Original 22 July 2026 · Si Muddell
How much of what holds us back is actually true?
I've been really digging The Mindset Mentor podcast by Rob Dial recently. The episodes are short, punchy and usually give me 15 or 20 minutes of useful mental focus.
I listened to one of the episodes last night while I was out for a walk, and it got me thinking about limiting beliefs and, more specifically, the way our brains can reinforce them without us really noticing. I thought it was worth sharing in the hope that some of it resonates with others too.
The science behind it is pretty mad!
Our senses take in far more information than we can consciously attend to. There is simply far too much information coming at us every second for us to consciously process it all, so much of it stays in the background.
To get scientific, and a tad wanky, for a minute, one of the systems involved is called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS. It helps regulate alertness, while attention involves networks across the brain.
The example Rob Dial used in the podcast was brilliantly simple.
Think about the bottom of your left foot.
A moment ago, you probably weren't giving it any attention whatsoever. Now you can probably feel your sock, your shoe, the pressure against the floor or even the temperature.
Nothing about your foot has changed. Your brain was already receiving that information, but it hadn't decided it was important enough to bring into your conscious awareness until you focused on it.
That really landed with me because it made something incredibly complex feel very real.
If our brains are constantly filtering information based on our experiences, beliefs and expectations, it stands to reason that those same beliefs influence what we notice in every other part of life too.
When thoughts quietly become beliefs
Most of us carry limiting beliefs around with us. Sometimes they are obvious, but sometimes they're so familiar that we don't even question them anymore.
I'm not ready.
I'm not experienced enough.
I'm not naturally good at that.
I'm too old.
Someone else would be better.
To be clear, I don't think every limiting belief is false. Sometimes we're not ready. Sometimes we do need more experience, more knowledge or more practice.
But I also wonder how many thoughts simply become accepted as facts because we've repeated them often enough.
If you believe you're not ready, you may naturally pay more attention to the things you don't know than to the experience you already have.
If you believe an idea won't work, you may spot every risk before you notice the conditions that could make it possible.
And if you've convinced yourself you're "not that sort of person", there's every chance you'll filter out possibilities before you've even properly considered them.
That made me wonder how many people hold themselves back at work, in life, in the dreams they have and in the ambitions they quietly put to one side because they've decided, somewhere along the way, that those things are not for them.
How many opportunities do we filter out before we've even properly considered them? How many conversations never happen because we've decided in advance how they'll end? How many ideas do we dismiss because the first story our brain gives us is the safest or most familiar one?
This isn't about pretending everything is possible
There is always a danger with topics like this that they drift into the world of toxic positivity.
That's not where I'm coming from.
Life isn't always fair. Some things are genuinely difficult. Some ideas aren't good ideas. Sometimes "no" is absolutely the right answer.
I am an optimist, though.
I've said before that when people ask whether the glass is half full or half empty, I'm usually just grateful to have a glass.
For me, optimism isn't about pretending the difficult bits don't exist. It's about refusing to let them become the only thing I can see.
Because the opposite matters too.
If we constantly tell ourselves something isn't possible, we're less likely to notice the routes that might make it possible. We ask fewer questions, start fewer conversations and take less action.
It made me wonder whether the belief shapes the focus, the focus shapes the behaviour and, over time, the behaviour shapes the outcome.
That feels far more practical to me than simply telling ourselves to "be positive".
Why I keep coming back to "How might we?"
Anyone who knows me knows I say How might we? a lot.
It's become a bit of a personal philosophy.
I've always thought about it as a way of approaching problems with curiosity rather than immediately jumping to why something can't be done.
It's probably no coincidence that the word growth has been in my job title for years. Whether that's growing a business, helping other people grow or trying to grow myself, I've come to realise that growth is rarely the starting point.
Growth is the outcome.
Momentum is what creates it.
And momentum often starts with a better question.
Listening to this podcast made me wonder whether one of the reasons I've always liked asking How might we? is because it changes what the brain starts looking for.
"That won't work."
becomes...
How might we make it work?
"I'm not ready."
becomes...
How might I become ready?
"We don't have the budget."
becomes...
How might we achieve the same outcome differently?
The question doesn't magically solve the problem. Sometimes the answer is still no. Sometimes the obstacle is very real.
But asking a better question encourages the brain to look somewhere different. It interrupts the default story and creates a little more space between the first thought and the final decision.
That space matters, because it gives us a chance to challenge an assumption, notice something we may have filtered out and look at the situation from another angle.
Filter out the shit
The biggest takeaway for me wasn't that we can think our way into a different reality.
It was simply a reminder of how powerful our minds really are.
There is an extraordinary amount of information available to us beyond what we consciously notice at any one moment.
So perhaps the challenge isn't to become relentlessly positive.
Perhaps it's to get better at filtering out the shit.
The assumptions that no longer serve us. The stories we've repeated for years. The beliefs we've inherited rather than chosen. The voice that quietly tells us we can't before we've even started.
Not because life suddenly becomes easier, but because if our brains are going to filter almost everything they encounter anyway, I'd rather have some say in what I'm teaching mine to look for.
We can't control everything that happens to us, and we certainly can't think our way out of every problem, but we can become more deliberate about what we choose to notice.
For me, that's one of the reasons I keep coming back to three simple words.
How might we?
Not because they guarantee a solution, but because better questions create better momentum.
And, over time, momentum is what creates growth. Mindset is everything.