The hero story. The underdog story. The genius scientist saves the day story. The unlikely couple falls in love and leads to tragedy story. The rags to riches story. Most of us have seen or read these stories countless times. We know the plot, we understand the actions, and we can often anticipate the ending before it happens. These stories are tried and true, and seem to endure throughout the ages. But at the end of the day, they’re all about actions. Most stories are a series of actions performed by the protagonist as he or she battles against seen and unforeseen forces. They accomplish a series of goals. They learn lessons. They achieve success. The end. 

But what is the deeper story? The story behind the actions. The story of what’s going on inside the minds of the characters. Why does one character triumph while another stumbles? What goes on inside the mind of a hero? Or an entrepreneur? How can we understand success and victory without stepping into the psyche of these individuals?

Enter the abstract world of the mind, where ideas and concepts become blurred. Where visual pictures and sounds are unable to describe the inner experiences with vivid clarity, the way that concrete objects can be described. In this world of the abstract, we venture onto unproven ground, into a scary landscape of subjectivity and subconscious flickers. It is here, beneath the surface of observable actions, that the seeds of action are planted. It is here where we can see the internal nature of our heroes or villains, and learn when and why they are compelled to actions. It is here where we learn the true nature of humanity, and gain the most knowledge and wisdom about our own nature. This is the story that is rarely told, because it isn’t black and white and tied up neatly with a bow. Rather, it’s messy, and unfinished, with thoughts lying scattered in seeming chaos. Yet from this chaos emerges distinct actions and outcomes, the bulk of which constitute our persistent narratives. 

Aside from stories and narratives, though, what does it mean to peer inside someone’s mind? How can we ever truly know what another person is thinking or feeling? Some movies provide narrators who provide an internal dialogue of the person’s mental conversations. While entertaining and sometimes insightful, these narrators rarely capture the nuanced landscape of the mind, and nearly always fail to portray the structured habits and tendencies of the person’s mentality. In other words, the real question of why does one person succeed while another fails, is often simply ignored. I’m not talking about origin stories where we observe the protagonist abused at a young age, and therefore know his motive to seek revenge as an adult. Rather, I’m asking the harder question of why do some people persevere through hardship while others crumble? What mental heuristics, tools, guidelines, and processes occur that help to guide that person towards growth and success? These are the fundamental and important questions for us to ask and try to explain if we are to genuinely improve ourselves. 

The truth is that while success is certainly dependent on a number of variables including: genetics, inherited socioeconomic status, childhood environment, social network, attention to physical appearance, disability or lack thereof etc., there is rarely an instance of profound success without a structured and focused mind beneath it. 

What are the characteristics that comprise this “successful mind.” I’m not simply speaking of an intelligent mind, or a happy mind. Rather, I’m speaking of a mind which structures its thoughts in a useful and progressive way to build upon strengths, minimize weaknesses, learn from mistakes, and tends toward success. What is going on inside the mind of a successful CEO? Or doctor? Or pilot? Surely it isn’t just luck that leads to their lifelong success, nor is it simply genetics. Instead, their success must be the result of thousands of decisions accumulating over time. The exact mechanisms of how these decisions are made is of the utmost importance. Do these successful people begin with strong values and beliefs, and use these to frame each decision and problem? Are they instead more flexible and opportunistic, basing each decision on the elements at hand, rather than on strongly held beliefs. Do these people have strict schedules that allow them to let their brain run on auto-pilot or are they always focused and concentrating on a topic or area of their life? How do they speak to themselves? With compassion and encouragement? With praise and congratulations? With admonishment and insults? How can we best turn these inner thoughts into easily understandable units of information? How can we clarify the words “spoken” within one’s mind? How can we demonstrate the inner visualizations that these people are undoubtedly experiencing? 

There seems to be a reluctance for most screenplay writers to avoid these nuanced questions. Instead, they placate the public with concrete actions, outcomes, and rewards that are easy to depict and even easier to understand. But life is not a simple series of actions. What lies beneath the surface, like an iceberg, is often much more important to the outcome than the small fraction that lies above. By watching these superficially-driven movies and tv shows, we are failing to grasp the important progenitors of action and success. We mistake behaviors as the baseline solution, thinking that we need to “just do it,” forgetting that a thought nearly always precedes an intentional action. How do we “just do it” if our inner minds are a tangled mess of ideas, lacking purpose and clarity? How do we improve ourselves without a structural framework for how to think? We teach psychology in school, but we don’t highlight the detailed inner working of our minds often enough in popular media. It is time that we turn the spotlight inward and embrace the messy but important space of our conscious and unconscious minds. It is time that we look at the thought before the action, to understand the why and the how rather than simply the what. It is time that we look past the flashy action or triumph to gain true understanding of our motives and conceptual frameworks. Only by understanding this primordial network of impulses, thoughts, and ideas can we begin the important step towards genuine self-improvement and progress towards success.