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Mindset – Are You Hunter or Prey?
Crush procrastination and mental resistance. Click here to learn the same mindset principles that Tripp Lanier uses with his coaching clients — including Navy SEALs, entrepreneurs, and influencers.
Below is a transcription of this video.
Today we’re going to talk about our deepest desire and what helps us be the hunter instead of prey.
In case you don’t know who I am, I’m Tripp Lanier. For over 12 years I’ve spent thousands of hours coaching folks to get out of the rat race, become an authority in their field, and make a great living doing the work they were put on this earth to do. And for more than a decade, I’ve hosted The New Man Podcast which has been downloaded millions of times and can be found on iTunes or Stitcher. And for what I’m about to say, keep whatever works for you and discard the rest.
Recently I ran an experiment with one of my coaching groups. I asked them to slow down, be quiet for a while and ask themselves, “What’s the most reassuring thing you would want to hear? What’s the most reassuring thing you would most want to know?”
After a few minutes we went around the room and they all answered the same thing. You know what it was?
They each wanted to hear or know some version of, “Everything is okay. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”
This was true for me, too. I wanted to hear this, too. What about you? Think about if for yourself: How great would it be to know that everything is okay and was going to be okay?
So I pushed it further and asked them how they would live their lives differently if they knew they were already okay, that they knew they would be okay no matter what?
And what did they say?
They essentially said, “I’d focus more on what really matters. I’d focus on what I really want. I wouldn’t focus on the stuff that isn’t important.”
The word focus came up again and again. And it makes sense because it’s our worries and fears that have us scanning for threats and diluting our focus in the process.
This is what prey animals do. Look at zebras and antelopes and you’ll see that they have eyes on the side of their head so they can scan for threats all around them. They’re genetically designed to scan for threats.
But what about our eyes? They’re in the front of our head. Like a lion. Like a tiger.
We’re designed to focus forward. We’re designed to go for what we want. We’re designed to hunt.
And we weaken ourselves when we forget that we’re at the top of the food chain. When we get lost in our fears, we dilute our focus, our time, our energy, and our power.
Again, this is a prey mentality — animals who are afraid of being eaten alive live this way. But over here in our cushy first-world lives, so many of us are acting like prey animals — playing small and hiding out when it comes to creating the lives, the relationships, and the professions we truly want.
What if we dropped the urgency and the twitchiness of a prey animal and owned our role as the hunter when it came to creating the lifestyle and livelihood we want? What if we were the ones who were slow, methodical, and purposeful?
Because here’s the thing — that sense of okay-ness — that sense of peace and relief I mentioned earlier can’t exist if we’re stuck in a prey mentality — always operating from urgency and convincing ourselves that we’re in danger. There’s just no way to find peace and relief there.
So I’ve got three questions for us to consider:
Number one — What if most of the “threats” we’re focusing on are not really threats at all? Seriously, how often are we intimidated by the process of learning a new skill or making a change in our lives?
Number two — What if, instead of living like some herd or prey animal, we remembered that we’re at the top of the food chain and lived our lives accordingly?
And number three — How would we live differently if we knew that we were already okay and that we would be okay no matter what?
Here’s to all of us living with greater freedom, aliveness, peace, and love. Thanks for watching.
