SPEAKER_00 0:07

What if success is not about pushing harder but up but about flipping the right internal switch? And what if the way we define success is quietly shaping our stress levels, our focus, and even our mental health. Today we are exploring how rewiring the brain can change not just we achieve what we achieve but how we feel while achieving it. Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. I'm your host, Yosser, and today my guest is Terry Maxwell, a speaker, researcher, and author known for her work on the success switch, a science-backed approach to rewiring brain for healthier performance and fulfillment. Her work focuses on how our internal definitions of success directly impact stress, motivation, and well-being. In this episode, we'll talk about the neuroscience behind success and why so many high achievers feel burnt out and how small mental shifts can create lasting change. With that, I welcome my guest, Terry Maxwell, to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Thank you. It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Perfect. Terry, let's start at the beginning. What first made you question the traditional idea of success? And how did that lead to the research behind the success switch?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, so I grew up very poor and an abusive environment. And I was able to make it out of that. And um I realized that I had the ability to shift my focus to what I wanted to focus on. So my grandfather taught me to get what to focus on. And that was a great way to get out of that situation. But then it turned into almost like a demon where I needed more and more success to feel good enough because success was really what was driving my sense of feeling good. And at some point I realized that no amount of success could make me feel good enough, that it was an inside job. And I began to study world-class athletes and successful leaders and successful entrepreneurs. And I started looking for what they had in common. And what they had in common was a way to shift their brain out of the need to do something and more shifting it into the a calm, steady state. And they allowed that calm, steady state to help them achieve their goals. And that's what caused me to start the research for the success switch.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Okay. And there are a lot of people that believe success automatically brings happiness and confidence. What's the biggest misconception people have about success when it comes to mental health?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, the biggest misconception is that you can get there. You know, you can achieve success. The problem is, is anytime you get to that next goal, then you just move the goalpost to the next level and you never get there. And so life is an infinite game, and we're always moving the goalpost. So the key is to learn how to regulate your mind and your nervous system so that you're in a steady, calm state, and you believe that your goal is attainable, but you don't need the goal to make you feel good enough.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Okay. And why do so many accomplished people still struggle with anxiety, self-doubt, or exhaustion?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, great question. It boils down to just one thing. They have attached to the attainment of their goal as the measure of success. And that's not the measure of success. I always say your income grows as you evolve. It's not the other way around that, you know, when I hit my goal, my income grows. But what I've learned in my life as a leader and as a serial entrepreneur is my income grows as I evolve. And as I learn to regulate my nervous system, as I learn to how to keep my mind in a calm state, that is what causes me to achieve goals, not the hustle and the gotta make it happen kind of mindset that we've seen for the last few decades.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Let's go deeper into the brain side of this. How do our early experiences and repeated thought patterns wire us for a stress-based version of success?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah, there's a lot of research on this. In our first eight to 12 years of life, we make a decision, and it's a decision, it's not a choice, that the decision is that we are either good enough or that we are not good enough. From my research, 98% of people make the choice or make the decision that they're not good enough. And then they spend the rest of their adult life trying to prove that they are good enough. And so what I found is if I could go back to that decision that I made, in my case, I made it when I was six, that I wasn't good enough. I could go back to that place, that little six-year-old girl who decided she wasn't good enough, and rewired that and really retrain that girl, almost like reparenting her, that she is good enough, then I would make different choices as an adult. And that's what I have found to be true.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

And what role does the nervous system play in keeping people stuck in overdrive?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Most of our memories are stored in a product, a pro a piece of our brain called the amygdala. And the amygdala doesn't regulate the nervous system, but what happens is the nervous system responds to whatever the amygdala is thinking. So I think of the amygdala is like a little mouse on a treadmill. It's just running, running, running, and it's running that old program. And the nervous system is responding to that fight or flight, fight or flight, fight or flight. And what you've, what the success switch does is it causes the amygdala to go into neutral and to slow down and to go into neutral. And then it activates the prefrontal cortex, which is like the boss of the brain. And then the boss of the brain turns on the nervous system in such a way the parasympathetic nervous system turns on, which then retrains the amygdala. And so it's like this triangle. I first have to pause the amygdala and get it to go into neutral because it's running this fight or flight program. Then I turn on the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex turns on the parasympathetic nervous system, which then releases hormones, dopamine and serotonin, into our bloodstream, which then causes the amygdala to now have a new story. And that's really the basis of the success switch.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

That explains why willpower alone doesn't work. You're not fighting laziness, you're working against conditioning.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

That's exactly right. And I several of the people that you've had on your podcast, and why I really wanted to be on your podcast talked about that. That, you know, it's not about willpower. I don't care whether it's a diet or you're growing a business and you need to learn how to grow brand awareness or you need to learn a new skill. It's not willpower. It's really the conditioning, the neurobiology between your brain and your nervous system and your body that really has to be reprogrammed.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And that requires a lot more. A lot more than willpower.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

It does. And that and that that's really the simplicity of the success switch is we turn off the amygdala. So that's the first step. And to do that, you just simply say, the truth is I feel, and then whatever comes up comes up. It really doesn't even matter what comes up. So today I might say the truth is I feel angry or frustrated. And then you just pause. And the amygdala, which is kind of the dumb part of the brain, it starts to downshift. And it literally goes from fifth gear to fourth gear to third gear to second. If you wait about 20 to 30 seconds, it will go into neutral. And once it's in neutral, then you start a breathing exercise, breathing in through the nose and out of your mouth, which turns on the prefrontal cortex and then the parasympathetic nervous system. And then it releases all the happiness hormones, dopamine and serotonin, into your bloodstream, which floods your brain and your body with these happiness hormones. And then you start to feel good. That's the second step. And then the third step I call just claim a new belief. You just claim the belief that you really want to have. And so I'll usually say something like, once I'm in that really feel-good state, I'll say, you know, I have the power to create what I want. And I just remind myself of that. I kind of get into a little rocky stance or a little athlete stance. I have the power to create what I want. And by doing those three steps, what we call the success switch, it reprograms the amygdala with a better belief that is easier to now manifest whatever it is that you want.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

And can you tell one simple way that someone can begin rewiring their brain for healthier success starting today?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

The first thing that I always tell people to do is to do the ABCs of the success switch. So you it's it's three very simple steps. A stands for awareness, which is what causes the amygdala to go into neutral. And you use the prompt. The truth is, I feel whatever comes up, comes up. And wait. And you just wait 20 to 30 seconds and the amygdala will start to slow down. I don't care how much stress that you have in your body, you can get the amygdala to move into neutral. Then four breaths in through your nose and out of your mouth, nice and slow, just breathing, getting lots of new oxygen into your bloodstream, which causes your nervous system to move into a rest and digest state, which then makes it very easy to program the amygdala. And that's the third step. So you just claim a new belief. And so A stands for causing the amygdala to slow down. And that is just the truth is I feel B stands for breathing, just four breaths, prefrontal cortex, awakens the parasympathetic nervous system, sends dopamine and serotonin into your bloodstream. And then the last step, step three, is C, and that's claim a new belief. And if you I just do it twice a day for seven days, but twice a day for seven days is all it takes. And it you'll reprogram the amygdala to create what you want.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Change isn't linear, but helps people stay committed when old patterns resurface or progress feels slow.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, the funny thing about that is your life and your business is simply reflecting your internal dialogue. And so when things are working, my internal dialogue is saying, you know, I can do this. When things are not working, if I look at my internal dialogue, it's telling me about the mistakes that I made. It's talking to me about why I'm not good enough. So your life is a mirror of your internal dialogue. And so whatever shows up externally, I look inside and I start working on my internal dialogue and my nervous system regulation and then watch. And then what will show up on the outside starts to change.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

How can someone tell the difference between healthy effort and slipping back into pressure, pressure-driven striving?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

It's really how it feels. When it's healthy effort, it should feel relaxed and calm and joyful. When it's um based on stress-induced beliefs, um, it feels frenetic, urgent, um, and kind of chaotic. And um, you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur, I've got multiple businesses, multiple people that report to me. Um, I love what I do. So I work a lot of hours. And I can tell the difference. When it starts to feel frenetic and I feel like I have to do this and I have to do this, that's almost always when my nervous system is out of control. But when it feels like, oh, I'm I love the work that I do and this is joyful, even when I'm working really hard, even when it's stressful, if I can do that, um, that allows me to ensure that I'm my nervous system is regulated and it's not driving me.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

And for someone who feels who is listening and feels exhausted by the constant need to prove themselves, what would you want them to remember about their worth right now?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yeah, um self-worth really drives prosperity. Prosperity does not drive self-worth. And when I realized that, that my chase for success and money was not making me feel better. It was just making me feel like I needed more of it. And I said, I remember it was in 2002, and I just said, I'm going to change the way I feel about myself, no matter what's happening externally. And from that point forward, I experienced the majority of my success because I changed the internal belief system and the internal dialogue in my mind and my body and the neurobiology where I knew I was good enough regardless of what was happening externally.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Are there any ways that our listeners can connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, I would say on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn and then also on the succeedonpurpose.com website. That success switch tool is actually on there. You can download it for free. Um, and uh it's under the resources tab, and they can just download the guide to walk through the success switch and use the ABCs. We run the Success Switch Challenge, and we have found that 92% of the people that take it, all you have to do is do Success Switch twice a day for seven days. 92% of the people are able to get their nervous system regulated and achieve their goals in a much more calm and uh fun way.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

And to all our listeners, all the links that Terry just mentioned are in the show notes. Just go and check those out. Terry, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, Yousaf, the the thing that I'd like to end with is a story that I got from my grandfather. My grandfather taught me at a very young age. I had this very difficult life. It was abused in every way possible. We were very poor. But my grandfather taught me you get what you focus on. And I learned that if I would shift my focus off of what was wrong in my life, off of my struggles, and put it on to what I wanted to create and how I wanted to feel in my mind and my body, that I could achieve anything. So I would leave your listeners with that quote from my grandfather: you get what you focus on.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

And here's today's chore insector. When you change how your brain defines success, you change how your life feels while you perceive it. Thank you so much for joining us on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. Take a moment today to notice which success switch you are operating from pressure or purpose, fear or fulfillment. And to her listeners for having this time. Mental health improves when success supports your well being, not completes with it. See you in the next episode. Thank you so much.