Opening Story:

Something I have become pretty familiar with throughout my journey of building my own business, podcast, and social media content is what it feels like to build something with a vision that other people don’t necessarily understand or see for themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a ton of support along the way. This isn’t about being alone in my corner. The reality is that not many people have truly understood what I’m trying to build because, honestly, it’s not their vision. I can explain certain aspects of it that connect to what someone else is doing, and it clicks. But the overall concept of building a hub that sits at the intersection of performance and mental health, and using that combination to pursue excellence, can sound pretty abstract when you’re trying to explain it to someone who doesn’t see it the same way you do. And I think that’s a pretty common part of building something new.

Not everyone is going to understand what you’re building in the beginning. Sometimes they won’t understand it until much later down the road, when the vision has become something they can actually see. That’s why I think you need three things:

1. Trust yourself and your vision.
2. Consistently work on it. Building anything takes time, and consistency is a huge part of turning an idea into something real.
3. Balance belief with your ability to take feedback. Trusting yourself doesn’t mean assuming you have everything figured out. You have to be willing to listen, learn, and continue improving the idea without losing sight of what you’re trying to build.

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If you can do those three things, you give yourself a real chance to build the dream you see. Just don’t lose faith in it because the outcomes aren’t showing up right away. Remember what we talked about in a previous edition: focus on the process, not the outcome.

The Performance Insight:

If you want to build something that doesn’t exist yet, you have to be willing to trust yourself through the process. Doubt can kill a lot of dreams before they ever have the chance to become real. Once we get too caught up in what other people think, how slowly things are moving, or whether we’re getting the results we expected, it’s easy to start questioning the entire vision. But if you truly believe in what you’re building, you can’t let the noise make the decision for you.

That doesn’t mean ignoring criticism or pretending everything you’re doing is perfect. It means being able to separate useful feedback from outside doubt. Keep building. Keep refining. Keep going. A lot of chasing a dream involves doing the work in the dark, when no one is watching, when the results aren’t obvious, and sometimes when people around you are wondering why you’re spending so much time on something that hasn’t paid off yet.

That’s one of the hardest parts. You have to be able to believe in something before everyone else can see it. And eventually, if you stay consistent, continue learning, and keep improving what you’re building, some of those same people who didn’t understand it in the beginning may look at it later and say, “I always knew you were onto something.” Building something meaningful isn’t easy. It takes courage. It takes patience. And it requires you to be comfortable with uncertainty because there is no guarantee that the thing you’re building will work exactly the way you imagined. But that’s also part of what makes it worth doing.

If you’re reading this, I don’t think you’re here because you’re satisfied with simply getting by. You’re here because you have a desire to learn, improve, and build something better in your own life. Maybe that’s a business. Maybe it’s a career. Maybe it’s a relationship, a team, your own personal growth, or simply becoming the person you know you’re capable of becoming. Whatever it is, don’t let the fact that other people can’t see it yet convince you that you can’t build it. Sometimes the first person who has to believe in the vision is you.

The Science Behind It:

There is actually a psychological reason this can be so difficult. When we pursue something uncertain, our brains naturally look for evidence that we’re making the right decision. When the results aren’t showing up, it’s easy to interpret that lack of evidence as proof that we’re failing. But lack of immediate results isn’t necessarily evidence that the goal is wrong.

This is where concepts like self-efficacy and psychological flexibility become important. Self-efficacy is essentially our belief that we can successfully take the actions necessary to achieve a desired outcome. People with stronger self-efficacy tend to be more persistent when they encounter obstacles because they are less likely to interpret difficulty as a signal to stop. At the same time, belief can’t become blind optimism.

The strongest approach is a combination of conviction and adaptability. You need enough belief to keep moving when the results aren’t there yet, but enough humility to recognize when something needs to change. Think about it like this: Your vision is the hypothesis. Your work is the experiment. Feedback is the data. You don’t need to abandon the entire hypothesis every time an experiment doesn’t go the way you expected. You learn. You adjust. You run the experiment again.

That’s how you build something that eventually becomes real. And this is one of the differences between simply having a dream and actually pursuing one. A dream is an outcome you want. Building something requires you to repeatedly take action when the outcome is still uncertain. That’s uncomfortable. But learning to tolerate that uncertainty is part of pursuing anything meaningful.

This Week’s Challenge:

I want you to pick one thing you’re trying to build in your life right now. It could be a business, a career, a relationship, a physical goal, a creative project, or something completely personal. Then answer these three questions:

1. What is the vision? What are you actually trying to create?
2. What evidence are you getting right now? Not what you wish was happening. What is actually happening?
3. What is one thing you can improve this week? Not ten things. One.

Then make the commitment to keep the vision while being willing to adjust the strategy. Don’t abandon something meaningful simply because it isn’t producing immediate results. But don’t use “believing in yourself” as an excuse to refuse feedback either. Believe in the vision. Test the strategy. Learn from the results. Keep building.

The Premier Mindset Podcast:

3 Key Highlights From This Week’s Podcast | Episode 75 | What Horses Can Teach Us About Trauma, Healing, The Nervous System & High Performance With The Stable Arena

1. What if the thing helping someone heal isn’t another conversation, but a horse?

For some people, traditional therapy can make it difficult to fully let their guard down. That’s especially true for first responders, who are often trained to stay composed, push through, and avoid showing vulnerability. In this episode, Terri and Laura explain how bringing EMDR into an equine-assisted setting can completely change the experience. Being outside, working with a horse, and stepping away from the traditional office environment can lower defenses and create a different kind of access to the work. And there’s something else that makes the horses unique: you can’t really hide from them. A client may say they’re fine, but the horse may respond to changes in their energy or nervous system before the therapist can see them. The horse becomes more than part of the environment, it becomes a partner in the therapeutic process.

2. You can tell yourself you’re fine. The horse might disagree.

One of the most fascinating parts of this conversation was the idea that horses can reveal what we aren’t consciously communicating. Terri and Laura describe how horses respond to changes in a person’s energy, behavior, and nervous system, even when those changes aren’t obvious from the outside.

That creates an incredible opportunity in therapy. Instead of relying exclusively on what someone says they’re experiencing, the therapist can also observe what’s happening between the person and the horse. Sometimes the client doesn’t even realize something is happening internally until the horse responds and the therapist asks, “Is something happening for you right now?” For people who have become incredibly good at hiding what they’re feeling, that can open a door that traditional conversation sometimes can’t.

3. Two people can experience the exact same traumatic event and walk away with completely different wounds.

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation had nothing to do with horses. Terri’s experience working with the Route 91 community taught her a powerful lesson about trauma: we cannot assume we understand someone’s experience simply because we experienced the same event. Two people can be standing in the same place, experiencing the same event, and walk away affected in completely different ways. What traumatizes one person may not be what traumatizes another. And even the person seeking therapy may arrive believing they know exactly what they need to work on, only to discover that something deeper is actually asking for attention.

That’s why effective healing requires curiosity. Instead of imposing our interpretation on someone else’s experience, we have to listen, stay open, and allow the person to show us what healing actually needs to look like for them.

🎧 We unpack this idea throughout the episode, along with Terri and Laura’s journey building The Stable Arena and creating a collaborative approach to trauma treatment.

Whats coming up:

🎙️Episode 76 of The Premier Mindset | Tara Wells of the FinishLine Mindset

Next Sunday, I’m joined by Tara Wells, LCSW, sport social worker and founder of Finish Line Mindset, a practice focused on helping athletes strengthen their mental performance while navigating the challenges that come with competition, identity, and life beyond sport. Since founding Finish Line Mindset in 2020, Tara has worked with hundreds of athletes, teams, and athletic organizations around issues like performance pressure, anxiety, confidence, trauma, ADHD, disordered eating, and athletic identity.

What I really enjoyed about this conversation is that we go beyond simply talking about performing better. We talk about what happens when your identity becomes tied to performance, how belonging and environment can influence athletes, and what it actually looks like to pursue excellence without losing yourself in the process. Tara brings a unique perspective as a sport social worker because she looks at the whole person, not just what happens when they step onto the field or court.

If you’re an athlete, coach, parent, mental health professional, or simply someone interested in the intersection of performance, identity, mental health, and resilience, I think you’ll get a lot out of this conversation.

Closing Thoughts

I’ve learned that one of the hardest parts of building something isn’t necessarily doing the work. Sometimes it’s continuing to believe in the work before anyone else can see what you’re seeing.

There will be times when the numbers aren’t where you want them. There will be times when people don’t understand. There will be times when you question whether you’re wasting your time. That’s normal. The question isn’t whether you’ll experience doubt. The question is what you do when it shows up.

Listen to the feedback. Learn from the failures. Adjust when you need to. But don’t let someone else’s inability to see your vision become the reason you abandon it. You can’t build something extraordinary if you need everyone else to believe in it before you do. Keep building.

I’ll see you next week,

Premier Minds. Premier Results.

— Trent Mahler, LCSW
Founder, Premier Performance LLC

​https://www.premierperformancereno.com/​

P.S. I read every email, reply to this with your questions or feedback or just to update me, I would love to hear from you.