Self Help Newsletter

Visualization

If you're not familiar with visualization or have not been actively using it in your life, you'll definitely want to pay special attention to this article. Visualization is often the one ingredient you're missing when going after your dreams, and once you start implementing it things can start to turn around instantly for you!

Visualization means using your imagination to make things happen, by mentally seeing in advance what you are trying to create. Olympic athletes have used visualization for years with great success. Michael Jordan used to spend hours visualizing all of his shots going in the basket, and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps imagined himself standing on the medal podium receiving gold medals years before he actually even competed in the Olympics. Professional golfer Tiger Woods visualizes all of his putts going into the hole before he ever actually takes a swing with his golf club. We all know how successful those athletes have been!

Some people think that they can’t visualize, so let’s do a little exercise right now. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and imagine you’re watching the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Speedway. You’re sitting in the stands and watching the racecars speed around the racetrack. Your favorite car is red with the number “51” on the side of it, and every time you see it pass in front of you after taking another lap you get excited. You can hear the roar of the engines and the cheering of the fans all around you, and you smell tires burning from the wheels going so fast around the track.

Now let me ask you: Did you see the racetrack and the red race car marked “51” going around the track? Did you hear the sounds of the race and smell the burning tires? Even if you’ve never been to the Indy 500, you were probably able to get an image in your mind right? That’s visualization! It’s simply the act of using your imagination in a conscious, intentional way to create your future.

Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds ever, understood the immense power of visualization when he said, “Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.” You can literally create your future using your imagination, and I’d encourage you to use this tool often!

You want to use as many senses as you can in your visualizations, to make the images as real as possible. For example, in the racetrack scenario I described above, you heard the sound of the cars racing around the track and the cheers coming from the crowd. You smelled the smell from the burning tires, and maybe even imagined eating a hot dog and tasting what that would taste like. The more real you can make the images in your mind the better, so be sure to add lots of sensory images to your visualizations.

To magnify the power of your visualizations, do them right before falling asleep at night and immediately upon waking in the morning. This is when your conscious mind has its guard down, and messages are more easily received into the subconscious mind. When you are lying in bed and drifting off to sleep at night, rather than focusing on the terrible things you saw on the news or all the things that didn’t turn out as planned that day, use the time instead for visualization and consciously creating your ideal future. Do this first thing in the morning as well, before your mind has a chance to start focusing on all that’s coming up in the day ahead.

Some people recommend visualizing for an hour a day, but I can tell you that I don’t have that much time! I’ve seen results just by visualizing for a few minutes at night before I go to bed, and first thing in the morning when I wake up. The key is consistency. Visualizing for an hour one time is probably not going to get you the results you are looking for. Visualizing for a few minutes every day, though, should do the trick!

The above article was taken from my Secrets to Creating Your Ideal Life ebook. To learn more, go here.