This is a technique that has been used by successful athletes, actors, politicians and businessmen;

and it offers startling results. Visualization ties your imagination to reality.

Visualization is nothing more than using your imagination. Inside your mind you create a picture or a little film of yourself in a place you want to be, doing what you want to do, having what you want to have. A visualization is normally quite pleasant. You can actually make the object of your visualization seem very real. You can almost see, hear, smell, touch or taste it.

It’s a good idea to begin visualizing after shifting our minds into a relaxed state. During the section “Be Conscious of Your Consciousness,” we took ourselves through an exercise repeating the phrase: “Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better.” This is the perfect warm-up exercise for a visualization. After you finish repeating the phrase around 20 times, allow your mind to settle and then begin. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Determine what you want to visualize. Skydiving from an airplane. Meeting a long-lost relative. Finding your dream home. Winning a big account.
2. Find a soothing, quiet spot where you can take a deep breath, relax and concentrate inward.
3. Once you feel your mind turning from without to within, spend several minutes running a vivid film of your imagined reality before your eyes. Feel the visualization as if it’s happening all around you in real time. Don’t let it end until you are ready. Keep your mind focused.

A visualization plows the ground for goals. We pour energy into our goals like concrete into a foundation. The structure you build upon the foundation is the successful realization of your goals.

But this is crucial. You will not experience results unless you imprint the visualization over and over into your mind. It may take months of rewinding and repeating that same little movie in your head to evoke the desired effect. Think of it this way, by the time your visualization becomes reality you will not be surprised. It will feel as if you expected it, as if you’ve already achieved the reality. And, be prepared. If, for instance, you were visualizing a new home you wanted, you may be astonished to discover that the house you finally find will closely, maybe even exactly, match your vision. And, by the time you move in, it may even feel anticlimactic. It may seem like you had already taken possession months before when your visualizations began. It is that powerful!

Practiced sporadically, visualizations can be a pleasant diversion, like daydreaming. But when practiced vividly and practiced daily without exception, it acts as a powerful tool, drawing you toward the achievement of any goal. Repetition is the key.

Here is a tip. Visualizations are turbocharged when you not only picture them in your mind, but also add sights, sounds and emotions. Engage all of your senses and your feelings in a visualization. In a film, if the actors just walked through the scenes, going through the motions and lamely reciting the dialogue, it would not have much power to engage its audience. Add a dynamic soundtrack. Act out your visualization in your mind. Feel your heart race, shed tears of joy, tenderly touch, smile broadly, give the performance of your life! Why not, it’s all inside your head anyway… at least for now.

EXERCISE

JOURNAL CODE: VIZ

Spend 5 to 10 minutes visualizing at least once per day. Write about your visualation in your journal. If you are visualizing a new home for instance, sketch out the floor plan in your journal. Where would the kitchen be? Do you want a big deck outside? Make your thoughts real by bringing them into a physical form.