057 - Envisioning Success: Harnessing the Power of Visualization in Your Professional Journey

John: You're listening to The Present Professional, where we explore the intersections of personal and professional development. To change your experience of life and work with every episode.

Tony: So tune in, grab your notebook, and let's go. Let's go.

John: Welcome to another episode of the present professional today. We're here to talk to you about the power of visualization. And this is something that I've been practicing for a long time. And Tony and I have been talking about at different points throughout our relationship and our lives is talking about what's next for us. And what does that really look like? So we wanted to share with you today, some of the processes that we went through in developing our vision, and how we put it out there to the universe and then make it happen.

Tony: Yeah and you know it's super important to be able to see if you can see it then you can believe it you can see it you can achieve it so you know if you're some kind of software developer out there you may want to listen up and see what people are thinking when it comes to how we Want to have the opportunity to see our work in our face when it comes to planning Executing or even dreaming sometimes that's right.

John: I mean there's so many different ways that we can go about thinking about the future and If you don't have a vision you're ultimately being led by life, right? If you don't have a picture of what you want to see happen in your life and really who you want to become in order to live that, then systems and life and circumstances are just happening, right? And, you know, that's not saying we're not able to meet the circumstances of our life as they meet us. You know, that's a skill in itself. Yet, if you want to create something special, you have to be able to see it. So this is personally and professionally, whatever you want to create, being able to put something concrete out there that this is what I see for myself. And this can come down to the partner that you see yourself with, the family you see yourself with, the house you see yourself in, a day in the life of the role that you want. Like really having a clear picture of what that looks like is so important because you always can work backwards from there to say what needs to happen in the next five years, three years, two years in order to set me up for that. Okay, what needs to happen this year to set me up for that into three or five years? Okay, what needs to happen this month? What needs to happen every day to start moving toward that vision? And number one, to start feeling like you're already there. Right? Talking about manifestation that comes up a lot these days and you know, the power of attraction, the law of attraction. It all starts with feeling like where you are going to be today. So taking the feeling that comes from your vision and saying, how will I feel when I have that? Let me bring that into my being with gratitude today. And then I'll start attracting that to me. But then when it comes down to that, you have to understand what you want to attract to you. So right back to the power of having a vision.

Tony: Yeah. And without a vision, you can't see where you want to get to. And the great thing about a vision is that since it's since you're planning for the future, It is subject to change. You can take that vision and you can edit that vision. You can change it when things may not work in your favor or even as things happen that you didn't expect. Because sometimes, To be honest, as you're walking along the process of life and you're doing what you can do, you're doing the best you can, sometimes you'll get gifts from life that come that you didn't expect. And that can help expedite your vision, or it can even maybe change or pivot your vision as well. But the good thing is that if you have that plan that we're talking about, or if you have that visual document that we're talking about, you can then go back to that and you can edit it. You can add in things, you can erase things, but you still are walking and marching towards a plan. You know, I think there's something, actually, I remember when I was in class once for something prior to what I do now, and it was just talking about how important it is to actually write down the things that you want or the things that you're trying to achieve because there's something special about that power to pen. When you take your hand and you write your story, your vision, your goals onto a piece of paper or onto a document, that process alone really does transcribe your life in real life, in real time. You know, I have a little piece of paper that's hanging behind me right now, and y'all can't see it, but John could probably see it. That's literally how I start my days most days. I'm going to this little piece of paper list, and I'm checking the list and seeing where I am with different things. It's not my life's journey, but it might be my list for the week. It might be my list for the day. And it's not all task-oriented. Sometimes it's also about your focus. Because we can get too task-oriented and become robots. And I'll be honest with you, there's no better robot than AI right now. So we need to just lean into being better humans, right? So the beauty of being a human is that you can actually dream and you can walk towards a dream and ship-shape your life in a way that works out for you. So, you know, I just want to double down on what John was saying about having that vision and the law of attraction and manifestation. It's a daily process. And again, you will get gifts that you didn't expect, but you just take those gifts, you take those moments, you place them into your already set vision, or your already set design or desire for your life, and just let it boost you. Don't let it derail you. Don't let it change everything and you throw the whole paper away. But if you're not already writing down things into your visual roadmap, this is a good time to start.

John: I couldn't agree more. I'm glad that you brought that in, that you brought in the malleability or the ability to change your vision and let it grow and evolve with you. So getting into a little bit tactically how this happens for me, I do have a living document in my OneNote. So that's called my vision statements. And, you know, in there, I have a legacy statement, the things that I want to keep from my parents and my unique contribution and a statement written about that. So the legacy that I want to leave from what I've received and what I want to leave behind me, and then also have a vision for my life. It's written out as a statement, you know, and have fun with it. Make it a story. Add detail. Add some similes, some metaphors, some symbolism. Get creative with it. And let it be fun. Think about what a day in the life looks like. and really write out a picturesque vision. Now that is where I have my vision of life. I also have a vision for health, right? So my health and wellness vision and you know, the way that I want to feel the energy that I want to have. And I also have a professional vision like where I see myself creating and contributing to the world and contributing to the people around me in different ways. So Then you can take all of those and bring it together to one board, one vision board, like where you can put actual pictures and quotes and books and anything that represents aspects of that vision into one place. And I like to take the individual statements. So my health and wellness statement, my personal life statement, my professional life statement, and bring them in together to one board. where I have pictures, statements, quotes, books, anything that represents what that place will be for me. And that's where I start with my vision. So maybe say you're starting from square one and you're thinking, you know, I've never really sat down to think about what my future looks like and. put pen to paper. Okay, so first and foremost, we've talked about this in other episodes, but it takes time to pause. You got to sit down and think, even if it's five, 10 minutes to start. It's just sit, take a moment and allow yourself to go to that place. You can also search for different visualization meditations on all of these free apps that are all over the place out here to where you can actually sit down and be guided to a place in your future and start to visualize what that looks like. And then it takes just putting pen to paper. You start that visualization process and start writing it down. What does it look like? Maybe it takes you a day. Maybe it takes you a month. Just revisiting it every day to start getting that down. And if it helps you to break it up into personal, professional health and wellbeing, however you want to break it up the way it works for you. Fantastic. Let it be your process. And then, you know, I do recommend taking all of those statements and bringing it into one visual where you can actually see what that looks like to start feeling what it's going to feel like today.

Tony: Man, that's very instructional and I'm sure that's going to help someone who's starting the process. I want to also touch on starting the process in a different way as well real quick. So there's a pre to all of this as well. So before you start writing, before you start buying softwares that can help you, or before you start designing any of this stuff, the first thing I want to challenge you to do is enhance your power of belief. If your power of belief is low, or if you don't even know what I'm talking about, that is something that is going to be critical to your journey. And what I mean by power of belief is Your ability to believe big, your ability to believe in yourself, your ability to believe in what you cannot see, because the further your belief goes, the higher your dream or potential dream or potential manifestation goals will go. If you have not, or maybe, let's say it like this, if you've grown up in an environment where people say, oh, that's not realistic, don't think like that. No one in our family has ever done that, so why would you try to do that? If you've ever been in environments like that, or even something similar of the sort, that can impact your ability to believe in what you cannot see. So if you start this process of manifesting or trying to write down these things and walking along the way, every time you're faced with an obstacle or a bump in the road, that voice or that person that told you that it wasn't going to happen anyway will just pop up in your mind and it can derail your dream. So I want to just level set and say you've got to get rid of that voice, get rid of that person, get rid of that experience, before you start as much as you can and just try to hold on to that throughout the journey, because it's going to get rough. You can dream and write all these things down, but there will be obstacles. We would be bad podcast hosts if we didn't tell you that there will be obstacles along the way. But the stronger your core belief system is, it's like when you work out, they say the reality is you want to get a strong core. That's why marathon runners and triathletes are probably some of the most strongest athletes, or anyone who does a lot of cardio, because their core is strong. And so when you're on your marathon, of building your life, the life of your dreams, you need to have a strong core. Because if you don't have a strong core, every time you have a challenge, it will derail you and you'll be starting your dream over, over and over again, or just giving up on it completely.

John: So I just want to throw that out there too. No, that's in, I mean, the way that I refer to that with my clients, It's called basic trust. It's a fundamental trust that everything is ultimately conspiring in our favor, right? That ultimately everything that's happening for me right now is going to lead to the future that I want. So it's and even if it feels like that cannot be the case based on your current life circumstances, Can you tap into a deeper level of belief and basic trust to just know that no matter what is happening in your life, that it will be happening for you in hindsight, as long as you hold true to your vision. I'll start a little bit more about once you start to get this on paper, how it lives with you, how it moves into your monthly, weekly, daily type regimen. And I think there's I think there's two different schools of thought here, Tony. like one about starting to feel and behave like who you want to become. And the other side of actually tracking it, organizing it, the logistics part of how am I pulling my vision into my annual quarterly, monthly, weekly goals? Which one do you think we should hit first?

Tony: Let's start with the first one. That way we level set with just identity and connect identity to it all. Got it.

John: All right. So when I'm working with clients about this, this whole manifestation or law of attraction type work, and you know, you starting with your vision and ultimately you want to pull in the feelings associated with that vision to how you're feeling today. I always refer back to some questions that you can hold in the back of your mind. So anytime that you are stepping into a new situation, anytime that you're challenged or triggered or life, just life's, you know, right. that you ask yourself, you know, how would that person, how would John 2.0 living his vision react to this moment? How would, you know, how would John 2.0 feel in this moment? This issue, this challenge I'm facing right now, maybe it feels huge. But what size would it be to John 2.0? It's all a question of perspective. And then as soon as I step out of where I'm at today and say, you know, when I'm living my vision, as I've arrived into that place, how would I be operating in this moment? And first and foremost, That's a lot of thought that happens when life gives us a triggering event, right? To sit down and have that thought and have all of that question whenever life is just happening, you're being challenged, you're being triggered, emotions are coming up. And that's why we always come back to the power of self-awareness in your mindfulness practice. Because without that, you don't have the time to have those thoughts. So starting with the foundation, our very first episode, about self-awareness. This is your foundation to start building on all of the things that we talk about here. So with that mindfulness practice, you've separated some distance between the stimulus and response in your life, the challenge and reaction, the attack and the defense. It's however that your more reactive and automatic brain would respond to something. Through your mindfulness practice, you get to create a buffer between that so that you can pause and choose how you want to react. So now when you're choosing how you want to respond to said stimulus challenge in your life, then you can reference John 2.0, Tony 2.0. Now that I have this pause, I can sit there and put myself in the shoes of who I want to become and say, how would this situation feel to me then? How do I want to respond that reflects who I want to become? Because when you start behaving like who you want to become, like who you look like in that vision, the world has no choice but to conspire in your favor. But that is the crux of it. Gotta start behaving like that today, believing like that today, being grateful for all of those things today. And then the vision has no choice but to manifest.

Tony: Man, yeah, yeah, I gotta say I agree with a lot of that because, you know, there's this power in that connection with the other self, the other version of yourself. There's power in walking in authority as if you were already the person that you want to be. There's power in, again, believing that you can be or are on your way to being that person. I was meeting with someone yesterday about something similar to this. And she mentioned that she wanted to be a great speaker. And I said, you know, what makes you feel like you aren't? And she told me those things. And I said, well, maybe you already are better than you think. Maybe you're already walking along the way more than you maybe you're to your point, maybe you're like 1.5, maybe not 2.0 yet, but it sounds like you've done the work, and you're doing the work, and you're getting close. So don't forget that as well. You know, in the Law of Attraction, they talk a lot about these subjects, and I think there's an important one that I always try to do, and they mention, like, if you are on your way to becoming someone different, you're seeking that desire to be that person. You know, you gotta visualize yourself, if you want a new car, you gotta visualize yourself holding the steering wheel, you know, sensing what it's gonna feel like, what it's gonna be like when you have that car. Or if you are, maybe you're wanting to be in a more luxurious environment, like maybe in a vacation or something. Go in your neighborhood or in your community and just go to the nicest restaurant that you can find and go get a salad and a glass of water and sit at the bar or sit at a table and just be in the environment, be in the ambiance. There's something about that, that energy that you gather by doing those things that some other people would feel that are crazy. But if you do those things, What'll start to happen is you can feel yourself in the space. And that's a lot of times the hardest thing for a lot of people. They can't even imagine what it will be like. Well, go imagine it. A salad's like $5. And then you leave a couple dollars as a tip, you spent the same amount you would spend at McDonald's. So, just saying. We all gotta eat.

John: Oh, now talk about really, you know, putting yourself in the place. I love that. Right. Instead of, instead of simply just, you know, sitting there to imagine and placing yourself there in your mind, like you're right, man, go sit at the table, do what you got to do.

Tony: Yep, get dressed up.

John: Yeah, nurture your network. Yeah, that's another thing that, you know, it's funny, I was thinking about that as a lot of people will reference that. I don't want to say quote, but I guess just general professional axiom about you know, dressing like for the role that you want. Mm hmm. That's I mean, that's the same thing. Like you're starting to behave like who you want to become. And if dressing like that makes you feel a certain way, then boom, done. It's all about the feeling. If going to the restaurant, dressing like the role you want starts to let you feel like that place where you want to be.

Tony: Go for it.

John: Make it happen. That's right. Exactly. That's right. Now, tactically, we wanted to share a tool that actually one of my clients enlightened me to. It's called Miro. M-I-R-O. And I believe there are three free boards you can use. And what this is, is it's in what I'm saying about an online like type vision board, whiteboard. Like, imagine if, you know, imagine if your imagine if your vision board and your one note, I had a baby. I feel like that's what this is because I can link to all of the things that I have on the web and my drive and my notes, and then also arrange it in a way that connects different things that I'm up to with my vision. And, you know, the way that I saw one of my clients do this over the past two years was just incredible. And then when I started using my Miro board and starting to pull in what this vision looked like for me, what my goals were, what are the different work streams that I'm doing, so I can see it all on one page, everything. So I don't have five different programs, another calendar, two other calendars, a OneNote with three different notebooks in it, that things just get lost in cyberspace. But when I have everything on this one sheet in front of me, wow, it's already starting to become powerful for me. And what I saw her build over the last two years, oh my gosh, her, it's like a whole external mind. Like it's starting to look like if you visualize, you know, neural connections within the brain occurring and you put that on a chart, it's like what her mirror board starting to look like. And it inspired me to go ahead and create my own. And then when I started just putting in for the first week and the first couple of things I put on the board, looking at my board, I'm like, wow, this is not exciting. But then I had to coach myself out of that, right? OK, we all got to start with just one frame, one little sticky note on the board and then grow it over time. So it's been amazing watching hers grow week after week after week and then, you know, starting the process on my own. So this is just another shout out to everything that I've learned from my clients, too. Right. And that's a big thing about coaching is, you know, we're not here to just bestow wisdom upon all of our clients. Right. You are all innately intelligent in your own right. And, you know, I'm open to learning something from everyone. So I've learned a lot from my clients. And it's one thing I really love about, you know, a love about my profession.

Tony: And I mean that's a great example of just how we're all interconnected. And what your clients share with you, which is something they may have gotten from someone else, if you share those things with me at times and then sharing them with our audience, it's just the power of the human connection. Yeah, it's ironic. You know, Miro is how this conversation today became realistic, was us talking about different ways to be more effective and more efficient. And so I can't wait to tap into Miro. I actually just canceled a subscription for another platform to try this one out because I'm always open to pivoting and learning and trying things. Maybe we can report back and we can share. I can tell you how my experience is going and if I'm dreading the creation of my boards as I start a new project with this. But yeah, I'm super excited to dive in and any hack that I can have that'll help me be more efficient. It's just… you know, life-changing every time. Because I'm, like many of our listeners, I'm sure, just a sponge, you know. The best way to be in life to me is a student. And not just a traditional student, but a student of life where you leave yourself open to learning. You know, we talk about the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset. And that's just the way we roll. That's just the way that, it's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. And that's how you continue to grow. That's how you continue to have opportunities coming your way. And not just with you learning, but also you sharing. So as you, if you're listening to this, if you're a person that has a lot of wisdom, has a lot of information, or you're learning a lot of things, Share with your network, share with your people. It's not gonna hurt you to share. There's plenty of room for us all. And there's plenty of room for those of us willing to share and for those of us willing to serve others.

John: All right, students of life, thanks for joining us on this journey. And if you ever have any feedback or want to share anything with us, you can always connect with us at the presentprofessionalpodcast.com. And we'd love to hear from you again. Thank you so much for being a part of this community and tuning in until next time.