“the skills that got you out of Egypt won’t get you to the promised land”
By: Fotis Chatzinicolaou
Tags: Mindset Shift, Mens Health, Fitness, Fitness Tips, Mindset

Hey omorfe,

Coach to entrepreneurs, Dan Sullivan, says:

“The skills that got you out of Egypt won’t get you to the promised land”

What he means is that, you might have developed a set of skills to achieve X goal…but the same skills might stand in your way when you want to hit a different one. Along with the skills you developed, you also have certain tendencies that can be obstacles to your success.

Consider me:

I’m great at hustling and surviving.

On the topic of hustle, I developed this skill after our economy went to hell in 2015, and I had to make money asap. I learned how to take action no matter what, push my work capacity to the max and, 99% of the times, maintain a positive attitude despite depressive thoughts.

On the topic of surviving, since a pic is worth a thousand palavras (that’s Portuguese for “words”) here’s one of your Greek buddy back in 2014

I might look chubby but I’m actually wearing:

* 2–3 long sleeve tees

* a sweater

* a hoodie

* Two trousers

* a scarf

* Two pairs of socks

You can probably see that I’m also wearing the hoodie’s hood and a beanie.

And of course, I’m wearing 2 pair of gloves. My family has been cursed with poor blood circulation for ages, and our fingers can almost freeze a cup of water during winter (perhaps the most useless superpower in the world)

This pic was taken during winter. My apartment was glacially cold but since I was broke at the time, I didn’t want to open the A/C. So I just wore as many clothes as possible to warm myself. In my mind at the time, as long as I survived and had money to pay the necessities (rent, electricity, water, etc) I could withstand the cold for a few weeks or months.

I got more examples, but the point (again) is this:

I’m good at hustling and surviving.

However, those skills have always gotten in my way to a better life.

Being good at hustling means your actions are focused mainly on the short term. So I struggle with medium to long term strategic thinking. This has been a major issue for my business growth because, I have a ton of great ideas for products and services to release…but fail to see how they fit into a long-term, 5+ years plan that can give me the income I know I deserve.

On the other paw, being good at surviving has the tendency to rewire your brain in nasty ways. So, even though today I’m doing well financially, I still catch myself being in “survival mode”. Instead of just getting a freaking cab and saving time, I’ll wait for the bus and walk 30+ minutes to reach my destination. Or I might choose to suffer cold by wearing a couple more clothes than usual, instead of just firing up the darned A/C. So, if you’re too good at surviving, you’ll have issues when you decide to thrive.

That’s why this quote is so powerful.

And we should all pay attention to it since it reveals our character flaws.

Lots of parallels here, both for life and your physique goals. And hopefully you can extract them yourself, omorfe.

For more tips and strategies on looking great with your shirt off, grab my one sentence muscle building plan at:

http://grecianman.com/

Your Greek buddy,

Fotis Chatzinicolaou