Tom McCarthy is not interested in your goals. They are just something you strive for. He is interested in your results. Results are what you achieve. In his new book, he gives you three solid steps to achieve breakthrough results in all areas of your life.
You have set goals to achieve. You have set targets you want to accomplish and written down the results you want to achieve. You have done all the things the books and gurus have told you to do. Yet somehow, you keep failing. The challenges keep piling up and it feels like you’re swimming in the deep end more than you’re running on the right track towards the finish line. You feel like you’re failing.
This happens to so many people, and entrepreneur, investor, speaker, author and business coach, Tom McCarthy, asserts that often it isn’t the fault of the person trying to achieve the results they have set for themselves. “If you have big dreams, you’re going to face challenges. That’s a given,” says McCarthy, before he goes on to explain that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The way to succeed and to get what you want is the main premise of his latest book, The Breakthrough Code.
The Breakthrough Code, written as a parable that is easy to read and relate to, is a powerful story about the possibilities you can create when you connect the big results you want to your life’s purpose. In the book, McCarthy outlines the blueprint you need to shift your reality and step into a mindset that will create success.
“It’s a parable. I wrote it in story form,” says McCarthy “If you look at Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, anybody that’s shaped reality, they’ve used this process I’ve called the breakthrough code. How do you take what’s already there, or where you’re stuck, and create a breakthrough. It’s not 58 things you’ve got to do. It’s three big concepts or ideas that shape reality and allow anyone to shape reality. The average person conforms to reality. A great person creates a whole new reality. That’s what the book is about.”
McCarthy is a man who understands challenges and how to face them. His father was an army officer during the Vietnam war and was killed in combat when McCarthy was three years old. “I still remember, as a three-year-old, watching a taxi cab pull up. An officer climbed out to tell my mom that my dad had passed away. As a result, I grew up in a very fearful environment, with lots of grief, and constant fear of losing somebody. My mom never recovered from it and she never remarried,” he reminisces.
“I had a tough story early on,” he continues, “but I had to shift it. I thought life was unfair and that the odds were against me being successful. I had to shift that story. Once I understood that you can change and let go, I changed. I never wanted my father to die because I would love to have grown up with a father. But that experience made me stronger. It made me more of a leader because I had to take care of my brothers. I started businesses when I was in my teens. I had more empathy because I had pain so I could sense it in other people. I’m a speaker, I’m an author, and I’ve started several businesses. I’ve had a huge advantage from that adversity. That’s now my story and it empowers me.”
To help others shift their story and experience breakthroughs in their lives, McCarthy has included three tried and tested principles that he has researched and shared with top executives, Olympic athletes, and successful entrepreneurs in his book. These ideas are the blueprint to experiencing breakthroughs and creating a life of achievement.
Focus on Less, Then Obsess
This is the first principle he shares in his story. He encourages his readers to narrow down their focus to the main areas they want to experience a breakthrough in. “Find no more than three results you would like to accomplish that would be breakthroughs. Not just simple things but things that would transform your life. Then focus on those,” he says.
Once we find those three areas, then the ‘obsess’ part of the principle needs to kick in. “I’m not talking about a conscious obsession,” McCarthy explains. “What I’m talking about is using your subconscious mind.”
Our conscious mind can only process 40 bits of information per second. It’s primitive in terms of computing power when compared to the subconscious mind. The superconscious mind can process 40,000,000 bits of information per second. This mind has immense capacity to find the information and resources needed to help in accomplishing breakthroughs some might think are impossible. The breakthrough lies in accessing this part of our brain.
“I don’t think the superconscious mind is something that simply resides in us. It gives us intuitive signals and gut feelings. When we program the subconscious mind to focus on the result we want then it will nudge us in the right direction. It will bring information to the conscious mind that will allow us to get there more easily,” he says.
Upgrade Your Story, Upgrade Your Life
“What’s the most powerful story you’ll ever hear?” asks McCarthy. “It’s the one you tell yourself. At the end of the day, who are we? We’re the story we tell ourselves of who we are.” he says.
“Unfortunately, most people are walking around dragging a story with them that doesn’t allow them to create a breakthrough, to be successful in business, to have great health or to create wealth,” he says. When we actively challenge this story and focus on ‘upgrading’ it, the second principle of breakthrough kicks in.
“In The Breakthrough Code, I talk about letting go of your old baggage. From age zero to seven, pretty much anything your parents say becomes your story. So if your dad says, ‘Life is tough; you can never make it,’ you adopt that as truth. Some people carry that through their entire life and then wonder why life is so screwed up or why they can’t make it work.” McCarthy challenges us to design a new story and then to stick to that story no matter what if we want a breakthrough.
Pack Your Day with Effective Actions
The word to focus on in this third principle is ‘effective.’ People can be good at packing their days with lots of “stuff” but McCarthy is adamant that we start to work on filling our days with effective actions that help us work smarter and not harder.
This includes making sure we have what he calls “recovery actions.” He explains that there are recovery actions like meditating, fun activities and sleeping, and achievement actions that require us to do work that we enjoy, and sometimes work we don’t enjoy, to create impact. “They’re both important,” he says. “Most people think achievement actions are what they need to be doing more of. But if you don’t have recovery actions, you will not be as good at the achievement actions.”
In The Breakthrough Code, McCarthy unpacks these three principles with finesse and adds in several habits the reader can actively incorporate in their lives – small things that will create massive results. It’s a book that’s full of passion and will leave you thinking about your future in a fresh way.
“I poured my heart and soul into this book,” says McCarthy. “There are lots of circumstances and situations that I’ve either personally experienced or seen. My vision is to help people break out of having another average day and having an average life.”
To get more nuggets from McCarthy, you can follow him on Instagram.