Seeing a musical on Broadway hits different. The story gets bigger, the music lands better, and the energy is contagious. That was exactly how it felt seeing MJ the Musical in New York with my family years ago. It lived up to the hype. The show had you singing along and ended with you standing to give an ovation.

Michael Jackson clearly made mistakes and had serious issues in life, but he did have a daily ritual worth learning from.

He'd take a black marker and write his goals across the bathroom mirror. Things like selling 100 million albums and selling out stadiums. He later said, "We can program ourselves to be the people we want to be."

And that's exactly what he did. He programmed his mind with what he wanted to happen, then went to work making it real. The album Thriller went on to sell over 70 million copies, the most of any album in the history of music.

Now I'm not saying Jackson was someone to admire across the board. But his approach to programming his mind is just as available to you and me as it was to him.

Most people do the opposite. They let the negative and those thoughts run on repeat. They picture the presentation going poorly, the conversation going sideways, the opportunity slipping away. And without realizing it, they brainwash themselves toward failure.

You can flip it. Instead of allowing those thoughts to set the direction, you can program the positive. Write down what you want to happen. Say it out loud. See it clearly before it ever arrives.

Here is what I want you to remember. You are being brainwashed every single day, either by your own negative thoughts or by the intentional goals you put in front of yourself. Choose the second one.

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.