What does it feel like to be successful?

There have been numerous times throughout your life when you’ve been successful. Each success helps fuel the next one.

Just like the act of wallowing in your setbacks will throw you into deeper apathy, basking in the glory of success energizes you.

Create a Media Library Inside Your Head

Though we can’t live in the past, we do tend to replay events over and over in our minds. Usually unconsciously, and at the whim of the moment.

But by creating a specific playlist of events that you can recall at any moment, you have a virtual media library of your own success clips at your disposal.

Start by going somewhere quiet…

• Go sit on a park bench.
• Lounge in your favorite chair.
• Lay on the grass in your back yard.
• Lock yourself in the bathroom.

Anyplace where you can be alone with your thoughts.

Then just relax and let your mind wander. Begin to remember all the successes from your past. Start with childhood, then journey up into adulthood. Recall times when you:

• Triumphed over adversity.
• Accomplished an important goal.
• Reached a milestone.
• Won an award.
• Made a big sale.
• Talked that incredible person into marrying you.
• Pushed a child out of your body, or caught your child when they came out.

Big, small — it doesn’t matter. Just as long as it was important to you.

Once you have 5 or 10 significant events, go back and remember each one as clearly as possible. Try to completely immerse yourself in the moment, with images, sounds, and feelings.

Depending on your own way of [1] learning and remembering things, you may see pictures or a movie. You may hear sounds and voices — like an audiobook or a radio show. You may just feel flashes of experience.

The goal is to make it as rich as possible, in your own way. You’ll know it’s working when you begin to feel the same way you did on the day of the memory. Feel the butterflies in your stomach, or the elation coursing through your body.

Once you are completely absorbed in the memory, tag it in some way. Imagine it as a [2] YouTube video, a selection in your [3] iTunes library, or a gallery of pictures.

If you tend to attach memories to physical events, set a trigger for each memory with a physical action — such as touching your thumb to a different finger for each memory.

The goal is to set a trigger or an [4] anchor in your mind to call your specific successes from your playlist. These playlist items become tools to help you next time you’re faced with a challenge, adversity, or apathy.

The REAL YouTube

We all carry around a YouTube library in our heads. This is a real You-Tube because it’s all about events from your life — hopes, fears, successes, failures.

By taking control of the clips in your library, you create a powerful tool.

Use the memories of past successes to fuel your future ones — and continue to add to the success media library in your head.