Candidate,
I'm excited to share 30 of my most powerful, ready-to-use psychological frameworks with you.
If you remember, yesterday I told you how a lady at a bar said, "What are your credentials???"
A ton of you sent me your feedback (apparently my readers love to (a) go to bars and (b) offer advice on things they would hypothetically say). So I'm going to share what I did. But I want to emphasize something: This story isn't just about this bar situation — it's about having "mental frameworks" that you can apply to novel situations as you encounter them.
Put another way, this isn't just about a lady at a bar. This particular framework is about responding to critics. Once you internalize the lesson, you can apply it EVERYWHERE.
So … here's what I did:
Lady: What are your credentials??? Do you have any?
Ramit (smiles): Yeah, I have some credentials … but what I've learned is most people want to see proof that something works for people like them.
Lady: Well, in my 12 years of training … (blah blah I went through tough training and you didn't so you are a charlatan).
You can probably understand why she's skeptical. Honestly, I would be, too (though I wouldn't bring it up the first time I met someone). But at this point in the conversation, she expects me to back down like a wounded puppy. She doesn't realize I came to play. But I want to be polite.
Ramit: I guess I disagree. (Note how I intentionally say "I guess," which softens the blow. I don't 'guess' anything, but saying that phrase here is strategic.) Credentials absolutely matter — and I place a huge value on education, which is how I got a lot of my training. (Here I have just acknowledged her argument and eviscerated it by demonstrating I, too, have educational training.) But there are lots of people with credentials. If you can show PROOF your material works, that's really powerful and I'm sure people love working with you. If I can't show it, maybe I shouldn't be in business. So that's worked well for me. (Notice how I have complimented her and disarmed her, but made my case. Also, carefully notice my use of "you" and "I" in the last two sentences.)
Lady: (Silent)
I finished my drink, said my goodbyes, and walked away, victorious. As Jon Secada would say, it was just another day.
What have we learned?
IMPORTANT: This email isn't just about talking to people at bars.
This is about having a roadmap, or "psychological framework," to lean on in uncertain situations.
Which of these have you ever thought in the back of your head?
- Why am I so afraid of failure? How do I stop letting fear run my life?
- Should I switch jobs or just be satisfied with what I've got?
- Why can't I focus on one thing? How do I eliminate distractions and follow through?
- I keep telling people I "should" go to the gym … but I never do.
Most of us KNOW we should do something about these things … but instead of actually taking concrete steps, we get stuck by a dull sense of dread in the back of our heads.
It's not that we lack the tactics — we KNOW what to do — but something inside is stopping us.
Until now, I've never focused specifically on these Invisible Scripts and barriers that hold us back.
But I started to realize how curious it is that we actively work on our bodies (gym), our finances (automation), but why not our most powerful tool — our internal psychology?
Why don't we ever spend time excavating our own minds to uncover the barriers that hold us back? And then systematically destroy them and move forward?
Here's the thing: Top Performers do. Top Performers are obsessed with optimizing their mental frameworks. They don't say things like, "Well, I'm not the kind of person who can start a business" or "I'm not built like those guys" — NO! They examine these Invisible Scripts and systematically deconstruct them.
And guess what the result is?
Over time, they build up a set of flexible guidelines, or mental frameworks, that they use to guide them through tough, novel situations.
I call these Success Triggers — because more than almost anything else, these mental frameworks have been responsible for helping me reach higher and higher levels of personal achievement and business success.
In other words, at a certain point, everyone knows the tactics — but what separates a gold medalist from an Olympic hopeful is internal psychology.
You could spend your time aimlessly browsing productivity sites, or installing the latest app. But these Success Triggers are much more powerful than scripts or tactics — they're advanced mental frameworks that give you MASSIVE LEVERAGE because you'll be able to apply them, in all kinds of situations, for the rest of your life.
If you're not feeling confident. If you're distracted. If you want to know how to stay focused, invest in yourself, or even how to live your life guilt-free.
What you've learned in these 3 emails
You've learned 3 Success Triggers in these emails — can you spot them? — but over the past 15+ years, I've been systematically studying and testing Success Triggers. I studied Top Performers to learn what their triggers were. Then I took the dozens and dozens that I catalogued and tested them myself.
The end result?
I culled the huge list to 30 of the most powerful Success Triggers I've ever found. The best of the best for changing my "inner game."
I learned:
- How to stop doubting myself and silence my inner critics
- Guilt-free living: How to stop beating myself up all the time. Now I'm like a damn android who feels zero guilt
- Specific strategies to truly achieve mastery
- How to develop an unshakeable belief in myself (even when others doubted me)
- When to open myself to serendipity
Two of the Success Triggers I mentioned in this email have been the cornerstone to writing a New York Times best-selling book, earning millions, and helping hundreds of thousands of students make massive changes in their lives.
And that's just two Success Triggers!
Now I've finally put all 30 ready-to-apply Success Triggers together in one course for you.
