Being stuck with the poverty mentality and the mindset that you have to persistently do things a certain way that you were taught, takes away all the creative energy and will to dream from a person. Jim Larsen faced similar conditions in his hometown where he was expected to work hard and trade his time for money, leaving no room for bigger aspirations.
Jim embarked on his journey of self-development when he realised that he needed to start thinking about what he truly wanted and believe in his ability to get it. He stresses how instead of being taught to know what we want, we are taught to obey authority figures: parents, teachers, coaches, bosses. Consequently, a culture of trudging through life like good soldiers has been adapted as everyone is busy doing what they’re ‘supposed to.’ Nothing may seem wrong with this in the short term but later it is bound to lead to self-conflicts where you are confused about who you are and whether you can ever be satisfied with the direction your life is heading towards.
“I was stuck for so long with a poverty mentality that didn’t believe success was in the cards for me and because I didn’t believe it, I didn’t try for it,” says Jim. After drifting for years from one degree to another and one job to the next, he learned to dream bigger and figured out that he was passionate about business. Once he figured out what he wanted, he needed to set an intentional plan to convert his dreams into reality. In order to keep his activity aligned with his dreams, he always sets activity-based goals because results are the by-product of activity. Consequently, he keeps a check on his activity, attitude, and pace which prevents any kind of pressure to build up. This is what he preaches via his coaching business, book, podcast as well.
Consequently, Jim Larsen’s journey switched from doing specific tasks for someone else’s dream to focusing on his dream and learning how to make the process of achieving it more enjoyable. He states that self-development is the most important investment you can make that opens many new doors for you. After figuring it out for himself, he now makes this investment in other business owners by showing them how to raise their earning potential and dramatically shift their businesses by investing in themselves.
