Visualizing Success | DFS 304

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Welcome to destined for success. I'm your

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host Jennifer Takagi and today I want to talk about

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visualization, specifically visualizing the success you want

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to have. So visualization is a mental technique where you

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literally make a picture in your mind's eye of what you want the

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outcome to look like what you want it to be. And the

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interesting thing that has been proven over and over again, is

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your subconscious mind does not know the difference between a

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past event and a future event. It doesn't know the difference,

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it can't tell. So if you visualize what you want your

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future success to be. And you don't have any blocks, you don't

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have anything holding you back from getting there. Your mind

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will think it's true. And it comes to you. So some historical

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figures that used visualization were Thomas Edison, Arnold

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Schwarzenegger, and Oprah. So we'll start with the boys get

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them out of the way, Thomas Edison, who was the inventor of

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the light bulb, phonograph, and other amazing inventions that we

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use today or enhance our lives today, I would visualize what he

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wanted his invention to be what he wanted it to do, and spent a

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lot of time visualizing it before he ever stepped into the

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laboratory to create it. Arnold Schwarzenegger would visualize

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his muscle growing so that he could achieve his bodybuilding

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goals. And he also used it when he transitioned into acting and

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politics like he envisioned what he wanted his life to be. One of

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my favorites is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah visualized her goals of

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what she wanted to become of who she wanted to become. She did

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not come from the greatest background, she didn't have the

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best opportunities. She didn't really have, from what I've

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read, have that many good role models to know I want to be like

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her. She had to create what her was going to look like. So it's

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very important that we take time to visualize what we want. Now

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I've, I've kind of, I've made stuff told stories, and you

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might have kind of all my podcasts in the past, about

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wanting to be a cheerleader, it was a really big deal. I never

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even thought about being a cheerleader until we moved to

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Richardson, Texas, which is a Dallas suburb. And I found out

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that being a cheerleader was like a really big deal. And

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everybody wanted to be a cheerleader. So I was going to

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be a cheerleader, too. And part of my visualization exercise is

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to pray. And for me, I'm praying to God, other people, it's to

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the universe to their higher self, whatever it is, I don't

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care. It all works. But I would pray to God not to take your gun

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heaven. Please let me make the cheerleading squad in Jesus

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name, Amen. So I had learned from past praying, did you hear

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the story about me praying to be run over by best before

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kindergarten started because I was scared to go to

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kindergarten. I learned from that I wasn't specific enough.

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So when I prayed about being a cheerleader, I prayed that if I

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didn't make the squad, God would give me a reason to be grateful

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that I didn't. The first cold snap came through North Texas,

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the wind blows hard. They're just like it does in Oklahoma.

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And the cheerleaders were down there freezing their little

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butts off. And I was in the stands and a coat and mittens

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and I was cold but not freezing like they were. So when you

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start visualizing, it is imperative that you have a clear

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picture a clear goal, and you truly want it. If you visualize

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it, and you have all the caveats of if it doesn't happen, then

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this if it doesn't happen that I'm going to do that if it

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doesn't happen, please show me how I'm grateful. I'm just

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saying you probably don't want it that much. Because I know I

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didn't really want it. I thought I wanted it. But deep down I

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didn't really want it. So be sure that what you're

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visualizing is really what you want. Sometimes we say Oh, I

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didn't want that. But we focus so much on what we didn't want

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that we got it anyway. The brain can't differentiate between

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those negatives. You tell a kid running around a pool, don't run

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On don't run, and what is it a little stinker do runs faster.

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Tell them what you want them to do walk. So in your brain,

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you've got to be very specific. What do you want? What do you

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want that outcome to be? What do you want it to look like in your

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visualization? And how do you want to feel? How do you want to

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feel? Very key very important. There is an anecdote anecdotal

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story easy for me to say I'm not a professional speaker. No, I

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am, I just can't talk today. There's an anecdotal story in

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the bicycling world, that all the cyclists would come to this

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one bridge in a race, and their wheels would get stuck in the

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gaps between the wooden slats of this bridge. And every cyclist

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dreaded it, they dreaded jumping up to that bridge. And they

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dreaded their tires getting stuck, their wheels getting

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stuck, and then they would wreck and everybody would wreck behind

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them. And it was just like a catastrophe. The next year, one

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entire team all made it across that bridge, every single one of

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them who wish they all got past other teams were crashing and

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burning this one team who wish they just made it past. And that

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will swooshes my idea of a bicycle going across a wooden

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bridge. And the point of the story is, the coach taught his

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team to look beyond what was right in front of them to what

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they wanted. And what they wanted was to get to the other

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side of the bridge. So they were not focused on any of the

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obstacles, or anything that would be in their way that could

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impair them from reaching their goal, because their goal was to

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get across the bridge. What is happening in your life? And what

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are you doing where you're focusing on the gap between the

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wooden slabs versus the other side? What is holding you back

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what's happening? When you visualize, and you have a clear

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and concise picture, you know how you're going to look you

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know how you're going to act, you know how you're going to

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feel, it increases your motivation. Because you want to

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get there, you have a clearer picture you want to get there,

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your focus is so clear. You know what your goal is, you know what

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you want it to, to make it right, like what the bottom is,

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I want to go at least as far if not further. And then you can

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wipe out any distractions. You can focus on what you want, then

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your performance gets better. There are numerous studies, or

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they took one group, and they had an visualize the physical

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activity, whatever sport it was. And they just focused on it so

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many hours a day on what they were going to do, how they're

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going to look how they're going to perform, what the team was

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going to do. This other group just practiced, and practice and

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practice and practice. There was a third group who spent part of

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their day visualizing, and part of their day working out. And in

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the end, the group that visualized did better than the

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group that just worked out. And the group that visualize and

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worked out, did substantially better than the ones who only

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visualize. So you can go out there and find all the studies,

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there's just a ton of research proving this again and again. So

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your performance is going to be better. One of the greatest

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things you can do is tell yourself before you go to sleep

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at night when you lay down and everything's cool, calm and

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quiet. And tell yourself what you're going to do the next day

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and how that day is going to play out. It's going to change

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your life. You also will reduce your stress and anxiety. you've

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imagined and rehearsed that outcome over and over again.

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When I started seventh grade, there was an orientation and one

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of the teachers that was talking to the parents that kids were

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there too but the parents were there and they suggested you get

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a tape recorder is before the iPhone and smartphones and all

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that we actually had tape recorders. Get a tape recorder

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and record all your notes and worksheets and listen to him

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because then you heard heard it from the teacher, you wrote it

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down,

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you saw it, you're hitting like all your senses, hitting them

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all. Then as you prepare for a test, replay your worksheets and

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your notes, I will say I did that all the way through from

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seventh grade all the way through college, I did that it

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made the world of difference to me, I make that suggestion to

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kids I know that are in high school or college, they blow me

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off, though it's no big deal. And Jennifer, I don't really

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care, I don't need to do that. And let me just tell you, they

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would have done way better. If I'm giving a speech that's

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really long, and I may or may not have notes, I write out the

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whole thing, I record the whole thing. And then I listened to it

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in the background, just going time and time again. Then I

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don't really need any notes. I've rehearsed it so many times.

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In actuality, I rehearsed at once when I read it out loud.

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But then the other rehearsal was going on in my brain while I was

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listening to myself give that talk, same kind of thing. I

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visualized walking out on that stage. I visualized taking the

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mic, if you know what your state is going to look like ahead of

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time, that's really awesome. And how I was gonna do every time

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I'm gonna give a talk, I say it's gonna be amazing. I had

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some friends say How can you say that? And I said, Well, I don't

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want to say I'm gonna go up there and suck. That's not

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really a good idea. I just say it, I own it. When you have a

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talk coming up when you have a presentation coming up, when you

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have anything big going on. Or you want to create something new

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or different or enhance it. Vision, visualize when it's

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going to be visualize the positive outcome. Rehearse how

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you're going to act and react when you reach that level of

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success. You're going to alleviate anxiety and stress.

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It's also going to help you build a positive mindset. I hear

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people often talk about how terrible everything is. The

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other day, a young woman who is just Darlene. But as a very

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negative mindset came up and said hello. And I said hello and

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somebody else joined in the conversation. There were three

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or four or five of us in this one little circle of

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conversation. And I realized every single thing that came out

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of her mouth was negative. Not one thing was is a beautiful

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day, not one thing was how fun to be here with friends and

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family. Not one thing that came out of her mouth was positive.

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She said all her negative stuff with a smile on her face. But

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the universe in your brain do not know what the smile means

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that's not registered. The words matter, and the words that come

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out of your mouth matter. So if you keep visualizing and

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repeating all the negativity, whether it's happened in your

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past, or you think it's going to happen in your future, it's

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gonna happen. Was that Henry Ford, I think that said, if you

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think you can, you can. But if you think you can't, you can't.

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I didn't get that quote exactly right. But you know what I'm

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saying? You've heard it, I'm sure. You can tell your brain to

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do anything to be anything and get the outcomes that you want.

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So you can visualize yourself into success. Or you can

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visualize yourself into staying where you are or getting worse,

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the choice is yours. The choice is yours. So be sure that you

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decide what you want. Visualize exactly what it will look like

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how you will feel how you will act. And I promise you have a

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much better chance of it all coming together for you. It will

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all come together for you. But I just want to like put a little

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bit of a caveat in there. For those of you who are the

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naysayers visualize the life of your dream and make it happen.

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If you want some more information on this, go to 12

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minute gift.com Grab my three part audio training. Part of it

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is visualization and imagination. Grab that it's

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free, too. 12 minute gift.com I am Jennifer Takagi and I look

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forward to connecting with you soon