Chapter 2
See and Hear

Mastering Leadership Through What You See and Hear

In the journey of transformative leadership, the first SHIFT steps begin with what you See and Hear. These foundational principles of the SHIFTS model emphasize the profound impact that our sensory inputs have on our subconscious mind and, ultimately, on our actions and outcomes as leaders.

Seeing is the process of intentionally curating of the images and visuals that we allow into our minds. The things we consistently expose ourselves to - whether positive or negative - embed deeply within our subconscious, shaping our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. This principle teaches us that by deliberately choosing what we see, we can influence our mindset and, by extension, our reality. For example, successful leaders often use tools like vision boards to keep their goals and aspirations in constant view, reinforcing their commitment and driving them toward achievement.

Hearing is often understood as a passive process; however, when I discuss hearing in the context of the SHIFTS process, I mean the act of consciously choosing to carefully focus on the auditory elements that surround us, emphasizing the power of repeated messages. What we allow ourselves to hear regularly - whether it's encouragement, criticism, or even self-talk - conditions our minds to believe and act on those messages. This principle underscores the importance of surrounding ourselves with positive, affirming voices that align with our goals and values.

Together, these principles of See and Hear lay the groundwork for the transformative journey of SHIFTS. By being intentional about what we see and hear, we can begin to reshape our internal landscape, leading to more intentional and effective leadership. As you explore the SHIFTS model, remember that transformation begins with what you allow into your mind - because what you consistently see and hear will ultimately guide your path to success.

When it comes to seeing, vision boards are creative tools that pop the lid off your imagination. It's been called "brainwashing yourself to success." Brainwashing is a word that typically has a negative context, but that's only because we think of brainwashing as something forced on us from an external locus of control. When we begin to think of ourselves as the actor, rather than the recipient, of brainwashing, the negative connotations fall away. After all, what does wash even mean? To make something clean! To remove the grime and dirt, leaving behind a clean slate! Vision boards give us this power: the ability to strip away the negative imagery that prevents us from having the situation we want and replace it with a picture of the life we're determined to create.

Vison boarding can be as simple as you'd like it to be. If you're a tactile thinker, you might prefer sifting through a magazine or stack of printed images, selecting those that capture your desires, and physically attaching them to a poster or wall in your line of sight. The more tech-oriented among us might prefer to do the same digitally, using any of the online tools or apps at our disposal. Either way, the process of curating a collection of images that represent your goals adds depth and breadth to the overall experience. There are even audio programs that enable you to curate soundscapes that are compatible with your vision to truly maximize the sensory experience!

It might sound basic, but I'll tell you - there is something so nice about giving yourself permission to be a bit childlike and make a simple wish list. After about five years of age, we are often discouraged from a lot of creative thinking. We're even told not to color outside the lines. Can you imagine Steve Jobs or Amelia Earhart, Kobe Bryant or Sally Ride being told this? These are people who understood well that growing up doesn't have to mean growing out of the ability to dream.

This process of vision boarding definitely takes you outside of the boundaries of your own imagination. It became one of the biggest personal SHIFTS in my life. And you can make these SHIFTS, too. My experience happened because I discovered a significant principle: Whatever you see and hear consistently over time will enter your heart (or subconscious mind) and put your life on autopilot! See and Hear are the first two steps of the SHIFTS Transformation Model.

• Step 1: See - You are the sum of what you repeatedly see. What you see day in and day out takes root deep within and will inevitably influence your thoughts and your subconscious mind. Margarida Alpuim and Katja Ehrenberg stated in Psychology in Journalism that images have a powerful effect on the mind because they are immediate, circumventing logical analysis to be processed by the brain in the blink of an eye. They also said that images can affect our emotions more powerfully than words. They are more likely to be remembered by people than information presented in texts, and even add to the perceived "truthiness" of a statement.1 Here is the point: The things you see don't leave your mind the same, whether the images are positive or negative. Successful people know this, and they are intentional about what they feed their eyes.
• TD Bank, known as America's "Most Convenient Bank," surveyed individuals and small business owners across the United States to learn how they practice visualization and the effect that visualization (or lack thereof) had on their financial success.2 They found out that those who keep photos and vision boards feel twice as confident that they will achieve their goals than those who don't. They also discovered that 82% of small business owners who used vision boards or some form of visioning from the start reported that they had accomplished more than half of their goals. This means that repeatedly seeing certain pictures creates belief, and beliefs affect performance. What you believe is what you become, and you can influence your belief system by changing what you see repeatedly.
• Step 2: Hear - You are the sum of what you repeatedly hear. What you hear continuously affects your feelings and also takes root in your subconscious, developing the ability to influence your future behaviors. For example, if your parents repeated something over and over in your childhood, there's a good chance you will repeat that with your own children. A cyclical chain of events is created that spans generations, all based on the words someone heard as a child. People who have lived through wars talk about the sounds they heard and the enormous impact similar sounds have on them to this very day.
• Research has confirmed that when we hear something repeatedly, our minds begin to believe the information is true.3 When we intentionally listen to some information, it can strengthen our belief in the possibility or its reality. If what you are hearing is your goal, your heart feels and your mind believes that you have accomplished it.

How I Learned to Pre-See My Success

In the early 2000s I attended a seminar with my wife, Nike. The speaker declared to the audience that everyone could benefit from creating a dream board where you display your visions, hopes, dreams, intentions, and specific depictions of even a car or home. The facilitator asked that we all include photos that represent our dream car, new home, or whatever we wanted. I thought this was an interesting assignment, and Nike and I were both excited about doing it. He then asked everyone to bring the photo of their dream home back to the conference the next day and told us that if we couldn't find a photo of what we wanted, we should simply draw it - again, etching in our minds what was possible.

We went home that evening, and in our search we found one particular home that we both loved in a Toyota Camry brochure. We cut it out and chuckled because we realized that we'd found our dream home in the background of an ad designed to sell a car. So, dreaming big, we decided that it would be good to throw the car into our vision as well. It was a two-for-one dream board! I gleefully said that if both images are in the same picture, we would be getting both! That evening we tore it out and brought it to the seminar the next day. After the seminar concluded, we tacked the picture up on the wall of our home, where it would be sure to inhabit our vision constantly. My wife is an architect, so she took it a step further, drawing out a floor plan for our future home. It stayed up on that wall, visible day in and day out, for a few years. We walked by and looked at it every day. It became more than a conscious visualization; it began to live in our subconscious goals as well. And guess what happened? Eventually, the house became a reality as we saw the image over and over daily, weekly, monthly, each step closer to our move-in day. Funnily enough, the first thing that materialized was the Toyota Camry. Our eyes were set on it every day, and it became our physical reality - because we made it so.

The simple act of staring down our vision each day affected our decisions and habits. Budgeting became simpler, because we were looking at the things we were saving for so constantly that it seeped into each financial decision. Career decisions became simpler; instead of dreading work on a day when we weren't feeling great, we had a clear picture of exactly what we were going to work for. And, because this was a vision we'd crafted...