The Case for an Active Imagination: Visualizing Success

“I’ll work on that visualizing dad.?Promise.”

These words came from my son.?A 6-foot-tall, 17-year-old right-handed pitcher, with a high 80’s, pretty active fastball, and …sorry, I digress.?He’s nervous.?Rightfully so.?He’s about to start, as a pitcher, against one of his high school’s cross-town rivals.?

The was no doubt that in his short life, this would be one of those memories he looks back on and (depending on the outcome) claim as one of his glory days.

I tell the story because I have yet to meet someone that doesn’t react when I say, “Go ahead and visualize the presentation”, or that conversation, or that call, with the same, “I’ll work on it,” or “I’ll try.”?I hear a lot of “That doesn’t come easy,” or “That’s not something I can just do.”?So, I thought I would share the same advice I gave to him.?Judge it as you may.

Let me warn you, though, before we go any further in reawakening the ability to visualize (yes, I said reawaken) and set a clear intention, that

The results of successful visualization can be dangerous and most certainly life-changing.

Visualizing outcomes, engaging your fantasy, and creating reality in your mind from your dreams can change your world. Sounds dramatic, right? All I can share with you is that I believe that the most powerful thing that you can engage is the power inside your head. There are 7 inches of life-changing material between your ears, and if you choose to completely engage it, it can make your world into the place you believe it can be.

3 Steps to Visualize Success

Stop

Stopping is by far the most difficult part of what I’m asking you to do. On top of baseball, You feel stress from class; your friends are ever-present, thoughts of college and money and girls and, well the list is endless of the things on your mind that will distract you.

But when things pile up, and you feel the butterflies in your stomach, here’s where the hardest part is and if you can stop, the magic will start.

Just like the 17-year-old, our worlds are very complex. The most challenging thing we can do is just stop.?I’m not saying go outside and sit quietly in the sunshine (although that would be great, right?). Now, close your eyes for a moment, take a deep breath and stop.?Come on, practice stop with me (big audible deep breath in, and a deep breath out (feel better already, right?).

Be in the Present

The only reality that exists is right now. Make the present real.?Not that abstract if you take a moment and think about it.?Let me try to explain and draw the picture.?When you were a kid, there were moments in time when you could be playing. It may have been playing inside, outside, you may have been in the crowd of other children or grown-ups, or you may have been alone in the park.?You could lose track of time completely.

?I love the phrase losing track of time. I love the phrase because what it does is it illustrates that only the present is real and when you lose track of the time it means you are only in the present without concern for the future or the past.

As you set in your space living only in the present, you could allow your imagination that fantasy or dream to become a reality. You may have been singing in front of a crowded stadium full of people or pitching in the World Series. You may have seen yourself creating the most beautiful painting or poetry in the world, or maybe reading to your future family or whatever your dream or visualization might have been. And even though it didn’t exist yet, in that instant, in the present moment it was real.?We could eliminate the past and our understanding of the limitations of the past, and resist the worries and unknowns of the future. All that mattered was the present moment.?That is where we have to get to.?That’s the skill you need to reawaken in you.

It’s easier than you think once you eliminate the distractions of the past and the future. And allow the spirit that is in you to bubble back up.

Set the Intention

This is the fun part.?In the case of the 17-year-old, he is aware of some of his challenges as an athlete. I won’t go off on a baseball rant, although I’m sure you can guess I could.?This is about life and career and success for anyone.?

We have the advantage of consciously making the decision to embed in our minds the successful situation we want.?It is an active predetermined choice we are making, so again I’ll warn you.?This choice will do everything in its power to come true so think about what it is you want.

Let me give you an example.?I was working for an organization and finding the structure very limiting.?I did this exercise each Monday as I got into my car.?I had designed the logo for SalesLinkage and had a small print of it on my car visor.?I would close my eyes and visualize me in front a room of people, delivering training.?Animated and pacing up and down the rows watching people nod and smile as I spoke… 1 year to the day from that initial visualization, I got a call from a friend who said they wanted to contract me to deliver a 6-month program designed exclusively for their strategic sales team.?The good news, the visualization worked.?Bad news, working for myself cut my income in half.?Ouch! Be careful; this stuff is powerful Juju.

What’s the difference between childhood dreams and fantasies, and setting grown-up intentions??We are empowered to make a conscious choice to program our minds to create the reality we’re about to visualize. You won’t find a world-class driver, author, designer or anyone that is expected to perform at the highest level who doesn’t have the ability to set an intention and create visualizations around those intentions to put their mind and body together to create that intention and turn it into reality. How can this work for you?

Start small.?What one thing is on your plate to accomplish this week.?Where is the single obstacle that you can visualize clearing?

Stop.?

Clear all the clutter, the phone, the papers on your desk, the thoughts of what still has to be done, or what you did before.?Stop.

Close your eyes, just for a moment.?Is it a conversation??Is it a plan? Is it a document that needs to arrive? Now put yourself at that moment.?Like you did as a kid.?See it in real-time.?It is right now.?There are no limitations.?No meetings, no travel no nothing to limit just this moment.?The moment you are in.

Get in the Present

Now walk through the exchange, the event the outcome as if it were happening right now (because it is).?

Set the Intention

Visualize that contract in your hands, the persons nodding in the affirmation that you got the deal, hear the receptionist saying you can go in now or the phone ringing with that elusive customer on the other end.?See it, smell it, hear it, feel it.

Now go on.?Take another deep breath and get back to what it is you do.?The image will resurface without any more effort.?You’ll see it as clearly as the first time you did it because now it’s part of you.?Part of your reality.?Part of your experience and will somehow, be part of your life.

Founder of LinQuage.com and LinQageConsulting.com, Trainer, Facilitator, Public Speaker, Coach and Mentor, Robert Can Be Reached at (562) 547-9048 or [email protected].