Mike Mirarchi 0:19

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Mirarchi, and today we are going to be talking about anchors that hold you back in your life's journey. In many cases, the number one thing that holds us back is ourselves, so today we'll be discussing what I call anchors. Anchors are things that hold us back from reaching our fullest potential. This podcast is the start of a series on this topic, and so today we will start with fear. Now, fear could be both a positive and a negative emotion. In a positive way, fear keeps us safe In some ways. If you're on the top of a cliff, you have fear, so it keeps you from jumping off the cliff or getting too close to the edge. So there is good fear, but sometimes, and many times in people's lives, fear is the thing that paralyzes them from walking towards their goals and from reaching their fullest potential. Whenever I talk to someone, and I'll say why don't you want to do that? And the reason is fear, that is never a good reason. Fear is never a good reason to move forward and to do something towards your goals. So you have to ask yourself if you don't want to do something, or if something is holding you back. What's holding me back? Why? Why don't I want to walk towards my goals? Why don't I want to walk into a new position? Why don't I want to walk into something new and different? Walk into a new position. Why don't I want to walk into something new and different? If fear is the reason, that is not a good enough reason.

Mike Mirarchi 1:50

Fear is also tied into your comfort zone. If we continually expand our comfort zone, we are simultaneously helping to overcome our fears. Sometimes, expanding your comfort zone is something as easy as trying a new food or doing something small. Small steps to expand your comfort zone also remove fear, because as you're expanding your comfort zone, you're removing fear. For example, if you have the fear of flying, if you take a short flight somewhere and it's successful, then the chances are that you're going to alleviate your fear and you'll be able to continue to fly. Comfort zone is a huge deal with fear. They're tied in together.

Mike Mirarchi 2:27

Your greatest success is always outside of your comfort zone. If fear is holding you within your comfort zone, then you're never going to reach your fullest potential. You're never going to reach the success that you're designed to reach. In this situation, what's the worst thing that could happen? The airplane could crash. Well, the odds of that happening are millions to one. You have a greater odds of getting in a car crash or probably even walking off the curb and getting hit by a bus. In everything in life you're going to have situations where you're putting yourself in danger. Do you just going to stay in your house all day? Not reasonable? I guess you could. You're going to be out, you're going to be doing things, and if you're able to overcome that fear now, it opens up whole new doors for you, because your greatest success will be found in overcoming your fear.

Mike Mirarchi 3:16

There's no failure by losing. It's either winning or learning. So if you try something and you fail, if your fear is you're afraid to fail, you have to fail. The greatest, most successful people in the world fail every day, because that's how we learn. Think about a toddler or a baby. How they learn. They learn by trial and error. They're trying to walk. They get up, they fall, they get up again, they fall. They might do it 100 times. Somehow. When we get to be adults, we lose that resiliency. So we're not willing to get up and fall and fail. We're not willing to try things over and over again until we get them right, and that's really the key here. Every time you fail, you learn something. If you try a business and it doesn't work out, that's okay. Learn from it, see what you did wrong and then do it over again and get it right.

Mike Mirarchi 4:10

Sometimes the skills you need in order to be successful are learned in your so-called failures. Experiments never fail. You can always try new things. You always should be willing to experiment and try things, because experiments never fail. If you're, for example, looking to start a business, sometimes you do a little experiment and see if the possibility of that business will work. You don't have to go towards the full scale business in the beginning. You have to take small steps to get you to that place.

Mike Mirarchi 4:43

How do we overcome our fear? Growth only happens when you're thrown in over your head. Sometimes we have to be thrown in over our heads. Then we learn how to survive and the skills you learn through that are incredible. We have to be willing to be thrown in over your head. That expands your comfort zone as well. One thing that holds people back is over analysis. Over analysis is paralysis. You can analyze things to death, and if you're not willing to take that step towards it, that's really the key, and the key is small steps towards that goal. So again, if fear is holding you back, take a small step.

Mike Mirarchi 5:18

If you want to start a business, do something small. Put your accounting software together. Take one small step. Do some marketing work on it. Put together a business. Do something small. Put your accounting software together. Take one small step. Do some marketing work on it. Put together a business plan All those things you can do without actually launching your business. You've got plenty of time. People say I don't have time. I don't have time. You go. Well, look on your phone. How much time are you spending on social media? How much time are you spending watching YouTube videos and things like that? How much time do you spend watching TV? We all have plenty of time to be able to do the things that we need to do and so, instead of watching YouTube videos, put together a business plan. Start working on marketing. Start working on your logo. Start working on marketing. Start working on your logo. Start working on all these types of things you can do to launch a business, for example. If you take those small steps, that'll give you the confidence to continue to move forward.

Mike Mirarchi 6:07

Surround yourself with people who will encourage you and not discourage you. And this is a huge deal, because many times throughout our lives we're told things and we internalize those You're a loser, you'll never amount to anything, you'll never make it. That's a crazy idea, all those things we're being told constantly. You'll never be successful, you don't have the education. You didn't get your four-year degree, whatever it is. Put those out of your mind. The people generally who are telling you that are people who aren't successful themselves and sometimes they'll tell you that because they don't want to see you be successful, because that'll make them feel bad.

Mike Mirarchi 6:47

As crazy as that sounds, the example is during podcast one. I told you about the story when I decided to go to VoTech. So I decided that I'm going to go to VoTech. I didn't know any different and the first class we had after was a math class and the math teacher was like well, I guess I'm going to have to teach you guys how to write a check and do a checkbook. In other words, you guys are losers because you're going to vo-tech and you'll never amount to anything. So I guess I better teach you how to do a checkbook. That's how insane it gets. But that subtle message well, it wasn't exactly subtle. That message gets through to people and then they actually believe that they can't do it because of what other people told you.

Mike Mirarchi 7:30

Surround yourself with people who will encourage you and put good thoughts into your mind, but also be honest with you. If you have an idea that maybe isn't good and not all ideas are good a true friend is going to help you, is going to say something to you as in hey, mike, really let's take a look at this business plan together. This is really looks like it's going to be a challenge. Let's talk about this. Let's talk it through. A good friend will tell you if there is something that you need to address. For example, you got a booger hanging out of your nose. A good friend is going to say hey, you got a booger hanging out of your nose and you know what. It might be a little bit embarrassing for a second, but that person saved you a lot of embarrassment. That's a good friend. They'll tell you the things that you need to hear. Faith and fear cannot coexist. You either have faith or you have fear. You cannot have both together.

Mike Mirarchi 8:26

I'm going to share with you the secret to my success. Why is it that I'm successful in life. Number one I put everything in God's hands 100%. I work as hard as I possibly can in God's hands, 100%. I work as hard as I possibly can and then God fills in the gaps. That's it. And I know that sounds simplistic and some of you might say, oh, that doesn't make sense. I'm just telling you from my experience that's the secret to my success. I can go way deeper into that subject and if you want me to go way deeper into that subject, I'm happy to do it. And if you want me to go way deeper into that subject, I'm happy to do it.

Mike Mirarchi 9:03

Go to my website, thetoiletpapersalesmanpodcastcom and leave me a comment. There's a comment section. You can leave me a comment. If you want me to focus on my reasons for success and I can get really deep into all that, please give me a comment and let me know and that's all I have for today. If you liked this podcast, if it was valuable to you, like and subscribe Until next time. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? We sell toilet paper. That's what we do. Thanks a lot and have a great day.