...yet

I used to say that I could never be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs had business ideas, and I didn’t have any.

I had this belief for a very long time. Part of me always wanted to go out on my own, but I felt like I needed to find someone else with a business idea who would let me somehow contribute to their idea.

So, I waited, leaving entrepreneurism to others.

Fast forward to today, and I’m out here on my own, having started my own business - and working with other people to get lots of new ideas off the ground.

What happened between my limiting belief and today?

The word “yet.”

Today I’ll share a story of how I learned about this concept and used it to make progress on something I cared about, plus tactics you can apply in your own life.

“Yet” as a way to chisel away at limiting beliefs

There’s a phrase I like that goes something like, “if you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”

That was happening to me.

I’d tell myself why I wasn’t built for something, and then years would go by and nothing changed. But why would it change? I was doing nothing to make progress on it. I’d decided that I couldn’t do it, so I wasn’t trying.

It took years, and three milestones, to take my flat trajectory of no progress and inflect it toward my goals.

The first milestone on the path of change was learning about the concept of limiting beliefs themselves. While I considered myself a learner, I felt like some things were beyond my capacity. It felt normal and humble to identify and name things you couldn’t do. Learning about limiting beliefs allowed me to see that my statement about “not having ideas” and “not being an entrepreneur” were pure limiting beliefs.

The second milestone was something I heard from Stoicism, which is “if a human can do it, you can do it.” This opened my mind to the large number of things that are possible. Sure, there are genetics and all sorts of factors that affect one’s ability to perform certain tasks, but in the grand scheme of things, just about anything is possible - and if another human has figured it out, why not you, too? My limiting beliefs began to fray.

The third milestone was the magical word “yet.” This tactical intervention helped me catch limiting beliefs right when they came out of my mouth. How does it work? Very simply - you append the word “yet” onto any sentence where you explain what you can’t do.

When you combine the knowledge of limiting beliefs, the understanding that you can do anything a human can do, and have a tactical intervention like “…yet”, you’re well on the way to a really strong growth mindset.

But knowledge of “yet” isn’t enough. You have to actually use it on your own sentences!

How to use “Yet”

You should use “yet” whenever you hear yourself utter a limiting belief. They can be hard to catch, so listen for things like “I can’t…” or “I don’t…” or “I’ll never….”

So in my own example, I might say to myself, “I don’t have any business ideas” - which I’d catch, and then add on “…yet.” It’s subtle, and a little silly, but it does work!

You’re just reminding yourself that nothing is fixed. If you choose to put in the work, you can learn or do anything. But keeping up with your “…yet” on top of limiting beliefs, two things happen:

1 - You start to believe it.
2 - It becomes second nature. You become unconsciously competent.

Awareness is honestly the hardest part! You have to hear limiting beliefs come out of your mouth (or in your head), which is not easy.

I’m pretty good at catching these, and even I’ve probably had some slip by me. In the last few weeks I’ve caught myself saying “I’m not good at marketing,” or “I don’t understand double-entry bookkeeping.” I have to remember to add my “yet” and remember that I’m still on a journey.

Know what I’ve found to help with my own awareness? Listening for it in others.

Listening to your Kids, Teams - Everyone!

I’m willing to bet you’ve heard a limiting belief from someone else.

Maybe your child started a new sport or hobby, sees all these other kids doing amazing things, then comes home and says, “I’m no good at soccer.” Or “I can’t do [that skill] in gymnastics.” Or “I don’t know how to play that song on piano.”

As an adult, it seems obvious. You’re no good yet! You can’t do that yet! You don’t know how yet!

As adults we’ve seen or experienced the amazing benefits of practice and coaching, so it’s obvious that your kid won’t be amazing on the first day. We need to remember that it’s still true as adults.

You may also hear limiting beliefs in teams. “We can’t ship faster than two weeks.” “We can’t do handle that much scope.” “We can’t get lag times below 12 hours.”

Yet!

In business environments, in part because they’re so complex and often require many people to make significant impact, the limits often feel like hard limits. Like, fixing-it-would-require-breaking-the-laws-of-physics hard.

But they’re not. Very few things actually require you to break the laws of physics. With sufficient focus and determination, you can indeed ship faster than two weeks, handle more scope, and get lag times below 12 hours.

Once you’re aware of this, you’ll hear it everywhere! Maybe a friend says “I’ll never get married” or “I’ll never qualify for the Boston marathon” or “I can’t get stains out of these dang clothes.”

Those become: “I’m not married…yet.” “I haven’t qualified for Boston…yet.” “I can’t get stains out…yet.”

Whether your kids, teams, spouses, and friends want to hear your “yets” is up to you. You don’t have to say it out loud (although I bet they’d benefit from seeing their limiting belief); you can definitely say it in your head. Again, we’re just doing this for awareness practice for you.

Is awareness enough? Can we say “yet,” go to sleep, and wake up closer to our goal?

If only it were that easy! Nope. You’ve got to put in the work.

Put in the Work

Acta, non verba. Deeds, not words. There are no shortcuts. You’ve still got to put in the work.

For me, with my limiting belief that “I don’t have any business ideas” I had to recognize that generating business ideas is a skill I could learn. So I did some reading and research, and decided to do two things.

First, I would be more sensitive to pain and annoyance. What sucks? What would I pay to fix in my day? Where am I annoyed? Where are things slow or failing?

Second, I would write down business ideas to fix those things. I had a file in Obsidian called Business Ideas. I’d brainstorm how to fix pain. These weren’t necessarily good ideas, but they were ideas. You have to be bad to get good, so I made myself write down whatever I could think of, regardless of quality.

Over time my ideas got better. I felt more comfortable coming up with ideas of my own. I became more skilled at this.

I’m at the beginning of that journey for things like marketing. I’m doing my reading and research, and then get to work. I rewrite copy. I make new web pages. I mess with colors and placement. I change positioning. I’ll not good at marketing today, but I’ll get there.

You must do the same. Identify your limiting belief. Recognize you can improve. Then do the work to get better.

Call to Action

What skill or trait are you telling yourself you don’t have…yet?

Listen to limiting beliefs coming out of your own mouth this week, then add “yet” at the end. Can’t find any? Then listen to others. If you’re pushing the boundaries you’re bound to hear a “I can’t…” or “I don’t…” or “I’ll never…” this week.

Tag a “yet” on the end of those statements and begin to fray that limiting belief.

If a human can do it, you can do it.

Kevin

PS - Email me at kevin@catalyst.group18.co and tell me what limiting belief you’ve caught yourself saying!