Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.
—CHERIE CARTER-SCOTT
See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.
—ROBERT COLLIER
Visualization, also known as creative visualization or mental rehearsal, refers to the practice of seeking to generate positive results in your outer world by using your imagination to create mental pictures of specific behaviors and outcomes occurring in your life. Frequently used by athletes to enhance their performance, visualization is the process of imagining exactly what you want to achieve or attain, and then mentally rehearsing what you’ll need to do to achieve or attain it.
Many highly successful individuals, including celebrities, have advocated the use of visualization, claiming that it’s played a significant role in their success. Such stars include Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Anthony Robbins, Tiger Woods, Will Smith, Jim Carey, and yet again, the one and only, Oprah. (Hmm... could there be a link between Oprah being one of the successful women in the world, and the fact that she practices most, if not all six of the Life S.A.V.E.R.S.?)
Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, is famous for using visualization to mentally rehearse perfectly execution of his golf swing on every hole. Another world champion golfer, Jack Nicklaus, has said: “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.”
Will Smith stated that he used visualization to overcome challenges, and visualized his success years before actually becoming successful. Another famous example is actor Jim Carrey, who wrote himself a check in 1987 in the amount of 10 million dollars. He dated it for “Thanksgiving 1995” and added in the memo line, “For acting services rendered.” He then visualized it for years, and in 1994 he was paid 10 million dollars for his starring role in Dumb and Dumber.
Most people are limited by visions of their past, replaying previous failures and heartbreaks. Creative Visualization enables you to design the vision that will occupy your mind, ensuring that the greatest pull on you is your future—a compelling, exciting, and limitless future.
Here’s a brief summary of how I use Visualization, followed by three simple steps for you to create your own Visualization process. After I’ve read my affirmations, I sit upright on my living room couch, close my eyes, and take a few slow, deep breaths. For the next five minutes, I simply visualize myself living my ideal day, performing all of my tasks with ease, confidence, and enjoyment.
For example, during the months that I spent writing this book (okay, who am I kidding—it took years), I would first visualize myself writing with ease, enjoying the creative process, free from stress, fear, and writer’s block. I also visualized the end result—people reading the finished book, loving it and telling their friends about it. Visualizing the process being enjoyable, free from stress and fear, motivated me to take action and overcome procrastination.
Directly after reading your affirmations—where you took the time to articulate and focus on your goals and who you need to be to take your life to the next level—is the prime time to visualize yourself living in alignment with your affirmations.
Some people like to play instrumental music in the background—such as classical or baroque (check out anything from the composer Bach)—during their visualization. If you’d like to experiment with playing music, put it on with the volume relatively low.
Now, sit up tall, in a comfortable position. This can be on a chair, couch, floor, etc.
Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes, clear your mind, and get ready to visualize.
Many people don’t feel comfortable visualizing success and are even scared to succeed. Some people may experience resistance in this area. Some may even feel guilty that they will leave the other 95% behind when they become successful.
This famous quote from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return To Love, may resonate with anyone who feels mental or emotional obstacles when attempting to visualize: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
The greatest gift we can give to the people we love is to live to our full potential. What does that look like for you? What do you really want? Forget about logic, limits, and being practical. If you could have anything you wanted, do anything you wanted, and be anything you wanted—what would you have? What would you do? What would you be?
Visualize your major goals, deepest desires, and most exciting, would-totally-change-my-life-if-I-achieved-them dreams. See, feel, hear, touch, taste, and smell every detail of your vision. Involve all of your senses to maximize the effectiveness of your visualization. The more vivid you make your vision, the more compelled you’ll be to take the necessary actions to make it a reality.
Now, fast forward into the future to see yourself achieving your ideal outcomes and results. You can either look towards the near future—the end of the day—or further into the future, like I did while writing this book, when I visualized people reading it, loving it, and recommending it to their friends. The point is you want to see yourself accomplishing what you set out to accomplish, and you want to experience how good it will feel to have followed through and achieved your goals.
Once you’ve created a clear mental picture of what you want, begin to visualize yourself living in total alignment with the person you need to be to achieve your vision. See yourself engaged in the positive actions you’ll need to do each day (exercising, studying, working, writing, making calls, sending emails, etc.) and make sure you see yourself enjoying the process. See yourself smiling as you’re running on that treadmill, filled with a sense of pride for your self-discipline to follow through. Picture the look of determination on your face as you confidently, persistently make those phone calls, work on that report, or finally take action and make progress on that project you’ve been putting off for far too long. Visualize your co-workers, customers, family, friends, and spouse responding to your positive demeanor and optimistic outlook.
In addition to reading your affirmations every morning, doing this simple visualization process every day will turbo-charge the programming of your subconscious mind for success. You will begin to live in alignment with your ideal vision and make it a reality.
Visualizing your goals and dreams is believed by some experts to attract your visions into your life. Whether or not you believe in the law of attraction, there are practical applications for visualization. When you visualize what you want, you stir up emotions that lift your spirits and pull you towards your vision. The more vividly you see what you want, and the more intensely you allow yourself to experience now the feelings you will feel once you’ve achieved your goal, the more you make the possibility of achieving it feel real.
When you visualize daily, you align your thoughts and feelings with your vision. This makes it easier to maintain the motivation you need to continue taking the necessary actions . Visualization can be a powerful aid to overcoming self-limiting habits such as procrastination, and to taking the actions necessary to achieve your goals.
I recommend starting with just five minutes of visualization. However, in the next chapter The 6-minute Miracle Morning I’m going to teach you how you can gain the powerful benefits of visualizing in just one minute per day.
Vision Boards were made popular by the bestselling book and film The Secret. A Vision Board is simply a poster board on which you post images of what you want to have, who you want to become, what you want to do, where you want to live, etc.
Creating a Vision Board is a fun activity you can do on your own, with a friend, your significant other, or even your kids. It gives you something tangible to focus on during your Visualization. If you’d like detailed instructions on this process, Christine Kane has an excellent blog on How To Make A Vision Board as well as a free eBook titled The Complete Guide To Vision Boards. Both are available on her website at www.ChristineKane.com.
Keep in mind that, although creating a Vision Board is fun, nothing changes in your life without action. I have to agree with Neil Farber, M.D., Ph.D., who stated in his article on psychologytoday.com, “Vision boards are for dreaming, action boards are for achieving.” While looking at your vision board every day may increase your motivation and help you stay focused on your goals, know that only taking the necessary actions will get you real-time results.