Could You Actually
Enjoy the Scrooge?
Many of us are highly skilled at anticipating the worst that could happen. We imagine embarrassing ourselves at a party or bungling a presentation at work, and the thoughts can be so vivid that our stomachs churn and we cower in our cubicles, a slave to our nerves. As a result we never try new things.
But if our powers of imagination can do all this, can’t they do positive things in the reverse? Can’t we create visions of competence and success that we find calming and encouraging?
My anticipation of a big, important meeting where several of my not-so-favorite people would be in attendance had me frowning every time I thought about it for weeks.
Finally, when I caught myself wasting another ten minutes fretting as visuals of conflict and dissent danced through my head, I decided to give equal time to painting a more positive mental picture.
In addition to my usual preparation for the meeting, I spent a few minutes visualizing the event going off without a hitch and everyone getting along wonderfully.
I closed my eyes and imagined myself at the meeting, start to finish. If a bad scene popped up, I consciously put a positive spin on it, looking for a way it could work out well. I imagined the meeting going smoothly and anticipated how good I would feel after this success. I concentrated on picturing the people I was worried about acting like perfect gentlemen.
I’m no magician, but as it turns out, my visualization pretty much came true. The meeting went well, and the people there behaved beautifully.
As I say, I don’t believe I possess magical powers, but I have come to accept the mysterious power of our minds. I have found not only that we can bring on bad outcomes by doing nothing but dreading and imagining them, but also that we can encourage positive outcomes by doing the opposite.
You don’t have to understand how visualization works (I don’t fully) to have it work for you. Athletes do it all the time. Spending some concentrated time really seeing and feeling yourself pitch a strike, serve an ace, or sink a putt can subconsciously train your mind and body to do just that. Adding visualization to your usual prep work for just about anything—from sports and public speaking to sleeping and lowering your blood pressure—sets the scene and plants the seeds for success.
A bonus benefit that is nothing to sneeze at is that while anticipating the worst can make us physically tense and anxious, visualizing success tends to leave us relaxed and optimistic—feelings that can pave the way for our optimal performance.
There are lots of good books and tapes out there on the subject of visualization, but you can ’give the basics a try anytime. When you anticipate feeling scrooged by an impending encounter, take a few deep, slow breaths. Picture the person or event in question and imagine the best possible scenario. Try to see it all in great detail—sights, sounds, smells. Feel yourself being relaxed and confident, smiling and happy, in that future scene.
Feel better now? I bet you do. Your future can be “pictured” perfect if you turn that worry around and drive it backwards.