I often share that I know someone from my mastermind group. And the most frequent response is:
“What’s a mastermind group?”
Mastermind groups are groups of people who have a similar goal, value, or similar mindset to meet, share, support and hold each other accountable.
To succeed in college, med school and residency, I was trained to compete and live on the high end of the bell curve. Being self-motivated, driven and independent is an attribute in medicine. Asking for help is not; it is a sign of weakness.
When Jack Canfield wrote The Success Principles, this was the first place I heard of the concept of a MASTERMIND GROUP.
Coincidentally and shortly after that book, my friend called me to join him in a “Men’s Group”.
(But I believe there really are no coincidences.)
At the time, recently married with 3 part-time medical offices and 3 little kids, I was so busy that I could not imagine finding time or energy to commit to another obligation. I didn’t know any of these guys and my plate was overflowing.
So many questions rushed through my mind…
Do I have time?
How could these guys possibly understand my stress or life?
How could they relate to surgery or patients or the life of a doctor?
Would this be a few hours of listening to more people complain?
Would I be comfortable sharing my personal problems with strangers?
But more importantly to me, there was one thing I knew for sure.
I didn’t want my days and life to stay the same.
I needed progress.
I had challenges to address.
So I told him that I was in.
Each week, each of us would share a dilemma and the other guys would share their own experiences or ideas in a supportive, non-critical or judgmental way.
When I complained that my wife never gave me free time to exercise, they didn’t blame her or their wives. Instead, I did what 2 of the guys were doing. I began getting up at 5:30 in the morning before the kids got up so I could exercise.
When I was challenged by my children not following my rules and by grappling with the careful seesaw of discipline and teaching. They shared a great resource, Don’t Feed the Dragon, to help me love and mold my kids without screaming or hitting.
Over time, my Men’s group became a sacred cocoon to nourish, inspire and challenge growth in all aspects of our lives.
Through our monthly sessions, I shared the insanity of my life and they’d question me about my choices and my role in the insanity.
From this group I learned the value of sharing my problems and vulnerability.
In that safe space, the group pushed me out of being stuck.
Over many years, the conversations in our Men’s Group began repeating themselves.
I began to feel stagnant.
Coincidentally, one of the guys invited a guest to come to our group.
He was starting his own mastermind group based on becoming financially free and maximizing all aspects of our lives.
That lead to my joining Gobundance.
I gained so much from this experience it has literally changed my life and who I am.
I have attended conferences to listen to Robert Kiyosaki, Jeff Hoffman, Cameron Herold, Hal Elrod and Kelly Flanagan.
I began tracking my time, money and goals.
I began networking with other entrepreneurs outside of medicine, real estate operators, tech innovators, and thought leaders.
I have gained many lifelong friends.
Because of these relationships and influences, I've grown my medical practice differently.
I’ve expanded my real estate knowledge and portfolio.
I’ve learned different investment strategies.
A mastermind group can become your chosen peer group to learn, grow from and enjoy the process.
If you want a new normal, you need peers who already consider what you want normal.
I’ve expanded who I am as a man and who I can be.
I no longer believe the lie that "I am on my own".
I am a BETTER doctor, father, husband and human because my tribes teach me, support me, stretch me, and push me into a better future.
Darren Hardy said: Your reference group determines 95% of your success or failure. You become who you surround yourself with. They become your world and your compass. They represent the current pushing you down the shore.
I understood the concept that I was affected by who I exposed myself to and realized the importance of the people I surrounded myself affecting my attitude and aspirations.
But I never set out to find people who matched my goals and dreams.
I had never honestly shared my goals or been accountable to anyone else in my entire life beyond myself.
As I immersed myself in my mastermind groups, I expanded my mindset, my goals and my questions.
Over time, new areas of knowledge and interest became part of who I was.
I learned many of the concepts which I share in BOOMM and which are the polar opposite from those which allowed me to succeed in medicine.
They expose you to a new world of what is possible and how others live
They give you a different lens to look at life through and a different compass of how to get where you want.
They help you discover, learn and create a new normal.
You gain access to others who have already done it, whatever IT is.
Relationships are the multiplier for leverage, opportunity, and transformation.
Mastermind groups make it real.
Jim Rohn said:
We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
Now more than ever, many of these groups and people exist.
They can change your life.
They for sure have changed mine.
The 2 mastermind groups I have been
a part of and I recommend are:
And there are so many more to choose from depending on your goals and the intention of the group.
BOOMM CHALLENGE:
- Write down who are the five people you spend the most time with.
- Ask yourself if they model who you want to become
- Record what characteristics you want as models for your future.
- Describe what you want in your tribe.
- Find it.
Are you a lone wolf?
Do the people around you model who you want to be?
Do your friends expand who you are?
Who are you with when you like who you become?
