3 Mindset Lessons From Top Gun

Movies aren’t just for entertainment. Along the way, there are lessons that we get to learn from them. In this episode, Yanet Borrego shares the top three mindset lessons she picked up from watching Top Gun, where Tom Cruise or “Maverick” is the main character. In this action-packed film, we learn how we may fall prey to the environment and our situation, but through standing up and being empowered, there can still be room for growth. She also talks about how overthinking can keep us from growing. Tune in to this episode as Yanet shares some profound insights.

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3 Mindset Lessons From Top Gun

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I am preparing to go to Hawaii for three weeks for two personal development training that I have. I'm recording so many episodes to be ready to take this long trip and be able to have all the content done for all of you. My experiences do not impact the value that all this content is creating for you. Because I'm leaving, Cody and I took Saturday to have a whole day of quality time. One of the things we decided to do was go to a movie theater and end up watching Top Gun. This is a new movie, but I know there is an older one, which I haven't watched yet, but I watched the new one and loved it.

If you haven't watched it, you’ve got to do it because, in this episode, we are going to be discussing the three mindset lessons from Top Gun. I'm going to be specific about the lessons and highlight the movie because if you haven't watched it, I don't want you to get all the information about what's going on. Just a spoiler, I'm going to be talking about Top Gun. In case you're one of those people who cannot know any information about the movie before you watch it, maybe this is not the best episode for you now. You can re-read it and come back at a later time. For me, I don't care if someone tells me something about a movie. What matters is you, so I'm letting you know, spoiler alert.

I may be talking about some of the things in the movie. I'm not going to provide details for you, but I'm going to be a little bit more detailed on the mindset lessons. There are so many in the whole movie. The movie is packed with action, inspiration, motivation, romance, and a little bit of everything, to be honest. There are three lessons that particularly caught my attention. As I was realizing this, which was by the second lesson, I was like, "I need to write all this down because I'm going to forget." I would love to have a little bit of fun in this episode and create an episode that is all about the lessons from Top Gun.

These are three powerful mindset lessons that if you incorporate into your life as you move forward, you are going to show up much more empowered and fulfilled in your path. Let's get right into it. Maverick, who is Tom Cruise in the movie, is training this group of students to do something that no one has ever done. While he's teaching these students to do something he hasn't even done, he reminds his students over and over that it's not about the plane. It's about the pilot because the planes they're operating so many times don't have all the capabilities to go through this challenge they have. They have to do things they have never done before. They have to push the operating and mechanic limits of the plane.

Sometimes, the students come up with mental limitations and bring up a potential challenge. Maverick always remind them, "It's not about the plane. It's about the pilot." This is a perfect analogy for our environment and how we operate internally. In life, there are challenges and obstacles. As we continue working towards our goals and continue growing, we are going to face complexities and challenges we haven't faced before.

When you tap into your gut, you must go with it.

The fact that we are doing this means that we are growing. If we want different results, we’ve got to start behaving, feeling, and thinking differently. It is normal to face challenges because when you push the boundaries of your identity and who you think you are, it's not going to feel comfortable. Many times, we are in a situation where we may think that our environment does not support us. We may talk about the environment as the obstacle itself. For example, "It's the environment. It's not me. I'm in a job or an environment that doesn't support my development. It's not me. That's why I'm stuck."

Sometimes, we may fall into a trap where our environment makes us the victim of the situations. What he's saying here is that it's not the environment, that by showing up empowered mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, you can influence the environment in a positive way. Whenever we go through challenges, if you are in alignment, coherent and grounded, you can make the best out of that situation and get out of that situation with much more growth than you letting that situation influence you. It doesn't mean that you're going to stay there forever. It means that you are going to go through a situation, get the lesson, and move forward with more wisdom.

I'm not going to mention the specific moment, but there is a moment in the movie where he's being faced by planes that are much more advanced than the plane he is flying. He's with one of his students. He's like, "These are two planes that are way much more advanced than ours. We are done." His student reminds him, "Remember what you have always told us. It's not about the plane. It's about the pilot." He gathered all that inner resourcefulness as a pilot and ended up destroying those two planes that were way more advanced than the one they were operating. He knew he had the skills to figure out a way to survive in that situation.

This was a situation of high distress. This was a situation where he needed to be resourceful, or he wouldn't survive. It doesn't mean that we are facing these situations day-to-day, but it's such a powerful lesson because many times, we act as such. Many times we act like we are in survival mode. What sometimes we forget is that it doesn't matter the situation. It doesn't matter the challenge that we are facing. There is always a way. The way comes from you trusting your gut, your inner wisdom, and your inner resourcefulness. Believe me, whatever answer you are seeking is always within yourself.

If you stand so congruent in your beliefs and do it from a place where you're operating out of love, you are going to end up impacting the environment in a positive way just as Maverick did in Top Gun. That's the first one. It's not the plane. It's the pilot. It's not the environment. It's how resourceful and how you can tap into that inner wisdom that you have within yourself to be able to influence the environment.

It is important to mention that this is something that you may do short-term or medium-term while you are seeking to get into a place that supports better your development and growth, just like he did. After he shot those two planes, there was another situation where he needed that extra help because he wasn't able to maintain or sustain. That's the first mindset lesson number one.

The second lesson is such a powerful one and it’s one that I'm still working on. All these lessons are things that I'm still working on because we are human beings. Even if we conquer our existing challenges, more complex challenges are going to show up. The more complex challenges mean that we are growing. The fact that we are growing means that we’ve got to show up in different ways we haven't shown up before.

This is always a lifelong process. It is a journey, not a destination. The second lesson is whenever they are flying, one of the things that Maverick, the instructor, reminds his students is to, "Do not think. Follow your gut. You get in your head, and you are dead." It's so funny because there is a situation where something happens that he ends up on enemy grounds in a stressful situation. There was this student that doesn't let him there. He ends up fighting the other planes to be able to save the life of Maverick. The student ends up being shot to the plane and ends up with Maverick on enemy grounds.

When he does that, Maverick runs toward him and is like, "Why the heck are you here? I just tried saving your life. What are you doing?" He tells Maverick, "Like you said, I didn't think. I just followed my gut." Maverick shut up and stayed silent, giving the reason the student incorporated the lesson he had given him. It is so powerful because many times, our gut or intuition is telling us to do something from the first time we sometimes get by this person or situation. We then go into the overanalyzing mode. When you start overthinking things, you get out of your intuition. It's this frequency that when you tap into it, you must follow it. When you tap into your gut, you must go with it.

Even though that wasn't the right decision, it was a lesson you're supposed to get. Whenever we leave that frequency of our intuition and start overthinking, that's when we get into our head. When we get into our heads, we are dead. In this case, not literally, but in a way that causes more suffering than fulfillment.

Many times, because we are seeking short-term satisfaction, we don't want to have these uncomfortable conversations. We don't want to face these challenging decisions. You’ve got to ask yourself. Are you making decisions out of short-term satisfaction or long-term fulfillment? I truly believe your gut is always right. Following your gut and starting to make decisions that align with that initial feeling is so important. It's something that's illustrated in the movie over and over. That's mindset lesson number two.

The number three is a huge one. It's one that I put a lot of focus on with my coaching clients, students, and my life too. There is a moment where, as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Maverick is training these students to do a mission no one has ever done in a way that they need to push the boundaries of what's mechanically possible in the plane. Not even Maverick has done these lessons. There is a moment where he realizes it is so important that the students believe that they can do it. He tells one of his superiors, "They need to believe that they can do it. If they don't believe it, they are not going to do it because no one has ever done it. It's the only way they can make it through and survive. I want to make sure they succeed in the mission, but they also need to come home."

We need to believe that anything is possible. It starts with the belief that even if we are not seeing it right now, it will happen because we are showing up consistently.

He was such a great leader in the movie. He said, "They have to believe it." I love what happens next. Something happened in the movie. If you haven't watched it, you don't know what it is, but if you have watched it, you know that something happens over the end of the movie where he ends up doing the challenge and demonstrating that it was possible. Here's the thing. Maverick had never gone through that challenge, through that obstacle that they were practicing. He had to believe it in his mind in order to execute it and make it happen. If he wouldn't have believed it, that was not going to happen. He did it with much less time than everyone else ever anticipated.

Everyone was in shock when he did it. It's the fact that he did it, and he led with integrity. It's whatever he thought about teaching the students, which is the belief of, "You can do it," the belief of whatever you are trying to make it happen. Even if you don't see it, even if you have to have faith about it, the most important element of that faith is the belief that it is possible, the belief that you can do it. He led with integrity because he demonstrated that it was possible. Sometimes it's hard to have faith in something that is possible if you have never experienced someone doing it. He was the first one. He led with integrity, demonstrating that it was possible to go through the obstacle in less than the time that they were practicing doing it.

At the end of the movie, they ended up doing it. There were a couple of obstacles, but they managed. I love that mindset lesson number three because, in this lesson, there are two things. One, you have to believe that you can do it. Me, being in this entrepreneurship journey and voluntarily leaving my corporate job in 2021 to transition full-time into entrepreneurship, there is a lot of belief in myself, and the impact that I can make in others' lives in order to have decided to live my stable six-figure corporate job.

One of the things that have helped me is reading about stories of people that have made it happen and surrounding myself with people that are doing it already. It's because whenever you see those data points that you're like, "They did it. I can definitely do it." Knowing that it's possible, the only thing you have to work on within yourself is the belief in self because they did it. I've done it. I'm not different than you. They're not different than you. They have all the resourcefulness within themselves, and you too. I don't have access to elite mentors other than the ones I pay for or anything like that.

I was born in Cuba. We went through a lot of challenges and risks in our lives in order for me to be here with my mom. My mom was the person that would have the least amount of resources. Somehow, she had the hope that by leaving Cuba, she was able to get into the United States and follow this American Dream because she believed it was possible. She was able to be presented with an opportunity to do it, and then she took action to make it happen.

Whenever we think that our environment influences us, I want you to step back and think twice because there are many people that have been in worse environments that the ones we have been. Somehow, they have made it happen because of this mindset lesson number three, the belief in self that you can do it. I'm doing this episode and everything I'm doing with my business and career because I believe in your unlimited potential to make your dreams happen. I believe in your limited potential to make anything that you want to be and to do happen. I'm sure you do too because that's why you're here.

The second piece within this third mindset lesson is integrity which he had to demonstrate first and lead others towards that path. Here's one of the things I've always said. I don't ask my coaching clients to do something I am not doing myself. To me, that's the ultimate lack of integrity. How can I tell my coaching clients to practice meditation and gratitude every day and do their homework because they have homework after every session if I'm not showing up the same way?

I have ups and downs like you who are reading this now. What's important is to course correct and get back on track because we have this one life, and it's happening now at this moment. There is no 1 more second or 10 more minutes guaranteed. It is now. With these three mindset lessons, I want you to ask yourself. How do you choose to live your life as you move forward? How do you choose to incorporate these three mindset lessons into your life?

Let me summarize them again. Mindset lesson number one, it's not the plane. It's the pilot. It's not the environment. It's you who can influence the environment and make it happen. Mindset lesson number two, don't think. Follow your gut. You get in your head, and you're dead. Start aligning. The more you follow your gut and intuition, you align more. The more you align, you attract more abundance and wealth into your life. Mindset number three, we need to believe that it's possible. It starts there with that belief that even if we are not seeing it now, it's going to happen for us because we are showing up consistently.

I hope this episode was super helpful. If you're motivated, inspired, and enjoyed the content, please share it with one friend or family member. This is the first time I have done something related to a movie or anything that happens. I love to hear your thoughts. I'm on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and email. YBCoaching.com is my website. I would love to know what your thoughts are so I can do more of what you like. At the end of the day, I'm here to support you. Wishing you all the love and gratitude. I'll see you next episode.

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• https://www.YBCoaching.com/purpose
• https://Calendly.com/YanetBCoaching/clarity-call
• Clarity Booster - 3 Questions Framework
• https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UCqxL829o0Vk-QdY12F-GgMw