272. Harvard Psychiatrist: Daydream your way to your goals

Harvard Psychiatrist: Daydream your way to your goals

• Membership Community: https://www.productiveinsights.com/me...
• Brian Tracy Conversation:    • How to Set Goals and Achieve them with Bri...  
• Get my 9-Step Business course here: https://www.productiveinsights.com/9-... 

Timestamp:

00:00 Introduction

00:47 The Power of Productive Daydreaming

01:49 The Science Behind Unfocusing

03:51 Real-Life Examples of Productive Daydreaming

06:32 Steps to Achieve Your Goals with Daydreaming

10:25 Conclusion and Membership Invitation

Ash Roy Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):

Ash Roy:

What if I told you that daydreaming could be the secret to achieving your biggest goals?

I interviewed the assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School on this Productive Insights podcast. He revealed that 46.9% of our day is spent daydreaming, and that's actually a good thing. It's actually one of the keys to achieving your biggest goals. With minimum effort. In this video, I'll show you exactly how to daydream your way to goal achievement with real examples from people who have done it.

I'll be sharing excerpts from my full conversation with Dr. Srini Pele, which you can access at the Productive Insights membership. Click on the link in the description below to join the community.

Let's do this. Okay, so here's what Dr. Pillay told me. That completely flipped my understanding. Of how we actually achieve our goals.

Most of us think daydreaming is the enemy of productivity and of goal achievement, but nothing could be further from the truth. Consider this. Steve Jobs took calligraphy lessons at college that seemed completely useless at the time. He was just following his curiosity and letting his mind just wander and drift years later, those pointless calligraphy classes.

Inspired the most beautiful fonts on the Mac computer as jobs explained in his Stanford address. You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, and that's the power of productive daydreaming. Here's the exact moment where Dr. Sweeney Piller explained this to me.

In our conversation,

Srini Pillay:

I overtly acknowledge the fact that focus is extremely important, that you can't really get something done if you, if you're just completely distracted. But what I wanted to point out is that not all unfocused is distraction. That actually unfocused pertains to a number of different mental states.

Mm-hmm. And that we spend 46.9% of our days daydreaming anyway, all of us. Wow. So, so why not actually learn to. Unfocused productively. Mm-hmm. So that we can actually re-energize our brains, stimulate creativity, have a broader perspective of what's going on, notice the competition in the wings, and also activate our prediction circuits and our self-circuits.

So, the unfocused circuits in the brain are really those circuits that get turned on when we take our mind off of a focus task. So, in the course of a day, most people feel like they get up in the morning, they've gotta go to work, they start, they have meetings, they see clients, uh, and at the end of the day they go home and they feel like if they just stay focused, they can get to the end of the day.

But the pattern of focus, focus, focus is basically energy drain. Energy drain. Energy drain,

So by the time you get to the end of the day, you're dealing with a brain that has been essentially utilized all day.

Srini Pillay: Unfocused. Basically, allows you to go through your day with Focus Unfocused, focus Unfocused, and so there are a number of disadvantages to focus and a number of advantages to Unfocused, which I can go into in a little more detail.

When, when, when you're interested.

Ash Roy:

Did you hear that? Did you hear what he said? There are a number of disadvantages to being focused and advantages to being unfocused. I'll say that again. There are a number of disadvantages to being focused and a number of advantages to being unfocused. So, what does that mean?

See, this is one of the keys to goal achievement that nobody I know talks about the power of the unfocused mind. Let me give you some real examples of how this works.

Example number one, a shower breakthrough. How many times have you had your best ideas in the shower? That's when your prediction circuits are working.

Your brain has finally been given the space to connect the dots, the hard-earned dots that you've been collecting while working on your craft. By the way, a great book on this topic is made to stick by Dan and Chip Heath. I recommend checking it out.

Example number two, Einstein's approach to problem solving.

Einstein was famous for taking long walks and playing the violin. When he was stuck on a complex problem, he believed in what he called combinatory play, letting his mind wander and make unexpected connections. Well, we can't pinpoint exactly when he had his breakthroughs, like e equals mc squared. We know that he valued this unfocused thinking time.

Example number three, JK Rowling's, Harry Potter Moment JK Rowling said her idea for Harry Potter came to her during a train journey. When she was on the way from Manchester to London, she was just staring out the window and the concept appeared to her fully formed. She was too shy to ask for a pen and paper, so she just developed the concept in the four-hour commute.

Now, not every one of us is as much a genius as Jack a Rowling, but she did a lot of work to reach that point where she was able to connect the dots. So here's what's happening in those moments. When you are focused on a task, you only see what's in front of you. But when you are daydreaming, your brain has a chance to zoom out.

You relax and you allow your insights to surface to crystallize. Your subconscious mind comes into play and you start to see the bigger picture. The opportunities present themselves, as it were. Your mind connects dots that seem unrelated. And you get your creative breakthroughs. It's at times like these that your brain is working on your goals, not just in your tasks.

Now, there is one important caveat if you haven't figured it out already, and that is you still have to put the work in, you have to do the 10,000 hours as Malcolm Gladwell explained it in his book, outliers, or you have to do the deep work as Cal Newport talks about it in his book, deep Work. You've got to build that knowledge and that skill that can then emerge in your unfocused moments.

So how can you plan your way to goal achievement and success? Lemme give you a specific example. A common breakthrough business pattern I've seen over the last seven odd years I've been running my membership community is many entrepreneurs report that their best business ideas come during mundane activities like walking the dog, doing the dishes.

Commuting, taking a shower. They're not actively trying to solve their business problem. Their minds are wandering. They're in a state of relaxed alertness. Now, I know that sounds oxymoronic, but it's not. This is when the mind makes connections when you are relaxed but alert, kind of in a meditative state.

Maybe they remember a frustration that their friend mentioned, and they're connected to a skill that they have. And they suddenly see a business opportunity. So here's a method that gives you the best shot of making this happen. Step one, set your intention before you start to daydream, plant the seeds.

Think about your goal for about 30 seconds. Step two, let your mind go and allow it to wander. Get into that state of relaxed alertness. Don't force your mind, but allow your mind to wander freely for 10 or 15 minutes and let it dwell on these problems that you have set an intention to solve. Step three, capture the insight.

Keep a notebook handy when the connections emerge. Write them down. Maybe you wanna scribble something out, maybe you wanna draw something. But I recommend using pen and paper because the physical act of handwriting. Forms a, a mind and body connection that typing doesn't form. Brian, Tracy and I talked about this in one of our earlier podcast episodes.

I'll link to that in the description below. Okay, so what are the best times to practice this during a morning coffee? Before you check your phone, before you look at any screens while you are walking at lunchtime, instead of scrolling social media, go for a walk in nature. That is a remarkable way of allowing your natural abilities and your natural insights to emerge.

In the car safely instead of always listening to podcasts. Just drive in silence and paying attention to the road. Allow your mind to wander. Let the ideas percolate or maybe right before you go to bed instead of watching tv. Remember, when you're doing this, you are not being lazy. You're giving your brain permission to work on your goals in the most powerful way possible.

You are using the focus unfocused. Focus unfocused. Focus Unfocused methodology that Dr. Srini Pillay talked about at the start of this episode.

Now, if this was useful, it's just one piece of the puzzle and you can check out my entire 45 minute conversation with Dr. Pillay inside the membership program. The full interview is available to you right now and you can join our membership by clicking on the link in the description below.

Srini Pillay shares his research backed techniques. There are advanced strategies around how to build your prediction circuits, and Dr. Pillay talks about the neuroscience behind why this actually works. In addition to this, as a member, you also get step by step goal achievement frameworks, monthly sessions, where you can connect directly with me, either as an individual in the one-to-one program or in a group setting, and you get access to a community of other high achievers where we sometimes even have in-person meetups.

You also get early access to interviews with people like Dr. Srini Pillay or Seth Godin. Link in the description below. Now, if this changed how you think about achieving your goals, hit that like button and the subscribe button.

We'll be sharing a lot more science backed techniques every month and more frequently if possible.

And let me know in the comments, what goal are you going daydream your way today, I read every comment and I might even feature your comment or your question in the next q and a session.

Your business breakthrough might just be one daydream away.

Thanks for watching and I'll see you the next one.

Ciao for now.