Visualize your way to success with these handy tips!
Did you know that one of the most effective tools that you can use to help you achieve your goals is your own imagination? The power of your own mind should never be underestimated, and when you put that power to good use by carefully and deliberately picturing and pre-paving what you want to see happen in your own life, you can actually visualize your way to success!
Visualization vs Daydreaming
When I talk about visualization and using your imagination to pre-pave your success, it’s important not to confuse the process with daydreaming. The purpose of the two is different, and so is the process. Daydreams are great, and I’m not saying you should give up daydreaming. But visualization is an entirely different critter. When you start to visualize your way to success, it’s done with purpose, it’s done regularly (often with a set daily schedule) and there is a goal in mind when you do it. You’re not just letting your imagination run around in idle pleasantness whenever and wherever it happens to suit your fancy – you’re making it a point to use the power of your mind to deliberately shape your own future. (No pressure or anything. 😉 )
Which is not to say that visualization can’t be fun, because it most definitely should be; but you do want to approach it as the powerful tool that it is. Your mind is a powerful ally in achieving your goals, because with it you control your focus and your thoughts.
How to Visualize Your Way to Success
The purpose of visualization is to motivate yourself by seeing and feeling yourself in the moment of your success. You’re basically training your mind to accept your success as a foregone conclusion, much like you do with your affirmations – visualization just takes it all to a much higher level.
So, with that in mind, here are few tips and strategies that you can use to maximize your visualization practice:
Tip #1: Visualize regularly. Make it a point to visualize daily. Add it to your daily schedule and treat it as you would an important recurring meeting or appointment. Find a quiet time when you know you’ll have a few uninterrupted minutes to dedicate to this. You want to visualize every day if possible, but you don’t really need to do it more than once a day unless you really want to. (Remember that your life is meant to be lived, so make sure you get out there and do that; don’t fall into the trap of spending all your time visualizing the future while ignoring your present.)
Tip #2: Keep it short. Visualize for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time. Otherwise your mind will start to wander and you’ll lose your focus. The power of this exercise is in the regular repetition, not in the length of any single visualization session. Likewise, if you skip your visualization practice one day, don’t try to “make it up” by doubling your visualization time the next day. Just let it go and get yourself back to your regular schedule as soon as possible.
Tip #3: Get detailed. Close your eyes and imagine a scene from the successful achievement of your goal. Maybe you’re accepting an award. Maybe you’re driving down the highway in that brand-new sports car you’ve been wanting. Maybe you’re walking hand-in-hand down the beach with the love of your life. Or maybe you’re picking paint chips for the new dream home you’ve just moved into.
Whatever the scene is for you, try to imagine as many details as you can, and use all of your senses – try to see, hear, smell and even taste the scene: Are sitting at the table in your new kitchen while looking through those paint samples? What kind of table is it? Is your chair comfy? Do you have a cup of coffee nearby? What does the mug look like? How does the coffee taste? Can you feel the cool smoothness of the paint chips as you pick them up? Can you hear the birds outside your window? Do you see those little specks of dust floating through that sunbeam coming through the window?
Get as detailed as you can and make the scene feel as real as you possibly can – but just remember that the details are a tool, not a result! You are using these details to get you excited about your success, but you’re not fixating on them or insisting on the specific details. When you’re trying to visualize your way to success, you should be thinking “this or something better” and leaving some wiggle room for the Universe to work its magic for you!
Tip #4: Put yourself in the picture. When you’re picturing the scene, make sure to put yourself in it! This is your dream, your goal and your success – make sure you’re part of it! When you pick up that cup of coffee or sort through those paint chips, make it a point to see your own hands doing it. If you’re talking to someone, try to hear your words in your own voice. This is all about you and it’s really important than when you’re visualizing you feel and believe that it is you and your success that you’re seeing.
Tip #5: Don’t worry about the how. When you visualize your way to success, make sure that’s all you’re doing – stay focused on the outcome or goal (i.e. the success itself) and do not think about how that success is going to happen. There’s a time and place for planning, but when you’re visualizing your job is to focus on the what; leave the how in the capable hands of the Universe and don’t mess with it.
Bonus tip: Mix it up. Make a list of “success scenes” that you can use when visualizing so that you don’t get bored with the daily process. So if your dream is to become a best-selling author, then your list of success scenes could include: walking into a bookstore and seeing a wall filled with your book; a book-signing stop on your promotional tour and interacting with your fans; walking the red carpet in Hollywood when your book gets turned into a blockbuster movie, etc. You can pick different days of the week to visualize different aspects of your success, or just pick scenes randomly, or however you want to do it.
Learning how to visualize your way to success is one of the most powerful techniques out there for helping you to manifest your dreams and goals. It’s also a really fun way to get yourself excited about the inevitability of your achievements! Use these six visualization tips to get yourself started in your own visualization practice, and be sure to let me know how it goes – hearing other people’s success stories always makes my day, and I would love to hear yours! 🙂
photo credit: (c) Can Stock Photo
Yup, I totally get these techniques. They do work! Even before I was a student of LOA, I visualized myself as an executive, going to meetings, managing staff, going on trips and attending cocktail parties and that is what happened. It turned out not to be such a great job, though, but I did get there. And I did learn a lot, so I am still appreciative of the experience the universe brought me. Now I can better tweak the scenario to what I want in more detail, like working with awesome people of the same wavelength, a more flexible work schedule, and some other stuff I realized were vital to the job when actually experiencing it. So, experiences are great to learn what you do and do not want, that is why I am so grateful for them! Haha!
Everything is a learning experience helping us to further refine what we want our lives to be. It’s great that you’re taking the stuff you don’t like and realizing that it’s an indicator for stuff you do like… focusing on and working towards what we want rather than fighting against what we don’t want is always the way to go. 🙂
Just had another revelation and deeper understanding of LOA. I now totally get the fact that bitching and moaning do not get you anywhere but further into a hole, away from the vortex. Of course you would break up, lose friends, flunk out of school, not get a part after an audition, not make the band, you name it, when all you do is focus on the crap and get in a negative emotional state about it to lead you in the opposite direction of where you want to go! How in the world can universal forces assist you/bring things to you when you keep yourself in such a state? You are basically not cooperating with the universe and making it extremely difficult to get anywhere, as I understand it. That is why you should be upbeat and happy anyway. That is why the word and feeling of worry should not be part of your vocabulary or your emotional state. And you don’t even have to drink or smoke weed for this. You can just be happy. Why not?
Now I understand how Goldie Hawn, whose autobio I had read, did it. She was in that state, no matter her bombing the audition. As a matter if fact, it was the stage that mattered, not the audition. Of course, she had to show up for it, but the fact that it did not go smoothly is irrelevant because of her high vibrational state, which got the best results possible. I hope I got this. Abe always say that what you have going on around you is irrelevant, and your state of being and vibration are all that matter. Well, got it!
Well, you got yourself in your circumstances, but they are transient and can change with your vibration.
“As within so without”. What you have happening around you is directly related to what is happening within you. Shift your vibe and the outside effects will also change.
Exactly! Bitching and moaning about the stuff you hate is FOCUSING on that stuff — and what we focus on is what we bring into our lives. The Universe cannot bring you anything other than what you are aligned with, so if you hate something then stop thinking about it and focus on what it is you do want, instead. Let the bad stuff go — you don’t want and you don’t need it, so why waste so much of your energy and emotional resources raging about it? All it’s going to bring you is more of the same kind of stuff, most likely with heart attacks, high blood pressure and ulcers thrown in for good measure. Focus on what you want — put all of your energy, thoughts, emotions and actions into that and watch how quickly your world changes!