Bob Proctor

What would you do with the secrets to unlock your mind for success? Do you have a specific goal in mind you’d like to achieve?

Well, today’s guest has spent the better half of 60 years studying the secrets and teaching others how to implement these strategies into their lives for a richer and more fulfilling experience.

Today’s guest is Bob Proctor, and when I first met Bob, his energy, essence, and decades of wisdom poured through. I loved everything he shared then, and I thought this is a perfect time to bring him back. Today, Bob is considered the world’s foremost expert on the human mind. 

Bob shares stories about science and mindset to speak wisdom into the hearts of millions of people around the world. In this interview, we talk about why faith over fear is one of the main keys to success, the power of setting hard goals that will help you grow, why realistic goals are things you should never set, how we can reprogram our minds instead of allowing our minds to be run by fear, and so much more.

Who Is Bob Proctor?

Bob Proctor is a New York Times bestselling author, motivational speaker, success coach, and expert on the human mind. In short, he’s a master thinker. One of his bestselling books, You Were Born Rich, is all about finding success in your present rather than reaching for it in the future. Bob is also featured in the popular film The Secret, one of the most popular self-help films ever made.

Bob was a high school dropout who started his career working low-paying jobs. At age 26, Bob read a book that changed his life: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Bob moved from making a couple thousand a year to hundreds of thousands to over one million a year. He’s spoken about his journey worldwide and been featured on several TV shows such as Ellen and Larry King Live.

Bob Proctor partnered with attorney Sandy Gallagher to create the Proctor Gallagher Institute. The Institute offers elite programs and coaching courses that teach people how to use the power of their minds to create the ideal life.

Bob says he was going nowhere before he “woke up” to how the universe works. He’s passionate because he figures that if the secrets to unlock your mind could work for him, they could work for anyone. That awareness has translated into how he thinks about goals:

“If you set a goal and you know how to do it, the goal probably isn’t any good. See, the purpose of a goal is not to reach the goal. It’s the awareness that you develop as you go after it. You’re learning who you are, [and] it’s about becoming aware of who you are.” – Bob Proctor

I had Bob on The School of Greatness back on Episode 835, where we talked about how having an abundance mindset naturally creates an abundant life. Today, we talk about the practical things we can do to change our mindset and set ourselves up for a life of success.

Let’s jump straight in!

Mastering Thinking

Of all the human faculties that play such an essential role in shaping our lives, thinking, and particularly how we think, is perhaps the hardest of them all.

“Almost all the great leaders have been unanimous [in] agreement, that we become what we think. Ford said, ‘Thinking’s the hardest work there is,’ which is probably [why] so few people engage in it. Dr. Ken McFarland was a great educator in Kentucky; he said, ‘2% of the people think. 3% think they think, and 95% would rather die than think.’ If you stop and listen to what most people are saying, [that’s] fairly obvious — they’re not thinking.” – Bob Proctor

Most people have their television on the news and soak up everything dominating the media. Whether it’s accurate or not, true or not — your mind is being manipulated to think what it sees and hears.

“Is this how you want to spend your life, just listening to [the news?] It doesn’t mean you deny it. It doesn’t mean that you should think it’s all false, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your time thinking [about] that. I would much rather activate some of my creative faculties and do something constructive.” – Bob Proctor

Considering the current crisis in 2021, Bob’s words are potent. Instead of being consumed by fear and worry, Bob elaborates on how we can be more constructive.

“Spend some time thinking about [this:] How are we going to adapt when [the pandemic] is gone? We’re going to live in a different world. People are not going to be rushing out to big events, and I think they’re going to be very careful about what they do. I was listening to [Simon] Sinek, and he said, ‘If you’re a public speaker, don’t look for a stage for a little while because you’re not gonna have one.’ This also presents great opportunities. For my company, we’re going online full speed ahead.” – Bob Proctor

Bob’s company was perfectly positioned for the crisis, having built their studio five years earlier to broadcast worldwide. They just hosted a training class for their 300 consultants across the globe. 

While others might call that “lucky,” Bob knows that resulted from being future-focused and not allowing a fear mindset to consume him.

Shifting From Fear to a Positive Mindset

Believing in fear means you believe in something you can’t see, and believing in faith is also believing in something you can’t see. They’re the same thing! So if we have a choice, why not choose faith over fear? 

Shifting from a fear-state to a positive mindset takes work. The first step is recognizing what leads to fear.

“The cause of fear is ignorance, [which] starts in a conscious level as doubt and worry. Then we turn it over to our emotional mind. … That fear then has to be expressed through the body. It sets up a vibration known as anxiety, [and when] anxiety is not expressed, [it] becomes suppressed. The suppression turns to depression, which turns to disease, which turns to decay. It’s a very negative track. The opposite of ignorance is knowledge. There’s only one way to knowledge — and that is to study.” – Bob Proctor

Wow, Bob gives a great explanation of what being on the negative track looks like: ignorance, worry, fear, anxiety, suppression, depression, disease, and finally, disintegration. I wish schools did a better job of teaching this, but it’s one of the reasons I created The School of Greatness, and I hope, as Bob put it, we’re helping you learn to love study.

“[School] should teach us to love it because study leads to the opposite of doubt and worry, which is understanding. Understanding enables us to [learn] where fear starts. [The] whole universe operates by the law of opposite. Understanding leads to faith. Faith leads to expression, [which] leads to wellbeing.” – Bob Proctor

If we want to change our world, understanding the law of opposites can help us deal with things like a pandemic. Unfortunately, most people are paralyzed by what’s going on, and as a society, we add to that paralysis by feeding them more of what scares them. What we should be doing is helping them understand what we can do.

Once we understand the path of the negative track, we can even learn how to overcome doubt.