Your brain is a phenomenal instrument! But you have to learn how to master this instrument to get the most out of it.
Neuroscience has shown us that 90% of our success comes from how we THINK.
So by changing the way we think, we can change our outcomes in every aspect of our lives.
Neural pathways can be created and broken down with the right focus.
If you repeat the thought about 21 times your brain starts taking notice, by 30 times, new pathways start to form, and by 60 times it’s on auto-pilot. You don’t have to think that anymore, it will do it for you – and this will affect 90% of the decisions you make. Think of tying your shoelace, or driving home from work – you don’t have to think about these tasks, because your brain is on auto-pilot.
I’m sure you’ve heard of sporting stars talk about visualising kicking the goal to increase their success. Further, in a study of pianists were taught a new song on the piano. Another group were asked to visualise ‘mental scripts’ to learn the songs (without physical practice). The outcome was that the mental scripts dramatically improved the pianists performance.
As Dr Marshall Goldsmith says – “If you do not create and control your environment, your environment will create and control you”.
Most people are puppets to what is going on right now – The media hype and negativity are controlling how many people think and feel, therefore controlling everything they do. These neural pathways are getting stronger with each news briefing.
The thing is, our brains are wired to keep us SAFE – and doing what you’ve always done, what you already know is the safest thing. When there’s too much pressure, our brain will freeze – but this will lead to indecision and lack of results.
If you focus on survival, that’s what you’ll get. If you focus on success, that’s when you create opportunities.
Instead, we need to shift our thinking to be future focussed, so we can show our brain what to do. By focussing on what do we want to achieve, we can retrain our thoughts, to make this happen.
The leaders who really succeed through a crisis, understand that they need to refocus, remove old practices and create new, more effective ones.
As a leader, you need to create a compelling vision for the future of your business and show your team how they can get there.
Elon Musk is legendary at this. He refers to a FUTURE BACK Vision – and has used this to set up numerous hugely successful projects – Paypal, Tesla, Solar City and now to put people on Mars by 2025!
What if you focussed on a successful future, so that your decisions and actions are driven by the results you want?
If you met yourself in 5 years, what would you look like? How would you speak? Where are you? Consider this through all of your senses.
Let’s imagine your best future vision possible! By priming your brain that your vision has already happened, your brain thinks it’s already done, so the decisions you make comes from the clarity that it’s done.
However don’t just set your vision and expect it to happen – you need to take steps every day to move you closer. As Joel Baker said:
“Vision without action is merely a dream,
Action without visions is passes the time,
Vision and Action can change the world!”
