In his new book “Who Better Than You?: The Art of Healthy Arrogance & Dreaming Big,” film producer Will Packer outlines his journey from an electrical engineering student living in Florida to one of Hollywood’s most successful producers.
Packer, whose filmography includes “Girls Trip” and “Straight Outta Compton,” credits part of his success to watching, learning and then emulating how people who were more successful than him behaved.
“Successful people attract successful people,” he told CNBC Make It.
Packer found that the key to achieving your goals isn’t an action. It’s a mindset.
“The most high achieving people I know have this feeling that ‘I am destined for success. It is going to happen and it is just a matter of when it will happen,'” he says.
‘The room is better because I’m in it’
If the narrative in your head is one of self-doubt, this mentality will reflect in your actions. How you contribute during a brainstorm, the tone of your voice, or even how you walk into a meeting will all be colored by negativity.
“That healthy arrogance is that feeling of, ‘The room is better because I’m in it. I belong here and I made the room better because I’m offering something that nobody else is offering,'” he says.
This will not only change the way you see yourself, but how others perceive you.
“People external to you feel like, ‘OK, I don’t know if this person has got it going on or not but they seem like they do so I’m gonna treat them accordingly,'” he says.
Negative self-talk can be a a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’
Defeating negative self-talk can be challenging, Judy Ho, a neuropsychologist and professor at Pepperdine University, told CNBC Make It last year.
“Sometimes we think that negative self-talk helps us to be motivated,” Ho said. “So, we beat ourselves up in our head thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to motivate me.’ But, actually, we just end up fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
To break the cycle of negative self-talk, you have to be mindful of what triggers your pessimism and how to distance yourself from anxiety-driven thoughts.
Instead of telling yourself, “I have no idea what I’m doing” or “All these people are more experienced than me” try practicing a more balanced thought process. Ho offers the following formula:
“Yes I [insert something that is not going well], but I [insert something that is going well].”
Reframing your thoughts is a crucial factor in weathering setbacks as you strive to achieve your goals.
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