Mindset or Action? You're Asking the Wrong Question.

About this Video

Have you ever wondered whether real change starts in your mind or with your actions? I've wrestled with that question for years, and I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer. In this video, I share two moments from my own life that led me in opposite directions—one where mindset had to change first, and another where action was the only option. What surprised me was discovering a third element that connects both. If you're trying to make a meaningful change in your life or business, I hope this gives you a different way to think about where to begin.


Transcript

Commit First. The Rest Is Noticing.

My favorite quote about getting anything done was written by a Scottish mountaineer in 1951.

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision… all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have believed would have come his way.”

That’s W.H. Murray.

And Paulo Coelho said the shorter version in The Alchemist:

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”

Now—careful here.

This is not “think it and it appears.”

That’s the refrigerator-magnet version, and it’s garbage.

What they’re actually saying is simpler and harder.

The moment you truly commit—not hope, not intend, commit—the world starts arranging itself differently around you.

Doors open.

People show up.

But commitment is just the starting gun.

It raised a question I’ve been chewing on for years.

When you want to really change something—where do you start?

With your mindset?

Or with your action?

You hear both preached with total confidence.

Fix your head and the behavior follows.

Or—forget your head, take the action, let your feelings catch up.

And here’s the thing.

They’re both right.

And they’re both wrong.

The honest answer, the one nobody puts on a poster:

It depends.

Two stories.

They land in opposite places.

First one.

For most of my life, I wasn’t responsible.

Something goes wrong, I find someone to blame.

I sat in a seminar where the leader drew a line.

Above it: responsibility.

Below it: blame and justify.

And I knew exactly which side I lived on.

That was a mindset moment.

No action could fix it that morning.

I had to see it first.

I figured that’d take a few weeks.

It took years.

Because seeing it once doesn’t move you.

The work was noticing—catching myself sliding below that line, over and over, in real time.

I tried brute force first.

Barely moved the needle.

Mindset had to lead.

Second story.

My cancer diagnosis.

The mindset gurus could’ve gone home.

No reframe was touching what was happening in my body.

There was just a schedule.

Take the drug.

Make the appointment.

I was in too much pain to think my way through anything.

So I didn’t.

I just did the next thing on the list.

One foot, then the other.

And it worked.

Not because I had the right attitude.

I had a calendar and a body that hurt.

Action led—because there was no mindset to lead with.

Same guy.

Opposite answers.

So is there anything underneath that travels with you?

There is.

It was hiding in both stories.

Noticing.

Catching the blame before it forms.

Catching myself—and I still do this—speaking in absolutes, saying “always” and “never” like it’s gospel when it isn’t.

Both fixed the same way.

Notice it in flight.

Then change it.

Mindset versus action is real, and it’s situational.

But noticing is what tells you which one the moment needs.

It’s the bridge.

So this week—one change you’re working on.

Ask honestly:

Is this a mindset job, or an action job?

Have you been bringing a hammer to a job that needed a flashlight?

I haven’t got this nailed.

Seventy-three, still reaching for brute force, still catching my absolutes a beat too late.

A student of this, not a master.

But I’ve committed to figuring it out.

And you know what Murray says happens then.

Drop it in the comments.