Kate (00:02.99)
Hey, Kate here. Thanks for jumping in to hang out with me today. I am so happy that you are here. Today, I want to talk to you about visualization. Visualization is a tool that you should be stealing. This is a secret that so many different people are using to reach their goals. If you, your athletes, your students, your team members, anyone in your
that you want to be successful, that you love, that you care about yourself, aren't using visualization tools yet, you better get on it because you are missing out on something that you can do right now wherever you are, unless you're driving right now and you're listening to this podcast. Do not close your eyes and start visualizing while you were driving down the road. I know some listeners listen while you were driving. Do not do this while you were on the road. If you are not on the road,
and you are able to take a moment and close your eyes. And I want you to visualize yourself doing the thing you want to do. Now, I'm not going to be able to take you through a whole guided visualization here, but I'm going to tell you that if you want to do this visualization technique the right way, and there are so many different times that you can use visualization, but if you want to do it, no matter what you're doing it for,
You need to make sure that you are doing it so that you feel it as if it is actually happening right now in 3D. You are living it right now. I want you to feel it and experience it with all of your senses. I want you to see it. I want you to hear it. I want you to touch something. I want you to be in the moment. If you can pick something up and take a sip of it, I want you to do
I want you to pay attention to every little detail who's with you who's around you who's going with you. What are you wearing all the things you need to go through this process of visualization and do not just skip to the good part. You cannot just say here I am living in the mansion live in my best life. No the visualization has to be the process of you getting there. So you need to see yourself.
Kate (02:27.138)
going through the motions of how you are going to actually achieve this goal. So it's probably going to start with the first couple steps. What you can do today. What are the first things you're going to do to reach the goal? And you need to become it, see it, feel it. You need to close your eyes and you need to continuously do this. Your brain doesn't know the difference between reality
and what you are visualizing. There's been a ton of research on this, how people are doing this and changing their lives. And this isn't brand new. This has been around for a long time. For some reason, people are keeping it a secret in some ways and they're not talking about it. I really think it's because you can't see inside the brain. It's not an easy thing to see. There's not a before and after picture like you can see in other places
weight loss or muscle gain, all these things where you can say, wow, look at that. Now you can see some achievements, but can we really say, well, he or she did some visualization and that's why it was part of the achievement. It's hard to say that because there's other things you have to do. cannot just visualize and be successful. You also have to take
You have to practice. have to do the work. So you cannot just sit and dream and visualize and think things are going to happen. You actually have to take action. But the cool part about visualization is when you are visualizing yourself doing these things and when you continuously do it because you cannot do it once and expect major change to be happening as you're doing it over time, your brain will want to prove you
So there's a part of your brain called the reticular activating system. And I like to describe this as the gatekeeper of what is important to you. We're letting the good stuff come in. Think of maybe the bouncer at the club or somebody standing at the door for VIP. I'm going to let you in. You're not getting in. Back of the line. That is the reticular activating system, the gatekeeper, that bouncer. The important information is going to the
Kate (04:50.764)
So if you are a mom and you hear a kid yell, mom, you might turn your head. If your name happens to be Mike and you're out at a crowded game and someone yells Mike, you might turn and look. When someone has a new baby, they've done research studies on this. They think, I never hear anything. I'm such a deep sleeper. Guess what? They wake up when they hear that baby crying and they live near, you know, crowded airplane or crowd. They live near a crowded airport.
planes coming in all kinds of traffic in the city and they would sleep right through it baby comes home and they're awake because this is coming to the front of their brain the reticular activating system is saying this is important you need to take care of this new little human same thing happens when you are looking for a car I talk about this all the time when I'm a guest on other podcasts if you're out searching for a new car and you happen to want to buy a Jeep and maybe it's even a red Jeep it could get real specific
you start seeing these Jeeps everywhere when you're out on the road. That is the reticular activating system at work. You see them when you're driving in your neighborhood, taking a walk. my goodness, there's a Jeep. That is not a coincidence. That is the reticular activating system actively looking for things to prove you right because you are thinking about it. You're really visualizing it and you don't realize it, but you're thinking about the Jeep and the things you want in the Jeep, the color of the Jeep, all of those things.
You start hearing it on the radio, commercials, all kinds of things. Same thing is going to happen when you do the visualization. The key to it is you need to really experience it as if it is happening. You cannot have a visualization session where you can, but it won't be as effective. You can't let yourself look at it as an outsider looking in, almost watching a movie. That's not the best way. You shouldn't do it that way at all.
You need to experience it as if you are actually living it right now. So I would encourage you, if you are an athlete, see yourself performing at the highest level. See yourself going out there and being a beast on defense. If you are going for the job, see yourself going to that interview
Kate (07:10.616)
how you will respond, what you will do when you go in the room. If they ask this question, what you will say. You're going through the motions, what you will say, what you will wear, what you will hear, what you will see in that situation. If you can actually see the location of something, so let's say a swimmer was going to a big meet and they could see the facility in the pool where they're gonna swim at, they could see it and actually.
you know, check out the whole location where they're going to be before they perform and compete there. Amazing if you can do that. When I speak at a place, I want to see the room first. I want to know where I am. If I can't do that, where am I going to be? Am I in an auditorium? Am I in a gym? Am I in a small conference room? I need to know where I'm going to be, what's going to be there. And I arrive early so I can see it and I can visualize it. And I have a whole plan of how I'm going to go do the thing.
And when I am visualizing it, I also go through what could go wrong and what will I do then? Because that prepares me for when things don't go well. It may not be exactly the way I visualized it. Maybe something else happens, but I have a plan when something goes wrong. Successful athletes, Michael Phelps, look them up if you've never seen these before, but look up and Google Michael Phelps and visualization. You'll see.
how he did this in his Olympic career, his swimming career in general, how he would visualize himself being successful in things he wanted to do, didn't want to do, and see himself, feel himself experiencing becoming that champion. If you want to do anything, it doesn't have to be Michael Phelps in an Olympian level, anything you want to do, visualize yourself experiencing it at the best possible peak performance.
as many times as possible and then you will start to notice things and then you have to take action to go out and do the thing. I'm telling you that if you haven't done this before it's a little secret that the most successful people do. You can change any area of your life by putting this into your routine. If you want to know when you should do it that's probably one of the biggest questions I was
Kate (09:34.7)
I was in with a group of athletes who are middle school and high school. I was in with a group of athletes who are end of middle school. That is the biggest question I get. When should we do this visualization? How often should we do it? And I was working with a group of athletes who are going into eighth through 11th grade was this group. And the one student said, what about right before bed? He nailed it. That is a great time to do it.
right before bed would be a great time. You could put it into your pregame routine. If you are one of those athletes, you could put it into a schedule. Maybe it's in the morning before you go to school. Maybe it's on a bus ride somewhere. If you're doing it for work, maybe it's right when you get to your desk. Maybe it again, it could be before you go to sleep. You can schedule it into your life. So one, I would definitely schedule it. How often my recommendation? I would do it every single
Every single day is what I would tell you to do. At very minimum, you are doing it as a routine right before you compete or right before you go into a big event, an interview, a speech, a presentation at work. You are preparing for that, leading up to that and definitely right before that. And then how long do you do this visualization? This is really going to depend. It's different for everyone, but if you were just getting started,
Start with five minutes. You could even do two minutes. Starting with something is better than doing nothing. So if you do two minutes, that's great. But if you want to start somewhere and start small, go with five minutes. I think you're going to find that the more you do it, the easier it will become. If your mind does wander to different places, if you're trying to do it on your own at first, totally normal.
That is very common. Just be aware of it. That's actually being mindful thinking my mind is wandering. You were being mindful. Gently bring yourself back. Focus on that goal. What you're doing living in the moment. You will get better just like practicing that performance at work interview speech, whatever it is you're doing your athletic performance. You get better as you do things and you will get better at this visualization the more you do it. So steal this little secret.
Kate (12:00.692)
It will make a difference in your success journey. I'm rooting for you always. See you next episode.
