I like the whole life-as-a-movie exercise. It was kind of fun to imagine myself in these disastrous situations at the office. I mean, I already do prepare for worst-case scenarios. That’s part of my obsessive preparation. But I never imagine it’s me who’s the cause of the problem. I liked picturing myself being the one screwing up the numbers in a tight negotiation. It would never happen, of course (ha-ha), but it was fun to imagine. And in all seriousness, I did see a different side of myself.
As I’ve been thinking more about my sports day, I realize that I used to do a lot of visualization—without knowing what it was. In baseball, especially, I can remember standing in the on-deck circle and in between pitches, I’d close my eyes and imagine swinging through the ball, making clean contact, then watching the ball sail over the fence or up the middle. I’m sure one of my coaches taught us the technique. But it all came back to me. And I realize I still do it in certain situations, like before giving a presentation at work. So it’s good to know I have some experience with visualization. The trick now is being able to apply it to other, more challenging situations.
This is another tough one for me, because the truth is, if I ever visualize anything, it’s usually the opposite of success. I’ll visualize a presentation going poorly, people looking at me like I’m crazy when I ask them for things, public speaking engagements ending in disaster. But I don’t usually visualize success. So this will be a new muscle that I’m working, for sure. But it makes sense, because none of those bad things that I imagined ever actually happened. That doesn’t mean the opposite played out, but the worst-case scenario that I had in mind was definitely a figment of my imagination. So I’m excited to see what this new form of mental preparation brings.