The Mindset Mentor - What If It Actually Works Out

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Want to create a morning routine that actually works for you? Download the free workbook here: theperfectmorningroutine.com Feeling stuck? It's time to take back control. If you're ready to master your mind and create real, lasting change, click the link below and start transforming your life today. 👉 http://coachwithrob.com The Mindset Mentor™ podcast is designed for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life.   Past guests of The Mindset Mentor include Tony Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty, Andrew Huberman, Lewis Howes, Gregg Braden, Rich Roll, and Dr. Steven Gundry.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. If you're out there and you want to create the perfect morning routine, go to the perfect morning routine. com right now and get my free workbook and video on exactly the step-by-step process according to science of how to create the perfect morning routine. Once again, that is the perfect morning routine.com. Today, I'm going to be talking about actually allowing things to work out the way that you want them to. I want you to think about something for a second. Have you ever noticed how your brain will immediately go to everything going wrong whenever you get inspired to do something different?

Like you have an idea and you feel excited about it for a split second. And then almost instantly it's like, yeah, but what if it fails? What if I embarrass myself? What if I get judged? What if I'm not good enough? What if it doesn't work out? And so automatically, it just pops into your head. And it feels so real because it's so automatic that a lot of times you don't even question it. It just feels like truth. But I want to introduce a question today that might feel like it's simple. But if you actually sit with it and allow your creativity to find out what's possible with it, it can change your entire life. Like what if it actually works out? Not in a toxic positive. positivity way, not in a just think happy thoughts type of way when the entire house is burning down. I mean like really ask yourself, what if this thing that I'm afraid of, this thing that I want

my life to turn into, but my body is saying no, no, no, danger, danger, danger. What if everything actually goes right? What if the other shoe never drops and my life just continues to unfold in an amazing way all the time? And so I'm going to say something that I feel like I have said 4,000 times on this show, and I feel like a broken record saying it, but I really need you to think about this multiple times a day, every single day when you have a bad day or you go to the negative or you spiral or you catastrophize. Your brain is almost always going to go to the negative most of the time. It is the human brain's default. Your brain is not designed to imagine best case scenario or to make sure you're happy. It is designed to protect you. It is designed to

predict the future based off of the past, which means if you have failed before, if you have been rejected in some sort of way before. So your brain goes, cool, I've got an idea of what might happen based off of what's happened to me in the past. So let me go ahead and project that into the future. That's it. It's not intuition. It's not truth. It's basically just pattern recognition instead of side of the brain. Pattern recognition does not mean truth. It just means it is searching through your database of your past, taking what's happened in the past and throwing it into the future. So if you fail before in the past, it thinks you're going to fail again. If you've been judged before, it thinks you're going to be judged again. If you've been made fun of before, it thinks you're going

to be made fun of. It's just taking the past and throwing it into the future in order to keep you in the exact same place. And your brain will always default to that. It will always default to what feels familiar, especially if what's familiar is you playing small. And that's why for a lot of people, like failure doesn't really feel scary all the time. Sure, it's scary, but it's like, we've done that before. Do you know what feels scary for a lot of people? Success. Success does. Think about that for a second. Because failure is known. We could predict what could happen based off of what's happened in the past. You've done that before. You fail before. And you're your brain thinks about that a lot. Success though, that's unknown. And an unknown thing to your brain

feels like a threat. So let's go a layer even deeper, okay? When you say things like, oh, yeah, I don't, I don't know if it's going to work out. That's not really 100% what you mean. What you actually mean is, I don't know who I would be if it did work out. Like I've always messed up or I've always not been good enough. I don't know who I would be if I say. succeeded. Like if it did work out, you'd have to be more visible. You would have to be more responsible. You would have to sustain that success. You'd have to handle new problems that you've never seen before. You'd have to change your beliefs about who you think you are if it all worked out. If you actually succeeded, that's a new and different identity. That's scary to the brain.

And your brain goes, yeah, we've never seen that person before. That sounds scary. let's not risk it. Let's just hit the brakes. And so it pulls back because it wants to keep you within your current identity. It doesn't know anything outside of what you already have and what you already are. And so here's something that's really crazy about it. There's a book that's called Thinking Fast and Slow. And here in the book, he explains a really important thing, okay? Inside of your brain, you actually have two different systems inside of your brain. One that thinks fast, like immediately, automatic, emotional. You don't even really notice it. It's so. fast, it just pops in. And one, it thinks slow. It thinks logical. It thinks intentional.

So that fast brain is the one that comes in first. System one is what comes in first. And it comes in immediately. And it runs your identity. It runs your patterns. It runs your, this is the story of who I am. So even if your slow brain, system two is like, yeah, this could work. Your fast brain has already run in there pulling you back to whatever, feels familiar. And so system one runs most of your life, especially your default reactions. System two, what's funny is it thinks that it's in control. But usually, if you're not intentionally using system two, well, system one ran in and made its immediate reactions. System two, if you're not in control of it, it just usually explains what system one has already decided because

it comes in slower. So you, knowing this, need to be. to stop getting caught in all of your first thoughts and first feelings and give yourself some time. Let system two come back in. Be intentional with system two and say, okay, like I've noticed the fears of system one, the worries of system one, the limiting beliefs of system one. But let me bring in system two. What if this actually works out? And use system two, which takes a little bit longer to come in. It's the logical side. It's not the emotional side. A little bit more logical. Use system two. asking the question, what if it actually works out to challenge system one. And we will be right back.

And now, back to the show. So that is your brain and how it works. But there's another layer that we need to talk to that's really online that really is happening inside of you. Right. That's your nervous system. This is a part that most people miss. Your comfort zone is not just your thoughts and your behaviors. It's your emotional states too.

If you're used to stress and overthinking and doubt and inconsistency in anxious feelings inside of your body, your nervous system will go back to those feelings and emotions because they feel, well, normal. Even if they suck, even if you don't want them, they feel normal and you want to go back to what is normal. Unconsciously, your nervous system, your brain, all of those things want to go back to what is normal. So when something starts to go right, when there's momentum in the right direction, when there's opportunities popping up, your nervous system goes, hold on, this isn't familiar. Like, this is unfamiliar. This doesn't feel like us.

Like, this is something I've never seen before. I can't predict this. Let's hit the brakes. And so you subtly will procrastinate and you'll overanalyze and you'll overplan or you're pull back in some sort of way. you will create problems in your mind that don't actually exist. Not because there's something wrong with you, but because your body is trying to return to what feels safe and what is known.

Misery doesn't feel good, but it feels familiar for a lot of people. Your nervous system, even if you don't want to feel miserable, but misery is your standard will still want to go back there because it knows this is what feels normal. and so if it's about to do something different, if you're about to do something different, if you're about to think differently, what you need to do is let yourself feel the discomfort

of doing something new and out of the ordinary for you. Don't run from it. You're going to feel your nervous system kick on and be like, danger, danger, danger, alarms, alarms, don't do it. Breathe into it. Let yourself feel the discomfort. You're doing something new and prove to yourself that you're not going to die.

And sustaining it long enough, In doing this for a while, it will eventually start to feel normal to take action and to do something different and to get out of your comfort zone. Now, I promise you this, this is not a couple weeks kind of thing. This isn't even like a couple months kind of thing. It's probably like six to 12 months kind of thing for getting out of your comfort zone and doing something new and building an identity to actually feel more normal to you. Like to feel normal.

It's a two to three year thing for it to actually feel like who you are. is that longer than we want absolutely i have found this to be true nothing you want will ever happen as fast as you wanted to but when it does happen it will be 10 times better than you thought it was going to be right it might take two to three years but damn it's better than being stuck and miserable for the rest of our lives isn't it sure so how do you actually shift this not like intellectually or theoretically but in real life how do you actually do this let's get practical with okay the first thing that you want to do is catch the default question questions direct your mind and so you're constantly asked yourself questions your brain will ask questions like what if this goes

wrong what if this doesn't work out what if i'm not good enough or smart enough or a failure so it's going to ask those questions which is why it immediately goes to things not working out things going wrong you being a failure not being smart enough all that and so you want to notice the question that is system one part of you your brain. Just expect it. Expect it. Stop getting so wrapped up in it. Oh my God. Why am I so negative? I wish I was more positive. No, just expect it. It's going to happen. Deal with it. Stop getting caught up in it. You just want to notice it. That's system one. You can't always control your first thought. You can always control your second thought. And I want you to interrupt it and ask, okay, but what if it goes right?

And now you're going to bring in system two, which is to be more intention. right instead of letting system two agree with system one you're going to use system two to actually start to get more creative and think what if it does work out ask better questions not what if i fail what if i'm a loser what if i'm not good enough but like what if this actually does work out for me like i don't need you to convince yourself like i don't need you to do any of that i just want you to open up the possibility loop right allow your brain to get creative in a new and positive way versus the old protective ways that it has your entire life. Because right now, your brain is only running one scenario and it's all of the old scenario it has. It's your entire

life. Give it another scenario and see what it comes up with by asking better questions. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing is I want you to build evidence through action. Confidence doesn't come from thinking about it. Confidence comes from doing something and surviving it. and you're showing your brain, oh, I did this thing that was hard. I did this thing on my comfort zone. I did this thing that felt uncomfortable, but I'm still alive. Okay, then I probably shouldn't be afraid of it. So every time you show up, every time you follow through,

every time you do something uncomfortable, every time you survive, you're building proof, I can handle more than I thought. I am still safe. And that's where real confidence comes from. And the longer that you do it, the more you'll actually start to see yourself differently than you have before in the past.

Okay, that's number two. Number three is I want you to start to regulate, not try to like motivate yourself, okay? If your old nervous system patterns kick in, then your body feels unsafe, your mindset won't matter. Like your body will override your mindset almost every single time. You can be like, I need to be positive, I need to be positive.

But if your body and nervous system feels like it's in fight or flight and it feels like sends the alarms like you're about to be attacked or killed, doesn't matter how positive you want to be in your mind. So when things start going well, it will also feel very foreign. And your nervous system is going to kick in and be like, I don't know if this is right. So instead of like, when you start going well and you start going in the direction as you want, instead of rushing, instead of sabotaging, instead of doing any of that stuff, just pause and let yourself feel it. It's like when people get a compliment and they have really hard time taking compliment,

it's because it doesn't line up with what they think of themselves. So it's kind of the same thing. When things start going well in a direction you've never had before, instead of rushing through it or sabotaging yourself, pause for a second. Feel it like actually try to receive it in your body. Like let it be okay for you to grow and to succeed and to be somebody different. It will feel foreign to you and your body, but you need to try to make it feel normal. You're trying to like brainwash your body, I guess you get this of lack of better words. Brainwash your body into like, oh, this is possible. Things working out need to be conditioned into your body.

So give yourself three minutes of breathing. Breathe in through the nose. Maybe you can hum out through the mouth. Calm your nervous system so that you can encode that feeling of things going right. So that way everything working out for you actually starts to feel normal. that's how you expand your capacity and allow more good into your life. And so the last part I really want to cover with you is that you have to understand, you don't get the life that you want.

Like you don't just want to have a better life and get it. You get the life that matches who you believe that you are. So if you believe things never work out for me, if you believe I always mess up, if you believe I'm not that type of person, you will unconsciously make that true. You have been unconsciously making your entire life true because your brain is wired to act in ways to stay consistent with who you think you are. And so I want you to sit with this today. Like actually sit with it and think about it deeply.

What is that thing in your life right now that you keep assuming won't work? That goal or that idea or that relationship or that version of you, whatever it might be. Like, where you're like, I really want it, but like it probably won't work out. Instead of asking why will this fail or what if it fails or what if I screw up, I want you to ask yourself, what if it actually works out? Watch what your brain does. Watch how you'll start to get excited, but then you'll pull back. And then you'll get excited and you'll pull back.

And just allow yourself to just imagine things working out. And imagine long enough. And you'll notice your body starts to get excited about things working out for you. Allow your brain to start getting creative and thinking about new and exciting possibilities that you've never thought about before. Instead of old patterns that just come in from your protection mechanisms in your brain. Because that actually sitting down

and thinking what if it works out and feeling into it, that's where your next level starts. So that's what I got for you for days' episode. If you love this episode, please share it on Instagram Stories, tag me in at Rob Dow Jr., R-O-B-D-A-L-J-R. And once again, if you want to download my free workbook

and video on how to create the perfect morning routine based in science, go to the perfect morning routine.com right now and download it for free. And with that, I am going to leave you the same way leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.