SUMMARY KEYWORDS
brain, result, thought, believing, mind, visualizing, belief, success, business, successful
SPEAKERS
Annie Bauer
00:00
What would I need to believe about myself, about what's possible, about the universe, what's out there, in order to make this happen? Remember, everything begins in the mind. And all your thoughts must be really intentional if you want to get to the goals and have the success that you want.
00:20
Welcome to the Smart Better Life where we talk about the thinking and habits that make entrepreneurs highly successful and how to create a business and life that stand out from the crowd. Follow my own journey as I peel back the curtain to show you what's working, what's not, and how we can all benefit from the learning along the way. Please share and enjoy.
00:37
Hello, hello, my friends. I'm so glad to be back here with you again for Episode Number Two. I hope you all are doing well today and have enjoyed the launch of the podcast. I'm so glad that you're back here with me again.
00:52
And today we're going to talk about how to master your mind for success. I'm going to give you six different ways that you can do this. And they're all pretty easy and simple. Things that you can start using right away. Stick around to the end, and I'll give you a bonus strategy. And that way, you'll have seven different ways--seven different things--that you can use to start making your life better and programming your mind for success. So let's dive in.
01:19
The things that I'm going to share with you today are how to have successful thoughts, how to begin with the end in mind . . . for your brain, because you've probably heard the term or the phrase "begin with the end in mind or start with the results". But we're going to show your brain how to do this too. and we're, you're going to, also learn how to trick your brain into thinking that you've already won, which is really interesting and fun. And I'm going to also teach you how to use the placebo effect on your brain. So cool, so different.
01:52
And then I'm also going to dive in and show you what happens in your brain when you honor your word to yourself. There's actually a neuroscience reason why this makes a difference and why it helps start you on the path towards making better habits and better behaviors and showing up for yourself more.
02:13
Then I'm finally going to share with you the role that taking action will play in building your self confidence. There's lots and lots of information out there about confidence and just believing that you have more confidence. But this is actually going to show you the tactical way to just develop self confidence, where it comes from, and how we can get more of it. And like I said, at the end I'm going to circle back, and I'll share one more thing with you that can help you in managing and mastering your brain for success.
02:43
So let's dive in. So the first thing that I want to talk to you about is that you can change your existing thoughts to something different. And this might be one that you're probably most familiar with . . of things like instead of saying "I can't" decide to say "I can", using positive affirmations, like there's a lot of information out there about this. But how do you actually do it? Like how do you stop your brain, interrupt the pattern when you're in that negative thought cycle, not when you're meditating, and you're having your positive affirmation moment. But when it actually comes raining down on you, and your brain is telling you that you can't do something, you're not capable, you're going to just fail at it, why try anyway . . . .all those types of things.
03:35
So what you want to do first is stop and recognize the thought. And I talked about this in the first episode as well. So when you have a thought, and you might have one that comes at you pretty persistently. So frequently, and it has been happening for so long, that you have it as like this deeply held belief. It might be really, really ingrained. So you might have one like that that's a repetitive thought. Or it might be that you're trying something new, and all of a sudden, for some reason, your brain just seems to be raining down on you with negative thoughts that you haven't had before. Either way you can use this.
04:15
The first thing I want you to do is recognize that thought, and then shift it to a new thought. And it's just a subtle shift. So this one's pretty easy to do because I'm not asking you to radically believe something new and different about yourself that might be really hard to grasp onto. So I'm not going to go from you thinking that you can't build a business, or you can't build a digital course, or you can't start a side hustle to just telling you that you need to believe that you can make a million dollars. Or that you can make $100,000. Or that you can make your first10,000. Because for a lot of people that's a huge stretch. To go from not believing at all to a really extreme thought.
05:05
What I want you to do instead is just give it a little tweak. Give it a little subtle shift. And here's what I mean by this. So let's say your thought is . . . let's say you want to build a side hustle, or you want to build a business. And your brain-- and you really want to do this, like this is a dream. And somewhere deep inside you, you may even believe it's possible. Or with your logical part of your brain. Like, when you're using your logical mind, you're like, "Yeah, I could probably do this. I probably have the skills for this". And then your brain, the subconscious part of your brain, or that more primitive part of your brain, wants to stop you. Because it wants to protect you. It doesn't want you to try anything new. Even if your logical brain's like "Yeah, I think I could do this". Notice the thought and see what it is that your brain is offering up. And then just shift it just a little. So let's say your brain is saying, "You can't do that. You've never done that before". And give it just a little bit of a shift and say, "But I could take the first step". And then write it down. This is so vitally important. Write it down.
06:19
And a lot of my students really resist doing this because they want to stay in their heads. And they think that that's enough. They don't want to journal, they don't want to take the time to write it down. If you're out when this happens, put it in your notes on your phone. But actually write it out and see the thought: "You can't do this". And then I want you to actually put your rebuttal or your subtle shift thought right underneath that. "But I could take the first step. I could spend an hour tonight investigating the possibilities or doing some research". And just give it just a little subtle shift. And notice what happens in your body. You should feel a little different. And especially when you've interrupted the pattern enough that you've taken the time to stop, write that thought down, and just do your subtle tweak. We're just tweaking it. Just a little bit. Nothing too big here. And then see what happens.
07:20
And think about this quote from Napoleon Hill. If any of you out there have ever read the book, "Think and Grow Rich", it is one of my favorite, favorite books. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you get a copy because it's all about--it's a study basically, of how really wealthy people think. How they showed up, what their identity was. What were the thoughts in their brain? What did they believe that they could do? And he studied people like Andrew Carnegie, and then he wrote about it in this book. And I love this quote. So I'm going to share this with you. "If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure that you will control nothing else". Just let that sink in for just a minute. I'm going to read it again. "If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure that you will control nothing else".
07:57
Everything starts with our thoughts. Think about that. Everything that exists in the world that humans have created, didn't exist before it was created. The first place it exists--any thought, any creation, anything that we want to invent or build or paint or write begins in the mind. Begins in our imagination. And we have total control over this. Way more control than we believe that we have. So do this one thing, just to your subtle shift. And let me know, let me know how it works out.
08:56
Now the next thing that you can do is begin with the end in mind, inside your brain, too. This one's really cool. And this one takes your thought creation and mastering your mind for success just a little bit further. Think of the result or a goal or a dream that you want to create in your life. And it can be something really small, like take a trip to Italy or lose five pounds or learn how to cook. Or it can be something really, really monumental like move across the country, or start my own business. And maybe for some of you taking a trip to Italy is a really, really big step. But however you perceive it, for you and your life, pick anything, large or small, and just write the goal down.
09:44
So I want you to start with that. Say, "this is the result I want in my life".
09:48
"I want to meet someone and fall in love and get married in the next two years."
09:55
Or "I want to start my business and quit my 9-5 in the next 12 months".
10:01
Or "I'd like to lose five pounds and get in shape so that I can keep up with my grandchildren.
10:08
Or "I'd like to go back to school and get my degree. I'd like to start my own business and make a lot of money. I want to make $100,000 in my side hustle in the next 12 months".
10:20
Whatever that goal is, personal or professional, write that down. Start with that result. Now think about "What thoughts could I think in my brain that would be the very best thoughts, the highest and best thoughts, that would help me get that result?" Because now you're focused on the result. Now, instead of mastering the monkey mind--and we're going to use that tool, too, so when your mind starts offering up your monkey thoughts, you're going to redirect it. But this one, specifically, learning how to focus on a goal, and then create a thought that would serve that goal. Create a thought that would inspire a feeling in you that felt really great, or exciting, even if it made you a little nervous or a little scared, but you felt alive, in alignment with the goal or the result. And from that place, I promise you, you'll be able to come up with many more ideas on how to achieve that goal. So pick the result that you want. And then go, "What thought would I need to think? What would I need to believe about myself, about what's possible, about the Universe, what's out there, in order to make this happen?"So begin with the end in mind, in your mind.
11:49
The third thing is visualization. And a lot of you have probably heard about this, but maybe you don't really truly know exactly how it's used. And maybe some of you out there might even believe that it's a little bit of woo woo to do the visualization. But let me tell you, it's actual science. It's brain science. And psychologists, specifically sports psychologists, have been using it for years. Top athletes know that visualizing the outcome that they want, visualizing themselves going through the race, going through the game, all the way from the time that the gun goes off at the beginning of the race, till the time that they cross the finish line, visualizing every step, visualizing what's around them in the environment. Visualizing and thinking about, "How does it smell? How does it feel? What am I thinking? How do I feel in my body?" really does work.
12:47
And here's why. Because your brain doesn't know the difference between you actually doing the event, like running the race and crossing the finish line and getting the blue ribbon. And it is happening in your mind. Your brain has a really hard time distinguishing between the two. So when you visualize and you practice getting the result that you wanted, crossing the finish line, learning how to speak Italian, learning how to make that wonderful dessert, building that business, doing a successful webinar. Whatever it is. Launching your first course. Walking yourself through that. And you're very disciplined about doing this consistently. Like every day.
13:29
With my clients, what I do is, I ask them what goal it is that they want to achieve. And then we actually create a tape with all the things in that tape that they want. The way that they want to feel. The things that they want to experience as they're building their business. So if they are wanting to build a business, or start a digital course, build a digital course, or write a book. Everything that's in that tape, and they're short tapes, like10-15 minutes, will be all about like how they feel, what they're doing, how they sit down at their desk, what it looks like, what they're thinking as they build their course, or write their book, or start their business. And then I have them listen to that tape for28 days straight. Minimum. It's amazing what my clients tell me when they come back and say, "At day15 I had this discovery. And I had this shift and this change. And then they'll come back, which is so amazing like that right there is just music to my ears. But then they'll come back, maybe seven, eight, ten days later and they're like, "I had another shift".
14:43
So this repetitive action, the repetition of watching yourself and seeing yourself actually complete something. Be successful. Going through the journey, taking the steps is rewiring your brain. Literally. For success and for that thing to actually happen. So that when you actually do it, your brain thinks you've already done it28,38, 48 times. How many, however many times you've rehearsed this in your mind. And you can become way more successful. You can highly increase your chance for success. Just by doing this visualization exercise. It's pretty amazing the way our brains work. And also to these visualization exercises, when I make the tapes, they tap into your subconscious.
15:35
So our brains have all these thoughts all day long. But the vast majority of our thoughts--75% or more--are actually happening in our subconscious. So we're not even aware of them. And visualization, putting something on tape, especially when you can listen to it when you're in a relaxed state, is reprogramming your subconscious as well. This is a part that we can't really access, like using our prefrontal cortex, or just saying affirmations. We're digging in, and we're rewiring the really deep parts of our brain.
16:12
The next thing, the fourth thing I'm going to offer up to you is that you can use the placebo effect on yourself. So if you don't know what the placebo effect is, this would be in, they use it a lot in medical studies, particularly for pharmacology and different drugs and pills that are in development. And they will have a placebo. So a placebo is nothing more than a sugar pill. And they're using that to control the study and see how much of the effect, or the result, of getting better symptoms, or alleviating a particular disease, is actually due to the real medication. And how much of it is actually due to just people believing they're going to get better. So in those groups, they'll have a group that maybe gets a placebo pill. And those people, if they're told, this is the real thing, this is the real pill, and they're still getting the same great results that someone who took the actual real pill or medication gets, then that's a control to see how much of this result is really due to people just believing. That's the power of our minds. That's the placebo effect.
17:34
So I want to share this story, this research study that was done on maids who spent their entire day doing things like changing sheets, and mopping floors, and vacuuming. It's physical work. And this research study was done by some Harvard researchers, and it was published in Psychological Science. And these maids actually lost weight and became healthier only because they thought different information. That's it. They just had a different thought in their head. They were told some different information than the control group. And they actually lost weight, and got amazing, even more healthful results than just losing weight.
18:20
So here are the results of that study. What they did was they brought in 84 maids from eight different hotels, and they divided them into two different groups. Maids in the first group were told that they're on-the-job activity counted as exercise. So they had this belief that they didn't exercise. A lot of them, when they were asked the question, "Do you exercise?", they said no. Because their perception of exercise was that I go to the gym after I get off work, or I walk every day. And so they didn't see their work as exercise. So they took these people and they divided them into two groups. The maids in the first group were told that they're on-the-job activity counted as exercise. What you're doing is actually exercise. Vacuuming, mopping, lifting heavy loads of towels, changing sheets. And that they were very close to meeting exercise recommendations. And the maids in the second group were not given this information. So that's the only difference. One set of people was told "you're exercising, this kind of activity counts as exercise". And the other group was told nothing.
19:35
And the results were astonishing. So listen to this. In just four weeks, these were the results of the first group. Remember the first group is the one that was told that their work counts as exercise. The average weight loss was nearly two pounds, their body fat percentage decreased, their waist to hip ratio decreased, and their blood pressure dropped by10 points systolic and five points diastolic. Those are the two numbers when you get your blood pressure readings. Now, this is pretty profound. The maids weren't asked to change anything about their job or their activity or their lifestyle. They just kept doing everything that they'd been doing. The only change was that they believed their work was exercise. This is how powerful our minds are. They were simply told that what they did on the job counted as exercise. And there have been more studies since then that have confirmed similar results.
20:39
So the placebo effect is real. And you can use this on your own brain yourself. You don't have to be in a scientific study. You don't have to be a maid cleaning in a hotel. You can use this placebo effect to actually improve your chances for success. To get what you want in life. Your mind is very, very powerful. And what we're believing from this study is that the maids could have lost weight or improved their health just because they believed it would happen. This is the power of belief. You can also, possibly, by thinking these thoughts of something positive, you could be rewiring your brain subconsciously as well. It could be, if they believe that their work was exercise, and that was planted in their subconscious part of their brain, that they actually maybe started approaching their work with more vigor. Or that they believed that their work was healthy. So they had a different attitude about their work. And they went about their work differently. So you could also feel better supported by having a belief that something serves you. By believing that something different can happen for you, you actually might start choosing better behaviors. And it might be easier to do so. And I love this.
22:05
And this is what's so important to really realize about this, is that there's so much information out there about changing your habits, changing your behaviors, using willpower, using motivation. And I am all for changing habits and behaviors. But this is the important thing to remember, you've got to start with your thoughts first. Remember, everything begins in the mind. And all your thoughts must be really intentional if you want to get to the goals and have the success that you want. From those thoughts, that's how we're actually able to build a foundation for better actions, habits, and behaviors. So it also means, too, that when you're working with someone who tells you that you're on the right track, and you're getting that support . . . maybe it's a coach or a leader, a therapist, someone who's leading your group, or taking you through a particular course, or teaching you how to do something . . . just having someone have belief in you, and telling you that you're on the right track could actually mean that you feel like someone's on your side. And just that support alone could be the reason why these maids--in this case, they were told by researchers that their work is beneficial and their work is exercise. Just that feeling of someone's on my side could really make a difference. It makes you feel empowered, right?
23:33
And that's where I come in a lot, as a coach, is oftentimes I have clients who don't believe that they can. Or they only halfway believe that they can. And I always say this to them, it's okay. Because I'm going to hold space, and I'm going to believe in you100% until you can believe in yourself. And just borrowing my thoughts, just borrowing the fact that I'm on their side, and that I'm going to hold space to believe in them, works wonders. It gives clients this safe space to just grow in that belief themselves while they're being supported by someone who believes that they can.
24:16
The fifth thing I'm going to share with you is keeping your word to yourself, not just others. And I see this so much in my coaching practice. I have a lot of people who are very, very good at committing to others and keeping their word to others. But when it comes to themselves, they fall down. They don't want to keep their word to themselves. Or they feel like it's not important. And oftentimes they haven't even recognized it.
24:44
If you've ever read the book by Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements", one of the agreements is "be impeccable with your word". But what if you were impeccable with your word to yourself? What if you said, "I'm going to get up at six o'clock in the morning, before the rest of the house is awake. And I'm going to go in, and I'm going to work on my business for30 minutes or an hour". Or "I'm going to get up at 5am and spend30 minutes writing at least one chapter on my book, or 500 words in my book before the rest of the house wakes up. And you actually follow through and do it. What if it's something small, like, I'm going to post once a week on Instagram, or Tik Tok, or your favorite social media platform. Just once a week. And you actually follow through and do it and you keep that commitment, that word to yourself. You honor yourself. What could that mean?
25:39
I'll tell you what it means to your brain. It's creating a habit and a behavior, it's creating a feedback loop in your brain that your brain sees. When you say that you're going to do something, when you put something on your to do list, when you put something on your calendar, when you make room and space for it. And then you actually show up and do it. What your brain is registering is "Oh, this is how we show up now". And the more you do it, the more your brain is like, "this is just who we are". And then it becomes your identity.
26:11
So the opposite of that is when you habitually break promises to yourself. The more you do that, over and over and over again. The more you develop this pattern, this habit, this identity, even if it's just in your subconscious, of "my word to myself, doesn't matter", "the things on my list I don't do and that's just how I show up, that's how I am". Even if you're not saying that, that's what your brain is thinking: "Oh, that thing on your calendar today, when you said you were going to post on Tik Tok, or you are going to get up and write an email to your email list, or you're going to research how to build a digital course, or start a side hustle, and you didn't do it, and you haven't done it like eight days in a row now, it doesn't really matter. Because you're not the type of person who keeps your word to yourself".
27:07
This is so vitally important, because our thoughts about ourselves and our thoughts about how we show up for ourselves and our self worth turn into beliefs. Thoughts that are thought over and over and over again, turn into beliefs. And the beliefs that we believe about ourselves become our identity. So if we believe we're someone who shows up and follows through, even for ourselves, not just for others, that will become the person that we just start being. That will become our identity. And that is a success habit. That is how to master your mind for success.
27:45
So I have one more. And it's really simple. It's "Take action". We, and I myself included in this. I'm so guilty sometimes of trying to solve all the problems, trying to solve for everything in my head, instead of just taking action, and just seeing what will happen. When we get out of our heads, and we just take action, we actually activate what's called in psychology the confidence competence loop. So when we go out and try something--like me starting this podcast. I fumble over my words, I don't always get everything right. Sometimes I ramble too long. I do podcast interviews, and sometimes I get stuck. But I'm out there in the game trying, and guess what happens. I get a little better every time. And even when I'm recording podcasts, after I finish another one and another one, I get to the end, and I can feel a shift in my body. Because whatever fear was there before I started, or anxiety, or lacking belief in myself, or feeling like I just don't have the confidence to do this. If I just jump in and take action and do it, I'm at least1% more competent when I finish. Even if it was rough. Even if it was a little messy. So just take action. Because the confidence-competence loop shows you that you get just a little better every single time you do it. That's the competence: you become a little more competent at trying something new that you're not used to doing. And every time you get a little more competent, a little better, you learn a new skill, you learn a different way of doing it, you get a little smoother in your delivery. That's how you develop confidence. The confidence competence loop.
29:34
Okay, so I told you, I promised you, that I would give you a bonus strategy at the end. For those of you who have stuck around to the end, I'm so glad you're still here. The last one is this. Successful people do this, bar none. I don't know a single really successful person who doesn't do this. It's called Investing in yourself. There's two different mindsets about spending time and spending money on you. And the non-success mindset is "that's spending money, that's an expenditure that's going out, that's an expense, that's money I'll never get back". But the successful person doesn't think like that at all. The successful person looks at things and says, "How can I always be investing in myself?" And it's an investment. And here's why. Because a success mindset is looking at everything that I learn about myself, every new skill that I acquire, every time I pay for therapy, or coaching, or a gym membership, a retreat, learning something new, taking an online course, studying something, buying a book and actually reading it and then applying it. Successful people don't see that as an expense. They see it as an investment that will pay dividends over and over and over again. For the rest of their life. Forever.
30:25
Because here's the deal. Every time you choose yourself, and I want you to choose you. Every time you choose yourself and choose to invest in yourself, you're gaining knowledge, wisdom, but also confidence and belief in yourself. Because you are putting money on you, you're betting on you. I didn't used to always bet on me. But I can tell you this, the biggest shift in my life is that I decided I'm betting on me, this is the best bet.
31:32
I actually once heard Oprah Winfrey say something like that when I went to go see her Live. It was back a few years ago. And she said, "I just will invest in me. And I'm going to bet on myself, because I think I'm a really good bet". So this is the brain science to it. The more that you invest in yourself and show up for yourself, the more your brain can get on board with believing in you. So if you can't come up with the belief in you, and say to yourself, "I bet on myself any day. I totally believe in myself", just take that first step, and invest in something. Invest in you.
32:10
Once upon a time in the past, I had a client, who had the hardest time believing that investing in herself was worthwhile. And her thought was in her mind that investing in herself was self indulgent. And I honestly think a lot of women in particular have been given this message that we're supposed to give to others, give to everyone else, invest in others, make sure that their lives are better, make sure that they get what they want. And for many different reasons, a lot of us, particularly women, have been conditioned to believe that investing in ourselves, taking care of ourselves, and bettering ourselves for something that we want and our own success, is self indulgent. I think that's pretty widespread.
32:57
But what if we were to shift that and just believe in our value and worth. Because my belief is, if we bring everybody on board, and everyone sees their value and worth, then the whole world will be a better place. Because everyone's talents, everyone's skills, everyone's abilities can be brought to the surface and shared with the world. And from that place, I think we can solve any problem. I truly, truly do.
33:25
So take all of these tools and strategies. Invest in yourself, shift your mind, know that you can master your mind and thoughts. And let me know. I want to know how it works out for you. So take these seven tools and strategies that I've given you and see what happens. Just try one of them. Pick one. Try them all. If you feel overwhelmed by trying all seven, just try one. So try them out. Let me know how it works. I want to see every single one of you out there master your mind for success.
34:00
And if no one's told you today, remember, I believe in you. I truly, truly do. I want to fight for your dreams. I want you to be successful. And I want you to know that you're already worthy. And from where you are right now, wherever you are in this world, whatever you're doing, whoever you are, you can create big, beautiful, amazing things with your life. See you next time. Thanks so much for being here with me today. Take care everybody.
