Joshua: I think this is critical too for entrepreneurs and business owners which sometimes we can be so hard on ourselves about the progress that we don’t think we’re making. But when you actually go back and you look at metrics or you look at numbers and you think about, “Ok how I have grown? What I have learned?” Even if it hasn’t translated necessarily to revenue, or something like that, that there actually is a lot of growth that happened. I’ve had this multiple times this year for sure, where I look back and go, “Wow I didn’t feel like was growing but when I look back or I look at the number, or I look at this and that, I actually see that I’ve had tremendous growth.” Having those outcomes in mind is key for that. You also talk about visualization. Tell us why that’s important after we’ve identified the outcome. What is visualizing the outcome?
Warren: Well sure, visualization is a big part of my hypnosis practice and it’s a big part of NLP and the hypnosis model and even some cognitive behavioral work as well. It is when we visualize an outcome we start to draw in emotion rather than just looking at something, like statistically, I want to grow by 25% let’s say. If I leave it at that it’s a very static thing. We may have a deep attachment into making more money, but we don’t have a deep emotional attachment of how that would feel. And so when we take in this visualization process of feeling, what I’ll ask a client in trance in hypnosis, I’ll say in regular talk therapy, what does a 25% gain in your business feel like and what would that allow? And so now you’re actually allowing the person to engage a whole other part of their mind, a whole other part of their spirit, to engage into this process that draws them forward. The more emotional attachment that any individual has to self-growth or business growth, the faster it’s going to be and the proof is there all the time.
Joshua: Totally true, it’s like when you feel that compulsion all the way through your body to make it happen, it just makes it way more real. It’s like the idea of intellectually being in love versus actually feeling in love right?
Warren: Yes exactly.
Joshua: Totally different thing. So, once you’ve identified these and you start to visualize, the next step that you guys have is beginning to take action. So, I love this, and I love that you’ve included this in there because, I feel like a lot of times people hear about visualization, they’ve read The Secret or something like that, but the really freaking important next step is taking action. Tell me a little bit more about this.
Warren: Well, it is interesting that we had to make a chapter of it because of exactly what you said. So many individuals leave off and they don’t follow through their meditations or visualizations with action. They just leave it at that and then they wonder why things aren’t manifesting for them. The important thing to understand is action is required. Action is also what deepens our growth and we need to be able to look at the end of most days and be able to say I did A, B, and C today, where previously I didn’t do any of that. So there’s ways to, whether that’s journaling or using a task book, to begin to start creating accountability to ourselves and those around us that I’m doing this. Then paying attention to it just like you had mentioned, we need to be able to look back and see, “Oh well yeah, yesterday I did go to work,” or, “Yesterday I did put applications in”, or, “I did send out 5 emails”. We need to be able to see that.
Joshua: Right, and take those daily incremental steps. One thing that I really like about the chapter that you guys talk about and a lot of people don’t make this connection, especially entrepreneurs and it kind of drive me bonkers, is how important fitness and exercise is, especially when you’re in the full on free fall. Because I know for me when my life felt like it was totally falling apart, that one of my saviors was the exercising. Can you talk a little bit about why that’s so powerful and important, especially as you’re getting bogged down with this free fall?
Warren: There are a couple ways to look at exercise. Most often, when I’m explaining the benefits of exercise, is that when we exercise and when our heart rate is elevated for generally anything past 10 minutes we begin to produce endorphins. Endorphins are a true anti-depressant. If anti-depressant had the proper dictionary definition, exercise would be the true anti-depressant because it actually releases the chemical in the brain that feed the receptors in our brain that give us a sense of wellbeing and give us a sense of overcoming previous barriers. So, regular exercise is the most wonderful and powerful anti-depressant we have; the tough part is that it generally gets resistance because you can’t start to feel good until you do the work. And when we’re feeling bad or not overly motivated to tell ourselves that we need to go do this, it’s initially difficult to get a sensation of happiness or achievement. So, we understand that it is a challenge, but one of the benefits is being able to come at it analytically and really convince yourself to do it.
