Book SummaryThe Mountain Is You, by Brianna Wiest

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Mountain Is You

Achieving your life’s purpose and becoming the best version of yourself often seems impossible. However, in The Mountain Is You, Brianna Wiest explains that the only thing holding you back is yourself—and your self-sabotaging behaviors. Wiest explains that you self-sabotage when you desire a change—in yourself, your lifestyle, your career, and so on—but are too afraid to act. This internal conflict creates a barrier between who you are and who you want to be. To overcome this barrier, achieve your life purpose, and become your ideal self, Wiest says you must identify your self-sabotaging behaviors and their root causes, learn how to overcome them, and develop principles that will help you achieve your goals.

Wiest is a best-selling author and poet who focuses on spirituality, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and self-improvement. Wiest holds a degree in professional writing with a minor in gender studies, and she has published titles including _[101...

The Mountain Is You Summary What Is Self-Sabotage?

Wiest argues that self-sabotaging behaviors are the avoidance tactics your brain develops in an attempt to protect you from your fears. For example, if you fear being alone, you may avoid this fear with the self-sabotaging tactic of staying in abusive relationships. If you fear failure, you may avoid this fear with the self-sabotaging tactic of never applying for the jobs you truly want. If you fear being disliked, you may avoid this fear with the self-sabotaging tactic of pretending to be someone you’re not.

(Shortform note: While Wiest argues that self-sabotage is your mind’s effort to help you avoid situations you're afraid of, Jocko Willink has a harsher view on the matter. In Discipline Equals Freedom, Willink agrees that self-sabotaging behaviors stem from fears; however, he believes that these fears aren’t of situations, as Wiest says, but rather are fears of the work it takes to succeed in those situations. So, in Willink’s view, self-sabotage is a form of laziness and a way to avoid doing scary, painful, or hard...

The Mountain Is You Summary Step #1: Identify Your Self-Sabotaging Behaviors and Their Root Causes

Wiest explains that you can determine whether you’re self-sabotaging by identifying everything in your life that you’re unhappy about and want to change. Then, create a list of the behaviors that are preventing you from making those changes—these behaviors are self-sabotage.

For example, imagine you’re unhappy at your current job and want to become a writer instead. However, you aren’t making progress because you haven’t started looking for a writing job—your self-sabotaging behavior is procrastination. Write this down.

(Shortform note: While Wiest recommends uncovering self-sabotaging behaviors by identifying the things you don’t want and the barriers preventing you from changing, Tony Robbins advocates focusing on what you do want instead. In Awaken The Giant Within, Robbins says that having a clear idea of what you want will positively frame your efforts to overcome obstacles (such as self-sabotage), provide you with intrinsic motivation, and consequently make you more likely to...

The Mountain Is You Summary Step #2: Strengthen Your Mental and Emotional Skills

Once you’ve identified your self-sabotaging behaviors and the ME deficits that are causing them, Wiest explains that you must take active, and sometimes uncomfortable, steps to overcome them. First, you must strengthen your ME skills by learning how to follow your instincts and effectively interpret, process, and respond to your emotions. Once you’ve improved your ME skills, you must identify your ideal self and life purpose and take steps to achieve them.

Action #1: Follow Your Intuition and Release Your Fears

Wiest explains that you can overcome your self-sabotaging behaviors by listening to your intuition (your instinctive understanding of how to act) and differentiating it from your fears. This is because while self-sabotaging behaviors are driven by your fears, productive behaviors are often driven by your intuition. If you learn how to get in touch with your intuition, you can consciously override self-sabotaging behaviors and replace them with actions that bring improvement and progress toward goals.

(Shortform note: Wiest argues that listening to your fears is bad because it causes self-sabotage. However, in _[The 10x...

Shortform Exercise: Identify Your Self-Sabotaging Behaviors

Wiest says that the first step to becoming your ideal self and achieving your life purpose is to overcome your self-sabotage. Before you can do this, though, you first need to identify how you’re self-sabotaging and why.

List some things in your life that you’re unhappy about or want to change. (For example, you might be unhappy at your job because you don’t like your coworkers, or you might want your relationship with your partner to be less hostile.)