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You’re listening to the Transform your Life from the Inside Out podcast. This episode is titled How Your Identity Is A Self Fulfilling Prophecy. All of us know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is. I mean, we’ve known that for, you know, since we were kids. But what we don’t recognize and we often wonder why, why am I repeating my patterns over and over and over again? Why, no matter what I do, I’m always ever wait, why? No matter what I do, I am always broke. Why? No matter what I do. I literally am always having challenges in relationships. Well, the reason why. Is because these things are happening as a result, as a reflection of your subconscious identity and your subconscious identity is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meaning that it just actually perpetuates itself. So, in this episode, it’s part of the series that I’m doing on identity. And this episode, I want to talk about these self-fulfilling aspect of your subconscious identity. Keep listening.
Hi, I’m Jim Fortin, and you’re about to start Transforming your Life from the Inside Out with this podcast. I’m widely considered the leader in Subconscious Transformation. And I’ve coached super achievers all around the world for over 25 years. Here, you’re going to find no rah-rah motivation, and no hype. Because this podcast is a combination of Brain Science, Transformational Psychology, and Ancient Wisdom, all rolled into one to take your life to levels, you’ve never thought possible. If you’re wanting a lot more in life, to feel better, to heal, to have peace of mind, to feel powerful and alive, and to bring more abundance and prosperity into your life. And this podcast is for you. Because you’re going to start learning how to master your mind and evolve your consciousness. And when you do that, anything you want, then becomes possible for you. I’m glad you’re here.
You know, I don’t know how you grew up, but I think we’ve all heard it a bazillion times from our parents when we were kids. I often heard live up to your potential and really my dad more than anyone else. And, you know, I find that really interesting or ironic because he was an alcoholic and really never achieved anything of significance in life. And I’m thinking that obviously he wanted a lot more for his kid, so he always pushed me. And especially in school. And I often heard live up to your potential. What I want to do is I want to share a personal story with you. And how this concept is applied to my own life. And this story will demonstrate how identity it overrides potential. I want to go back to first grade. And go back with me to first grade and I went to stir place elementary school in Harlingen, Texas. My teacher in first grade was a very matronly, very loving lady named Mrs. Schilling. She was older and more of a senior woman but overall, a very nice woman.
Even to this day. And I was in her class in 1971. That was 50, 52 years ago. I still remember her. And I remember the lesson that I’m sharing with you now. I recall taking a math test and it was probably what’s one plus one, I don’t know, but you know, first grade, well, these days it’s algebra and first grade, but back then it was one plus one and we were eating paste in 1971. Well, not all of us, but, and I wasn’t, but hell, that’s a metaphor anyway. I remember. I remember I recall taking the test. And Mrs. Schilling passed the papers back out. And as she walked to my desk, her face had a bit of disapproval on it. I was just kind of thinking, okay, she’s upset about something or she’s disapproving of something. And she put my paper on my desk in front of me. And she literally nodded her head and very somberly said. Jimmy. You’re not very good at math. And I looked down at my paper and there was a big red D on it.
And I remember that. I remember that. Because in that moment, what she did. Is she imprinted on me the idea that I wasn’t good at math. If you’ve listened for any amount of time. To my podcast. You’ve heard me say before in many different places. That we become who we are subconsciously before the age of eight years old. At the age of eight, the mind slash brain changes and pretty much what we’ve become earlier in life. Is locked into our, our identity for a lifetime, unless you’re someone like yourself listening to the podcast and you change your subconscious identity. So what Mrs. Schilling dead is she imprinted my identity with the message. I was not good at math. As I went through school. I made A’s and B’s and every subject, all the years of school. But I recall in sixth grade, one of my teachers wanted to put me in a remedial math class. And actually, I was very embarrassed about that. And the reason why is because I did well on everything else.
But I was horrible at math and I had a hard time in math. And I even had a teacher one time say to me, she said, Jimmy, I think you have a block with math. In high school. I was an, A student all the way across the board. For the most part. But you know what not surprisingly. I flunked my first year of high school algebra. And I tell you this my dad I’m not going to mince words. My dad was pissed off. And he said to me, This is ridiculous. You need to start living up to your potential. I’m not going to stand for this. You need to start doing better. And there’s going to be a price to pay for this. Listen to that. Live up to your potential. So obviously math was a challenge for me. And not because of my abilities. Not because of my innate potential, not for lack of intelligence. It was just hard for me. And it was hard thanks to Mrs. Schilling. Mrs. Schilling branded may subconsciously as a person who was not good at math. And as a result, I was bad. I was horrible. At math forever, a decade. And every report card that came out. I mean for a decade. I knew what was going to happen. And this was especially traumatic in grade school or middle school because I was grounded for a week when I got my report cards. Because of my grades in math.
And you know what that meant to me back in the seventies. For a kid. That’s in, you know, middle school or younger back then that meant no Gilligan’s island. I mean, that meant can you believe it or not? No. Brady Bunch, no TV for a week is how I got grounded and I can look back and I can thank Mrs. Schilling for taking Gilligan’s island and Brady Bunch away from me. And as a kid, I was pissed. Because I remember the episode that I missed of Gilligan and the Japanese guy with their submarine, which is one of my favorite episodes. And I waited for it to come back on. Are you ready? I waited for it to come back on reruns kids today. Don’t even know what that is. I waited for it to come back on reruns and I missed it because I was grounded. Thank you, Mrs. Schilling.
 Anyway, fast forward to high school. We hosted a Japanese exchange student, and she tutored me in math. And that was my, I believe my sophomore year in high school, if not sophomore, junior, anyway. I made the highest grade in my geometry class. And in that moment, my identity curse was broken. I no longer believed that I was bad at math. Why? Because I had evidence, I made the highest grade in the class that I was actually good at math. And from that moment on. I never had problems with math again. And the story doesn’t just apply to me. It applies to you also, because guess what you have stories. You have experiences that became your identity and these, this identity capture potential. And these are things that you learned at a very, very young age. And many things that you have the potential to do or had the potential to do. You never did. Why? Because your identity will let you do it.
Let’s look at wait for a moment. Let’s look at the body. I once had a woman come to me many years ago, and I mentioned this story at other places in the podcast. But, you know, what is very same story applies. And some way to some degree, to even Oprah Winfrey. You ever wondered why this woman can’t afford any kind of trainer, any kind of dietician, any kind of, anything that she could possibly want to maintain to go to and maintain a healthy weight? Yet she’s been overweight for most of her life. The reason why I speculate, but I’m pretty sure about that as being a hypnotist for many years. Is that she was sexually abused and I believe raped as a child. I’m not going to go into all the psychology of that. But what she probably did is she put all her weight on her body. Which is what a lot of people do as a metaphor for isolation. It’s a protection mechanism. It’s a defense mechanism. So notice all the things that she did over the years, she always gained the weight back. Why? Because that at the subconscious level, The wait was either isolation protection. Or in some way is a reflection. It was a reflection of her subconscious identity.
So no matter that she has the potential, because she demonstrated that the potential to be trim and fit and healthy. She for the most part is always overweight. So therefore she’s not air quote, living up to her potential wine. She’s living from her identity and you’re doing the same thing. Many years ago, I had a woman come to me. And I knew what she was coming for her. She was ever wait. And the very first meeting I asked her, I said, is anyone else in your family overweight? And she said without hesitation. Oh yes. We’re Italian we eat. That’s what we do. Italians eat. We eat all the time. And even as I say that, it reminds me of the movie. What’s that movie. Oh, yeah, my Big Fat Greek Wedding. Anyway, she learned to eat. So, notice what happened to her as a child. She learned that her words. Quote. Italians eat. End of quote. And if you want another result of her identity, Look at her body. The spite, the fact that she had the potential to be trim and fit and healthy, she wasn’t because she had no other health situation going on in her life. It was simply her identity, her subconscious identity playing out than her physical body.
You know, many times people would come to me. Or they would come to me looking for a resolution or an outcome, And as an example, the weight. Many many people would come to me for weight. And they could not understand why I would not focus on their weight initially. What I would always focus on. Is what caused the weight. What I would focus on is what in their subconscious identity. What did they learn as a child about health wellness, their body? Or their weight because that right there was causing the symptom, which was the problem, which was the weight. I think it’s pretty obvious by now that if you’ve listened to the podcast for any amount of time and in particular, this series on identity. Is. It’s obvious that our identity is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s a glass ceiling. It’s our invisible prison. It’s our hidden limitations. And this is why. I don’t want to knock them, but for example, motivational speakers and all the analytical learning that you can do and all the diet books that you can read and all the health and wellness books that you can read. And all the seminars and the videos and everything else. You can listen and you can absorb that all day long, but if that’s not consistent with your subconscious identity, it doesn’t matter what your potential is. Why? Because you’re going to be bound. So to speak, you’re going to be like tide and you’re going to be, you know, blindfolded and gagged at the identity level with the identity that you learned many years ago, that keeps you trapped in your behavior now, which keeps you away from exercising your full potential.
Another example. And again, I say this, if you’ve listened to the podcast for any amount of time, you know that I grew up poor. I grew up in a very small Texas town. It was predominantly I’m not, but it was predominantly Hispanic. All my friends were Hispanic and most of their parents were farm workers. None of us had any money. So, none of us were leaving, knew that we were poor. And when I went to college, I knew that I wanted more in life. That was something that it always just aspired to. And I’d even mentioned, I think on a prior episode. What inspired me to have more in life and to start changing my identity was in high school.
When I would watch the TV show the lifestyles of the rich and famous. And back then I wanted to be rich and famous or rich for the wrong reasons. This day and age, I’m very wealthy, but it has nothing to do with the reasons back then. But anyway, that inspired me and inspired me to start looking for ways. How do people become wealthy? And that helped actually that helped me exceed and grow beyond these self-images that I had for myself, the identity that I had for myself. But. During and after college I started reading books. Maybe you can relate to this. I started reading books on money and wealth. And spiritual wealth and spiritual practices to create wealth.
I even read books on goal setting and money in goal setting and even books on saving and on and on and on. I kid you not, I am not exaggerating. I literally and I’m guessing, but I know. I’ve literally read over 2000 books on money and how to attract money. Uh, but you know what. All those years for 15 years after college. No money. No money. No money. And I wasn’t destitute and I wasn’t living in poverty. But what I was doing is I was living in the just enough cycle and I repeated that cycle until I was in my thirties and my mid-thirties. Now, when I say just enough, I still live fine. I mean, I still had a decent car, dependable car. I had a decent apartment, a safe neighborhood to live in. I had food in my refrigerator. I had some money to go out on, but here’s the thing. Is I always lived and this, I think a lot of people listening can relate to this. I lived for many years with money out and just enough left in the bank for a few extra things. After all the bills were paid. But I never got ahead.
And I lived into that. I lived in that crap for a long time. I literally really didn’t have a lot of savings. I mean, if I lost my job, I might’ve had two or three months of money in the bank and I’d have to borrow money from so, you know, someone, a friend, but I didn’t have any cash. I didn’t have any wealth. I didn’t have any abundance. Why. cause I got out of the. The crap of being poor after college. But then I went into the crap of the, just enough process. Just enough money in coming in the money goes out to pay all the bills. At the end of the month, there was just enough money to pay all the bills. And guess what? I’ve got a few bucks.
But more than anything I’m never getting ahead in life. And I think probably if not many of you listening can probably relate to that cycle. It’s not your fault. It’s not about your potential. That’s cycle wherever you are in the cycle. And that cycle can be a big cycle. I know people making a million dollars a year and they still live at just enough. I know people living and making more than that. And they’re still living at just enough. And the whole point is. It all comes down to the container. The self-fulfilling prophecy of the subconscious identity, despite the potential.
I wanna stop the episode for just one moment and I want to say this. If you’re liking this series on identity, then you’re going to want to dig deeper and you’re going to love my up and coming BE DO HAVE challenge. I don’t know how long you’ve been listening to the podcast, but for many years I’ve done twice a year a series called the Be Do Have Series. I’m stopping that I do believe, and we’re going to turn it into a challenge. It’s really simple. It’s a nine-day format, and we’re gonna be starting this in a couple of weeks. Now, I’m not going to be doing it on the podcast, but I’m telling you about it here on the podcast so that you can get registered for it.
The BE DO have concept is a foundational performance concept. BE DO HAVE means you must be before you can do, which is identity. You must do before you can have. And when you have your being and your identity aligned, things start to work for you. In this nine-day challenge, we’re breaking it down into a bite-size format, and it’s gonna be different than what you’re learning here. It’ll overlap a little bit, but the whole point is I want you to start mastering this concept of identity and being. So go to jimfortin.com/be. jimfortin.com/be to get on the wait list. Okay, back to the episode.
So today. I’m not really comfortable saying this doesn’t register with me at all, because I don’t think it’s a big deal anymore. And I think it’s because I value money differently. But today I’m very wealthy. Financially speaking, I’m a multimillionaire several times over. So, it’s obvious. I had, I’ve always had, and I have the potential to be wealthy. But if that’s the case, how come I spent so many years broke and so many years struggling and so many years at just enough. Why because in my identity. I was either broke or struggling in my identity. Let that soak in. Because of that. Well, number one, that’s going to pertain to a lot of you and if it doesn’t pertain to you, that same concept is going to pertain to you. And a very similar way.
As a matter of fact, one of my friends called me today and he’s very wealthy. And he was in one of my transformational coaching programs. And he grew up without money. And he said to me, one time he goes, Jim, I just don’t get it. Why does so many people struggle with money? It’s so easy to make. I just don’t get it. But you know what. This guy’s now in his early forties and he’s still single. Despite wanting a healthy, loving long term relationship. So we have to look at none of us are any better or any worse. I want to say that we’re all learning our lessons, but we have to look at, okay. Jim can be talking about X, Y, Z, about money. That doesn’t pertain to me. He can be talking about weight.
And that doesn’t pertain to me, but you know what, ah, how come I’ve never been able to, to sustain a long-term loving, healthy relationship. And I’m in my forties or even in my fifties. What I’m saying to you? It pertains to you and some way, even if you think that it doesn’t. Because everyone has a self-image. Everyone has an identity, and that is capped at some level in some way. And it caps you from your potential. And I even tell people this, when people run around saying all the motivational speakers and the kids on Instagram and all this. You’ve got to live your highest potential. That’s nonsense. And the reason why is because there’s one, there’s no way to measure that. So how will you know? Oh, I’m at 73% of my potential. But it’s really nonsense. Because you are an extraordinary, I mean, extraordinary being. Beyond even comprehension. And there’s no way in one lifetime on this planet, you’re going to live up to that potential. At least that potential relative to the external world.
Actually, let me back up that potential relative to the internal world, meaning what you are spiritually. You’re finite. I mean, how the hell do you live up to infinity in this little bitty lifetime that we have? Anyway. You know, I also look at the concept of our gifts. Everyone has some kind of gift. You know, I mean, hell watch David Letterman many years ago and stupid human tricks. I mean, some people have gifts that are really crazy gifts and they can do those things. And I can’t, some people have the gift of making money. Some people have the gift of staying disciplined. Some people have the gift, maybe a MUSIC, maybe they can play like Mozart. Maybe they can dance like Baryshnikov. Maybe they can sing like Susan Boyle. But you know what. If your identity puts you in a class prison. It doesn’t matter what the gift is because you can’t share the gift because you’re in a glass prison of this subconscious identity.
This is, this is why it’s so vital that we recognize. For anything that we want to create in life. It doesn’t matter what we do. We first have to be that. It doesn’t matter what we do. We first have to be that and our subconscious identity. Just recently. I had mentioned Sam Woolfe on American idol and he was on the show a few years ago. Now, what I don’t know is when I mentioned him recently and I think a lot. You know, the podcast recently or the one before that. I might’ve called him Scott Woolfe. Well, his name is Sam Woolfe. And I’m telling you right now, of course, I’m only speculating. But he could have won American idol. Even the judges.
All three judges said that kid is good enough. He can win this. And just by watching him. I have an eye for talent. I can just see it. And I’m like, this kid can win. But he didn’t win. And the reason why is if you watch his, there, there could be several reasons, but one of the big reasons, and I think the biggest reason. Is because we read people subconsciously we literally read body language inflection. Tone. Voice rhythm. Movement of the body. We read people subconsciously not even knowing that we’re doing it. And, and then all of Sam’s body language, he was constantly telegraphing, a lack of confidence in himself. And I do believe that factor in the people voting. Because even though they weren’t consciously aware of it, they were voting based upon. The you that factor of recognizing that, Hey, this guy is missing something and what he was missing is that, that identity. because I wonder. What if I coached the guy.
And what if he saw himself? As the winner in his mind of American idol, he knew it and he could see it and he could taste it and he could breathe it and he could smell it. How then would he have performed differently, but not even that. What energetically would have come through him differently. What passion would have just oozed out of him. What power would have oozed out of him if he believed. That and he thought, and he had the identity. Hell, I can own this. I own this show. But it didn’t. And he didn’t win. Now again, in fairness, that’s speculation, but I’m a betting man and I would bet that’s true. But it’s not just true for, for Sam. It’s true. Again, for all of us.
Look at your own life. Right now. And as you’re looking at it, your life is literally bound by your subconscious identity. But this episode right now, isn’t about resolving whatever identity issues you have, or you don’t have. And this series this episode is about making you aware and that’s the key. If you’ve listened for any amount of time. You already know. That at your subconscious identity that drives you. And you don’t even know that that is driving you. But, you know, it’s the same thing. For example, I had to go, I didn’t have to go. I chose to go to California to buy a new car this weekend. I live in Arizona. And I drove there and drove back.
I drove there on Saturday. Drove back on Sunday. That was a hell of a drive. I went to, to buy a new Mercedes out at a dealership and I wanted that particular car. And I drove the entire way on cruise control literally or on autopilot. I did not have to pay attention to every intersection, every lane change every car on the highway. Every this, every that I did not have to pay attention to it. I did not have to follow it consciously. Why? Because my subconscious mind did it for me. And the same thing with you. Your subconscious mind works on autopilot and whatever you have in your subconscious identity, that becomes your self-fulfilling prophecy on autopilot.
So right now, this episode, more than anything else is about awareness. You know, I don’t know when you’ll be listening to this episode. It could be right now in February of 2023. It could be 2025. I don’t know. But right now, in 2023. And as I look at your, and even mine, your money, your health, your relationships. I know that everything in my life is kept by my identity. Now where I’m going here. As I’d mentioned 2023. Right now, it’s February 2023. And I want to look at money in the US economy, just as an example. So right now we are at 6.5% interest rates in the United States. Actually 6.4 is up today. And we are at 6.5% inflation rate. The inflation rate was 2% a year.
Now, all these things. Because most people I’m going to, yes. I’m going to use the word. Most people our even wealthy people are effected by the economy. Well, not the super wealthy, but even friends of mine that are millionaires are watching what they’re doing or how they’re doing it. Oh, make no mistake. They’re still spending money. But you know what? Now, instead of flying first-class twice a month, they’re only flying once a month. Or instead of buying a $170,000 car, they’re buying $120,000 car as an example. And again, it’s only an example. But what I’m sharing with you is if in any way, you’re recoiling from the economy and you’re operating from any kind of fear about the economics in the world and the economy in the world and the state of the world.
Guess what. That has nothing to do with your outside world and has nothing to do with the economy. It has to do with what’s happening on the inside of you because you have the potential to make all the money that you want in the world. I mean, if you wanted to be a millionaire, there are literally. I mean, literally. A million ways to make a million dollars. But most of us don’t even explore that. Why? Because our subconscious identity doesn’t even let us explore that. That’s why understanding this at the very least understanding this and having awareness of this is so damn vital. Outside things in your life are going to change all the time. Jobs economies, countries, relationship, your physical body, and the list goes on. External things change all the time. But if you don’t change your subconscious identity and it’s affected by the external things. You will always be affected by the external things.
And to me honestly if I’m effecting in a way that causes pain that’s torture. And why would I torture myself when I have the awareness and the power and the ability and the potential to create change in myself at a subconscious level. It makes no sense unless I I’m in the self-pain and self-hurt. To stay in that subconscious identity that doesn’t work for me for you and your own life. What determines how these external things affect you? Is again your subconscious identity, nothing to do with your potential to make money or lose weight, or be in a relationship it’s all the subconscious identity. And if you want to create more things in life, It’s not about doing more things as you probably have heard me say before, it’s about Being more things.
Which is why right now I am actually doing the BE DO HAVE challenge. Now I know right now you may be wondering, Jim, how do I change my subconscious identity? There are clues all over these episodes. I mean, there are many episodes where I talk about something like this. But in this particular series, I’m just wanting you to become aware. Now, again, this might not pertain to your later. But right now, in February 2023. I’m about to launch what I call a training. It’s called the BE DO HAVE challenge. I used to be doing the BE DO HAVE series twice a year. I did it every year, twice a year for the past five years. And basically I put that on the shelf and in 2023, I’m changing things and I’m launching this week and early 2022. 3 not 2 23. The BE DO HAVE challenged. And if you’re following me right now. Then you can find this information literally in the show notes or at my website,jimfortin.com. And if you’re listening later a year from now two years from now, whatever you do, make sure you’re on my mailing list because we constantly let you know about these things that I’m doing. And we let you know where you can find them.
And I do want to point out it’s just off topic. But you know what? I don’t duplicate my trainings. I might repurpose things, but I’m not going to do something here on my podcast and then do it somewhere else and do the exact same thing and charge money for it. That’s not the way that I operate. So again, I do actually repurpose things, but I don’t duplicate things. So you might’ve been in the BE DO HAVE series before. But the BE DO HAVE challenges something different. And even if you’re in the BE DO HAVE challenged right now, if I do something in the future that has BE DO HAVE in it, it doesn’t mean that it’s the same thing. Anyway, if you want to know more information and you want to be apprised of these things. Then whatever you do go to jimfortin.com and register for something I have on the website or report a download or something. And you’ll always be apprised of when things are happening.
Okay this episode, I’m not going to beat a dead horse. You get by this point, you understand, by this point, everything. Is about your subconscious identity. What you create in life is not about your potential, no matter what your mom and dad told you. It’s about your identity. And if you want more in life, better health, better relationships, more money, whatever it is. You have to expand the what I call the context for yourself. Which by the way I’ll be talking about in a couple of months and a training that I’m doing. You must expand the context that you will hold. For yourself when you expand the context, that is the same thing for expanding your subconscious identity. When you expand that it’s like, for example, you want to put things in a bowl and things won’t fit anymore. You need to expand it. The bowl is the context you need to create a bigger bowl. So right now, all that’s important and important in this particular episode is to understand this. This is a phrase that I coined myself and I’ve lived this phrase for many years.
Listen, very carefully. I don’t care where you are right now. I don’t care if you’re dead broke. I don’t care if you’re just enough or I don’t care if you’re making 5 million a year and you want to make 10 million a year. And that applies to me as well. I don’t care where you are. If you don’t have it on the inside, meaning at the identity level. You will not. No way in hell. Well, you have it on the outside. And if you do have it on the outside, like Oprah lost all that weight. You’ll lose it. And that’s why she popped right back again to being overweight. Why, we will always. We will always conform to that example. I just gave you the autopilot and we will always drive our lives from the autopilot which is the subconscious identity. No matter what our potential is. Thanks for listening. I don’t catch you over. On another episode. Bye-bye.
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