Why You Dream Big But Never Take Action

Have you ever wondered why you know exactly what you need to do, yet you still can't seem to take action? In this episode, I'll show you why most people stay stuck by focusing on short-term obligations instead of long-term opportunities. I'll teach you how to shift your mindset, break free from self-sabotage, and start taking the actions that will completely transform your life. Freedom Live is a 3-day live experience in Austin designed to help you break through what’s keeping you from your next level. Get $100 off your ticket: https://robdial.short.gy/freedomlive The Mindset Mentor™ podcast is designed for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life. Past guests of The Mindset Mentor include Tony Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty, Andrew Huberman, Lewis Howes, Gregg Braden, Rich Roll, and Dr. Steven Gundry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode. And if you're somebody who wants to build yourself into being a high performer, you can't figure out how to break past your old self, your old procrastination, your old habits, your self-sabotaging. I'm running a free live workshop on the evening of August 27th to teach you the psychology of high performance. I will teach you how to break your old fears, break your old limiting beliefs, your old patterns, all of these that are limiting your capacity to succeed. So go to 2026workshop.com right now. Once again, 2026workshop.com. I will be live. It is free, and I will see you there.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Today, we're going to be talking about why some people take action and why most people stay stuck forever. And this is one of the biggest hangups that I see that stops people from creating the life that they want. Like, most people know they want a better life. They consciously want to create a better life, but they keep stopping themselves, and they can't figure out why it is. So if you can master this, it's going to be so much easier for you to take action towards the life that you want, to create the future that you want to create. And so, obviously, we all need to do things to change our life. Like, that's just not going to change. You can't sit around and just meditate a different life.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  You have to do different actions. You have to do harder things than you're currently doing to make a better life. And you've got to stop holding yourself back, but you have to understand, your brain is not wired to do that. Your brain is not designed to do the harder thing when it's not necessary in this moment. Your brain is wired for short-term focus. You've probably heard like, life is either hard now and easy later, or easy now and hard later. Well, it's because our brain is always looking at the short term. But if you can look through a different frame, like through a different lens, and start seeing long-term, you will change what you do on a day-to-day basis drastically.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  And it's this idea that I want to share with you of opportunity versus obligation. Okay? Opportunity versus obligation. Your brain will almost always go to the easiest, safest route. So if you want to change your life, you're going to need to consciously go the hard route sometimes. And so, when I say obligation versus opportunity, let me give you a few examples of exactly what I mean. Many people want to start working out more, or they want to be consistent working out, or they want to work out harder, right? But they don't always do it. Why is it? It's because they're focusing on the obligation that's in front of them, the short-term obligation, which is the action needs to be taken. The obligation for working out is you got to work harder.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  It's a lot easier to sit on a couch than it is to go and work out. The obligation is you've got to put your body through some strain. You got to, you got to hurt yourself a little bit. You got to strain your muscles. You got to get out of breath. It's easier to not do anything. It's easier to stare at the ceiling and lay on the couch than it is. And that's why most people don't take actions, because they're focusing on the obligation that's right in front of them. The opportunity is what you want to start getting yourself to focus on, though. The opportunity is what could come later on down the road, long-term. So what's an example of opportunity for working out? Losing weight.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Maybe being proud of the way that you look in a bikini. Maybe it's gaining muscle. Maybe it's living longer.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Okay, so the obligation is, yes, I need to, in the short term, take action, put strain on my body, get my heart rate up, sweat, be out of breath. Okay, that's the obligation. The opportunity is I could lose weight, I could be healthier, I could have more energy, I could look better in a bathing suit than I've ever looked since I was 17 years old. I could gain muscle, whatever it is for you. That's the obligation versus the opportunity. Most people focus on the obligation. What I'm trying to get you to do is to start looking more at the opportunity. Let's say that you want to eat healthier, right? The obligation is you've got to stay away from certain foods that you're used to eating. You got to say no to some really delicious shit sometimes.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  And this is where people don't eat healthy. Not saying that eating healthy isn't delicious, it can be, but there are some very delicious foods that are not good for you. Means you're not going to eat as much sugar. Sugar's great, tastes amazing. And people don't like change. They'd rather not stop eating the things they love eating. That's the obligation. What's the opportunity later on down the road of eating healthier? Well, I'm going to have a lot more energy throughout the day. I will probably stay alive longer for my kids. I'll be able to walk my daughter down the aisle, which, you know, if you're 100 pounds overweight right now, it might not be an opportunity for you. But if you do take the right actions, a long-term opportunity is, yeah,

• 7:06Speaker 01

  you could still be around. You could be able to be mobile enough to walk your daughter down the aisle, to play with your grandkids. That's the obligation versus the opportunity. Let's say that you're in sales. I know a lot of people in sales listen to me, or some form of sales or business, right? The obligation is you got to put in some work. You got to make some calls. You've got to get rejected on some calls. Maybe some people are going to hang up on you, and you've got to deal with like, oh my God, is there something wrong with me? That story that might pop up inside of your head, that's the obligation. I've got to sit here for the next two hours and just pound the phone and just see if I can get some people to answer. That's the obligation. Cold calling, if you've never done it before, it sucks.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  There's a reason why sales is a high-paying profession. It's because it ain't the most fun when you're doing the hard things. The opportunity of it, of making the cold calls, is maybe you can buy your first house. That's a long-term opportunity. You can pay for your children's education. You can take your family on trips that, when you were a child, would have never been able to dream of because your parents didn't have the money. Maybe you can buy your mom a car. Maybe you could get so good at sales that you could buy your mom a house later on down the road. That's the opportunity. Most people are not focusing on the opportunity. What are they focusing on? The obligation.

• 8:31Speaker 01

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• 12:05Speaker 01

  There's nothing more comfortable in the entire world than your bed when your alarm goes off. So the obligation is you've gotta get out of that thing. It's much easier just to stay in bed and to not do it. The opportunity, though? How much better you're gonna feel after having your morning routine? How much better I will treat people if I get my meditation in? How much more calm and peaceful I will feel to just wake up and drink my coffee in silence for 30 minutes before I just rush into my day?

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Those things are the opportunity. The obligation? Oh, I gotta get my ass out of my bed. Let's say starting a business, maybe a side hustle, maybe a full-time business, right? The obligation? I have to work extra hours. I've already got a full-time job. I got children, and I've gotta work extra hours to build this business? The obligation, I might fail. Obligation is, I'm, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I need to learn new skills. I need to be uncomfortable. The opportunity? Hey, if this works, I can create massive financial independence for myself and for my family. What else? Well, I get to build something that I'm fully passionate about versus doing something that I hate.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Or I can control my own schedule and my future. I can work from anywhere in the world.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Well, that's the opportunity that's in front of you. But do we really focus on that? No, we focus, focus on, hmm, I just got done with work, just put the kids to bed. I'd just rather do nothing right now. We don't think about how our life can be drastically different if we take the right actions right now. What about saving money? That's one of the things that I hear a lot of people have trouble with. The obligation? I have to cut back on things that I enjoy doing. I can't just buy whatever I want. And budgeting? That takes time. And you know what also it takes? Discipline. It's way easier just to go buy some stuff than it is to like, be disciplined.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  I also have to like, maybe learn about how to become better at saving and investing money. Those are the obligations. The opportunity? I can have financial freedom in my future. I can retire earlier. I can travel anywhere that I want to. I can invest. I could do all of those things. I could not stress about money ever again. Those are the opportunities. Do we focus on those? No, we know that they're there, but we focus on the obligation. Hmm, I'd have to cut back on things that I like buying, but I wanna buy another purse, right? Let's say that you wanna get better at public speaking. What's the obligation?

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Oh my God, it's so nerve-wracking your first few times. I have to take time. I've gotta prepare the speech. I've gotta make sure I don't look like an idiot. People might judge me. That's the obligation that's in front of me. The opportunity? Oh my God, I get to share my message. I get to inspire people. I'm building my confidence. That will help me in every single area of my life. This could open up new career opportunities for me. Maybe I could be a professional public speaker, and I could quit my day job with this boss that I hate? Those are the opportunities. Hmm, do we focus on them often? No, we know that they're there. We just usually focus on, well, I don't wanna look like an idiot. What if people think I look stupid? What if I trip on the way up? We focus on the obligation.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Let's say I wanna learn a new skill in some sort of way. I wanna learn a language, or I wanna start coding. The obligation? Takes a lot of time and effort. I'm probably gonna look like an idiot at first. I'm gonna mess up a lot. I have to practice consistently. The opportunity? I'll become more valuable in my career. I'll meet new people. I'll have richer experiences because of it. I'll prove to myself that I can learn anything. And so I want you to understand, and the reason why I give you so many examples is because so many people don't take the action that they want to because they're too busy looking at this short-term, next two hours to next two days. Versus like, looking at like, what could be different about my life if I do something different?

• 16:21Speaker 01

  And so, one thing, if you really wanna set yourself apart, what I have found is look at what everybody else in the world is doing, or the majority of people in the world are doing, and do the exact opposite. What are most people doing right now? They're scrolling on their phone. They're sitting in front of the TV. They're eating crap food from a box. They're not moving their body.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  They're not challenging themselves. They're not learning more. They're not trying to become better. There's many things that people are doing. So I'm looking at all this, I'm going, if I wanna set myself apart from other people, I need to do the exact opposite of everybody else. And it looks like to me, everybody else, or most people, I wanna say, are focused on such short-term gains. This tastes good in my mouth, so I'll eat it. Versus going, you know what? I'll choose the healthier route so that I can live longer, I can look better, I can have more energy, I can have more success and more fun and more mobility when I get older. Most people are looking at, hey, this tastes good right now. Can I just put this stuff in my mouth for the next 30 seconds and eat it?

• 17:32Speaker 01

  And I'll feel good for 30 seconds and then, you know, gain a pound over the next week by doing it? Versus going, hey, let me, let me take a step back. What's the long-term result of me doing this thing? Is it what I want in my life, or is it not what I want in my life? And what it requires you to do is to make a hard decision in the moment. It is so much harder to say no to the easy things, the convenient things that are right in front of you, than it is to say yes to the long-term things that we need to do. Like, I don't wanna work out, but I'll do it anyways. I don't wanna wake up early, but I'll do it anyways. I don't wanna have to read, but I'll do it anyways.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Like, I don't enjoy reading. I always tell people, I don't enjoy reading, but I do enjoy learning and becoming better more than I enjoy, don't enjoy reading. And so, I don't enjoy reading, but I do wanna become better, so I'm gonna become better instead of not reading. So it makes sense? And so there's always going to be things that you have to do to get what you want in your life. They must be done. That you're, you're still going to have to do the obligation. But the difference is, instead of just focusing on the obligation while you're doing it, and having that be the thing that stops you, what I would prefer to do is think of the long-term opportunity while doing the obligation. And to be honest with you, like, just with all the love in my heart, I'm gonna say this.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  You just gotta grow up at some point. Just be an adult. No one's gonna come and save you. If your life is going to change, you have to be the person to change it. So many people out there are just waiting for someone to come and save them and change their life. It ain't gonna happen. There's no knight in shining armor coming around the bend for you. You've gotta be your knight in shining armor. And so what you gotta do is you gotta focus on the outcome that you want, and have that be front of mind. Focus on your vision. Focus on what you're creating. Focus on who you wanna become. Focus on what's gonna change your life, and how it's gonna change your family's life, and how it's gonna change the generations after your children. Focus on all of that. While still doing what needs to be done.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Don't focus on the outcome that you don't want. Focus on what is it you want? And do the things that need to be done in order to get there. And if you do that, you will be one of the few people that actually take action versus one of the people that stay stuck forever. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it with someone that you know and love. And if you're someone who wants to build yourself into a high performer and you want to see what it would be like to bring your real true potential out in the world, but you know that you're the one holding yourself back, you need to be on my workshop coming up on the psychology of high performance. You can go to 2026workshop.com right now to register for free. I'm going to teach you how to break free from your fears, from your limiting beliefs and your old identities that are capping your success. Once again, it's 2026workshop.com.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  It is free, it will be live, and I will see you there. And with that, I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

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