IMAGINATION: Your Secret Tool For Resilience

What if I told you that the biggest obstacle standing

between you and the life you want isn't your circumstances,

your education, or even your bank account.

It's the picture you've drawn of yourself in your mind.

Hey, you, No, hey, we find one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A few weeks ago, I, I was sitting with myself and I, I

thought, OK, I needed to get a community.

OK, I really have a community, but I need to define this

community. I know always I'll come on the

podcast and say I'm here to transform your identity by

refining your mentality, right? And then that would be fine came

to my mind. So it's it's stuck out and I

decided to call this our community, the refined Gen.

That's the refined generation, right?

And for each and everyone of us, we are the refined 1, you are

the refined one, I'm the refined 1.

And collectively, we are the refined gents.

So let's do it again. Hey, refined one.

This is the morning gear with Danny and I'm done.

Your Gen. Z educator here to transform

your identity or by refining your mentality.

And I'm seeing a big welcome to our new and returning listeners,

right? If you're just joining us for

the first time, we talk about a lot of new stuff and the kind of

things actually move the needle in your life.

We are not about just motivation.

We are about actual, We are about refinement.

We want to see you. We want to see you get refined

throughout the right mindset. I will talk about honest

conversations about becoming the person you are meant to be.

And today we're driving into something that honestly changed

my entire perspective on life and not being dramatic.

I mean it. We're talking about what

imagination till we talk about imagination.

Your imagination. But not the kind of imagination

you know, like the daydreaming about being rich or famous.

They still count. I'm talking about the kind of

imagination that literally rewires how you show up in the

world. Look, most of us are walking

around with an outdated version of ourselves playing on repeat

in our heads. And that version?

It's holding us hostage. So here's what you're going to

get from this episode. You're going to learn why the

image you have of yourself is literally running your life

behind the scenes, making decisions for you, limiting what

you try, limiting what you don't try, and keeping you stalking

patterns that you don't even realize you're in.

You are going to understand how your brain doesn't actually know

the difference between something you vividly imagine and

something that actually happened.

Yeah, in his hands were table. Yeah, stick with me.

And most importantly, you're going to walk away with the

tool, a real practical tool that you can use today and start

rewriting the story you have been telling yourself.

So whether you're trying to get out of a toxic circle, let me

open your career or fix your confidence or just stop feeling

stuck, this episode is definitely for you.

Let's get into it, OK? But real quick, before we jump

in, can we talk about how exhausting it is to be a young

person right now? Like no seriously, we are out

here trying to build careers in the in in an economy that's just

let's say challenging. We are supposed to have it all

figured out by 25, look good doing it, posting about it on

Instagram and even have a side. Also go to therapy, drink water,

have a money routine, have a gym, go to gym, all those stuff.

We we have a lot of expectation. We are supposed to meet.

It's a lot. I know when I what I realized is

that a lot of people, including myself, we have internalized

this idea that we are just not enough, not so much enough, not

talented enough, not connected enough.

And we carry that around like a backpack full of bricks.

So it's very heavy on us. I remember a lot of I've seen a

lot of persons who like watching your friends go for internship,

land opportunities and they just feel stuck.

Cable reached out OK. I feel I feel stuck in this

aspect. And I noticed that is mostly not

because they were not capable, but because they had convinced

themselves that they were not the kind of persons that do such

things. And they and they saw yourself

as someone who struggles for such things and the person who

always stayed behind. And because of that mental

picturing that mental image, it became a self fulfilling

prophecy. So yeah, if you've ever felt

like you're fighting against your own self, like there's this

invisible force keeping you small, right?

I get it. And that's exactly what we are.

We are going to talk about today.

So I'm ranting, my rant is over. Let's get into the main topic of

the day. Let me start with a question.

What is yourself image? No, really think about it for a

second. How do you picture yourself?

When you think about who you are, what words come up?

What do you call yourself? Are you the shy one?

The funny friend? The one who is bad with money

don't always messes up relationships?

The one who cannot pass maths? The one who English is not for?

The one who cannot write? The one who cannot just have a

normal conversation? The one who is a bad

communicator? How do you see yourself?

Because the thing that most people don't realize is that

self-image is the key to human personality and human behavior.

I'll come again. self-image is the key to human personality and

human behavior. So that image of yourself is

literally the determining factor of your personality and your

behavior. So if you change this

self-image, you can automatically or you have

automatically changed the personality and the behavior of

that person, right? If I have a self-image that, OK,

I'm someone who is a bad communicator, right?

That's myself. That's how I see myself.

That's my own self. Like I say, self-image, self,

not another person, yourself image, That's how you see

yourself. That will automatically affect

my character, my behavior. But if I change that self-image,

that view of myself, that perspective I have of myself

too, OK, I'm an excellent conversationalist, like I'm a

good communicator. It automatically reflects on my

personality and my behavior. And that is why self-image is

the key to human personality and human behavior.

Yourself image does that. That meant a picture areas of

yourself. It sets the boundaries for what

you think you can achieve in life and defines what you

believe you can do and what you cannot do.

Expand yourself image and you expand the area of your

possibilities, but at the same time shrink yourself image and

you will increase the area of your limitations.

Let me give you an example that will make this crystal clear.

Let's say you want to get it right.

I join the gym. I got pumped up.

You buy the gear, maybe even a new prep for the first week.

But deep down you see yourself as someone who isn't athletic.

You see, I'm not the gym type. I'm not.

I'm not the gym body type. Yet you've told yourself that

story since secondary school PE class.

You have been telling yourself that and suddenly you start

going to gym, right? So what happens?

You go to gym for a few times, but it feels awkward.

You don't even know what you're doing.

You feel like everyone is watching.

And eventually we stop. We stop going not because you

cannot get fit or because the person you see yourself as does

not go to the gym. That version of you is not the

gym type. And yes, we get interesting.

Imagine you started seeing yourself differently.

Not as someone not not as someone trying to get fit, but

as someone who values their health.

That's it. Just a shift in the identity.

Suddenly the actions change. You're not forcing yourself to

go to the gym. You're not.

You're just dream what people who value their help to do.

You start moving more, you start making better food choices, not

because you have to, but because that's who you are.

Now see the difference? Well, let me give you another

example. A lot of young people in

Nigeria, honestly everywhere going up, we hear things like

money does not go in threes be are not rich.

You have to walk yourself up to the bone to make it.

And those messages, they get internalized, they become part

of yourself image you starting yourself as someone who will

always struggle financially, who always struggle to make money,

someone who isn't good with money.

So even when an opportunity come, a freelance gig, a

business idea, a chance to invest, you do not take them.

Or maybe you self sabotage, not because you're inculpable, but

because it doesn't match the picture in your head.

And believe me, you always have a picture.

There is always a picture, there is always a picture.

But when you change that picture, you start seeing

yourself as someone who is resourceful, someone who can

build wealth, someone who can make smart financial decisions.

Even if you were starting from zero, everything would shifts.

You start noticing, noticing opportunities.

You start taking action. You start making different

choices. The thing is that you act and

feel not according to what things are really like, but

according to the image of your mind holds of what they are

like. Let me come again.

You act and feel not according to what things are really like,

but according to the image your mind holds of what they are

like. I hope you understand and

there's a science behind it. Let me break it down.

Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an

imagined experience and a view experience.

In either cases, it reacts automatically to the information

you give it from your conscious mind.

Your nervous system reacts appropriately to what you think

or vividly imagined. The keyword is vividly, vividly

imagined to be true. This is why athletes visualize

their performance before a game. This is why surgeons mentally

rehearse complex procedures. This is why public speakers run

through their speech in their minds.

Like me. Before I came here to do this

recording, I had mutually rehearse in my mind differently,

different hours of the day. Rather.

Yesterday, the day before, the day after I have done this rehab

we did. I've recorded this thing in my

mind already, right? Because when you vividly imagine

something, when you see it, when you feel, when you experience

it, when you leave it in your mind, your brain starts treating

it like it's real. It starts building the neural

pathways and it start preparing your body to act in alignment

with that image. And believe me, your, your, your

nervous system does not know whether it's an image or not

'cause it does not differentiate between a real event and an

imagined event. But The thing is that you need

to vividly imagine it. You need to feel it right.

So if you constantly imagine that your, your, your feeling

you're messing up, you're being rejected, guess what your

nervous system is preparing for you.

Exactly. There are two type of

imaginations, the the creative imagination and the destructive

imagination. Now, when we talk about

imagination or creative imagination, a lot of people

just think it's for the artist, for the writers, the inventors,

the broadcasters. But it's me that is a myth.

Creating imagination is not something reserved for the

poets, for the philosophers, for the inventors.

It enters into our every act. Imagination sets the goal

picture that our automatic mechanism works on.

We act or fail to act, not because of will, as is so

commonly believed, but because of imagination.

Think about it. Willpower is limited.

You can force yourself to do something for a while, but

eventually willpower runs out. You get tired, you slip back

into old patterns. But imagination?

Imagination runs in the background.

It's the operating system. It's what your brain uses to

decide what's normal for you, what's possible for you, what's

you. So if you're trying to change

your life through the sheer willpower, you're going to burn

out. When you change that image

first, the action follows naturally.

So now you're probably probably wondering, OK, I could I get

this so on and so forth. But how?

How do I actually do this? How do I actually change myself

image? Great question.

Let me give you a simple practical process you can start

using today. Step one, identify the current

image. Hmm, if you don't know the

image, what are you change? Identify your current image.

First you need to get honest about the picture you're

currently having of yourself or you currently have of yourself.

Grab your phone, open your notes or get a book.

Get a pen and just try if if I prefer writing, typing is is not

natural. I've been writing, so grab a

book and a pen and just write. Ask yourself what do you believe

about yourself, not what there have been other people believe,

what you believe about yourself. How do you describe yourself to

others? What do you think but not good

at? What opportunities have you

avoided or do you avoid because you know they are not for you,

right? We know they are not for you.

close answer the question, what do I believe about myself?

You're a lot of persons If you've chatted me, if you've had

a conversation with me older, younger, if it comes to marital

vaccine in my age, I'll tell you that.

OK, chronologically I am Susan to age or mentally mentally.

I am an adult. I come in fourties, fifties,

right? That's what I'll tell you,

'cause that's what I embodied. I embodied that selfie.

That's how I see myself. I don't see myself as a young

person. Nah, Nah.

And I do not act as a young person.

Yeah, 'cause when I've established a self-image, you

just leave it. You don't struggle to leave it

out. You don't what most of my

teenagers or people who are still young adults would do.

I would not do it. I would never dare.

I'll see stupidity in it. And I show maturity in the way I

dress should, maturity in the way I speak.

I show maturity in the way I act because that's how I see myself.

And I would describe you myself to you as somebody who is not

priest, not young. I'm wise, really wise.

My name was priest. And by the way, so I'm really

wise, right? So that's how I see myself.

That's my mental picture. That is myself image, right?

You need to understand what yourself image is.

That's the first step. So I needed to get a book and

answer the questions. Like I said, what do you believe

about believe about yourself? How do you describe yourself to

others or do you think you're not good at?

What opportunities do you avoid because you know they're not for

you? Just get it all out.

It's not about joining yourself, it's just about getting

self-awareness. Step 2.

Design the new image. Now here's where he This is

where it gets fun. You get to design who you want

to become. Not in a fake manifestation

vibes only only way rather, but in a real intentional way.

Ask yourself, if I was living the life I actually want, who

would I need to be? How would I carry myself?

What would I believe about myself?

How would I make decisions? Write it down.

Be specific. Don't you say confident.

Describe what confidence looks like for you.

How do you walk? How do you speak?

How do you handle rejection? How do you handle criticism?

How do you handle relationship breakups?

Paint the picture in detail. I for a person my aura like ID

attain my aura. Do I carry myself?

You you call me proud. You call me proud, but then

myself image does not allow me to do a lot of as I say yourself

is going to limit you and also increase limit the area of your

increase the area of your limitations and increase the

area of your possibilities, right.

So there are things I can do, but there are little things I

cannot do. There are some things that

people my age should do that I cannot do because that's myself

image that's there's a way I picture myself.

So you need to sincerely take your time at what answer this

question. Step three, we has it daily.

This is the part that most people skip and it is the most

important step every single day. I did.

In the morning or before bed, spend 5 to 10 minutes vividly

imagining yourself as this new version.

After you've drafted the new version, take 5 to 10 minutes to

vividly imagine yourself as this new version.

Not trying to be them. You're not trying to be them.

You're not hoping to be them. You are being them in your

imagination. Close your eyes, see yourself

moving through your day as this person act the way the person

will act. Feel what it feels like in your

body. Hear how you would speak.

Notice how you respond to challenges, Notice how you now

dress. All this should be your

imagination. Do it constantly and I promise

you soon, if you can do this constantly for about 30 days,

your brain would start believing it.

And once your brain believes it, it is finished.

You actually will follow automatic response, right?

That's it. Four, act as if, right?

Act as if you want to be rich. That's yourself.

You want to successful, act as somebody.

Would that be successful gain the mentality of somebody that's

success, the mentality of the successive person?

You need to like habit. You need to act that rule.

Exactly. Act that rule.

Play that rule. Yeah, that's the word.

You need to start acting in alignment with this new image,

even if it feels awkward at first.

If this you, if this new you is someone who takes care of their

health, then make one small choice today that aligns with

that. Go for a walk, drink more water,

and so on and so forth. Does not have to be huge, it's

just you just have to be intentional about it.

If the new year is someone who is good with money, then do one

thing that makes you that person.

Track your spending, save money, learn about investing.

Just act the way that person would act.

Small actions repeated consistently reinforced the new

image and over time it becomes who you are.

Let me give you one more example because I think this one hits

home for a lot of us. Let's say you've been through

tough relationship, few tough relationships.

Maybe you got cheated on, you got ghosted or just felt like

you're never enough. And now, without even realizing

it, you see yourself as the one who gets caught, or the one who

only speaks to wrong person. So what happens?

You need someone new. And even if they're great, even

if they're good, you're waiting for the next shoe to drop.

You're looking for red flags. You're looking for signs that

they might not be good. You're guarded.

You might even push them away before they can even hurt you,

not because they had a problem, but because yourself.

Image says this is what always happens to me.

I remember confirmation biases I had talked about in my previous

episode. One of my previous episode.

Confirmation bias would actively look for proof, evidence to

validate your bias. And this is a negative

conventional bias, right? But then if you imagined that

you changed that image, imagine if you started seeing yourself

as someone who is worthy of love, someone who attracts

healthy relationships, someone who knows their worth, someone

who knows their value. You'd show up differently, you'd

set boundaries, you'd communicate better, you'd choose

differently. It will all align with the

self-image because the image has changed.

And when the image changes, everything else follows.

Look, I'm not saying this is magic.

I'm not saying this is magic. I'm not saying you can just

close your eyes and imagine yourself into a new life without

doing any work. What I'm telling you is that the

work you do out there in the gym, in your career, in your

relationship, it will only go as far as the image you hold in

yourself. You can have all the strategy or

the hustle or the opportunity in the world, but if you don't see

yourself as someone who deserves it, someone who is capable,

someone who can handle it, someone who is worth it, you

self sabotage it. So start with the image, get

that right and everything else becomes easier.

Or let me bring this together. Let's bring this together.

Here's what we've covered today. One, yourself image is the

foundation for everything or of everything.

It's the mental picture you have of yourself, and it controls

your behavior, your choices, and your results. 2 Your brain

doesn't know the difference between something you vividly

imagine and something that actually happened.

So when you repeatedly imagine yourself as a certain type of

person, your nervous system starts preparing you to be that

person. Three, imagination isn't just

for creatives, it's a tool. It's the tool your brain uses to

set goals, guide your actions. You act based on the image in

your mind, not based on willpower.

And finally, you can change yourself image through a simple

process which is identifying the old image, designing the new one

be asking it daily through the vivid imagination and taking

small actions that aligns with it to this consistently.

And you literally rewire who you are.

Alright, alright, find one. That's it for today.

I think you made it this far. Congratulations.

So seriously, I know, I know, that is something.

Minutes. Thirty minutes plus is a long

time in a world full of 15 second videos.

So the fact that you stuck around means a lot, right?

I want you to do me a favor before you close this app.

Go guys on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever you're

listening, take two minutes grabbing notes or a book or pen

or journal. Just write down one thing.

Who do you want to become? Not what you want to have, not

what you want to achieve, but who you want to be.

Because once you get clear on that, on that, once you get

clear on who you want to become, everything else becomes so much

easier. And hey, in this episode

resonated with you. Do me a favor, do me a solid

share with someone who leads, who needs to listen.

Send it to that friend who's stalk, who's doubting

themselves, who's been playing small.

In fact, you need to share to all your friend because you

cannot be in a psycho. Where, where, where you are

doing 1 Is this intelligent? Because the prizes knowledge

you're packing from here is something that you need your

friends, your circle, your inner circle is to have right?

So you need to share to your friend.

Screenshot like always screenshot this and send it to

your WhatsApp status. And at least that one thing you

learn from it and invite others that they should actually go and

listen. Let's build this community

together. Let's build a community of

refined ones, right? And if you're not already

subscribed, please hit that subscribe button.

Hit that follow button. Rate the podcast on Spotify, on

Apple Music, subscribe on YouTube, full on tunnel

unifications, leave a comment, right?

And yeah, because we have so much more coming your way.

Remember, you're not stuck with the version of yourself you've

been living with. You get to rewrite that story.

You get to redesign that image. So stop waiting for permission.

Stop waiting to feel ready, start imagining, start being

delusional, start becoming. And as always, I hope I inspired

you. Peace.

Field Notes