How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals | Mindshift 11

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Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe. And each and every week on the podcast, we dive deep into the science and principles and how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. On today's episode, I'm going to be diving into visualization and beyond.

I'll be going through the 5-step process that's going to allow you to achieve your biggest dreams and turn them into reality. Hey, before I do that though, do me a favor. Subscribe to this channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single episode. And this show continues to grow. I can't believe how we're growing on iTunes and Spotify and on YouTube.

And so I want to say thank you so much for all your support on the show. And this is going to be a good one because the principles I'm going to go over today and some of the science are really going to show you the power of visualization. And not in a hokey pokey way.

It's really based on scientific evidence and ancient truths, some from the Bible, in terms of proving how this process works, how you need to do it. And I'm also going to share some personal information about Chelsea and I and our honeymoon and some other things. I think it'll be really enlightening that are going to help you understand this process. Now, here's what visualization does.

Visualization helps you paint a clear picture of what you want your ideal future. Future to look like. And so, and I, I'm curious for you, how often have you taken to sit back and think about, here's what my ideal future would look like? It's sort of like a finish line. Now here's the problem: if you don't know where your finish line is, it's hard to run the ideal race.

And so really, the way that I think about visualization is it's sort of a clear picture of my long-term goals and what I want my life to look like. It's a finish line or a you know, a mile marker along the way where I know, hey, am I, am I, am I running a good race or not? And then based on that, I know if I need to run faster, if I need to back off.

But it's important that we have a vision for our lives. And when you look at some of the most talented people that have had the biggest impact on this world, you'll notice they all practice visualization. In fact, let me give you an example of this. When Martin Luther King Jr. did his I Have a Dream speech, He painted a picture of what an ideal future would look like for everyone.

A land where Black girls and white girls and there were no racial divides, where everybody was at peace with one another. He painted a picture of what it would look like. God in the Bible says, I'm going to give you a land, your own land flowing with milk and honey, a place where beautiful fruit and just in lush, lush Gardens.

I mean, he really painted a picture of what that would look like for the people in the Bible. So all that being said, visualization is powerful. And also, when I look at some of my favorite athletes of all time, they all visualized. You know, there's a quote by Jack Nicklaus, and that was my grandfather's favorite golfer.

And he said, I've never hit a shot without visualizing exactly where the ball would land. He said he's never taken a single shot in his career. The greatest golfer of all time. You know, I had an opportunity to work with some Olympic athletes and one of the athletes I got to talk to, and then I saw him on an interview share this specifically. Well, so let me share this.

I, I went and worked at a swimming event. I used to do muscle work on the athletes, do nutritional consultations for some of the Olympic swimmers. And Michael Phelps would always put up his hood at these events, sit by himself, And just stare. And finally, one of the people, uh, interviewing him said, hey, what are you doing when you're just sitting there staring off into space?

And he said, I'm visualizing. And she asked him, the interviewer, she said, uh, do you visualize yourself winning? He said, well, that, but I visualize every single part of the entire race. I visualize me, my jumping, every stroke, every turn, and hitting the finish line first and then being on the podium.

And so here's the problem with some of you when you're visualizing, or if you do visualize at all. One, many of you aren't visualizing. Number 2, most of you are not visualizing it with enough vivid detail of exactly what you want. Here's a reality. Your neurological system will start moving you towards making that vision a reality when you can see it in your mind and if you really want it.

Did you know that 95% of our habits and the things that we do on a daily basis are Our subconscious mind. So, so your body can be doing things and moving towards things and you're not even conscious of it unless you program that into your mind. And so visualization helps you paint a very clear ideal future.

Now, along with visualization, one of the other things that you have to do as part of those 5 things I'm gonna cover in just a moment is strategize. If you don't have a plan, you are planning to fail. Strategy gives you the plan to make your dreams a reality. And it is literally impossible to live the best life possible without a plan.

So let me ask you, when you visualize and think about your entire life, what your ideal life looks like, one, if you haven't done that, well, that's, that's not ideal, which we're gonna get into how to do it. But, but one, you need to have a very, very vivid picture. The next is you need to attach a goal to it, right? With that. And then from there, you need to create a very specific strategy.

So for instance, you might say to yourself, well, I wanna have an incredible marriage. Or I want to have incredible health. Well, great picture. What does that mean to have incredible health? Well, for me, it means I'm in my 70s, 80s, and 90s, and I'm running around with my grandkids playing on the beach. I'm still swimming. I'm cycling.

Like, I can see our Chelsea and I going on hikes with our entire family, going on trips around the world. I can picture myself with Chelsea. We're in Europe together when we're both 90 years old, sipping on cappuccinos in Florence, Italy. Okay? So you want to get really specific about what does your ideal life look like? And Chelsea and I, we're going on mission trips.

We're going to see, you know, we're going to Africa and we're bringing our grandkids there and they're able to see and help people that are in great need there, right? So think about, okay, what are those? Who do you want to become? What do you want your ideal future to look like? And then what's the ideal plan that you need to follow in order to turn that dream and that vision into a reality.

Now, first, I want to dive into the real problem of why a lot of this doesn't happen today. Busyness. Busyness is a pandemic. Most people never fulfill their dreams or even take time to visualize and plan because life is so full of tasks all day. In fact, most people become slaves to their tasks. I mean, it's busyness. I've got to do this errand and this and this and this and this.

And before you know it, Your life is over. We are far too busy today, and busyness sabotages our capacity for self-awareness, and it can prevent us from dreaming big, thinking big, setting goals, and experiencing the reality of those dreams and hopes we have. And so you need to make sure that you're following this process. Again, here's what I'm gonna share with you.

The process I'm gonna share with you. Has been the most transformative process and system or habit of my entire life. And so that, that's what I'm sharing with you today. So let me give you an example of this. I was watching a lecture once from one of my favorite spiritual leaders. He's a pastor, and he said this. He said, busyness is artificial significance.

He said, many of us are looking for significance in our lives. And he said, when we're busy running around doing things, if we feel like we did a lot of errands that day or did a lot, we, we feel really accomplished, like we did something.

He said, but in reality, if you're not doing things to become a greater person yourself, and if you're not doing things that multiply, which tends to be investing in others, and if you're not doing things that are part of your gifting that you're great at, or doing something that's really doing an incredible good in the world, he said, it really isn't significant. It's artificial. Significance.

We feel like we've done something, but we really haven't done much at all. It's like running on a treadmill. Now, I wanna give you an example of a study of how we get so busy, and if you don't have a strategy and a vision and goals, how it will absolutely wreck your life.

So here's a study that found people spend 62% of their workday focused on just mundane tasks, the errands, emails, all those things, and only 10% of their workday on things like strategic planning. The reality is this: if you are doing a lot of menial tasks and errands and mindless, you know, entertainment as well, if those are taking up all of your day, you're not really moving forward in life.

Listen to this stat: the average person spends 2.5 hours on social media per day and 2.5 hours per day watching TV. That's a total of 5 hours a day. And I can tell you, younger generations, it's higher. Closer to 6 to 7 to 8 hours of the day on some sort of device wasting time. Now, the truth is you can use TV and social media to grow and move forward in life.

Like I watch, I use YouTube a tremendous amount. I'm watching lectures on there. I'm watching, you know, sermons and shows and things that help me grow. In fact, if you would go and look at my, you know, favorites on YouTube, you're gonna see a lot of psychologists, you're gonna see a lot of health experts, you're gonna see a lot of of learning ancient history.

Uh, you know, and so, so I spend a lot of time on things that help me grow.

Same thing if you pull my social media right now, you're gonna see a lot of incredible, you're gonna see a lot of pastors, you're gonna see a lot of health experts, you're gonna see a lot of leadership experts, psychologists, quotes, things that where I'm on there, I am growing and I'm only spending a limited amount of time on there, about an hour total a day.

I know this cuz we had a friend come over and, and we looked at, our apps to see how they said, hey, how much do you spend a day? I, I said, oh, look, it's about, you know, 60 minutes a day. For them, it was over 4 hours a day on just social media alone. And so, and they weren't a social media influencer, they were just a, you know, they, they were actually a personal trainer.

And so all that being said, you gotta watch out for this cuz you could waste your life on these things. And part of this comes from you not having a strategy. And not having a vision and not having goals. And so you're just filling your life with other things that are meaningless.

Now, a couple of those people that Chelsea and I have followed for years that we've really enjoyed watching are Chip and Joanna Gaines. You know, Chelsea and I over the years, like Chelsea's parents used to flip houses.

In fact, I think growing up they flipped 9, Chelsea lived in 9 different houses 'cause her dad owned a construction company and they would, and her mom and dad then to make extra money on the side, they would, they would flip homes in Minnesota. And so Chelsea and I have that same passion as we love building homes. Homes and, and, and, and creating great environments.

So anyways, we loved watching Chip and Joanna Gaines and HGTV and, and some of those shows. But in Joanna Gaines' book, uh, the book's called The Stories We Tell. Here's something she said. I think it's really insightful. She said, if we don't choose for ourselves where we show up and lean in and get close, other people will.

And if we don't choose to be present For the moments we truly care about, our lives could spin on distractions and interruptions until the day that we die. Here's what she's saying. If you don't decide what your future's gonna look like, someone else will.

If you don't know exactly how to use your time wisely and the best way to use it, then you're just gonna end up guessing and essentially wasting your time with entertainment. And so you have to follow the process I'm gonna share with you right now. If you wanna maximize your life and your time. So I'm gonna go through the 5-step process that has radically changed and improved my life.

And it starts with number one, prioritize. Here's a reality. Prioritizing will help you live your best life possible. Here's the thing. If you visualize but you don't prioritize, you might visualize yourself having all this career success and driving a Lamborghini and having a huge home or whatever it is. And if you lose your family or lose your character, lose your soul, well, what good is it?

So this is why you have to think about that. For myself, I'm very conscious. Number 1 is my faith. Number 2 is my family. Number 3 is my fitness and my health. Number 4 is my financial, my finances and my leadership and my business life. And number 5 is my free time, really, you know, vacations and recreation. And, and, and those are the 5 things I want to focus and give time to. The most.

And, and so, and in order to really bless those things and for them to flourish, I need to give them time. I need to give them focus, and I need to give them sometimes investment, but generally I need to give them time, focus more than anything. And so when you're prioritizing, you need to think about what matters most in your life.

You know, if you get to the end of your life and you had a successful career, but you, but your kids don't, you have a terrible relationship with them, was it worth it? You need to answer that question today. This is something almost nobody does in our society today. We are so, in America, in the Western world, economics is our god. Money is our god, the god of mammon.

And so we are very, very focused on more money, more money, more money, more money. We gotta all keep up with the Joneses. You know, I had this conversation with some people about, and by the way, this is a very sensitive subject, uh, that, that, that is regarding parents.

And I've done an episode not too long ago on daycare and if parents, uh, specifically more often the mom staying home with the kids and, and, and what some of the neuro— what some of the psychological and mental health repercussions are for that. But all this comes down to, I'm not gonna open this up right now.

You can go back and watch that episode, but thinking about prioritizing what matters most in your life. Okay. And to what degree. Because I would argue that, you know, that oftentimes kids would be better off if the family had less money and they had more time with their parents, right? That was probably a pretty good argument. I think the science would justify me in saying that.

I know it would because I've read it all. And I would also say that the Bible and other ancient texts and general life, the wisest people who've ever lived would also prove my point on that. And so you just need to make sure that you get your priorities right. No, this is What I want to have in life. I want to have a close-knit relationship to God and make an eternal impact.

That I want to have a really close-knit family where my kids all want to come home for holidays and we have a deep, great relationship and I can sow into their life. I want to be healthy when I'm in my 80s and running around with my grandkids, still working out. You know? So picture that, know that what those things are, rank them, and there are sometimes trade-offs. Here's the reality.

You can't spend one, like, Even though I might, to a degree, at some point spend all day with my daughter, that's not realistic because I do have to provide. And I also do know I'm called to do something. God has called me to do something with my life. And so of course, but there does need to be a ranking order of what's most important.

So sometimes when you have to make those decisions, you make the right one. Here's the reality. Prioritizing requires sacrifice. There are certain things you'll have to say no to. The only way to experience long-term success is to sacrifice short-term comfort. If you want to be physically healthy, you need to work out.

You need to eat healthy, you know, a superfood smoothie rather than having the donut you might rather have. So even those are more, even though those are more comfortable, they're not going to lead to long-term success. And the only way to do that is to say no to the good. And yes to the great.

Now, of course, it's obvious saying no to the bad, but even saying no to the good and saying, what are just the great things in life that are, are gonna help me get to where I want to be 10 years from now and do only those things. The things that you prioritize matter most.

And again, for me and for a lot of you, if you are, if your mindset is really based on biblical truths and truths of the wisest people that have ever lived, even a lot of the, the, you know, the Greek philosophers. It's going to be your faith, your family, your fitness, your finances/work/career life, and the things you really wanna do in your free time to enjoy life.

Again, everything from pickleball to working out to paddleboarding to lunch with a best friend, you know, walking in nature, but thinking about those things and prioritizing it. Now, I created something called a priorities target I have in my book called Think This, Not That.

And if you think about it, this is something that Aristotle used as a term, uh, when he talked about our priorities and what matters most is he used it as sort of an archery term in terms of, are you living your best life possible? Are you where you want to be? And he'd say, if you miss the mark, uh, and this is really tied to, by the way, your character or virtue.

So if you are being loving, are you hitting the mark or are you far off or are you hating other people or being mean or negative all the time? And this is also a biblical idea of archery. In fact, the word sin in the Bible actually means missing the mark. Do you know that? Isn't that amazing? Missing the mark. So it's an archery term. So how are you doing in those 5 or 6 areas of life?

Like, how are you doing in your family life right now? If I would ask you your relationship with your spouse and with your kids, if you're married, or if you're just dating, or if you're not, maybe it's your parents. Okay. Or siblings. But where are you at right now in your family? Okay. Are you hitting a bullseye? Are you outside the zone? Are you far off? Are you missing the target altogether?

Or where are you at on a scale of 1 to 10? Rank yourself. And I would encourage you to do this exercise right after this podcast, right after the show. Do this. Where do you rank right now on a scale of 10, of 1 to 10 in your family? Where are you at in your faith life? You know, where, how are you hitting the mark there? Where are you at in your fitness and health?

Where are you, where are you at in your finances and work? Where are you at in your free time? And to throw one other on there, where are you at in your character, who you are as a person? And you want to be hitting a bullseye in all of those areas and focusing on all those areas. Now, I'll find some time for you if you're like, well, I don't have time to work on all those areas.

Well, hey, cut out maybe the 5 hours of TV or even 1 hour, 2 hours of the TV, and I guarantee you can hit the bullseye in almost all of these areas or get a lot closer. So number 1, pay attention to how you currently spend your time each day. Make a list of what you do when you've got some free time and estimate how much time they take.

Number 2, write down a list of the top 5 things that are the most important to you. How do your 2 lists compare? Okay, so again, think about this. The first list is write down how you spend your time now, all your hours. Like how much time are you spending on your faith? How much time with your family? How much time on social media? Or watching TV. Okay?

And by the way, don't count TV time unless you're watching a movie and your arm's around your spouse and your kids and you're, you know, whatever. It's like a family movie with popcorn on the couch. Maybe count that. But generally, the first— count up how many hours you're spending on different things in the day and then write down your top 5 list of what you want it to look like.

And you'll see from this list, most of us are not spending near enough time focusing on our priorities. And it's so important to be aware of what are you neglecting and what do you need to spend more time doing? Number 3, eliminate the wasteful activities and block off dedicated time for what matters most in your life. Now, the next thing I wanna share with you is visualization.

So step 1 is prioritize. Step 2 is visualize. And I wanna share with you a story that this is a turning point of, I feel like my life and Chelsea's life in a way, uh, in, in really a positive, a positive way. So Chelsea and I got married. Down the same place we got engaged. It's in 30A, areas known as Seaside or slash Watercolor, Florida. And, uh, and we got married down there.

And then afterwards we did a little honeymoon, mini honeymoon. And if you've ever been to Seaside, it's one of those little white cottages right on the beach. We did a 3-day honeymoon there. And the first day we rented these bikes and we, we, we went all around this neighborhood.

It's got 1,000+ homes in this Watercolor area and And when we got back to the house, I said, hey, Chelsea, would you want to do a vision board? And she said, yeah. So we started talking about our life. And again, imagine this is the day after we got married. So we were having a great time doing this, talking about places we wanted to go in the future and our dreams and all kinds of things.

And one of the things we said, and part of the reason we were down there, we said, wouldn't it be awesome to eventually have a home down here? Because we love the area, we love the beaches, so much about it. And I said, okay, we're gonna put that on the vision board. And so we wrote down this whole list.

And then when we got back to Nashville, I went and looked up pictures online based on all the things we had visualized and talked about. And one of those things I, I looked up, I did a Google search for homes in watercolor Florida on 30A, and a picture came up of a home. Now, I'd never seen the home before, but it was a really nice one and I thought, this is a great home.

So put it up on the vision board, a picture of it. I went and actually laminated these pictures, put 'em up on a cork board. And then 5 years later, maybe 6, well, maybe 6 years later, Chelsea and I are down there vacationing with her parents. And we're going around and we're looking at lots and we notice there's only a couple lots left.

And there's this one lot that was like our dream lot we loved. And I turned to my father-in-law and I said, hey, we can't afford this now, but it's on our vision board. But what if we went on a house together? And he said, well, let me talk to Sherry about it. We were all there together. They talked about it, and the next day they're like, hey, we, we can do this. We'd love to do it.

And so we went and made an offer. We're able to buy this lot down there, build a, build our dream home. Now, now let me back up here. We bought these, we buy this lot. And I'm back in Nashville then after we buy this lot and, um, I'm looking at my vision board. And I thought, there's something so familiar about this picture now that's on my vision board.

And I realized that the lot we bought was next to the home on my vision board where you could see half of the lot. And I had never noticed it before until after we bought the lot. And listen, there are thousands of homes in this area, thousands. And yet the one I put on my vision board, the one that Chelsea and I had been praying for. Was literally the lot that we bought. How crazy is that?

There is something powerful, even maybe supernatural about when you visualize and also ask God and invite him into your vision and goal setting process. But again, we were able to build this home. Uh, it was a dream home. We had it for years and absolutely loved it. And, uh, really that vision. Turned into reality. But we followed a whole process for that.

I'm gonna walk you through here in a minute of how that dream even turned into reality even more so. I wanna share something else I think's really fascinating about vision. There, there's a study done on visualizing on basketball players, and they put basketball players in 3 groups. Number, the first group, they had the group practice free throws for 20 minutes a day.

Another group didn't practice at all. A third group only visualized shooting free throws without physically touching a ball. Group 1 had a 24% improvement. Group 2 showed no improvement, as you would think. Here's the crazy part. The group that visualized shooting without actually shooting a free throw improved by 23%. You know, we also see this in the Bible.

You know, we, we see this with Abraham where, where God basically says at various times, like, look at the stars in the sky, Abraham. Look at the sand on the seashore. So numerous your descendants shall be. God uses visualization throughout the Bible. Science proves the power of visualization. We know that it works. And here's the thing I want to mention.

The first step in visualization is deciding what you truly want. What do you really want in life and what will truly fulfill you? I can tell you this. Just having a big home and a lot of recognition and a successful career, that will not fulfill you alone. You need to make sure that what, what, here's what will truly fulfill you.

Having a deep intimate relationship with God, having a great relationship with your core family and friends, and then using your unique gifts God has given you to do good, the greatest good you can in the world. If you do that and maximize those things, You're going to live a fulfilling life.

You wanna think through your ideal outcome and make sure it aligns as well with your purpose and your priorities, as I mentioned. Now, here's how to visualize. Number 1, get in a quiet place free of distractions. Number 2, think of your life in these following areas that we talked about: your faith, your fitness, your finances/work, your fa— your, um, Family and your free time.

And so, and by the way, I used to do this. I remember before I married Chelsea, I would picture this beautiful blonde girl and we were in a lake house together cuz I was always, we, we grew up water skiing and I, I could see her turn around and look at me. I smiled back at her. We had 2 little kids running around. We were water skiing all day. So I, I really visualized and saw this.

Can I tell you, it's so amazing. I married Chelsea. Chelsea's parents grew up on a lake and were big-time water skiers, and so were my family. So there were little things like that, but I got even more than I'd, you know, had prayed for and hoped for. But that being said, again, you want to visualize something. What's the house you're in? What are you smelling?

You know, everything about that scene, you want to picture it really clearly. And that's really step number 3 is you want to sit in that comfortable position with your eyes closed and create that mental picture in great detail in those different areas of your life.

Now, I wanna mention something else I do, and this is optional, but what I do, I picture this ideal future and then I also say, God, what is the future that you have for me? Is it different than this? Is it better than this? Can you let me see what your ideal future for me looks like? What, what does a future look like that really aligns with your values, your word, and your will?

And, and I ask for that new mental vision. And then the next thing I do is I write down the vision that I have. You know, one of the things I love about actually writing down your goals and putting up your visions on a vision board is it becomes more embedded in your nervous system. You'll remember it more.

Studies show that simply displaying goals increases your recall by up to 80% in 3 hours and 65% Higher after 3 days. And so when those are up, those pictures, those goals, you see them regularly, it keeps it more top of mind and they're more likely to happen. I also mentioned when it comes to vision, there are so many verses about vision in the Bible and about writing things down.

And some of this were for the prophets, but I think it's for us today as well. Habakkuk 2:2-3 says, then the Lord replied, write down the revelation And make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits on appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and not delay.

Now, I know that this is a bit of a different context than for what we're doing exactly, but I do want to say I think there are biblical principles in visualization and writing things down. And then running with these things in order for them to turn into a reality. Step 3, after you prioritize and visualize, is you need to strategize.

Write down the specific actions you need to take in order to turn that vision into reality. And a Stanford study found that students who have a strategic mindset perform nearly 30% better than those that don't. So again, if you have a strategic mindset and you're a planner, you're going to get 30% better results likely in life, I believe. Now here's how to do it. Start with the end in mind.

You have your vision, so exact, and then you have a goal written down that goes along with that vision, and then you reverse engineer the process. Let's say for instance, you say to yourself, I want to be fit in my 70s and 80s and 90s and beyond. Well, then write down a fitness plan. Write down, okay, what, what does the ideal person do who's gonna be fit at those ages?

Okay, well, I need to weight train 3 days a week. I need to do 1 day of sort of more intense cardio, and I need to walk a lot daily. Okay, I need to walk at least 1 mile a day, and then I'm gonna do 3 or 4 miles on the weekends. Something like that. Writing it down really specifically what you need to do, what foods you should eat, what are the best foods for longevity, right?

Yeah.

Doing a lot of berries, doing a lot of vegetables, doing a lot of organ meats and omega-3 fatty acids and bone broth. Like what, what is your ideal diet for hitting that in the end? So you wanna be very step-by-step focused in creating a plan.

So I mentioned when Chelsea and I were able to buy that home, it's because, or when we did it with my in-laws, it's because we decided we were going to save so much of the income we were bringing in. And so, we said, okay, we're going to take, you know, this many dollars a month, invest it into a, you know, the stock market or real estate or whatever, and see it multiply over time.

And by the end, by the time we got to that about 6 years later, we had more than we even thought. And we were able to get the home even earlier than we thought, thanks to the help of our in-laws and sharing the home down there. But all that being said, we still had a plan. In order to turn that vision and dream into reality, you know I found that strategy is so important.

You know, in terms of any business success I've had at growing Dr. Axe.com or Ancient Nutrition or even my podcast here, I'm very, very strategic in doing that. For instance, when I create this podcast, here's the way I think about it: What are the most transformative things that I could teach? And I start making a list of that to start, and I think about okay, so I really want to help people.

Grow in body, mind, spirit. Okay, what are first— what are the body areas I want to help people grow in? Well, I want to teach people about longevity and vitamins and minerals and how to overcome certain diseases and the dangers of certain types of toxins in our environment and medications. And so, you know, and so I have that list.

And then I think about, okay, well, now I'm going to have a list of maybe things regarding psychology, you know, how to help kids, uh, you know, create a healthier mindset, really getting into the psychology today of overcoming mental health disorders and, and how to grow personally and then, and then how to grow spiritually.

So, so I have those things written down and then I strategize, well, how do I create a great show or create great content?

Well, I'm going to spend, you know, so many hours a week looking at the medical studies and pulling research and then working with, you know, our producer Ashley and getting into, hey, hey, you know, what are some of the best quotes of people And I, I mentioned studies and some of the principles we need to cover, and then we create show notes and I'm able to record a show from that.

So my point is, and by the way, a very, very similar principle in growing my clinic, draxe.com, Ancient Nutrition, other businesses I'm a part of. I am very, very strategic of how do we go from here to here.

You know, draxe.com, when I grew that website, first I went from zero followers to the the number one most visited natural health website because I said, okay, if we're going to be the best, we need to put out 30 pieces of content a week. So nearly 4 new things a day. So we did 2 articles a day, 1— or no, 3 articles a day, 1 recipe, and then I did, I did a video every other day.

And so anyways, there's a very specific strategy for that to happen. Now after you strategize, step number 4 is systematize. What is your exact system that you're gonna have that it's going to allow you to turn, you know, take that strategy and make it applicable? You know, really systems are habits. They're the same thing. Businesses, we call 'em systems.

Person, when it comes to people, we tend to call those more habits. You know what, something I've noticed is the people that are most successful in this life, most of them have very similar habits. You know, like I'll give a, give you example of 2 people.

Yeah.

I've, I've, I, I wrote about in my book. One is Mark Wahlberg, another is Carrie Underwood. And I know they have very strict routines. They both work out. They both spend time in prayer and reading and growing their Bible. They both spend time eating a really healthy breakfast. They both spend a lot of time with their family. They both go to church on Sunday.

They both have small— I mean, they, they, they have very, very similar things they do. Now, Mark Wahlberg, Mark Zuckerberg wakes up at 4:00 AM every morning, and Carrie Underwood probably wakes up closer to 7:00 AM.

And so not everything's exactly the same, but they have very, very similar, they're very habitual and have very, very specific habits that allow, have allowed them to achieve a high level of success.

And for you, I'd ask you this, what are your habits and your systems that you have in your life that are allowing you to accomplish your goals, that are allowing you to become a certain type of person? You wanna make sure you have those. And really what, what, what a system is, is you have your strategy in order to, you know, make, make your vision a reality and you create a system for that.

So for instance, Chelsea and I automatically had so much money come out of my paycheck. That was a system that, that went towards this future home fund. You know, if you wanna be healthy, I have a daily habit of wanting to be in my 90s and still playing with my grandkids. And I have a specific breakfast I eat, a superfood longevity shake that will help me do that.

I have a specific workout routine with a lot of walking and swimming and cycling and weight training that will help me do that. So I have very specific things and habits. I want to have a close relationship with God. So I have, there are things I have to do that. So systematizing is very, very important that you just, you have things plugged in your schedule.

That so you're automatically going to do them. Now I wanna share a little bit more, some secrets I have for systematizing. Number one, I have a weekly war plan based on something called timeboxing. Now, according to a study, timeboxing is the most productive time management technique compared to 100 other methods. And so how you timebox is this.

You write, you, you basically, you look at your schedule each week. And you write down, for instance, like I try and I try and do things in basically 2 blocks. So, for instance, the mornings I might record my videos and prepare my— prepare and record my videos and content. And then maybe in the afternoons I do my meetings or vice versa.

But I, but I really kind of have those blocks and then I don't do anything else. So if I'm, if I'm preparing a, a podcast episode, I'm not checking my email. Or answering the phone or doing other things during that time. I'm only doing that one thing, and that's called timeboxing.

And then plugging in timeboxing for your entire week and having that plan before the week starts, that's called a weekly war plan. Those 2 things together are the, by far, the most effective way to get things done. Now I want to talk about the next thing, really creating a plan for growth as well. You want to grow and get things done. You also want to grow your character. Here's what I tell you.

Pick 1 to 2 areas you desire to grow in, such as leadership, character, time management, self-confidence, spiritually, or as we talked about in the video I did on growing in virtue and character, maybe it's in wisdom, in courage, or compassion, or generosity. But writing that down and focusing on growing in those areas. But what I do is I typically pick just 1 or 2 total.

So right now I'm studying a lot of church history. That's the biggest thing I'm focused on is growing in my knowledge and wisdom of what did the ancient saints do and the church today. And so I'm spending a lot of time reading and listening to things. I'm also doing a Bible study on Romans, and then I'm studying a lot about longevity medicine. Okay.

So really it's, it's, I'm studying kind of like ancient Christian religion and I'm studying longevity so that I'm putting so much time and focus and effort on those 2 things. So then knowing that, here's an example. If you, the greatest way to grow is immersing yourself fully in a topic.

So if I want to grow in my wisdom and knowledge of church history, I'm right now listening to an audiobook on church history. And then I've got I've just listened to about 7 other books before that on it. I'm watching YouTube videos on it. I'm watching documentaries on TV about it. And I am, so I'm submerging myself in that.

And then sometimes on even Instagram, like I'll follow the accounts that will have favorite famous quotes from certain saints and learning, continuing to learn more. So I'm fully immersing myself. What most people do is you kind of cherry-pick, I'll learn about this. And this and this and this. But if you want to grow in your career or your life in an area, you want to go as deep as possible.

So try and do that if you can and devote at least 2 hours a week, if not an hour a day, to growing in those areas. And, um, the other thing you want to do is, like, for instance, if you want to grow deep, list the resources. So what are the books you need to read to grow in that area? What are the podcasts you need to listen to? What are the conferences you need to go to?

Are there other people you could spend time with where discuss these things that's gonna help you flourish in these areas? And then again, as I mentioned, timeboxing with your schedule, such a great way to grow. One other area I wanna mention, a system that I think will really help you break through in your life, a system is doing something I call stop, start, keep.

And this is really powerful for your, like, let me give you an example of how I've done this in business. I will write down what do I need to stop doing? What do I need to start doing? What do I need to keep doing? So what do I need to stop doing?

So years ago I wrote down I need to stop spending so much time creating infographics, and I need to spend so much— stop spending so much time answering emails, and I need to spend— stop spending so much time going and finding guests myself. Like, I need to hire and work with team members who help me do this or who, who fully do it. And so those are things I stopped doing.

What do I need to start doing? I need to st— start blocking out more time to just read and learn and grow. Okay? So I have that. And then what should I keep doing? Okay. I need to keep doing the research, working on podcast episodes because I'm really excited about how much it's growing and how well it's doing. So things like that.

So write down, and similar thing in a relationship, what do you need to stop doing in your marriage? Okay. Being critical, being resentful, saying something, do it, you know, and what do you need to start doing? Surprising your spouse, going on a weekly date night. So, so do that exercise. Stop, start, keep.

And then I wanna walk you through this entire process of what I call visualization to realization. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see this graphic. I specifically put this graphic in my book and I think it helps sum, sum of this up so well. So first is prioritize.

Really think about which one of those areas, whether it's faith or family, let's use family as an example of what you wanna focus on. The next is visualize. So let's say you wanna visualize a great family life. Okay, well, visualize every detail of what that looks like with your spouse, with your kids, and then write down goals as part of the vision of maybe what would that look like?

The next is strategize. Now, part of the way that I strategize is I do something called first principles, where I write down, in order to have a great family life, what are all the critical components that would allow for me to have a great family life? It's very similar to Elon Musk when he built a rocket.

He said, what are all of the critical parts in order to make a rocket, in, in order for it to fly, in order to turn that dream and, and vision into, into a reality? So ex— for example, if you wanna have a a great family life according to studies and history, here's a few things you need to have. Meaningful family traditions. Create meaningful moments and traditions in your family.

Maybe it's holding your hand, holding each other's hands and praying together at family dinner. Maybe it's, uh, like at Christmas, like we'll go and we always pick a tree together and decorate it while we're praying Christmas music, while the fire's on. You know, and then we'll read the Christmas story together. And of course, then we'll watch the Christmas Story movie.

And, or actually we, we tend to watch Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation actually. But, uh, we have these really meaningful Christmas traditions and, or fam— just, sorry, just meaningful family traditions. And then another thing you need to have for a great family life is a community of purpose.

Like Chelsea and I are, Chelsea and I are committed to hanging out with other virtuous couples like Sean and Andrew East or Stephanie and Isaac Meek, or Dan and Amanda Sullivan or Colton and Amanda Morton, just people that are virtuous and great, Jordan and Nikki Rubin, but spending time with those sorts of people. The next thing is religious attendance, going to church.

And for us, it's not just really a Sunday thing. It's also exposing ourselves to those sort of things on a regular basis, but it's religious attendance. Date nights, you know, a date night a week will keep the marriage sweet. So Chelsea and I taking that Thursday night or Friday night and every week, Going on a date night, teaching a growth mindset to our kids.

You know, we applaud them not for being— we never would say they're perfect. We would never just say, hey, you're smart. We say, you know what? Or we may say you're smart, but rarely. For the most part, we say, great job with your work ethic. You tried really hard. Hey, you were kind. Good job, Arwen, for being kind. Hey, great job sharing. Thank you for being such a good helper.

We praise her character of our kids. The next thing for a great family life might be a virtuous education, making sure that where you're sending your kids, they're learning values and virtues and truth that they're gonna use in the real world. And then family dinners, as I mentioned.

So that's what a strategy would look like, is you're writing down all the critical components to help create a great family life. And you can get more detailed this with individual kids and your spouse, but this is one example. And then systematize it. So for instance, every Sunday from at 10:00 AM, you do church, and then right afterwards you do family brunch.

And then Mondays you do family dinner. Tuesdays, maybe that's a day where you attend sports together, and then you have a family teaching, and then there's date nights, and then there's game nights, and there's maybe a family workout once a week. But write down What are some things that you could do as a family weekly that would really move the needle in creating a great family life?

And then here's the last thing from that is realize. You're realizing and experiencing a great family life, but maybe you're saying, okay, this is really good family life, but certain areas need to get better. Well, then go back to the process. Visualize, strategize, systematize, and see then if you realize that beautiful family life that you've really hoped and dreamed for.

In that way, but this is a process that has impacted my life in such a I can't even tell you how positive it's been. And following this process again, number one: What are your greatest priorities in life? What do you truly want? What will make you truly happy? Number two: Visualize it specifically and invite God in that process, and then write the goal with that.

Number three: Write down the strategy. What are all the critical components? Number four: What are the habits and systems you need to put in place to create a great Faith or family life or fitness or finances. And number 5, realize that reality. And I hope it blesses you, uh, or, or adjust along the way and improve it.

And so I would encourage you, take a look at this graphic and apply it to your life. Take time right now, follow the steps here. Remember, the fortune is in the follow-through. Thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Where each and every week I'm diving deep into the principles of how to grow in body, mind, and spirit, and take your health and life to the next level.

Also, make sure to subscribe, like, and share, and I'll see you on the next episode. By the way, I wanna say thank you to all of you who are subscribing. I can't believe how many more people you're continuing to subscribe, and so many people are sharing. I've noticed on social media people saying, hey, I had a friend share this with me and it impacted my life in a positive way.

So just know, every time you're subscribing, liking, commenting, leaving a review, or sharing, you are helping on this mission. We're in this together to help transform people, body, mind, spirit, and make the earth a heavenly place. Thanks so much for being part of the show and mission. I'll see you on the next episode.