Priming yourself for success in business every day

In 2017, I attended the Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within (UPW) event in London. I went to this three-day event with my partner. Even though each day started in the morning and finished in the early hours of the following day, we had a blast! We even did a 'fire-walk', where we walked barefoot over hot coals!

The UPW event came into my mind this week while sorting out an old storage box. I found the workbook that I completed during the event. It was great to see that most of the targets I set myself during that event, I had achieved.

One of those goals I set for myself was to create a ‘beautiful mindset’ every day. My definition of a beautiful mindset is a place where I am in control of my thoughts, rather than being persuaded by events or actions and comments from others in the outside world. It's a place where I make up my own mind and manage my emotions rather than overreacting.

One of the first times that having a ‘beautiful mindset’ helped me was shortly after UPW when I met a new customer for the first time. Back then I was Co-founder and Sales Director in an IT Business.

There was a lot of competition attempting to win the customer’s IT project, to supply them with a very large quantity of IT equipment to multiple sites across the UK. It was a great project and whoever won it would likely be the supplier to the customer for several years.

I had a good meeting with the customer, but I was late into the project. Our competitors had been working with the customer for a few months. I remember talking to my business partners after visiting them. I was excited about the business opportunity.

However, I remember hearing the comments from my business partners:

• “You’re too late in the project to win this”
• “You’re wasting your time”
• “I don’t think it’s worth the effort if you’re not going to win”

Initially, I felt deflated. I thought to myself “Maybe they’re right?”, “Perhaps I am too late in the project to win this?”, “This could be a waste of my time - I would need to put a lot of effort into this project and still not win it”.

My partners meant well, they didn't want me to waste my time, but they hadn't met the customer. One of the empowering habits that I created during the UPW event was to practise a daily mindset strategy called ‘priming’.

During the event, I learnt that if we don’t consciously guide our thoughts and nurture our own mindset, it’s likely that we’ll respond to external stimuli such as events, actions or words from other people and move in the direction desired by others.

Priming is a concept in psychology where external stimuli are used to guide the thoughts and actions of the recipient in a particular direction.

Advertisers, media organisations, and large consumer companies have studied the effect of priming for years and understand the benefits it can bring to them.

For example - Large fast-food chains play faster music when their restaurants are getting full. This up-tempo music subconsciously encourages the customers to eat their meals more quickly. Ultimately, they leave the restaurant sooner than they would have done and make space for more people to spend their money and consume the food. The desired result was achieved for the fast-food chain!

Certain media organisations have been pushing political agendas or narratives for years. Their aim is often to subconsciously have the viewer or reader come to the same conclusion that they are pushing – whether it is the truth or not!

Priming also occurs without the ‘primer’ consciously knowing what they are doing. For example - If we respect and value the opinions of the ‘primer’ (the person you are talking to and in my case – my business partners) we are more likely to agree with them and go in the direction they desire rather than thinking for ourselves and making a conscious decision.

Luckily we can learn to 'prime' ourselves:

Tony Robbins' daily priming strategy is a powerful routine designed to help you start your day with energy, focus, and a positive mindset. Here's a breakdown of the key components.

Daily priming strategy

1. Breath-work (approximately two minutes):

Begin with a series of quick, powerful breaths to energise your body and mind. Tony suggests doing a set of 30 quick breaths, three times.

2. Gratitude practice (approximately three minutes):

Think of three things you are grateful for. Relive each moment, feeling the gratitude as vividly as possible. This helps shift your mindset to a positive state and promotes a sense of abundance.

3. Visualisation (approximately three minutes):

Visualise light entering your body, rejuvenating and healing you. Then, see light extending out from you to those you care about. Follow this by visualising what you want to achieve. Picture your goals as if they are already accomplished, allowing yourself to feel the excitement and satisfaction.

4. Future intentions (approximately four minutes):

Choose three goals you are committed to achieving and visualise them. Imagine the steps you'll take and the positive impact their achievement will have on your life. Feel the joy and sense of accomplishment of having achieved them.

Purpose:

The purpose of Tony Robbins’ priming strategy is to help you condition your mind and body to operate at their peak state. It combines elements of breathwork, gratitude, visualisation, and future intentions to set a positive and powerful tone for your day. This routine is designed to help you manage stress, increase focus, boost energy levels, and cultivate a positive outlook. Priming is the strategy that helps me to create my ‘beautiful mindset’.

Back to my story... The next morning, while practising ‘priming’ at home before work I decided to include winning the customer project in priming step four. Step four guided my thoughts and the actions that I would embrace to try to win the project.

Every time I practised priming I included the customer project in step four. Whatever 'popped' into my mind during priming I used to help me steer my actions and engagement with the customer that day. One by one the competitor solutions fell to the side as I improved my strategy working with the customer.

Three months later – I won the deal and supplied hundreds of rugged mobile computers, and managed service contracts and support software to the customer.

It was a great win!

If I hadn’t primed myself back then, I would have listened to others, and not attempted to win the customer project. Ultimately this process helped me to 'prime' myself for business success.

I still practise priming today. It helps me to set up each day and helps me to consciously guide my thoughts and actions. Have a go and be guided through the priming process by Tony himself.

I hope you enjoy the video and enjoy practising 'Priming'!