Workout: Visualize

Visualize. Remember I said, you won't do it if your brain can't see it. Step through. Well, here's specifically what I do to make sure I don't procrastinate. I literally visualize and affirm what I'm about to go do. So if it's Sunday and I say, okay, you know, tomorrow in the afternoon, I've got all these things I can procrastinate because I'm the only one holding myself accountable. And I could say, well, you know what? How would I avoid that? I will sit down and I'll do this 20, 30 minutes a day, visualizing the next day or that morning. I'll sit down and visualize the day, and I'll just step it through. I'll say, okay, let me see myself going into the kitchen, getting my little green tea, going over to the office, sitting down at the computer, opening up that blank page, happily typing along, sensing and feeling those great emotions of doing my calling as a writer. Let me feel the power and the joy of finishing a great day of writing. Let me imagine myself going to dinner, getting to sit down with my wife and saying, honey, here's what I did today. I wrote this part of the book. Let me hear, see and feel that interaction with her happiness and her joy that I'm doing my path. Let me imagine myself going to bed that night, happy that you know what I did, what I'm here to do. I want you to visualize yourself on the way over to the arena. I want you to see. Visualize yourself getting laced up. I want you to visualize yourself on the walk down to the ring, entering the ring, your first feelings, walking around the ring, the sense that you will have as you're in that fight, that sense that you have when you're getting beaten in that fight, and how you're going to feel and respond to that. Because visualization is not just happy, go lucky. It's also like, okay, see yourself. What do you do when there's a struggle? So for me, okay, what do I do when I get writer's block? How does the Brendan dealing with writer's block? Deal with that? And I'll see it. I'll imagine myself getting back at it, and I'll see it through. How's it feel when you win? How does it feel after the win? How's it feel at the end of the day? How does it feel when you finally lay your head onto your pillow and go to bed? That is a full day visualization on the things that matter the most for Your productivity. And I want you to do that at least either the night before or the day of, the morning of, and what will happen these two things together, as I know you might say, bren, that's so basic. But okay, did you do it last night? Because I've found as a high performance coach, sometimes it is not the big crazy things, it's that people aren't doing the fundamentals and they want me to say, brendan changed my life. I go, okay, let's change your life. Let's be accountable. Did you do these things last night? So don't tell me it's too basic. This is me challenging and being honest. Did you do these two things last night? If you're not doing this consistently, that is why you are consistently procrastinating, my friend. I know sometimes life change can be so basic and you go, duh, why haven't I been doing that? But those ones are really important as a coach for me to call out for you. Because I know a lot of people who could be so much more effective if they got back to the fundamentals. And the last piece is the other brain hack. Don't forget that not only do we need order, not only do we need the creativity and the visualization, we're also social animals. So I want you to socialize your agenda with other people. Well, it's just the same, you know, at this time of year, a lot of people are trying to lose some weight or trying to go to the gym. And what's the first advice everyone always gives them because it's proven by science to work over and over and over again. Get a workout buddy. Because if you got a workout buddy, you'll show up. It's harder to procrastinate when your name, your integrity, your relationships are on the line. And so you need to tell people about what you have to do. You'd probably be annoyed hanging out with me because if we went out to dinner, I'd probably tell you like 10 things I'm going to do tomorrow. And I'm not telling you that because I love to talk about work. I know if I speak will become more real the next day. If I don't affirm it and share it with other people. It's just in my head. I'm just not going to be as productive. And I do know without question this is a big issue for a lot of people. Stay at home moms work from home entrepreneurs, the senior leader in their company. Just speaking out your goals makes it more likely that you will take consistent action on those goals. And they've even done it where they took out other people. They just made someone stand in a booth with a microphone and speak out what they were going to do. They were more likely to do that than if they just kept it in their head and didn't speak it. So if you're like, but, Brandon, I got nobody who believes in my dreams, I bet you have a friend and you could facetime them or Skype them and talk through is so important for you to speak through your dreams than you can probably ever imagine. And a lot of people keep that stuff to themselves. So the brain hacks are to set yourself up so that you have more confidence and routine and structure going in.