(8/30) Your Mind = Your Enemy

8/30 of the 30-day writing challenge.

Ron Markley

Dec 08, 2024

woman in black top near body of water — Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

Your Mind = Your Enemy

How many times have you run away from doing the right thing for your life?

Once? Ten times? A hundred?

Me?

Here’s my confession: I’m an ordinary person, and I’ve run away from my fears too — many times.

It took me a while to realize my mind was my biggest enemy.

It became my enemy because of my false beliefs.

Harsh truth: No one can change you because change comes from the inside, not the outside.

You have to launch a missile at your false belief because it's in your mind.

No one can do that for you.

Today’s theme continues from yesterday’s.

Yesterday, we talked about bottlenecks.

Today, we’ll dive deep into the internal false beliefs that stop us from overcoming roadblocks.

Today’s goal:

Identify our false beliefs
Grab a bomb
Throw it at the false beliefs

First, let’s talk about how to identify our false beliefs.

How to identify false beliefs

With these 4 steps, you'll identify your false beliefs.

Identify where you want to be
Identify where you are now
Identify the roadblock
Identify the mindset that’s holding you back at the roadblock by using the 5 Whys technique

What is 5 Whys?

It’s asking why 5 times until we find out the root cause

Here is an example:

Why am I stuck at a bad job? Because I feel like I have no other options.
Why do I feel like I have no other options? Because I lack the skills for a better job.
Why do I lack the skills? Because the last time I tried to learn how to code, I failed.
Why did I fail at coding? Because I don’t like coding.
Why don’t I like coding? Because I learned the skill thinking it would give me the highest payoff, not because I was interested in it.

You see? The problem starts with being stuck in a bad job, but the root cause is that this person in the example learned a skill based on the payoff, not on their interests.

Caution: This process is like peeling an onion. It can make you cry.

How do we bomb our false beliefs?

We need these 2 things:

Ask 3 questions to challenge your false belief
Find 3 pieces of evidence that show your belief is false

No worries, I’ve designed the prompt to help you think.

Here is my example

My wage is $10/hour.

I want to make six figures a year.

I can’t land the six-figure job because I feel like I have no other options.

I have no other options because I lack the skills for a better job and I don’t want to learn a new skill.

I lack the skills for a better job and I don’t want to learn a new skill because the last time I tried to learn how to code, I failed.

I failed at coding because I didn’t like coding.

I don’t like coding because I learned the skill, thinking it would give me the highest payoff, not because I was interested in it.

Now, I realize the false belief that is holding me back: I want to hit six figures by working as a software developer, which I do not want to do.

I won’t let it be my obstacle anymore.

So, I started to challenge my false beliefs by asking myself these 3 questions:

Do I have other career paths that I enjoy and can make six figures?
If I don’t do a 9-to-5, do I have other ways to hit six figures?
Has someone out there made six figures from their passion?

Then, I spent a while finding the evidence to prove my false belief wrong.

I found these 3 pieces of evidence to destroy my false belief:

I met Kathie, a six-figure nurse, but she had to spend 4 years working 6 days a week.
I met Olivia, a yoga instructor who made six figures by teaching yoga on weekends. I like this idea.
I met Legolas, a 15-year-old kid who made six figures by doing copywriting, but it sounded like a scam.

This was an enlightening moment.

I don’t need to be a software developer to hit six figures.

Because I realized that if we can start a business, we can hit six figures by following our passion.

Notes

Feel free to use other templates. The goal is just to write.
Feel free to write anything you want. If you don’t want to share your goal, that’s fine. Just write, and leaving your story is a win.

Your template

[Your current situation]

[Your goal]

[Your roadblocks] because [Reason #1]

[Reason #1] because [Reason #2]

[Reason #2] because [Reason #3]

[Reason #3] because [Reason #4]

[Reason #4] because [Reason #5]

Now, I realize the false belief that is holding me back: [false belief that creates reason #5]

I won’t let it be my obstacle anymore.

So, I started to challenge my false beliefs by asking myself these 3 questions:

[Question #1]
[Question #2]
[Question #3]

Then, I spent a while finding the evidence to prove my false belief wrong.

I found these 3 pieces of evidence to destroy my false belief:

[Evidence #1]
[Evidence #2]
[Evidence #3]

[Describe your enlightenment moment]

[Describe your thoughts/feelings about your false belief]

[Cool ending]

Your headline (for Medium writers):

Headline: I used to believe [your false belief].

Subheadline: I was wrong. Here’s what I’ve found.

Example:

Headline: I used to believe being a software developer was the only way to hit six figures.

Subheadline: I was wrong. Here’s what I’ve found.

Leaderboard

Saturday is the hardest day to show up.

But some of us did it.

You’re awesome.

If you missed today, there is no punishment. This is not an exam.

Sure, that’s okay. We’re humans.

Here’s my secret: I can’t write every day, but I can publish every day.

Because I write in batches.

Sure, the end goal of writing is to publish, as you promised.

It’s a great opportunity to find out whether writing in batches or writing every day works for you.

Here are yesterday’s achievers:

Big applause to:

Lee (+2 point)
Mandy (+1 point)
Larry C. Brown (+1 point)
parkesrobbie (+1 point)

Here’s the current leaderboard:

Larry C. Brown (+7 points)
Mandy (+7 points)
Lee (+7 points)
parkesrobbie (+6 points)
Laura Kennedy (+5 points)
Anna (+3 points)
Anna (+3 points)
Sia Vidal (+2 points)
April D (+2 points)

How to let me know you’ve shared your work

Now, let’s talk about how to share your work.

If you have a Substack account, leave a link to your story in the comments below.
If you don’t have a Substack account, feel free to reply to me via email.

Also, you can share your work wherever you like—it’s entirely yours!

My suggestion: Publish it on any platform you use to see how people respond.

I published both of my stories on: