From The Desk of Jim Huntzicker: The Science of Breakthrough
What I’ve discovered after working on myself for so many years and working with so many entrepreneurs and high achievers is this: the difference between those who break through to their next level and those who stay stuck isn’t about strategy, effort, or even talent. It’s about something far more fundamental—something most people never even realize is running their lives.
You see, beliefs are decisions. This is an extremely important distinction, so I’ll repeat it: beliefs are decisions. Usually, these are decisions you made before you were eight years old—especially the ones causing the biggest issues later in life—based on what you heard from your parents and the people who influenced you early on.
Since beliefs are just decisions you made at some point in your life, you can make new decisions about what you now believe and know to be true.
Here’s what’s fascinating: when you change the way you look at something, what you’re looking at changes. It’s not just a nice saying—it’s how your brain actually works. Neuroscience tells us that about 88% of what’s going on around us is filtered out of our conscious perception. You’re seeing a filtered version of reality shaped by your past experiences and subconscious programming.
This is why two people can experience the same thing and view it completely differently.
The moment you see something differently than the way you’ve been seeing it is the moment your brain updates the filter and allows new possibilities in. This is an epiphany, and you’ll know it when it happens. All of a sudden, you will “see” things differently, and your life will never be the same.
The Real Formula for Everything You Want
Everything you want starts with a crystal-clear vision, then identifying and removing the resistance hiding in your subconscious that’s holding you back from getting it.
Here’s the formula for everything you want in life: Intention + Non-Resistance = Intended Result
Identifying and removing resistance is the key to allowing prosperity, abundance, fulfillment, and authentic happiness in your life. In fact, the only reason you don’t have what you want right now is because of the resistance you have to it.
There are four layers of resistance everyone experiences:
- Belief Transformation – Those limiting beliefs we talked about
- Resentments – Let go of them all or you will never be free
- Core Program – Super deep rooted limiting belief, causing the biggest issues in your life
- Letting go of not being enough – Learning to love yourself
The Two States That Control Your Life
In life, there are only two states of being: Powerful and Primal. You are in one of these two states at all times, but you can never be in both at the same time.
Powerful States are associated with positive feelings like gratitude, certainty, clarity, peace, joy, creativity, excitement, and resourcefulness.
Primal States are associated with negative feelings that don’t feel good, like fear, stress, self-doubt, anxiety, depression, frustration, and anger.
Once you realize that every thought you have that brings you into a Primal state is untrue, your life will begin to radically change. You and only you choose the meaning that you give to things.
Nothing has any meaning except for the meaning you give it. Read that again.
What someone else says or does should never send you into a fit of rage or anger. Why are you giving them so much power over you?
You decide: “What is this going to mean?” What meaning are you going to assign to it? Create a meaning that serves you. Life is not about what happens to you. It’s about how you decide to respond and use what happens to you.
Your Thoughts Become Your Reality
Your subconscious mind is your “emotional mind,” and it cannot reject the information that is presented to it. It accepts what you think about most as what you want. Your subconscious cannot determine the difference between what is real and what is imagined, good or bad.
Your thoughts aren’t neutral—they are commands to your subconscious.
Here’s how powerful this is: When you tell yourself “I don’t have time to work out,” not only will you never find time to go to the gym, you also won’t see opportunities like taking the stairs as a chance to get some exercise. Your subconscious filters out what doesn’t match your internal story.
But flip that thought to “I’m looking for opportunities to move my body,” and suddenly your subconscious starts finding ways to make that true. You notice the parking spot further away. You take the stairs without thinking. You suggest walking meetings. Same world, different filter.
We are all only as good as the stories we tell ourselves.
Your thoughts tell your subconscious what filters to use—and those filters determine what you see, what opportunities you notice, and what becomes possible in your life. Change the story, change the filter. Change the filter, change your life.
This is why you get what you think about most, whether you want it or not.
Here’s how it works through what’s called the 5 Primary Drivers of Human Behavior:
Beliefs → Thoughts → Feelings → Actions → Results
The decisions you have made about what you believe lead to the thoughts you have. The thoughts you have produce feelings or emotions that lead to the actions you take (or don’t take). The actions you take lead to a result, and that result will reinforce your existing beliefs.
When living in scarcity, you are almost always thinking about what you don’t want, and that is exactly what you get more of.
Are you financially successful right now, but between the ages of 35-55, and grew up living in scarcity before you were 8? If so, pay very close attention.
Even those who are “financially successful”—with millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars—who figured out that money is easy to make (if you don’t think so, you have a limiting belief telling you money has to be hard) but haven’t changed the beliefs they formed growing up, can, will, and do lose it all.
We’ve all heard stories of people worth hundreds of millions going bankrupt. Think of those unfortunate athletes who never developed financial literacy and lose it all soon after retirement. How else do you think that happens?
Their subconscious programming from childhood eventually sabotages what their conscious mind built. The beliefs win every time.
The Gift of Pain and Growth
No pain, no growth.
Pain’s not here to break you—it’s here to wake you up, to show you where you’re stuck and push you through it. When you lean into it instead of running, it transforms you.
People drink and do drugs to get out of their minds and become present. The way to not have pain in the future is to embrace it in the moment. It will be gone forever once you embrace it right when it happens and let it pass through.
You need to feel that pain to grow. Pain is a gift.
Holding Onto Resentment Is Poison
Holding on to resentment is like eating poison and expecting the other person to die. The only person it hurts is you. And it is significantly more detrimental to how your life plays out than you could possibly imagine.
We get addicted to negative thoughts and emotions. The hormones of stress are very addictive. People become addicted to these emotions of stress: anger, aggression, hatred, fear, anxiety, worry, guilt, shame, suffering, and unworthiness.
So then, people begin to use the conditions and problems in their lives to reaffirm their addiction to these emotions. They need to struggle because it makes them feel something familiar—something comfortable, even if the comfortable thing is something they don’t want.
The Power of New Decisions
You don’t need to know the “how.” Making a new decision about what you believe is so powerful it will activate the “how.” You will start to get new thoughts and ideas. The plan you’ve been looking for will just come to you.
Intention is the most powerful tool we have.
Everything begins with awareness. Awareness is the first step to changing an old belief. Once you become aware of what’s holding you back, you can make a new decision.
It’s okay to give yourself permission to make a new decision. Most of you need to, I did.
When you let something go, you are saying that you have faith that something else will come into your life that is stronger and better than what you let go.
Surrender isn’t weakness. It’s alignment.
Your Next Step
This work isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. You’ll still hit challenges, feel pain, slip into Primal states. That’s human. It still happens to me every day. The only difference is now I don’t live there or let it bother me for more than 90 seconds.
That’s the real transformation—not avoiding the mess, but moving through it like a pro. Get my book Mindset Breakthrough (free here on my website as a PDF download, in paperback on Amazon for $11) and you’ll have the frameworks and tools to shift, to grow, to keep moving forward. My book is designed to be a toolkit and reference guide. That’s why I made it so short and easy to consume.
For entrepreneurs and high achievers who feel stuck, unfulfilled, or unhappy despite appearing to have it all—or who are financially successful but miserable—I also work with select individuals through one-on-one and group coaching programs designed specifically for breakthrough-level transformation.
The difference between those who break through and those who stay stuck is simple: they decide to see differently, and they act on that new vision.
“The only limits you have are the limits you believe.” – Wayne Dyer
Your breakthrough is waiting. It starts with one new decision about what you believe is possible for you.
If this letter resonates with you—if you feel that stirring inside that says “there’s more”—then you’re ready for what comes next.
The question isn’t “Can you break through?” The question is: “WILL YOU?”
To limitless growth,
Jim Huntzicker
P.S. The frameworks to fix all of this are in my book Mindset Breakthrough which you can download for free here on my website, or click here to buy the paperback for $11 on Amazon.
“Don’t pray for an easier life; pray for the wisdom, strength, and courage to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee
