I would like to really share some insights about nested loops, in addition to beliefs, which is a way to layer in new learnings, but before I begin, I am reminded of a time that I attended a training, and I remember the trainer sharing this wonderful tale about Milton H. Erickson, M.D., of Phoenix, Arizona who was known as the Father of Modern Hypnosis.
Now I have never been to Phoenix, although I remember reading that the real estate boom that took place there, a few decades ago, made a lot of people quite wealthy, including financial educator, Robert Kiyosaki. If you have ever read any of Kiyosaki’s work or attended his seminars, you may recall a very powerful distinction he teaches which is the difference between an asset and a liability. It is a crucial distinction that can change your relationship to money and how you use it. Now it really does come down to the beliefs you hold. And for Kiyosaki, the belief that an asset is anything that puts money into your pocket, while a liability is something takes money out of it, is quite a useful belief to have.
It is like when someone says they will give you 10 bucks to walk across a board that is one foot wide and ten feet long while suspended three feet above the ground. Simple right? An easy ten bucks! Then they say now I’ll give you ten times the amount if you walk across the same board when it rests between two 50-story building rooftops. Still simple? Come on! The only thing that has changed is the altitude and wind velocity. Or is there something else that has changed as well. Perhaps your own perceptions, your belief on what is and what is not possible, or perhaps it all comes down to as Bob Barker would say, “If the price is right.”
If our beliefs can have such an impact on us, consider what kind of beliefs you are holding on to. Are they beliefs about you? About the world? About the market or economy? About the competition? About what is possible?
The good and bad of beliefs is that regardless what you believe, you’re right — within the context of the belief. Meaning if it is a limiting belief or an empowering belief, both are beliefs, and both are true for you.
If you believe a competitor has a more compelling offer, you will find challenges in selling your product or service to ensure your belief is true for you. If you believe the opposite, you will find greater ease in selling. Neither is reality. Or another way to view it is both are a reality for you if you believe it. You follow your beliefs.
It is like that experiment with the pine processionary caterpillars that only follow one another. And the researcher places them one behind the other until they form a circle, and then places their favorite food a few inches inside the circle, but unfortunately their focus is only on the caterpillar in front of them and in a week or so they all die from starvation, while being only inches away from food.
Now that is the kind of loop you don’t want to be in. But people do that kind of stuff all the time, they go inside and start the record up and play the same few tracks they already know all too well. Same complaints. Same limitations. Same excuses. They usually even know the words by heart.
Yet this is how the brain works. It likes things that are the same, but learns from what is different. So what does this mean? Are you stuck in a loop? Oh no, how will you get out?
Break the pattern. DO ONE THING DIFFERENT. Lead don’t follow.
Even a single degree of change may start the path to a new direction. Don’t let your goal be only inches away from you and let it slip away. There used to be t-shirts which would read it’s about attitude not altitude. With the right attitude you can cross any challenge that comes your way. It’s as easy as walking a plank.
Kiyosaki makes real estate investing look simple. But then again that’s his profession. He’s put in the hours, built the networks, made the bad deals which he learned from. He put together his own fundamentals which worked for him and many others. That’s one path. Each person can carve out their own path or find one already travelled before. If an existing path gets you where you want to go, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. If you’ve never taken it, it’s new for you.
When I was driving cross-country, I took Interstate 40, which is a straight shot from California to North Carolina. However it doesn’t pass through Phoenix, so I have never made it down there. I mean that is a whole other state to be in.
But fortunately for Erickson, he was just as good of a patient as he was a doctor. So after one of his bouts with polio, when his doctor told him that the only thing that would help his condition was to move to a drier state, he obliged quite willingly, and made the transition, without any hesitation. And it is the kind of intensity Erickson had that made him such a remarkable person, teacher, and therapist.
From Wisconsin, where he was at during the doctor’s visit, he could have moved to one of the Dakotas or even Utah, but no not Erickson. When he changes states, he really changes states. And that is how he got to Phoenix, Arizona, at least according to my trainer. Then again that training was many, many years ago. Maybe a memory here or there got moved around from back then. Sometimes the best thing that can happen to an old memory is that it fades away with delight.
Now if you are interested in learning more about nested loops is to go through them. Luckily, it’s a type of loop that has an end. And you’ve reached it for now. Read it all again to make sure though.