Jeff Corrigan: welcome to Habit Masters. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sheldon. And today. , we have a very exciting topic about how to turn worry into a superpower instead of your super enemy , or super villainist, I might say.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah, we'll go into detail, but I This is a good one. Yes,
Jeff Corrigan: it is a good one. And Sheldon brought it to us this week and we've been contemplating and thinking about it and how it relates to all of our lives and could become a real superpower. . But before we jump into it, we do wanna mention that we have a new newsletter. It's called Magic Monday. Comes out every Monday. Most of the people send 'em on Friday. We liked Monday because we wanna help you power up your week, right? Yeah. So we're giving you a micro dose. It's two to four minutes. Read any week, with a habit tip. One cool idea that we're exploring that you can explore with us and a great reader.
Listen that we. Enjoying. So you guys are gonna love it. Super short, microdose of inspiration. To kick off your week, join the Magic Monday Loot Newsletter. We'll have it in the show notes and on our website, habit masters.com. All right, Sheldon, give us the skinny on this idea. Of turning worry upside down.
Sheldon Mills:
So I mean, I could argue that any change at all is a mind shift, a mindset change, right? It's, it's seeing things differently. You change the way you look at things and the things you look at change, right? And we all have these, so if you take our course, there's actually a whole day, a whole day
They're short days actually. But this whole concept of soundtracks, right? John ak, we're stealing it from. actually explain soundtracks a little bit more to everybody. Jeff, I feel like you're good at explaining soundtracks.
Jeff Corrigan: So soundtracks. You guys have heard of affirmations, right? Where it's like you're repeating these positive mantras to yourself on a day in and day out basis.
And sometimes they come across as a little bit hokey. It's a big zig zigler thing. Anybody who's followed Zig Zigler in the past knows like this actually works, right? And this the, there's so much power in the positive attitude and energy you create by telling yourself positive things. Now, this isn't telling yourself lies.
I am the best at this and that, but it's, it's really about turning your negative thoughts into positive thoughts and turning down the negative thoughts in your life by doing, certain action steps and creating a positive momentum and really kind of turning that into something that turns into a better you.
You start to love yourself more. You start to enjoy what you do more, and you start to just create better results in your life. So soundtracks is the way that John AK phrase. and it's kind of a cooler, hipper way of describing affirmations cuz we all listen to music. So what if you could do, choose your thoughts, right?
Because if you're not choosing your thoughts, they're choosing you and that's not always a good place to be. . Yeah. So hopefully that was a good description, .
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Yeah, that was great. I think this helped me out a, a long time ago, is one of the greatest mistakes I think we make in life is assuming that our, all of our thoughts are true.
Right? That , it's like, anybody who has struggled with depression or, I mean, there's a lot of cognitive biases out there. Everybody has cognitive. Biases. Right? It's like assuming that this thought is like reality, right? Or how I feel is, is is truth, right? Yeah. It's just not the case.
There's a study, but a study conducted by Dr. Bto. I'm probably saying that wrong. The University of Chicago, and he split people into three groups and tested east on how many free throws they could make.
So for this first group, they practice an hour every day. That's a lot of practice. Like seriously, if I practice anything for an hour every day, I think you could expect improvement, right? Yes. So for the second group, , all they did was visualize making free throws. Right? And for the third group, I can't remember the exact thing, they did some kind of cognitive stuff but had nothing to do with basketball.
So it's just like, you know, a mental exercise. Right? so after 30 days, he tested them all again. And the first group, the ones who practiced physically throwing free throws every day, they were 24% improvement. It's pretty good. That's big. That's pretty kind of expected, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like practice.
Practice is gonna move. *The second group who did nothing but visualization, so without touching a ball, they improved by 23%. So 24 versus 23. Virtually identical, like statistically identical, right. Without ever touching the ball in the third group as expected, no improvement. And so this is like a, a pretty ground.*
*What's the right word? A pretty landmark study on the power of visualization and how literally the improvements mm-hmm. was like equal to actually going out and physically practicing whatever it was. Right. That is cool. *
Jeff Corrigan: show who else, who his mind is blown. That's what I wanna know, because I gotta tell you, like I read in, in Josh Watkin's book, the Art of Learning, he talks about how when he got injured and one of his shoulders was in a sling for six to eight weeks.
And over the six weeks to eight weeks, he would visualize as he did exercises with his other arm. He would visualize his body exercising with the other arm and it and him building up the muscle in both arms.
When he got done and they removed the this immobilizing cast from his arm, the doctor was flabbergasted that he had maintained much of the muscle tone in. In his arm that had been literally encased in a cast for six to eight weeks. Right? He's like, I've never seen anything like this.
Right? The, the doctor was beside himself and Josh Waitzkin basically says it was due to his, like, visualization of him doing it and how much power the brain has in impacting what happens in our life, even if in fact we're not physically doing the activity. It's like, sure, it wasn't as strong as his other arm, but it.
He, he came back to full activity much quicker than he would have, and the doctor was just blown away. So I think it's kind of a similar example of what can happen with the power of visualization. ,
Sheldon Mills: this is okay. This is gonna sound like a humble brag, . I need, I need to qualify it. I love playing ultimate Frisbee and doing a lot of like physical stuff.
I'm not, you know, particularly great at any one sport, but I just love it, right? Mm-hmm. and , while back, so I'm 40, 40 years young. I mean, that's not old, but not young either, right? And, I was playing with this, this group of ultimate Frisbee and they were like one guy who was just like, yeah, well when you're my age, and someone else who knew, who happened to know roughly him and mine, he is like, do you know how old he is?
And he is like, how old? And I was like several years older than this guy . It was like giving me a bad time and. And I think honest to goodness, the only, I feel like for my age I do great. Right? And I do. I can hang with the 20 years olds and I've thought about this and I think the reason why, It's because I believe I can hang with the 20 year old.
It's like that's literally the reason why, right? Mentally, it just, that's how my behavior and what I do, but honestly, it's like I still think I could do these things. I'm still that kid at heart and so I kind of can in some ways,
Jeff Corrigan: right? Yeah. Mentally, Sheldon, you're so young, you're just, you're there, man.
Well, and I've told my wife many times up, like, when I'm, when I'm 50, I wanna feel like I'm 30. When I'm 70, I wanna feel like I'm 50. Like I just, I think there's a reality in that, and obviously it comes back to a healthy lifestyle, not just visualization, but Right, right. The visualization has to be a part of that, like a positive attitude. worry and stress and fear are actually one of the leading causes of, of all kinds of inflammation in the body, in heart disease. any a million diseases that stem from worry and stress, right? Yeah. And and just the fact that our cells react like many times to those types of things. So the cool thing we wanna share with you today is that you can flip that script, turn worry into positive visualization, because the cool thing that we've, we realized when we were discussing this was act Sheldon.
Tell them, tell them your story about your master.
Sheldon Mills: Okay. Yes. We were in the. Yeah, one of these mastermind groups so when they were sharing how, they have a daughter who plays soccer professionally and visualization is a big component and just she's like a big believer in this and just like practicing this visualization, which from this study we just realized, right?
Literally. As much gains of as physically practicing it. Right. Visualizing, doing things correctly. Right. Successfully. Yeah. Huge
Jeff Corrigan: impact. And well, coaches of high performance athletes, this is all they teach, right? Yeah. It's like, it is not just the practice in the pool. Like I, I read a book and they were talking about, uh, Michael Phelps and his coach and how he'll just have Michael Phelps sit for hours at a time visualizing the perfect.
Right. Yeah. And he listens to music when he does it. And then when he gets in the pool, he listens to that same song on his headphones right before and he's been visualizing that perfect race. And then he gets out there and he executes as close to that as possible. Yeah. And it's much easier for him cuz he is seen himself do it.
Thousands of times
Sheldon Mills: Muhammad Ali or who's professional boxer. He's like, oh, at this level, everybody's physically fit. It's all a mind game. Like it's all a mind game, right?
Jeff Corrigan: It's like when you get to that level, everyone's working out, you know, it's eight hours a day and they're doing, it's, it really comes down to, it's a mind game.
It's, it's all a mind game. And for you. , who is an adult who's lived your whole life, like the people who listening to this podcast. It comes down to this, right? It starts where in your mind. Yes.
Sheldon Mills: So the visualization, right? So she was talking about how, you know, she's seen the effects and her daughter and believes in the power of visualization, but was basically lamenting like, I don't know how to do that.
And I, and I, and I'm just not good at it. And. I said I don't, you know, I, I don't know how to like phrase this in a way That's correct. I'm just gonna say it. No, it's with good intention, right? I'm like, I actually think you are really, really good at this. You just call it worry. Yeah. you slapping at this?
And at that point she was like, ouch. Right? And I'm like, no, no, no. I don't mean this to be, you know, like a, like we all do this. You know, anybody out there who's like, I don't know how to visualize. I, I argue that you actually do. You're just doing it in the negative, right? You're about all expert . Yeah. No.
Every single one listening to this, you are an expert at visualizing every time you've ever relived, rehashed a conversation or something that happened in your past. Let's be honest, some of us do that a lot, right? It's like you go back and replay all the times. It's like after every social event, the things you said wrong or the stupid, you know what I mean?
Like that is visualizing. But in the negative,
Jeff Corrigan: right? Yeah. You, I, I want you to walk away from this episode knowing one thing. You are an expert at visualization, , and prediction, right? Like you, you do this all day, every day about everything in your life and what we're gonna help you try to do in the next few minutes.
Is flip that script into something positive versus negative. Yeah.
Sheldon Mills: And trust me, by the end of this episode, you, you'll be much better at it. You'll be great at it. I daresay right? actually before we get too far on, I wanna go back to the, I mean, this study, we kind of went over it quickly, but just back to the power of the mind.
We've talked about this another different study before, how they took these, bunch of men varying stages of, I don't wanna call it like decay or like end of life. And the older test were older. Yeah. But to the point of like, some of them couldn't be, had, be assisted like up into the room.
So this experiment was this, it was, they were going to. Together in this room, this apartment building that was created as if it was like 30 years younger. So I think it was the fifties at the time. Right. So that, they would be treated as if they were, you know, 30 years younger. The music, they listened to, the new, the newspaper that was being delivered to him was from 30 years ago.
The books, like it was recreating their existence if it, they were 30 years. , right? Some of these men had to be assisted up in wheelchairs, you know, other things like that. And, and was basically we were we gonna treat you as this, right? Mm-hmm. and after, I think it was 10 days, there were literally people who, you know, like, who couldn't get up to the apartment on their own, who grabbed their, when started suitcase and walked.
right? Yeah. Literal. They
Jeff Corrigan: literally, when when they came in, they, they had to be like wheeled in Yes. Is what you're saying. And then by the end of the 10 days, they were carrying their own suitcases, walking out of the building of thinking about
Sheldon Mills: themselves as is their younger selves as living as if they're their younger selves.
You know, at one point I think part of it was like, you know, if. They're in the situation. It's like, we're not gonna assist you even if you have to take your clothes one piece at a time, like . So they were treated as if they were younger, they lived their lives. Everything. They literally were, were instructed not to talk about anything later than like, you know, they could talk about their younger years, but nothing past like the certain age of 50 that they're trying to recreate.
Like, they literally were like trying to not think about the older, you know what I mean? And the impact that how literally physically they, they changed and just like that's the power of the mind. I mean, the placebo effect is living proof of this, right? Yeah. Yeah. The placebo effect is somebody thinks they've got the actual thing.
it affects the, they can literally help them heal and get better. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
Jeff Corrigan: And the opposite, right? Yes. They've shown that when they've rubbed plants on people and said that it was poison ivy. Poison , right? A big percentage of people actually got the rash similar to poison ivy, because the mine creates physically what it believes.
Yes. Right, and and is it always going to be exact? No. Like the worst case scenario never happens. What was the good quote you said earlier, Sheldon, about that? .
Sheldon Mills: Okay. I heard this one long time ago and it stuck. It's like you can't tell me, worrying doesn't help. All the things I worry about never happen. . Yeah,
Jeff Corrigan: exactly. . And this really goes back to the old Zig Zigler methodology and mentality of like, What is fear other than false evidence appearing real, like worry.
We tend to worry about things that never actually happen. We spend so much time, but in doing so, we cause our own self, physical, mental, emotional harm. And we also do create more negative things in our physical reality, right? And we block ourselves from the possibility of receiv. So much of the good that we could have.
So what we want to help you do is flip the script on worry. So whatever you're worrying about, whatever the thing is you want to do, but you have all these fears and worries about it, it's like, okay, I wanna grow a business, but I don't know if I have enough money or I dunno if I have the right contacts.
I dunno if I know enough. Is anybody gonna listen to me? Is this the right solution? Flip the script and say,
what is the perfect scenario for this? Like may, maybe it's giving a speech if you ever have to give a speech, right? So many people stress about this because they're just like, nobody's ever melted on stage, right? No one. No one's ever, like very rarely do people get laughed off the stage. I don't know, everybody wants you to succeed. Like generally speaking, if you walk out on stage, people want you to succeed. They wanna hear something great, they wanna be inspired, they wanna be moved. And that's the way you have to approach.
It's like, what if I gave the perfect speech? So rather than worrying about all the things you might do wrong, think what's a visualize yourself doing, giving the perfect speech, right? And just go through that process, practice it in your mind, then practice it in reality. I will tell you, no matter what, it will be better than it had been if you had done the opposite, right? It's like you get up there all nervous and shaky and you can't spit the words out. , you're sweating cold sweats, like anything's better than that. He said, get up there and, and you know what? What's the best case scenario and I think you can think about that with anything you try to execute in your life.
Like what's the best case scenario? Okay. I'm gonna visualize that and just practice and, and plan on that. And it might not show up the exact way you've hoped. That's the thing that I think we have to realize is we gotta be flexible and realize, okay. The worst case scenario happens, and the ideal rarely ever happens.
It's always almost somewhere in between . But which side do you wanna be on? Would you rather be on the negative side or the positive side? And that really comes down to mindset and how you approach it.
Sheldon Mills: So we kicked off this, this soundtracks episode cuz we've won wine to talk about this more. Again, mindset is everything, but I don't listen to a podcast.
It's I think it's called Strongman Strong Marriages. I'll put the exact, we'll put the exact episode in the link. but it was about, you know, what to do when you feel like you're taking two steps forward and three steps back. Right. And he gave, he, I mean, I've heard this study before about basketball, but he went through it.
But I've never thought of it in the context of mentally practicing for situations like any relationship, right? There's certain triggers, cues, you know what I mean? Feelings of, of rejection or whatever it is, right? Mm-hmm. . And we have these mental grooves of these avenues that we go down, right? Sometimes, and they're.
because we've gone on there hundreds of times before and he gave another example. He's a big gun enthusiast, but the statistics are like, usually are about as fast 50% as accurate and effective when under stress than you are as in practice right then. And basically it's like, we do good for a while, but then something happens that triggers this and all of a sudden we're like back to this like negative thinking, this negative and, and I challenge anybody out there.
Who, who says that they don't do this or, you know what I mean? Like we've all, we've all had an argument in our brain with somebody else that they were not a part of. You know, , right? Yes. There's these negative trusts and it's just like, that is negative visualization, right? Mm-hmm. . And so he applies it very strongly and it's like, you need to practice these scenarios, these mental, this like relationship scenarios in your mind and what you're gonna do, how you're gonna feel, how you would react, like positively.
right? Mm-hmm. , again, going back to this, this basketball one, I read a story about a guy who's like, we did this with the team, and the next day we were joking about it and it's like, how many baskets did you make? And it's like assuming everybody would be, because the, they said, visualize before you go to sleep at night, making 10 baskets, right?
Yeah. Or, or shooting 10 shots. Assumed everybody say 10, but one of the kids sheepishly was like, I only made. Right, . Yeah. And it's like it's we wanna play these things out in our mind and practice it, but if you're going down the, that dopamine hit of like negative emotion, you know, it's like you're practicing the wrong thing.
Like, you need to practice the, the scenarios of how you wanted to go, the ideal scenarios, what you would've done right. If you know, if you're gonna replay anything in your. replay what you might have done different and the positive outcome that would've happened from it, right? .
Jeff Corrigan: Well, and then on the side of that, of visualization into the future is why would you ever visualize it less than perfect
Visualize it. As ideal as you can make it be like, okay, this is how it's gonna go. This is how I want it to be like. and get it to as perfect a scenario as you possibly can. Now, will it be that in the end, probably not, but the more you visualize, the more you practice that way with that mentality in mind, the closer you will get.
So what do they say? You aim at the moon. You may not reach it, but you're arrow will fly to the stars, right? It's like, I, I totally butchered that quote, but , you get the idea, right? It's like, sure, you, you're aiming at the moon. You may not hit the moon, but you'll be way better. for aiming at the moon. And I think that's the same idea here where I actually, I dunno if this fits really well, but the Dwight Eisenhower quote that I love that has to do with this kind of realm is in preparing for battle, I have always found that the plans are useless, but the planning is indispensable.
And I think that's the core of this is sure, your visualization might not play out exactly as you thought, but being prepared in that way will , make you way more adaptable and prepared for the real. . Yeah. Does that, did that translate very well? I'm trying to figure out,
Sheldon Mills: that was a wonderful quote.
Again, the I found that the battle plan is useless, but the preparation is absolutely necessary. Right. Yeah. That's, that's positive visualization. That's the practice of what could be to prepare you.
Jeff Corrigan: Yep. So that's, that's really what it comes down to is if you're someone who likes to be well planned and prepared, this is that in a mental.
Yeah. It's, it's beginning to understand and practice because just because you've been a worrier your whole life does not mean you can't flip the script now. Right? Like now, like your grooves might be deep, they might be real deep like shelldon mistake, right? Like you're gonna , and you won't be perfect at this.
You'll bounce back and be like, oh yeah, that's not realistic. Like I'm like, you'll say that to yourself. The point of visualization is not to. , quote unquote, realistic. Realistic is whatever you pretend it is, right? It's like , whatever you imagine it to be. So make it as the best scenario as you possibly can, and imagine what that would look like.
There's an old, actually, that this is interesting, right? It's like you, you don't success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person, right? And I wonder, I I think that's also true of like most things in life. Darren Hardy shares the example of when he was looking for a. and he wrote down on paper, I can't remember how many pages he said it was, but he's like, I wrote down like 46 or something crazy, like 40 something pages of the perfect ideal woman, right?
And he's like, and I knew that I was not, Fit for that person at this point. But he's like, but then I went to work becoming the person that could attract that woman. It's like, I was like, all right, well, does, what does the person who would attract this type of woman have to be? Right? And he's like, and I went to work on myself becoming that person, and as if I peeled her off the pages right when I was ready.
I found her right And she is everything I had laid out in this ideal woman wife scenario, , right? And so whatever that looks like for you, be it a wife, be it a job, be it a career,
be it a skill, be it a healthy body, be it a relationship with your spouse, why would you ever plan for it to be less than perfect?
Plan for perfection and then be flexible with reality of what happens.
Sheldon Mills: So I, okay. This very rubber hits the road here. What is it that you are working on right now? Like what goal, what, what struggle, even, this is even bigger than like a goal, in my opinion. It's like what thing you're struggling with that you can now, instead of worrying about it, instead of stressing about what possibly could go wrong, you practice mentally visualize.
How you would do it, right? How you would, how you would react, what you would say, how you would feel like the things that you would do. I guarantee like this could be, this could be put in practice immediately and I'm gonna plant this seed cuz I know that many people won't believe it, but you can become as Superpowered, Making this work for you as, as worry and stress as a villain is for you today.
Do you know what I mean? Like , you could, this could be your new superpower. If you stress and worry a lot, guess what? Your new superpower could be. ,
Jeff Corrigan: if you're gonna make anything. A new habit. Guys, this is it because the thing that I like to say is like everything is created in the mind before it's created in reality.
And if that's true, which I believe it, Then it has to start here with this habit of practicing visualization and creating things in your mind in a way that you really want them to be. Cuz right now you're doing the opposite. I know, I do it. I know if Sheldon does it, we've all done it. And here's the thing that I think is, is interesting in to note from John Acuff in his book is negative thinking, worry, all these things.
It's not something you can turn off. So if you've got that in your head that like, oh, tomorrow I'm gonna be perfect at this. Yes. Visualize that . Cause we were just saying, but, but the reality is it's not just gonna go away, right? This is some, a part of you that has been there and will be there for the rest of your life.
The goal is not to eradicate it. The goal is to turn it down. And replace it with something better. Well, I think it's because,
Sheldon Mills: sorry, I I, he's gonna go into turning down the no , not mustard, thunder, but the part of it is because this is part of, of existence, meaning like it's the way we think, right? So the negative aspect is, Stress and worry, but it's really like the prediction part of our minds, like the ability to visualize, see the future.
Mm-hmm. and predict different outcomes. This is part of like being human, part of being able to like predict what's gonna happen. So there's like the positive, the negative of that like Yeah, like most things in life, it's like, well we can, this is due your power. If yes, you do it rightly.
Jeff Corrigan: You're exactly right. And, and I think it's important to note that, that our brain is designed to worry, right? It's designed to protect you from what might hurt you. or harm you. So this isn't a bad thing. You can almost, you can say, Hey, okay, my brain's trying to help me. Right? It's trying, it's trying to make sure I don't screw things up and mess things up Too bad.
It, it's part of the planning. The problem is our brain is hyper-focused on the negative cuz it's like, don't get eaten. Right? Like, you go back to the caveman brain that I always talk about, like, don't get eaten. Well, what if instead you're like, Hey, if a tiger jumps out of those weeds, if the tiger does jump outta that bush, I'm gonna ride it
It's like, what? Whatever that looks like for you. it is a really bad example, but it's like, it, it's, it's triggering your brain to say, okay, I'm worrying about something. How can I make this worry into, something positive, right? How can I turn this worry into creation? So rather than avoiding pain, I can kind of use my brain's power to say, okay, now actually I'm gonna approach.
So instead of avoiding, I'm gonna approach. We've talked about approach and avoid on this show a lot. If you haven't dived into that, you should go look it up online. It's fantastic.
Sheldon Mills: So tell the story real quick about Mario Andretti.
Jeff Corrigan: Okay. So Mario Andretti famous race car driver, right? And Formula One, he was being asked, Hey, in an interview, like, what, what does someone have to do to become a professional race car driver?
And his only advice to them was this. , don't look at the wall . And that, that's what we're saying folks, is if you look at the wall, it's very likely you'll crash. Right? What you focus on becomes your reality. So where,
Sheldon Mills: what you vi Yeah, like where your thoughts go, energy flows. What you focus on is that is the plant you're watering and that will grow.
Right? It's, and don't get me wrong, like. , you're visualizing a perfect line around the curve, and it's never gonna be like that. There's gonna be CHS in the road, other cars that are in your way. But if you're visualizing and focusing on the wall, you're gonna hit the wall every time. Yeah. Don't look at the wall, right,
Jeff Corrigan: Yep. Make your plan perfect. Even if it doesn't come out perfectly, it'll still be better. Right. So, Yes.
Sheldon Mills: Start to visualize positive visualization of whatever, you know what I mean? I, I, all of us have whatever aspect of life. It's our health, it's wealth, it's our relationships. Whatever it is that's like the top of your list.
That's like causing you stress and worry at the moment. Start to think about positive ways to visualize
Jeff Corrigan: that. I. Yep. And the first step is really recognizing when you are in those negative thought patterns and saying, oh, I'm here. And then not immediately hating them or feeling guilty or, you know, like smacking yourself or like, why am I doing this again?
Like, that's the opposite, right? And every good psychologist will tell you that's, that's not the way to go instead, Turn it down, start doing something you are good at. Start planning a more positive scenario, and it will kind of, it'll crowd it out to the extent where it just becomes background noise, because the fear and the doubt, they're not going away, but you can turn them down in the face of your thoughts, your visualization, the words you say to yourself and the actions you take.
They suddenly become background noise. And even though they're there, there's still weeds in your garden. , right? They, they become less prominent and less noticeable, and they aren't controlling your life anymore. They just become the hum in the background, right? That helps you slip at night. , , like in all of our kids' rooms, we have those little noise makers.
The white noise. Make your worries white noise. Like if I had to tell you anything, it's like you can't get rid of 'em, so make 'em white noise, .
Sheldon Mills: I'm gonna plant the seed. You can turn the super villain of worry into a superpower of visualization.
Like yes, regardless of what your past has been. You can and you will if you practice this. I'm excited. This is, this is something that I think, I mean, I know some expert Worriers . Yes, I, and I'm excited to be like, guess what? Your superpower. Is this? Yeah, you could change the world.
Jeff Corrigan: Now you're amazing at this.
You can do this in your sleep and you do , . Maybe it prevents your sleep, but now you'll sleep with this in mind. Actually coming up in future episodes when I can't say for exactly, but we will actually give you some practical steps that I feel are, That really harness the power of this and turn it into practical actions you can take.
It's called Idea Flow. It's a book we're reading. We actually have a guy coming on the show named Jeremy Uley, so look forward to that. He wrote this book, he's a Stanford professor. He coaches people on creativity, problem solving and, and innovation. And he is, Awesome. And this format is perfect for exactly what we're talking about cuz it really goes at, it kicks perfection out of the way and just starts helping you realize like, oh, like.
Just start going and going and creating these things in your world until they become reality, refining, perfecting. Right. So last
Sheldon Mills: episode, we ended saying we were gonna have a, this episode is gonna be all about asking better questions. That's still coming. Yes, it is. But it's gonna be this idea of flow, idea flow and, you know, finding, discovering better questions.
Asking better questions. It's, it's part of that. So,
Jeff Corrigan: yes. Oh, final nugget that we forgot to mention. From John Acuff's book soundtracks, the best thing you can start asking yourself if you're wondering whether, a thought is helpful or not, , if you wanna identify as a negative soundtrack, you have to ask yourself three questions.
Is it true? Sometimes it might be right. The negative soundtrack might be true in a sense, but then you have to follow it up with, is it. because sure, it may be true, but is it helping you? Is it moving you forward? Is it, is it, is it giving you the, motivation to act and change things? And then the final one is because it might be true, and maybe it is, does seem helpful in some weird way, , right?
It's like, you know, sometimes the whip does make me, people, don't
Sheldon Mills: me see
Jeff Corrigan: how terrible I am, right? Yeah. But the third one is the most important and kind of clarifies the other two is, is it kind? And if it's not all three, it is most definitely a negative sound. Because you, we change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.
So if we're trying to change ourselves by, by cracking the whip, you're a terrible person. Now, why are you thinking this again, like it's a short-term gain, long-term loss. Ask these three questions whenever you wanna identify a, a negative soundtrack and flip it on its head into a positive one. Is it true?
Is it helpful? Is it kind? Thank you, John. acuff . .
Sheldon Mills: Thank you guys for listening. Again, trying to get to a hundred reviews on Apple. Podcast. So please give us a review, positive or negative. I don't even prefer the positive, but we wanna know how to improve, so please let us know.
Again, magic Mondays, we think you'll love them. We're trying to keep 'em short and snappy, but just like nuggets of goodness. And thank you for listening.
Jeff Corrigan: It's time to start living your best life.
