The One Thing Holding You Back
Stephen Scoggins
The Journey Principles Institute (7 Companies in all)
Stephen Scoggins is an award-winning, successful, multi-million-dollar serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and creator of Transform U, a proprietary Life Mastery System dedicated to guiding others toward lasting breakthroughs in any area of life. Stephen has helped Fortune 500 leaders, professional athletes, entertainers, hardworking individuals, and everyone in between to exceed their wildest expectations in their life, business, and career.
https://transformuevent.com/
Part of my story is…being homeless and overcoming a lot of childhood adversity….and I had an interesting mentor that poured into me at about the age of 13/14.
He said ‘What’s the difference between a rich man and a poor man?’ And I was like (at 16) ‘Money, of course.’ He said ‘Absolutely not. It’s the way they think.’ He followed up with ‘Do you want to learn to think like me? Or do you want to continue thinking like your father?
My father was a hard working individual..he was not good with money..he wasn’t necessarily good with relationships. Steve was incredibly wealthy..he employed a few hundred team members across states…and one of the things he helped me become aware of was the way in which I was thinking about myself…opportunities…my future…
As you go through life…you begin having experiences…that get you starting to believe you are ‘less than’ because someone in front of you is ‘more than.’
The number one thing that holds most people back…is the way they think. If you take that a level deeper, what I’m really saying is their ultimate level of self awareness. How aware are you of your strengths, your struggles and your blind spots?
In almost every case they all but ignore their blind spots.
If the secret is in how I think, how do I better understand how I can think and then how can I reprogram myself?
What has to change in me? That’s the simple question most people forget to ask themselves.
We have a tool that we use to identify things that are kind of hidden under the surface….there’s a number of tools you can use to at least take the first step in better understanding yourself. the tricky part is, when you’re reading through the results…it’s maybe better to walk over to your spouse or your friend and say ‘what do you think about this sentence?’
There’s trust in wise council with people that you admire and trust.
I would not go out and try and get a third party opinion from someone who’s consistently trying to take life from you.
In my journey, the person that I thought I was, was the person I was allowing myself to be.
If I believe that I’ll always be a construction guy and that I’ll never be an author and I’ll never be a speaker, and as a result I should never try, then nothing’s gonna change.
If someone who believed in me…said I see you and you’re dynamic…passionate, bold…you might have a skill set at speaking. Now I’ve got a decision in that moment…to say ‘what if?’
I believe that it’s 80% change and 20% foundation.
I’m a high DI…in that high drive, that immaturity side…I was pretty aggressive…had I left that unchecked…that limitation determines the level of motivation and also the level of maturation that you actually have.
The awareness starts ‘this is the limitation’, ‘this is what has to change’, this is what I’ve identified’ and then it comes down to putting in the work.
I believe you can change about 80% of your DNA. If nothing else, taking it from immaturity to maturity. The other 20% is…the way God made you.
You have to go on a self awareness journey…without condemning yourself
When I first dropped out of high school, no one asked me why I was dropping out….they proceeded to condemn me…they didn’t know if I didn’t do that, we weren’t gonna eat or have shelter.
…I got cocky and arrogant and boastful…and as a result, I proceeded to lose everything. Ultimately leading to me being homeless….I was chasing the affirmation of others in general.
In order to beat imposter phenomenon …you have to acknowledge it exists…and then you have to ask yourself why? Why do I feel inadequate at times? For a lot of us, it’s because we are trying to measure up to someone else’s expectations. And as a result, as you being to remove those expectations of others and just see yourself as a work in progress, then you’re able to give yourself credit for the little bit of confident wins you get along the way.
…there’s one major difference in those two Stephens. It’s the way in which they perceive the world.
All of those things are a level of awareness that may be bridging the gap between the person you are now and the person you ultimately want to be. In order to become that person, you have to lay out a strategical plan to become that person.
If you can focus on the steps and not the expectations, then a lot of times what will happen is, you’ll build self confidence along the way and you’ll realize…this is simply a journey. Be at peace with the journey.
Phase one for me was all about practicalities and necessities….how do I make sure I get to eat this week? How do I make sure I don’t have to sleep outside?
It was about 5-7 years before I even gave myself the permission to dream. We have forgotten to give ourselves permission to dream.
Phase two is now I have some hope, some dreams and aspirations.
And then phase three became Oh, I’ve got something here, maybe I can scale it.
You test it, then you scale it.
Now that I know how important it is, the one message I would give to everybody is…give yourself permission to dream.
It’s a phase journey…Phase one, gain perspective. Phase two, remove roadblocks. Phase three, organize a plan. Phase four, you work your plan. When you put all that together, it’s GROW.
We try to put a cookie cutter framework around the process and what that does is eliminate the ability to meet people where they are and understand how they got there.
There’s 7 levels of mastery…in order to achieve mastery, at anything, that is a process. So the blind spots and struggles you have today can be worked on to the point of almost inexistence…but you’ll uncover new ones.
Stuck is not making progress. Unstoppable is nothing more than consistently making progress. It’s persevering through that stuff.
Any specific struggle you have is going to show up in negative behavior attributes you exhibit. And that’s the place to start.
The first major roadblock I had specifically was pride….pride went from pride all the way to insecurity. Insecurity driven by fear.
One of the tricks I’ve used in the past is to say ‘Why?’ five times.
You identify the pattern, you say I need a principle to override the roadblock.
Principles govern promises.
At the end of the day, your level of achieving your aspirations…comes down to whether or not your willing to put in the work to get them.
Ed Mylett said ‘I’ve gotta keep the promises I make to myself.’
People let the fear of the unknown shape the potential of their future rather than defining what they want..and simply beginning to answer the questions ‘what baby steps can I take today?’
Transform U is an amazing 3 day experience. We don’t do pitch fests. We do application. We teach you, we train you and then we basically show you how to apply it consistently….it’s not a one-size-fits-all…we shape it based on (your) need….you wind up with an actual one on one transformation.
Be willing to do today what others won’t so you will have tomorrow what others don’t.
Speaking even in Europe in the Scotland area
A cellphone and a microphone. I want to spend the rest of my life giving back to the person I used to be.
IG: stephen_scoggins
Audio : Ariza Music Productions