My Super-Charged Life

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Emotion is what fuels our intensity and drives our efforts.  Without emotion behind our desires, it is very unlikely that we will succeed.  Emotion creates passion and passion helps us to persevere.  Last month, I wrote The ONE Thing Critical to My Success where I expressed the need to have intensity.  After writing that article I started thinking about what I do to build intensity.  I realized that it all started with my emotions.

How to create emotion to fuel our goals.

If I want to accomplish something, I have to clearly visualize the exact outcome I desire and the reward I will get if I succeed.  The accomplishment has to be something important enough to me to move me off high center and toward the goal.  Tim Brownson, a certified life coach, wrote about this in his article titled, Always Know Your Reward.

REWARD. This is THE most important thing with setting goals and the thing that gets left out most often. This is what will get you out of bed at 5:00am when it’s snowing and the bed is snuggly warm.  ~Tim Brownson

You have to know your reward so that it invokes powerful emotions that create intensity which propels you forward.  Without the emotion, then your desire will probably fall flat when you encounter any resistance at all.  On the other hand, if you strongly emotionalize the image of achieving your goal and the results you will get, then you are more likely to persevere regardless of what gets in your way.  I like the image that Tim creates with the warm, snuggly bed.  If you aren’t willing to get out of bed early to work on your goal, then you haven’t visualized your reward clearly enough.

Great examples of how to invoke your emotions to accomplish goals.

In his article, Decide Who You Want To Be, Scott Young discusses how he vividly visualizes the exact outcomes that he desires.  He goes into detail.  He creates a mental picture of exactly what he wants the result to be including how it will look, feel, sound, smell, and taste.  This mental image doesn’t need to be lengthy and complicated, in fact, keeping it simple is better, but it does need to be as complete as possible.  A great example of this can be found in Clay Collins’ article, A Picture is Worth a Thousand Goals - The Russian Doll Approach to Goal Setting.  In it, Clay explains the way he uses a picture to visualize complex goals very simply.  He uses one photograph, but it represents to him an entire set of goals that pack a lot of meaning.  The picture and the mental images that it conjures up stirs his emotions.  In these ways, Scott and Clay have discovered how to engage their emotions to create an intense desire to achieve their goals.

Techniques for building up our emotions when we are struggling.

Sometimes it is difficult to get our emotions going.  We may need a jumpstart.  Alex Blackwell gives us several techniques to get our emotions going in his article 22 Sure-Fire Igniters for Inspiration.  I want to highlight a couple of his suggestions that are particularly effective for me and add one of my own.

1. Watch a movie.  Movies are designed to stir our emotions.  We have all walked out of a movie feeling emotionally charged at one time or another.  In this state, we are ready to take on the world.  We can use this intentionally to ignite us.  I can feel my emotions stirred when I watch just the trailers to movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, and TopGun.  Give it a try.  Click on one of the links and watch the brief trailer on YouTube.  If one of these doesn’t inspire you, then you may need to check for a pulse.
2. Read a book.  Good books are also great sources of inspiration in our lives.  Like movies, they tell stories that stir us.  They create moving pictures in our minds.  I can read one chapter of a great book and walk away feeling enthusiastic, powerful, and confident.  This is the kind of emotion we need to get off high center on a goal.  I personally prefer non-fiction.  I like classic success books like Think and Grow Rich and As A Man Thinketh.  I also like anything by Brian Tracy.  These books are all inexpensive, but powerful and often I can read just one chapter and feel energized.
3. Listen to a motivational speaker.  These guys are supposed to motivate us, right?  Why not use them when we need them?  Motivation is really nothing more than creating emotions that propel us to act in a certain way.  Think about it.  These speakers use enthusiasm, the inflection in their voices, and stories to invoke our emotions.  We walk away feeling energized and ready to conquer any obstacle.  I especially like guys like Larry Winget and Jeffrey Gitomer because they are “in your face”.  They provide me a wake-up call.  This is what gets my emotions and determination going.

Success is all up to you.

Again, the key is to do what works for you.  What gets your blood pumping and excites you?  You can use your emotions to super-charge yourself and create the intensity you need to achieve your goals.  You are the only one that is going to make this happen for yourself.  It is a simple technique, but very effective.  The next time you have a big desire that you want to achieve start by creating a clear and vivid mental image of your objective, find a photograph that symbolizes the goal, and use movies, books, and speakers to keep yourself fired up.  The intensity you intentionally create in yourself by using your emotions will accelerate your success.

Photo by amishsteve