How to Visualize the Things You Want
It's a Saturday morning. The sun is streaming in through your window and you're having one of those wonderfully productive, blissful days. You get up and make some awesome breakfast, then go for a jog around the neighborhood to clear your head. And before you know it, the day has just flowed by without a care in the world.
What if you could build a life like this one? Where every day was filled with happiness, fulfillment, and adventure. This is the way we were meant to live!
The secret to creating such a life is simple in concept but difficult in practice – you need to visualize it first. You need to immerse yourself into your dreams and aspirations so whole-heartedly that reality itself has no choice but to harmonize around them.
How do you change your reality?
Start by changing your perception of it.
You have complete control over what you perceive about yourself, about others and about the world around you. With enough focus and determination you can change your perception of the world around you to match your ideal vision.
What is "ideal" for you?
The following techniques have been shown time and time again to be particularly useful when it comes to visualizing. Here they are:
1. Make it a habit to motivate yourself.
Every morning, I like to spend 5 or 10 minutes motivating myself for the day ahead. Think of this as a form of mental warm-up, because that's exactly what it is! I'm visualizing my life and my successes so that I can match them with actions in the real world. You can do this simply by using positive language to describe both your big and small goals. So, instead of saying "I'm going to lose weight", say "I'm going to be fit!" This simple change in mindset has been shown time and time again to have incredible results on your overall well-being .
2. Make a list of things you want to accomplish for the day.
I like to spend 15 minutes on this. It's very important that you have an end goal in mind. Otherwise, your day will be spent mindlessly checking things off the "martyrdom" list (as though they're actually worth doing yourself). So give it some thought first. Be sure to make a note of the big and small goals that you have.
3. Once you've made your list, choose one of your goals as a target and visualize it as if it is already accomplished or already achieved.
It is normal for us to have trouble visualizing our big dreams because they are so big and out-of-reach on the surface level. The goal is to relate your dreams to your current reality. So what's the real-world equivalent of "becoming a millionaire"? It's something that you're already doing, but for which you have not yet received the usual reward. For example, you might work incredibly hard at your job and have put in countless hours at that job, but there are things that are still missing from what constitutes a "successful" career. So take an existing accomplishment and visualize it as if it was already complete. Again, this will increase focus on the real-world actions necessary to realize that goal.
4. Now choose a different one – and do likewise with this target as well.
Now that you've gotten the knack for visualizing your desires, it's time to put some real energy behind your visualization. Think back to something that you have really wanted in the past and visualize yourself experiencing it or enjoying it as if it were happening right now.
5. Visualize yourself accomplishing tasks that you find challenging or even intimidating.
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people who are afraid to try new things because they're scared of what other people will think of them. It's all the same to me. If you want something, go out there and get it. If you want to be successful in your career, be a workaholic, put in ten hours a day, and don't whine about how hard it is. Every accomplishment has its own challenges that must be overcome – every action has its own reward. So I choose to believe that if you're doing something in order to improve yourself for your own good and not for others', then there's nothing wrong with it (as long as it doesn't harm others).
So now let's look at the example of the way I visualize my life – on a day-to-day basis:
1. When I wake up, I think about what it means to be successful in my career.
My job is important to me, but it is not the end goal of my life. My job goals are one part of a much larger picture that includes having a fulfilling and happy personal life as well. So I can visualize myself as a successful executive, working 40 hours a week and making great progress on my many projects.
2. After breakfast, I imagine what it will be like to run my own company someday.
While I am extremely happy at work and love my work colleagues very much, there are things that are missing from this "successful" life that I have yet to achieve. And even though they are not yet easily quantifiable goals in the same way as meeting my monthly sales quota is, they still constitute a big part of my overall vision for life. So, I imagine myself as the owner of all my current business assets one day – an exciting thought, that is!
3. After lunch, I visualize a different career path for myself.
I love to travel, and I can't wait to be able to do this full-time someday. So I imagine myself as the owner of a small vacation rental property in Spain one day. Heaven!
4. After dinner, I visualize the specific tasks that will make the creation of my own company a reality – one step at a time.
Conclusion
Vividly imagining your goals and desires is a great way to make them happen. It's also important to keep in mind that these are only exercises – you do not need to believe this stuff in order to achieve it! But if you want something more tangible than just the promise of "If I keep at it, someday I'll be successful", then visualizing and taking action on your dreams can go a long way toward making it happen!
You can learn more about Visualization and Affirmations here .
Breakthroughs – The simple habits that will free your mind, heal your body and open the path towards enlightenment. This is the new book by Dr. Joe Vitale, PhD.