Creative visualization is a critical self help component to achieving your personal goals, life goals (health/finances/relationships), career goals, or business goals. If you want to know how to set and achieve a goal, creative visualization is a huge part of the formula.
The following story does an exceptional job of demonstrating the power of visualization and how it relates to achieving your goals.
He yelled for help over and over. He pounded on the door hoping to get someone’s attention on the outside. The thermostat read 30 degrees. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt, he knew he would freeze to death if he didn’t get help soon and reach his goal of getting out.
Perhaps you heard this true story of the man locked inside a refrigerated truck for two days. When eventually found, he was dead. During the investigation, it was determined that the thermostat was broken and the temperature in the truck was actually 35 degrees. The truck was cold, for sure, but not freezing - not cold enough to kill.
Why then, did the man die? Well, he knew he would freeze to death if he didn’t receive help. In essence, in his mind’s eye, he saw himself dying…and he died.
As human beings, like him, we become what we think about. Not only can you use that powerful principle to your advantage if you ever get locked in a freezer, you can also use it in goal setting to achieve your goals in any area of life.
Here’s how. Think of an area in your life where you experience a lack of excellence. This is an area where you experience fear and frustration; where you feel like you’re in over your head. It might relate to taking on a new job responsibility, giving a speech, starting a business, or having a difficult conversation you’ve been putting off.
Goal setting can now be applied to expand your comfort zone and develop mastery in that area. Part of that process would include Visualization, a tool that most peak-performers use to get the best of themselves.
Why? They understand the mind-body connection. They understand the power of creative visualization; that how they see themselves performing in their mind, directly impacts how they actually perform. They understand that the mind doesn’t know the difference between real success and perceived success.
If you want to gain confidence and improve your performance to achieve any goal, Visualization can work for you too. The keys to make Creative Visualization work, are:
1. Determine what you want in great detail - what it looks like, smells like, feels like,
sounds like, and tastes like. Create a compelling Vision of what you want to be,
do, have, experience, and share in your life.
2. Relax, take some deep breaths, and close your eyes.
3. Go inside the theater of your mind and see yourself doing the thing/being the
person that you want to be.
4. Picture only an image with a perfect end result.
Let’s say there is someone on your team at work who really gets on your nerves. You need one another at work, but lately you’ve lost your patience and aren’t working well together.
As result, you have a goal to improve the relationship. So, what next?
Using Visualization and the 4 steps above, each morning before work you could see yourself interacting with patience and understanding. You could see yourself being calm, smiling…even showing your appreciation for what they do. You could see yourself having lunch together and getting along well.
If you visualized the above scenario enough, it would begin working on you. You’d start seeing yourself in the ways you were visualizing. Your comfort zone would expand naturally and you would become the person you’ve seen in yourself.
You might be saying to yourself, “There’s no way this is possible.” If that’s the case, you’re absolutely right. If you don’t “see” it as possible, it’s not possible…and nothing will change. Visualization works for and against us, whether we are conscious of it or not; through visualization, we’ll either maintain the status quo or further our progress toward our goals and aspirations.
If you have a goal in life you really want to achieve, you must use visualization in the most productive manner…seeing yourself having exactly what you want.
If only the man stuck in the refrigerated truck had known that.
Copyright 2007
This article content is from Bill Dyer’s Award-Winning Book
How To Bounce Back And Be Happy When Life Blows You Down.
The award-winning book is available at: http://www.bouncebackandbehappy.com
FREE info on “257 Ways To Appreciate This Moment And Create A Life You Love“, is also available at the above website by scrolling down to the Time-Out box.
Bill Dyer
Professional Speaker/Award-Winning Author
http://www.billdyer.com
336-379-0777
Tags: Achieve Goal, Creative Visualization, goal, goal setting, Personal Goal, self help, visualization
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