When Forrest Gump walked with braces on his legs with his friend Jenny, some kids started bullying him and calling him names. Jenny told him, “Run, Forrest, Run.” Those three words made him run fast without thinking about his disabilities. Thus, he overcame them and became one of the fastest kids around. Forrest wasn’t the smartest kid in his town and had a low IQ. Still, he had a unique character, likely due to his learning disabilities and his mother’s constant affirmations that he was no different than any other kid. He didn’t see his limitations, and he just did it whenever he felt passionate about something.
In the classic movie “Forrest Gump,” played by Tom Hanks, Forrest achieves great heights, accomplishing things many of us only dream of despite his disabilities. Some say he believed he could do anything because he wasn’t aware of his limitations.
The mind shift, or paradigm shift as Stephen Covey called it, works wonders when applied correctly. When you believe you can do something, your body, attitude, and habits align to achieve it. Conversely, thinking you cannot do something becomes ingrained in your subconscious, preventing success, no matter how hard you try.
I saw an #impact_theory video recently where Trevor Mowad, CEO of Limitless Minds, was a guest on Tom Bilyeu’s show, and he shared an inspiring story about a young man who was a loser and always misses class and fails his exams and one day he had to take the SAT and got a very high score that made him change his life of a loser into a successful person and thus achieved outstanding outcomes throughout his life. This same person who got the high score found out many years later that his score was a mistake and that he got a very low score on his SAT. However, that mistake made him believe that he was capable of success, and therefore, he adapted the habits and lifestyle of a successful young man, which made all the difference.
Achieving outstanding results isn’t just about having clear goals and objectives but also about the system or lifestyle we have in place to reach them. Many successful people wake up early, using morning hours for personal growth activities like working out, meditating, reading, and preparing for the day. These rituals, practiced around 5 am, take advantage of a calm mind and minimal distractions.
Being an early bird isn’t just about starting the day earlier; it’s about time management and having a system to practice good habits. Adapting to this habit isn’t easy if you’re not already an early riser. While you might understand the benefits of early mornings, shifting your alarm from 7 am to 5 am and maintaining it is challenging. The mistake is focusing too much on the immediate rewards rather than gradually adopting the habit. You need small, consistent mini-habits to cross the threshold of learning a new habit.
In “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, the author explains how to adopt new good habits and eliminate bad ones. A system or process comprises a set of habits. Once you master these habits, the goals you set will be a natural outcome. Habit creation or change focuses on what you want to become, not just what you want to achieve—it’s about identity. Clear outlines four primary laws for adapting new habits:
- Make it Obvious. Design your environment so your habits triggers are clear.
- Make it Attractive. Pair a needed action with a desired one and create motivational rituals.
- Make it Easy. Reduce the steps between you and your new habit.
- Make it Satisfying. Link it to a reward that makes you look forward to the habit.
In conclusion, it’s all about mindset, self-awareness, and the power to adapt and improve. It’s not about how long you practice the habit but about the repetitions needed to make it a mindless routine. Mindless habits constitute over 40% of our day, so the more good habits we have, the better our lives will be. I’ll leave you with a quote by Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you are right.”
Sources:-
- “Forrest Gump” – The Movie (1994)
