full scholarship. And I moved to China for a few months to finish my architectural degree there and be with my grandma, then girlfriend, and essentially do as I wanted.

So this is a very good example of event, every situation seems desperate, even if you think there are no options, there's always an option. And the thing you need to do is to train yourself and train yourself awareness so that you can spot opportunities where others see problems. When you do this. When you turn problems into projects, you are going to get have the upper hand because all feedback from the market both good and bad, is going to help you craft a better version of yourself or a better version of your business.

So I hope this was useful. This is one of the best memories I have really from my young years how I was able to make things happen even when it was playing impossible. And I hope this story really proves the point that you need to constantly update your belief system so that it empowers you to make the best use of the territory that you inhabit.