Unleash the Power of Possibility with Shawn Ellis - How Can It Get Even Better Than This?

How can it get even better than this? Hey guys, I'm Shawn Ellis. Welcome to part 2 in our Rise and Thrive video series. And that is our question for today: how can it get even better than this? If you were here for part 1, we asked the question, what if this is as good as it gets? And that was an invitation into practicing the art of contentment. Today we're asking, how can it get even better than this? Which is a question that most of us like a little, a little bit more. And this is for you today if you're in a place right now where you're facing some challenging circumstances, some, some difficulties, then this is a session for you because we're gonna ask, how can it get even better than this? And you might be thinking like, well, it wouldn't take much, right? So we're gonna dive into that. But this is also for you if you're in a place where, you know what, things are actually going great, like it's really good right now. How can it get better than this? I don't even know. This is for you as well because I promise you no matter how good it is right now, it can get even better. And what we're going to be talking about today is unleashing the power of possibility in your life. How can this question help you unleash the power of possibility to experience something you've never experienced before? We're going to be talking about exactly what does this mean, the power of possibility, I'm going to share with you 3 things that will happen when you ask this question and when you step into it. I'm going to share some fascinating studies or findings just to show you exactly how powerful this is. And then I'm going to offer you some, some very practical ways, simple and practical ways you can put this to work in your life so you can experience the power of possibility immediately. You ready? All right, let's go. So let me ask you this to begin with. Have you had something in your life come up where things just went even better than you imagined? Some particular situation scenario unfolded that was beyond what you could have imagined. I know I have, and actually I've got one, one thing that's fresh on my mind this week. One of my coaching and consulting clients called me, and you know, if you're in sales and especially if you sell a premium product or service, one of the questions that you have when a new prospect comes, when you're working with a new prospect, is you know, is this person gonna— can they afford what I have to offer? Or do they value what I offer in the same way or in the way that justifies the cost? Of course, that's part of your job as a salesperson is to help them see that. That's a whole different conversation. But this— my coaching and consulting client called and he was excited because he had just got a call, got an inquiry from this new prospect, and he had the phone call with them and went through the consultation. And when it got time to ask, you know, what is your budget for this? What have you budgeted? As I said, a lot of times what's in the back of our mind is, can they afford this? Do they value this? And what they said, what they told him was, you know, our budget is, and it was 2 to 3 times his standard rate. So in other words, he had the room, the space to create an even more valuable solution to deliver even more value for them. But needless to say, that call, that response was even better than what he imagined. How can it get even better than this? Well, if they can afford what I'm offering, that would be great. How can it get even better than that? What if their budget was 2 to 3 times that? So that's one story that's fresh on my mind, but I also think of a conversation I had with a chiropractor who had been called to give a deposition on video for an injury case. And this chiropractor, he's not really comfortable being in the spotlight, being put on the spot, spot like that. So we're kind of talking through this and I was sharing this idea with him about how, you know, we're really good at projecting all the ways this could go wrong. Like worst-case scenario, when you're in a situation that's a little uncomfortable or maybe it's not what you want it to be. I don't know if you're anything like me, like I can think of 101 ways that this thing could go wrong. But that question, how can it get even better than this? Or how could it go even better than expected? Is a reminder, it's an invitation to consider a different side of things. So I was talking to him about this and just to kind of spark that flow of thought or prime the pump, you might say, I said, "Hey, you know, what if the attorney who's leading this, doing this video, leading the video deposition session, what if he happens to be like a great fan of chiropractic, a big believer in chiropractic? Maybe it's changed his life." So then you guys would kind of have something in common there as opposed to going in thinking this person is the enemy that, you know, we're on opposite sides, you know, maybe there's some common ground there. Or maybe it's not even about chiropractic. Maybe it's just you guys have something in common and you can kind of establish some, some foundation, a common bond there. And then, you know, maybe the thing ends up unfolding even better than you can imagine, more comfortable than you can imagine. Maybe it's not so horrible. So that was the end of that conversation. And the next day when the session was supposed to happen, I was looking forward to hearing how it went. And I got a text from from him, from the chiropractor that morning, and he said, "The deposition is off! Exclamation mark! The case is settled! Exclamation mark! Exclamation mark!" In other words, like, that was even better than what I could have imagined. I was just thinking like, maybe, you know, maybe it'll be pleasant instead of horrible. I didn't even think about the possibility of what if it's just wiped out? What if it doesn't happen at all? How can it get even better than this? How can it go even better than expected? One last example I'll share, and this one is personal. To me because I think back to the year when I filed bankruptcy, and that was a really— it was a difficult thing for me because it was, you know, kind of years in the making, and I've been trying to avoid it, trying everything I could to not go there, and just had this feeling of humiliation surrounding it. And finally, I, you know, came to the place where I had to file, and I filed, and I thought, well, you know, what happens next? Like, bankruptcy wipes out debt, but it doesn't create income. So, you 'You know, what happens next? How do I get this thing started again? What's gonna happen?' And I just proceeded to take, you know, one step at a time, put one foot in front of the other. And a couple months after filing bankruptcy, what happened was I had my best year in 15 years in business. Like, 2 months before I filed bankruptcy, and now I have my best year in 15 years in business. I thought, 'Wow, that's amazing!' Talk about going better than expected. And as the year went on, I just kept taking one step at a time and more opportunities kept coming along, more speaking opportunities with higher fees. And by the end of the year, I'd almost doubled the month that was my best month ever. And at the end of the year, it was our best year in 15 years in business. So I went from bankrupt to best year ever in the same year. Talk about how can it get even better than this? So the idea is, you know what, we know all the ways this could go wrong, but what if you were to shift your thinking and consider how it could go even better? If you're in a difficult spot, how could it resolve even better than you imagine? If you're in a great spot, then how could this thing get even better? So that, that is the invitation to make that kind of shift. And when you make that shift, let me share with you 3 things that will happen your life. Number 1, asking that question, "How can it get even better than this?" That question is an invitation to move forward. It keeps you moving forward in life. It keeps you moving toward progress. And as humans, we're wired to need progress. Like, progress is, is a key to happiness. I'm guessing you've experienced this in your life in some area, right? Where it's like, maybe it's in a relationship or in your career, maybe it's in your finances, your parenting, or You know, maybe it's just with you personally where you can say, you know, I'm not as good as I want to be. There's still a long way that I want to go, but wow, I'm better today than I was yesterday. I'm making progress. And when you see progress, there is a sense of pride or fulfillment, satisfaction. You feel like this story is going somewhere. How can it get even better than this? Is an invitation to move forward, to move toward progress. That's the first thing it does. The second thing that question does— how can it get even better than this? It pulls us into the unknown. Because in all those examples that I shared with you, whether it's the, you know, making a sale and the client's budget is bigger than you imagine, whether it's a, you know, a situation that's uncomfortable and it somehow resolves better than you imagine, like it's, you know, coming out of bankruptcy and thinking like, you know, I don't, I don't know, maybe in 2, 3, 5 years I'll kind of, you know, get this thing going back in the right path and we'll rebuild. I would have never imagined that it could happen in one year, that we could make such progress in one year. How can it get even better than this? It pulls you into the unknown, into the mystery of life. You know, I love looking at nature, looking at the flowers and trees and even wildlife, and just seeing all the creativity. Like, look at all the colors in that flower. Look at the coloring of that animal, the stripes, or the hair pattern, whatever it is, and thinking like, wow, how I could have never even imagined that. You see, a lot of times we live life within this box that we've created. Like, I know where the walls are. I know this is how this usually unfolds. This, this is how this always works. It never, never goes anything, you know, any differently than that. We live our life within the realm of what we can see and what we know, but life over and over again proves there is so much more than what we know? I mean, look out into space as we explore the universe. I mean, this thing is bigger and wider and always expanding so much more than we know. We live in the realm of the unknown. And how can it get even better than this pulls us into the unknown. But the third thing that question does for you when you ask that question, how can it get even better than this? And when you imagine the possibilities, allow your mind to just kind of imagine Where could this thing go? And then when you embody that, when you see that possibility, like, what if you could jump to the idea that, you know, from bankrupt to best year ever? What if you could anticipate and believe that this is gonna be the best year ever? At least know that that's possible. And then if you knew that was possible, what if you were to embody that? Because if you embody the possibility, what it will do, it will totally change your life. Literally change your life. Because when you change your thoughts, when you shift from the thoughts of limitation or lack, or just knowing like, I see everything that's missing here— when you shift your thoughts from that to possibility, to abundance, how could this get even better? Then all of a sudden, can you feel— if you ask that question now, think of a situation in your life, a scenario in your life, and you ask, how can it get even better than this? And then imagine that and then allow yourself to go there and start thinking like, wow, like maybe it's, you know, it's financially, maybe it is a relationship, maybe it's your health, whatever it is. Imagine what that is. Imagine what your life would be like. And maybe you need to close your eyes if you want, you can close your eyes right now and just see that. How would that feel? What would that be like if you knew that this was your reality? What happens is when we start thinking those thoughts our body chemistry changes, right? Your body releases different hormones, releases dopamine, serotonin, the happiness hormones, and all of a sudden you have a thought that releases chemicals and all of a sudden you feel something different and then all of a sudden your body is vibrating on a different level because we're all just these bundles of energy. Everything is energy and then all of a sudden you're vibrating on a different level and guess what? Energy is either retracting or repelling. I mean, it's either attracting or repelling. So then all of a sudden you're vibrating at a different energy, you're pulling different things into your life, other things are being repelled out of your life. Literally, it changes your life. All of a sudden you start looking at life differently, and life— others look at you differently. Your life changes compared to like when we go through life and we just see— we see lack, we see scarcity. And I'm afraid of how this is gonna unfold, like that deposition center, like, like, I don't want to go into that. I can imagine all the ways this could go wrong. This is going to be humiliating, this is going to be painful, and then you trigger the stress response in your body. And instead of it being the happiness hormones, then you get this stress, the stress release, the stress response, and this cocktail of cortisol and adrenaline. It gives you those feelings of anxiety and tension and worry. And like, ah, you know what that is, right? Like you start getting sweaty, your palms get clammy, all those sorts of things start to happen, your blood pressure goes up. You see, when we consider possibility, when we consider how could this go even better? How can it get even better than this? It takes your thoughts to a different place, and then when you allow yourself to feel it, it totally changes your body, it totally changes your life experience. So that's the power in this question, embracing the power of possibility. But let me share with you— I mentioned I want to share a couple studies that were done that are just fascinating. And there's, by the way, there are dozens, hundreds of these studies, but this is the first one I share with you is done by a woman named Ellen Langer. And Dr. Langer is a psychology professor at Harvard. She's the longest tenured psychology professor at Harvard University. She's written a number of bestselling books, but back in 1979, she did a study that became known at least as the clockwise or counterclockwise study. And what she did, she took 17 men in their 70s, and she took them into this converted monastery, converted to a retreat center. And the idea was to furnish it where basically the clock would be turned back 20 years. So it'd go from 1979 to 1959. And these, these men were broken up into two groups. So there was 8 men in one group and 9 men in the other group. The 9 men, that was kind of the control group. The 8 men, they were known as the time capsule group. And here's what the study, or here's what the experiment was. For those who were in the control group, the idea was they would go into this place for a week, this converted monastery. They would live there for a week. And again, it had been outfitted like 1959. So, you know, Perry Como was on the radio and Ed Sullivan was on TV. The bookshelves had all these books from 1959. Everything was decked out like 1959. And in the control group, the whole idea was you go in there, you spend a week there, and just imagine, just remember what life was like back in 1959. So it's all this, you know, remember when, like remember when that happened or when this happened, whatever it was. So you just spend the year, the week reminiscing. But for the time capsule group, it was a little bit different. Their mission was to go in and actually live like it was 1959, to actually embody 1959, to be who they were in 1959. So these guys who went in there, some of them with canes and stoooped over, again in their 70s with arthritis and all these kind of conditions that are, you know, we consider to be normal for, you know, for older age. They went in there, there were no mirrors, you know, they dressed in clothes from 1959 and they weren't talking about like, "Hey, remember when this happened?" But they were talking about it as if it was right now, like the sporting events of today, of 1959, the political events, the world events of 1959. They embodied that. And after the week, let's see what happens. And the interesting thing is, you know, everybody came out of that week feeling better because, you know, basically everybody got a week-long retreat. But those in the time capsule group who embodied who they were in 1959, who basically, in Dr. Langer's words, they took their mind back to 1959 and their body followed. They came out of there and they tested them because they had tested them going in to check, you know, blood pressure and you know, grip strength. They tested their vision, their hearing. And when they came out, those who were in the time capsule group, their vision tested better, they had greater grip strength, even independent observers noticed that they even looked younger. And there were all these other factors as well. So that was the beginning of what Ellen, again, Dr. Langer has done numerous studies of this sort since then. But that just shows, or at least that was the first hint Hey, when we think differently about things, reality all of a sudden changes. So when we say, "How can it get even better than this?" we're not talking about wishful thinking here. We're not talking about hoping that things are better, right? That's the important distinction here because we've all hoped that things were better. Like, I look at this situation, man, I wish that was better. I wish I had more money. I wish I had a different relationship. You know, I wish I was in a better job. I wish my career path was going differently. I wish we had a different president. You know, whatever it may be. Be for you, like just hoping it's different, but that's not the same as actually embodying the difference. So not like, "Man, I hope I feel better. I hope I have more money. I hope I get the right relationship." But what if you were to live as if, to embody this possibility? Not only how can it get better than this, and then like wish, like you see it out there, like I see, I can see, believe me, I see how it can get better, but it's way out there. And all of a sudden I'm not living in the present, I'm living like my mind is in fantasy land, but my body is still back here where I see everything that's lacking, everything that's missing. So my body is still bathed in this cocktail of stress hormones. Like my mind is over there, but my body is still here, and then that's not what unleashes the power of possibility. What unleashes the power of possibility is when you can see it and embody it now. Another study that Dr. Langer did, this time with one of her students, called the Chambermaid Study. And in this one, there were 84 chambermaids, hotel chambermaids. And this one, the test was— these were 84 women who had said, responded to a question, said they felt like they didn't get much exercise, they weren't living a very active life. So here's how this study went down. They took the 84 women, they divided them into 2 groups, and the only difference was those one group, the control group, they just left it exactly as is. They felt like they didn't get much exercise, they didn't live a very active life, and they were allowed to continue. The other group though, the researchers primed them and helped them see that, you know what, actually you live a very active life. I mean, when you're making beds, that's like, it's like going to the gym, you know, going up and down the stairs and walking up and down the hallways. You live an active life, you get a lot of exercise. Just that subtle shift. Then they followed them for 4 weeks And the interesting thing was that at the end of the 4 weeks, those who were in the control group, who were just kind of left to continue as they were, nothing really changed. But in the other group, they noticed they lost weight, their, their heart rate, their heart, their heart rate, their blood pressure went down. Let me see here, I've got the, some of the findings right here. Let me just tell you, let's see here, they had a decrease in waist to hip ratio, a lower body mass index. But the only difference between the two groups was a change in mindset. Nothing changed externally. They just changed what they believed about their circumstances, and then the reality changed. And there's so many more studies like this. You can pick up Dr. Langer's book called Counterclockwise. You can read more about it. Someone named Dr. Joe Dispenza, who, who I've really enjoyed learning from, he's got a book called The Placebo. That goes into a lot of this. It's the idea that what if we embrace and embody what is possible rather than just seeing it out there and like, "Oh man, I wish," like, "Oh, it's got to get better than this," but thinking that's far off. Changing it to think, "How can it get even better than this?" Allow your imagination to run wild and then embody it. So that's what I want to leave with you in this video. We could talk a lot more, we could go on for hours and talk about different practices and things you can implement into your life. But what I want is to give you a spark and give you something simple so you can start doing this today. And here's all it takes, just like we talked about earlier. Consider what is an area of your life— maybe it's a particular circumstance, a particular situation— what is an area of your life that's not exactly what you want it to be? Or maybe it's an area that, you know, it's actually, it's pretty good, but you've just grown complacent. You've thought like, I don't think it can get any better than this. Whatever it is, consider that area and think, how can it get even better than this? And imagine, let your mind run wild. And you know, your tendency— we can only think within the realm of what we know. But see if you can push yourself to think even wilder, even crazier, even bigger ideas. And when you find something that feels good, when you find a possibility that feels good to you, then think about, imagine how that would feel if that were reality. And then think, okay, if that were my reality, How would I think? How would I act? How would I sit? How would I walk? How would I talk? What would I read? What would I listen to? And allow that to permeate your life as you go through the day. Live in the reality of that possibility. Embody that possibility starting today and then tomorrow and then the next day. Just as it comes to your mind, remember, how can it get even better than this? Remember your possibility. And then just think, how would I think? How would I act? What would I say? Where would I go? What would I listen to? What would I read? How would I walk? Embody that and unleash the power of possibility in your life. How can it get even better than this? If you need some help on your journey, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this video. Reach out to me directly if you're interested in coaching, or if you want to bring this message to your team or organization. I'm happy to support you in any way I can, but the important thing is to ask that question: how can it get even better than this? And then allow the universe, nature, God, whatever your beliefs are, allow yourself to be supported and be prepared for something amazing to happen. Thanks for watching. I hope to see you next time on Rise and thrive.