22d • 💎 Gem
Ben Hardy Jargon Explained
A lot of people in this group use a lot of “Ben Hardy jargon,” so I came up with a cheat sheet for those who aren’t familiar with Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s books — so you can finally figure out what the heck we’re talking about when we get carried away.
1. Gap vs Gain
This is Hardy’s version of “stop being a self-sabotaging psycho.”
Gap:
You measure yourself against an imaginary ideal.
You always feel behind, not enough, not there yet.
You’re basically comparing your Chapter 2 to someone else’s Chapter 67.
Gain:
Like Steve Jobs, you learn to connect the dots backwards — who you were vs who you are today.
You build confidence by noticing progress, not perfection.
Why focusing on gains matters:
Because what you focus on expands.
Focus on gaps (lack), and you’ll get even more of it — our brains are wired that way.
But if you look for gains, you’ll gain more and more good stuff.
Translation:
Stop torturing yourself.
Stop mind-fucking yourself.
Look at your gains — that’s where confidence is built.
2. Letting Go of the 80%
This is not some “donate all your money to charity and disappear into a mountain temple” kind of shit.
It’s about letting go of a cemetery of:
- old identities
- dead projects
- stale habits
- emotional clutter
- and that one friend who only calls when their life is on fire
Think of it as Marie Kondo meets Bruce Lee.
Does it spark joy?
No?
Then flow like water and let that shit go.
Here’s the truth most people avoid:
Your future self can’t walk in if your past self is still haunting the hallway.
The 80% is everything you’ve outgrown — but keep carrying out of guilt, fear, or habit.
Letting go isn’t minimalism; it’s evolution.
It’s pruning dead branches so your destiny has room to grow.
When you drop the 80%, your path clears.
Your energy rises.
Translation:
Stop hoarding versions of yourself that no longer serve you.
You need an intervention.
You can’t accelerate while keeping one foot on the brake.
3. The Impossible Goal
Most people hear “impossible goal” and think it means you need to go full Elon Musk, colonize Mars, and invent a robot that folds laundry.
Relax.
Hardy isn’t asking you to build NASA 2.0. (Unless you want to do that shit…)
An Impossible Goal is not about scale —
it’s about IDENTITY.
It’s a decision filter that forces you to stop acting like the watered-down version of yourself and start behaving like the version of you who’s already living your next chapter.
What most people misunderstand:
An impossible goal is not something you achieve.
It’s something you grow into.
It’s the kind of goal that:
- forces you to stop playing small
- demands you stop tolerating low-level bullshit
- upgrades your standards overnight
- clarifies what deserves your energy (and what doesn’t)
- exposes every habit, relationship, and belief that can’t follow you into the future
An impossible goal makes your current identity sweat.
It forces identity upgrades, not heroic hustle.
Everything suddenly gets filtered through one question:
“Would my future self say yes to this… or would they laugh?”
Translation:
A real Impossible Goal isn’t just a BHAG.
It’s “Who do I need to become so that—even if I don’t hit the goal—I grow so much it scares the hell out of me?”
4. Past, Present & Future Self
Most people live like this:
Past → Present → Future
As if your past is some wise old master guiding your destiny.
It’s not.
It’s memory, conditioning, and emotional residue.
Useful for lessons.
Terrible for leadership.
That’s why so many people keep reliving the same year on repeat —
they let Past-Them make Present decisions, hoping it’ll magically lead to a different Future.
Hardy flips the timeline:
Future → Present → Past
Your future decides who you must become.
Your present acts from that identity.
Your past gets rewritten by the meaning you assign to it today.
Past You
Data.
Memories.
Old programming.
Should NOT be driving the car.
Present You
The action-taker.
The executor.
Your job today:
Do what Future-You would do — not what Past-You is comfortable with.
Future You
The general.
The strategist.
The version of you who already sees the mountain you’re meant to climb.
When your future leads, everything aligns.
And that brings us to this Command & Conquer quote that captures Hardy’s philosophy perfectly:
“He who controls the past commands the future.
He who commands the future, conquers the past.”
Most people live the first line —
they try to fix or explain their past so they can move forward.
Hardy teaches the second line:
When you choose your future identity and act from it today,
your past stops being a prison and becomes fuel for your story.
Your future reframes your past.
Your present proves it.
Translation:
Stop letting yesterday run today.
Start letting tomorrow give today its orders.
That’s how you rewrite your life from the top down — not the bottom up.
5. 10X Identity vs 2X Identity
Most people think 10X means “work harder” or “do more.”
That’s 2X thinking.
2X = improve.
10X = transform.
The best way to understand it is through identity leaps — not small upgrades.
a) Michelangelo — The Artist Who Became a Force of Nature
2X Identity:
“Let me get better at sculpting.”
10X Identity:
“I reveal the divine through my hands.”
Michelangelo didn’t aim to be a “better artist.”
He operated from the identity of someone who:
- carved God into marble
- painted destiny onto ceilings
- shaped civilization with his vision
David, the Pietà, the Sistine Chapel —
these weren’t improvements.
They were identity explosions.
2X → skill.
10X → legacy.
b) Elon Musk — The Founder Who Plays on a Civilizational Clock
2X Identity:
“Let me make better cars.”
“Let me make better rockets.”
10X Identity:
“Let me redefine the future of humanity.”
Tesla wasn’t about improving cars — it was about electrifying transportation.
SpaceX wasn’t about better rockets — it was about making humans multi-planetary.
Musk doesn’t ask: “How do I improve this?”
He asks: “What does the future version of civilization require?”
That’s 10X identity — decisions guided by a future that doesn’t exist yet.
c) China — A Civilization That Reinvented Itself
2X Identity:
“Let’s grow a bit faster.”
“Let’s modernize slowly.”
10X Identity:
“Let’s transform the entire nation.”
China didn’t “improve” — it reinvented itself:
- rural poverty → industrial powerhouse
- low-cost labor → global tech force
- closed-off → globally influential
- ancient heritage → modern renaissance
China plays the future-first game:
5-year plans, 20-year visions, 100-year strategies.
That’s Hardy’s philosophy in action:
Your future dictates your present.
Your present reshapes your past.
China reframed its past struggles into fuel for its transformation.
That’s a future-created identity.
What 10X Identity REALLY Means
2X = make improvements.
10X = become someone completely different.
2X asks:
“How do I get better at what I’m already doing?”
10X asks:
“Who must I become so my old life becomes irrelevant?”
Michelangelo didn’t make better art —
he became immortal.
Elon Musk doesn’t build companies —
he builds futures.
China didn’t grow —
it redefined itself on the world stage.
That’s 10X.
Not effort — identity.
Translation:
You don’t 10X by doing more.
You 10X by refusing to stay who you were.
(The more likes this post gets, the more I’ll add to this list in future posts.)
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Ben Hardy Jargon Explained
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