Episode 1368 · Oct 20, 2026

Where Are You Holding Yourself Back?

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What if the biggest obstacle standing between you and your next level isn't your business at all? What if it's you? That's the question George Wright III puts on the table in this episode of The Daily Mastermind — and it's an uncomfortable one, because most entrepreneurs are far more comfortable auditing their funnel, their pricing, or their team than auditing themselves.

If you want to know how to stop holding yourself back, you have to be willing to examine how you're operating right now. George calls it an opportunity audit: a simple three-part self-check across your beliefs, your standards, and your decisions. It takes five or ten minutes, and it can surface the exact place where your growth has been stalling.

How to Tell If You're Holding Yourself Back in Business

As founders and business owners, we spend a tremendous amount of time looking outward for solutions. We're involved in everything, we're driving the business forward, and we're always hunting for the strategy, tool, or hire that takes things to the next level. But as George points out, sometimes we're so busy looking at everything happening *around* us that we forget to examine what's happening *inside* us.

The symptoms are easy to spot once you know what you're looking for. You have a solid strategy and you're still struggling. Opportunities show up and you hesitate to pursue them. You set ambitious goals while the same bottlenecks keep reappearing. Personal growth and business growth are tightly connected — and when the outer game stalls, the inner game is usually where the answer lives.

Audit Your Beliefs: Are They Facts or Assumptions?

Start here. What do you believe about yourself that's influencing the opportunities you're willing to pursue? Maybe you've told yourself you're not good at sales. Maybe you believe you don't have the right connections, or that you're too old, too young, too inexperienced. Repeat a thought in your head enough times and you begin to treat it as fact — when it may be nothing more than an assumption you've carried around and never questioned.

George is careful to draw a line here. Real challenges exist. Financial constraints, skill gaps, and circumstances outside your control are all legitimate.

There's a difference between recognizing a real challenge and allowing that challenge to define what's possible for your future.

Look at how the belief shows up in behavior. If you believe you can't sell, you avoid sales conversations. If you believe nobody wants to hear your message, you don't share it. If you believe you're not ready for bigger opportunities, you keep turning them down. Over time, those beliefs quietly shape your behavior and your results. Write them down. Then ask the only question that matters: is this actually a fact, or is it an assumption I've been carrying?

Audit Your Standards: Goals Are What You Want, Standards Are What You Accept

This distinction is one of the most useful ideas in the episode. Your goals represent what you want. Your standards determine what you're willing to accept and what you consistently do.

You might have a goal to grow your business — but what's your standard for following up with potential customers? You might have a goal to be healthier — but what's your standard for how you eat, train, and take care of yourself? You might want a better relationship — but what's your standard for being present and giving people your attention? Setting goals is easy. Living daily according to the standards that would actually produce those goals is much harder.

If your actions don't match what you want, it's doubtful you really want them.

Raising Standards Doesn't Mean Demanding Perfection

You're going to have bad days and down days and days you don't feel like showing up. Standards aren't about flawlessness — they're about what you decide in advance: how you prepare, how you communicate, how you follow through, how you manage your time. So ask yourself the hard version of the question: what behaviors have I been accepting that are inconsistent with the future I say I'm building? Constant scrolling. Avoided conversations. Projects started and never finished. Discipline and hard work alone won't fix those. You have to see them first.

Audit Your Decisions: Why Not Deciding Is Still a Decision

This is the one George believes can make or break you. Think about how much mental energy you spend on decisions you haven't made. Should I launch? Should I hire? Should I change my strategy? Should I create more content? As Tony Robbins says, you can "should all over yourself." We analyze, research, and ask for advice until gathering information becomes a substitute for choosing.

Why? Because decisions create responsibility. Once you decide, you have to act — and once you act, something might not go right. So we sit in the comfort of uncertainty and fact-finding. But avoiding a decision is itself a decision: a decision to maintain the status quo and accept where you are.

Here's the relief in it. Most postponed decisions are reversible. You can test an idea, have the conversation, take a small step, and change course if you don't like the result. In fact, clarity usually arrives *after* the decision, through execution — not before it. So ask yourself: what important decision have I been avoiding, and do I genuinely need more information, or do I just need to commit?

Action Steps

Block five to ten minutes today and run the opportunity audit on paper — beliefs, standards, decisions.
Write down one belief about yourself or your business you need to challenge, then test whether it's fact or assumption.
Identify one behavior you've been accepting that's inconsistent with the future version of you, and name the standard that replaces it.
Pick one decision you've been avoiding and make it this week — choose the reversible, small-step version if the stakes feel high.
Notice where postponing has been compounding a problem rather than protecting you from one.

Build the inner game and the outer game follows. Challenge your beliefs, raise your standards, and stop outsourcing your momentum to a decision you keep delaying. It's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live — but you've got to be working on it.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

George Wright III: [00:00:00] There's financial constraints and skill gaps and circumstances and things that you can't do anything about. [00:00:05] But there's a difference between recognizing a real challenge and allowing that [00:00:10] challenge to define what's possible for your future. George Wright III: [00:00:15] [00:00:20] All right, welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III with your clarity, [00:00:25] focus, and discipline for the week. I hope you're having a great week so far. Today I wanna just kinda [00:00:30] go off our typical pattern and path that we've been on because I wanna ask you a [00:00:35] question. What if the biggest obstacle standing between you and the next level of your success [00:00:40] is not your business? What if it was with you? Now hear me [00:00:45] out. As entrepreneurs, we spend a tremendous amount of time looking for solutions to our problems, and [00:00:50] we are generally the reason that our business is growing, or at least we like to think we are, [00:00:55] right? Because we're involved in so much. As entrepreneurs, founders, business owners, we're helping to [00:01:00] drive that business, and we're always looking for ways to take things to the next level. But sometimes [00:01:05] we're so busy looking at everything happening around us that we forget to examine what's happening [00:01:10] inside us. Our beliefs, our standards, our decisions. Because the truth is you've got [00:01:15] a great business strategy, and yet you're still struggling. You know, why [00:01:20] is it that you don't feel you can level up to the next level? Maybe you've got a ton of opportunities [00:01:25] in front of you, and you hesitate to pursue them, or maybe you have ambitious goals [00:01:30] while continuing to deal with problems and bottlenecks in your business. And I really believe that [00:01:35] personal growth and business growth are very closely connected. You've heard me say [00:01:40] that before, and if you wanna operate at your next level, you've gotta be willing to examine how you are operating at your [00:01:45] current level. So today let's sorta walk through maybe an audit [00:01:50] of yourself. Let's call it an opportunity audit, self-audit but kinda three main areas.[00:01:55] First, I want you to audit your beliefs. This is a different way to looking at it but your [00:02:00] first area is your beliefs. So what do you believe about yourself that's influencing the [00:02:05] opportunities you're willing to pursue? Think about it that way. Maybe you've told yourself that you're not good [00:02:10] at sales. Maybe you've told yourself that you believe you don't have the right connections or [00:02:15] you're too old, too young, too inexperienced, whatever it is. And here's what's interesting. When we [00:02:20] repeat these thoughts we're having in our head enough, we actually start to believe them, and they're [00:02:25] not facts. They really aren't. Sometimes we're just simply assuming that [00:02:30] things are the way they are, and so we're accepting them without questioning them. What I want you to do first is I want you to audit your [00:02:35] beliefs. I want you to question the thoughts that you're having because there are real [00:02:40] challenges in business. There's financial constraints and skill gaps and circumstances and things that you [00:02:45] can't do anything about. But there's a difference between recognizing a real challenge [00:02:50] and allowing that challenge to define what's possible for your future. If you believe you [00:02:55] can't sell, you may avoid sales conversations. If you believe that nobody wants to hear your message, you may not [00:03:00] open up and share it. And if you believe you're not ready for bigger opportunities, you may continually [00:03:05] turn opportunities down. And so over time, these beliefs, they're [00:03:10] shaping your behavior, they're shaping your mindset, and what you have to do is you have to [00:03:15] identify beliefs that are holding you back. So I really want you to think about that. Write it down. Audit your beliefs. [00:03:20] Then ask yourself, "Are these things that are actually fact, or are they [00:03:25] assumptions I've been carrying around with me for a while?" That's the first area I want you to look at. The second is I [00:03:30] want you to audit your standards there is a big [00:03:35] distinction and a big important area here, and I want you to really think about this because your [00:03:40] goals represent what you want, but your standards influence what you're willing to accept [00:03:45] and what you consistently do. So some of us are stretching for goals, but we're not looking at our [00:03:50] standards. You might have a goal to grow your business, but what's your standard for following up with [00:03:55] potential customers? You might have a goal for being healthier, but what is your standard [00:04:00] for how you're eating, exercising, and taking care of yourself? Maybe even your [00:04:05] relationships. What's your standard? You want a better relationship, what's your standard for being present and [00:04:10] giving people your attention? So it's easy for us to stretch and to try to set goals, but it's [00:04:15] a lot harder to consistently live according to the standards that will get you to your goals.[00:04:20] And I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck. They keep raising all their expectations without [00:04:25] actually raising their standards. I use that phrase, people say, "I really want this, I really want this," and I say, [00:04:30] "If your actions don't match what you want, it's doubtful you really want them." Raising your [00:04:35] standards doesn't mean demanding perfection. You're gonna have bad days and down days [00:04:40] and days you don't feel like doing things, but you're gonna encounter things that you have to tackle. [00:04:45] And you decide how you're gonna prepare. You decide how you communicate and follow through and manage [00:04:50] your time. Those are your standards. So here's the part that I really want you to ask [00:04:55] yourself in this area, and that is, "What behaviors have I been [00:05:00] accepting that's inconsistent with the future that I'm trying to get to?" Maybe you're [00:05:05] constantly checking your phone or scrolling, maybe you're avoiding difficult conversations, or you're starting [00:05:10] projects and not finishing them. But there is some kind of behavior or standard that you've accepted in [00:05:15] your life, and if you wanna go to the next level, you have got to question your standards. And [00:05:20] so discipline's not enough. Working hard's not enough. You've gotta look at what w- is working against [00:05:25] you or for you. That's the second thing. The third thing is audit your decisions. [00:05:30] Man, oh man, decisions, this is such a big one. I love to talk about beliefs and [00:05:35] limited beliefs and even your standards and habits but I believe this one can really [00:05:40] make or break, because think about how much mental energy entrepreneurs and business owners [00:05:45] spend on decisions that they haven't made. Should I launch? [00:05:50] Should I hire? Should I change my strategy? Should I pursue? Should I do more [00:05:55] content? It's like Tony Robbins says, "You should all over yourself." You know? We analyze, [00:06:00] we research, we ask for advice, and sometimes we keep gathering information so long that we [00:06:05] we don't even make a decision. Why? Because decisions create responsibility, and once you [00:06:10] decide, you have to act. And once you act, there's a possibility that things aren't gonna go right. So [00:06:15] instead, we stay in this comfort of uncertainty and fact-finding. But here's the [00:06:20] problem Avoiding a decision is often an actual decision itself. [00:06:25] It's a decision to maintain status quo. It's a decision to accept where you're at. [00:06:30] And many of the decisions we postpone they're causing more [00:06:35] challenges than we would admit. Plus, many of the decisions that we postpone, they could have been [00:06:40] reversible anyway. We could test an idea, we could have a conversation, we could take a small step, and if we don't like the [00:06:45] results, we can change them. It's not like the end-all be-all. In fact, sometimes [00:06:50] clarity, in fact, most times clarity comes from actually making the decision and learning through [00:06:55] execution so that you can get clearer. So here's the part that I really want you to get with this one. [00:07:00] I want you to ask yourself what important decisions have you been avoiding? Because I believe that [00:07:05] there's not just lost opportunity, but you might be compounding the problems that you're dealing with. [00:07:10] Do you really need more information? Do you really need to make a commitment, or can [00:07:15] you just make a decision? So I want you to do this. Take five or 10 minutes today, [00:07:20] complete your little audit of your beliefs, your standards, and your [00:07:25] decisions, and ask yourself, "What belief about myself or my business do I need to challenge [00:07:30] and question? What standard have I been accepting that is not [00:07:35] consistent with the future version of myself and where I want my life to go? And what decision have I [00:07:40] been avoiding?" 'Cause you know there's decisions you've been avoiding. Write those down. Take action with them. [00:07:45] I promise you, if you do this, you're gonna see some major results, and this is what we're doing. We're [00:07:50] trying to build the inner game so that the outer game gets built as well. Tomorrow, [00:07:55] I'm gonna be talking to you a little bit about AI and how you can incorporate AI to become a more effective [00:08:00] individual in your business, but also grow your business. And we'll get into some deep dive topics as well. So anyway, [00:08:05] that's my message for today. I really want you to challenge yourself, audit yourself in these three [00:08:10] areas, and I think it'll make a big difference for you. It's never too late to start living the life that [00:08:15] you're meant to live, but you've got to be working on it, and that's why I'm challenging you this week. You [00:08:20] notice I'm challenging a lot. So I hope you'll do that. I hope you'll let me know what you're up to. I'd love to [00:08:25] hear feedback from you. What are you winning at? What are you struggling with? Hit me up at The Daily Mastermind [00:08:30] or check the show notes. You'll see my contact details. Reach out to me. Let me know what you're working on. And please [00:08:35] share the show. Show the show. Show the show or share the show. Either way I'd really appreciate it. It [00:08:40] would mean the world to me. I look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. We're gonna be talking about AI. Have an amazing day. Talk [00:08:45] soon. [00:08:50]

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About the host

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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