Ep. 018 - Visualization Part 1: How to Execute Better

SHOW NOTES

This episode is the first of a two part series and let me just say that this episode along with the one that follows next week are packed full of awesome content.

Here’s my goal with these next two episodes - it’s simple - I want you to execute better.   I want you to do better.  Listen in to see how visualization will do just that.

TRANSCRIPT

This episode is gonna be a game changer for you. So buckle up because today I'm talking about a skill you can develop to start executing at a higher level.

Welcome to Man in the Arena, your go-to podcast for all things related to health and weight loss for men over 40. Here we discuss strategies that will get you off the sidelines and into the game so you can achieve your optimal health. It's time to lead a legacy of longevity. Hello and welcome to Man in the Arena.

Thank you for taking the time to tune in and listen to this episode where I'm diving into visualization. This episode is the first part of a two-part series, and let me just say that this episode along with the one that follows next week is packed full of awesome content. I know some of you listen to this podcast on a faster playing speed, so if that's you, I want you to slow this down to a normal speed and really focus in on these next two episodes.

I promise you it's gonna be worth it. Here's my goal with these next two episodes. It's simple. I want you to execute better. I want you to do better. If you're anything like me and the clients I coach, you know exactly what I mean. We all know what we need to do, but then we fail to execute our desired behavior, our task or action.

And of course, this means we fall short of our goals. So with that, today, I'm gonna introduce you to the practice of visualization so that you can do better and execute better. Notice I said practice because visualization is a skill. When you dedicate time and energy to it, you get better at it. And then this amplifies your results.

I don't want you to take this slightly. So if you buy into this concept and integrate it into your days, you will notice a huge impact. Visualization is a tool that's used by elite athletes, entertainers, performers, and venture enthusiasts, and they use this to get into a flow state. They do this so that they can execute at a really high level, but even if you're not an elite athlete or performer, you can scale this practice to meet your needs and achieve whatever is important to you.

Before I go into more detail, I want to explain why I love visualization so much. Reason number one, and I know you're gonna relate to this because I've experienced this and I see it all the time in my coaching. There are times when we absolutely want to do better. We're conscious of our faults and where we're falling short and where we can improve.

We have moments where we get it and we know exactly what we need to do in certain situations, and then later on we find ourselves in those situations and we completely blow it, and we do the exact thing we do not want to do. So for example, when I'm in a coaching session, I'll be talking to a client and they're 100% online, cognitively online and present.

They're conscious, they're aware, and I can see it in their body language, and I know they understand what they need to do. For example, they know they want to avoid snacking at night. They understand the process of slowing things down and acknowledging the emotion that they're feeling, and that they have this urge to snack.

They know they need to acknowledge where this emotion is in their body and what emotion that they're actually feeling, and then they know that they have to allow it to be there. But then later on that day when they're at home and the kids just went to bed and all the emotions that they repressed all day and distracted themselves from early on in the day, they come flooding back into their body.

And at this point, they're unconscious. They're offline, they don't have awareness, and so essentially they're on autopilot and then they snack, they break protocol, they fail to execute. And then this happens to me all the time as well. One of my goals is to use my phone less. I know exactly what I need to do.

I have the tools, the dead in the moment. I catch myself scrolling mindlessly, and this is the essence of execution. It can be hard in the moment to be conscious and be aware because we're on autopilot. This is where visualization comes in. We can practice how we want to execute in certain moments without having to be in the moment.

And that's kind of similar to region number two. While I love visualization is you get more reps and you can correct the mistakes that you've already made. So our brain doesn't know the difference between experienced reality and perceived reality. When done properly, you can visualize a past experience and see yourself doing it the way you actually wanted to show up.

Now, this doesn't erase the experienced event, but instead of being one down, you're even again, plus you don't have to wait to be in that situation again to practice how you wanna show up. So, as I said earlier, you get more reps and even better, instead of feeling, regret, and shame. You can move forward from that experience feeling more confident that you will do better when you are in that situation again.

Reason number three, why I love visualization so much is there is so much evidence that points to the value and benefit of practicing visualization. So I remember hearing a story about the golfer, Jack Nicholas, who was asked by a reporter how he was able to maintain such a high level of performance over the course of four rounds.

During a golf tournament and what he said stuck with me, he said that most guys finish around and then they go eat dinner, they go back to the hotel and they watch tv. And what Jack did instead was when he finished a round, he would go and visualize playing another round of the course in his mind. So he would actually see himself hitting each shot in his mind and playing that round again.

So essentially he was playing the course again. He was playing another round. That just stuck with me. That's so brilliant. And what a way to get more reps to get better without having to be in the situation again and waiting to be in the situation again. Okay. When you watch gymnasts or aerial skiers, you could actually see them visualizing right before they perform.

They do all these little movements and twists just before they're getting ready to jump or do their routines. So visualization is one of those things that just has such a profound impact on your ability to execute, and my question to you is what's stopping you from developing your own visualization practice?

It's not time. That's a terrible excuse. I think the main thing that stops us is that we're not quite sure how to do it, so please allow me the opportunity to explain how to visualize effectively. Step number one, you have to set yourself up for success. And what I mean by that is you wanna find a time and a place where you can do this consistently, where you're not gonna be disturbed.

So maybe that's part of your morning routine or your evening routine. Maybe it's both. In fact, there's a lot of research that suggests five minutes in the morning right after you wake up and five minutes at night just before going to sleep are the most effective times to meditate, because that's when we're in Alpha State.

Our brain waves are in this optimal frequency to visualize and really integrate it into our body and mind. Step number two, what you want to do once you've set yourself up for success is you want to connect with your breath and your body. So you want to consciously focus on your inhales and your exhales.

Notice what's happening in your body. Just notice the different sensations you feel, and you just spend a, you know, 30 seconds or so doing this, which allows you to activate. Your parasympathetic nervous system and really be present with what you're doing. Step three, you want to pick a situation where you want to execute better.

So pick a specific moment or behavior or task somewhere where you want to execute better. So for example, maybe you want to avoid late night snacking, so that's where you focus on that situation. Step four is you want to create a vivid mental image of where you are and what's going on. The more detailed, the better.

So create that image in your mind. So maybe you see yourself sitting there in your home, you know, feeling this urge to go and snack and see yourself kind of sitting there processing this emotion instead of going to the kitchen and grabbing that snack. So create that detail. Where are you? Where are you sitting?

What's going on? Who's around you? You know, are there certain smells or sounds? Okay? Lastly, and most importantly, you need to connect this vision to an emotion. So you need to feel in your body how you're going to feel when you fulfill your desired behavior. So for example, if you process an urge instead of snacking, you might feel confident.

You might feel proud, you might feel happy. Either way, you need to feel and experience that emotion in your body as if you are experiencing it in real life. This is a step that you do not wanna skip the emotion you associate with the visualization seals the deal. So in other words, visualization is not just a practice of seeing yourself complete a task, it's a practice of also connecting with the accompanying emotion.

So visualization is a practice that can literally take 30 seconds, take five minutes, you can take 30 minutes. It's up to you. The key is consistency. Doing this daily for 30 seconds is gonna have a much greater impact than doing this once a week for 10 minutes. So here's part of the reason why visualization is so effective at the base of our brain is a structure called the reticular activating system.

The main function of this structure is to filter all the different stimuli that bombard us every second. So we literally have millions of bits of information coming at our brain, and so it's impossible for us to process this all at once. The reticular activating system is responsible for filtering out the most important information, but who decides what is important and what's not important?

We are responsible. We program our own reticular activating system. We do this through the practice of visualization. And when we do this, we take an active role in programming what is important to us. So for example, if you ever needed to buy something, maybe you're thinking about buying a white suv. Okay?

Whatever you think of buying, you've programmed that using your reticular activating system, and now you see all of those cars, those white SUVs all over the place. That's your reticular activating system doing its work. Okay? Here's a bonus step. Once you develop a more consistent visualization practice, I encourage you to include difficult situations and seeing yourself overcome them.

So, in other words, I want you to anticipate negative obstacles that you're gonna face, and then visualize yourself doing the necessary work to achieve the positive result you want. You know that life is not all sunshine and rainbows, so when you practice different scenarios and being able to handle them, you develop much more resiliency.

I was working with a client of mine who was preparing to run a marathon, and we practiced all the different situations that he might face. Situations like getting a cramp or having to go to the bathroom, you know, feeling really awful at mile 20 and through visualization, he was able to see himself, experience those situations and then achieve a positive outcome.

And then of course, we visualized him still running his goal time despite seeing those negative situations arise. Remember, this is all about doing better and getting better at executing your desired behavior and doing more reps. Now that you have more clarity about visualization, how it works and how to integrate it, I want you to take actionable steps.

Use this in your day-to-day. If you wanna feel better, lose weight, improve your health. You have to do the work every damn day, and this is one of those tools that you can use every day. I challenge you to schedule a visualization into your day at some point today. Set a timer for one minute and then follow the steps I mentioned earlier.

I promise you, if you take action on this, you will do better instead of just knowing better. That's what I have for you today. My time is up. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to next week, which is visualization part two. In the meantime, I wish you good health and longevity.

If you're ready to step inside the arena and change the trajectory of your health, head on over to the spear method.com and download by free guide to learn simple and effective strategies on how to optimize your health today.