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Podcast Summary: The Daily Motivation - If You're Making Vision Boards, STOP Doing This! | Mel Robbins
Podcast Overview Podcast Title: The Daily Motivation Host: Lewis Howes Special Guest: Mel Robbins Episode Description: This episode challenges common misconceptions about vision boards and manifesting, presenting an unconventional approach that focuses on the realistic and often uncomfortable journey toward achieving dreams.
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Key Concepts and Discussions
Understanding Vision Boards
- Common Misconception: Most people believe vision boards should depict the end goals, showcasing ideal scenarios like mansions or luxury cars.
- Drawbacks: This approach can lead to feelings of inadequacy and failure when individuals compare their current situation to the lofty goals depicted on their boards.
- Example: Imagining a dream life while living in a cramped apartment can create a crushing sense of disconnect.
The Alternative Visualization Technique
- Visualization of the Journey: Instead of only visualizing the end result, Mel Robbins emphasizes visualizing the challenges and struggles on the path to success.
- What to Visualize:
- The discomfort and setbacks during the journey (e.g., mile 12 of a marathon when you're exhausted).
- Real-life obstacles such as job rejections, missed social events for work, or hard work required to achieve goals.
Real-World Applications
- Marathon Training Analogy:
- Training not just for victory but for the inevitable hardships encountered during the race.
- Visualizing scenarios like losing earbuds or running in bad weather prepares the mind and body to handle difficulties.
- Examples from UFC Fighting:
- George St. Pierre practices confronting uncomfortable situations to build resilience and find solutions rather than giving up.
Rewiring the Nervous System
- Impact of Visualization:
- By visualizing the grind and discomfort, individuals can rewire their nervous systems to better cope with real challenges they will face.
- This preparation increases the likelihood of persevering through tough times rather than succumbing to discouragement.
Practical Tips for Effective Visualization
- Include the Hardships: When creating vision boards or visualization practices, include images that represent difficult but necessary experiences, such as:
- Waking up early to work on goals.
- Engaging in difficult tasks like cold calling or learning new skills.
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Key Takeaways
- Avoiding the Pitfall: Relying solely on positive end-goals can be demotivating; it’s essential to visualize the entire journey, including the struggles.
- Building Resilience: Proper visualization can strengthen determination and resilience, preparing individuals for the inevitable challenges on their path to success.
- Practical Visualization: Balance dreams with the realistic effort and discomfort necessary to achieve them, leading to a more grounded and actionable approach to personal goals.
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Conclusion This episode of The Daily Motivation highlights the importance of effective visualization techniques beyond traditional vision boards. By focusing on both the desired outcomes and the often uncomfortable realities of the journey, individuals can better prepare themselves for success and build the resilience needed to overcome challenges.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.
0:08I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show.
0:49When you have negative self-talk, it tends to draw more of that to you. I think about it like lint in a dryer. Once negative stuff starts collecting, it collects a lot more. We can also talk about your brain filter, something called the reticular activity system and how it is a live network that filters the brain. We'll dig into that deeper, but let's do surface level right now, manifesting law of attraction. So here's what everybody gets wrong about manifesting. Everybody, at least kind of in the mass market, what you're trained to think about when you think about manifesting is vision boards.
1:26And when you hear the word vision boards, you think about the big stuff. should you have big dreams of course you should should you dream of building a mansion on the ocean if that's your thing yes should you dream of the log cabin yes if you want a lamborghini or the new ford bronco should you buy yeah yes yes yes if you want the family if you want the body should you think about yeah absolutely here's where everybody goes wrong you dream about the end you make this gorgeous collage of all this stuff that has nothing to do with your current life That literally, as you're sitting in your studio apartment with the cat box that hasn't been changed in two weeks.
2:06No food in the fridge. No food in the fridge. And you're looking for a job and you're staring at a mansion going, someday. It's going to make you feel like a loser. Because the gap between where you are and where you want to go seems insurmountable. And so what happens, based on the research, is when you only visualize the endgame, Lewis, it's demotivating. At first, it's really fun to have a bottle of wine and make your collage. I'm going to visualize. I'm going to slap this up. There's my vision board. It's fabulous. A lot of attraction, baby. Come on. I'm going to think about it. It's going to come to me.
2:42Okay, I've been doing this for two days. I'm still in this apartment with the cat box that needs to be changed. The way to visualize properly is to visualize the bridge between where you are and where you need to go. The bridge. Yes, and particularly the horrible stuff. So let's use your example of the marathon. The vision board would be Lewis crossing. With the arms out of the medal. Yeah, the arms out of the medal. Exactly. High fives. High fives. Yes, I did it. Exactly. That will not help you. Because when you hit mile 13 on the actual race and it is sleeting rain. You're saying, why am I doing this?
3:23Yes. It feels nothing like that thing on your vision board. You're going to start a negative dialogue. I can't do this. My knees hurt. This is not what I thought it was going to be. I'm not ready for this. I didn't train for this. I'm running New York. I trained in LA. Are you running in New York? LA. Okay, good. Well, then at least you're trained in the right weather. So on and on and on. And you are going to tank yourself. What you do by visualizing the bridge is you train your nervous system and your mind to do the hard work. So you should visualize not crossing the finish line, but what is it like to be at mile 12 when your batteries run out on your earbuds?
3:59Yeah. No, I'm serious. And you keep going. What's it like when your shoelace breaks and now your heel is lifting and you're starting to get a blood blister at mile 17? What's it feel like when you wake up and it is pouring rain and you visualize yourself running anyway. That way, when you visualize the work, you are preparing your body for it. So you're not resistant to it when it comes. Yeah. Isn't that cool? I think it's great. It's a story that I had. George St. Pierre, who's one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time. he said that he always puts himself in the most uncomfortable situations and practice leading up to the fight the most you know the hardest situations to get himself out of when his arms are behind his back and he's facing against the the mat and in between the fence and he's just getting punched in the face he's like how do I get out of this right right he's like visualize that and seeing how can I get through this yeah yeah where it seems like I just want to tap out yes instead of tapping out what's the process for figuring out how to get through it.
5:10Yeah. To then raise my hand at the end victorious. Totally. And so you are literally building up almost like this resilience and this muscle inside of you to do the work to get the thing. So yeah, create the vision board, but make sure in addition to crossing the finish line, you have somebody running in the rain. You have somebody who, you have an alarm clock that says 513. You have, you know, these images that show the stuff that you don't want to do. So like for people who want to launch a business, for example, like a lot of people that I'm sure follow both of us are dying to launch a business or interested in being an influencer, social media, or making money online.
5:48And what you visualize are the checks or you visualize the money you're going to make or you visualize how cool it's going to be when you're a lifestyle entrepreneur, whatever the hell it is. Don't do that. Visualize working a day job and telling your friends that you're not going to go out tonight because you're working on something. Visualize making cold calls and being told no. Visualize not going to that party because you're staying in on a Saturday and not going to the barbecue because you're putting in the work. Visualize sitting at a seminar and learning from other people. Visualize watching YouTube videos.
6:19Visualize your first ever course failing miserable. Like literally that's the sort of thing that you want to visualize yourself doing and pushing through because that's going to help you do the work.
6:37Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.
7:26Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.
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Check out the full episode: https://greatness.lnk.to/1170
"The way to visualize properly is to visualize the bridge between where you are and where you need to go." - Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins just shattered everything you think you know about manifesting and vision boards. Picture this: you're sitting in your cramped apartment, cat litter hasn't been changed in weeks, no food in the fridge, staring at a vision board filled with mansions and Lamborghinis. Sound familiar? Mel explains why this approach is actually sabotaging your success. The crushing gap between your current reality and those big dreams isn't inspiring you—it's making you feel like a complete failure. Instead of motivating you to take action, those beautiful collages of your dream life are creating a negative spiral that keeps you stuck exactly where you are.
Here's where it gets fascinating: Mel reveals the visualization technique that actually works, and it's the complete opposite of what everyone teaches. She'll walk you through why you should be visualizing your broken shoelace at mile 17 of your marathon, getting rejected on cold calls, and missing parties to work on your dreams. Using examples from marathon training to UFC fighting, she shows how visualizing the brutal, uncomfortable parts of your journey literally rewires your nervous system to handle the real challenges when they hit. This isn't just theory—it's the difference between quitting when things get hard and pushing through to actually achieve what you want.
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