Multiple Perspectives !!

When you see things from multiple perspectives, you

realize you can achieve almost anything you want in

far less time than you imagined.

Yet, most people have fixed and limited views about

themselves and what they can accomplish.

They have fixed and limited views about the resources

available to them.

They have fixed and limited views about time , and

how long things must take to accomplish.

In this article, I squash all of those limiting

perspectives and provide concrete strategies you can

use to achieve your goals. There are no fixed-limits.

Here’s how it works:

Core Principles

1. Set Absurdly Ambitious Goals

“When 10x is your measuring stick, you immediately

see how you can bypass what everyone else is

doing.” — Dan Sullivan

Goals are most likely to be accomplished when:

● They are intrinsically motivating. As Napoleon

Hill explained in Think and Grow Rich , “Desire is

the starting point of all achievement, not a

hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire

which transcends everything.”

● They must be difficult , or else they won’t be

motivating.

● They must be time-bound , to create a sense of

urgency. Shorter timelines are one way to go

10x, since they force you to shed artificial

constraints and think more creatively. As

billionaire Peter Thiel is known to ask: “How

can you achieve your 10-year plan in the next

six months?”

As with all things in life, you get what you want . If you

prefer to make excuses and justifications for a lack of

progress, then just admit you prefer your current

station in life. Self-acceptance can be a beautiful thing.

However, once you desire progress more than

convenience, obstacles no longer stop but propel you.

As the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is famous for

saying, “The impediment to action advances action.

What stands in the way becomes the way.”

3. Learn and Work in Counter-Intuitive Environments

1905 was Albert Einstein’s break-through year where

he published four research articles, known as the

Annus Mirabilis papers, which went on to substantially

alter the foundation of modern physics and changed

views on space, time, and matter.

Interesting, when Einstein published these papers, he

was not working in an academic setting, but rather, at

the Swiss Patent Office. His work in this

counter-intuitive work environment allowed him to

different reflective angles and questions than a typical

physics lab.

As Elon Musk’s wife, Justine, has said :

“Choose one thing and become a master of it. Choose

a second thing and become a master of that. When

you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering

and business), you can bring them together in a way

that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they

can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one

has seen before and b) create a competitive

advantage because you can move between worlds,

speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the

elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake

up with the epiphany that changes your life.”

When you work in a different context from the

majority of people in your field, you can make distinct

and unique connections. You can integrate and

cross-pollinate different ideas. You can avoid dogmatic

thinking and expectations. You can learn to integrate

ideas from seemingly dissimilar fields.

4. Learn from Counter-Intuitive Resources

“What does following in the footsteps of everyone else

get you? It gets you to exactly the same conclusions as

everyone else.” — Ryan Holiday

As Holiday explains, if you read what everyone else is

reading, you’ll think like everyone else thinks. If you

think like everyone else thinks, you won’t be able to

come up with anything unique.

Follow your curiosity. Chase down obscure leads. Find

stuff that no one else has found. In this way, your

work will be truly valuable to others.

5. Focus on the Process (not results) of Those Who are Succeeding Big

“Success leaves clues.” — Jim Rohn

Focusing exclusively on results is one of the primary

reasons the current academic system is broken. Kids

are being taught to train for the test, rather than

seeking novel and unique ways of doing things. No

two kids are wired the same, nor should their

contribution, creativity, and talent be viewed from the

same standard.

When you want to develop expertise at something,

rather than focusing on the results of those at the top

of your field, study and emulate their process.

What are they doing?

Once you get process-oriented, as opposed to

results-oriented, you realize you too can achieve

amazing results. The process, or your behavior, is

completely within your control. Conversely, when you

focus solely on other people’s results, you can quickly

become overwhelmed and give up.

6. Ignore What Almost Everyone Else is Doing

In the book, Relentless: From Good to Great to

Unstoppable , Tim Groverexplains that the world’s elite

don’t compete with other people. Rather, they make

others compete with them. They set the tone and

make others react to their environment.

Most people are competing with other people. They

continuously check-in to see what others in their

space (their “competition”) are doing. As a result, they

mimic and copy what’s “working.”

Rather than worrying about what others are doing,

live your values. Put first things first. Spend more time

with your loved ones and away from work. While

working, follow your own curiosity, not what others

are doing.

7. 80/20 Analysis of Highest Leverage Activities

“Today everyone is a generalist, a deliberate move on

the part of most as a reaction to the economic

times.” — Leonard Smith

When studying the process of those you seek to

emulate, don’t try to do it all.Everyone has their own

strategy. Even those at the top of your field have

imperfect strategies.

Find the patterns. What are the key things you must

master? Master those.

Then innovate beyond those patterns when you’re

ready, so your process comes to exceed the process of

those you admire. Eventually, your results will exceed

theirs as well.

8. Over-Learn High Leverage Activities

Learning something new is all about memory and how

you use it. At first, your prefrontal cortex — which

stores your working (or short-term) memory — is

really busy figuring out how the task is done.

But once you’re proficient, the prefrontal cortex gets a

break. In fact, it’s freed up by as much as 90% . Once

this happens, you can perform that skill automatically,

leaving your conscious mind to focus on other things.

This level of performance is called “automaticity,” and

reaching it depends on what psychologists call

“ over-learning ” or “over-training.”

For example, if you want to quickly learn how to write

viral articles, study several hundred headlines of viral

articles. If you want to write a book, study just the

table of contents of hundreds of books. These are your

“lay-ups.”

Start with small sets of information, then expand from

there. By over-learning a particular category of

learning, you’ll be able to better understand how it

relates to the whole. You’ll also quickly be able to

apply what you learn. You’ll quickly see the patterns

others miss. Time will slow down for you as your

cognition expands.

9. Learn to Apply, Not to Procrastinate “The Work”

“The key secret to success is not excessive expertise,

but the ability to use it.Knowledge is worthless unless

it is applied.” — Max Lukominskyi

Learning is best done while you’re doing the activity.

Public education has taught people they must first

master theory then attempt to transfer that theory

into the real world. In a similar way, people’s love for

information via the internet has led them to use

“learning” as a form of procrastination.

A better approach is “context-based learning,” where

you learn while doing. The key principles of

context-based learning include:

● Learn a concept in it’s simplest form

● Put your rudimentary knowledge to practice in

a real-world scenario

● Get coaching and feedback (feedback often

comes in the form of “failure”)

● Apply the feedback through repetitious practice

● Get coaching and feedback

● Repeat until proficient (see #8 just above)

Interestingly, researchers examined the effects of

role-playing on the self-concept of shy adolescents.

One group of adolescents got traditional

discussion-based training while another did role-play

based training. The group that did role-plays

experienced a significant positive change in their

self-concept, which has a significant impact on their

behaviours.

In our digital world, simulation training — based on

role-playing real world scenarios — is becoming

increasing popular.

Additionally, research has found that getting

consistent feedback is essential to effective learning.

You can use this. By making your work public, you get

immediate feedback.

Getting immediate feedback has been found to be a

flow trigger. It heightens performance. Especially

when the feedback is real-world, and there are real

consequences for success and failure.

10. Focus on Quantity in the Beginning

“Plant a lot, harvest a few.” — Seth Godin

In the book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the

World , Adam Grant explains that “originals” (i.e.,

people who create innovative work) are not reliable.

In other words, not everything they produce is

extraordinary.

For example, among the 50 greatest pieces of music

ever created, six belong to Mozart, five are

Beethoven’s, and three Bach’s. But in order to create

those, Mozart wrote over 600 songs, Beethoven 650,

and Bach over 1,000.

Similarly, Picasso created thousands of pieces of art,

and few are considered to be his “great works.” Edison

had 1,900 patents, and only a handful we would

recognise. Albert Einstein published 248 scientific

articles, only a few of which are what got him on the

map for his theory of relativity.

Quantity is the most likely path to quality. The more

you produce, the more ideas you will have — some

of which will be innovative and original . And you

never know which ones will click. You just keep

creating.

11. Track Only a Few Things (ignore everything else)

“If you have more than three priorities, then you don’t

have any.” — Jim Collins in Good to Great: Why Some

Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don’t

If you want to improve at something, you need to

quantify it. If you don’t quantify it, you don’t really

know what’s happening. As Thomas Monson explains,

“When performance is measured, performance

improves. When performance is measured and

reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

I can personally attest to this principle. When I started

measuring a few metrics, such as each set in the gym,

my income, and how much time I spend in “flow”

while working, I dramatically improved in these areas.

The reason is simple: tracking helped me become

aware and objective about my weaknesses. Thus, I

knew exactly where I should focus and could do it

systematically.

12. Heighten Expectation for What You Can Accomplish

“I think the ability of the average man could be

doubled if it were demanded, if the situation

demanded.” — William Durant

I started working out with my current workout partner

about two months ago. He’s nearly 20 years older

than me, and can lift substantially more weight than

me.

One of the first things he told me was, “Most people

never get stronger simply because they don’t put

themselves under the weight.” As a result, our first

several workouts involved me being heavily spotted

while benching and squatting way more than I ever

had before. The purpose was to feel the weight.

It hasn’t taken long at all to increase my strength while

working out with my new partner. He’s raised my

expectations. Yet, I don’t let his expectations dictate

what I can do. As will be shown in the following

section on mentorships, the expectations of those

around you create the context for your growth and

potential.

But you don’t need to be bound by those

expectations. For instance, just because many of the stock pickers say Investing is a full time job I used to think I should not take it seriously & hand over my money to Professionals but then I decided to build my own system for stock picking & I realise for reasonable returns you don't have to spend too much time in market , all you need to do is focus on few sectors & you can almost beat professional money managers

According to Expectancy Theory, one of the

core theories of motivation, motivation involves three

components:

● the value you place on your goal

● your belief that specific behaviours will actually

facilitate the outcomes you desire

● your belief in your own ability to successfully

execute the behaviours requisite to achieving

your goals

Learn from the best. But don’t be bound by their

standards. Run at your own pace, even if that pace is

faster than those you aspire to be like.

Mentorships

13. Surround Yourself With People With Higher Expectations than You Have

According to what psychologists call “The Pygmalion

Effect,” other people’s expectations of you heavily

influences how well you do.

When you’re a child, the expectations of your parents

“set the bar.” Interestingly, these expectations form

an invisible barrier from which it becomes very

difficult to exceed.

For instance, scientific experiments have been done

on fleas, wherein they’ve been put in a glass jar.

Without the lid on the jar, the fleas can easily jump

out. However, the fleas can be trained to stay in the

jar by putting a lid on it. After only three days, the lid

can be removed and the fleas will be constrained by

an invisible, mental, barrier.

Not surprisingly, the “next generation” of fleas is also

constrained by this new and invisible barrier. The

Pygmalion effect explains why: the next generation

develops the same expectations for themselves as

their parents have for them.

If, however, you were to take one of those fleas out of

that jar and place them in a bigger jar, surrounded by

fleas jumping much higher, mirror neurons would fire

and that flea would soon be able to jump higher.

Mental barriers would shatter, soon to be replaced by

the mental barriers of those in the new jar.

When seeking mentorships, it’s important to realize

that the expectations of your mentor reflect the flea’s

jar, and invisible barrier, as opposed to your inherent

ability. There is no fixed ability. Nothing, and nobody,

has an “absolute” value. Everything is contextual.

Even still, by jumping into a much bigger jar, you’ll

quickly grow. Actually, you may learn to jump much

higher than you ever imaged with the help of a caring

mentor. Thus, it is extremely important for you to

surround yourself with those who have high

expectations for you. It may be difficult, frustrating,

and humbling to develop and grow. But if you stick to

it, you’ll eventually reach a new invisible cap.

14. Expect to Expand and Adapt

Human beings are highly adaptive. For instance, Viktor

Frankl reflected on his experience as a Nazi

concentration camp victim and sleeping comfortably

next to nine other people on small beds. Said Frankl in

Man’s Search for Meaning , “Yes a person can get used

to anything, just don’t ask us how.” Indeed, this was

one of the most surprising aspects of living in a

concentration camp, the rapidity at which the shock

and horror became apathy and “normal.”

No matter how far-reaching and discontinuous the

jump from one environment to the next, a person can

and will adapt.

When you first enter a new and larger jar, you’ll feel

excited and perhaps even intimidated by all the

jumping room. However, like gas which spreads to fill

the space it’s been given, you too will adapt. Thus, you

won’t want to overstay you’re welcome. Remember,

the jar is a reflection of other people’s expectations.

Hence, the next point:

15. Don’t Get Stuck With One Mentor

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

When the student is truly ready, the teacher will

disappear.” — Lao Tzu

High quality friendships should last forever. High

quality mentorships, on the other hand, should not

last forever.

One mentor can only take you so far; they can only

give you one “jar.” If you want to evolve beyond that

jar, you’ll need a new mentor. And this is exactly what

any true mentor would want for you as well. It’s not

about “them.” They are investing in you. It is through

your best work that they can live on forever.

16. The Mentor Sets the Expectations, But the Mentee Sets the Tone

Although the mentor’s expectations and abilities

reflect the size of the jar, it is the mentee that sets the

tone for the relationship and how well it will go.

I’ve been in mentoring relationships where I’ve been a

good mentee and a bad mentee. In each case, it was

not the mentor, but me, that determined how well the

relationship went. No one cares more about your

success than you do. It is up to you how far you go in

life.

Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect , has

said, “Never take advice from someone you wouldn’t

trade places with.” Thus, you should be highly

selective about the mentors you seek. If you aren’t

intrinsically motivated to “set the tone” with you

mentor, ask yourself: Do I really want to be like this

person? If the answer is no, than they are the wrong

mentor.

When you have the right mentor, you’ll know, because

you’ll feel extremely lucky to have even a few

moments of their time. You’ll do all you can to deepen

the relationship, provide value, and learn. You’ll be

willing to bend over backwards to help them. You’ll

take on greater responsibility. You’ll make their life

easier. You’ll make them look good.

17. Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Although you are responsible for your own success,

you are not the sole cause of that success. Far from it.

You are not independent of all the help you’ve

received. More accurately, you are the product of all

the help you’ve received.

You are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Acknowledge them for that . And never forget where

you came from. Also, never speak poorly about your

mentors or those who have helped you along your

journey. This does nothing for you. I’ve made this

mistake and destroyed important relationships with

people I deeply admire — people who invested lots

of time and energy into me.

As Ryan Holiday explains in his book, Ego is the Enemy ,

always be a student. Remain humble. Don’t let ego

take over, or it will lead to your inevitable demise.

Mental Models

In this final section, I will detail beliefs required for

rapid growth.

18. Think Astronomically

“You have nothing to lose and everything to

gain.” — Robin Williams

There is some brilliant new research on the concept of

“Awe,” which has been defined as a feeling that arises

when you encounter something so strikingly vast (in

time, scope, complexity, ability, or power) it provokes

a need to update your mental schemas.

Awe, or having a “peak experience,” can happen

during an optimal sports performance or even a deep

spiritual experience . When you become mindful,you

can experience awe even during mundane moments.

Research has found that experiencing awe can expand

your perception of time, alter your decision making

abilities, and enhance your well-being.

I can personally attest to these findings. I’ve

experienced “awe” several times. I strive to

experience it as often as possible, which for me

provides a much richer and deeper perspective of life.

Awe alters your experience with time because it helps

you see things more astronomically. From the

perspective of light, for example, time stands

still.Thus, this moment, from the perspective of light is

both an instant and an eternity. Time fades into the

background of infinite possibility. Nothing becomes

impossible. No distance too far.

Awe alters your ability to make decisions because you

no longer fear trivial things such as other people’s

perceptions, failure, or even death.

Lastly, awe alters your well-being because the mind

and body are one. When you improve one aspect of

your life, all others organically improve as well. Thus,

when you experience a deeper connect with yourself

and the universe, you live differently. You see yourself

differently, and that perception has the power to alter

your biology. Your emotional state also matures and

becomes more healthy as well.

19. Think Laterally

“Lateral thinking doesn’t replace hard work; it

eliminates unnecessary cycles.” — Shane Snow in

Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons

Accelerate Success

Most of the United States Presidents spent less time in

politics than the average congressman. Moreover, the

best, and most popular Presidents, generally spent the

least amount of time in politics. Rather than spending

decades climbing the tedious ladder with glass

ceilings, they simply jumped laterally from a different,

non-political ladder.

Ronald Reagan was an actor. Dwight Eisenhower

laterally shifted from the military. Woodrow Wilson

bounced over from academia. These men spent

considerably little time in politics and became

fabulous Presidents. They reached the top by skipping

the unnecessary “dues-paying” steps. Insanely

productive people think the same way. Rather than

climbing up ladders the traditional ways, they think of

alternative routes. They skip unnecessary steps by

pivoting and shifting.

Shane Snow himself used this tactic to get published

on some of the biggest media outlets in the world

within six months of blogging. How did he do it?He

started by pitching articles to low level blogs with

basically no bar of entry. After getting a few articles

published on those, he leveraged his new position and

pitched to slightly higher level blogs.

He did this by sending editors of the slightly “better”

blogs an email reading something like: Hello, I’ve

written at these blogs which reach similar audiences

as your blog. Here’s an article I think would be a great

fit for your audience.

Because the editors of those blogs knew about the

blogs Snow had been published on, he was able to be

published on theirs’ as well. He followed this pattern

over and over until, within six months, his work was

published at Fast Company, WIRED, and others.

20. Think More Flexibly About “Limits” on Resources

One of the faultiest and most crippling mindsets

people have is over-categorizing things, and then

being bound by those categories. Psychologists call

this having a “pre-mature cognitive commitment.”

When you see things from only a singular perspective,

you’ll assume there is a limited-supply of that thing.

Money, from most people’s perspective, is a limited

resource. However, research has found that after

basic needs are met, what people really want is a state

of mind. Yet, that state of mind doesn’t have to be

tightly bound within the cognitive category of money.

Consequently, from a mindful perspective, you can

look at certain things, like money or even yourself,

from multiple viewpoints. You don’t have to get stuck

with fixed and rigid definitions. In nearly any case, you

come to realize that what you want is always available

to you, if you’ll simply alter your viewpoint.As Ellen

Langer, Harvard psychologist has said, “If we examine

what is behind our desires, we can usually get what we

want without compromising.”

The most detrimental thing we can view from a

limited standpoint is ourselves. Don’t let your own

assumptions and categories determine what you are.

You have no clue who you are or what you can

become. Different angles and more flexible definitions

allows for limitless possibilities.

21. Think More Flexibly About “Limits” on Time

“It is utterly beyond our power to measure the changes

of things by time.” — Ernst Mach in The Science of

Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of Its

Development

Time is an abstraction, which we conceive by the

change of other things. For example, the changing of

the seasons, or the aging of a child.

Many people have rigid notions, for example, about

how long certain things must take.

You can’t finish high school until you’re 18 years old.

You can’t be successful until after you’ve paid your

dues.

If you break your leg, it must take a few months to

heal.

These fixed notions about time are constraining and

limiting. Change can occur at different magnitudes and

qualities depending on the context. For example,

there is a concept called, “Spontaneous Remission,”

wherein an illness or disease surprisingly and

immediately changes.

Take away: Let go of your beliefs about fixed-limits of

time. Time is a unique concept, which few of us

understand. It need not be linear nor lead to entropy.

Again, many scholars are seeing that these are nothing

more than assumptions, or fixed-mindsets about how

things work.

Conclusion

Achieving your goals is VERY doable. It need not take

as long as you may have previously assumed.

There is no fixed limit on how much you can learn and

grow. There is no fixed amount of time it must take.

What are you going to do?