Best Self: Keep Your Eyes on the Destination
Each year we run a personal development programme called the Extra Steps to help our employees "be their best". During the programme we share some of the best strategies and techniques from some of the best thought leaders in human development. Now more than ever I think this is so important so wanted to share the content in case it can help someone else. Based on our own Wheel of Excellence this week we are going to jump into the core and discuss the importance of keeping your eyes on the destination.
"If you’re personal philosophy is the compass your vision is the destination”
- Michael Gervais -
Sir Chris Hoy is an indoor track cyclist and one of Great Britain’s greatest Olympians, having won 6 gold medals and one silver over 4 Olympic games. if you're not familiar with him he's the big guy in the photo's below. A few years ago I went to an event where he was giving a talk and answering quesitons. During the event, he was asked about some of the mindset practices he undertook during his career. He explained that in his second Olympics, in Athens, he was entering an event that did not have any heats or rounds, essentially the Olympics is the final, you get one shot that’s it and as the current world champion, he was going last.
During the years building up to this, he was asked by one of his performance coaches what would he do if someone broke the world record in the Olympics? Although he was world champion he had never broken the world record and the question caused a little concern. He was told that part of his daily practice was to take time and visualize someone breaking the world record before him, then visualize him riding the perfect race in real-time, going through every process, and riding even faster. After 4 years of mental and physical preparation, he arrived at the Olympics. Unfortunately, as he warmed up in preparation for his effort, he was going last remember, an Australian rider broke the world record. This was then followed by a German rider who went even quicker and broke the world record again. Two people going faster than he had ever gone before, then as he approached his attempt, the final rider before him, a French rider went even quicker. Chris went to explain that when he lined up on the start gate ready to go he knew what to do, he’d been here before, he had mentally prepared for this, he was able to go on autopilot, he went on to ride the fastest time in the world and win his first Olympic gold medal.
You don't have to go far on Google to find many stories of Olympians, sports personalities, and famous business leaders using visualization as part of their daily practice to imagine their future, from Muhammad Ali to Tiger Woods, to Steve Jobs, the impossible started with a thought in their head. Now here’s a caveat, this is not a substitute for the hard work that goes with this. You can't just sit and wish for a pot of gold then wake up one morning with one next to you, although if this does work for you please share your secret and reward with the rest of us in the comments below.
Mental Imagery
The performance coach Dr. Micahel Gervais takes this further suggesting that the most successful process is “mental imagery” not just visualization. Mental imagery differs from visualization as you use more than just visuals, you are trying to engage all of your senses, sight, sound, smell, taste, even touch. In fact, experiments have been conducted which appear to show the same neurological activity when using mental imagery as actually doing it, in short, the brain cannot separate from an actual event to an imagined event. Dr. Gervais who works with elite athletes in the NFL, NBA, and Olympians, recommends setting out a specific time of the day to relax your mind then spending 85% of this time creating an idealistic image of the future, then the other 15% imaging any adversity and how you would overcome this.
The practice of visualization isn't just reserved for Olympians, we use it every day, whether it is picturing your journey to work or how your next spreadsheet will look, we see the future through imagery. So rather then these images happening to us at random we can deliberately make them work for us, for example when faced with day to day events such as completing complex tasks or projects, having that difficult conversation, delivering that presentation to your manager, or for something even bigger, such as creating a vision for your life, take time to imagine what this would look like if it went perfectly.
A Vision for Your Life
"When creating a vision ask yourself, 'what is possible?'”
As well as day-to-day tasks you can use this when creating a vision for your life, aim high though because if you fall short you will be further along than if you were too conservative. When creating a vision ask yourself, “what is possible?” Imagine everything in your life came together, you lived with purpose and meaning, you were doing what you wanted to do, where you wanted to do it. It may feel a bit overwhelming and scary as you struggle to figure out how to get there but try not to let that get in the way. To help you you can break this down into key areas in your life, your work, hobbies, family, relationships etc. Find a quiet space where you can sit back and relax, close your eyes and ask yourself, “what is possible in this area of my life?” Let your mind find the answers, don't try and force it. Practice this daily and you will get more clarity around this future, including the steps you need to take and the challenges you need to overcome. Once you have this nailed write it down in as much detail as you can, to help you make it as clear as possible. Then you can assign small goals to this to help you get momentum. These goals could be emailing someone, taking a course, contacting someone, anything that will help you on your path.
Creating a vision for your life may sound crass, but take a moment right now to think about someone who may not be as fortunate as you, imagine, what do you think their vision for their life is? What possibilities do they think there are? You see their reference point for how life could be, maybe stopping them from getting past their current environment, so they struggle to realise what they can actually achieve. Visualization can work for or against us. So if you want to be a better partner, parent, work colleague, or deliver a kick-ass presentation or change the world with your business idea, start thinking about how this would, feel, what you'd be doing, saying, where you would be, who’s around, you, what is the weather like, what does it smell like, get good at picking out the details and make it as realistic as you can. It’s not the silver bullet, but visualizing what is possible creates confidence, empowers, and inspires us, and motivates us to deliver things we didn’t think was possible.
Mental imagery can work against us as well, if we fall on the pessimistic side of the line we use mental imagery to imagine all the worst-case scenarios and then get flooded with unwanted feelings and emotions, which stops us in our tracks. So again let's use it wisely to gain insight
Action
Before we look at a mental imagery practice, we need to be aware of some common traps:
- The environment, the values, and belief system that we were surrounded by and b rough up with can limit what we think is possible.
- “I’m too busy.” not given yourself time to align with your vision and purpose.
- Past success. The labels we have inherited, or past successes we have had can stop us pushing beyond these. We play it safe and stick to these, they give us certainty
- Our limiting beliefs, “this will never work for us” “I’ll never be able to achieve that,” “it’s alright for them they are famous” etc.
- Over thinking. Getting bogged down trying to grasp something concrete. Remember if you practice this daily you can change the details as you go.
Now here is a mental imagery process for you to practice
- Find a place where you can relax and not be disturbed
- Close your eyes, and take three deep breaths as you settle in to your surroundings
- Ask yourself, “what is possible [and fill in the blanks i.e with my life, with my work etc.]”
- Return to this each day, and play about with details using all your senses.
- Once you have it locked in, write it down in detail.
- Now you have your vision locked in you can then change the questions for more insight:
- What do I need to make this happen?
- What challenges do I need to overcome?
Until next week when we will continue looking at the inner core of the “Wheel of Excellence” playing your forehand.
What do you think about visualisation does it reall work or is it just a fad that people like me like to write and ?