Latest / Success Is Not Convenient / Why Growth Feels Like Losing Yourself
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone.
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Bernie Gallerani bringing an episode of Success is not convenient.
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: This is actually a bit of a fun one for me because I'm feeling a lot of these things right now in uh growing the sides of the business that I'm growing.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: And some of these things that are going on in what I researched and put on this for today is a lot how I'm feeling about things today.
- 0:23SPEAKER_00: And so I felt as I was going through the notes of thinking, man, this just feels so surreal to the feelings that I have.
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: And that I thought maybe a lot of you guys would have that same feeling at times as you're building your business and you become an entrepreneur and you're changing a lot of things in your companies and you're changing a lot of things about yourself.
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: So today's title of this podcast is why growth feels like losing a bit of yourself.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: And part of this for me is you're changing identities.
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: So growth often feels like you're just losing part of who you are, the part of growth that nobody really prepares you for.
- 1:03SPEAKER_00: You know, you think a lot about the excitement of who you think you're going to be on the other side of succeeding, but you've got to be willing to shed some things about you, and not always makes everybody feel comfortable.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: Everybody always talks about growth like it is this exciting thing, and it certainly can be.
- 1:20SPEAKER_00: And they talk about making more money and they building a bigger business and improving your health and becoming a stronger leader and creating a better life for you and your family.
- 1:31SPEAKER_00: But there is a side of growth that almost nobody really wants to talk about.
- 1:36SPEAKER_00: Sometimes growth feels um a little like grief at some level.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels a little bit lonely, and sometimes it even feels uncomfortable for you.
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like the person that you have always known yourself to be is now disappearing from your life.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: And I I guess that's a really good thing because in order to have a different version of your life, you have to be a different version of you.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: And when that all happens, most people assume that something is wrong.
- 2:04SPEAKER_00: Like you feel like even something is wrong.
- 2:07SPEAKER_00: Like, why am I changing and where I'm feeling like I'm a completely different person?
- 2:11SPEAKER_00: I'm disconnecting from my old self.
- 2:14SPEAKER_00: You might even ask yourself, like, you might be just questioning yourself a little bit, like, maybe am I trying a little bit too hard?
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should slow down a little bit because I don't like the change that's showing up in my life.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes the change that shows up doesn't the result never shows up as you make the change.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: The result shows up at a different time.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: So maybe this is just not who I really am.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: Those these might be things that you're saying to yourself is that, you know, maybe I'm changing myself to where I who who I don't like.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: But what if that feeling does not mean that you are losing yourself?
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: What if it means that you are finally letting go of the version of yourself that can no longer take you where you want to go anymore?
- 2:53SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how I'm looking at it is I'm letting go of who I was because who I was wouldn't allow me to go to the other side of the mountain, which is where I want to go.
- 3:02SPEAKER_00: But yet you have to get rid of something, and that's like shedding the old version of you.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: Your current identity is protecting your current life.
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: You're actually in protection mode of your current life, and every one of us has an identity.
- 3:15SPEAKER_00: We all identify to something.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: We have a story about who we are, what we are capable of doing, what we deserve, and what kind of life that we are supposed to live.
- 3:27SPEAKER_00: And maybe your identity just says to you, I'm not a disciplined person.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: I have never been good at, you know, confrontation.
- 3:35SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm just not the kind of person who makes that much money.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: Maybe making a lot of money isn't really for me.
- 3:42SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation with somebody recently, within the last, let's call it day or two, where they didn't feel worthy of the money they were earning and the money they were shooting for.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: They make a really nice living today, but they were really going extreme and they just thought, you know, I just don't know if I'm worthy of that.
- 3:59SPEAKER_00: And that's an identity issue, right?
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: I do not really want to come across as too pushy or too aggressive.
- 4:07SPEAKER_00: I have always struggled with the level of consistency, right?
- 4:11SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem when you say these things to yourself.
- 4:13SPEAKER_00: Your identity does not just describe your behavior, it can quietly defend it.
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: And this is an important part because you are trying to accomplish something, but you end up defending your actions.
- 4:26SPEAKER_00: So you're trying to shed something, but yet you continue to keep pulling it back.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: If you believe that you're not disciplined, your mind will find a reason to avoid the discipline.
- 4:36SPEAKER_00: If you believe you are not a leader, you will hesitate every time leadership requires you to speak up.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: If you believe success changes people for the worse, you may unconsciously resist becoming more successful.
- 4:50SPEAKER_00: You know, it's interesting.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: This a few years ago with somebody that asked me, does money make you happy?
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: No, you can be happy when you're poor and you can be happy when you're successful.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: Happiness is within inside of you.
- 5:03SPEAKER_00: And like I said, if you believe success changes people, you're gonna try to avoid that because somewhere you believe that consciously or subconsciously, that that's evil, that's not good, I'm not worthy of that.
- 5:14SPEAKER_00: Your old identity, what they'll do is it'll protect yourself even when the identity is keeping you stuck.
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: So your identity protects you to be you, and yet you want to try to be somebody else.
- 5:26SPEAKER_00: You you guys get the struggle here.
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: That is why growth can feel threatening.
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: It should feel threatening, and it probably will feel threatening to you.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: You are not just changing your schedule, you're changing you.
- 5:39SPEAKER_00: You are not just changing uh your habits, you are challenging your own story, one that you've used for so many years.
- 5:47SPEAKER_00: You're like this person who lived a life for 20, 30, 40 years, and now you're shedding their old self.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: It's like a divorce or a cutting or a limb off.
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: There's going to be some discomfort involved with who you need to be.
- 6:01SPEAKER_00: Growth forces you to say goodbye to you.
- 6:05SPEAKER_00: Real growth is not just about gaining something, it also means losing things.
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: You may lose old habits, you may lose familiar excuses that you use, you may lose the comfort of being underestimated.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: You may lose the relationship that were built around the old version of who you are or who you're being.
- 6:26SPEAKER_00: You may lose the ability to pretend you do not know what needs to change.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: And that can feel like death in some cases for some people.
- 6:35SPEAKER_00: Because, in a way, it's the old version of you cannot fully survive the life the new version of you is trying to build.
- 6:44SPEAKER_00: Let me say this to you the old version of you is trying to survive in the new life that you want that you're trying to build.
- 6:55SPEAKER_00: And the building of the new life is going to be more difficult than staying in the life that you currently exist in.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: And so you're fighting this battle of shedding you to become the new you.
- 7:07SPEAKER_00: Think about the person who has always avoided difficult conversations.
- 7:11SPEAKER_00: When they begin speaking honestly and setting standards and holding people accountable, they might think, I don't even feel like myself anymore.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: Of course you don't.
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: They are practicing a version of themselves that they have not learned to trust yet.
- 7:26SPEAKER_00: So you know what to say, you know you need to say it, you know you need to do it, but you don't trust, you don't have enough confidence in you because you haven't done it long enough.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: And so you have a choice.
- 7:35SPEAKER_00: That didn't really feel right doing that, it didn't feel like me.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: So you revert back to who you are, but the who you are can't get you to where you want to go.
- 7:43SPEAKER_00: Research on major relationship transitions have found that when a person's sense of identity becomes less clear, emotional distress can increase.
- 7:52SPEAKER_00: So you're actually feeling a level of anxiety, and that research focuses specifically on breakups.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: But it helps explain why disruption to a familiar sense of self can feel a little bit unsettling.
- 8:05SPEAKER_00: Feeling unfamiliar does not automatically mean that you are becoming someone that you should not be.
- 8:11SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it means that you are becoming someone you have never allowed yourself to be.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say this to you a different way.
- 8:20SPEAKER_00: You're sometimes you're feeling like I'm struggling with something because I'm I'm trying to be somebody else.
- 8:28SPEAKER_00: You have never allowed yourself to be who you want to be.
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: So you continue to fall back to who you've been.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: The fear of losing people, one of the deepest fears behind growth is not failure, it is rejection.
- 8:42SPEAKER_00: And as you change, you're gonna have people that are gonna reject you.
- 8:45SPEAKER_00: That's happened to me a lot in my life where I had things associated with certain kinds of people that I no longer really have those relationships with anymore.
- 8:51SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean they're not good people.
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: I'm just changed.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: People sometimes wonder like, what if my friends think that I have changed and they don't want to hang out with me?
- 9:00SPEAKER_00: What if my family doesn't totally understand where I'm going or what I'm trying what I'm thinking?
- 9:05SPEAKER_00: What if people think that I'm a little bit arrogant or cocky?
- 9:08SPEAKER_00: What if I become successful and no longer fit where I used to belong?
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: That fear is real.
- 9:14SPEAKER_00: That transition is what you want.
- 9:17SPEAKER_00: Just because people don't really identify with you, you're shedding that opportunity and moving into a new group of friends.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: You're gonna find a lot of friends, and I have found this to be true, that think a lot like I do, but I had to change first to reconnect with people that felt a lot like I feel.
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: So when your growth threatens your sense of belonging, your mind may push you back towards what feeling that is familiar to you.
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: So remember, you're you're fighting you.
- 9:43SPEAKER_00: You're finding I want to be this person, but you're going back.
- 9:46SPEAKER_00: It's easier to go back than it is to go forward.
- 9:49SPEAKER_00: And you start making yourself a little bit smaller, you stop thinking about your goals, and then what happens is you lower your standards, you laugh off the things that you really want, and you go back to the habits that keep everyone around you comfortable.
- 10:05SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
- 10:06SPEAKER_00: You're trying to be something different, it's making you feel uncomfortable.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: You're starting to get judged by people, you're starting to get naysayers, then you start doubting yourself, and then you find yourself really back to the thing that makes you feel most comfortable, which is acceptance.
- 10:22SPEAKER_00: Many people do not abandon their potential because they lack ability, they abandon it because they are afraid of losing acceptance by others.
- 10:32SPEAKER_00: But I want you to ask this question to yourself how much of your life are you willing to sacrifice just to remain recognizable to other people who are comfortable with the old you?
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
- 10:45SPEAKER_00: How much are you willing to give up to be accepted by people who liked you before?
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: If you grow, have no longer how can associate with you at that level?
- 10:54SPEAKER_00: Let's be clear here.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: Growth does not require abandoning people you love, it does not mean becoming cold, selfish, or disconnected.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: It just means refusing to make other people's comfort the limit of your life.
- 11:08SPEAKER_00: Why do you think so many people start changing and then stop?
- 11:12SPEAKER_00: Here are some real numbers.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: In one study following 200 people who wanted to change their behavior, 77% maintained their commitments after one week.
- 11:22SPEAKER_00: And only 19% maintained them after two years.
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: That means that 81% did not sustain the change for the full two years in that particular study.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: 81%.
- 11:37SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a second.
- 11:38SPEAKER_00: A lot of people can feel inspired for about a week.
- 11:42SPEAKER_00: Far fewer stay committed even for two weeks, and even fewer stay committed when the excitement disappears.
- 11:50SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens.
- 11:50SPEAKER_00: It gets the longer you're in it, the less excited you get.
- 11:54SPEAKER_00: If you don't create that excitement for yourself, you then wane from it.
- 11:58SPEAKER_00: When the process gets a little inconvenient for you, we lose enthusiasm.
- 12:03SPEAKER_00: When the new habits feel unnatural, when nobody is applauding you, when they have to confront the fact that their old identity keeps pulling them backwards to who they used to be.
- 12:15SPEAKER_00: The beginning of growth feels exciting because you are imagining the reward.
- 12:20SPEAKER_00: We all do, right?
- 12:21SPEAKER_00: We think about the end result.
- 12:23SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the growth feels a little bit painful because we are paying the ultimate price of that change.
- 12:29SPEAKER_00: And the middle is where people turn around and go back to the old self.
- 12:34SPEAKER_00: Not always because the goal was impossible, but because the transformation started to feel too personal to us.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: It stopped being about doing something different and it became about becoming someone different.
- 12:47SPEAKER_00: Let me say this again.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: It stopped being about doing something different, and it became about becoming someone different.
- 12:54SPEAKER_00: The emotional battle between the old and the new you.
- 12:58SPEAKER_00: There is a season of growth where you are caught between two identities.
- 13:03SPEAKER_00: You are no longer satisfied being who you were, but you are not yet comfortable being who you are becoming.
- 13:11SPEAKER_00: That is an emotional no man's land.
- 13:14SPEAKER_00: There is a place where you're feeling odd between who you think you should be and who you want to be, and you're fighting that resistance.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: And sometimes just going back is easier than going forward.
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: Your old habits do not feel right anymore to you.
- 13:30SPEAKER_00: Your new habits do not feel natural yet.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: Your previous goals feel too small.
- 13:36SPEAKER_00: Your bigger goals feel a little bit intimidating.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: You may feel confused in this process, very lonely, which is natural, a little bit restless, cautious, careful, a little bit guilty for what you have to give up, probably going to be emotionally and physically exhausted.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: And you may even question whether growth is even worth it.
- 13:57SPEAKER_00: Most people do.
- 13:58SPEAKER_00: Like, is it really worth what I have to sacrifice?
- 14:01SPEAKER_00: But I want you guys to hear me on this.
- 14:03SPEAKER_00: Discomfort is not always a warning that you are on the wrong path.
- 14:08SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is evidence that the old path can no longer hold you back.
- 14:13SPEAKER_00: You are a new version and you're stuck in the middle.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: A study of habit formations found that the medium time for a behavior became more automatic was approximately 66 days.
- 14:25SPEAKER_00: So 66 days to create a habit, with that range between 18 and 254 days, depending on the person's behavior, how they act towards things.
- 14:34SPEAKER_00: So some people a little bit longer, some people not.
- 14:37SPEAKER_00: And this was a study of specific habits, not a guaranteed timeline for transforming your entire identity.
- 14:44SPEAKER_00: That means that change can feel unnatural for a long period of time.
- 14:49SPEAKER_00: Do not confuse unfamiliar with impossible.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: Do not confuse uncomfortable with wrong.
- 14:56SPEAKER_00: Do not confuse the loss of an old identity with the loss of your true self.
- 15:02SPEAKER_00: Why commitment matters more than desire is a lot of people say that they want to grow, that they want more money, and that they want healthier bodies, that they even want a stronger marriage or relationship.
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: They want bigger, they want a bigger business, which is maybe what we're talking about.
- 15:18SPEAKER_00: Maybe they want more confidence in themselves.
- 15:20SPEAKER_00: But wanting something and deciding to pursue it are not the same thing.
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: In one study, 46% of the people who made a specific commitment to change are still successful six months later.
- 15:32SPEAKER_00: Among a comparable group who wanted to change but postponed making that commitment, only 4% reported success.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: 4%.
- 15:42SPEAKER_00: God almighty, 4%.
- 15:44SPEAKER_00: Think about like everybody can succeed at a high level, but you gotta be willing to divorce your old self for your new self.
- 15:52SPEAKER_00: Think about this difference.
- 15:54SPEAKER_00: 46 versus 4.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: Not because growth suddenly became easy, because it doesn't, it's not easy for anybody.
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: Not because the committed group never experienced fear, because that's not true, but because they stopped treating change like a someday idea.
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: You're either, there's a great book, and I've said it a million times.
- 16:12SPEAKER_00: It's called The Being the Solution.
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: It's a being habit.
- 16:15SPEAKER_00: Like who are you being?
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: Not what are you doing?
- 16:17SPEAKER_00: Because your being state changes what you do.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: And so it's important that you understand is who you're being is super important.
- 16:25SPEAKER_00: A dream without a decision is nothing more than an emotional hiding place.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say this again: a dream without a decision is nothing more than an emotional hiding place.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people will say, When I feel ready, I will change.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: When I have confidence, I will go after it.
- 16:41SPEAKER_00: When the timing is better, I will make the move towards making it happen.
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: But confidence rarely comes before its action.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Confidence is often what you earn by continuing after the action feels uncomfortable.
- 16:56SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say this it's the uncomfortableness that you fight through that builds the character.
- 17:03SPEAKER_00: A lot of people they get uncomfortable, they stop working because it just doesn't feel natural, so they stop.
- 17:08SPEAKER_00: Anything different is going to feel unnatural.
- 17:11SPEAKER_00: You are going to slip, and that does not mean that you failed.
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: Here's one of my favorite findings from this long-term study.
- 17:19SPEAKER_00: Among the people who ultimately succeed, 53% experience at least one slip along the way.
- 17:26SPEAKER_00: These are the people that actually succeed.
- 17:29SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about the whole group of people who try.
- 17:32SPEAKER_00: We know that group is very small who succeed.
- 17:34SPEAKER_00: But 53% of the parents, people that succeeded, found that there was one slip-up or some one issue that stopped them for a minute until they continued.
- 17:44SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
- 17:45SPEAKER_00: More than half of the successful people were not perfect in their process.
- 17:49SPEAKER_00: They struggled all the time.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: They had setbacks, they fell back into their old patterns, but they did not use one bad moment as a permission to return to their old life or their own self.
- 18:02SPEAKER_00: The difference between the people who grow and the people who stay stuck is not that one group never fails.
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: It is that the one group refuses to make the fall their identity.
- 18:12SPEAKER_00: You miss a workout, great, go back to it, get back to the gym.
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: You avoid a difficult conversation, have that difficult conversation tomorrow.
- 18:20SPEAKER_00: You slip into an old excuse, recognize it, and then move forward.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: A setback is an event.
- 18:26SPEAKER_00: It does not have to become a definition.
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: Growth is not a straight line when you're trying to build something, it is the repeated decision to keep becoming who you want to be.
- 18:37SPEAKER_00: Here's the real question that you have to answer for yourself.
- 18:41SPEAKER_00: At some point, every person who wants a bigger life has to answer this one question Am I more committed to protecting who I have been or becoming who I could be?
- 18:52SPEAKER_00: Because you cannot always do both.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: You cannot keep every old habit and expect new results.
- 18:59SPEAKER_00: You cannot protect every insecurity and build real confidence.
- 19:03SPEAKER_00: You cannot avoid every uncomfortable conversation and become a stronger leader.
- 19:08SPEAKER_00: You cannot remain loyal to your limitations and expect your life to expand.
- 19:14SPEAKER_00: But you can carry your value with you.
- 19:16SPEAKER_00: You can still love your family.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: You can still be kind.
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: And you can still be humble.
- 19:23SPEAKER_00: You can still carry deeply about people.
- 19:26SPEAKER_00: Growth does not require you to lose your character.
- 19:29SPEAKER_00: It requires you to lose your patterns that have kept you and your character trapped inside of your smaller life.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: Maybe what you're losing is not yourself.
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are losing the fear, all the excuses that you've created or come up with, the need for approval of other people, the habits that keep you comfortable, the identity you develop just to survive.
- 19:55SPEAKER_00: And maybe what you are finally finding is the person you were capable of becoming all along.
- 20:01SPEAKER_00: See your old self cannot be the price of your future.
- 20:06SPEAKER_00: If growth feels uncomfortable right now, do not immediately assume you are doing something wrong.
- 20:12SPEAKER_00: If your old life no longer fits, that does not mean you are broken in any way.
- 20:18SPEAKER_00: If people notice that you are changing, that does not mean that you should stop.
- 20:22SPEAKER_00: And if you feel uncertain, that does not mean that you are failing.
- 20:27SPEAKER_00: It might mean that you are standing in the space between your past and your potential future.
- 20:34SPEAKER_00: The old version of you wants familiarity.
- 20:38SPEAKER_00: The new version of you wants freedom.
- 20:40SPEAKER_00: The old version of you wants comfort.
- 20:42SPEAKER_00: The new version of you wants possibility.
- 20:46SPEAKER_00: The old version of you wants approval.
- 20:48SPEAKER_00: The new version of you wants a life that you can be proud of.
- 20:53SPEAKER_00: So do not be afraid when growth feels like losing yourself.
- 20:58SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the greatest thing you can lose is the identity that was never big enough for the life that you were meant to live.
- 21:06SPEAKER_00: You are not disappearing, you are becoming a new version of you.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: You are becoming the person chasing after the dreams you've always wanted to achieve.
- 21:18SPEAKER_00: You're becoming the superpower that you know you are, but you cannot become that superpower without giving up the old self.
- 21:26SPEAKER_00: Guys, I want to say thank you for listening to this today.
- 21:30SPEAKER_00: I appreciate each and every one of you guys that watch these videos.
- 21:33SPEAKER_00: Please do me a favor hit that like button, hit that subscribe button.
- 21:37SPEAKER_00: We'd love to continue to keep bringing these to you.
- 21:39SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you all.
- 21:40SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.