Welcome to the Mindset Coach Academy podcast. I'm Lindsey Wilson and I am a high performance mindset coach, a mom, a former professional athlete and an entrepreneur. I help coaches and high performers optimize their mindset to improve their coaching, their performance and those of their athletes and their lives. Here you'll learn all about mindset, how to live it, how to teach it and how to sell it. Hi guys and welcome back to Mindset Coach Academy podcast.
My name is Lindsey Wilson. It's Mental Monday and today I want to talk about visualizing obstacles. So you know a lot of, especially when I was first teaching visualization, it was so much about visualizing the positive. You know, not allowing yourself to think about the negative really at all. And I think I kind of kept with that mentality for a while and now I think it's really important to visualize the obstacles that are going to come on the way to like, yes, visualize the goal, believe it, see it, feel it, all the things. You know, we do that with the Braver method, but also visualizing the anticipated obstacles.
Now, here's what I don't mean. I don't mean putting yourself in a state of worry, like thinking about every contingency, every possible thing that could go wrong. And the reason that I don't like that is because I think it like switches a flip, flips the switch in your brain that makes you then focus on the wrong thing. It does have you then sort of looking for reasons and evidence that your goal can't ever happen. And so I don't think that it's like you have to go seek out obstacles or think of every single contingency that could ever possibly happen.
That's not what this is about. This is about really thinking through the obstacles that like are pretty common, right? And so like, think about whatever your goal is, think about your goal, okay? And like, think about the pretty common obstacles that are going to come up and hint, the common obstacles are like the ones that everybody deals with, which is like doubt, time, other priorities, self-doubt.
Do you know what I mean? Like doubt that it's not going to happen. And so when I think about my big goals and you know, a lot of them revolve around my business, when I'm really thinking about like concrete, measurable goals, a lot of them are around my business and how much revenue I want to bring in. And I spend a good amount of time visualizing that. I have certain images in my head and we teach all this in the certification of like, how to really visualize so that's real, okay?
Okay, so I do that. And also what I've been practicing lately is really thinking about the obstacles that are going to come up. And here's the thing, like they're actually mostly the obstacles, if I'm being honest, are me, right? And so I know that at some point, getting to another level in my business, I'm probably going to feel like an imposter. I'm probably going to feel like I have no idea what I'm doing in my business.
I'm going to wonder if I can handle it. Like that's an obstacle that is going to come. And so when I think about that, I think about it ahead of time. I don't necessarily know exactly how I'm gonna solve it, but because I've anticipated it and visualized it, I can visualize overcoming it.
And here's the most important part, I believe, is that when I get that feeling or that obstacle and it presents itself in my life, I don't misinterpret what it is, right? I don't see the obstacle and think, oh, that's a shut door. That's a reason that I'm not gonna get to my goal. Because I visualized it and I visualized overcoming it, I see it for what it is, which is an obstacle that is possible to overcome. So again, whatever your goal is, let's say it's, you know, to get in better shape, there's gonna be obstacles on the way to that. There's gonna be obstacles when it's raining outside and you're supposed to go for a run.
That's on your schedule. That's gonna be an obstacle that your brain, if you haven't visualized it, is gonna see it as a reason to not do it. An obstacle is gonna be, you know, your kid gets sick. And again, not all of these mean you can't take a break or you have to overcome it every time or anything like that. It's about visualizing it so you don't misinterpret the obstacle. You know, you're gonna, another obstacle is getting off track.
You're gonna eat the chocolate cake at the party and then feel guilty about it. That's gonna be an obstacle. Right? And so, again, when we visualize them ahead of time, we're not surprised. We're not surprised. We're not caught off guard. We're not in the shame cycle. We're just like, well, there it is, knew that was gonna happen and we've practiced how to overcome it.
So, obstacle visualization, guys, it's a really important concept. I don't actually know where I got it. I might have got it from Chris DeSantis. So, Chris, if you're listening to this and I stole it from you, I apologize, but he's gonna, he's been on the podcast before and he's actually coming back to our MCA alumni call to talk about negative visualization. And I'm not sure if this is part of it. So, I might have gotten it from him. I might have gotten it from somebody else or I might have come up with it my own.
I don't really know. I know Mel Robbins does talk about this when it comes to setting goals and thinking about the obstacles. So, I know I'm not the only one. But anyway, I want to share that with you today because, you know, we like the little tips, tools and techniques that you can implement in your life this week or maybe even today. So, next time you visualize, make sure to get in some of the obstacles. Again, they don't have to be every single obstacle that could ever happen in the world. This isn't like a worry exercise.
Right? This is a visualization exercise that helps you see obstacles for what they are, which is just obstacles that you can overcome. All right, guys, I hope you love this episode and I'll see you next week.
Bye for now. Hey guys, if you've ever thought, had just even an inkling of a thought about becoming a mental performance coach, it's likely that you also had some questions about that. Like, where would I get clients? What would I teach them?
What would I charge? Can I do this without getting another degree? If you've ever had any of those questions, I have really good news for you because I've answered all of them in a free 60-page book called How to Become a Mental Performance Coach, even without your sports psychology degree. I go into all of these questions and so much more in this book and the best news is it's totally free. Go get your copy of How to Become a Mental Performance Coach at PositivePerformanceTraining.com/guide.
