[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. You are in for a treat today, especially if you’re like me and you want to perform at your best, and you know about visualization. Maybe you’ve tried it, but you’re not quite sure if you’re doing it right or if you’re getting the most out of it. Today’s guest is Nike’s first-ever mental fitness trainer. She is a two-time TEDx speaker, one of the UK’s leading mental fitness and visualization experts, and she’s the author of the brand new book, Visualize: Think, Feel, Perform Like the Top 1%, and she works with world-class athletes and entrepreneurs to help them do exactly that.

And today, she’s going to teach you and me the five types of visualization that will enable us to perform and to feel at our best. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to the one and only Maya Raichoora. Enjoy!

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Maya, it is so great to be with you today.

Maya Raichoora: I am super excited. Hello.

Hal Elrod: So, it’s our first time meeting. However, you are a fan of The Miracle Morning. I am a fan of you and your TED Talks and how you approach visualization, specifically. I also really like your talk on mental fitness. We’ll talk about that today. But you got a book coming out called Visualize, right?

Maya Raichoora: Yes.

Hal Elrod: How is that? Your first book? This is your first book, correct?

Maya Raichoora: Yes. My first one, yes.

Hal Elrod: How are you feeling?

Maya Raichoora: Yeah, really good. When I first got asked to write the book, I think, well, it was never really part of the plan. So, I was like, “Oh gosh, can I even do this?” But I told myself that writing this book is important for two reasons. One, it means that I can get better at my craft because I think like when you have to write a book, you really have to think, “I am teaching this to others.”

Hal Elrod: You can’t ramble in a book the way that you do on stage.

Maya Raichoora: No. And it’s out there, right? It’s not just like a piece of content that people just forget, like it’s really out there. But the second thing is, and I’m sure we’ll go into this, I think visualization is a word a lot of people can use and they think they know a lot about it, but I think there’s so much we don’t know, whether it’s where it comes from, how to use it. And so, for me, it was a really great opportunity to contribute something else to this space. And even since people have been reading it, like in the UK, that’s really something that stands out as like, “Oh, I never knew this,” or, “Oh, I didn’t realize I could use it in this way.” And that’s what really excites me.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I love you really niching down as like an expert in this topic. Before we started recording, I was saying that the acronym that I teach in my book, SAVERS, the V is for visualization, and it is my weakest link. Like, it’s the one I struggle with the most. And after watching your TED Talks and learning about you, like not only did you use visualization, which I’m going to ask you to share here in a second, but to turn your health around, right? But then you like went on a deep dive and started studying everything about visualization, and now you’re working with top performers in all of these industries on that specific topic and how to use visualization to create the life that you want, essentially.

So, let’s start there. Really intrigued by your story. So, share how visualization became a part of your life organically, and then how do you teach it to people that’s effective for them?

Maya Raichoora: Yeah. So, I guess quite a long story short is I used to play badminton pretty high level, and I was also quite high achieving. But then, when I was about 15, I was diagnosed with something called ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease, but it’s incurable. And I think when you are young and you’ve got your world at your feet and you have massive futures. It’s exciting. But this disease really just changed all of that.

Hal Elrod: What age was that, by the way?

Maya Raichoora: Say that again? That was about 15.

Hal Elrod: You were 15 years old when you were diagnosed. Okay.

Maya Raichoora: Yes. And I was told that actually it’s a very common disease, and you just have to live your life in periods of being very ill and then being in remission. And it’s like, well, okay, I just decided to take that as the truth. But really, the disease was so aggressive that on my worst days, I was going to the loo maybe 30, 40 times a day. I’m on 60 tablets a day. My confidence, it didn’t even exist. I didn’t feel like human. I was having accidents in my classrooms, like the things I think humans will take for granted, like walking, like going to the loo, like having a drink of water. All these little things were torture for me, and I found it really difficult to just live in the world because I didn’t know how to just be without faking things. And that in itself adds so much shame and it’s tiring.

And so, I went through a lot of this for maybe like three, four, four and a half years of my life, so in and out the hospital, like always dealing with this every day. And then there was this time in hospital where I’d got into uni. So, I got my grades, I was going to Bristol, but I couldn’t go because I was too unwell. And this nurse, she was like, “Oh, Maya, if you weren’t in hospital laying here, where would you be?” And I would’ve been at uni. But for me, I was so bitter about that. I was like, “Well, my life has ended because I can’t do normal stuff.” And I remember getting so angry at her. And then when she left the room, I guess I just closed my eyes for that one moment, and I thought, “Well, okay, if I wasn’t here, where would I actually be?”

And before even going to uni, because that was too far away, I just wanted to walk again, like feeling healthy without any pain. And so, that’s when I started mentally rehearsing. So, my first introduction to visualization was by chance, and it was all prompted by one question, but I used it to see myself walking, showing my mind and body that this is possible. And it’s only now that I realize they use this for stroke victims or people who are recovering from surgery because it can speed up your healing process. And then, like you said, when I gained a little bit of strength and left hospital, I was like something. Something worked for me, and I need to know. There was like a niggle.

And I guess what chance turned into passion. Passion then turned into obsession. And now, eight years later, I don’t know anyone who is 27 that has become so obsessed with the technique or visualization specifically, that now can teach it in five different ways. And so, when you mentioned, “How are you teaching it to other people?” I think for me, I don’t like how we talk about mental health or training the mind. It’s so reactive, and you have to be upset or broken. And so, I want to flip the script. Let’s treat ourselves like athletes. They use it to get sharper, better, more confident. Why don’t we do the same? And visualization is extremely versatile, and that’s what I think we don’t know enough about.

So, I teach outcome, process, negative, creative, and explorative visualization, all from different places, different people, and all for different reasons. And so, together, it’s like a really great toolbox for your mental fitness.

Hal Elrod: Wow. So, I’m intrigued. So, there are these five different approaches to visualization, and so, yeah. I want to unpack these. Yeah, let’s go through these and at a first, at a high level, are these five different techniques that you might use at different times for different purposes? Are they five techniques that you would approach like one goal with all five techniques? Like, I really want to understand how these are used, and then we can unpack them individually.

Maya Raichoora: Yeah. So, outcome visualization I would say is the most common. So, this is what most people associate with, where you are seeing your goals, right? You’re seeing it in advance. You are feeling it, you’re seeing yourself there, and it really gives your brain hope, motivation, and I think this is where people use it for not only their goals, but athletes will use it to see themselves winning or things like that. Then we have process visualization. Now, this has nothing to do with the outcome. This is about a task or an activity or a performance. So, whether it’s public speaking, whether it’s your golf swing, whether it’s just visualizing your day, what it does is it becomes muscle memory then for the brain.

And so, like public speaking is a good example where, before every event, I will mentally rehearse that speech or that keynote maybe 5, 10 times, so that when I’m there, my brain’s like, “Cool. I’ve done this before.” Now, process visualization is so, so advantageous for any type of performance. It’s brilliant. Then you’ve got negative. Now, negative, I do not teach this to everyone because if your brain is already negatively wired, then it’s going to make you more anxious. And interestingly, most people are going to be negatively visualizing all day. They see worst-case scenarios, but where it’s useful is you can actually use it to then see how you’d overcome them. You’d see how you may push through it and therefore gain your resilience.

Then we have creative. This comes from medicine, so it’s really good for injury, disease, and also managing emotions. It’s very playful, very playful. It’s where you make your emotions characters or shapes, and you use it to then dissolve them. And then we have explorative. And this comes from Walt Disney/Einstein. And your brain is like a whiteboard. So, you use it to problem solve, create new ideas. So, let’s say if I’m thinking of a speech, I will use explorative visualization to actually think of the ideas. I did it with my book. So, it’s a great way to tap into a different part of your brain. You wouldn’t use these all the time together. I’d say you want a non-negotiable, and I’d say the best non-negotiable is outcome.

You see your character, your goals, process, you see your day, or also like maybe you’ve got an event coming up, and then you always finish with a nice creative gratitude. That is, I’d say, the best mental fitness routine. And then you can use the others sporadically.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, I love that. And I personally only teach the two, so the first two. So, I typically teach the first one as the only one that most people teach, right, the outcome. It’s like visualize yourself crossing the finish line or winning, or make a vision board of all your dreams, right? And I find that can be counterproductive if that’s all you do, because you’re tricking your brain into thinking, “It’s a foregone conclusion.” You’re like, “Oh, I’ve seen it so many times.” I just know. It creates a false sense of confidence. I know it’s going to happen. It’s like, “Well, what are you doing every day to make sure you train for that?” Well, nothing but I visualize and I have it on my vision board, right?

And so, I always say the second one to me is the most important. And I’m actually really now realizing there are these three others that I’m going to have to learn. But the process, right? And I call it mental rehearsal. I love that you’re using that language because that’s how athletes do it. It’s like, “Okay, if you want to achieve that goal that you visualize that outcome, now you have to mentally rehearse doing the thing today, going for the run, making the cold calls.” Like, the thing that’s out of your comfort zone, you have to mentally rehearse doing it today so that you can create a compelling emotional state so that when it’s time to go for the run, open your computer, pick up the phone, you’ve already gone there in your mind, in your emotions, so that you can go there in real time.

Maya Raichoora: And just to note, like on a very practical level as well, if you look at the world we live in, we are so distracted all the time. You pick up your phone and it’s like, “Okay, I’m now on another thing.” You get a notification. And so, the brain, it will respond to what your inputs are. So, if you are telling it, “Hey, this activity is important to me,” and even if it’s just seeing yourself, putting your trainers on, and going outside, unless you actually prime it and be proactive with those images you’re giving it, it is going to get so distracted. It’s going to be like, “Fine. Well, that activity is not important to me, so instead I’ll just sit on the sofa.” And that’s why even on a very practical level, in the busy world we live in, it is so important to give your brain the right inputs and signals. That’s where we get a really good relationship with it, so you can actually trust it as well.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. Thoughts create emotions, which then influence the actions that we take, which create our results. You said something that I wanted to have you expand on. Oh, no, I wanted to ask you this. When do you visualize? Is this a morning practice? Is this as needed? Is this evening? Is it all? When do you visualize?

Maya Raichoora: Yeah. So, morning is when I would do my biggest visualization, and I visualize for about maybe 40 minutes a day, but you don’t need that. At the beginning, you want at least like maybe seven to eight minutes. And that’s really great, and repetition is key. But then if, let’s say, I get angry during the day or I’m feeling like I’ve got a particular performance coming up, then I’ll just do it for like a few minutes beforehand. But my main one is in the morning. And that’s also because when you’ve just woken up, your brain is it’s in that hazy state where your subconscious is very suggestive. So, the more you can give those images and signals then, the more you’re going to prime your day well.

But what I would say is if you want to do it at night, it’s also okay because neuroplasticity works when you are sleeping, that’s when your brain rewires. The only reason it’s not the greatest is because if you’re sometimes visualizing your goals and you really feel that emotion, you may not feel that tired after. You may want to just go and do stuff. So, that’s why I suggest doing it in the morning, but even like a small practice before you go to bed, and athletes with them, I definitely tell them to mentally rehearse their performances just before they go to bed. So, if they’ve got a match the next day, process visualization is so good to do before you go to bed because the brain will then continue to see that performance whilst it’s sleeping.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. And an example I give of that is like if you watch a scary movie before bed, and then you will have a nightmare because of that, that shows the power of what you prime your subconscious with before you fall asleep. Your subconscious works on it all night long. Right? And I think at the very least, I always say visualize or think of what you’re grateful for. Like, last night, and I do this a lot, where last night I was like, “What a great day. I connected with the three most important people in my life: my wife, my daughter, and my son.” And I just literally visualized, I replayed the images of what I did with my wife, with my daughter, with my son that day, and I went to bed just feeling really happy and fulfilled, right?

Yeah. So, I think bookending your days with visualization, even if it’s different types, maybe in the morning it’s more like creative and what you’re going to do for the day, and then at night it could be reflective, right? But either way, I think it’s so important. I just want to say to anybody listening right now or watching this, Maya has a book that goes in-depth on this. And in case you don’t make it until the end of the podcast for any reason, go pick up her book. It’s on Amazon right now, or wherever books are sold. It’s Visualize: Think, Feel, Perform Like the Top 1%. And the reason I’m excited to share that is because I’m just listening to you, Maya. I’m like, “This is brilliant.”

I’ve already pre-ordered the book. This is a topic that, again, like I said, I visualize every day, and I’m pretty proficient. But your level of depth and expertise is going to help me take it to the next level in my own life. So, thank you for the work that you’re doing. I’ll just say that right now.

Maya Raichoora: No. Thank you. And I think that’s the joy of it, though, right, is that when I started this, a lot of people used to say, “Oh, why don’t you do meditation and breath work?” And I was like, “Oh my gosh, you’re so right.” But I think I told myself like, “Maya, if you, for the next 10 years, dedicate yourself to knowing as much as you can about this technique from literally the 1900s to like the Stoics doing it, just imagine the knowledge you could share here.” But also, the main thing is, can you practice it? Can you practice what you preach? Because I think it’s so easy to share all these tools and techniques, but ultimately the best thing for your mental fitness is do it. Like, do it and then tell me if it works or doesn’t.

And I think that’s really important because it’s so easy to just be like, “Yeah, I know this is good for me. I know I should do this in the morning.” But if you don’t do it, then you won’t see those changes, and that’s why I say, even if you just do one minute a day, one minute, but you do that for 30 days, that’s going to be so much more effective than an hour every month. That frequency builds consistency, which then builds results. That’s really important.

Hal Elrod: I love it. You just mentioned mental fitness, and this is what you’re known for. It’s what your most recent TEDx talk. You went into mental fitness. Now, mental health is a very common term. It’s very popular. It’s very important. There’s a lot of focus on our mental health. Most people are struggling with their mental health in some way or another. You talk about mental fitness, which is related, but different. Talk about the distinction between the two and why mental fitness is so important.

Maya Raichoora: So, mental health, I see, is quite binary. You have a state of a mental health. It’s a bit like physical health. So, we’re either maybe overweight, we are not feeling very good, we’re ill, that sort of thing. Now, if you think of physical fitness, what is that? That is when you are actively going to the gym. Maybe you’re running, you’re doing yoga, Pilates, because you are maintaining your physical health. And you don’t just do physical fitness when you are overweight or injured, you do it to maintain it.

So, in the same way, what do most of us do to maintain our mental health? Not a lot. We don’t have the tools to stay mentally fit. We only really care about the mind when things go wrong, but why not be two steps ahead of that and keep up your mental fitness so then you don’t have to wait for your mental health to get so bad? Now, of course, it’s also important to note that when your mental health does get really bad, that’s where we go to mental illness, where you’d maybe go to a doctor, just like physical illness.

Hal Elrod: Sure.

Maya Raichoora: But then we also have mental weakness, and that is what all humans we’re susceptible to, right? Let’s say we have a bad night. Maybe we have a heartbreak. Maybe we’re stressed at work. Naturally, we’re not going to perform our best mentally all the time, but the question is, and this is where people can gain that edge. Do you have mental fitness tools to bring your mental health back? And I literally compare it to physical health. So, I say, you’ve got cardio, you’ve got diet, you’ve got rest, you’ve got strength training. You’ve also got that consistency in reps. And so, if we can just start to make that quite easy for us, then it’s very easy to also, or simple to put into our routine as well.

Hal Elrod: I love that. So, obviously, visualization is one of them, but what are your other mental fitness practices?

Maya Raichoora: So, yeah, visualization is the strength training part. I’d say for cardio, this is where like, are you using your brain? Are you engaging in good debates, conversations? Even just listening to a podcast like this is great for your cardio because you are using it. Then we have your mental diet, and this ultimately is all about content. Everyone thinks it’s about food, but it’s not, like you consume so much content or like people or things or gossip. So, actually, ask yourself, what am I feeding my brain? Even your thoughts, am I giving it just negative thoughts again and again? And therefore, your diet’s not going to be very good. So, having a bit of control, and just one simple thing you can do is go on any of your subscriptions, YouTube, whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, just unfollow people that don’t make you feel good. They maybe create jealousy or comparison, just unfollow them. Why do we torture ourselves? It’s like addictive.

Rest is very much like, whether it’s meditation, it might be nature, things like that. Reps is just getting in that consistency, so making sure that you do a little bit one thing a day, if your mind, and even just by doing that, you’re going to see changes in your mental fitness. And actually, I wrote this on my story yesterday. The three of the biggest enemies to your mental piece is ruminating over yesterday’s mistakes, it’s worrying about tomorrow’s futures and anxieties, but it’s also in gratitude for today’s blessings. And we’ve obviously mentioned that. So, if you can just pick one of those and try and work on that, you’re going to see that you’ll have more control over your mind. You’ll have more peace there, and that’s priceless.

Hal Elrod: I love that. And one I want to highlight of everything that you just shared is what you consume, the media that you consume, and I just, because I can relate to it, like I went through, start it like I never in my whole life watched the news until 2020, and then I’m like, wait, we’re locked in our houses. Like, I should pay attention to what the government’s talking about that they’re locking in it, right? So, that’s when it started. And then all of a sudden, every day on my lunch break, I used to watch standup comedy, which would make me feel great, and it was teaching, I was learning how to use humor because I’m a speaker, right? So, I’m learning by just watching it. I’m just assimilating, oh, this is how they craft a joke. This is their tone and style. So, that used to be the lunch break.

In 2020, it went from standup comedy and occasional personal development to the news, what’s going on, right? And then that went for like four years and I developed, like I wasn’t sleeping and I was anxiety– and like I’d go to bed thinking about the murders that I heard about or the– you know what I mean? And then I realized, oh, I’ve become the people that watch the news all the time. But for me, it’s on YouTube. So, I didn’t think of it as the news, whatever. But the point is, I then stopped. I had to be disciplined and that’s why I’m telling my story for anybody that’s like, well, I watch the news, but that’s what I said is I told my wife, I go, “I can handle it though. I’m mentally strong.” So, she goes, “I think it’s affecting you, right?”

And it took someone observing my behavior and my mental health and my state and what I would talk about, which was what I was watching, right? So, for anybody listening, if you’re just taking what Maya said, look at your YouTube channels you’re subscribed to, your social media. If you watch the news on the regular TV, like it affects you and it’s subtle. You don’t even realize it. And then when I stopped, I’m like, “Why am I so much just lighter and happier?” And my wife’s like, “Yeah, remember, because I told you that you needed to stop and you did. And now, you’re better.” And I’m like, “Oh yeah, you’re right.”

Maya Raichoora: It’s interesting because, and people won’t like that I’m about to say this, but I once had a client and she was brilliant and she just kept saying to me, like, whenever I get home, like her safety thing is watching reality TV shows, but she was finding that her relationship was getting worse and worse. And you know, I asked her, I was like, “What type of shows are you watching?” And it is, it’s the addiction of the drama of like these couples shouting at each other and not being in a very mature relationship. And I just said to her, “Why don’t you stop watching it, because you’re literally mimicking the behavior you watch?”

And I think whilst people love watching these things, and I get it, sometimes it’s just nice, it’s an escape, all I’m saying is have the awareness that, okay, my mind actually doesn’t know if this is real or if I’m just imagining it or I’m just watching it. And that’s why if you can have the awareness, after you’ve watched something, just take a second to be like, right, remember who you are kind of thing. Otherwise, we just take it into our own selves. And if you think of it the opposite way, with athletes, I will ask them to watch people better than them. I will ask them to watch their best performance so that they can also start inputting that. And there’s a very famous baseball coach who used to work with this team, and they’d never, ever participated in the world.

And so, what he did is in their dressing room, changing room, he would put just a video of teams that were playing in the worlds. And what he was trying to do is as these players got in, they would just be watching this to familiarize theirselves with this environment. And hey, we can do this as well. And so, you can just see that we can use it to help us or you can use it to also harm us very subtly, but it does have an effect on your relationships, on your own mental health, on your own mental fitness. So, yeah, it’s such a key part.

Hal Elrod: And it’s no one ever teaches anyone that, right? They don’t teach you that, hey, what you watch, you become. What you consume, you become. What you think about, you become. And so, people don’t realize that. But I’ve seen that in my– there was a time where my wife and daughter were watching this reality TV show for, they got in sucked into it. And I watched, I’m like, you both are talking like these ladies on this show, and that’s not good. And then they were like, they finally realized it and they stopped. They’re like, “We are. We’re being all catty, like these ladies on the show,” right?

Maya Raichoora: Fascinating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hal Elrod: I saw in an interview that you– I think the headline of the clip on YouTube was Achieving Your Goals Isn’t Everything. And you talked about the story of God telling the man to push the rock. Remember that? So, this is the Achieve Your Goals podcast and the premise of that story I completely agree with. And so, I would love for you to share, if you can recall that story and what the premise of that statement that Achieving Your Goals Isn’t Everything, what that means.

Maya Raichoora: Yeah. So, to put some context in, I think, we repeatedly hear, if you listen on podcasts, you listen to these celebrities, these athletes, right, they all seem to say the same thing, which is that I thought this would make me happy and I wanted to achieve this goal. And then when I got there, it just wasn’t really what I wanted. Or, oh, I didn’t get there, and now I’m not worthy. So, we do two things. One, we put all our worth on this particular goal, and two, we don’t ever see beyond it, right?

And so, this story is really interesting because essentially, there’s God and there’s a man, and the man gets told that by God, that if you push this rock, you can get whatever you want, like you can make your goal happen. So, this man was like, “Yeah, okay, absolutely.” He goes and pushes this rock, like hard and hard, it’s huge. It doesn’t move, but he’s like, “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to keep going.” And he goes and he goes and he goes and he just doesn’t move. He goes back to God and he is like, “You told me if I push this rock, I will get what I want. I will get that, reach that goal.” God was like, “Just keep going.”

So, he does it again and again and again and it just does not move. And at this point, he’s like, “You’re lying to me, and it’s just not okay.” Goes back to God and he’s like, “You know what? I’m done. You’ve cheated me here.” And God was like, “Just take a second. And just look at you, you’ve become stronger. You committed to something for months and years. You also showed discipline. And you’ve shown so much resilience. Is it really about the goal or is it about who you become on the way?”

And I think a lot of people, when I teach outcome visualization, they always ask me, oh, but Maya, what if I don’t reach my goal? Now, visualization is not some magic thing that if you visualize it, it has to happen. It’s not that. It does give you the best chance of getting there, but really, think about, well, you are going to become a better person. And I’ll give you the example. So, I was on a panel with the head coach of England Rugby recently, and he was saying that he’s helping his team visualize them winning their next tournament. And someone in the audience said the same thing. They were like, yeah, but what if they don’t win? And he said the thing that like, “Well, actually, if they can see themselves winning, they’re going to train harder, they’re going to believe in themselves more, they’re going to push themselves more than they ever have, they’re going to bond as a team. That, that is the reward. It’s the process. It’s who you become on the way.”

And I think we sometimes forget that because we can’t control the outcome always. We can’t always get our goals. Otherwise, I’d be sitting here and saying, oh, but Hal, I wanted to be in the Olympics. I’m not there, so I’m just going to like dwell on that for the rest of my life. Maybe. And now, I’m going to go to Olympics by coaching other Olympians. Cool. I made it anyway. But I think if I was so fixated on that particular stone and moving that, I never would’ve seen that actually, there was another way or there was another reason that I could, or purpose I could find.

And so, it’s not about the goal, it’s about the process and who you become. But also, I heard this thing the other day, which was, yes, love the pursuit, like it, enjoy it, but don’t marry it. Don’t become it. Don’t get so attached to it that if you don’t get it, you just lose all your self-worth and your self-confidence and you think, oh, I’ve wasted my life on this, because that is the danger. And I see that so often in high performers. Everyone puts their identity in these outcomes, but it’s like, why? It’s not going to give you that fulfillment.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I love this so much. This rock, the story of the man, pushing the rock day after day, week after week, year after year, not moving, and finally, going, “God, why this didn’t achieve my goal?” And it’s like, “No, you became the person with discipline and strength and consistency.” And it reminds me, it was a Jim Rohn quote that I learned when I was in my early 20s. He said something along the lines of the purpose of a goal isn’t to hit the goal. The purpose of setting a goal is who it makes of you by giving it everything you have along the way. Yeah, and then it might be a different rock that you were supposed to move or it’s a different goal. It’s like, well, no, the purpose of that, we’re going through something right now. My wife and I were talking about, we’re going through a difficult time in just our lives, a personal thing. And it’s been difficult. And then I just, my wife and I the other day, I said, sweetheart, think about what this is doing for our kids, like the growth they’re experiencing by seeing their parents not give up and struggle through something and keep persevering, and all of a sudden, our adversity took on a whole new light because we realized, wait, there’s so much purpose in this. We’re actually serving the people that matter most to us, our kids, by pushing through and not giving up. Whether or not we achieve the goal, we are setting the example for our kids of what it looks like to give it everything you have until the last possible moment no matter what.

Maya, you are my favorite expert on visualization right now, by the way. Like, if I, being that it’s one of the SAVERS, I’m thinking about our app, I’m like, how can I integrate Maya and introduce you to more and more and more people? Because you’ve taken this one concept, I love this, and you’ve made this your expertise to where you are becoming the world’s leading expert in visualization. I want to ask just a couple more questions before we wrap up. And one is, are there any misconceptions about visualization that people should be aware of?

Maya Raichoora: So, the biggest misconception I get on visualization is this manifestation.

Hal Elrod: I love that.

Maya Raichoora: And especially with outcome visualization, where because you are seeing something, you’re creating it in your mind, people just think, oh, cool, now, it’s going to turn up in my life. And especially, around New Year’s, you get the vision boards, you get that whole, I guess, language around it. Now, I believe in manifestation, which is why I can say this, that visualization is not the same as manifestation. Why? Because manifestation is this broad view that if I can create something in my mind, I can make it, it’s possible to make happen. Visualization, however, is a neuroscientific mental training tool that rewires the brain, and especially when you see the five techniques. Technically, like negative visualization would be a manifesto’s worse nightmare. Why would you be visualizing the negative, right? But that’s where you can see that this is a performance tool.

And like, I always bring it to Michael Phelps. Would we ever say he manifested 26 golden medals? No. But the way he used visualization is yes, he saw him winning. He saw the perfect race. He saw the worst race and how he was going to overcome it. He saw every possible scenario. That is how we use visualization. And the last thing I’d say here is that if we think of it as manifestation, we’re not going to do it daily. If we think of it as, hey, this is like going to the gym. This is like me getting dressed, me brushing my teeth, then we’re more likely to integrate it as part of our routine. And I think that’s really that last misconception is that, oh, but this is too hard for me. It’s another thing I have to add on, but just take a step back and think you are already visualizing. And most people will be visualizing worst-case scenarios, things going wrong.

And so, because you are already doing the actual skill, all we need to do is refine the skill. Just ask you to visualize different images, and yes, at the beginning, it might feel a little bit forced because you may not be used to it and your brain won’t be, but the outcome of that and the reward for that is everything. And so, you don’t need to dedicate an hour a day to this, simply a few minutes to begin with. Three times a week is good enough and really give that self to you. And if you question all but why I don’t need this, just imagine if you had to pay for your brain, if you were paying for your brain, you would do anything you could to make it sharper, better, have better thoughts, be more positive. But because we just take this super cute computer for granted, we’d rather train ChatGPT than our own brains, but that’s really the biggest weapon we have because it can help us in so many ways. So, don’t think it has to be a massive chore. It’s actually super fun. It’s really imaginative and it’s powerful in that way.

Hal Elrod: Well, and what’s great about our audience, right, is that most people that listen to the podcast are Miracle Morning practitioners. And so, they already have visualization as part of their toolkit. It’s just that they’re probably doing it at 10% of what it’s capable of. And that includes me, which is why I am so excited to dive into this book so that I can take that 10% and take it to 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100% and really, maximize the opportunity that I have every morning to spend a few minutes visualizing and using it as a tool for peak performance. So, everybody listening, the book is Visualize: Think, Feel, Perform Like the Top 1%. Maya, where’s the best place you want to– is there anywhere specific to send people to buy the book or just wherever books are sold?

Maya Raichoora: Yeah, where books are sold, obviously, it’s on Amazon and also, a lot of people have been saying they love the audiobook because I guide 15 visualizations on there. So, you’ll get the chance then to actually hear it. And obviously, when it’s written, you see the scripting of it too. So, if you prefer audiobooks, then you’re also in for a massive treat. And it took me like, what, 32 hours. My voice was dead after it, but it’s worth it. So, there you go.

Hal Elrod: I’ve recorded a couple audiobooks. That’s not for the faint of heart. It is not easy.

Maya Raichoora: I know, right? It’s so physically demanding. They didn’t tell me that. I was like, oh, okay.

Hal Elrod: Seriously. Yeah, and your brain just turns into mush after like hours and hours of the same thing. So, where’s the best place for people to follow you and keep learning from you and social media, website? What’s the best spot?

Maya Raichoora: So, Instagram is maya.mental.fitness and I post on there every day, lots of tips, videos, et cetera. LinkedIn, Maya Raichoora, TikTok as well, maya.mental.fitness. And then, I think, yeah, by the time this is out, so I’ll also be in LA and New York, August and September, which I’ll be doing some events around the US as well. So, if you’re in person, come and meet as well, because I think, that’s the key of mental fitness as well. Connection. You’ve got to do it with people. It doesn’t just have to be on your own.

Hal Elrod: Awesome. And for those that are listening to this, it’s Maya Raichoora, which is spelled R-A-I-C-H-O-O-R-A. And you said maya.mental.fitness is your Instagram handle, yes?

Maya Raichoora: Yes, exactly that.

Hal Elrod: Maya, well, you are lovely. You are brilliant. I’m so grateful for the work that you are doing, and thank you so much for sitting down with me today.

Maya Raichoora: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Hal Elrod: All right.

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