Healthy Mindset Yields Positive Personal Development
Gaining a healthy mindset and personal development get a lot of play. The publicity and material are bigger than you can imagine. How big? According to Business Development Research, personal development churned $50.06 billion in 2024 and will do over $54 billion in 2025.
I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news, obviously, is people want to improve, experience more fulfillment and grow into their potential. The bad news? We were only able to find one company that offers quantifiable results for everyone who utilized their offerings. One!
From “life coaches” to companies to writers to seminars we hear of great things done by a few but only one company gives you the hard facts. The bad news? The industry is pretty much a hustle. Promises of change, transformation and great income are the hooks in the personal development arena. And, damn, they are good at it. $50 billion!
How do they do it?
Healthy Mindsets are Hard
Slick marketing won’t change your life. As Charles Haanel wrote in The Master Key System, the tasks to create transformation are easy to understand but he adds, “most people are unwilling to do the hard mental labor.”
These pied-pipers of prosperity know that people won’t do the hard mental labor, so they make it seem easy. One of the biggest con jobs in recent years was The Secret. They referenced The Master Key System several times, quoting Haanel… but… they left out the work part. Of course. I’m grateful it did a quick death and has vanished from the literary landscape.
We live in a world of entitlement and most people are addicted to convenience or, even worse, instant gratification. Easy, fast and instant transformation.
Did you know the average person buys 7-10 self-help books, can quote brilliant passages, yet experiences no long-term shift? There are now 12-step programs to help people break the addiction to self-help books and meetings!
Most people reading this far, like myself… hey, I’m like most people… anyway, most people that would read this article have experienced what I did. Over 20 self-help books, tapes (remember cassettes?), CDs, etc., experienced constant hope followed by frustration and self-loathing that I could not change anything that mattered.
Why?
Why do we buy with hope and fail to change and repeat?
More Good News and Bad News
Again, let me give you the bad news first. When you read one of these books, or even worse, spend thousands of bucks with life coaches or seminars, your conscious mind understands it, comprehends the information. The bad news? Your conscious mind is not making the decisions.
The subconscious mind is running the show. Period. It took me a while to understand that the subconscious meant it was below my consciousness. Translation, I did not know it was running the show and making decisions, 95+% of the time.
Now it gets weird. When you think you are debating something in your mind, the subconscious has already made the decision a minimum of 7 seconds before you are conscious of it.
The “baddest” of the bad news? We do not determine our lives, our habits do. The first step in developing a healthy mindset and positive personal development is accepting that simple truth. Habits determine our lives.
The subconscious is the habit mind. So, all those books you’ve read and understood don’t yield the hoped for results because the subconscious does not learn that way. Boom!
The good news is, you can, if you are willing to do the “hard mental labor,” influence your subconscious mind, and reset the criteria it uses to make decisions. Most people know more about their cell phone and TV remote than they do about their brain… clearly the most astonishing mechanism on the planet.
When you were born, you were given a perfect operating system… your mind. But, like a computer, with no programs, the greatest hardware in the world can do nothing without programs. In the first 7 years of your life, you existed in the Theta state of vibration in your mind and by observing, you “downloaded” the programs… walking, talking, right, wrong, etc.
Things that go well for you? You downloaded good programs. Things you struggle with? Poor programs. And since they are running below consciousness you must become a non-judgmental observer of your behavior to see them
It is a conservative estimate that 70% of our “habits” are self-sabotaging. How do you change that so you create positive personal growth and a healthy mindset.
Create Your Own Healthy Mindset
Step 1 is to accept the fact that your subconscious mind is the habit mind and does not learn from regular books.
Step 2, never buy anything that does not address the subconscious mind and does not give you exercises to establish new habits in the subconscious mind.
Step 3 is to know the science. The idea bandied about for decades is that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit. This is a lie. It takes 57-63 days if you are in the “habit” of establishing new habits already. For most people, it’s 90 days. That’s too long for those instant gratification addicts who desire a healthy mindset and personal development.
Step 4 is knowing when you are in the Theta vibrational state… when you are drifting off to sleep. Haanel’s The Master Key System is a great example of this… takes 24 weeks to work (there’s that word again) through it.
A best seller that walks you through these step and offers exercises that impact your subconscious mind is Standing Tall, now in 3 languages. The exercises take 27 weeks (plenty of time to develop the exercises as habits). Get your copy here at Mark J Books.
Developing a healthy mindset is difficult. Old habits die hard. That’s the hard mental labor thing, but the payoff of authentic personal development and becoming the architect of your reality is priceless.
Thanks Mark. I’ve written lots of goal statements before this… But no other program helped me rewire the brain to a different outcome. #nothinglikeit
Does everyone realize how profound this one-two punch is? One: 70% of the habits which run your life are self-sabotaging. Two: Mark’s book, Standing Tall, has practical steps you can start working on today to change that by accessing your subconscious mind. Just be prepared to put in the time. You will not regret it. The worst thing you can do is go on into your future ignoring what you have just learned here. The best thing? Keep reading Mark’s blog!
A simple 4-step process! I love how you try to keep things understandable… and doable!
I have done all kinds of mindset work. Heck, I’ve even walked on hot coals. IYKYK. None of it had lasting effects. I was lucky if my gung ho attitude lasted a week. When I heard the power is within and there’s proven steps to access it I was skeptical and intrigued. That was 2014. I have continued to grow and induce positive change in my life for over a decade. The power is within us all if we do the hard mental labor that so few are willing to do. It reminds me of something I heard over 30 years ago when getting into business . ” Do what others won’t so you can have what others can’t.” Do the work! Thanks Mark for shining the light on the path. Forever Grateful.
The key is developing the habits of success which starts with programming subby what to do, remember he has no defense!! Do it Now, Do it Now, Do it Now!!
There’s so much fundamental truth here…I wish every seeker could find all you say here early on. It took me seven decades to find MKE, but “better late than never,” right? Now it’s my passion to get the word out about every point your make here–especially about the power of the daily habits that impact the subconscious, and having incredible tools to help with the “hard mental labor.”
LOL… you are so heart driven, magnificent
51 billion without any quantifiable results… taking advantage of people’s hope really sucks
Magnificent insights Luc… love the idea of bringing miracles is the real training… becoming aware that we are surrounded by them.
This post is a breath of fresh air.
It explains what so many of us have felt — that motivation alone doesn’t create change. It’s our habits that shape our lives, and real growth takes more than feel-good quotes or quick fixes.
I appreciate how honest and practical this is. No fluff, no hype — just truth and tools that work, if you’re willing to show up and do the inner work.
Grateful for this clarity and the reminder that transformation isn’t magic… it’s method.
I can identify so much with this comment, Luc and Mark’s blog – interesting stuff to learn and nothing changed… I love this mahalo my friend
There are too many epic lines in here to pick one for my comment and this is an all-time fav of this blog: ‘Slick marketing won’t change your life.’ Use your head, look for substance! peace and love #nothinglikeit
As many who eventually find the Master Key System on their way, I too spent a lot of time and money in personal development trainings of all kinds…Mostly, interesting stuff to learn, but…no change in my daily life. Painful and annoying! My discovery of Haanel’s book and the 6 month training based on it (the “Master Key Experience” or MKE in short) changed everything because once we understand that its our subconscious mind which runs our life, and IF we are earnest about our willingness to improve it, THEN the training is bringing miracles…Today, after 10+ years of practicing the simple exercises of the MKE (that I now use to call for myself the “Fundamentals of life”), I have learned how to manifest the changes I desire in my life and my heart is permanently filled with peace, joy and also…gratitude for Mark and his wife Davene for the creation of this Masterpiece named MKE!