It's 6 a.m. on a Friday morning.
I'm up first thing to feed my dogs and head out to the barn to feed my horses.
Take down my morning shake and immediately attack the squat bar.
By 8 a.m., the wife is up with the kids for their morning riding lesson.
I saddle up Cooper and take my kids through the steps in learning how to tack up their own horses.
After an hour riding lesson, I begin to work with my horses on the training books for the day.
By noon, it's time to move cows to the next pasture over so that they can enjoy new acreage with fresh grass.
As I am moving cows, I notice one of the fence posts down.
I call for my son to come help dad with the job and we spend the rest of the evening fixing the fence.
On the ride back to the house, my son decides he wants to race ol' dad horseback.
Cooper and dad smoke the young child, leaving him in the dust.
Once we get back to the barn, I tell my son "nice try kiddo, but you're going to have to be better if you're going to beat your dad!"
We get back to the house in time to have dinner with the wife and kids, where I proceed to tell the wife how badly I beat our son in a race.
We then spend an enjoyable night together as a family.
At 6 a.m. the next morning, I wake up to feed my animals, walk out to the kitchen where I find my dogs and horses already being fed, and my son is in the living room doing pushups.
I say to the kid, "what are you doing, son?"
He says to me, "you said I have to be better if I am going to beat you, so I woke up at 5 a.m. and did everything you normally do!"
Me, a proud father with a story to tell his wife, looks at his son and says, "I am proud of you son. But good luck if you think you're going to ride better than your old man!"
-- I posted this story as a Thread to make an example of how I visualize.
Visualization is something I have always been gifted at. I have had the ability to picture things in my mind and see them as if they were real for as long as I can remember.
I have always been creative-minded. In fact, there was a point in time when I was a kid where I would lock myself in my room and think of ways to be creative - I would dream about my future.
While as a kid, I visualized my life as being a successful actor in Hollywood, I would say that my life has completely changed in terms of how I want my life to look like as a man.
One thing that I have learned through visualization is that having a clear picture of something you want in life and having a burning desire to get it, will almost always work out in your favor if you're willing to put the work in.
No, it won't happen overnight, but if you believe in yourself, it will happen.
This is why I am so thankful for my experience in bodybuilding. Looking up at pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger gave me the mental image that I needed - it gave me a purpose for every workout.
As I said, it didn't happen overnight, but it happened. I believed that I could look like him to a degree and I accomplished that goal 9 years into my lifting career, and thousands of workouts under my belt.
I talk about the importance of visualization in my e-book, "Elevate and Accelerate", especially when it comes to achieving your fitness goals. You need to be able to have a picture in your mind of what you want to look like because that picture is your blueprint.
Once you have your blueprint, now you have to plan out your course of action to make your blueprint a reality.
This is why I talk about delayed gratification in many of my other blogs - I learned delayed gratification through years of pushing myself in the gym to achieve a goal.
Understanding and accepting the fact that whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, isn't going to happen overnight is extremely important. The reason why delayed gratification is so important is because you gain confidence in the process of achieving your goal - you do not gain confidence when things are handed to you.
I wanted to post this story because this is an front row seat as to how my brain really works - this is genuinely how I want my life to look.
Now, my next course of action is the continuation of the planning in making this visualization a reality.
I do believe I am on the right path to get myself to my next goal. I am confident in my abilities to figure things out and I am confident in my work ethic to get me there.
Now, I just want the people reading this to feel the same about themselves.
I want you to be confident in your abilities and your value.
Harness the power of visualization. Whether you're in pursuit of finding the right career path, the house you want to live in, or the person you want to spend the rest of your life with - picture it clearly, and work hard to make it a reality.
Life is like a blank canvas - you can make it into anything you want, but it starts with your mind.