The mindset shifts that change your life are swaps in the default sentence you tell yourself, such as moving from ‘I have to do this’ to ‘I get to do this’, and they only work when you back them with action. Your mindset is the set of beliefs and attitudes you default to internally, and most of them were drilled into you by parents, community and friends, often wrongly. Changing it is one of the hardest things to do. Repeating a mantra three times each morning will not make you rich, and sending your desires out to the universe will not attract them. A shift in mindset only works if it is backed by a change in actions.
Below are the 15 shifts the script lays out, each as a swap from a limiting phrase to a more useful one, followed by a bonus rule on focus.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 shifts at a glance
- From ‘I have to do this’ to ‘I get to do this’ (0:51)
- From ‘Life is hard’ to ‘Life can be easy and exciting’ (1:37)
- From ‘I will never’ to ‘How can I’ (2:38)
- From ‘I need to know everything’ to ‘I just need to start’ (3:40)
- From ‘Wanting something’ to ‘Figuring out why you want it’ (4:25)
- From ‘Everything is fixed’ to ‘Everything is negotiable or flexible’ (6:03)
- From ‘Another obstacle’ to ‘Another challenge to see if I really want it’ (7:18)
- From ‘Things happen to me’ to ‘I make things happen’ (8:27)
- Instead of defaulting to ‘No’, ask and wait for the answer (9:27)
- From ‘I wish things were different’ to ‘What’s one small thing I can do today’ (10:21)
- From ‘Sunk cost’ to ‘Let’s start over’
- From ‘This needs to be perfect’ to ‘This needs to be done’
- From ‘It’s already been done’ to ‘I can do it too’
- From ‘It’s either yes or no’ to ‘There’s always a creative option’
- From ‘It’s impossible’ to ‘There might be a way’ (17:11)
- Bonus: Allow no disturbances in your airspace for 6 months
1. From ‘I have to do this’ to ‘I get to do this’
Approaching your work from gratitude is a big attitude shift. You get to do what you do for a living, and that is a privilege. The more honest you are with yourself, the more you notice how easy you actually have it and how often you still find reasons to complain.
If life feels hard, zoom out. The task you keep putting off is something you get to do, and your life improves if you do it. Once you see it that way, it usually turns out to be less hard than you made it.
2. From ‘Life is hard’ to ‘Life can be easy and exciting’
Your parents likely taught you that life is hard and you must work hard to become something. For them, taking the punches long enough was enough to earn a reward. That is only half right. Keep the discipline, but aim it at exponential growth.
If hard work were all it took, the richest people in the world would be oil rig workers. Whatever you do for a living, someone has already found a smarter and easier way, and your job is to find them and see how they did it.
It is supposed to be hard in the beginning, but if it is still hard after a while, you are doing it wrong.
3. From ‘I will never’ to ‘How can I’
Phrases like ‘I will never be rich’ or ‘I could never afford that’ steer many lives. By declaring it, you make it true. The biggest asymmetric upside in life is taking action when everyone else does not: show up to the audition, send the email, take the first step.
Definite thinking leaves no room for movement. If you have already decided something will not happen, you have no reason to try. Switch to ‘how can I make this happen’ and you start to see a plan.
Average people have wishes. Successful people have plans.
4. From ‘I need to know everything’ to ‘I just need to start’
This is why most people never do anything. They say it is not the right time, or they never got around to it, or they are waiting for the opportunity to present itself. In effect they want some outside force to line up the planets and turn every traffic light green.
The script claims only 3% of the population acts on their goals while everyone else settles for mediocrity. The gap between those who win and everyone else is that the first group chose to play the game at all.
5. From ‘Wanting something’ to ‘Figuring out why you want it’
The script calls this the rule of 3 whys minimum. Say you want a Ferrari. Why? To feel successful. Why do you want to feel successful? So people can see how well you are doing. Why does that matter? Because deep down you are looking for other people’s approval to feel good about yourself.
From the third why onward, things get honest. You can go deeper, and the script suggests seeing where you land by the fifth why. The more you question your reasons, the more you learn about what drives you, and that changes how you set goals and make decisions. It can also be flipped and used for a business.
6. From ‘Everything is fixed’ to ‘Everything is negotiable or flexible’
Life is as you make it. Believing destiny is pre-written takes the fun out of being alive and moves responsibility from you to the universe. You could send an email today and quit your job, and your whole life would turn. That is a little scary, because it shows how much power you have.
So negotiate money, life and love. Fight for what you want instead of settling for the first thing the world puts in front of you. When people close a door, you can still give them a reason to open it. That is what doors are for.
7. From ‘Another obstacle’ to ‘Another challenge to see if I really want it’
Everything worth having is hard to get, from a working farm to mental peace. So challenges will come. Some things you do not know, some you know but do not understand, and some you cannot fix yet.
Treat each one as a test of whether you really want it. If you do, you will find a way. If not, the obstacle becomes your excuse. Being challenged is inevitable, being defeated is optional, and you decide how your story ends.
8. From ‘Things happen to me’ to ‘I make things happen’
Look around. Everything you have, from objects to the people near you to the things you do, came from thousands of decisions and indecisions, big and small. Moving from a victim mentality to a master-of-the-universe mentality is a big shift.
You are responsible for what happens in your life. If you want different outcomes, you need different actions. Be accountable and take risks under your own name, so that what happens to you is clearly by choice. Play your cards right and it matters less what hand you were dealt, which is why you see the same people at poker tournaments.
9. Instead of defaulting to ‘No’, ask and wait for the answer
Maybe your parents did not have much, so you did not ask for much, and deep down you assumed the answer was already no. That habit now holds back a whole generation of adults whose minds still default to no.
Do not be the person who says no to yourself. Ask, and let the other person say it. By the script’s count, at least half the time the answer is a surprising yes. Ask for the raise, ask her on a date, apply for that job in Italy. It costs nothing.
10. From ‘I wish things were different’ to ‘What’s one small thing I can do today’
You are what you do every day, and everything in your life now is the result of daily actions. Books about habits have multiplied in the past five years because people are just noticing how mechanical our behaviour is.
Find one small thing that moves you slightly closer to your ideal. If your back hurts, get up five minutes earlier and stretch. Do it today, then tomorrow. The habit books all repeat the same idea: focus on one thing, start small, stay consistent and see what happens.
11. From ‘Sunk cost’ to ‘Let’s start over’
‘I am too invested, it is too late for me now’ keeps people stuck. Many second-year medical or law students realise they hate the path and do not want it for life, yet they push on miserably, often because someone in their circle pointed them that way when they really wanted to pursue art.
The script quotes Aubrey de Grey: do not cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it. Sunk cost leaves people in situations they were too afraid to change, and then angry. Check yourself: what are you doing right now only because you have already sunk time, money and energy into it?
12. From ‘This needs to be perfect’ to ‘This needs to be done’
Past a certain point, a 1% improvement in quality takes substantial resources. The goal is to find the sweet spot where something is good enough to get the job done for the phase you are in.
Clunky and incomplete but done beats waiting for perfect conditions. Being awkward in the gym beats staying home to watch 20 videos on the correct bench press. Version 1 will almost always be bad, but version 2 then has clear things to improve. Progress does not come from huge jumps: you do not go from a rotary phone to a smartphone in one clean step.
13. From ‘It’s already been done’ to ‘I can do it too’
Many people drop ideas because they do not feel original. They skip the coffee shop because there are already so many, or skip making content because there are so many influencers. But you have not read the numbers, and you are telling yourself you need to be a one-in-a-generation miracle.
You do not need to be Starbucks to run a successful coffee shop, and you do not need to be friends with Kylie Jenner to sell lipstick on Instagram. The world is big enough for everyone, and there is a lot of space that is not being used well.
14. From ‘It’s either yes or no’ to ‘There’s always a creative option’
Life is not black and white, but many people run on the equivalent of an IF function. When something is not a perfect match, they throw out the whole thing. You see it when working with the government, where the system allows only one way to get something done, however inefficient.
You see it in business too, in people who say ‘take it or leave it’ and think that is a strong tactic. If one side leaves it, nobody gets what they want. Ask what you actually want to achieve and what would be easiest for the other side to accommodate. The creative route may work better, cost less and be easier for both of you.
15. From ‘It’s impossible’ to ‘There might be a way’
How can something be impossible when others have done it? How can the sky be the limit when there are footprints on the moon? Calling something impossible lets you hide: you look only at the outcome and ignore the process.
You are living in the most abundant period in history, the script says, and the next five years will be full of opportunities in every area of life. Equip yourself with these shifts so you are in position to run when the door opens.
Bonus: Allow no disturbances in your airspace for 6 months
This one is about your future and your family’s. You need to know exactly where you are going and build your own trajectory. There is a lot of noise in your orbit: shiny objects and people sending you their energy. For a short period, put all of it on hold and focus like a laser.
Picture locking yourself in a room for six months with one goal that could change all the years after, and coming out with a body of work that stands the test of time. Nobody can be in your airspace, because even slight impacts can push you off course.
The reason is the 1 in 60 rule from air navigation: for every degree a plane veers off course, it misses its target by 1 mile for every 60 miles flown. The farther you travel, the farther you end up from where you meant to be.
A mindset shift acts as the correction that keeps you on track.
Pick one shift and act on it
None of these swaps works as a slogan. Each one pays off only when it changes what you do tomorrow morning, so choose the shift that stung the most and attach a small action to it today.
The script ends by asking which of the 15 had the biggest impact on you, and inviting readers to answer in the comments.
FAQ
What is a mindset shift?
It is replacing a limiting default belief with a more useful one, for example ‘I will never’ with ‘how can I’. The script stresses it only works when backed by a change in actions.
How do you change your mindset?
Start with one small daily action tied to the new belief, because everything in your life is the result of daily actions. Focus on one thing, start small and stay consistent.
What is the rule of 3 whys?
Ask why you want something, then ask why again about the answer, at least three times. By the third why you usually reach the real reason, such as seeking approval, which changes how you pursue your goals.
Why should you ask instead of assuming the answer is no?
The script says that at least half the time the answer turns out to be a surprising yes. Asking costs nothing, while defaulting to no ends the conversation before it starts.
What is the 1 in 60 rule?
It is a rule of thumb from air navigation: for every degree a plane veers off course, it misses its target by 1 mile per 60 miles flown. The script uses it to show why small deviations matter over time.
Keep reading
- 15 Philosophies That Will Change Your Life
- 15 Powerful Mindset Shifts
- 15 Habits to Improve Your Life
