In our last few +1s (here, here and here), we’ve been hanging out with Deion Sanders and chatting about some Big Ideas from his new book: Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field.
We’re going to continue that exploration Today.
In fact, we’re even going to mine the movie Dumb and Dumber for some wisdom. (Hah. I kid you not! 🤓)
Let’s get straight to work…
Coach Prime tells us: “But before we achieve our success, I need to see it in my mind.
Visualization is so important. Did you know that when the actor Jim Carrey was first starting out he consistently visualized himself as rich, famous, and successful, even when he had . . . NOTHING? He used to drive around Los Angeles and pretend he was meeting with directors—and no one even knew who Jim Carrey was. He did this for himself. People might have thought he was crazy, but he could see the goal as clear as day.
Sounds like he was living in a dream world, right? But he tricked his mind and told himself all his dreams were out there waiting for him. They were going to be his actual possessions. He just didn’t have ahold of them yet. It was going to take time.”
He continues by saying: “When he was broke, he made out a check to himself for $10 million. He was convinced the money would come his way one day in the future. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and tucked it away in his wallet. Just before Thanksgiving Day 1995, Carrey learned he was going to make ten million for a film called Dumb and Dumber. Jim Carrey kept that check in his wallet until the day he buried his father, putting it inside his father’s casket because together they had the dream of him making it. Visualization is powerful, man. It’s one of the highest forms of BELIEF.”
That’s from Chapter #3: “Be Where Your Feet Are” in which, in addition to teaching us the power of visualization, Deion ALSO teaches us the power of DOMINATING THIS MOMENT.
I love that Jim Carrey story.
And...
Here’s what’s funny about that Jim Carrey and Dumb and Dumber reference.
(No pun originally intended but I’ll take it! 😉)
Dr. Nate Zinsser, who is one of the world’s leading peak performance/mental toughness guys and author of The Confident Mind, ALSO talks about Jim Carrey and Dumb and Dumber in his book.
Only...
He talks about the character Jim Carrey plays in that movie.
Remember Lloyd? The goofy guy with the sweet haircut and chipped tooth? (Hah.)
And…
Remember that woman he has a crush on and that scene where he asks her what the odds are of them being together?
If you kinda sorta know what I’m talking about and/or want a good laugh, check that scene out here. It’s 56 seconds of pure, Heroically ridiculous awesome.
Spoiler alert: Lloyd begs his crush to be honest with him. He asks her if the odds of them being together are something like 1 in 100. She grimaces and says the odds are more like 1 in 1 million.
To which Lloyd takes a deep breath, absorbs the reality of that...
THEN beams and says: “SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE?”
Then he joyfully screams: “YEAAAAH!!!!”
Of course, that scene is RIDICULOUS.
And...
Know this: Dr. Zinsser, a guy with a PhD in mental toughness, who has mentored some of THE most elite performers in the world (and taught THREE GENERATIONS of Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point!) uses THAT scene as an example of how important it is to believe we can achieve something.
Obviously, there are asterisks and nuances as we go after our dreams.
AND...
We need to START with a VISION for what we want to see then match that with the CONSISTENT DISCIPLINE of showing up and closing the gap MOMENT to MOMENT to MOMENT.
Today’s +1…
Spotlight on YOU…
What do YOU want to see come to fruition in your life?
Can you SEE IT?
🔦 🚀
P.S. Arnold Schwarzenegger OBSESSED about vision as well. Check out our Notes on Be Useful for more. In fact, “HAVE A CLEAR VISION” is the FIRST of his “Seven Tools for Life.”
To be clear: He emphasizes the importance of HUSTLING the same way Deion does as he tells us: “Before I go any further, I recognize that this sounds like a lot of woo-woo manifestation mumbo jumbo, like The Secret and all those law of attraction books being peddled by bullshit artists. This isn’t that. I’m not saying that if you visualize what you want, then it will come true. Hell no. You have to plan and work and learn and fail and work and fail some more. That’s just life. Those are the rules.
What I am saying is that if you want your vision to stick, if you want to increase the chances of success looking exactly like you hoped it would when you first figured out what you wanted your life to look like, then you need to get crystal clear on that vision and tattoo it to the inside of your eyelids. You need to SEE IT.”
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