I used to set goals all the time - a new one every month.

Not because I was doing really well and achieving them all, but rather because I was never achieving any of them.

And so I would set a new goal, but this time, this goal, this one, would be different, I would achieve this one - and I never did.

I knew what I had to do to achieve my goal.

I knew the actions I needed to follow, I knew the habits I needed to build, heck I had an entire plan drawn out with every intricate detail of what I needed to do.

But I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do the things I knew I needed to do.

At least, not consistently enough, for long enough. Eventually, I would self-sabotage.

It meant my progress was incredibly volatile.

Sometimes I would make a tonne of progress, but then I would self-sabotage and drag myself right back down to where I started.

This is the most common reason people don’t achieve their goals.

Think about it, pretty much everyone sets goals (we all set goals unconsciously, but in this context, I’m talking about consciously setting a goal, something that we desire to achieve), and when you set a goal, the first thing you do, or at least that most people do, is go and figure out what you need to do to achieve it.

So you have a goal, you know what you need to do, but yet, you can’t do the things that you need to do, you can’t follow your plan for long enough or consistently enough to achieve your goal.

Why?

You know what you need to do. You know how to do it. So why can’t you do it?

Well, first, you need to understand that a goal is just a result.

A goal is an outcome, outcomes require causes.

And the actions and habits that you have to do to achieve that goal are the cause of that outcome.

But your actions are dictated by who you see yourself to be - your identity.

If you don’t see yourself as someone capable of being productive, being disciplined, being successful, and achieving this certain goal that you have, then eventually, you will self-sabotage.

Your identity is like the Earth.

If your goal is to get into space, you can jump and push yourself from the Earth, but you’ll only get so far before gravity pulls you back down.

You can get in a plane, take off and fly and you can stay in the air for a certain period of time, but eventually, gravity will pull you back down.

If you try to take actions that are outside of the actions deemed possible by your identity or deemed outside of where your identity wants to go in life, eventually, your identity will pull you back and stop you from taking those actions.

You can only act outside of your identity for so long.

Hence, if your identity is all messed up, you can only do the things that you need to do to achieve your goals, for so long, and chances are, that period of time is not long enough to achieve your goals.

And sure, you can and should focus on building discipline and building consistency because they will help to prolong the amount of time you can take actions outside of your identity.

Building discipline and consistency is like getting into a plane and taking off.

But planes can’t escape the earth’s gravity and eventually, they’ll be pulled back down.

It helps, but it doesn’t fix the problem.

Instead, if you want to achieve your goals, what you have to do is change how you view yourself, you have to change your identity and become someone who naturally does the things that you need to do - the actions, the habits, the behaviours necessary to achieve your goal.

Because here’s the other thing about goals.

Goals are things that you do not have and can’t just get, otherwise it wouldn’t be a goal, you would just go and get it.

So the reason you have a goal and don’t just go and get the thing you want is because you are not yet the type of person capable of achieving it.

Because if you were, if you were the type of person capable of getting the thing you want, you would be capable of doing the actions that you need to do, you would have all the right knowledge, and you would have achieved your damn goal and you would just go and get the thing you wanted.

But since you haven’t just gone and got it, you mustn’t be capable of getting it yet, you mustn’t be that person yet and so the solution is obvious, you need to become them.

You need to become someone capable of achieving the things you so badly want to achieve.

You need to rewire your identity, to allow the actions you need to take to be the easy and natural option.

You need the actions that you need to take to be second nature and obvious.

Because if you don’t, eventually, you will self-sabotage and you will drag yourself back down to earth.

What you need to do is to get in a damn spaceship, escape Earth’s gravity and land on another planet where the gravity, the atmosphere, the terrain and the possibilities are different, you need to rebuild your identity.

(okay, maybe this Earth and planet analogy wasn’t the best, but you get the picture)

Remember, you cannot act outside of the identity that you have for yourself.

If you see yourself as someone who cannot be successful, your subconscious will do everything it can to ensure you cannot be successful.

As Carl Jung said, and as I opened this newsletter with, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.'

If the unconscious version of you is doomed to be a failure, the conscious version of you is doomed to be a failure and you will think that that is just how it’s meant to be.

Unless you change it.

Unless you break down the damns wall of your current identity and rebuild it from scratch.

This isn’t overnight, and really, it’s never ending.

You rewire your identity, make a certain amount of progress, achieve a goal and then you have to rewire your identity again to reach your next goal and repeat.

This can get quite deep into Jungian psychology and “shadow work”, something I am by no means an expert on but will be exploring over the next few months.

However, the basics are this;

Your identity is largely formed through repeated experiences and “trauma” (I don’t like that word and think it’s overused in our easily offended and babyish society, but there are still some genuine traumatic experiences out there - severe bullying, abuse, etc)

Most of these experiences that shape our identity happen during childhood when our brain is easily malleable and highly absorbent.

It takes all those times your parents told you that you had no money to buy x (insert nice thing that everyone but you hadn’t) to imprint into your identity that money is scarce and that you’ll never have money.

It takes the bullying you experienced at 13 years old to make your identity believe that you are powerless and have no control.

The result of these experiences, or whatever yours were, is a bit of a paradox.

You chase money and control because you were denied them, but yet, every time you chase it, your identity pulls you back and stops you from getting them because it believes that you’re the type of person to not have money or control.

And this can go on, and on, and on for a tonne of different problems.

Now, with these problems and limiting beliefs, does that mean your identity will stop you from achieving anything?

No, of course not.

But eventually, you’ll set a big enough goal and your identity will think you’ve jumped too high and pull you back down.

You may also be asking, does this also apply to everyone? Well, the answer to that is yes, but for some people to lesser extents.

Some people never had that many “traumatic” (again, I hate that word) experiences and some people took to rewiring their identity automatically without even realising they were doing it.

Either way, whether you have a massively limiting identity or not, I see no downside to consciously choosing to reframe how you view yourself in the most positive way - other than change.

But change isn’t a true downside. Change is inevitable.

Things are always changing, but what’s not inevitable is whether things change for the better or for worse, that my friend, is up to you.

And by consciously choosing to rebuild your identity in an advantageous light, you’re choosing change that benefits you.

Yes, some people won’t like it.

Some people won’t like that you’re changing and they’ll do everything they can to stop you from doing it.

They’ll try to sabotage you and tempt you into vices. They’ll try to tell you that “you don’t need to change”.

But this in itself is a character flaw and a limiting belief their own identity has and something that they, themselves, need to change.

Those who fight change are those who need change the most.

So look, of course, this can and will be tough, difficult and challenging - but so is all change.

And if you don’t make this positive, advantageous change, if you don’t fundamentally rewire how you see yourself, you’re never going to get to where you want to go and you’re never going to achieve your goals

It is crucial.

Let me give you a quick example.

If you want to build a business to $100,000 a month - but your identity is that of someone who cannot make more than $10,000 a month, you will never take the actions, make the decisions, or do the things that you need to do in your business to scale it to that next level.

Because people don’t have business problems, they have personal problems.

Think about it, the only thing stopping you from scaling your business further is the actions you take and the decisions you make in your business - after all, certain actions and decisions got you to where you are now, so certain actions and decisions will get you past where you are now.

However, your actions and decisions are dictated by your identity, by how you see yourself.

So if you want to scale your business, you need to make the right decisions and take the right actions, which requires you to have the necessary identity.

Because remember, you cannot act outside of your identity.

And of course, that applies to every goal, not just a business goal.

So with that, I’m going to walk you through the process that I’ve been following for the past 2 or so years that has allowed me to rewire my identity, achieve my goals, build a multi 6 figure business and grow my audience to over 600,000 followers.

This is a crucial step to peak performance, becoming all you could be and Self-Mastery which is why it’s a massive part of the first module of MasteryOS (which, by the way, I’m overhauling and updating in the next ~6-8 weeks, and with that the price will be rising, so now is a good time to get in)

 

Rebuild Yourself. 

Step 1: Set Your Sights 

 

We’ve gone rather deep into identity in this email.

But the whole point of going into identity was so that you understand its importance and can then achieve your goals, because it’s the exact reason you haven’t and can’t achieve them.

With that, to start rebuilding yourself and your identity, you need to start with your goal.

I don’t care what your goal is.

Just figure it out.

Whatever it is, write it down on a piece of paper right now.

As always with goals, do yourself a favour and give yourself the best chance of achieving it by ensuring it’s;

• Reasonably unreasonable

• Specific and with a deadline

Your goal needs to be reasonably unreasonable because remember what a goal is, it’s something you don’t have and can’t just get.

Hence, to get it, you need to improve and level up.

If you set a goal that’s too small, you might not have to level up and make changes to achieve it, hence it’s not really a true goal and it’ll hold you back in the next steps to rebuilding yourself.

It also needs to be specific and with a deadline so that you can make a plan for it.

That’s not something we’ll cover in this email and there’s an entire science and art to setting deadlines and time constraints for goals - which if you want me to go over in a future email, let me know by replying to this one.

Once you have your goal written down on paper, move on to step 2.

 

Step 2: Who Do You Need To Become 

 

Remember you need to become the type of person who can achieve your goal.

You need to become the one who can.

To become that person, you need to know who that person is.

So underneath your goal, start writing about what sort of person would be capable of achieving the goal that you set in step 1.

Define them in every way.

What habits do they have, what characteristics do they have, what traits do they have, what mindsets do they have, what behaviours do they have, and what actions do they take daily, weekly and monthly?

What habits do they not have, what characteristics do they not have, what traits do they not have, what mindsets do they not have, what behaviours do they not have, what actions do they not take?

Be as detailed as you can be about that person, who they are, what they do, what they don’t do and what life they live.

The best part about this, is that by having this person in mind, you can pursue becoming that person and achieve your goal.

Because goals aren’t necessarily achieved, identities are created and with those identities, the goals are automatically achieved.

If you can achieve a certain identity and become a person capable of achieving your goals, your goal will be achieved as a by-product.

Remember - if you were the person capable of achieving your goal, you would have achieved it.

So logically, if you become the person capable of achieving your goal, you will achieve it.

Hence, your main focus should not be on the goal, but instead, it should be on becoming the person capable of achieving it.

Once you’ve detailed out this person, follow step 3.

 

Step 3: Who Are You? 

 

Next, what you need to do is write at the top of a page “Who is [Your name]”.

(Eg. I would write “Who is Ross Harkness”)

And underneath, what I want you to do is write about yourself, in the 3rd person, as if you are that person that you wrote about in step 2.

So let’s say, in step 2 you said the person who would be able to achieve your goal was ruthless with his time and he didn’t let anybody abuse it.

I would write in step 2, “Ross Harkness is ruthless with his time, he doesn’t let anybody abuse it.”

And so on, you would write about yourself as if you were the person in step 2.

What you also want to do is write about yourself as if you’ve already achieved your goal - so if my goal was to earn $100,000 a month, I would write in this step 3, “Ross earns over $100,000 a month through his x” whatever business I wanted to build.

What you’re doing here is pretty much creating a document that lays the foundation for you becoming the person that you need to be.

You can even take it further and write about your dream life, the cars you drive, the house you live in, your partner, your dog and all the rest.

That bit is up to you, but I would recommend you do it.

The most important thing about this step is that you write about yourself in the 3rd person, as if you are the person you wrote about in step 2 and as if you have already achieved your goals.

This document, you want to read it every morning and every night.

Yes, I know this sounds like corny law of attraction, manifestation crap - but think about it logically.

Your identity and beliefs were formed through either trauma or repeated experience - hence, to rebuild it, you need repeated experience.

This act of reading about who you want to become and what you’ve achieved is a repeated experience that over time will rebuild your identity.

However, it’s useless if you don’t follow the next step.

 

Step 4: Stack Evidence 

 

Reading about who you are or who you’re going to become is both useless and pointless if you’re not doing anything to become that person.

You don’t just become them.

You have to earn the right to become them, you have to put in the damn work and build yourself into that person.

So, now that you know who you need to become, what actions they take, what habits they have and all the rest, every single time you take an action or do anything that that person would do, you write it down.

The way I’d recommend you do this is to create a notes document on your phone, as the title write down a quick summary of the person you are building yourself into - a snapshot in 3-5 words of the identity that you’re crafting.

For example, a disciplined, driven, successful entrepreneur.

And every time you take an action, perform a habit or do something that that person you wrote about in step 2 would do, you write it down.

You are again, creating repeated experience that you are this person.

You’re building momentum, building self-respect and creating evidence that you are that person.

This helps keep your focus on becoming the person you need to become and eventually, it’s not overnight, you will become that person.

But you have to stack the damn evidence, every single time you do anything that the person you’re trying to become would do.

 

Step 5: You’re No Longer That Person

 

A massive reason people will fail at this is because they keep doing the things that the old them would do.

They keep watching porn, they keep eating junk food, they keep scrolling on their phone all day.

This is your old identity, resisting change, it’s your old identity-fighting death - because for your new identity to be built, your old identity must die.

By doing the things the old you would have done, you keep that identity alive and prevent your new identity from being built.

So, yes, you will need to make sacrifices.

You will need to make some massive changes in your life and cut out all the crap that you know you shouldn’t be doing, all the crap that doesn’t serve you.

If you’re bored, instead of picking up your phone and scrolling, pick up a damn book.

If you’re hungry, instead of picking up junk food, cook something healthy or eat a bit of fruit.

You need to remove what keeps you attached to your old identity.

One of the best things you can do to help you with that is simply say, whenever confronted with a habit, action or behaviour that the old you would have given in to “I’m not that person”.

Seriously, you will be surprised at how powerful this is.

Since you’ve been reading about who you are, since you’ve been stacking evidence, you will start to believe that you are that person and you’re no longer the person you used to be.

As time goes on, this gets more and more powerful as your new identity gets stronger and your old identity withers away.

If you’re confronted with something that the old you would do, something that you know you shouldn’t do and something that will hold you back - remind yourself, you are not that person.

And trust me, you won’t do it.

You can also use this to help you do the things that will build you into the person you need to be.

If you’re facing resistance to doing the work, to working out, to doing whatever it is that will benefit you, that you know you need to do, you say to yourself “I am that person”

And again, because you’re taking action, stacking evidence, and reading about who you are, this is powerful and only becomes more powerful over time.

It becomes so powerful that you become the person that is capable of doing the things that you need to do to achieve your goals consistently enough, for a long enough period of time.

And you achieve them.

That my friend, is how you achieve your goals faster.

- Ross

 

 

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