Using both sides of your brain will guide you in your daily activities. With so much written about goals in our profession, it may be valuable to explore some ways to improve the completion of what we set out to do.
If we choose to use our whole brain to accomplish the goals we set out to achieve, there is reason to believe that we will be more successful.
Some of us are oriented toward the right-brain. We are creative, spatial thinkers, intuitive and spontaneous. We often think in pictures, colors, or feelings. We can be great starters who are often haphazard finishers. We see the goal and yet struggle to articulate how we will achieve what we see so clearly in our minds. Others are oriented towards the left brain. The left brain is very language oriented. Language is very rational and business-like. NULL
Left brain people are oriented toward logical, problem-solving paradigms: they are very linear in their thinking. Left brain thinkers go from point A to point B to point C. They find a problem; they solve it. Then they find another problem and solve it and pretty soon they’re so engaged in the process that they’ve become problem solvers rather than goal-reachers. To use our whole brain we have to think in both terms of language and pictures. For the sake of this discussion we can describe these two things as visualizations and affirmations.
Pictures lead us to use visualizations. Language leads us to use affirmations.
Pictures are right brain; language is left brain. Visualizations are right brain; affirmations are left brain. When we use both sides of our brain to focus on our goals, we send a message to our subconscious that leads us to the accomplishment of our goals. Visualizations are powerful in the attainment of a goal. In their book, Seeing with the Mind’s Eye, Mike and Nancy Samuels describe a simple experiment using some high school kids and visualization. A random sample of high school boys are broken into three groups. All of the boys spend time shooting basketballs to see what percentage of free throws they make. Like any experiment they go out and shoot baskets the first day, twenty days later they go out and shoot baskets again and the difference between these shows how much they’ve grown in the process. The first group practices everyday and then they shoot baskets at the end. They show 24% improvement. The second group shoots baskets on the first day, they don’t do anything in-between, and on the last day they shoot baskets again. They’ve shown no improvement. Interestingly, the third group shoots baskets on the first day and then go through a process of visualization: they practice seeing themselves shooting those baskets for the next twenty days improving in their mind’s eye. In the end, when they shoot the baskets, they show a 23% improvement.
Think about it: 24% improvement by practice: 23% by visualization. Visualization is powerful when it comes to achieving your goals.
Here are three simple, but important visualization techniques we can use to create the success we desire in our minds. They are relatively simple but the important thing is to continually and consistently use them. Here are the three kinds of visualizations: The first type of visualization is word visualizations. To produce a word visualization think of a single target word about who you are, what you want and write it on a 3 x 5 card. What makes your business successful? Write down the one word. You might say loyalty, smiles, positivity, helpfulness, or proactive. Find the word that describes your approach. Secondly, put yourself into a relaxed state, preferably just before you go to bed, and hold that card about a foot to two feet from your eyes. Focus your eyes on the word and concentrate your attention; watch that card for 10 to 20 to even 30 minutes. The third step is for you to do this exercise nightly for at least two weeks. As you continue you’ll find yourself taking that word and spinning out pictures of what’s going to happen of how important it is to you. As you continue, you’re burning your image of that “goal word” into your mind and it will be in your thoughts as you proceed in your everyday life. A second type of visualization involves images, or pictures. The process is very similar in that you are going to create or find an image of a person or a thing that embodies your goal. If you’re just starting in the business and you want to see yourself having a brand new car then get yourself a picture of some car keys. Think beyond the income and find a picture of what that income will do for you. Think of a snapshot of what you want. The second step is to take that image and concentrate on it just like you did with the word. Get yourself into a relaxed state and look at that picture or imagine you’re reaching your goal. Do this for 20 minutes a night for at least a month. Many people who use this visualization technique copy the picture and tape it in places where they see it as they go about your normal day. They have pictures on the back of the front door, the refrigerator, the mirror in the bathroom, inside their date book and their car. The point is to put those pictures where you’re going to see them time and time again. This will continue to keep your images in place until you’ve accomplished that goal.
It works because you find yourself believing it’s possible to achieve and this self-motivation is the most important step on your journey.
Finally, the third type of visualization is scenario visualization. Once you have that goal in mind for yourself, then close your eyes and daydream a full color movie in your mind of what your life would be like if you achieved that goal. See yourself earning a living from sales and not that crummy job; picture yourself getting up in the morning, sending your kids off to school and then getting on the phone to talk to those potential team members, your new excited distributors, or your leaders. Picture yourself getting those big checks. Picture yourself having a whole row of people at your sales meeting and you get to encourage all of them because you brought them all into the business. Picture yourself conducting meetings with thousands in the audience. Run a full color movie in your mind of what you’ll be like when you achieve that goal. If your goal is to be number one at national convention, then as you see that person walk down the aisle, put your face on that body, put your body up on that stage, shut your eyes and listen to that applause, smell that crowd. Capture that image vividly and you’ll make it happen. The unimportant will drift away. The important things for your goal will stay and you’ll find yourself spending time focusing on the right things and not just doing things right. You’ll spend your time not getting discouraged by those little day-to-day things that go wrong. Why? Because every time you run that “movie” in your head, you will think and do those things that lead you closer to your goal of being self-supporting or closer to your goal of national recognition or closer to your goal of helping more people. Those visualizations use the right brain to send a message to your mind and subconscious to achieve your goals. Affirmations are helpful in using your left brain to talk to yourself in order to reach those bigger goals. Affirmations are simply sentences — full statements about where you want things to go.
There are really five simple characteristics of a good affirmation. It is important to include these characteristics in every affirmation.
Affirmations are personal: it’s not we, it’s I. That’s important to show that you’re taking responsibility for the direction you want to go. Affirmations use a present tense verb: I am, I can, I intend to, I will. A phrase that you probably want to avoid here is I am trying because when you say I am trying it indicates that you’re putting in the effort but you don’t r
eally expect to succeed. Affirmations are positive. Use verbs like do, act, earn, recruit, and choose. These are verbs that involve an action. Affirmations involve some senses. You’re going to talk about seeing, hearing, touching. Affirmations hold a powerful emotional element. That is a heart-felt goal that you’re fully committed to having. Like the images you’ve taped up a lot of different places, you can tape up affirmations as well on the mirror, on the closet door, on the front door, on the refrigerator, or by your telephone. Put your affirmations where you can see them and say them. Say them out loud for more impact. Using this process, you have
Downloads
- Using the Whole Brain to Reach Your Goals by Neil Phillips - July 1, 2009
- Is Coaching for You? by Neil Phillips - August 1, 2008
