Alex Nottingham JD MBA explains the power of mental energy, focusing on single-tasking, reducing distractions, and using affirmations for better focus.
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About Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:02
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. Hey everyone, I’m Alex Nottingham, and we are continuing our journey about the power of full engagement. We talked about physical energy, we talked about emotional energy, now we’re talking about mental energy. And this is around focus and optimism. Here’s a question for you. Who here is a great multi-tasker? It’s a trick question because multi-tasking
00:32
is a myth. Productivity studies recommend single tasking because when you are multitasking, you’re really single tasking in your mind, but it’s just, it seems like you’re doing a lot at once, but you’re stopping, starting, stopping, starting. We want to batch our tasks and be as efficient as possible. John Wooden, the great coach said, if you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? So let’s do it right the first time. Let’s single task. We have a very distracted workplace.
01:00
50% of employees say that they are distracted by their phones at work. 98% of the workforce say they are interrupted at least three times or four times a day. You have distractions that can lead to twice as many errors. It takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully recover from a distraction. That’s an interesting statistic. How do we reduce distractions? First, disable all notifications that aren’t vital. Change your environment number two. Three, put in…
01:29
plans to combat distractions for policies and training. You have the four Ds of time management. This comes from Getting Things Done, the book written by David Allen. And the four Ds are do it, defer it, or delay it, delegate it, and delete it or drop it. And I did a podcast in the past and a video on time management. Inbox zero. Here, you wanna unsubscribe to what you don’t read.
01:58
or set a filter to exclude it. Designate time to check email twice a day versus always being on email. Because again, it’s distracting us. And eliminate those notifications, those bings, those things that show you have to get it done. But emails, you know I heard before, it was really interesting. Emails are basically other people’s priorities telling you what to do. So take control of your inbox. Many people are impressed when they look at my inbox because
02:26
That’s my inbox, one of them. A few times a day, I clear them out. I put them in folders. I do it, defer it, delete it, delegate it, the four D’s. And I get at the end of the day, an inbox zero. It’s very stressful to see all these emails I have to deal with. Out of sight, out of mind. Simplicity, less mental energy. We want to focus on simplicity. Think about Steve Jobs. He wore the same thing that was at black turtleneck. I’m known to wear a.
02:56
white V neck all the time except for here because I have to look halfway decent. But simplicity, I don’t want to think about it. Warren Buffett, he’s one of the richest men in the world. And he has a, he bought a house like 1950 and I think his house was 200,000 at the time or so, 300,000. Now it’s worth, I don’t know, about a million, but you got a multi-billionaire in a million dollar house which these days isn’t that expensive. Why? Simplicity.
03:25
Why spend time on distractions? You may have heard of studies on mental rehearsal and visualization. It was interesting. The power of mental rehearsal and visualization. University of Chicago study 1996 showed this where they had a random group of students that were selected to shoot free throws. And they did this for 30 days. Group one could not touch the ball, no practice. Group two would be shooting the ball 30 minutes per day at the gym. So one is control.
03:55
Three did 30 minutes a day just visualizing free throws. And what was interesting is after 30 days, they found group one, of course, no improvement, no, because they weren’t shooting. Group two had a 24% improvement by shooting free throws every day for 30 days. Group three had a 23% improvement, and they weren’t even touching the ball. They were just visualizing. So doing these habits and visualizing and talking and reinforcing positive things,
04:22
or whatever you’re looking to build over and over will create that result for you. And conversely, you have the one in reverse. And you can try this now. Close your eyes if you’re driving. Don’t do that. Keep your eyes open. Sports, visualize yourself playing the game perfectly, whatever game you’re playing. See yourself making the perfect moves. Feel the joy you feel when you play the game well. Really embody that. Do that over and over again. Physically fit.
04:51
If you are looking to be more fit, see, feel yourself fit and strong, powerful. Embody that even before you work out. So then you have service. Let’s say you’re a dentist. See yourself confidently speaking with your patients and they are choosing to accept the treatment that you provide. All of this can be mentally rehearsed and visualized. So then there’s positive self-talk. Take a listen to this video or watch this video, depending on how you’re consuming the information.
05:21
and see how this young little girl uses positive self-talk to change her world and those around her.
05:31
Now, my whole house is great. I can do anything good. I like my school. I like anything. I like my dad. I like my cousins. I like my aunts. I like my Alice’s. I like my mom. I like my sisters. I like my dad. I like my mom.
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I like my pajamas, I like my stuff, I like my rooms, I like my poop.
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My whole house is great, I can do anything good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can do anything good. Better than anyone.
06:20
Affirmations. This was theorized by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, the idea of auto-suggestion. Science backs up this self-affirming theory of affirmations. MRI evidence shows certain neural pathways increased based on affirmations. Louise Hay, who passed a few years ago, she’s known as a queen of affirmations. There’s this idea from Tony Robbins called incantations.
06:49
So the difference that he talks about, Tony Robbins, affirmations versus incantations, affirmations are repeating statements to attract your desire. So I am wealthy, happy, peaceful. Incantations are affirmations, but we add emotion. I am wealthy, I am happy, I am peaceful. So you can see the difference when you add emotion, they really go in to your mind more. So to make it stick, use affirmations with emotions.
07:18
When you do your visualizations as well, feel it, really feel it. The closer you really feel it, the more those neural connections will happen. The plasticity of your mind will take effect. The Optimist Creed. This is a wonderful statement that was written about optimism and positivity. It’s an incantation. It can boost your emotional and physical energy, and I’m gonna play for you the Optimist Creed.
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voice my me as a voiceover. And so again, you’ll either see it if you’re watching this or you’ll hear it if you’re listening to it. So take a listen. The optimist Creed promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind to talk health happiness and prosperity to every person you meet to make all your friends feel there is something in them to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true to think only of the best.
08:18
to work only for the best and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
08:39
to give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others, to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. So we covered physical energy, emotional energy, and mental energy. And our next and final episode, we’ll wrap it up with spiritual or purpose energy. Feel free to comment in the comments about
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how you improve your mental energy. Share this episode with your friends on social media. Follow, subscribe, share with your friends. And until next time, go out there and be an All-Star. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
