--- title: How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness description: Create new frames of reference to draw from. canonical: https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-11T13:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:40:30.807Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness og:description: Create new frames of reference to draw from og:url: https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f4e0977808ed388/69888076cf40a8475ec424a9/woman-reading-book-park.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: woman-reading-book-park og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness twitter:description: Create new frames of reference to draw from twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f4e0977808ed388/69888076cf40a8475ec424a9/woman-reading-book-park.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness ## Video: 10 Books Everyone Should Read, According to Successful People [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Books Everyone Should Read, According to Successful People](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Bdu4TTCk.m3u8) (1:07)  _Published 2016-01-27_ by [Sources of Insight](https://time.com/author/sources-of-insight/) ## Sources of Insight Mar 11, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  woman relaxed in the park woman relaxed in the parkGetty Images by [Sources of Insight](https://time.com/author/sources-of-insight/) ## Sources of Insight Mar 11, 2016 1:00 PM UTC --- > “” --- If you’ve got the blahs, or you’re feeling the blues, here’s a way to make this your best year ever. You can prime your mind for growth and greatness. You will find all the kindling you need right here to find your personal motivation, draw from inspiration and blaze your trail forward. **Priming Sets the Stage** In practice, you can just think of priming as a way to make ready or to prepare. You might hear people say “prime the pump” to mean encourage the growth or action of something. Or you might see an athlete who is primed and ready for action. Whether priming works because of mirroring and our innate tendency to imitate, or our reticular activating system, or our subconscious mind, what’s important is that you can prime yourself for better results. You can create new frames of reference to draw from. You can fill your mind with hope, aspirations and bold ambitions to crowd out fear, failures, and regrets. **Ways to Prime Your Mind for YOUR Best Year Ever** Here are some ideas on how to prime your mind for great results – to live your best year ever – and make it your epic year … **1\. Prime your mind with great books**. Books are a powerful way to fill your mind with possibility, as well as to turn insights into actions, and how to turn dreams into strategies and realities. I have a [Great Books Page](http://sourcesofinsight.com/great-books/) along with books on personal development, leadership, creativity and more. **2\. Prime your mind with great people**. You can inspire yourself with inspiring people. I draw from a lot of amazing people. I’m a fan of living the mantra “stand on the shoulders of giants.” I live and learn vicariously through some of the planets biggest heroes and their life’s work. For me, I like to draw from people like John Wooden, Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Bruce Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Chalene Johnson, Marie Forleo, Cha\~zay and more. I have a large collection of lessons learned on my [Great People Page](http://sourcesofinsight.com/great-people/). **3\. Prime your mind with great quotes**. Quotes are a great way to swap our or squeeze out negative thoughts with better, more empowering mental mantras. You can change your entire mental landscape by cultivating a garden of great thoughts from the wisdom of the ages and modern sages. I have a [Great Quotes Page](http://sourcesofinsight.com/great-quotes/), along with quotes for [life](http://sourcesofinsight.com/life-quotes/), [motivation](http://sourcesofinsight.com/motivation-quotes/), [inspiration](http://sourcesofinsight.com/inspirational-quotes/), [happiness](http://sourcesofinsight.com/happiness-quotes/), and more. **4\. Prime your mind with amazing feats**. Fill your mind with amazing stories of the art of the possible. At age 70, Jack LaLanne, a physical phenomenon, swam for a mile, while shackled and hand-cuffed, against strong winds and currents, towing 70 rowboats, one with several guests in it. Wim “The Iceman” Hoffclimbed Everest and Kilimanjaro in only shorts and shoes, and holds 20 Guinness World Records for withstanding extreme temperatures. Watch Stan Lee’s Superhumans to really stretch your imagination while rooted in reality. Read success stories of medical miracles with ordinary people that got extraordinary results on Dr. Furhman’s site. **5\. Read stories of personal transformation**. This is where it all starts. If you have changes you’d like to see in your life, look for some stories of personal transformation that inspire you. Nothing beats a story where you walk away feeling, “I can do that, too.” Here is [my story of personal transformation](http://sourcesofinsight.com/my-story-of-personal-transformation/), but many people have shared their stories in books, blogs, movies, and more. **6\. Build your own personal effectiveness toolbox**. We invented the wheel a long time ago. It’s time to upgrade to some modern tools for the modern mind. Here’s how to build your own personal effectiveness toolboxso you can realize your potential. **7\. Build a vision board**. A great way to prime your mind is to imagine your desired future state. Use pictures. Find the images that represent the kind of life you want to live. The key here is to find the images that make you come alive in an authentic way. What do you want to spend more time doing? Who do you want to spend more time with? What new things do you want to learn? Who character traits do you want to develop? Use these prompts to create a collage of your ideal life. Dream big. Here is an example [Vision Board](https://www.pinterest.com/jdmeieronline/vision-board-for-2016/) I built with Pinterest. Are you primed to make this your best year ever? **Join over 210,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1695012&loc=en%5FUS)**.** **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Sources of Insight_**](http://sourcesofinsight.com/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/"},"headline":"How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness","datePublished":"2016-03-11T13:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:40:30.807Z","description":"Create new frames of reference to draw from","url":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/","keywords":["Psychology","Happiness"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f4e0977808ed388/69888076cf40a8475ec424a9/woman-reading-book-park.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sources of Insight","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sources-of-insight/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f4e0977808ed388/69888076cf40a8475ec424a9/woman-reading-book-park.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"woman-reading-book-park","caption":"woman-reading-book-park","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/","name":"How to Prime Your Mind for Greatness"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Books Everyone Should Read, According to Successful People","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Bdu4TTCk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-27T15:44:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Bdu4TTCk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/","duration":"PT1M7S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4249477/success-mindset/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```