In this Episode:
Welcome to Episode 9 of the Achieve Results NOW! podcast with your hosts, Theron Feidt and Mark Cardone . In this installment, the guys confront an internal barrier that limits your absolute ceiling of success: the way you manage and feed your mind .
Theron and Mark pull back the curtain on how average performers unconsciously pollute their mental real estate through passive consumption and conversational shortcuts . They contrast these habits with the rigorous mental diets of high achievers and layout the exact inputs—across what you see, what you hear, and what you do—required to build an unshakeable psychological state .
The Baseline Reality: Distraction is entirely natural, regardless of where you stand on the performance spectrum . The difference lies in the ratio and the content squeezed into that time . If you are distracted $90\%$ of your day, your chance of true achievement is slim to none .
The Average View: The average individual consumes massive volumes of standard television (historically up to 7 or 8 hours a day) . This heavy consumption forces your brain to scan other people's fictional narratives or real-world highlight reels on social media instead of building your own .
The State-Shattering Commercial Trap: Passive viewing exposes your subconscious to aggressive political advertisements and media campaigns explicitly engineered to trigger a negative, reactive state .
The Achiever's Reading Habit: High achievers switch out the screen for active reading . While casual fiction offers creative benefits, priority is placed on intentional, developmental literature :
Inspirational & Core Grounding Texts: Setting an unshakeable perspective first thing in the morning .
Biographies: The ultimate roadmap for human execution . Every massive challenge or objective you currently face has already been solved by someone else . Reading their life story is the fastest way to get from point A to point B without repeating their scars .
The News Illusion: Constantly scanning daily newspapers or headlines under the guise of "staying informed" is structurally no different than sitting through television commercials . The vast majority of mainstream media highlights variables entirely outside your circle of influence . If an event is truly critical to your immediate survival, someone in your circle will tell you . Keep the background noise in context .
The Stagnant Audio Trap: Average loops consist of endless talk radio, generic celebrity gossip, and toxic rumors that are blindly accepted as factual variables and repackaged across social channels . Spending an entire 8-hour shift swimming in talk radio guarantees you will finish your day in a hostile, negative state .
The Subconscious Loop: Your brain actively processes and anchors the specific phrases you vocalize out of your own mouth . When asked a standard question like, "How are you doing?" the average response is a weak, uninspired, "I'm all right."
Stating Truth in Advance: High performers counter this with calculated verbal shifts . Mark's signature standard response—"I am so outrageous, it's contagious!"—functions as a conversation driver and a neurological cue . Even on days when you do not feel perfect, speaking with calculated, present-tense power trains your mind to align with that baseline state .
The Drive-Time University: Achievers optimize their travel time by converting their dashboard into an educational platform . Use tools like Audible to maintain a strict audio curriculum comprised of instructional podcasts, strategy breakdowns, and audiobooks .
State-Driven Playlists: Music should be chosen intentionally, not randomly . Maintain separate playlists specifically tailored to your destination: use one intense sequence to prime your physical state before a heavy workout, and use a completely separate playlist to focus your state before stepping into a high-stakes client sales call .
The Morning Snooze Cycle: Average patterns begin with multiple rounds of hitting the snooze alarm, followed by an immediate dependency on caffeine over motion to jumpstart the nervous system . If you wake up in an absolute fog, it is not the fault of your coffee machine; it is the natural byproduct of a poorly constructed evening input stream .
Raining on the Parade: The default cultural standard is wired to spread subtle negativity . In an independent study tracking corporate receptionists, salespeople walked into offices and remarked, "Beautiful day, isn't it?" $85\%$ to $90\%$ of the receptionists immediately agreed, but automatically paired it with a negative caveat, like, "But it's probably going to rain later." Average minds instinctively look to cloud positive environments .
The Standard of Expectation: Achievers violently reject this default mode by setting immensely high expectations for themselves, their employees, and their direct teams . By keeping goals written cleanly at the forefront of your head, your subconscious uses those expectations to filter opportunities that normal eyes delete .
The Baseline Gratitude Check: True appreciation is an active decision, completely independent of whether you are experiencing a difficult day . If you are living inside the borders of a great nation like the United States, you already possess a baseline of fundamental freedom that can serve as an unshakeable platform for perspective . Remember the ultimate standard: every single day above ground is a great day .
Flip Your Script: The very next time someone casually asks how your day is going, refuse the standard "all right" response . State your truth in advance with a specific, high-energy phrase to break the automatic linguistic loop .
Execute a Media Swap: Cut $30\text{ minutes}$ of scrolling through social channels or television networks tonight and replace it entirely with two chapters of a high-value biography or leadership text .
The Media Distraction Audit: Audit your current drive-time audio content . Dedicate the first half of your commute tomorrow strictly to educational podcasts or tactical audiobooks before cueing up your high-state musical playlists .
Connect with Us:
Official Website: Head over to www.AchieveResultsNow.com to explore the archives and download your completely free copy of our action book, Ignite Results, to map out specific, daily wins !
Community Channels: Follow our team on Twitter, subscribe to the audio feed, and join our room of execution-focused action-takers over at facebook.com/achieveresultsnow.
