The Incredible Power of Visualization
I’m almost certain you’re familiar with the concept of visualization. It’s so important to the creation of wealth that Chapter three in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is title “Faith. Visualization of and belief in attainment of desire.” When we use the power of visualization we bring ourselves closer to the success we desire.
Why Visualization Creates Wealth And Success…
Engaging Your Emotions. Think about the last time you had a nightmare. Maybe you were being chased or perhaps someone was after a loved one. You woke with a hammering heart, shallow breathing and I bet if you’d been able to take your blood pressure it would have spiked. Most likely even though you knew the nightmare was just a dream those emotions and physical sensations stuck with you for some time. Perhaps you spent the morning in a bad mood not really sure why but nonetheless you were cranky.
Conversely consider the last time you woke from a really good dream. (Depending on the nature of the dream you may have woken with the same hammering heart and shallow breathing but that’s between you and the person in your dreams:)) Perhaps you woke laughing or with a big smile on your face. Again, you knew the dream was just that, a dream and a figment of your imagination but it still had an effect on your disposition and even your physical response.
Visualization and dreams are tightly linked. They both engage our imagination. And the interesting thing is when we use our imagination our mind and body don’t really know the difference between what we imagine and reality.
Consider trying this experiment to demonstrate just how powerful our imagination is. Sit in a comfortable location with no disturbances and imagine something really awful. Close your eyes and allow your imagination to wander to the dark side for a moment. Don’t go there too long, just long enough to note the physical and emotional reaction you have. Does your body tighten up? Do your muscles clench? DO you get shaky and uncomfortable? DO you get angry or frightened?
Now flip it. Imagine something really wonderful. Your deepest desire has just come true. Now how do you feel? What is your body doing? Stay here longer and note the reactions and responses you have.
This is the power of visualization. When you imagine scenarios, your body and mind react as if they were true. Many people, including Napoleon Hill, believe that when you believe something to be true, you attract it to you – you make it true.
Strengthen belief in goal and self. Now believing something to be true doesn’t necessarily make it happen. I can believe someone is going to knock on my door with a million dollar check but it just hasn’t happened yet. However, what I can do is take action to make it happen. However for many people taking action is difficult due to lack of confidence or a lack of belief in our deepest desire or goal. Visualization, because it taps directly into these emotions, can strengthen our belief in ourselves and our goals.
Additionally, visualization helps paint the scene so you can better plan and prepare for success. When you visualize your success as reality you can also visualize your path to get there. What steps are you taking? What is working for you? How do you feel and what can you do to reach success?
Athletes are taught visualization at an early age. The best athletes can actual visualize their event in real time. For example, a sprinter tasked with visualizing their race will imagine themselves as the start block, hear the starter gun, visualize the race and see themselves crossing the finish time all in the same exact amount of time it takes to run their event. Harnessing this ability to visualize and honing your visualization skills will amplify the benefits of visualization.
“I train myself mentally with visualization. The morning of a tournament, before I put my feet on the floor, I visualize myself making perfect runs with emphasis on technique, all the way through to what my personal best is in practice…. The more you work with this type of visualization, especially when you do it on a day-to-day basis, you’ll actually begin to feel your muscles contracting at the appropriate times.”
-Camille Duvall
Perfecting Your Visualization Skills
Engage your 5 senses. When we’re just beginning to use visualization we begin by simply seeing what is happening in our imagination. However adding your senses will not only enhance the experience, it will amplify the results. Your emotions, confidence and faith in your ability to succeed will become second nature.
Sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing can all be integrated into your visualizations. In the example of the sprinter running their race they will hear the roar of the crowd cheering them on as they run. They will feel the impact as their feet pound the pavement. They will smell the cologne on the person running beside them. They will taste the sports drink they consumed just before hitting the starter block. They will feel the sweat trickle down their temples and the wind whipping it dry as they focus on the finish line.
Practice makes perfect. I know, that’s a tedious cliché and I apologize however practicing visualization isn’t just a fun exercise – who doesn’t like daydreaming about how wonderful and successful they are? It’s also an important exercise. The better you become at visualization the faster you will achieve the success you desire. You’ll be better able to tap into those emotions, thoughts and beliefs which are imperative to success.
Don’t just take my word for it. Go back and repeat that visualization exercise only this time when you’re imaging the bad stuff, the really awful situation, engage your five senses. Don’t imagine anything too awful because it can ruin your day and send you straight to the hospital. Instead imagine something along the lines of being yelled at by a customer or watching your plasma television crash to the ground. What do you hear, smell, taste, and feel?
Flip it again and imagine something truly wonderful. Imagine yourself succeeding at a long standing goal. Imagine you have found the love of your life and you are holding each other tightly. Imagine you have just taken a bite of the most delious desert of your life. Imagine you have just gotten a raise that doubles your current salary. Imagine you have unlocked the door with your keys to your new 5,000 square foot dream home. Imagine you have just deposited a check for $1 million dollars into your bank account. Imagine you are standing atop a high mountain seeing for miles or wading in the shores of a white sand beach with a loved one. What do you hear, taste, feel, and smell?
Don’t judge your visualization skills. As you practice visualization you will begin to improve however as it quite often happens you’ll finish the visualization, open your eyes, and realize you forgot to include what the air smelled like or what you heard. No worries! Like anything it takes practice and fortunately the more you practice the better you get AND you’re not competing against anyone. This skill benefits you and you alone.
“Mentally imagine you are buying the business or applying for the job that will earn your fortune. Review each step you’d take, the obstacles you might meet, the difficulties you would meet. Continue imagining each step until you mentally reach your wealth goal.”
-Tyler G. Hicks
Visualization is a powerful concept. Use it, embrace it, and reach your deepest desires, whatever they may be. It paves the road for you both emotionally, physically, mentally and perhaps most important – strategically. Use your senses, hone your skills, and watch your visions become your reality.
To Your Success!
Jeremy Gislason
SureFireWealth INC
SureFireWealth.com
What do you do to harness the power of visualization in your own business or life? What do you think about this concept? Leave your comments below…
You are free to link back to this article from your websites, blogs and social bookmark sites as well as tell others via email or word of mouth.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Being a master of this is taking control, very empowering.
Thankyou for sharing.
Lisa
November 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Excellent article - visualisation and goal setting are very effective
November 20th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Visualization is a very powerful technique. Developing this skill will help your thoughts become reality. Thanks, Jeremy.
albert grande
November 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hi readers posters surefire wealth members far n wide … excellent article yet again Jeremy thanks for the heads up email you sent me to this post … keep them coming … such good useful information that can be implemented to benefit how the end user can get more out of life is always welcome in my inbox at this moment in time I’m on a roll with good info it must be down to who you seek out in the early days once you start the internet way of searching for answers to problems your experiencing at that moment in your life? … it has to be more than luck who you decide to give your email address to, my mindset tells me if the information I’m reading at that time is what I would want to share with my family and friends then it has to be a good indication that you want more sending to you as it comes available so I definitely got it right in this case … you just look over to the right of this page before you leave … huh!
All my best to you and what your looking at!
Phillip Skinner
November 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Thank You for sharing A Powerful step by step method to success as one sees it all on on page to release your subconscious mind power. Super article on a proven idea.
- Continued Success To You!
- Leon Edward
November 20th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Leon, I like your website, it is totally full on. But I have a question regarding Step Two in the Six Steps of Visualization in the article entitled “Thoughts Controlling You . . .” where it is stated —
After being fully relaxed, clear your mind of nothing.
If nothing is not in my mind, does that mean I should empty it of everything first? And no, this is not a Zen koan. Ha ha.
Anyway, yeah, absolutely, dreams, visualization and imagination are intricately and intimately linked. Time management is a barrier to engage this link with one’s emotions and intentions however, for some, yours truly included, being a busy little bunny. So, I am working at visualizing success with lucid dreaming so that later on while sleeping I can successfully visualize during my lucid dreams where time an space are not the factors they tend to be in the 3D world.
Or at least that’s the plan.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
It is sooooo refreshing to receive a notice about something like this in your inbox instead of the constant barrage of product launches, ’special’ deals, affiliate contests (that are only won by the top marketers), ad nauseum.
Thank you, Jeremy, for a moment of sanity.
BTW, visualization definitely works. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a ’sit down and visualize’ session. I’ve found that when I’ve really wanted something, the image will float through my conscious mind every so often and when it does, I grab and hold onto it for a few seconds … then let it go. Sometimes I feel we tend to focus too much on ‘the process’ and lose the magic of just allowing our imagination do the work.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Excellent article- visualization is something often overlooked, yet it is a very natural part of being human. Visualizing already obtaining a goal certainly makes the journey easier and more focussed.
Our brain cannot easily tell the difference between a real event and an imagined one- so learning to imagine positive events is a top priority- as the saying goes “if you don’t plant flowers, weeds will grow”!
November 21st, 2008 at 4:32 am
Here is great FREE ebook on the subject:
http://www.youcannotfail.com/visualization
November 21st, 2008 at 6:52 am
I am a retired psychologist. My former clients that suffered from various anxiety disorders benefited tremendously from visualization exercises. Others that most would consider as “normal”, found visualization helpful in being able to better focus, plan, set goals, improve relationships, and a host of other benefits.
It was great, although unexpected, to find your article. Great job!
November 21st, 2008 at 8:02 am
This is such a powerful technique!
Many skip over without taking it seriously.
I have worked with Elite Athletes and Business Owners and the results speak for themselves.
Wallace D Wattles sums it up well also when he says, “it doesn’t require any effort to think about the things that you really want”. This harmonises visualtion with core desires.
Thanks for the great article!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Great stuff and very powerful. It has worked for me on several occasions and I pretty much forgot about it for many years. A couple of recent books jolted me back to start using visualization!
November 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Good article. Visualization is very important in attracting what you want out of life.
Every once in awhile, when I’m in a pretty deep “visualization exercise” on the house I intend to build, new stuff seems to pop into the vision on its own. For instance, a piece of artwork showed up that I did not consciously visualize but once I saw it in the meditation, I thought it was pretty cool and decided I’d like to add that into my home decor.
From a business perspective, I’d love to see some more on this topic, especially about the new and unexpected things that “pop” into the visualization and how those may effect the entire manifestation process for good or for ill.
Thanks again!
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 am
Visualization is the most essential component of the law of attraction.
Thanks for giving us more info.
Our group really need this kind of enlightening.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Visualization is also a key component of nuero-linguistic programing, as I learnt many years ago. The technique you suggest of visualizing something bad then flipping to something good is used in nlp to help people in all sorts of ways. I’ve used it on myself and others and I know how successful it can be.
Many people don’t seem to realize they visualize automatically all the time - try to remember where you left something, for example, and you’ll most likely run the picture of what you’ve been doing through your mind. Or you’re planning a trip away, and ‘looking forward’ i.e. visualizing what it will be like. It’s a small step from this to use the technique consciously and profitably.
Some people find it easy to engage all their senses, but others struggle with this. The secret is to relax and not worry how good your visualization actually is. Describing the scene to yourself, in full sensory detail, works as well.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
THE purpose of mental exercises or visualization techniques should not be misunderstood. There is no short cut to creating your true personal development and success by repeating prayers, mantras or great sounding sentances.
Visualization is a tremendous mental exercise which many famous people have used to achieve and maintain their goals, not by repeating words, but in the thinking of certain thoughts and creating vivid pictures that they wanted to see happen or become real.
The more often you can use visualization in your daily life, the closer you will get to achieving a particular goal.
As Goethe said; “And the thoughts that we repeatedly think become habitual, and make us what we are.”
As a golf professional, I have to use certain “hooks” [excuse the pun!] on my students to get them to excel at different levels of their understanding and performance; which they don’t always believe are possible. And one technique I use quite a lot is “Imagine If…..!” which is where the student actually moves from one physical state to another, just through using the power of thought and their imagination!
So yes, I agree totally with any technique which allows people to enhance their performances and become what they would really like to be.
In parting, I remember studying Dr. Dennis Waitley’s material back in the early eighties as he worked with Olympic athletes to actually play their races back in their mind. When they monitored the responses of the athletes, it was noticed that all the same muscles that were used in the race were actually being fired up again by the athletes imagination!
Incredible stuff isn’t it this mind of ours and the power that we all possess?
November 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Excellent thoughts on visualization! I love to visualize before I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning. I’ll lay in bed and visualize how I want my day to go. It’s a great way to start the day.
I agree with Maggi, I think we all visualize -