5 Wicked Ways to Unleashing Your 20X Factor
Kc Rossi (00:00:02) - Welcome to Heart Glow CEO™, where high achievers evolve into purpose-driven powerhouses. I'm Kc Rossi your Integrative Leadership Coach join us to break free from people pleasing and burnout, exploring mindset, embodiment, and soul alignment. Discover expert insights, success stories, and actionable tips for holistic wealth on your terms. This is where transformation meets the modern female leader. Let's go!
Hello leaders and achievers. Welcome back to another episode of Heart Glow CEO™, where we dive deep into the principles and practices that help you achieve peak performance with balance, joy, ease, and flow. Yes, please.
Today we're exploring a transformative concept from Mark Divine's book Unbeatable Mind. This idea is all about tapping into your 20 X factor, the incredible potential lying deep within you, waiting to be unleashed. It dovetails into my favorite quote by Abraham Maslow “What one can be, one must be.”
Imagine being capable of at least 20 times what you believe you are. Yes, you heard that right 20 times! Mark Divine, a former Navy Seal, calls this your 20 X factor.
Kc Rossi (00:01:32) - Today we will unlock this potential, understand how to cultivate mental toughness, and apply these insights to lead a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Just a side note here. I love Mark Divine. I was first introduced to him through Brian Johnson's Optimize Coach certification program, which I graduated from back in 2021. I was immediately impressed with how he balances Eastern practices like Zen meditation and martial arts with mental toughness. It pulled me right in and I have been a fan ever since.
So what do you think of when you think of your 20 X factor? The key idea of an unbeatable mind is simple, yet profound. You are capable of so much more than you think. Let that sink in for just a minute.
You are capable of so much more than you think.
Society, family, and culture haven't intentionally kept you in the dark about this potential. They just didn't know either. And it's easy to hum along with the status quo and unfortunately, even self-sabotage. We have all been there.
Kc Rossi (00:02:47) - Especially because you are a dedicated listener, I feel confident in saying that it's time to break free from these limiting beliefs and paradigms and tap into your full potential, not just for your success and happiness, but to contribute positively to the world.
So how do we go about this thing? Well, here are five wicked ways to unleashing your 20 X factor.
1. Number one is when in your mind. First, Mark Divine emphasizes that Navy Seals operate at an elite level because they learn to control their minds and win the battles internally before stepping into the fight. Here's how you can do it too. Step one is focus your mind. Taming your jumping monkey mind. You know the constant, usually negative thoughts swinging from branch to branch through your mind. This is step one.
Start a practice of daily concentration like meditation, even a few minutes of focused attention can yield massive results. And there are so many different apps out there. If you just kind of Google on or pop into the Play Store and take a look. I know Headspace is one of them. Calm is another one.
You probably know that I've been a daily meditator since 1990, and honestly, I don't know who I would be without this non-negotiable practice.
2. Step two connect to your internal witness.
Learn to observe your thoughts from a detached perspective. It's like stepping back, you know, really having that space between the thing and you. It's like stepping back from a waterfall and watching the waterfall instead of being hammered by it. “That that you are witnessing and that that you are aware of, that you're witnessing” is another way to think about it, which is from psychologist David R Hawkins. I'll link a short YouTube video of this where he kind of goes into it a little bit further.
3. Step three feed your mind with positive imagery and emotions. Visualize your success and feel the positive emotions associated with your desired future state. And I want you to just even think about that for a minute. Do you even know what your desired future state is? There is absolutely no shame if you don't.
Kc Rossi (00:05:15) - I know a lot of times, you know, when I'm doing a little personal audit, I'll be like, oh my gosh, I literally lost track of what I even want. What is my desired future state? What is actually my desired present state?
It is totally normal to get off track, and it's cool to just come right back in. The one thing I'll say if you're a fan of visualizing, an essential piece to underscore here is the emotional link up.
Just looking at positive imagery won't be as effective as combining it with an activated, you know, like really get into it, pump it up, pump up those positive emotions. So try it out and let me know what you experience differently when you link up that activated emotional state with your positive imagery. I'm really excited for you to try it that way.
4. Step four daily training.
Integrate practices that nurture your internal vision and prepare you for action. You know, I'm a massive fan of the action part because
Information without implementation is a total waste of time.”
So this piece is really key. Another vital component is repetition. This whole upleveling process is not a one and done. It's not reading a couple of motivational books or listening to a few personal development podcasts and calling it good. The brain loves repetition. Repetition creates a habit and consequently cultivates unconscious competence.
Unconscious competence is a stage in the learning process where an individual has gained such a high level of skill and mastery in a particular task that they can perform it effortlessly and automatically without conscious thought or deliberate focus.
It is one of the four stages in the Four Stages of Competence model, which describes the progression of learning a new skill. I think this deserves a dedicated episode topic on it, so I'm going to do that in a couple of weeks.
5. Step five take massive action.
This really builds upon step four with that daily training plan, but it's a little bit different in the fact that he is really recommending that you recruit like-minded teammates to help you achieve your mission, so that's the difference.
Kc Rossi (00:07:47) - It is not that it's a me, myself and I endeavour. It's who can we get on board with us? We know that we can't succeed alone. If you've ever tried to create in a silo, you know it can be lonely. And it can also contribute to procrastination because there is less flow, motivation, and accountability in most cases than having a thought partner, coach, or team.
I always say that #wearestrongertogether is way more than a trendy hashtag. There is power in the collective. Especially now with the feminine rising and the consciousness is shifting, it's even more powerful to align with people ready to change. And they're really not afraid. They're not afraid to challenge the status quo. And, you know, I'm not saying that it's easy. I'm not saying that fear magically disappears. But there is this movement to be bold enough to create a new paradigm. Are you ready for it? I know I am.
Speaking of winning your mind, first I'm going to link a podcast interview that I did with Communication Rebel; Michelle Mazur on the mindset to spread your message so you can find that in the show notes.
Kc Rossi (00:09:06) - All right. Building unshakable self-confidence. This self-confidence piece is both a character trait and a skill.
My invitation for you is to rack up small, worthy, and achievable victories to build your self-confidence. Any of my clients know that I start each coaching session with them recapping their wins, from micro wins to big accomplishments.
Also reframing failures to find their silver linings — This is something we talked a lot about in last week's episode, Leadership Mastery eight Benefits of Practicing Positive Reappraisal. So if you didn't catch that last week, I will link it in today's show notes for you.
Remember, self-confidence is built through intense trust in your capabilities, which is earned through consistent effort and persistence. Do what you say you're going to do. Not only with yourself but with others. It is the fastest way to build self-trust.
If you want to go deeper here, I'll share the episode I did with Finca on “Get Unstoppable Confidence.” Now this other piece and Mark has a book that really goes deep into this. But it's starving.
Kc Rossi (00:10:28) - Fear and feeding courage. Negative thoughts destroy performance. You know this. We have all had these swirling, negative thoughts that really keep us from doing our best, thinking our best, being our best.
He really breaks down a four-step process to cultivate courage and positivity. The first piece is witnessing the negativity and we know this. We know awareness is the first step in any growth work. So it's no different here. Recognize negative thoughts. The next is interdict with a power statement. So that's really just kind of like Tony Robbins talks about it as disruption. You know, just disrupt that thought pattern.
You can stop negative thoughts with affirmations like, ‘I've got this’ or ‘let's do this’. And I really didn't even have the intention to do that. But I started noticing over the last couple of years, I started being like, ‘let's go!’. I started noticing I was incorporating that more often, and I think that there adds a level of motivation to it. And it also it doesn't allow you to kind of go down a rabbit hole because let's go or let's do this or I've got this. It is all kind of geared for action.
It's really similar to Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule, where you're really counting backwards from 5 to 1, five, four three, two, one blastoff. You immediately take action without any second guessing. So you can kind of see there's some overlap in this personal development space where, you know, we may get something from Cal Newport on deep work that's coming a little bit later in today's episode. You may get something from a disruption thought pattern from Tony Robbins. You might get a framework from Mark Divine with this starving fear and feeding courage. And I think it's really cool to get a lot of different perspectives. But then what I find really helps you embody it is to make it your own.
It is awesome to get inspired by all these great people that have been so courageous to get on a platform and motivate us. But what I found personally, and what I really invite you to do, is take the little bits and pieces of what really resonates the most with you.
Kc Rossi (00:12:59) - We are all so unique and the cool thing, and what I find that actually makes it stick is if you can personalize it so it resonates and you take action on it.
The last two bullet points of this four-step process is to use self-talk and imagery to focus on something positive and to maintain with mantras, using jingles or mantras — Just a one line that you repeat to reinforce that positivity. So again it's witness the negativity. Do something to disrupt the negativity with a power statement. Redirect to positive thoughts. So it's kind of that flip or that shift and then maintain it with repetitive mantras.
If you want more on courage, I'll pop the episode that I did with Choose Courage podcaster Lindsey Anne. That's going to be in the show notes.
All right. I briefly mentioned Cal Newport. I think he's one of the best experts when it comes to deep work blocks. In fact, he wrote the book Deep Work, and it really dovetails in here with unleashing your 20 X factor; Cultivating deep concentration.
Kc Rossi (00:14:14) - Deep, unbroken concentration is a hallmark of success. Practicing meditation, visualization, even yoga. Really any activity that strengthens your ability to focus.
My invitation is to set up a distraction-free environment to enhance your concentration. This is so key. In fact, I had to pause this episode because even though I had my cell phone off to the side and it was, on Do Not Disturb, I could still see that my screen lit up and I saw a number come up on the screen, and it completely threw me off my game. And I had to pause. And I really try to keep this as raw and real as possible, unless you get some road noise. Case in point behind me where I may have to pause. But it's really important whether I'm doing a solocast or an interview that I don't edit, because I want this to be real and authentic and like, life happens and bloopers happen and car noise happens…. and that's the reality of it. Of course, if it gets too distracting, I'll press pause.
Kc Rossi (00:15:26) - But the point here is, even if your phone is on mute and silence and you can see a flashing screen, I guarantee you it is going to distract you. So the invitation here in the vein of cultivating deep concentration is to set up a distraction-free environment. Shut your door, eliminate all the windows that wing out, put your phone out of sight, and then you can really lean in undistracted.
I coach a lot of leaders, many of them, surprisingly, are resistant to stop and smell the roses and calm their mind. They are so used to jumping from one task to another, and then when the workday is done, they continue the taskmaster way of being and they jump into house chores, kid duty, partner responsibilities, you name it. It's rare to have carved out space to just be.
In fact, the “FieldPlay” - what I call homework, that I gave one of my clients this week was for her to practice sitting on her back deck after work with no inputs, no books, no podcasts, no inputs and see what bubbles up.
Kc Rossi (00:16:39) - Just be there. Just breathe. She looked at me like I asked her to get naked and go grocery shopping. For real. So this number four of cultivating deep concentration may be more challenging than it sounds, but trust me when I say it's very valuable, so give it a shot.
I'll link a quick Instagram story that I did, giving a nod to this.
All right. Number five harnesses the power of breath in high-stress situations. Focusing on your breathing is so key. I know this is most likely not new news, but I'm wondering how often you practice it. Are you familiar with box breathing? This is something that's in Mark Divine's book. It's very, very simple. It helps to visualize a square or a box and you inhale for five seconds. So that's like going up the side of the box. You hold for five seconds, which is like moving across the top of the square. You exhale for five seconds, which is moving down that side of the box. And then you hold for five seconds, which is that last bottom line of the box.
Kc Rossi (00:17:53) - I have heard it for four seconds. I've heard it in his book for five seconds. Whatever really works for you, that doesn't stress you out, because the whole point of this is to calm the nervous system. It's a simple technique and it's very balancing. And also, especially for leaders, I know this is so important. It enhances decision-making.
There is science behind this vagus nerve stimulation: Slow deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps lower your heart rate and blood pressure, promoting a state of calm.
One of my guests dove deep into the vagus nerve. The episode is called Embody Your Star with Melanie Weller, and you guessed it, I'll pop that interview link in the show notes, too.
Part of having an uncommon mind is developing uncommon resolve. I just love the sound of that, “Uncommon Resolve.” Uncommon resolve requires desire, belief, attitude, discipline, and determination. Deepen your resolve by setting clear goals and maintaining an unwavering commitment to achieving them.
Kc Rossi (00:19:07) - So much of winning is clarity, commitment, and consistent action. Just keep that in mind. Maybe even do a post-it note — Clarity. Commitment. Consistent action.
Mark Divine says “To live an uncommon life, one needs to learn uncommon disciplines.” Your 20 X factor is within reach, but it does require dedication and consistent practice.
Embrace these five principles. Take massive action and watch as you unlock a new level of potential and fulfillment in your life.
Remember my friend, you are so much more capable than you think.
Harness your 20 X factor to make a greater impact on the world. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network.
Let's spread this message of tapping into our full potential together.
Until next time, keep leading with heart and purpose, and breathe joy. Thank you so much for listening.
