MENTAL CONTRASTING
Hey E-com Insiders, it’s Mind Hack Monday. Would you like learn a technique that is proven to help you improve the level of commitment and energy you have when trying to achieve a goal? I’m going to show you in this video and tell you all about it right now what most people do.
Well, a lot of people are known as dreamers. That is they live in the future. They fantasize about what they want and they spend all their time fantasizing about it. We all know dreamers who never actually get the goal. That’s why they’re called dreamers, “nothing but a dreamer”. Remember this one right.
So, then you’ve got the other people who are the dwellers they’re the negative ruminators. They just spend all their time wallowing and dwelling and thinking about all the overwhelming tasks that are in front of them and that are in the way of them getting anything done and it brings them down and it is like a weight and a burden on their shoulders.
Now, neither of those approaches is helpful in terms of actually achieving your goal.
Now, you remember in another Mind Hack we talked about the Myth of Motivation and how the fact is you are highly motivated you are motivated to do whatever it is that you find yourself doing so you’re watching this video right now because you are motivated to do it. But motivation changes and chops and turns direction and it’s so much based on what we are doing right in the immediate moment. How do we change our motivational direction toward the future? We’ve talked about that in the past. Then how do we energize that? How do we in turn a goal or into a commitment?
This is what I want to share with you today the Mind Hack. Now this isn’t just some crazy thing this is based on 30 to 40 years of research looking at motivation and then specifically goal achievement. Now one of the things you might have heard in the past is you write your goals down. I remember my dad teaching me that as a principle. Fact this doesn’t work. It doesn’t actually help people achieve their goal any more than people who don’t write their goals.
Now, I know that that’s different people we all know about you know like pin boards and there’s even fancier kind of software you can put your goals in and you can watch it on a screen and get all excited by it. That is great it’s all about future dreaming and fantasizing, but it doesn’t actually really help that much so what do you do? Well what you need to do is you fantasize about the future that you want or successful business that runs without you or with very little work. That successful business that’s bringing in seven figures a month that successful team that you’ve got whatever it is that you imagine you think about that into the future. Then at the same time you also think about your current situation and everything on your plate. You think of them both at the same time you don’t just be a dreamer and you don’t just be a dweller what you need to do is bring this both together.
Now, what happens when that happens is that you get energized your brain understands right that this future that you’re imagining instead of just being in the Bliss of fantasy. Then bringing it back to the future your brain then recognizes that, “Hey we don’t actually have this fantasy yet it’s actually not real we’re imagining it; this is real.” What do I have to do to get to this? It brings it into that one unified experience. Whereas if all you do is focus on what’s hard and down then you don’t have any energizing future to pull you forward to get you to do the tasks that you need to do. So, that is simply it’s called “Mental Contrasting” and it’s really important; very subtle but a really important thing for you to try. So, if you’re someone you know you’re a dreamer all you need to do is spend some time and think about that future that you want, fantasize about it and then also think about what’s going on right now and what you need to do, what obstacles and that are in the way for you to get this outcome that you want. If you’re someone who’s a dweller then what I’d encourage you to do just to put it aside like let yourself dwell as much as you want, but then say right I’m going to stop and I’m going to spend some time dreaming. I’m going to spend some time fantasizing about this future that I want and what it could be like. After I’ve done that then I’m going to think about what I’ve got going on now. When you do that magic will happen because you will begin to get mobilized and energized and you will feel more committed to the outcome except for one key problem or one key thing that happens.
What the research shows is that your level of expectation of success has a dramatic impact on how much commitment you will then develop. So, if you have a high level of expectation. You think this is feasible. You’re pretty sure that you can do this thing. You’re high level of expectation of success. Then when you do the technique I’ve told you boom you’re way. However even if you’ve got a really great fantasy here, but you have a very low level of expectation that you will meet it even if you do that technique the level of energy the commitment just doesn’t arise it just doesn’t happen. That’s because when it really comes down to it you feel that the risk of you putting all this effort in isn’t going to be rewarded by actually getting the outcome. So, you then just don’t put the effort in. There’s no level of commitment.
So, the key question for you if that’s you is why you feel that it’s not feasible. Why do you feel that you’re not able to succeed with this? Is it that you’ve had failures before and you’ve lost your mojo? Is it that you just like a couple of skills and if you had those skills all of a sudden you would feel able to do what you needed to do? We’ve talked about this in the past. We talked about results equal skill times’ effort. When you start something if you don’t have a lot of skill you have to put a lot of effort in. But the more effort you put in the more skill you end up getting. Or you’re in the place the best place in the world to get answers and get the get the help that you need to address any gaps or deficiencies you feel you have in running your econ business. If it’s got to do with themes ask the people here. If it’s got to do with Facebook Ads, with choosing the best product you are in the right place to get this sold.
So, be honest with yourself a bit of self-reflection are you a dweller or are you just a dreamer. Match the two together. Then ask yourself this do I really feel do I really believe that I can do this. If you don’t you have to get that sorted out. No, I’m out of going to other Facebook Ads training. No, I’m out of going and trying to choose different products. All of that stuff you can do, but if you don’t fundamentally believe that you’re going to be able to take the steps to get the outcome you want then it’s just going to be stuck. You’re going to be in that pattern. Get it sorted out. Leave it in the comments below or if it’s too personal then send someone here a DM that is a person that you trust. One of us or one of the other people you the group. Get it sorted out quick smart because when you do and that level of expectation rises up and what far out I can actually do this. When you then marry that up with your fantasy about the future and the reality about now you will be committed to putting in the effort to take the steps to keep on taking the steps to start the start to start the finish and you’ll get towards your goal. They’ve studied it in weight loss, in business, in studying, for exams, in law and in sport. It’s a really broad ranging set of research that that I’m drawing on here.
So, I hope you found that interesting. I hope there’s an insight for you in that. I hope you recognize yourself maybe as one of those people. If so, please leave a comment below let me know. Also specifically for you lurkers who haven’t commented or liked any of these videos yet, please if this touches you in any way or gives you any insight or cause to self-reflect please leave a comment. Let me know that I’m getting through to you. Alright I really love that. So, I’m Dr. Nic Mind Hack Monday over and done with and I’ll see you in another video soon.