PP 182: Having a Pro Mindset & Taking Action | Blaze Your Own Path Series Pt. 3/3
Here’s a powerful quote that I’m almost positive came from Thomas Jefferson: “If you want something you’ve never had, you have to be willing to do something you’ve never done.”
I first heard it during my college football days, and it was a theme I used for my clients in my short year of personal training.
This quote has stuck with me over the years as I’ve grown my creative business, and it holds true today.
It’s funny, most people say they want something, yet they back it up with little to no action.
Then they’re the same victims who complain that:
They can never catch a break.
The world is out to get them.
Everyone else seems to be winning at life.
Engaging with these types of people frustrates me…
Because this is how I operated for easily 20+ years of my life.
Shit changed for me when I changed.
When I stopped playing the victim and started taking control of my circumstances, big breaks started to come my way.
Everything is about mindset, and what you think you can or can’t do something always happens between your ears.
Most students I work with dream of taking their side hustle to a full-time venture.
Even if these aren’t your intentions, what we're talking about today will still be relevant to your side hustle pursuits.
(Not to mention it can drastically boost all facets of your life.)
Today’s all about breeding a pro-mindset and taking massive, uncomfortable action.
Professional Mindset = Mental Edge
To me, a pro mindset is all about:
1) Doing the hard shit most people refuse to do
2) to achieve the results you want
3) despite circumstances or adversity.
For example, when I played and coached football in college, the program was breeding a professional mindset in us.
It slowly grew by showing up to:
Training camp for two-a-days practices when it was 90°+ outside.
5 am intense workouts in the middle of a freezing Iowa winter.
Early morning film sessions, then game planning meetings, then running scout teams in practice, then heading to night classes (all in the same day).
Eventually, this mindset shifted and carried over to my creative pursuits.
What started as a hobby quickly transformed into something serious—strictly, because I began taking myself more seriously (regardless if others still saw this a doodling hobby).
It then grew into a side hustle founded on doing something I loved that I was actually good at (aka The Sweet Spot).
Day-in and day-out, I treated Perspective-Collective like it was my full-time day job.
From an outside perspective, a lot of people in the creative community started thinking this was my full-time job.
I became more transparent and shared how I made time to pursue my side hustle outside my 9–5 and family life. That’s when things really started to click.
People connected with me on an entirely different level because what I was doing was relatable. They wanted to pursue something similar on their own terms.
That’s the one of today’s two main takeaways to manifest the type of side hustle results you want:
Treat your side hustle like it’s your full-time grind.
1. Full-Time Grind Mentality
To me, Perspective-Collective was my day job. It was a matter of time before reality aligned with my mindset.
Having a day job was crucial for me to find success with my creative side-business.
I learned how to leverage my day job to fuel my dream job in terms of:
Covering life expenses
Learning new skills on the company's dime
Traveling to conferences
Building new relationships
Growing my confidence
I should note that the skills I leveraged at the day job AND the skills I learned on my own time all benefitted my day job as well!
Working a 9–5 provided a stress-free environment for me to find my groove, take small risks, and not feel pressured to monetize my craft and burn out.
I rarely knew what the fuck I was doing, but I relentlessly figured things out.
Because every time I hit another milestone, the dream got bigger and clearer, which made me hungrier.
Once you catch a glimpse of what you’re capable of, that pro mindset muscle only gets stronger.
It’ll continue to get stronger as you cultivate mental toughness by:
Showing up when it’s not convenient
Making time to work on your dream
Taking risks and investing in yourself
Staying focused and attacking one thing at a time
Being disciplined in a world full of distractions
The more you begin taking yourself seriously, the more you’ll breed this pro mentality.
The more you breed this mentality, the sooner the big break will come.
For me, my big break was disguised behind a mountain of adversity when I was unexpectedly let go last November from my “safe” job.
I wasn’t “ready” to take the full-time leap, but 5.5 years of treating my side hustle like it was already my full-time grind “prepared” me to jump.
So now that you know what having a pro mindset looks like, it’s time to cover the second takeaway:
Take massive, uncomfortable action.
Take Massive, Uncomfortable Action.
To the complainers out there, if you kind of want it, you’ll kind of see results.
If you’re not where you want to be in life, maybe it’s because you’re too comfortable in your bubble and are afraid to shake shit up?
You can’t get salty when your 70% effort didn’t yield 110% results.
Acting salty, being passive, and doing the same thing over and over again doesn’t lead to rapid growth. It’ll land you in the same exact spot you’re in this time next year when you’re complaining about algorithms or hating on other people’s success.
Is there something you want to do, but is fear of judgement, failure, or even success is holding you back?
If so, I’m a big believer that fear is actually your intuition nudging you toward becoming the next version of yourself.
It’s a simple mindshift in viewing fear through the lens of excitement.
Do you have an urge to blog, vlog, podcast, or start a YouTube channel, yet you're scared to give yourself a chance?
I’m a believer through experience that those urges wrapped in fear are really the things you should be pursuing to tap into the next level.
A lot can happen in one year. Taking massive, uncomfortable action over and over again can spark that insane growth.
Sure, you’re bound to fail along the way, but that’s all a part of the process of blazing your own path to side hustle success.
Mindset & Action
Chasing your creative dream on your own terms isn’t supposed to be easy. That’s why most people settle for the traditional route.
It’s easier to unplug after you punch out and couch surf, consuming shit that doesn’t serve the bigger picture.
But this isn’t you because you’re listening to this podcast. You want more.
With this Blaze Your Own Path Series, you’ve learned:
Whatever you want to creatively accomplish is possible.
Showing up intentionally and authentically.
The power of a pro mindset and taking action.
Everything you want is right in front of you. It’s on you to believe it’s possible and having the guts to chase it till it happens.
No one is going to make your creative dream happen for you.
Keep your eyes on the prize, be persistent, and stay in the game—your breakthroughs will come.
The Podcast will be here to fuel your mind and creative grind along the way, my fellow side hustlin’ trailblazer.
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