By now, your New Year’s Resolutions are probably fading fast from memory. You set incredible, challenging goals, but now you’re well past many imaginary goal dates. You feel like a failure.
But you’re not. You’re human. Just like the rest of us out there.
What if I told you that you can get back on track, stay on track, and achieve your goals? I believe you can.
It takes the power of visualization for your goals. That’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.
Photo by Ales Krivec on Unsplash
What Is Visualization?
Visualization isn’t difficult. We do it every day; we just don’t realize it.
Think about the time your mind wandered off. You got lost in a daydream. You visualized a reality that wasn’t there.
Now, apply that to your goals. At its core, visualization is a clear mental image of a future event or reality.
You can see the outcome of all your hard work through your mind’s eye. You can see the steps you had to take to get to where you will be.
Visualization is the mental tool needed for success.
5 Ways Visualization Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
Jim Carrey once told Oprah Winfrey that he wrote himself a check for $10,000,000. He marked the check “for acting services rendered.” Then, he post-dated the check for 10 years in the future.
Guess what happened? Jim Carrey went on to become one of the most successful comedy actors of our generation. You’ve seen him in movies such as Dumb And Dumber, The Cable Guy, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and other great movies.
His visualization of the future came to fruition.
How can this visualization technique help you?
Visualization can help you increase your confidence:
If negative self-talk can decrease your confidence, visualization can help you increase your confidence. By telling yourself a positive, impactful future is coming for you and that you play a positive role in it, you begin to feel more confident.
The way you talk about yourself. The way you see yourself. All of it changes as you envision that positive future.
Visualization helps you have a destination:
Without a destination, you’re a walking generality. You don’t know where you want to go, who you want/need to meet, or what you want to accomplish.
As you visualize this exciting new future, you now have a destination. You have an idea of where you want to go.
What happens then? You begin to plan out the steps to get there. You might hire a coach, change your eating habits, or start attending conferences.
When you have a destination, you have a goal to reach!
Visualization reprograms your mind:
Visualizing the future will give you a destination and boost your confidence, and visualization will also reprogram your mind. Visualizing where you want to go gives your mind an event, object, or outcome to focus on.
Visualization will draw you back to what you need to do to accomplish the next step. It will help deter you from mindless distractions. It’ll help you focus on what’s important and ignore what’s not.
Before long, you won’t even realize it as it becomes automatic.
Visualization makes you understand you can achieve great things:
We can get caught up in our past failures. So much so that we begin to get into a rut of negativity. However, when you start to visualize a new future, you begin to birth something new within you.
You change your mindset to one of accomplishment. You see yourself doing what you’ve always dreamed of. And then, you begin to understand that you can accomplish what you see in your mind.
Visualization allows you to see the details:
You won’t know all of the details of what’s going to happen in the future, but you can see details that you wouldn’t have otherwise. As you visualize the future you desire, begin to think about the following:
- Action steps to get to the next level
- Who do you need to connect with
- What obstacles stand in your way
- How long it takes (this can be a downer, but it also plants you in reality)
You can get into the details when you visualize what’s to come. Use this to help you plot your course to the destination you desire.
How To Visualize And Accomplish Your Goals
You now know what visualization is and how it impacts your progress. Now, we will share how to visualize your goals and accomplish things!
Create a vision board:
A vision board is a physical representation of what you’ve visualized in your mind. Get a corkboard, a blank piece of construction paper, or a rigid material to which you can add photos.
Go through books, magazines, and newspapers. Look for images that point you in the direction of your goals. These could be photos of vacation destinations, people doing what you long to do, or the end goal.
Your vision board is for when your mind’s eye gets weak.
Rehearse in your mind:
Athletes are known to mentally rehearse plays and games in their minds. They see how their opponents will react and they plan for it. They’ve worked through a complete game in their mind so they will understand what they’re up against.
YOU can do the same thing.
Walk through a mental rehearsal of what you think your next speech, sales call, or leadership retreat will be like. Think through the challenges, successes, and improvements that could be had.
Journal:
Take time to journal out your thoughts. Why do you want to achieve the goals you’re running toward? How will you feel when you accomplish a part of your goal? Who do you see by your side as you journey forward?
Journaling can help you have a written record of what you want and, more importantly, the progress you’ve made.
Good Luck
Good luck with your goals! If you’ve set big, hairy, audacious goals, you will need it. But I have faith in you. With the tool of visualization in your leader tool belt, you can accomplish big things.
