Does this Focus Trainer Actually Work? Mendi First Impressions
The Amplified Impact Podcast
January 30th, 2023
Diving into a key entrepreneur challenge today: incentives.
Ever wonder why people act a certain way? It all boils down to what’s in it for them.
Charlie Munger said we should spend our time thinking about incentives.
Not just about cash…think community, connections, and all that good stuff.
I’ll spill the beans on a real-life story from our manufacturing days and how we turned around attendance issues.
Because, at the end of the day, humans aren’t just coin-operated machines. Money’s a motivator, sure, but we’ve got more levers to pull.
It’s important to find a stronger motivator than personal gain.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“I think that if the quality of our life is dependent on the quality of our focus, then anything that we can do to try and improve that is time well spent.”
– Anthony Vicino
LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!
Let’s Connect On Social Media!
instagram.com/theanthonyvicino
Join an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus.
Learn More About Investing With Anthony
Invictus Capital: www.invictusmultifamily.com
Multifamily Investing Made Simple Podcast
Passive Investing Made Simple Book: www.thepassiveinvestingbook.com
Episode Transcript:
So I am a nerd for toys and for different trinkets, things that I can experiment with when it comes to improving my health, whether that’s my physical health, my mental health. And I wanted to share with you guys a tool I just acquired yesterday. Now, on a previous video I talked about, one of the best purchases that I’ve made in the last two months is this little device is called the relaxador. Relaxador, which is a breathing tool for monitoring, or I guess we would call it limiting your exhales, because a lot of our stress is tied to how long it takes us to exhale our breath. So this is a really cool breathing tool. Highly recommended, actually. I did a podcast on that, the new tool that I just got yesterday, and I’ve played with a little bit, not a ton. I don’t have a lot of data to go off of with this thing yet, so I don’t have a fully formed opinion of it quite yet.
But I wanted to share this device. I don’t have any affiliate links or anything like that. I think it’s kind of interesting because this is like a new breed of devices that are becoming more and more popular in the landscape of this particular concept, which is a focus tool or brain trainer. So this device comes from Mendy. And if you’re not watching on YouTube, on the YouTube channel amplified impact, then it’s really just like a headband with some lights that will shine into your forehead. Now, what this does is it’s pretty interesting. It shines infrared lights and it tracks the brain activity through blood flow in your frontal lobe. And so your frontal lobe is the part of your brain that you’re going to be using when you’re focusing on tasks.
And so this device is designed to help you improve your focus. So the way it works is you put it on and then it syncs with an app. And on that app on your phone, you sit down in a comfortable spot, and the app has this ball that moves across the screen. And your only goal is to get the ball to go up. And the way that you get the ball to go up is by increasing the blood flow to that portion of your brain. This is really interesting because they actually don’t give you any instructions or tips or ideas on how to get the ball to move. And so it can be really weird. You’re sitting there like, I don’t know what I’m doing.
I don’t know what I’m doing. You just kind of focus on the ball and you’re like, go up, go up. Go up, and sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down, sometimes it stays flat. And as it goes up, these little stars come out and you get this dopamine reinforcement. Now, here’s what’s interesting about this, is that it’s not actually about your focus and what you’re doing to get the ball to go up. The way a device like this works is it’s training your brain to associate the positive reinforcement of the ball going up with the stars and the lights and the chiming. It’s training your brain to associate that with. That’s a good thing.
And because that ball goes up, when blood goes to the certain area of your brain, your brain then starts to equate. Hey, when blood goes here, I get rewarded, right? And that portion of your brain is what’s lighting up when you’re focused on things. And so it becomes this very interesting tool that is training your brain in almost an unconscious way. You can do things to improve the blood flow to that area of your brain, but a lot of this is just happening passively, so that when the ball does go up, your brain gets rewarded for it. When it goes down, it doesn’t get the reward. And over time, the theory is you do this enough times, then you start to strengthen that part of your brain. It starts to equate, hey, when I’m in deep states of focus, I get rewarded. And so now we are rewarding ourselves for being in the flow state, right? And I read some reviews on this from other people who are interested in this stuff, and it takes a while, from my understanding, to really start seeing any kind of meaningful benefits out of this thing, like 60 to 90 days types of consistently working with this tool.
But then what they started to talk about to share was that they started to experience something that they called the Mendy pole. That’s the name of this device, by the way. It’s called Mendy. I don’t know if I mentioned that, but the idea is that when they started, at a certain point around 90 days, as they’re using this, they start to feel pulled into their deep flow state activities. It’s a really weird type of explanation, but I’m curious. I’m always curious to see what can I do to improve my focus and whether that’s through meditation or journaling or different activities. I think that if the quality of our life is dependent on the quality of our focus, then anything that we can do to try and improve that is time well spent. And I’ve only used this for two days.
I literally got it yesterday, I’ve done a handful of sessions with it, and my initial feedback is that regardless of whether or not it works and it actually helps improve the focus, I actually find this to be a very interesting meditation tool. And so just on that perspective alone, if you struggle with meditation, sitting quietly, kind of clearing your mind for a period of time and not worrying, the world kind of fall in and you want to get a respite from that, but you have a hard time just closing your eyes and sitting still. This is kind of interesting because for three to five to ten minutes, however long you choose to do the session, you’re just focused on that ball and there’s like this nice ambient music and you’re getting the reward of it going up and it gives you something to focus on. And so by the end of that ten minutes or however long you go for, I feel a lot of the same benefits that I do when I meditate, which is just kind of like this calm, peaceful state of bliss. And so regardless of whether or not this thing actually works, I find it to have some use cases that are kind of compelling. And I’m going to use this for the next hundred days in a row and then we’ll report back. So that will be was February, March, April. Sometime at the end of April, I’ll do another episode on this and we’ll see.
Do I still think this thing is kind of interesting and cool or is it just kind of falling to the wayside? And I don’t use it at all, but I just wanted to share that with you. This is day two of the experiment and we’ll check back in. But I’m curious, have you ever used anything like this? Like a tool of this sort to train your brain? And if you have, I’d love to hear from you what your experiences were. So shoot me an email, shoot me a DM, leave a review for this. That would be amazing. I always appreciate reviews that helps this grow and spread the word. But yeah, let me know what you’re using and what your experiences with it have been so far. There’s a number of tools like this out on the marketplace and I’m always curious to learn more.
So share with me. I want to know. That’s going to do it for me. Guys and gals, I will see you tomorrow. Until then, stay hyper focused, my friends. Bye.
This Week On YouTube
These 3 Daily Habits Made Me A Millionaire in 3 Years
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. Unleash your hyperfocused mind to dominate life, business, and everything in between? Here’s how:
→ The Hyperfocused Masterclass: the exact system I used to overcome ADHD, write 12 books, build 4 businesses, and acquire $70M of real estate.
There are a handful of spaces left in The Hyperfocus Masterclass for those who want to snag the early bird preorder special discount of $49.
Email anthony@anthonyvicino.com to let me know you want on the waitlist.
2. Learn to passively invest in commercial real estate with better returns, less risk, and zeo hassle.
→ Invictus Capital: my real estate private equity firm.
→ Multifamily Investing Made Simple: Top Apple Podcast.
→ Passive Investing Made Simple: Amazon Best Selling Book with 100 5 star reviews.
3. Want more like this? Check out these 3 popular articles from the vault:
