Prime Your Engine

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. Priming your engine. Why is it that sometimes you know exactly what you're supposed to do to get the results you want, and yet you don't do it? The reason I believe that we fall into this habit of not taking action on the thing that we're supposed to do to better our lives. Maybe it's our health or in our business, it's because we don't prime ourselves. We're not priming ourselves to feel good, to get acquainted with what that outcome is, what the reasons as to why we want to do the thing in the first place. The analogy I like to draw is imagine an engine when you first purchase a lawnmower, if you live in the. In the Northeast, a snowblower, when you first purchase the engine, you have to first prime the motor. And what priming does is it forces oil into the internal parts of the motor. So this way it has an easier time. Everything's lubricated and has an easier time starting. The same thing is true with our bodies and our minds right before we do anything, before we set out on any task. It could be a hard start to try to get yourself to the gym, because you know what, you just finished that long day work and you're not really feeling like it's. Or perhaps there is this article that you were super jazzed up about because you wanted to. You were really passionate about the topic and you wanted to send it to this publication to be published, but yet you can't. You don't have, like the. When it comes to actually writing it, you don't feel like that push, that passion. What gives. It all comes down to priming. And I'll go into that a little bit deeper. So I was doing this. I was creating a Life Vision for 2022. This is going to be one of the courses that I offer, the Live youe One Life. So I have this course, right? I'm creating a category of my life. I think the one in question was I was creating the category of my health. So I'm thinking like, well, what is it that I want about my health? And when we think about the things that we want in life, these things should excite you. They should make you ecstatic. Think about it, right? So if I was. If it was like a new car, right, say a Ferrari Testarossa, which is one of my favorite cars, the thought of that, if it's what you want, the thought of it should literally pull you forward, should pull you towards that object of desire. But if you're not getting pulled toward there, your mind is not focused on the thing that you want, but it's a focus on something else. Maybe the hardship that you're going to have to go through in order to get the thing, maybe it's like going back to the workout example. Maybe it is, you know, like, knowing that it's going to take a lot of time and maybe a little bit of pain in the beginning, but once you get used to it, once you kind of lubricate those that motor, so to speak, it becomes easy. But we're not focused on the easy part. We're focused on, oh, my God, this is going to hurt. So I was putting time in. I was reluctant to, like, start planning for my. The physical area of my life, the health and fitness of my life. But then I said, you know, there's a point where I said, okay, you know, I just have to. I just have to start. If I don't start, it's never going to happen. So I started. And as I was going through, I wasn't fully, like, into it in the beginning, but then maybe a half an hour later, all of a sudden, time was, like, going by. I kept looking at the clock, and I gave myself a period of two hours. I said, all right, I'm giving myself a time period of two hours. And in those two hours, I'll take a break after that, and then I'll go do something else, right? As I was watching the clock, after I was primed, so to speak, and I'll go through what the priming is, I was literally watching the clock, like, it was like half an hour passed, one hour passed, hour 15, hour and a half. And all of a sudden, two hours it was up. And I'm like, I still want to be here. I want to keep doing this. So priming is getting yourself acquainted with the reasons why you want it as well as that ultimate vision, the thing that you're going after. In the example of my health and fitness category that I was creating the vision for, obviously, when I was looking at the vision, I started thinking about all the things that I want to incorporate into my health. This year. I started to feel really good. And all of a sudden, now I enjoyed putting the time there. So priming is extremely important to get anything that you want, right? Because sometimes you start that hard start, but it's a matter of starting that motor over and over and over where it becomes easy to start. And now all of a sudden, once you maybe pull that rope or turn that switch, the motor engages automatically in a fraction of the time. The same thing is true with our psychology, with our minds. So the faster, the more we exercise a muscle, the easier it becomes. Neural pathways are connected. Now all of a sud to that place becomes easy. And it's not going to take that initial start that it took, but it will in the beginning. One of the things, and I'll share this, this is kind of like a side note, but one of the things I do for my health and fitness. And this is a type of priming as well. I ask myself if I'm ever shopping at the store and I'm looking at something and I love Oreo cookies. So usually it's like, usually it's Oreo cookies. They have many different flavors. I'm looking at the Oreo cookies and then I'm really about to take one off the shelf. And then I ask myself, I said, is this going to get me where I want to go or is it going to take me further away? Is this life giving or is this life taking? What is that doing in that moment? What it's doing is it's getting me acquainted, it's making me focus on the thing that I'm going after and say, okay, well, is this taking me further away or is it going to move me towards? It would move me towards because I don't just have one cookie. I literally will eat an entire sleeve of Oreos before I stop. So it was life taking. And I'm all about little indulgences and doing things that you enjoy, but not if it's to the detriment of your health or the quality of your life. So let's wrap this all together. So what exactly is engine priming? Priming your engine. Priming your engine simply means getting acquainted with the vision and your reasons why you want the thing in the first place. By putting yourself in that emotional space, that emotional state, the action becomes easy because now you're remembering all the reasons why and you've literally changed your entire physiology. So that is it. And so how do I bring it all? Let's bring it all down. Something that you can do today to start to incorporate this into your life. How could you make sense of it? The first thing is identify what it is that you're having the problem doing. Like, what are you having a problem with? Is it getting to the gym? Is it, you know, like what I said, like going down the cookie aisle and realizing that they have 20 different types of Oreos and you're Gonna get one of each. What is it that you've been having trouble with? And so what you want to do is once you've identified that, and secondly is where do you put your focus? Is your focus first on what it is that you are trying to avoid, like the start of that workout? Or maybe if you're going back to that cookie statement, maybe it's the giving up of that pleasure. What are you focusing on? And then third, what is it that you want? What is the reason you're going after what it is you're going after? Look at that vision, Try to create a picture of it. And then the last step in this, and this is the most important, once you've done all that, the last step is to create something that's going to prime that. Maybe it's a matter of asking that question, like I did, is this life giving or is this life taking? Or maybe it is just having pictures or a statement, something that you could look at that's going to remind you of the reasons why you want the thing that you're going after and why you should stay the course. Now that is, this is more of like a split second decision, like the question thing. But the priming is really about getting yourself into that emotional state before taking the task at hand. Because not only will you be more engaged with it, but by doing that, you're gonna put, you're gonna get inspired. More good stuff is gonna come out of it because you're in that state that's connected with the thing you want. That is all I've got for you guys today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. You can subscribe to the One Life podcast with Donny Rouse. So this way you don't miss a single episode when it's released. And if you enjoyed this, share it with your friends, share it with your family, have them subscribe. And if you have any questions, you can send me questions via Instagram at Donny D O N N Y r a u s.com I am going to be picking up the workshops that I've been doing. The Live youe One Life Workshops or why wait is the workshop. You can do that at donnyrous D O N N Y R A U s dot com you can join the mailing list and then when the next workshop drops, you will be notified about that and then we could start that. But guys, thank you so, so much for tuning in. I realize that you could put your time into listening to anything else, but you chose to be here with me and help me really guide your focus to the things that, you know, that matter most in your life. And I appreciate you here, so thank you for listening. God bless, and I will see you again soon.