How Anxiety Can Lead To Greatness

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the mindset mentor podcast the number one mindset podcast in the entire world. Thanks to all of you guys that are out there listening. I'm your host Rob Dial. And if you're the type of person who is out there and you want to learn and grow and improve your life and know that in order to improve your life, you're going to have to improve yourself. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button. I put out episodes four times a week to teach you how to understand yourself so you can start taking action to create the life that you want. So if you want to join us, hit that subscribe button.

0:36Today, I'm going to be teaching you how you can actually use anxiety as a way to propel you to greatness. Now, when you look at anxiety, anxiety is a emotional response to a perceived threat or challenge most of the time. And so being anxious about something is being anxious about an imagined future. This is really important. Okay. A lot of times we're anxious because we think that there's something in the future that we fear like, oh my gosh, if I build this business, then what happens if I fail? And that can be true. But anxiety is an emotional response to a perceived threat, a perceived threat, which means it's imagined it doesn't actually exist.

1:21And so when you look at life, life is extremely unknown and uncertain. There is trillions of uncertainties that are going to come up over the course of our life. And humans don't really like that because uncertainty is seen as a threat to the human brain because the human brain wants to plan and figure out every way to get around any type of threat because your brain is designed to keep you alive. And so there's actually a philosopher from the 1800s named Kierkegaard, and he actually says that anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. And what he means is that there's so many uncertainties, so many unknowns that it can actually really kind of set us off.

2:08And we want stability. We want security. But there are so many unknowns. There's unknown and uncertainty as a whole. And there's an infinite amount of unknowns across your entire life. And so if we're being real as humans, we really have very little knowledge of what the hell we're doing here in life. right? So it's like the people who raised us and the people who are running society don't really have any idea of what we're doing here either. They're just kind of doing what they feel like they're supposed to be done and keeping economies running and businesses running and all of that stuff. And when you really start to look at it and you come back to like the person as a whole, we all have a lot of unknowns and we're trying to fit into boxes that were created by other people.

2:57and anxiety is, I'm going to take a different flavor of anxiety today and start to talk to you about it, but your anxiety can be transformed when you start to discover your passions. Really interesting thing, because think about this for a second. If I'm living a life that I don't want to be living, once again, if we go back to what I said at the very beginning, the very first thing I said is anxiety is the emotional response to a perceived threat or challenge. And we're anxious about something that we're imagining in the future. A lot of people, I think, are anxious about the future that they're going to be stepping into if they continue on the exact same path.

3:37So a lot of people are anxious and have anxiety around the future because they're going, I don't even know if I like my present moment. I don't want to be at this job in 10 years, but I don't know what to do if I don't have this job. I don't know how I'm going to pay the bills if I don't have this job, but I don't want my boss's job. My boss sucks. His, it looks like what he's doing sucks. I don't want to do that. I don't want to stay in this industry. I don't want to do this. And they're getting anxious. I think a lot of times because they're thinking about the future and the fact that they don't even want that future, but they don't know what else to do.

4:11And so we can use anxiety as a way to actually transform our lives and help us discover our passions. The anxiousness that we can feel thinking into the future is us thinking about the future, doing this thing that we're doing until we die and not discovering our passions or our purpose. I can tell you 100 % before I started this podcast and I was 26, 27 years old, I was making great money, but I looked at my manager and I was like, I don't want her job. I don't want to be doing this shit in 10 years. and I remember starting to get really anxious about it because I was like, that's not what I want.

4:50And I was like, what the fuck do I want then? I need to figure it out because I'm not doing this forever. And so the anxiousness that we can feel is our body's way of saying, we need to discover our passions and our purpose, not letting ourselves settle and not find what really makes us alive. And so when you start to think about it, The anxious feeling is kind of your body's way of saying, hey, this is not the path for you. This is not what you want to be doing. You need to do something else. We don't want this future. You don't want this future. We need to do something. Too many people are trying to fit into somebody else's life.

5:30They're trying to make themselves, they're trying to fit us. The anxiousness is coming from trying to be a square peg and fit into a round hole. And you're like, this isn't working. This isn't working. But my mom told me I was supposed to do this when I was 17 years old. I need to become a doctor. I need to become a lawyer. I need to become an engineer. I need to take this. I need to take over the family business. And so you're trying to fit your infinite being that is completely unique into somebody else's mold of what either they are or what they think you should be. Too many people are trying to live someone else's life.

6:03Another thing that the Kierkegaard said was the crucial truth of life is to find truth, which is true for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die for. So think about that for a second. He talks a lot about anxiety and he says, the crucial truth of life is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die. Anxiety is a natural part of life, but it is our response to it that will either give us a full and fulfilling and amazing life or an empty and regretful one. If we decide that we are just going to continue down the path of who we currently are and what we've currently been and trying to fit ourselves into a mold that doesn't feel right, it will just lead to more anxiousness.

6:53If we decide to use that anxiousness to create change in our lives, then we can find our passions and try to live a fulfilling life. If we do nothing, it will lead to more anxiety and ultimately despair. And listen, I get it. We have the freedom to do anything that we want in this life. But sometimes that freedom to do anything that we want in life and in the infinite amount of paths keeps us from doing anything at all. So we must learn to move forward just a little bit, no matter how slow. The worst thing we could do is just stay in the same place. My very first mentor used to always say, you're either green and growing or brown and dying.

7:35And so if we feel like we're progressing, like even Tony Robbins says, progress equals happiness. When we feel as a human, like we're progressing towards something, whether that's progressing towards the life that we want, the business we want, the relationships we want, or that we as a human are just progressing a little bit. We feel better about ourselves. We feel better about life. No matter how slow, you just have to learn to move forward a little bit. and your anxiety will start to quiet much more as you take a step forward. And so the important piece of this though, is that you can't look at any other person's life and say, that's what I'm supposed to be doing.

8:17You can't look at any other person, what they've told you that you're supposed to do and say, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. You need to find your own subjective truth and follow through with it without any approval from the outside world because you know what feels right. Like, you know, it feels right. No one can tell you what you should do with your life. You know, it feels right. And the problem is you've been trying to silence it and silence it and silence it and do what other people have been telling you to do or do what society tells you to do or do what you think will make you money.

8:48But you've been silencing it for so long that that silencing the thing that feels right is now turning into an anxious feeling. So really what it comes down to is, if this is hitting home with you, a path of self-discovery, like rediscovering yourself. A lot of people always ask me, like, I'm very big on intuition. I'm very big on feeling. I'm very big on following my gut. And a lot of people are like, how do I develop that strength? How do I develop my intuition? You don't need to develop intuition. Do you want to know the truth? You just need to shut up and sits quietly for a while and you start to understand yourself more.

9:24And for me, this is what I kind of started to realize is that I was moving and doing things so much that like, I didn't even give my intuition time to kind of speak up. And so really what it comes down to is people are always like, how do I develop my intuition? I don't think it needs to be developed. I think it needs space to speak up is what really it comes down to. You know what feels right. Only you know what feels right. And so when was the last time you checked in with yourself in silence and not just like one meditation session, but like saying to yourself, like, I want to know what I want to do with my life.

9:55I want to know what my passions are. I want to know what feels right for me and do it over and over and over and over and over again. It's like, you might get one little piece of the puzzle. Imagine that your passion is like a thousand piece puzzle and your, your, your intuition is going to give you one piece for every single time that you just sit silently and be with yourself and you get one little piece. It's not like the entire puzzle is going to be done immediately, which is what everybody wants in this world. I want to be done now, right? You're like, uh, that, uh, that annoying little girl.

10:28That's, uh, that's in, um, Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, right? You're like, I want it now, right? That's not how the world works. That's not how your intuition works. It's like, imagine that every time you just sit quietly with yourself. You're just given like another puzzle piece and another puzzle piece. And every time you journal and sit down and say, what do I want? What do I want to create in my life? What would, what are my passions? What do I want? What makes me curious? What seems fun to learn about? And we just write these down. It's like the universe just gives us another puzzle piece, another puzzle piece.

10:58You will start to discover what feels right. And it might be out of alignment with what everybody thinks that you should do. And that's where really people start to struggle because they're like, well, I want love and acceptance for my mom and from everyone else around me. I'm not saying that you should just disappear and not hang out with them anymore. But what I'm saying is only you know what feels right. And if someone doesn't accept you for what feels right for you, for your full alignment, your true purpose of what you feel is your true purpose in life, and they don't accept you, are they really there for you?

11:33You know, a lot of times our anxiety comes from trying to fit into someone else's box, right? It's your body telling you this is not right for you. Do something else. You're trying to conform in your body saying, no, no, no, do something else. Do something else. And when it was the anxiety starts to get a little bit more and a little bit more, it's like it's screaming at you. It's like your body being like, for the love of God, change something because you can't do this forever. And that's why it's hard to take action because number one, either that what you're doing, you're getting anxiety because this thing is not right for you, or the unknown is so scary for you that you're focusing on all the negatives.

12:17Life will not be, it'll never get easier and never get less scary. You just have to get stronger and have the tools to work through those things as they come up. And most of the world is unaware of this. And so if somebody, it's really hard to find people who are aware of this type of stuff. And so it's really a personal journey. No one could go on this journey with you. This is your journey. Most of the world is unaware of it. And most of the world is numbing and they don't know why. They don't know why they're numbing. But in reality, a lot of people are numbing because of the fact that they are trying to take this fully unique being that they are and fit into a box that someone else has built.

13:00And so they numb and people take pills and people take drugs and people drink to numb their feelings. You know, their body is trying to say to them of you need to change something. They're scrolling. They're on Instagram all day long. They're constantly on, you know, shopping. You're trying to eat to calm yourself. There's many ways to calm yourself and to feel like you're calming yourself. And really more than anything else, it's just you trying to numb yourself from the feeling of I'm not doing what I want to in my life. And so you might be eating, you might be drinking, you might be working too much.

13:41That was my thing that I did for a long time. I was a workaholic because I was just not doing what I truly wanted to do. And so really what I would recommend for everybody is if this is really starting to like hit home with you, give yourself more time with yourself. If you want to listen to your intuition, listen to your feelings, be quiet more often. You can meditate if you want to. You can sit outside in silence. You can journal and ask yourself, what do I want? And you can start to ask yourself these questions. What is it that I want in my life? And get better at journaling. If you want to get better at journaling, I have a free course on it.

14:17It'll give you journaling questions and show you how to do it. It's mindset. What is it? Mindsetjournal.com is what it is. I think that's what it is. I'm pretty sure. I wasn't planning on talking about it. It just popped up in my head. Mindsetjournal.com I think is where it is. And so you just start writing down and you start asking yourself questions and start to discover yourself and really like get curious. If you feel anxiety pop up, get curious about anxiety. If you want to get better at anything, you have to learn about that thing. You want to get better with your anxiety and working through it, read books about it.

14:47Learn about it. Learn about yourself. Learn about how to work through it. Get really curious about it. Get obsessed with it. If you can start to see this thing, as you start to learn about anxiety, and it's not this thing that just is this invisible force that's keeping you down. As you start to learn more about it, you start to figure out ways to work through it, and you start to see it from other angles versus just this like, instead of this like invisible heavy cloud that's just on top of your head all day long. You can start to see it from other angles, start to pick it apart a little bit more.

15:19And when you can start to pick it apart and start to see it from other angles, it doesn't have as much control over you. It has way less control over you. And so really what it comes down to is like, what if the anxiety that you're feeling is your body saying, wake the hell up, do something different. This is not what we want to do. Your mind, your heart, your soul, your brain, this is not what we want to do. we want to do something different. Then you go, well, my God, what the hell do we want to do? Well, that's where you have to start going on the path of self-discovery. What are you curious about?

15:50What do you want to learn more about? What lights you on fire? What makes, what feels really good? What is your Ikigai, right? I have an episode on Ikigai, I-K-I-G-A-I of like the four places where they intersect to find out your purpose. Ikigai stands Japanese for your reason for being. What is your reason for being? And at this moment, I understand most people listening right now don't know. That's fine. But now that you know that you don't know, but you know that it's out there, now you can start to try to discover it. There are very few things in this world that are more important than discovering your reason, your passions, your purpose, the things that light you up the most.

16:28And if you start to follow those things, what you'll notice is your anxiety will become less and less and less and less and less. And that is the way that your anxiety can help make a change and actually help you lead yourself to greatness. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please do me a massive favor. Share it on the Instagram stories. Tag me at Rob Dial Jr. R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. The only way this podcast grows is from you guys sharing it. And I want to, I wish every person in the world would listen to this podcast. I wish we could get the message out there.

16:59And the only way we can actually get the message out there to more people is if you guys help us. So if you would do that, take out your phone, just share it real quick. I would greatly appreciate it. And with that, I'm going to leave the same way. I leave you every single episode, make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you. And I hope that you have an amazing day.