Modeling Success- It's All In Your Mind

Welcome back to the Wealth Practicum - A practical application of tools, techniques and approaches to creating wealth in the 21st century.

Today, we're going to discuss the concept of modeling. One of the most critical actions to take when achieving your goals is modeling the person who already has the result you want to achieve. I think that many people get stuck though in modeling actions or steps. While it's important to understand the things that a person has done to achieve the things they've achieved, I believe its MORE IMPORTANT to study, then model how the person thinks. We've learned that how a person thinks is the single most significant driver in the results that manifest on the outside. I would rather understand how a super achiever thinks than just simply the steps they've taken to accomplish some huge goal.

I've been studying Tiger Woods this week a bit. There was an awesome article in Golf Digest that really broke down his swing and his game to almost painful minutiae. I never knew there were so many derivatives of swing psychology or structure to work on- guess that's why I shoot 95 and Tiger's the #1 golfer in the world. Obviously this guy has a great deal of natural born talent, but so do others. Why Tiger? and Why the overall consistency in phenominal results? I really believe it's how he thinks that leads all the other actions and results that he's able to produce. A couple things stand out 1) He's intensely competitive. He wants to win every time and he wants to be the best. It eminates from him in everything that he says and does. It's clear that the standards to which he holds himself are exact and demanding. He practices intensely to correct minor flaws in his game, that left untended, would result in deteriorating results. Again, it's not what he does necessarily, but it's how he thinks about what he does that's critical. 2) He actively visualizes the end result. They say that Golf is the ultimate mental game. Tiger understands that in order to produce the result on the course, he must first produce the result in his mind - Visualization is such a powerful tool. He's been known to walk the course dozens of time before a tournament simply visualizing shots from various lies and locations. When he playing the tournament, he's already completed every stroke he will take - in his mind. Again, it's how he thinks that is the ultimate instruction here on achieving goals. Next time I'm on the first tee, I'll take a moment to close my eyes and visualize a perfect, smooth swing that launches a rocket down the center of the fairway about 325 yards - my golf buddies are amazed at my newfound capabilites..... hey, it doesn't hurt to visualize right?

Back to Modeling. If we want to model not only what someone does, but how they think about what they do, look at the result. I recently saw an hour long interview with the great Warren Buffet on CNBC that was brilliant. As you know, Buffet recently gave to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the biggest charitable donation ever. Gates was commenting on his first meeting with Buffet, "I was intrigued with the way he thinks", Gates said of Buffet. Interesting that the richest man in the country said he was focused on how Buffet thought, not the new company he acquired, or the airplane or the private island he bought or something.

So, the next time you have a goal or a result you want to achieve, find someone who has already achieved that goal and model them- but model their mind, not just their actions and watch the results manifest for YOU that you deserve.