The most common complaint that I hear as a success coach is that the
self-improvement industry is filled with so much generalized,
non-specific, non-practical, fluff material that’s rehashed variations
of wishful thinking or “rah-rah” motivation with little real functional
techniques for making the necessary changes in one’s life to produce
the good that they desire for themselves. In response to that, I’ve
designed this article to list the most practical and scientifically
sound tools for your success that have benefited my own clients the
most.
Think of this article as a mental toolbox of success "power tools”
that you can use to design the life that you want for yourself. Each
tool in this toolbox contains instructions on what it is, why it works,
and how to use it effectively. I highly suggest that you keep this
article handy and focus on integrating a new success power tool into
your life every month until each of these power tools become a regular
habit for you.
Capturing Thoughts on Paper
What it is: Brainstorming, planning, working and re-working your ideas by getting them out of your head and onto paper.
Why it works: Thinking on paper is perhaps one of
the simplest, yet most powerful tools for goal achievement that you can
have because it acts as a focusing tool for your mind. On any given
day, all of us have bursts of inspirations – what I refer to as “Ah ha”
moments, but the problem is not with our mind’s creative ability, but
rather with our habit of not capturing those bursts of inspiration on
paper. Think of pure inspiration as a raw material such as coal.
Unrefined, you might not notice anything of value there at all, but an
amazing thing happens when you begin to work an idea on paper. That raw
idea begins to refine, distilled and polished until it turns that lump
of coal into a beautiful diamond.
By placing your thoughts onto paper, you turn a thought that might
be vague or abstract and you lock it into the physical world by putting
it onto a physical object, a sheet of paper, that you can hold in your
hands. Putting your thoughts onto paper turns that thought into a
tactical object, a visual image that your subconscious mind can then
digest readily and begin to work on manifesting into your life.
How to use it effectively: According to Tony Buzan,
an expert in mental literacy, one of the best ways to think on paper is
by using a mind map. A mind map consists of placing a center circle in
the middle of a paper with the core goal or thought inside that circle
and spokes extending from that circle. Each of those spokes represents
a sub-category of that main goal and each of those sub-categories can
also have spokes. By creating a mind map, you allow your mind a place
to create new ideas and brainstorm in the organic way that it was
naturally designed to do. A mind map is a powerful tool that allows you
to break down a goal or an idea into its most basic core components.
Positive Self-Talk
What it is: The use of positive affirmations or
auto-suggestions that you repeat to yourself regularly to program and
align your subconscious mind towards success.
Why it works: Your subconscious mind needs a level
congruency between what you say and what it knows as true. Initially,
when you begin feeding yourself positive self-talk, your subconscious
mind might reject those statements because it is not congruent to what
your subconscious mind actually believes. For example, if you repeat to
yourself, “I’m the best tennis player in the world,” then your
subconscious mind might reject that statement initially because it
knows it’s not true. But the more you keep on repeating that statement
with emotion and conviction, the more disparity you create between what
you say and what your subconscious mind holds true. In order to reach a
congruent state again, your subconscious mind will begin to adopt your
positive self-talk as true and in doing so, it will begin to organize
all your thoughts, feelings and actions to be aligned with this
statement. After conditioning your subconscious mind to believe that
you are the best tennis player in the world, all your thoughts and
actions will start to be congruent of a world-class tennis player.
How to use it effectively: Your subconscious mind
can’t process anything that is not grounded in the here and now, so
it’s important that you always word your positive self-talk in the
present tense, starting with the words “I am”. Repetition is extremely
important when using this tool because it takes reinforcement for the
subconscious mind to adopt your positive self-talk as true. Go with a
twenty-one day program where you repeat this positive self-talk for a
series of ten repetitions three times a day. It’s also important that
you don’t just go through the words, but that you also say it with
emotion and conviction. With positive self-talk quality is much more
important than quantity, just as doing sets of exercises carelessly or
incorrectly won’t produce the same results as completing each
repetition with attention to form and appropriate muscle contraction.
A great and practical way to integrate positive self-talk into your
daily life is to write out your favorite positive affirmations on a set
of 3×5 index cards and carry them around with you. Every day, pick a
card to use as a reminder to give yourself a regular dose of positive
self-talk. Treat it as seriously as you would following a prescription
from your doctor.
Eliminate “I Can’t” From Your Vocabulary
What it is: “I can’t” statements are probably the
most self-defeating statements that you could ever tell yourself and
they don’t serve a purpose in your life. This technique gives you
permission to permanently remove “I can’t” from your vocabulary.
Why it works: There is nothing more damaging to
your self-esteem than the words “I can’t,” but strangely enough, it’s
one of the first things that we learn as children growing up. A newborn
infant knows no fear and it definitely does not know that it can’t do
anything; in fact the opposite is true. The infant does what it wants
and has no fear at all. Conditioning from our parents and other adults
programs the child as to what it can and can’t do and this carries over
into adulthood in the form of self-limiting beliefs. By making the
conscious decision to remove the words “I can’t” from your vocabulary,
you take back the control that you had as an infant and remove the
conditioned barriers that block your path towards maximum potential.
How to use it effectively: Get a piece of paper and
a pen and write down all the “I can’t” phrases that come to mind. Get
all the self-limiting beliefs that you have of yourself onto that piece
of paper, making sure that you are not forgetting any of them. Then in
a safe area, ceremoniously set that piece of paper on fire and commit
yourself from that day forward never to use the words “I can’t” ever
again.
Vision Boards
What it is: A vision board is a collage of
goal-relevant pictures mounted on a sturdy board and placed in an area
where you are in constant visual contact with it.
Why it works: A vision board is a powerful tool for
positive visualization of a goal that you want to manifest in your life
because it evokes two core components of peak performance: positive
emotions and clarity. Your subconscious mind works best with visual
images. It’s the reason why if I tell you, “Don’t think about a pink
elephant,” the first image that pops into your mind is exactly that. A
vision board makes a goal that might be otherwise abstract and grounds
it into reality by making that goal very visual for your subconscious
mind to digest easily. With the pictures representing your goal, your
subconscious mind has powerful mental images to hold on to and it makes
your goal much more clear for the reticular activating system to work
with.
Because those pictures and images not only represent the goal that
you wish to achieve, but also represent the changes that will come
about in your life as a result of accomplishing that goal, your vision
board will evoke strong positive emotions when looking at it, which is
the fuel for motivation.
How to use it effectively: Construction of a vision
board is very simple. You need a poster or foam core board and several
throw-away magazines to clip out appropriate images. If you’re internet
savvy you can use the image search feature on one of the popular search
engines to locate a picture that resonates with you and then print that
picture on a piece of paper and clip it out. Make sure that you not
only include direct representations of your goal, such as a beach house
or a new car, but also include any life changes that will occur as a
result of obtaining your goal. So if your goal is to make a six-figure
income, then don’t just have $100,000 up on your vision board, but also
make sure that you include the changes you will make in your life as a
result of having a six-figure income. That might mean a new car or a
new home or a different lifestyle. Including all of those changes in
your vision board will increase the amount of positive emotions that
your vision board will create for you.
You might also want to place a goal statement on your vision board
that is worded in the following way: “The date is __________ and I
am…”. This gives your subconscious mind a deadline to work with.
Variations on the vision board concept include creating a goals book
or creating a customized screensaver on your computer with the same
powerful images that a vision board would contain.
Profile Modeling
What it is: In this technique you choose a
role-model of someone who has already done what you want to do and you
pretend as if you were an actor in a movie and your role is to play
their character.
Why it works: Profile modeling works because it
essentially makes you step away from your own programming and it
encourages you to explore and adopt the values, priorities, passions
and motivation of the person you are modeling. The Universal Law of
Correspondence states that your outer world is shaped by your internal
world, so by changing things within your inner world by adopting the
success traits of your role model, you will inevitably reshape your
outer world to be congruent with the values you hold within.
Profile modeling is nothing new. Children use profile modeling all
the time, whether it be an adult role model or a fictional super-hero
on television; they see someone who they admire and want to be like, so
they model their behavior to be more like them. By adopting the values
and traits of a successful role model, you begin to attract all the
things, people and events into your life that are on the same frequency
as the person you are modeling, and this propels the rate at which you
can reach your success goals.
How to use it effectively: Attention to detail is very important when using profile modeling. It’s not enough to merely act the part – you must be
the part! If the person who you are modeling dresses a certain way,
then you should also dress that way. Incorporate into your life as many
of the things that the person you are trying to model should have.
Study the person who you are modeling completely through biographies,
autobiographies, interviews, face-to-face conversations, or any
combination thereof. Find out what their motivating force is that makes
them so successful at what they do and adopt those values as your own.
A key technique associated with profile modeling is to ask yourself
the question, “How would I act if I were already the person I want to
be?” Whenever a situation that calls for a decision comes about, ask
yourself the question, “What would my role-model do in this situation?”
Some call this the “fake it till you make it” technique, but fake or
not, if you use this technique correctly, eventually you will become
that person.
Mental Rehearsal
What it is: Mental rehearsal is a visualization
technique that many athletes and performers use right before an event.
It consists of being alone in a quiet area and imagining the event
happening exactly as you have planned it, along with the feelings of
complete confidence, calmness and positive feelings about the outcome
afterward.
Why it works: Mental rehearsal works by practicing
and building confidence in your performance skills in the safe virtual
world of your mind. A few world-class athletes who became severely
injured, sometimes losing 60% or more of their muscle mass due to
inactivity, have astounded medical doctors by their ability to bounce
back to being world-class in record time, simply because they never
stopped practicing. They used mental rehearsal each day to practice
their skills, just as they would during training practice, with the
exception that this training session was only in their minds. In the
virtual world of your mind, you have 100% control over your
environment, so you can create a perfect scenario and then use that
scenario as a template for the performance that you will do for real.
How to use it effectively: In order to use the
technique of mental rehearsal effectively, you need to find a quiet
location that’s free from distractions. Find a relaxing position and
close your eyes. See the event unfolding piece by piece and happening
exactly the way you want it to happen. Concentrate on the positive
feelings of happiness, calmness, and control that you have while giving
an excellent performance. If you have access to movies or video footage
of similar performances that you consider to be excellent, then watch
those videos repeatedly until it becomes etched into your subconscious
mind. You will find that your behavior, confidence and abilities will
start to take the shape of your mental rehearsals.
Become a Teacher of Something You Want to Be Better At
What it is: Accelerate your learning faster than
you ever thought possible simply by becoming an expert on that
particular subject and teach it to others.
Why it works: Researchers have found that our minds
internalize information much more efficiently when we think about how
to teach the same material to others at the same time. This is because
in order to teach material, not only must we have a firm understanding
of the material, but we must also organize the material in our minds in
a logical format that would make sense to another person, much like
chapters in a book. On the subconscious level, we begin to integrate
that information into our lives in order for our actions – in this case
teaching – to be congruent with that new information. In other words,
we begin to practice what we preach.
How to use it effectively: While learning new
information, take notes as if you had to teach the information to
someone else. Ask questions similar to what you would expect one of
your students to ask you. If you really want to absorb information
quickly, then after you learn something new, go and share that
information with someone else who will listen to you. By articulating
in your own words what you have learned, you organize and reinforce the
information that you have just learned and accelerate your way towards
personal development.
Burn All Your Boats
What it is: There is a story of a great general who
was ordered to take his troops overseas and launch an offensive attack
against their opponents who outnumbered them three to one. The morale
of his troops was gone, for all of them believed that this offensive
attack was a death sentence for them. Upon landing ashore, the general
issued the order to have all their boats burned to the ground. The
troops thought that the general had gone insane, for now there was no
way to escape. The general addressed his troops, saying, “Now we have
no means of retreat. No way of escape. No way of running away. Our only
option if we are to go back home again is to overtake the enemy.” They
did just that.
Why it works: Letting fear immobilize you is one of
the primary reasons why people fail at the things that they want to
achieve in their life. Successful people, on the other hand, experience
the same fear that non-successful people feel, yet they move forward
regardless. How are they able to do that? The answer is that successful
people do what the general in the story did – they burn all their
avenues of retreat when going after their goal. By burning the boats
behind them, they can stop being distracted by ways to fail and focus
100% of their attention and energy on overcoming their challenges to
reach their success.
There is an amazing paradigm shift that occurs when you make the
decision that there is no way out, except forward. When you have not
fully committed yourself to a decision, it’s like trying to wash the
mud off your car with a garden hose that’s full of holes! You don’t get
any water pressure and the car remains dirty. When you fully commit to
a decision, you patch up all the leaks and holes in the garden hose and
all the water pressure is pushed in one direction. The result is enough
water pressure to get the job done.
How to use it effectively: When you launch into any
worthwhile goal, you have to commit to it 100% in order to push past
resistance and make it a success. You can’t focus partly on your
success and partly on how to minimize failure; doing so diffuses your
mental focus and dulls your mental edge. A champion fighter who goes
into the ring to defend his title doesn’t tell himself, “If I lose,
it’s okay because I’ll get it back again next time.” No, he tells
himself, “This person wants to take away what is mine and I won’t let
him!” During World War II the Japanese used the word
“Bansai”, meaning long life, as their war cry before a kamakazi attack.
Similarly, you need to build your own war cry that will align your
focus on WINNING, instead of looking for your exit strategies.
In Conclusion
I’ve given you eight of the most effective ”power tools” to put into
your success tool box. All the top peak performers out there, whether
they are top athletes or business professionals, use these power tools
to build their dreams into reality. But just as any power tool requires
training and use to become proficient at its application, so do your
mental power tools need to be practiced regularly and integrated into
your life so that you can move beyond what most people consider to be
common sense and focus in on what the highest achievers do – making it
common practice!
About the Author
Tristan Loo is a Personal Development Coach, Author, Presenter and Founder of the Self Improvement Association,
based in San Diego, California. He is internationally recognized as an
authority on peak performance psychology, communication and personal
effectiveness.
