30 days: Change your habits, Change your life

Be grateful for what you have,
for all the small things around you, and even for the things you
don’t have yet!
Don’t say: 
“I’ll be grateful when…”
like I did for many years. Take
the shortcut: Be grateful NOW—no matter what—and make gratitude
a daily habit. Start the day by saying “thank you” for what you have
(instead of complaining about what you don’t have). This will have an
immediate effect on your life. Focus on the good things that you can
find every day. The following exercises are part of each of my
coaching processes. Do them and observe what happens.
Action Steps:
1) Make a list of everything you have in your life that you are grateful
for. Write down everything you can think of. (This should be a long
list)

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2) For 21 days, every day, write three to five things that you are
grateful for that day in your journal. Before going to sleep relive
the moments. Relive the happiness.

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37
The magic of visualization
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
—PETER DRUCKER
Visualization is a fundamental resource in building experiences
. The subconscious part of your brain cannot distinguish between a
well-done visualization and reality. This means that if you visualize
your goals with a lot of emotion and in great detail, your
subconscious mind will be convinced that it’s really happening. You
will then be provided with motivation, opportunities and ideas that will
help you to transform your life into that desired state. What am I
saying? Can you practise sports by pure visualization?
Well, actually you can! There are various studies that confirm the
power of visualization.
As early as in the ’80s, Tony Robbins worked with the U.S. Army
and used visualization techniques to dramatically increase pistol
shooting performance. There have also been other studies done to
improve free throw shooting percentages of basketball players using
the same techniques. The results were amazing! If you look closely
at athletes, they all visualize their races and matches. Look at how
skiers, formula 1 drivers, golfers, tennis players, and even soccer
players visualize in—game situations, days and hours before the
actual match. Jack Nicklaus, Wayne Gretzky and Greg Louganis—to
name a few—are known to have achieved their goals with
visualization. In coaching, we use visualization techniques with
goals. See yourself as already having achieved the goal. See it
through your own eyes and put all your senses in it: smell it, hear it,
feel it, taste it. The more emotions you put into it, the more of an

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impact it will have. If you do this for 15 minutes every day over time,
you will see enormous results. Make time for you daily visualization
either in your morning ritual or in the evening before going to bed. It
can be helpful to make a collage of images that represent your goal
on a A3 sheet of cardboard and put it up in your bedroom or
somewhere where you can see it. Buy some journals and cut out the
photos that represent your goals. You could also create a
screensaver of various photos on your computer or desktop. If your
goal is wealth, put a photo of you dream house, a photo of dollar bills
or whatever wealth means to you. If you search for “vision board” on
Google, you will surely find lots of examples. Look at your collage
every day, five minutes after getting up and five minutes before going
to bed and imagine yourself vividly with your goal already
accomplished.

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38
What if?
Our expectancies not only affect how we see
reality but also affect the reality itself.
—DR EDWARD E. JONES